Strategy Game Collaboration

Experimental RTS/Space sim Collaborative Coding Project.
The goal is to design a game with structure/settings/balance of Starcraft and scale of Eve Online(i.e. huge space battles, space empires,etc).
Though this wouldn't stop anyone from contributing code/feedback/criticism, i'll be coordinating the project.
All code/ideas should be posted in this and subsequent threads which i'll start as needed.
step #1: We will collaboratively create a name for our project.
Each suggestion must explain why this name fits the project and why its better then any other generic name.

>>598 G++.exe is GCC C++ compiler (can be invoked via gcc/c++/g++ and probably cc1plus with parameters)
Included with all MinGW distributions.
Choice #1:----------------------------
Crystal Space is a framework for developing 3D applications written in C++ by Jorrit Tyberghein and others. The first public release was on August 26, 1997.[1] It is typically used as a game engine but the framework is more general and can be used for any kind of *3D visualization. It is very *portable and runs on Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, UNIX, and Mac OS X. It is also free software, licensed under GNU Lesser General Public License, and was SourceForge.net's Project of the Month for February 2003.[2]

It can optionally use *OpenGL (on all platforms), *SDL (all SDL platforms), *X11 (Unix or GNU/Linux) and *SVGALib (GNU/Linux). It can also optionally use assembler routines using *NASM and *MMX.
Choice #2----------------
Irrlicht (pronounced [ˈɪɐ̯lɪçt] in German) is an open source 3D engine written in C++. It is *cross-platform, officially running on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Windows CE and due to its open nature ports to other systems including the Xbox, PlayStation Portable[1], SymbianOS[2] and iPhone[3] are available.

Irrlicht is known for its *small size and *compatibility with new and older hardware alike, a *shallow learning curve and a large friendly community[4][5]. Unofficial *bindings for many languages exist including .NET[6], Java[7], Perl[8], Ruby[9], Python[10], FreeBASIC, Lua[11], Delphi[12][13], C++ Builder[14] and even Game Maker[15].

Irrlicht's development started in 2003 with only one developer, Nikolaus Gebhardt.[16] Only after the 1.0 release of Irrlicht in 2006 the team grew to currently ten members, most of them developers.[17]
Choice #3-------------------------------
OGRE (Object-Oriented Graphics Rendering Engine) is a *scene-oriented, *flexible 3D rendering engine (as opposed to a game engine) written in C++ designed to make it easier and *intuitive for developers to produce applications utilising hardware-accelerated 3D graphics. The class library abstracts the details of using the underlying system libraries like Direct3D and OpenGL and provides an interface based on *world objects and other *high level classes.

OGRE has a very active community, and was Sourceforge.net's project of the month in March 2005.[2] It has been used in some commercial games like Anarchy Online and Ankh.

1.0.0 ("Azathoth") was released in February 2005. The current release in the 1.x.y series is 1.6.2 ("Shoggoth"), released in April 2009. Released under the terms of a modified GNU Lesser General Public License, the engine is free software. The modification to this license allows users to statically link the library under the same terms as dynamic linking, though a distinction made by the LGPL.
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Which of them is better suited for game development?

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Well, as tragic as all this is, it's a small price to pay for countless hours of top-notch entertainment!

gcc isn't free.

gcc isn't free.

gcc isn't free.

gcc ees fwee! bork bork bork

>>602-604 Explain? GCC is freely distributable & Open-Source.



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The plot thickens.

>>606
/prog/ doesn't consider the GPL to be free enough, they want the freedom to sell themselves into slavery too

>>606
He's right, check out my development team's website here:
http://gcc.gnu.org/releases.html

>>607
Who the hell cares if gcc is GPL, are you going to need to link against a C compiler for your program?

>>609
if you install any GPLed software, your entire operating system becomes non-free.

>>609
I think they were just trolls. Nobody needs to link to the compiler when writing this game.

>>564
Okay now you have to be trolling. Either you're trolling or you're completely fucking braindead. You are choosing straight up *ASSEMBLY* as the language in which to write a high performance 3D game. You're mad. That's it. I feel like I wouldn't be doing my civic duty if I didn't check you into a mental hospital right now.

>>601
Oh holy fuck look, three C++ engines all with Python bindings. Guess what everyone but the LISP retards were telling you 500 fucking posts ago.

Don't go with Irrlicht, the *only* benefit it has over the rest is that it's BSD licensed and you're doing this open source anyway so it doesn't matter.

You probably want Crystal Space just because it's a real game engine and not just a 3D renderer. You don't have the technical capability to do any of that yourself so just use Crystal Space.

But hold on a sec. Before we go any further, I want to take a big long moment to tell you "I told you so". Since you're using a 3D engine, 99.99% of the running time of your app will be inside the library, so it doesn't matter what language you choose. TADA! Speed = irrelevant.

Also, just to let you know one last thing; these engines typically work *better* when they are packaged as separate DLLs instead of statically linked into one big fat executable. And they will be easier to compile, and distribute, and etc.

>>611
But >>602-605 are still right. The GPL is not free.

>>612
Just now you realize FV is trolling? This whole thread is nothing but one huge troll.

>>613
LISP retards
:D

ITT: MINDRAPE

ITT: PENISLAND

>>617
I don see any pens.

Is Radiance gonna be 2d or 3d?

>>619
Eventually 3d, but for reasons of simplicity, 2d support will be implemented first, since adding the extra dimension is simple. The 1d phase is expected to be very short.

>>620
No fractional dimensions?

I got a good name for this: Velox Et Astrum
It's latin for 'Starfleet'. Or more literally 'Naval Fleet in the Stars'

>>622-chan here. C++ would be my suggestion for the language we use. It's very low level which will give us good speed. It's got great libraries for us to use. It's object oriented which means that its more geared for big projects like this one as opposed to C(Structs are great and all, but with C++ we can give our objects functionality beyond variables). Also, it is my opinion that most people on this thread at least know enough C/C++ to be able to carry out programming tasks assigned to them with little 'extra learning'.

>>621
No, if we attempted to work through all those we'd be creating an infinite amount of work for ourselves, even though each individual advance would admittedtly be easy.

>>623
Expecting people to program in C++ as a hobby.
Yeah, I'll get right on that as soon as I finish mortifying my flesh.

since adding the extra dimension is simple
Is it really that easy to take a 2D game to 3D?

>>625
Much easier than writing a 1d game, and a little bit easier than adding 2d to that, because the more dimensions you have already, the smaller the change is, proportionally. This is why 4d games are especially easy. In b4 “u mena time?”

>>626
In that case, a four-dimensional space game in two-dimensional time should be a piece of cake.

>>626
ENTERPRISE QUALITY LINEAR ALGEBRA!

>>627
two-dimensional time
I... what?

>>629
Real and imaginary time.

Look it up!

I will hire the man who wrote Eragon to write the lore for this game.

And this will be the game's theme song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TN5zyN4FK0

>>632
No, it needs to be original.

>>612 Assembly would employed in critical parts to speed up algos. C++ is chosen as main language.
>>613 The claim about x% of time in the library is not relevant:
After the general game mechanics/visuals(coords,trackers(trajectory/velocity),collisions,HUDs,Starfield,radar,etc) are merged with the engine:
the plan is as follows:
1.a an object is generated via procedural/fractal algorithms. Bumpmaps are generated via equations of shape.
2.Its texture is generated in similar way. In simple cases its just fillcolor(object)
3.Its send to the engine for rendering at x,y,z.
engine serves as dumb and fast pipeline for rendering.We are choosing engine to not bother coding all low-level OpenGL object generation routines which are already present on engine.
>>620 The project will be 3D from the start
 >>622 Velox Et Astrum. Sounds somewhat better then radiance, no copyright issues.
Project name is changed to : Velox Et Astrum.
>>631 Eragon is high-fantasy, the game is futuristic sci-fi
>>632 All music will be fractally generated.
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The potential for mischief varies inversely with one's proximity to the authority figure.

>>627 here.
I would also like to suggest non-Euclidean space. Preferably spherical or torus-shaped.

>>635 Will be noted when wormholes&blackholes are added to engines. If its not much work the system would just compress coords to take less space when black hole is approached and slow down the ship, gradually drawing it closer.
if the ship doesn't warp away on collision initiates damage routines(basically ship is destroyed).
Wormholes would be the same with much weaker effect(proportional to throat diameter) that ends when you exit the throat on the other side.




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Even silence speaks

>>636
Not what he saaaaaaiiiiiiid.

Draft energy system(my suggestion is not final or authoritative):
Ship runs on energy, which is replenished via rest(slow),crystals(medium increase), repair in docks(instant).
Energy system: All energy aboard ship is shared between:
1. Shields. Regenerates the hitpoints and protects ship from damage.
High energy: High-regen,High-Defense Shields.
2.Engines:Engines use energy when ship is moving or warping(high-use).
High Energy:Allows to use warp multiple time,Engine uses energy proportional to speed.
3.Weapons: All weapons use energy proportional to damage(of the weapons class).
High Energy: Weapons can fire longer without recharge.
Energy can be used for special abilities like subspace scan(long range radar map),superweapons(highdmg, energy draining weapons),etc.

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Hmm...how am I supposed to make a word out of these lousy letters.

>>637 Suggestion was adapted to game needs.



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Wit is sharper than the sharpest dagger.

Good luck writing the math for non-euclidian space projection to 3D to 2D.