XNA 3D RPG Engine - M!nty Xna Engine

[ninja#mint]

@Alexander
Well, it is an Open-Source Engine(when completed), it will be distributed to others. With tools, & demos showing off methods of using the Engine. It wont be RPG strict, though that was my initial goal, to make a demo of the Engine in a Role Playing Game scenery;

My Fluid Dynamics Remark, wasn't supposed to be taken as a literal idea, that I plan to implement into the game. Rather a quick brainstorm process I was having while making the post, and thinking of methods to get more people interested in this project. I said
"Perhaps just a video of some procedural effects", and listed some procedural effects.. ie: Fluid Dynamics, 3D Attractors, Post Process, etc.. 

I'm personally using this engine as something to hold down in a portfolio, as well as means to encourage others to program(make fancy computer stuff.) Which explains the Open-Source part, and Engine-Tools; All in all, the Engine is here, to let people make their own games.

If you're making an IDE of sorts, what's your goal, what gap do you plan to fill by doing so?
     The very same gap the all IDE mean to fill. Time. Making it easier to put together;

If you're making an engine to release to others for whatever, why do you need 3D artists?
     I need 3D Artist majorly for the Engine Demo. As well for anyone who plans to use this, and may not have 3D Models.
     Can quickly get started with some already implemented.

 

[Alexander Morou]

I'm completely green in the area of 3D programming, though I know the very simple basics.  Since you're developing this engine, do you know of a good place for others, interested in similar things, to get started making their own 3D engine?

The past six or so years I've devoted myself to research on the abstractions related to computer language theory.  Within a year or so I expect to be nearly finished with this research, and hope to have a language of my own to use (an off shoot of C♯).

Once this is done, I'll need to start building a 3D engine to start to bring what I wanted out of it together.  I think it would be prudent of me to start the research now so that I can actually have something to start working with, as opposed to starting from scratch.

 

[ninja#mint]

Fair enough;
http://nehe.gamedev.net/
Has some very nice OpenGL tutorials.

http://www.riemers.net/
Reimers, has quality OpenGL,DirectX, tutorials.

www.gamedev.net/
Is a popular community, which has tutorials, and is aimed towards the creations of games.

The sites above were my 'reference' sites. I've used them all as help in creating/understanding certain game components.

If you mean that you'd like to create your own 3D Rendering Software.
I'd take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_casting;

Project Notes
I've been working on some other projects the past few days, some that offer profit, others for learning..
I have not done anything to this engine since;
I'll work on it more once I finish the these other projects. They're fairly simple and straightforward, should only take a few more days.

 

[Alexander Morou]

Thanks for the pointers.

The specific thing I'm focusing on is machinima.  I'm interested in telling a story, and it doesn't necessarily have to be in a game format.  Perhaps once I have a story, I can incorporate a game around it.  The story itself is pretty long, which is why I would want to focus on the parts that are not user-involved first.

 

[Tohsaka]

Well, if you're interested in checking out how to do that, Alex, you might want to check out how Alice works.

http://www.alice.org/

It's a Java (I think) coded Engine for telling a story. 3D too.

 

[Alexander Morou]

Thanks Cocoa,

To not derail this topic further, I'll stop posting about this subject after this post.

I've read up on Alice, which is primarily a tool used to learn programming.  I don't believe it's meant for such large scale projects as the type I'm interested in doing (a small percentage of the project is written, the file is about 120 pages).  They recently announced an alliance with EA to include animations and graphics from The Sims (their most recent news post), while this increases the visual appeal of the system, I don't believe it's what I'm looking for.

I am interested in full control over what's seen on the screen.  The concepts Alice provides are really intended to simplify scene management and animation; however its goal is aimed at simplifying programming theory in a way that makes programming more visually interactive than it has been in the past.  I think for larger scale projects, such as my own, coding each and every visual article, and their interactions, will be counter productive and simply increase the development time.

 

[Tohsaka]

I was actually referring to the source code of that, for reference...etc.

And IDE is pretty cool. What 3D Format will you be using?

 

[Cowlol]

@Cocoa: Well, I plan to embed ruby through the use of http://www.ironruby.net/.. So, I already have a library for this.

IronRuby won't work on Xbox 360 because it targets the DLR (Dynamic Language Runtime), which makes heavy use of Reflection.Emit types, that are not available in the compact version of the .NET framework supported by 360. This is the same reason IronPython wouldn't work on Xbox 360.

That forces you to find another library (Ruby.NET doesn't depend on DLR, but as I far as I can tell that project is dead), or to write your own interpreter for the language. If you find a good way to embed Ruby into XNA and still get it to work on all supported platforms, please share!

 

[ninja#mint]

I was going to use Iron Ruby in the IDE, to help build scenes easier(using the source, aka: ruby), which would only be needed on the PC; though, if I were to use a language that is interpreted during game-play for specialized actions/events; then I'd much rather make my own to ensure its optimized, and only necessary features are implemented, so that during run-time you're experiencing no problems(lag) from the code being interpreted. Though, I guess if I were to do that, ruby would be irrelevant.

All in all, many things to this project are still being planned by me, and slowly being worked on(at the moment).

Currently playing with other projects; one which I plan to submit to this forum: http://rmxp.org/forums/http://dev.rmxp. ... 35#p553935

 

[ninja#mint]

Alright guys; Sorry for the lack of updates. :P
Busy, busy.

I re-made my structure & interfaces for scene objects; they're a lot easier to handle now. I also worked out some better techniques of optimization, such as frustrum culling, and level of detail(dependent on camera position). The level of detail technique currently only works for scene objects that use a grid; ie: Heightmap/Water(ocean object)/etc..

I plan to work out a level of detail for meshes as well, though that'd take me a little longer to do. But hopefully it will come out nicely.

I'll have a video of that up as soon as I finish debugging, and implementing it.
I'll also be working on a new technique for the volumetric clouds, which I've been planning on some notebook paper on/off for some weeks now. My method basically generates 'detail textures' using perlin noise; then distorts it in different procedural way to simulate the look of clouds types(Cirrus, Cirrocumulus, Cirrostratus and so forth.) These images are then rendered onto quads, which are scaled/translated to procedural coordinates dependent on the clouds bounds; the bounds are determined by scaled cubes for now(later on, perhaps the ability to generate its bounds from 3D models, etc).. though, that will come later.. I then plan to use a shader to determine a posific positions density, dependent on data submitted by neighboring clouds; once I figure out the proper math, I'll over lay a generated 'normal map' to give the clouds a more 3D lighting; all in all, I'm hoping the effect will appear far more visually appealing; however, it's very likely to be slow on early video cards(like my own); so I will make some 'less visually appealing' effects for the volumetric clouds; which take less computational resources; so there isn't any lag.

I've also started the Shader structure; which should allow one to easily manage shaders; including post-processing, and material effects. I plan to work out an efficient way to 'stack' these shaders as well.

It's 4am; So if I mis-typed something, or am unclear let me know;
I'll be checking this again for errors when I wake up. :P

Anyways; back to Legend of Dragoon~
See ya!

[Edit] My birthday is tomorrow, I'll be 17. :P I'll work today, on trying to get another video up.. This means I have a LOT of coding to do.
          Note: I am getting a job soon(hopefully) at a local diner called 'pizza villa' am applying to be a host. So if I get the job, there will be even less time for me to
                  work on this project. In the long run though; Job = Money; Money = More stuff to help better my engine. :P
        Time to sleep! e_e

 

[ninja#mint]

Interesting Bug I found while working on some ray tracing stuff; (btw this is something to be implemented in the engine; if all goes well, there will be a bunch of fancy components using rays

http://72.77.223.75:8080/_images/wow.png[/img]

My goal was terrain shadows; but it seems the bug did it all for me(I have nothing in my code; that indicates it should look anything like that)

 

[ninja#mint]

For anyone who is interested in this project; or any of my other projects.. I created a blog via wordpress; and will be using that from now on to document/record anything I do.. tech wise. :P I'll have tutorials; etc on this site; and if you need anything don't hesitate to ask! I'll do what I can to help anyone out. The link to this new domain is: http://mintexperiments.wordpress.com/

P.S: The site isn't built at all as of the moment, I will be working on that these next few days; I will no longer be coming back here; so if you've got questions that need answers the link above; will be the place to go.

for the mods: I do know it isn't proper to advertise; though I felt it was necessary under the conditions; this it the only forum/thread I have on this at the moment, and since I will not be using this anymore, I figured it was useful to let anyone know who might be interested in what's going on.

Thank you all!
See ya.

 

[Tohsaka]

Are you providing code snippets?