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Re: Improving Original JA2 graphics [message #173357]
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Mon, 28 January 2008 14:15
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zed |
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Messages:42
Registered:November 2006 |
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i have looked on OGRE in the last weeks and it may be very nice to implement.
first the code is rather easy to understand + since it is C++ we can "teach" the engine to support our current formats. of course OGRE is supporting most of today animation formats + platform independent.
the engine is LGPL which means that if we will use it as DLL we are not violating any agreement of sharing the source code.
there is an implementation of tile engine based on OGRE tile engine based on OGRE and it looks rather nice.
beside that since OGRE has very large community we could have good support.
i think (due not sure) we even don't have to change JA2 gui system since the OGRE is render engine and we can limit it to the tactical screen only.
i think to build a tile engine instead of today tile engine will do the trick.
any solution that will try to add features in the graphic will probably harder to do then to replace the whole layer (everything in JA2 tactical map is build around the tile engine)
[Updated on: Mon, 28 January 2008 14:20] by Moderator Report message to a moderator
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Corporal
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Re: Improving Original JA2 graphics [message #173364]
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Mon, 28 January 2008 14:35
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zed |
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Messages:42
Registered:November 2006 |
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can you give some links on the far cry engine? were did you read the 10% change?
lets read, learn and go forward
BTW, is it free? i can't see how we could manage with payments to adding a commercial license
[Updated on: Mon, 28 January 2008 14:39] by Moderator Report message to a moderator
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Corporal
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Re: Improving Original JA2 graphics – Sprites[message #173556]
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Tue, 29 January 2008 14:27
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rasz |
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Messages:38
Registered:August 2006 |
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far cry is not free, you have to pay real MONIES for it
Quake 3 engine is free and open sourced (ufo:ai is based on quake 3 engine, so is Enemy territory, Tremulous and so on)
there is a big difference between doing a mod (far cry) and having open sourced engine, with a mod you are constrained and need a TON of documentation, engine creator support is also a good thing. With os you can always look into the code and modify it if needed.
Free as in beer is the biggest requirement imo. OGRE, Q3 or something totally different, doesnt matter, as long as its free.
btw I like Altair UFO:aftershock/afterlight engine (apart from lame coders leaving super stupid bugs for >year, or company doing paper bancrupcy and then immediatelly setting up another company with same people and name just to get out of support contract). This is how I would like JA2 to look.
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Private 1st Class
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Re: Improving Original JA2 graphics [message #178879]
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Sat, 22 March 2008 22:08
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Arethusa |
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Messages:24
Registered:August 2006 Location: Connecticut |
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None of the mentioned engines are really viable. Crysis' SDK is a joke, and while that is supposed to improve, that's hardly a rasonable basis for building a mod. UT3 is solid, but you still wouldn't have access to the source as you would if you were to buy the engine (obviously not an option), which is pretty limiting. STALKER's engine is simply terrible and not even remotely worth considering. The game is interesting and salvagable with a mod like redux, but the technology is just bad. Doing something like making it turn based isn't difficult at all; there have been turn based mods for UT and even games like Max Payne, and it's not hard to do that. The problems are elsewhere.
Really, if this is to be considered seriously, you'd need access to the engine source, which either means writing your own (and from the responses, I'm guessing there aren't any dedicated graphics programmers here) or finding an open source graphics engine and adapting it, which is probably the better idea. It's possible, but without someone who knows graphics engines, somewhat insurmountable. But a sprite redo for the game would be an enormous amount of work on its own, and the results are pretty much guaranteed to be very 1999.
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Re: Improving Original JA2 graphics [message #178881]
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Sat, 22 March 2008 22:30
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Arethusa |
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Messages:24
Registered:August 2006 Location: Connecticut |
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Source has a lot of critical limitations for what modders have access to. Among other things, map size is very, very limited, which just about defeats this from the start. To be blunt, it's not very moddable, and that's sort of where things go wrong. STALKER's sdk is also terrible, and the way the engine is put together is beyond confusing. Just getting new models into the game is something that very few people have figured out (and best of luck to you if you want to try; the only tutorials are in Russian). None of these is viable. Of the big engines mentioned, UT3 is the only possibly viable one, and the wealth of problems you'll run into trying to deal with an engine where you don't have access to the source is not worth it, in my opinion.
I'm not familiar with Irrlicht. An open source engine is definitely preferable, but a lot of the shots of developed projects look pretty bad. A couple look possibly slightly promising, though, so maybe it's worth looking at.
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