Game-Editor Revival

[tvz]

I think you should also think about the gui of game-editor. It should be more simpler with less bright color and effects and texts with a little bigger font. OR an option to choose a theme from a list

[bat78]

I think you should also think about the gui of game-editor. It should be more simpler with less bright color and effects and texts with a little bigger font. OR an option to choose a theme from a list

Yeah, but i already mentioned about that
I think its a good idea, saying it again.

[bat78]

Ok,
It's been a while since I last posted, but that doesn't mean the session is deprecated.
Quite the opposite actually.. I've been in progress of ideals and business solutions most of the time.
However I should finally say the famous sentence "I am busy". Because I'm going through a course
for professional license "programmer". In my country there are 8 modules.
- Java
- SQL
- C
- C++
- English
including their sub-categories. But in general that's the requirement to be a programmer in Bulgaria.
I have finished a primary courses for Networking and C though.. but they do not provide a professional
license. That's why I'm busy. x)

I have got several offers for software distribution including ones that implement monetizations.
Before we actually reach that step of reviewing and making partnerships with ww distributors,
we need to upgrade our software. Game-Editor is a complex combination of many different features.
It covers a lot from SDL. It looks like it uses SDL on full capacity of features.

What I would add is what everyone would like on a first view. Also do not say it will be hard
or it will take a lot of time.. i do not dev under such practice.

- using gcc compiler.. on gcc source code I can do some modifications to fit it for Game-Editor's use.
gcc is recent compiler known to be a leading one.
- using newer C ( ANSI C ) respectively ^ and with the modifications i have made.
(e.g stdin/stdout dissambley)
- Inside IDE. Tabulation, auto ident, current line, syntax highlighting, debugger, full code inspector,
full code explorer, shortcut keys, code templates, "jogtrot" interface, CamelCase detection. The interface
will be portable. No toolbars.
- Upgrading from SDL1 (i suppose) to SDL 3.0 won't be hard. Some features has been deprecated but
i can change them.
- gE "jogtrot" / GNU-based interface with a new toolbox containing: Selection tool, actor moving tool, resize tool,
rotate tool, paint tool (including RGB color picker). Will make the programmer's life much easier.
You can select multiple actors then delete them all with one click or paint them all, resize, move, rotate....
- Possibility to rename actors, Function "allActorsCount" or "getAllActors"
- my special wanle loading. Or i will figure out something better then wanle since i have more flexible solutions in the
external source files.
- lineto/moveto/setpen/drawfrom/erase will affect the current actor's clone instead of all the actor's clones.
- Full online support. It is actually easy to add some on-line features to gE.. also providing a geonline.h
header choice to include a library that makes the online management much easier.
Example:

Code: Select all

public void send_message()
{
   SetTextAttribute(console, 220); console.transp=0.6;
   sprintf(console.text, "Welcome to the world!");
}

that code will print the message "Welcome to the world" to all the connected users.
extern will work as well and it shouldn't be a problem to exist.. so thats actually easy and handy.
- Assert error system. prints a text file with error and advanced description if a problem occurs into the engine.
- DPD (Direct Pixbuff Drawing) using elements from GTK+ (known for developers) to load and localize
simulated animations or anim representations without having to spend a lot of time before they load.

(-just for SABRE and because i am aware with the mdl compression i will also allow mdl loading inside gE
it will allow us to load 3D models and use a specific structure to control them)

Code: Select all

typedef struct
{
   double dX; // model front side in degrees
   double dY; // model upper/down side view in degrees
   struct ROTA { double dR; double dZ; } rota; // optional control values in percent for rotate and dist (resize)
} Model;

Model tree = { .dX = 0x360, .dY = 0L, .rota.dZ=50}; // new C direct name initializing of structure and regex numbers
//for mem consumption for the curious people.

[Goettsch]

hi bat, finally a post from the project leader
i worked on gE's source and from what i saw you should add to the list a very big cleanup

i haven't heard news from sky for some weeks so i don't know what is he going to do

note that i am only a beginner but send me a pm so we can discuss about what to do

[skydereign]

i haven't heard news from sky for some weeks so i don't know what is he going to do

I graduated last month and was on vacation for a while afterwards. I've also been trying to tie up some loose ends, but will start working on gE again.

What I would add is what everyone would like on a first view. Also do not say it will be hard
or it will take a lot of time.. i do not dev under such practice.

- using gcc compiler.. on gcc source code I can do some modifications to fit it for Game-Editor's use.
gcc is recent compiler known to be a leading one.
- using newer C ( ANSI C ) respectively ^ and with the modifications i have made.
(e.g stdin/stdout dissambley)
- Inside IDE. Tabulation, auto ident, current li
...

That's quite an impressive list. What is the timeframe you are aiming to have all of this done by? Have you started worked on any of this yet?

[bat78]

@Goettsch
Hey!
You are right. gE is compiled long time ago, with some sort of an ancient compiler considering the review i have made on the C++ ways of dedicating evets.
For now we are in process of "loading" which means everyone are getting rid of their social requirements. All of them are extremelly important. As skydreign said.. he just graduated and i am in a course to get my license so i can actually be hired somewhere. So, considering the situation.. for now the best thing anyone could do is to offer ideas and manage stuff. Organization. Feel free to send a list of features that i will review precisely.

@skydreign
I wish i wasn't dependent. Now i have some weeks (while the lessons are on C).. which means i can be advisedly active in the world of free-time programming.
However.. i need your support so i can get into the line faster. Game-Editor 1.4.2b's physics are important, because i have seen a lot of games using exactly the same way of physical responses. I may be willing to wait for 1.4.2b or (if it takes longer) i will join the developement as soon as you are done with the Game-Editor source code conspect. Game-Editor is not only SDL and before i start with those serious updates it'll be handy if i had your subjective introduction/review guide into Game-Editor's source code.
Also.. Visual Stuio is really bad environment and it contains really useless optimizations..
I have experience in implementing all of this in normal scratch environment but i could mess a lot in gE's.
So i won't have any difficulties in adding them as soon as i get familiar with gE's S.C. If i was pushed by any specific time i would start that by myself.. but i don't think i am.. LcL is also very important for gE and i can't just start anything ahead by myself alone. Once after you are done with the introduction guide, LcL came back from wherever.. we can then start with the developement. Thats why the project is for. It is not a.. comercial or whislist.. it is a topic in which we can collaborate.

[Goettsch]

@bat
as you can see, gE source still contains the code of full gE and the demo version, so we have to decide if gE will be free or paid.If it will be free, i can clean up everything myself since it isn't a difficult task but it will require some time

we should also remove the code and the files related to the new gE interface called wxGame Editor(if we don't want it)

also note that if we switch to SDL 3 we will lose GP2X, handheld, and windows phone support but they are useless so it won't be a problem (probably you already knew this)

[bat78]

@bat
as you can see, gE source still contains the code of full gE and the demo version, so we have to decide if gE will be free or paid.If it will be free, i can clean up everything myself since it isn't a difficult task but it will require some time

we should also remove the code and the files related to the new gE interface called wxGame Editor(if we don't want it)

also note that if we switch to SDL 3 we will lose GP2X, handheld, and windows phone support but they are useless so it won't be a problem (probably you already knew this)

Note that WE can't decide if gE can be paid or not. gE is GPL licensed.
And i don't think we are aiming to make money from gE - the engine. It is true that makslane pooft somewhere.. but gE still belongs to him.

[NightOfHorror]

Yeah, I know mak isn't totally dead, he poofs up here and there, and I still think when it comes to business purposes of GE, he is the finalizer.

[Lacotemale]

Hey all,

Its been a while. I must admit the lack of GameEditor development has pushed me away from it and this forum. I still love the software and the people here but its gotten to the stage where GE seems to crash even opening my projects and ive had some long term issues with GE in general.

I think in order to revive this project we would need lots of organisation, a big effort and many hands on deck. We would need to assemble some sort of team going forward and have each person responsible for certain things. I would like to tick all of the boxes and try to help with everything but I have a full time job and free time to enjoy (not working on stuff) much like others do.

In theory I could help with anything although im not so sure on the development side of things. I have never been a confident C programmer (assuming that is what GE is created with). If we were to have a team we would need to be getting donations as I would like to think our work for free is appreciated by people and we would get some reward besides seeing some progress on GE.

We would need some version control for the code and clear instructions for people to compile it going forward. (if this isn't already in place) Im all for this if we can do it right, as really with everything people would expect feature wise its a pretty mammoth task.

[NightOfHorror]

This is what we have been wanting to do, we just don't have a good user/dev retention. We do not have a good advertising team, and therefore we are slowly dying as a forum. I tried starting a huge project that I called GE3 to get stuff going, but we aren't making much progress on it.

[bat78]

Hello!
I have information that skydereign is currently working on the official gE 1.4.2 which includes lots of updates and improvements. He might even release it soon.

Meanwhile.. im working on a huuuuge project. I think this would be a great start. Then as already mentioed, introduction document for gE source code will be pretty much appriciated for everyone that would like to join the developement and actually do something to improve the engine. We can discuss everything here.

[skydereign]

I have information that skydereign is currently working on the official gE 1.4.2 which includes lots of updates and improvements. He might even release it soon.

No, definitely not. I'm still working on the official release of 1.4.1. The current 1.4.1 is still what I've been calling beta. When I release that pretty soon it does have updates and improvements, but it's still 1.4.1. And the reason I haven't posted anything close to a release date is that I don't want to be committed to any time. There are a lot of plans for 1.4.2, but it won't be released any time soon. It's still most definitely in the planning stages so and I don't want to commit to any features or updates, which is why I haven't posted about it publicly. I will post about it when I'm comfortable doing so.

[bat78]

I meant 1.4.1b*

[Lacotemale]

While I really appreciate the work being done on 1.4.x im just curious. What happened to this 1.5 release? Is there a reason to not work on that?

I feel there is just so much to do on this development wise. I mean some things with GE are really wrong and will need to be scrapped for something much better. We also have so many platforms to allow export for and port to the newer SDL. Really I hope it can be saved somehow but I mean unless we can gather a team of at least 5 devs who have time to work on it every weekend or something I don't see this revival being a success. Then we also have a new website or website revamp, promotion etc.

Don't get me wrong I would love to see this work but I just have my concern about how much work would be required overall.