The_Raven on 28/2/2008 at 23:40
Yes, it looks great; keep up the good work. The only thing that makes me sad about this project is that the harder coding parts are all ahead, and it will be years before we'll truly be able to play with this as intended. Hopefully, the project will be brought to some sort of completion.
muncadunc on 9/3/2008 at 19:44
Well, can the engine use the original OSMs? I might be wrong, but I think that's where a lot of the original functionality lies-- being able to use OSMs would be a stopgap until the community can code its own scripts.
R Soul on 9/3/2008 at 22:41
There's also the Act/React system, which allows, say, a bloodstain to respond to being hit by a water arrow by cleaning itself up.
Basically, some objects are configured to respond to various stimuli, and other objects have certain stimuli that can be 'broadcast' in several ways. E.g. fire or water arrows can affect things near to where they collide, whereas a broadhead or a sword can only do damage to the things they collide with. There are lots of ways an object can respond, not just by being damaged.
I think LGS actually patented Act/React. It's that good.
Displacer on 10/3/2008 at 00:00
It will be a drop in replacement for the .exe, and with luck it should run close to the original, including using the original content.
Volca on 10/3/2008 at 06:52
Quote Posted by The_Raven
Yes, it looks great; keep up the good work. The only thing that makes me sad about this project is that the harder coding parts are all ahead, and it will be years before we'll truly be able to play with this as intended. Hopefully, the project will be brought to some sort of completion.
True. This is the reason we're trying to make version 0.3 a kind of a milestone. We'll start coding active engine systems itself after this.
Quote Posted by muncadunc
Well, can the engine use the original OSMs? I might be wrong, but I think that's where a lot of the original functionality lies-- being able to use OSMs would be a stopgap until the community can code its own scripts.
Unfortunately not. I concluded that it would put too many constraints on the coding style and functionality. For example:
* .DLL loader with some small parts of windows api for linux would be needed (Wine code) - limiting the engine to x86 platforms
* even x86_64 would be problem then. I know there is some possibility of 64bit and 32bit code interaction (for example nspluginwrapper does this), but I consider a combination of this and the previous to be too dirty. OPDE runs on 64bit linux without a glitch now.
* The whole project would have to be binary compatible (the COM interfaces). Those would have to be emulated on linux
* The resulting code would be hard (or even impossible) to port, maintain
So the conclusion is the OSMs will be rewritten in Python. This has it's positives itself - for example the more curious will be able to look what the script code does. Also, I'm hoping to release opde as a python module, so it should be possible to use standard python editors/debuggers to work on the scripting side of opde.
The_Raven on 13/3/2008 at 17:22
Funny, it just occurred to me the other day that a completed OpenDarkEngine might actually be the ticket towards the completion of the Citadel Conversion Project. The chances of this happening are next to nil, but an OPDE based version of Shock 1 would be nice. :p
Volca on 14/3/2008 at 11:03
Well, I don't see much opde could help with... Maybe SS1-like interface instead of SS2's, or some object system customizations. The conversion would still require the same amount of work probably, if not more.
But yeah, one can dream :)
thiefinthedark on 19/3/2008 at 06:56
Hey guys, why not submit the project to the Google Summer of Code program?
(
http://code.google.com/soc/2008/) http://code.google.com/soc/2008/
Not only would you get *cough* paid *cough* to work on getting the engine up and running, you would also get the experience of professional programmers from Google, and a hell of allot more people to work on programming it.
Just a suggestion, like unto giving it a shot of red bull for a bit. If you would rather keep it in the community, no problem, twas just an idea.
jtr7 on 19/3/2008 at 07:16
A very friendly and helpful idea, indeed!:thumb:
There may be other considerations that real life may compliment or hinder a follow-up, but the team will know best, of course.
Volca on 19/3/2008 at 11:12
Good idea!
Unfortunately the sign-up period from organizations is over:
Quote:
We'll begin accepting applications from open source mentoring organizations on Monday, March 3, 2008; we'll stop accepting organization applications on Wednesday, March 12th.
There might be other things that would stop us from doing so (Unlikely, ScummVM for example is Mentoring this year). I'll try to keep in mind that we could try this next year. By then, there should also be a better environment for eventual participants.
We'd also need mentors, and considering we're still a bit short on programmers (currently, 4 active members, out of which 2 currently code, including me), it seems we need to grow a bit before applying.
