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Old 05-05-14, 14:53   #551
Dustie
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It's actually good (or at least that's how it seems to me) to get work such as mechanics, gameplay, AI and all that stuff done and then do graphics. What's the use for an engine that gives you great graphics, but has no gameplay?
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Old 05-05-14, 16:57   #552
Lwmte
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You are right, we already had enough projects that stopped developing on a renderer stage, like TRPlayer or RetroFit - those had particle systems, dynamic lights, even SSAO and bloom effect (for RetroFit), but what's the use of it, if you can only look at it?

I hope that eventually people will come up with more advanced rendering features - anyway, when we'll get OpenTomb to playable stage, much more people will be interested in developing it further!
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Old 05-05-14, 17:13   #553
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dustie View Post
It's actually good (or at least that's how it seems to me) to get work such as mechanics, gameplay, AI and all that stuff done and then do graphics. What's the use for an engine that gives you great graphics, but has no gameplay?
This.

I like what I've seen so far and I like that you guys are focussing on the mechanics.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do with the gameplay.
TRNG offers a lot of possibilities in the gameplay department and having only scratched the surface of it so far, I really don't want to go back to just the old style gameplay. I'd like to also have the TRNG possibilities in this engine.

Patiently waiting here.
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Old 05-05-14, 21:05   #554
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Well when TRNG features be included to this engine, i will switch and stick to Teslarus, just because the new open engine will eventually give us the graphics we all want to see in like-old tr levels and more features, and i also want to be able to make my own programs and be executed in-game like submenús or other stuff i want to make happen....
(it will also be nice if we could have our on level editor like NGLE.exe that actually be built very similar to the core design one to make easier the things for the old NGLE.exe builders like me)

Last edited by raiderromero; 05-05-14 at 21:10.
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Old 05-05-14, 21:51   #555
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Great work!!

Gameplay over graphics anyday.... the LE world wouldn't have lasted so long if graphics came first.
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Old 06-05-14, 05:24   #556
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lwmte View Post
Good news! Lara is finally dying!

LOL This is hilarious, nice work!

I did some research regarding nightly builds over the weekend. This is how it could work:

1) A developer pushes updates to the SourceForge repo.
2) After SF got the code, it sends an email back to the developer with a simple link. If the recipient clicks the link, a nightly build is started.
3) A few minutes later a new build appears under "Files/NightlyBuilds" on the SF project page.

That is all. I think this workflow would be pretty cool. It is not completely automated because the developers still has to trigger the build by clicking a link. But it also gives a little more control.


The setup, however, is a bit complicated. This is how it works in principle:
There is a project registered on the continuous integration service drone.io. This project executes a bash script that clones the SF repo, sets up its dependencies and performs a cross compilation using MinGW. The build is done on an Ubuntu 12.04. When the build is finished, the script creates a zipfile and copies it over to the SF files section. SF provides shell access to its repositories and can authenticate over SSH.

There are more details to consider (SF shell access, mercurial hook, SSH authorization, etc.) if we decide to implement this but I still think it would be comfortable. Of course it only works for code submitted to SF.

And I know it works because I tested it
This is the drone.io build project: https://drone.io/bitbucket.org/vobject/opentomb-nightly
And this is my test project on SF that the files are deployed to: https://sourceforge.net/projects/cc-test/files/

What do you think? Comments/suggestions/questions?

Last edited by vobject; 06-05-14 at 05:25.
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Old 06-05-14, 05:34   #557
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Titak View Post
This.

I like what I've seen so far and I like that you guys are focussing on the mechanics.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do with the gameplay.
TRNG offers a lot of possibilities in the gameplay department and having only scratched the surface of it so far, I really don't want to go back to just the old style gameplay. I'd like to also have the TRNG possibilities in this engine.

Patiently waiting here.
Gameplay department? Like what other games use? Like on the xbox? Sorry, not a gamer here, I'm a little clueless.
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Old 06-05-14, 21:08   #558
Lwmte
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Titak View Post
TRNG offers a lot of possibilities in the gameplay department and having only scratched the surface of it so far, I really don't want to go back to just the old style gameplay.
I can assure that at least scripting will be much more flexible than now - for example, you can program new moves and actions right into the script, not using excessive amount of cryptic strings, like it is done today. Lua is a language itself, unlike pseudo-script actions that you see in classic TR. actually, the more you learn about modern-day scripting, the more you understand that classic TRs never had any real scripts.

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Originally Posted by raiderromero View Post
new open engine will eventually give us the graphics we all want to see in like-old tr levels and more features, and i also want to be able to make my own programs and be executed in-game like submenús or other stuff i want to make happen...
Exactly, Lua allows you to program your own sub-functions and sub-programs. As for level editor... well, that's the most difficult part. We still don't have TRLE source code, so we can't adapt it to new file formats or new features, neither we can make its interface modern and user-friendly (you can say that NGLE has it, but it's still using DOS-like interface - I wonder how it looks on Full HD displays, which are almost twice bigger than fixed 1024x768 TRLE window). Everything was already said here . I'd opt for adapting Dxtre3d instead, as Turbo Pascal is still in our community, unlike original TR coders, who won't release source code without Square Enix permission anyway!

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Originally Posted by vobject View Post
I did some research regarding nightly builds over the weekend. This is how it could work...
What do you think? Comments/suggestions/questions?
Looks good to me! So basically, you create project at drone.io, link it to SF repository and then it does everything automatically? Is there a possibility to add specific files before deployment? For example, we frequently need also to update scripts, so new versions will work correctly. By the way, which versions could be compiled - Linux, Windows, Mac maybe? Maybe we need to ask Cochrane about the latter!

I don't think that currently I have time to do research on this, so I will ask TeslaRus to give you permissions to main repository, so you can get everything up and running!

P.S.: We're still ruling out merge conflicts between two code branches - but I must say that new state control system perfectly resembles classic TR state system, and we are very close to getting game mechanics look at least 70-80% similar to real Tomb Raider!

Last edited by Lwmte; 07-05-14 at 10:45.
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Old 07-05-14, 08:49   #559
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I'd opt for adapting Dxtre3d instead, as Turbo Pascal is still in our community, unlike original TR coders, who won't release source code without Square Enix permission anyway!
Lol, If you do improve the DxTRE3d nobody will have to dig TRLE source code from it's deep and ancient grave then
Wish you luck with your work on engine, I watch this thread
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Old 07-05-14, 22:18   #560
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lwmte
Looks good to me! So basically, you create project at drone.io, link it to SF repository and then it does everything automatically?
Thanks for your reply.

Yes, that's the idea. The drone.io project provides a public SSH key that has to be added to the SSH keys of a user with write access to the SF repo. That way drone.io can securely authenticate itself and copy files to the SF files section.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lwmte
Is there a possibility to add specific files before deployment? For example, we frequently need also to update scripts, so new versions will work correctly.
Yes it's possible. In fact for my test setup I download a new version of the CMake script that supports cross-compilation from my Dropbox folder during the build. The same could be done for scripts that are not included inside the repo.

However, I think in the long run, the repo should become self contained and include everything that is needed to create a release, such as script files. But that is another story...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lwmte
By the way, which versions could be compiled - Linux, Windows, Mac maybe? Maybe we need to ask Cochrane about the latter!
Currently a Win32 binary is built. Win64 might be possible but does not make much sense atm. Linux could be built but trying to distribute a raw Linux binary is usually not a good idea. Instead you would need to create a package for the package manager of a certain distribution. Someone wants to create a PPA for Ubuntu and Mint? Afair pmatulka was interested in this once But that is out of the scope of the SF repo. Mac OSX: I have no idea about this one

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lwmte
I don't think that currently I have time to do research on this, so I will ask TeslaRus to give you permissions to main repository, so you can get everything up and running!
Thank you for your trust. If it turns out that you or TeslaRus are uncomfortable getting me access, I can still give you detailled instructions. But direct access would make the process easier to implement, test and to maintain.
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