View unanswered posts | View active topics It is currently 03 May 2024, 09:31



Reply to topic  [ 22 posts ] 
 Engine changeover 
Author Message
Jig of the Puff
Jig of the Puff
User avatar

Joined: 10 Sep 2004, 01:00
Posts: 1305
Location: I wish i knew
I have recently found out that the engine i was useing has a bug in it`s networking code, sadly this means i shall have to make my game single player only (which would suck) or change engines. I have decided to go the xna route for now but i may change over to the c4 engine or unity if they ever finish the windows platform for it :)
I shall keep people updated with progress on the new engine.

_________________
ImageImage


19 Aug 2008, 14:49
Profile
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
User avatar

Joined: 13 Nov 2006, 01:00
Posts: 2111
Location: Germany
is that bug not fixable respectively is their no only development or support for this old engine?


19 Aug 2008, 14:59
Profile WWW
Jig of the Puff
Jig of the Puff
User avatar

Joined: 10 Sep 2004, 01:00
Posts: 1305
Location: I wish i knew
yes it is fixable but conites are focusing on new terrain editors and other features, the yhave decided to let multiplayer lag in development sadly :( no biggie though i was already toying with xna so i`ll be able to plug along just fine :)

_________________
ImageImage


19 Aug 2008, 15:05
Profile
Evil Romulan Overlord of Evil - Now 100% Faster!
Evil Romulan Overlord of Evil - Now 100% Faster!
User avatar

Joined: 02 Dec 2004, 01:00
Posts: 7392
Location: Returned to the previous place.
The two programs that Strings made before he disappeared (His combat system and the model viewer) used .xna, Jig. They might have been little programs, but they were impressive. You never know, this change might turn out to be a blessing in disguise... :wink:

I've got backup copies of both of the programs if anyone wants them. The model viewer comes with a small number of Federation, Klingon, Romulan, and Minor Race models in the .xna format Jig, so that might be of particular interest to you.

_________________
"Anyone without a sense of humour is truly at the mercy of the rest of us."

Image
Image


24 Aug 2008, 00:09
Profile WWW
Jig of the Puff
Jig of the Puff
User avatar

Joined: 10 Sep 2004, 01:00
Posts: 1305
Location: I wish i knew
xna uses .x and .fbx, but his meshs looked nice s oi`ll have em if there going, plus his code if you have it :0

_________________
ImageImage


24 Aug 2008, 08:04
Profile
Aesthetics Surgeon
Aesthetics Surgeon
User avatar

Joined: 24 Oct 2006, 01:00
Posts: 1350
Location: Croatia
@ Jig, is it possible to revert x. format to some other format like 3ds.?

_________________
Carpe Diem


24 Aug 2008, 08:29
Profile
Jig of the Puff
Jig of the Puff
User avatar

Joined: 10 Sep 2004, 01:00
Posts: 1305
Location: I wish i knew
ya of course it is :lol:

_________________
ImageImage


24 Aug 2008, 08:37
Profile
Evil Romulan Overlord of Evil - Now 100% Faster!
Evil Romulan Overlord of Evil - Now 100% Faster!
User avatar

Joined: 02 Dec 2004, 01:00
Posts: 7392
Location: Returned to the previous place.
My mistake; the models are in .xnb filetype. Anyways, here's the links, jig:

Strings's Model Viewer

Strings's Combat System

In both of those links, click on the blue "Click to Download" link on the left to start the download. You might want the combat system since it's got the models of the Defiant and the Asteroids as well.

_________________
"Anyone without a sense of humour is truly at the mercy of the rest of us."

Image
Image


24 Aug 2008, 11:13
Profile WWW
Aesthetics Surgeon
Aesthetics Surgeon
User avatar

Joined: 24 Oct 2006, 01:00
Posts: 1350
Location: Croatia
Sry Jig my mistake i was tkinking on xnb not x format, so can we convert strings models to 3ds?

_________________
Carpe Diem


24 Aug 2008, 13:19
Profile
Evil Romulan Overlord of Evil - Now 100% Faster!
Evil Romulan Overlord of Evil - Now 100% Faster!
User avatar

Joined: 02 Dec 2004, 01:00
Posts: 7392
Location: Returned to the previous place.
I'm not sure about .xnb, but to my knowledge, there is currently no way to convert a .xna file into another filetype. that's one of the main reasons why supporters of it use it. It prevents hacking and converting. Idiots. :evil:

_________________
"Anyone without a sense of humour is truly at the mercy of the rest of us."

Image
Image


24 Aug 2008, 13:58
Profile WWW
Jig of the Puff
Jig of the Puff
User avatar

Joined: 10 Sep 2004, 01:00
Posts: 1305
Location: I wish i knew
well strings demo has no source code, shame really. As for file formats i dunno why there is .xnb files when i add files to the content pipline i can use .x or .fbx, there is no mention of .xnb so far :)

_________________
ImageImage


24 Aug 2008, 14:26
Profile
Evil Romulan Overlord of Evil - Now 100% Faster!
Evil Romulan Overlord of Evil - Now 100% Faster!
User avatar

Joined: 02 Dec 2004, 01:00
Posts: 7392
Location: Returned to the previous place.
I wish there was a way to contact Strings and see if we could get him to continue development of the programs, help you, or at release his source code. This programs were really promising and it wouldn't hurt to have another competent programmer working with us. I've sent him PMs and emails but he's not even read them. :(

_________________
"Anyone without a sense of humour is truly at the mercy of the rest of us."

Image
Image


24 Aug 2008, 15:30
Profile WWW
Jig of the Puff
Jig of the Puff
User avatar

Joined: 10 Sep 2004, 01:00
Posts: 1305
Location: I wish i knew
.xnb is what all resource files get changed to when you publish the game, does not make for a moddable engine does it :( perhaps i`ll try dx studio but it is meant to be a bit slow.

_________________
ImageImage


24 Aug 2008, 17:34
Profile
Lieutenant Junior Grade
Lieutenant Junior Grade
User avatar

Joined: 11 Nov 2007, 02:55
Posts: 264
Location: UK
Hey Jig, yeah I'm back, hopefully for a long while :) Matress told me about the engine problem and this thread. I think it's great that you want to move to XNA, I'll try to help any way I can, but first I have to familiarise myself with it again. Sounds like you are already using it, good, it's pretty easy to get into.

Quote:
.xnb is what all resource files get changed to when you publish the game, does not make for a moddable engine does it :( perhaps i`ll try dx studio but it is meant to be a bit slow.

Yes, at first I was having the same concerns, or more specifically; what if someone wanted to add new ships to the combat system, without having to go into the source? So I experimented with the model viewer that I was working on at the time - instead of hard coding in exactly what models to load, I made it so that the model viewer looks at the Content/Models/ folder and determines what models are in there at run time, and then proceeds to load them into memory and readies them for display.

Matress_of_evil wrote:
I'm not sure about .xnb, but to my knowledge, there is currently no way to convert a .xna file into another filetype. that's one of the main reasons why supporters of it use it. It prevents hacking and converting. Idiots. :evil:

I wouldn't say no way, but no easy way (like a conversion tool from Microsoft) to reverse the process and get a .3ds model out from a .xnb, like Matress said it is a design feature to protect game assets. There might be unofficial tools to do this, I haven't looked lately, but I can imagine some code wizards might be able to take the model in memory and put it back into various formats. A quick work around would be just to release a modders pack of the models and other assets in their editable forms, isn't that what you would want anyway if you were a modder ?


26 Aug 2008, 13:04
Profile
Jig of the Puff
Jig of the Puff
User avatar

Joined: 10 Sep 2004, 01:00
Posts: 1305
Location: I wish i knew
were there`s a will theres a way, i can begin to code with xna and switch engines easily enough to unity (which i will once it is windows supported) both use c# and .fbx so no big deal there.
As c# is a new language for me (having worked in c-script) i`m going to be on a learning curve as i go, so don`t expect massive progress for a bit :) Is your demo based around the flythrough tutorial strings? i`d like a look at your collosion detection code, do you use abb or polygon detection for it?

_________________
ImageImage


26 Aug 2008, 13:26
Profile
Lieutenant Junior Grade
Lieutenant Junior Grade
User avatar

Joined: 11 Nov 2007, 02:55
Posts: 264
Location: UK
Fly through tutorials? I haven't heard of them before, so I don't think so.

The collision code, right ... for the demo I only needed something simple that got the job done, and being okay at maths, so I used the quickly hashed together maths approach, I drew out something like this to visualize the problem

From Picture:
Image

To words: basically there is a collision whenever the distance between the defiant position and any asteroid's position is less than the sum of radius of the asteroid and the radius of the defiant.

In code:
I implemented a method that I called to check whether the defiant has hit anything, I supply it with the defiant's position and radius, and it checks through all the asteroids for a collision, if there is one, it spawns smaller moving asteroids through calling the SplitAsteroid method. (note there are two lists of asteroids because I kept the moving ones and the stationary ones separate, for performance reasons in other parts of the code.)

Code:
private int CheckCollision(Vector3 position, float radius)
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < asteroidList.Count; i++)
            {
                currentAsteroid = (asteroidStruct)asteroidList[i];
                if (Math.Sqrt(Math.Pow(currentAsteroid.position.X - position.X, 2) +
                    Math.Pow(currentAsteroid.position.Y - position.Y, 2) +
                    Math.Pow(currentAsteroid.position.Z - position.Z, 2)) < radius + currentAsteroid.radius)
                {
                    asteroidList.RemoveAt(i);
                    i--;
                    SplitAsteroid(currentAsteroid.position, currentAsteroid.radius);
                    asteroidsDestroyed++;
                    returnValue = 2;
                }
            }

            for (int i = 0; i < movingAsteroidList.Count; i++)
            {
                currentMovingAsteroid = (movingAsteroidStruct)movingAsteroidList[i];
                if (Math.Sqrt(Math.Pow(currentMovingAsteroid.position.X - position.X, 2) +
                    Math.Pow(currentMovingAsteroid.position.Y - position.Y, 2) +
                    Math.Pow(currentMovingAsteroid.position.Z - position.Z, 2)) < radius + currentMovingAsteroid.radius)
                {
                    movingAsteroidList.RemoveAt(i);
                    i--;
                    SplitAsteroid(currentMovingAsteroid.position, currentMovingAsteroid.radius);
                    asteroidsDestroyed++;
                    returnValue = 2;
                }
            }
            return returnValue;
        }


I admit it's not pretty, but it got the job done. there is a much more elegant solution built into XNA, it's called the BoundingSphere class, I think.


26 Aug 2008, 15:03
Profile
Combat Engineer
Combat Engineer
User avatar

Joined: 18 Jul 2005, 01:00
Posts: 1001
Nice, i use a similar one for mine though it needs some work to make it look and act correctly i feel.

Regards Wolfe

_________________
Image


26 Aug 2008, 15:18
Profile
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
User avatar

Joined: 18 Sep 2004, 01:00
Posts: 884
Location: Germany
Is it official now, Jig? Better make a new article then. :wink:

How are things with C# going? I am familiar with C# and so are others on this forum, so if you need any tips or help, you are free to ask us. :)

_________________
"Logic is the beginning of wisdom; not the end." -- Spock (Star Trek VI)

Q: The trial never ended. We never reached a verdict. But now we have. You're guilty. Picard: Guilty of what? Q:Of being inferior.


27 Aug 2008, 18:16
Profile
Aesthetics Surgeon
Aesthetics Surgeon
User avatar

Joined: 24 Oct 2006, 01:00
Posts: 1350
Location: Croatia
@ STRINGS- we have lost your ships because of sharepoint, Botf 2 Site and my hard drive failure. Please can you upload your Malon and Vulcan ships to some hosting site it would be a shame to the people if they don't see such nice ships in the game. :)

Thanks

_________________
Carpe Diem


28 Aug 2008, 08:30
Profile
Lieutenant Junior Grade
Lieutenant Junior Grade
User avatar

Joined: 11 Nov 2007, 02:55
Posts: 264
Location: UK
Sorry for the thread hi-jack :P here they are again, with the 270x255 .pngs
Malon Freighter (3 tanks version) and Malon Freighter (no. 2 / "the double decker")
Poly: 3290 & Poly: 5566 respectively
.PNGs
ImageImage
Downloads
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/strings/MalonFreighter1.rar
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/strings/MalonFreighter2.rar

Comparison shot :P
Image


28 Aug 2008, 12:57
Profile
Aesthetics Surgeon
Aesthetics Surgeon
User avatar

Joined: 24 Oct 2006, 01:00
Posts: 1350
Location: Croatia
Thanks mate, nice ships i think it would be good to represent them on main site page but that is job for Iwulff.

P.S. Second link doesn't work and i am waiting for Vulcan ships too. :)

_________________
Carpe Diem


28 Aug 2008, 13:11
Profile
Lieutenant Junior Grade
Lieutenant Junior Grade
User avatar

Joined: 11 Nov 2007, 02:55
Posts: 264
Location: UK
Oops, didn't notice the upload to my ISP's webspace got stuck at 99%, it works now. :)

About the Vulcan ships, I noticed Ken has made a D'kyr-class, and it looks great, the mesh is really detailed, and I think we should use his model. But the textures could be re-hued to be a bit less red though. Here's a pic of it.
Image
Maybe ask Ken to send it to you.
As for the Sh'Raan/Suurok/Surak class (just different names/spellings, but it's the same ship), I still have the re-texture job I did on the model that was on SharePoint.
Image
Here it is if you need it.
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/strings/Vulcan%20Surak-class.rar


28 Aug 2008, 13:39
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Reply to topic   [ 22 posts ] 

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group
Designed by STSoftware.