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[martian_automaton]

EDIT: Latest screenshots

Hi,

I'm building a game engine from scratch as a hobby. I have too many half-started projects but I never finish anything because I keep changing my mind on what I want to make so I'll make an engine first and decide on the game later. Anyway, here are some videos of progress so far:

First physics test:




Test of player-world collision:




A walk around town: (sorry about the music I change video capture software are didn't realise that it captures sound as well!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xfvr7gaRVsY

No lighting or pixel shaders or anything like that yet obviously but I'm focusing on the behind-the-scenes code like resource management, organised code, etc.

All I know is that I want it to be cartoony, first person, and in a procedurally generated town/city. I'll let it evolve naturally and see what I end up with...

[martian_automaton]

Super later update, I was busy with stuff. Anyway, I now have the city procedurally generating, fast collision detection, jumping, (basic) lighting, etc.

Here are some images:





Also, a video: (sorry for the ultra crap quality; I recorded this video on a potato. I'll get a new PC soon)

[martian_automaton]

Most of the models are placeholders, there are not nearly enough building types (I will add lots). Also parks, etc. will be added. I want to keep the graphics nice simple with bright blocks of colour, but I'll add black lines on the edges so you can see more detail and also to give it a cartoon look.

[martian_automaton]

Forgot to add a screenshot from above to let you see what is being generated:

[DeadAlienCult]

Neat stuff dude.  I'm curious why you're choosing to make an engine from scratch, rather than use one that's already available?

[martian_automaton]

Neat stuff dude.  I'm curious why you're choosing to make an engine from scratch, rather than use one that's already available?

Thanks! I'm making it from scratch so I can get better at the whole game development process from start to finish. I also am doing this to improve my programming skill, code organisation, and general understanding. But really, I'm doing this for fun!

[danieru]

Nice job, I like the city! Are you generating it at runtime or is it a model?

Have you thought about adding SSAA early on? It should go a long way towards killing off that aliasing and give everything nice sharp edges.

[martian_automaton]

Nice job, I like the city! Are you generating it at runtime or is it a model?

Have you thought about adding SSAA early on? It should go a long way towards killing off that aliasing and give everything nice sharp edges.

Hi! Your game looks really cool, BTW! 

Anyway, The whole thing is generated at run-time. The city can be generated to be any size when the level loads up.

Yep, I agree on the SSAA. I'm working on the shaders next so lines on edges and SSAA will be coming. I don't have much experience with post-processor effects so it will be interesting...  Shadows will probably turn up at some point, too. (maybe not priority, though. It's too easy to get swept up in graphics, but there are no real game mechanics yet!  )

At the moment I'm running a crappy old laptop with an on-board graphics card that's been holding me back, but I'm about to buy a new desktop soon. I'd like to think that it'll boost productivity but I'll probably just spend more time playing games instead

[DeadAlienCult]

Neat stuff dude.  I'm curious why you're choosing to make an engine from scratch, rather than use one that's already available?

Thanks! I'm making it from scratch so I can get better at the whole game development process from start to finish. I also am doing this to improve my programming skill, code organisation, and general understanding. But really, I'm doing this for fun!

awesome. keep going! its turning out great

[martian_automaton]

OK, I bought a new PC and the parts arrive tomorrow so that should help.

Apart from the AA the post-processor effects are done. It has a "Simpsons" look to it which is what I was going for.




It was a real struggle to get the edges to look like this and in the process I made of the mess of the code so I'm going to spend some time refactoring and cleaning up but after that I've decided I'll get onto shadows, the sky, and AA; then I can move on to the gameplay side of things.

[Zenvalley]

Has a very nice feel to it! Nice work.
Im curious to know how you are generating your city layout? are you using L-systems or something of the kind? city style generation is always interesting. 

[martian_automaton]

Has a very nice feel to it! Nice work.
Im curious to know how you are generating your city layout? are you using L-systems or something of the kind? city style generation is always interesting. 

Thanks for the encouragement!

Sorry, nothing remotely as fancy as L-systems! I have a terrible habit of re-inventing the wheel for everything I do so the algorithm is something I made up. There is a finite number of shapes a group of buildings can have, and those groups are randomly selected and put together like a jigsaw puzzle. The algorithm allows gaps between the groups for roads. The groups are then randomly populated with buildings. The roads parts are put together depending on what other roads are around them, and the buildings are made to face the road.

It'll probably get more sophisticated later, but for the moment it works well and should look much better when I have more than just a few placeholder models.

[Zenvalley]

Has a very nice feel to it! Nice work.
Im curious to know how you are generating your city layout? are you using L-systems or something of the kind? city style generation is always interesting. 

Thanks for the encouragement!

Sorry, nothing remotely as fancy as L-systems! I have a terrible habit of re-inventing the wheel for everything I do so the algorithm is something I made up. There is a finite number of shapes a group of buildings can have, and those groups are randomly selected and put together like a jigsaw puzzle. The algorithm allows gaps between the groups for roads. The groups are then randomly populated with buildings. The roads parts are put together depending on what other roads are around them, and the buildings are made to face the road.

It'll probably get more sophisticated later, but for the moment it works well and should look much better when I have more than just a few placeholder models.

Ah! very interesting. I am learning a few things about procedural generation myself (particularly cities) and its really nice to see how others lay things out.

I agree L-Systems are quite complex, but i aim to figure them out eventually.   

[martian_automaton]

I've still been silently working on this on and off. I've got a video and a screenshot.

Screenshot:


Video:




It'll be done eventually!!

[Octopus Tophat]

Wow this is impressive, man!  I feel like this is one of those things that starts simple, and you end up making an awesome game out of it after a few years.  I bet it must be hard to optimize, since you're starting from scratch, huh?

[martian_automaton]

Wow this is impressive, man!  I feel like this is one of those things that starts simple, and you end up making an awesome game out of it after a few years.  I bet it must be hard to optimize, since you're starting from scratch, huh?

Thanks!  Hopefully it ends up being something fun. As I think I said in an older post I'm just focusing on getting something simple and playable that I can throw online for free. Just so I can say 'I made that!'

I'm not too worried about optimisation at this point. As you can see it's not super hard on the graphics card but eventually I'll optimise at the end when it's done. At the moment it renders everything, even things you're not looking at! If it runs OK on my machine with zero optimisation then when it finally is optimised it should have very low system requirements.

Also you may have noticed the segmentation fault every time I quit - I know what the problem is but just haven’t got around to fixing it yet 

Anyway, there are some stupid (toy?) robots walking around the map with basic animation but they have no AI other than to walk around randomly into walls.




The code got a bit messed up making this so I'll need to do some refactoring/cleaning but after this I want to make the weapon work and then when you shoot the robots they'll fall apart so I can show the (bullet) physics engine at work...

[InfiniteStateMachine]

For us programmers would you mind talking about your development process decisions? Language? Any setup frameworks?

[martian_automaton]

For us programmers would you mind talking about your development process decisions? Language? Any setup frameworks?

Hullo!

I'm coding it in C++, the graphics library is OpenGL/GLSL. The physics engine is 'Bullet Physics.'
Sorry I'm an idiot and don't know what a setup framework is. Does that mean the IDE and tools, etc? If it doesn't, please tell me there is still so much I don't know! If it does, then the answer is none - I edit code in a plain text editor (Vim) and I compile in the command prompt using a CMake script I wrote so it could compile cross-platform. It works on Linux and Windows but I haven't tested for Mac yet. It should work ... maybe.

3D models are made with Blender + a whole bunch of scripts I coded in Python to export models and physics data into my engine.

[InfiniteStateMachine]

by setup framework I mean a framework for making a cross platform window that accepts inputs. Essentially a generalization of the basic features of the major os'es. Typically I use it to get a window and some input hooks as I don't enjoy the repetitive nature of setting that stuff up.

Personally when I go from scratch I use GLFW to do the basic windowing and input hooks because I've already written that once and it obviously wasn't as good as an OSS solution that's been tested by the community.

It sounds from your post you setup the windowing and input on both windows and linux manually though. Kudos Everyone should do that once so they can appreciate the work that goes into it.

[martian_automaton]

by setup framework I mean a framework for making a cross platform window that accepts inputs. Essentially a generalization of the basic features of the major os'es. Typically I use it to get a window and some input hooks as I don't enjoy the repetitive nature of setting that stuff up.

Oh oops!   I didn't go that low-level; I cheated and used SDL! TBH I'm not a very technical or smart programmer and I spend most of my time looking up tutorials trying to figure out how to do what everyone else seems to be able to do without much trouble.  

Still, it's fun!

Also totally unrelated but I tested making a GIF from a video because I've never done it before. From now I'll make GIFs instead because it's easier for people looking at the thread than following a link to youtube. Test!!!