Times of War Development Team

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Originally posted by Sastraxi
The old one, however, is still available at the old site http://www.crystal-rain.com/.

The new one will feature units you can move, more of a traditional GUI (I'm working on this right now), and probably come with our map editor. However, it is getting really close to Christmas; hopefully we can get all of these done.

Oh yeah, a full console too ;)

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The console is the best part =). In fact, I dont have any actual mouse or keyboard input doing anything yet... just console =).

Z.

No mouse/keyboard? I see...

*fires Zaei* :D

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Originally posted by Sastraxi
No mouse/keyboard? I see...

*fires Zaei* :D

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Mwuahahahaha. Soon, soon =). Im thinking about how I want to set up key->command bindings before implmenting anything serious =P.

Z.

Translate them to console commands, if it won't create a gigantic overhead!

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Originally posted by Sastraxi
Translate them to console commands, if it won't create a gigantic overhead!

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Thats exactly what I am going to do. Im just planning it out now =P

Z.

hey,

i now got my network going at home. i shall be working on a new networking module along side the editor.

Excellent work! I was kind of worried there as noone had posted for a while... :)

Ive been working too =). Can move stuff around with the mouse now (it actually is just testing, so not permenent =). Loads of fun =).

Z.

ive got tiles working fine, ive got heightmap almost done. will get the 3d bit done asap.

then i will get the 3d to change based on the heightmap.

then i will get textures overlayed.

then its done. hehehe, cept ill probably re-write it as its a huge mess.

Its a map editor.. its allowd to be a mess =). Ive been doing something or other, I just cant remember what at the moment -.-; . =)

Z.

I've been... making a website for a client, and stuff... I've been busy to say the least :p But this post marks my custom status, woohoo.

Nice =).

Z.

Grrrrr, only another 2,700 odd for me

http://www.flipcode.com/cgi-bin/msg....rum=iotd&id=-1

You could use a voxel generated landscape to make the map editor, and terrain generation easier...

Just a little piccy of what im upto:

http://caunt.8bit.co.uk/work.jpg

PlenderJ, hmmm, voxels used to be well crap (Delta Force 1) although the IOTD on Flipcode (not the one i posted) did use them pretty well.

Delta Force Land Warrior looked lovely. As did Delta Force Task Force Dagger.

Psy, VERY NICE!

I just did a spot of work on the UI system, added in recursive hittesting, so only the window that is actually clicked gets the message, and such.

Z.

i didnt think land warrior used voxels. sounds good zaei

Looks very nice. Can you add an option to allow FSAA, as with lots of small points the views can look a bit dirty! (and it would be a pain to have to manually select it in the control panel ;))

Also I like how you have the sidebar sorted, looks nice. Make sure to add a right-click on Heightmap "Random..." and a right-click on Tilemap "Generate..." for the two DLLs. If I get far enough in C++ that's what the DLLs will be written in ;)

The editor is pretty stable now. ive added logging to big parts of it.

Im still getting problems with Direct X and the stupid swap chains and memory problems. if they didnt happen it wud be so excellent.

Sas, will try to do it. i did add multisampling a while ago and it did kinda work. i think to fix the direct x errors im gonna have to put it into a lower res (currently uses screen res) and then aa it.

the options will probably be on the menu as well as right click me finks.

the left bar was done with a few nifty api. u cant drag it out into smaller windows allthough u can resize its width and which shows more height wise.

ive also got to sort out the views and speed up the rendering by only drawing whats visible.

i can do frustrum culling (i hope). i dont know how to do the camera systems tho. thats the hard part.

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Originally posted by PsyVision
i didnt think land warrior used voxels.

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It did :)

Finally figured out why my heightmap interpolation wasnt working quite right... all better now =).

Z.

kewl. i got the views workin better now so you can switch them round (as in which view rendered where).

left and right click do the movement, middle click pops up a menu :D

got all da icons done. im gonna get saving and loading done soon. then most of the utility stuff is done and just leaves the actual texturing of the wireframe with the tilemap.

What about users with only 2 mouse buttons? What will they do? How about adding a control-click to emulate the middle button.

Also, Psy, any chance for strictly 2D views? I'd like to be able to have 3 2D and 1 3D (ala. most 3D editors). One left, one front, one top. Possible, or will it take time?

Sas, i know, i will be doing it. give it time, i cud do it in seconds in open gl but i cant use this god damn direct x.

ill change the camera to use the keyboard and left click once i can work out the crappy system of direct x. then change it to right click.

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Originally posted by PsyVision
Sas, i know, i will be doing it. give it time, i cud do it in seconds in open gl but i cant use this god damn direct x.

ill change the camera to use the keyboard and left click once i can work out the crappy system of direct x. then change it to right click.

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Get used to it Psy =). The whole rendering engine wrapper is DX based =P.

Though, it is much easier to get your head around =).

Z.

So the output is just a wrapper? Hmmm... how about we make something that outputs D3D to an AVI file :p

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Originally posted by Sastraxi
So the output is just a wrapper? Hmmm... how about we make something that outputs D3D to an AVI file :p

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Its technically possible... Simply override the D3DDevice class, and change the Present() function to output to a file =).

And, since the rendering device is loaded from a DLL, it would be directly swappable =).

I have been doing a bit of stuff over here on my end, mostly on the UI. No new screen shots in a while, since very literally, nothing has changed =). You would be absolutly amazed at how much code you can write that does absolutly nothing to the final output =).

Z.

Like what?

Code:

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numunits++;
numunits--;
numunits++;
numunits--;
numunits++;
numunits--;
numunits++;
numunits--;
numunits++;
numunits--;
numunits++;
numunits--;
numunits++;
numunits--;
numunits++;
numunits--;
numunits++;
numunits--;
numunits++;
numunits--;

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Hmmm... :p

heh :D


Zaei - can u gimme a good url or something for reference so i can sort my head around the camera stuff ?

I got the 3D to change based on the heightmap - pretty simple stuff.

Sas... :smackwithwetfish: =P

Psy... What do you need to know?

Z.

Zaei.. you do realise VBF doesn't have that emoticon don't you... :p :D

Of course I do =P.

Z.

http://www.galah.net/forums/images/smilies/splat.gif

:p

*dodge*

Z.

Not according to the picture :D

The yellow one is Psy =P

Z.

OI!!

Ladies, leave it out :P

Zaei, i want a mouse/keyboard style fly FPS camera for the 3D which i think i have.

The ortho views are the hardest

Do a google search on spherical coordinates. You will find them to be a bit easier to use when trying to find a direction vector to create the camera with.

Z.

hi
I have downloaded the Demo but it does not seem to work I get this massage:
Title: "microsoft visual c++ debung library"

massage:
"Debung error!

program" &app.path&"\divloader.exe
damage: after normal block (#217) at 0x03B4B68

(press retry to debung the application)"

I really do want to test it

There is a memory overwrite happening somewhere, but to be quite honest with you, I dont know where or why, and I dont plan on finding out. That demo is just too old. We should have a new demo out soon, so wait for that =)

Z.

Im having a bit of fun over here... writing a pathing map generator... lots of fun!

Z.

Zaei i think i know what they are. Didn't look em up coz i have used asimilar system in OpenGL. its just alot easier coz all u do is like gluLookAt(eye, look, up); but in direct x there is a load of other bits.

i think it needs seperating coz u setup the view once then u chane the view position whereas u have it all in one function which is called every frame.

gimme a few days n i shud have some of it fixed up - busy over here at the mo.

With D3D, its just D3DXMatrixLookAtLH, same parameters, and then you just SetTransform(D3DTS_VIEW, ...), and you are done.

Z.

Guys, I get the feeling I haven't actually done anything in a while, and this is completely true. I can't believe that I'm just sitting here....

Well, to put it to a point, I'm getting to work :) Expect the MapGen DLL by the end of the week.

Ive got a project for you after that =). I need a pathing map generator, that will take a 2^n heightmap, and generate an appropriate pathing graph from that map. First, a node should be placed on each tile, and then, based on the heightmap, connect the nodes together, as long as the slope of the terrain is less then some threshold. Once that is done, the map needs to be optimized (so that there are fewer nodes on open flat areas.

More details later =).

Z.

Great, this is good, I need the work to do (I should do something else than give others work, eh? :rolleyes: ).

Psy, give me an estimate on when things will be wrapping up with the map editor.

Zaei, have you and Psy agreed on a common file format? If so, your next project is to implement this in the engine.

Also guys, when you're coding things, from now on ask me if you have any questions. Jorj and I had a very set view on what we wanted ToW to look like at the end, at I'd appreciate if you guys observed this as well. As long as you're doing reusable, dependant code, all is fine, but if Zaei has told me enough about how he's implemented things, something tells me that all the customization will be in the divinity script.

Just keep going, and remember our hopeful christmas release. Here's a list:

- Map editor done, random map and terrain generators complete.
- Map loader implemented; full unit control.
- I doubt we'll have time for any AI this time around. Let's try for just slaughtering wandering creatues >=).
- Load a DIV file to play a game (the MOD system).

More will come to mind, just continue on and we'll be fine.

No, we havent agreed on a file format as of yet. I got the nifty idea earlier today to simply save the files in whatever format works, and then build serveral tools that will essentially compile all of the separate file types into the final map type.

Z.

So, ala. Half-Life vs. ala. Unreal. Hmm. Half-Life styled compilation allows for more error-checking and optimization outside of the code, which, you must admit, is pretty much useless with an RTS.

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Originally posted by Sastraxi
So, ala. Half-Life vs. ala. Unreal. Hmm. Half-Life styled compilation allows for more error-checking and optimization outside of the code, which, you must admit, is pretty much useless with an RTS.

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Useless? Hardly =P. Good optimization of the pathing map, for instance would speed up AI and movement calculations, etc. Heck, it would even allow compile time AI information to be embedded into the map file. =)

Z.

Well, for pathing maybe, but I was talking more along the lines of the traditional VIS program. Besides, optimization wouldn't take long at all, and could be done during saving.

The real reason is simply ease. Psy can go and save in whatever format he needs, and I can write the engine to use wht I need, and then write a simple converter to build an engine map file from Psy's map files.

Z.

I hate that way of doing things, I must admit. It might be OK if the compiling was only half a minute or so, but no more than that, OK?

Ill be amazed if it gets that high. The other advantage is that if people hate our tools, they can make thier own =).

Z.

Yes, but they won't hate our tools, hint hint ;) As long as every file you create from the maped is runnable (like BSPs), I'm fine. It just can't be in a temporary format, like MAPs or RMFs (worldcraft ;)). It would just feel more like an RTS and less like Linux (;)) if we did it this way, ok?

Zaei im getting there with the editor. hopefully will be done soon.

i got the heightmap done. i got the tilemap done. ive almost got the views done (3d).

i then need to work out how to apply the tilemap to the 3d wireframe.

talking of compiling... i actually added that feature to the editor before it was mentioned here heh :)

im probably gonna save the heightmap as a 24-bit bitmap, the tilemap as an index of tiles and an indexarray.