Updates on AGT engine and game source code commited to SVN to check out. I’ve also added video clips from the small demo.

Youtube Quality: show

I’ve also uploaded a released version of the game, which was compiled for my portfolio CD. I’ve zipped the demo up to 25mb from 130mb. Download the demo here: AGT Prototype Game Demo Note that this version of the demo was compiled from revision 16 and not the latest revision. Also the sound has been disabled and files associated removed to free up some space. This was due to size limitations when I was burning my work to a small 330MB dvd.

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Some screenshot updates of the game itself and the simple scene editor I created along with the prototype. The latest revision up on SVN at the moment is Revision 16. A new update will be made soon. Mostly containing codes and contents for the game.

Here are some of the screenshots I’ve taken. At this point there’s still no need for movie clips until revision 17, where I have enough gameplay to record to the clip.

Title screen screenshot.

For the scene editor I added the ability to drag mesh object created through the console by moving the arrows that extrude from the center to the mesh:

Mesh objects are created through the command console using “add_mesh” command and setting up additional paramaters. What happens is that each command is linked to a function which is called when ever that command has been entered. The information written in the command line is also pass in as a vector of characters which is then parsed separating each word into separate array locations. This check finds a spaces between the each words.

The next few screenshots are some from the prototype game:

The textures especially the player character models are temporary. Although it will be submitted for the assessment, in future work, this texture will be replace eventually.

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Small updates for the past week, due to a couple of long documentations needed to be done and handed in for the last week. Updates concerning AGT portfolio work; whilst not having done much code wise, there are new resources add to the game, which is what I’ve been doing more lately for the game itself. For these changes you can read from any of the following logs:

https://agtengine.bountysource.com/development/log

http://svn.bountysource.com/agtengine/trunk/log_change.txt

As far as the game is going in AGT is concerned here are a couple of screenshots of the new scenes in the game:

If you can figure out somehow from the image I’m designing a simple action-adventure game prototype with at least 2 scenes. The first of these scenes (the first screenshot) will have the player character talking to various NPC’s in the area. Now the image doesn’t show this but eventually it will be populated. There is a main quest within the area that will lead to the second screenshot scene, again not populated as of yet. This area is the arena where the player must take on numerous rounds and defeat the enemy or enemies. All of these have been modified by adding components, simple as that.

What the arena is, is to allow the player take on as many enemies and gain ranks up the leader board. If you have played ElderScrolls: Oblivion then there’s a similarity in this prototype. One of the enemies in this arena, which you’ve already seen alot of, are the putties, and will be found in the initial rounds of the arena. There will be a case where you won’t be just fighting one putty but more than 3 at a time.

So that’s what will be done during the coming weeks and eventually with more posts on these updates.

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As far as the previous update post for AGT engine is concerned, I’ve done slightly little amount to the engine itself as setting up my domain and portfolio site was in my high priority list. During the span of 12 days, I’ve also had to prepare and then display my level 3 project seminar, doing some testing for it, and then also Air Roar, and other life businesses.

Anyways you can read the update logs here: http://svn.bountysource.com/agtengine/trunk/log_change.txt or https://agtengine.bountysource.com/development/log which is also linked up in the description section of the AGT page. As I have explained, using SVN is my means on tracking down all the changes/updates/additions I’ve made to the project.

One of the main updates is that I’ve being doing my first scenes after implementing the physics system into the engine, as I want to have the physics engine drive the my character’s movements in the game. After that I integrated Caelum Day and Night lightning system into the project. Go here to know more about this awesome system: http://www.ogre3d.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=24961.

I’ve replaced my usual test “Raz” character with my own modelled and animated character: The Putty. A couple of pics below showing how “Putty” was made and then how it’s appearance in game.

Putty in the making:

Putty modelled, rigged and animated in XSI. (click on image to enlarge)

Then the putties in the game engine:

The screenshot below is the initial layout of the first game scene

So that’s them for my initial scene shots. I’ll have more to update on the game in the future. To continue testing on the sound manager that I’ve added into the engine and eventually have a tune playing in the scene. A camera component will be made to allow camera to be attached to an object and simply follow it. A very easy implementation, and then to implementing the first stages of the AI system.

Well I’ll leave you will a couple more screenshots I’ve taken.

Putty Checking out Caelum *smile*

Putties Attack!!

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Most of the work done on the project is mainly on the engine side of things. At the current stage, it is fair to say that the engine itself if enough to start creating the scenes on my prototype game. I have already gathered and made the mesh files that I’d need on one scene.

The choices are that either I stick with the engine implementation and get the scenes up after adding the physics, sound, AI, scripting and maybe the networking subsystem. I have began the initial phase of creating scenes, by adding console command to my core system.

The console can be brought down using the F1 button. I’ve yet to figure out what “tilde” is for OIS. The commands are binded to their static functions, and I can easily access all the other systems by simply calling their main singleton manager. I’ve also made sure that through only accessing the singleton class, there’s enough functionality to do what you need. This will come very handy when I’m binding these systems to Lua.The image above shows some of the initial commands I have added to the scene.
The reason for console is mainly for debugging purposes. I have placed numerous exceptions catches in the code, error can then be passed through to the console rather than having the program terminate.As for the commands themselves I have added a void pointer function which takes in a vector of strings. So calling the binded functions to a specific command will also pass the information on what has been typed in. The first element of the vector is always the original command. The rest can be parsed.

As an example below “add_mesh” has other parameters such as the name of the mesh to add, the new name and its position on the scene.

Code-wise you can check this implementation here:
https://agtengine.bountysource.com/svn/!source/5/trunk/AGTCore/Console.cpp#348
The static functions for each commands are found here:
https://agtengine.bountysource.com/svn/!source/5/trunk/AGTCore/CMD_Functions.cpp
where you can check how I have made “add_mesh” commad working with additional parameters (line 46). Current one links to version 5.Other things that will be worked on:

• Add command to add an basic game object. Eventually scripted template classes of objects that contain components will be available instead creating objects and adding components to them.
• Command to add components to objects. These components are either in Lua scripts or in code, usually the fundimental components such as “mesh_component” will be done in code
• Adding command to export scene into a file. This file will be in XML format.
• Making first step into a playable scene. An interaction between playercharacter component object to another object; maybe a object with a trigger component, which trigger’s some sound or a GUI change.

The image below just shows an object “dog”, with a component “mesh_component” attached to it. Without that component, its obvious that you won’t see any dog, but in object storage it will be there.

Things I will be considering in the future implementations pretty much consists on making scene editor as easy as possible, by adding some GUI implementation rather than typing into the console command.

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Update for AGT Game Engine, since there hasn’t been an official post on this page about it, since the end of last year.
A couple of changes. One of them is that there is now a change in the SVN hoster. As far as I know and my experience with it lately Bountersource is providing good SVN hosting and also tracking and page hosting availability for free. Therefore there will be a new link to the SVN with new revisions although this revision will start from the last revision of the previous SVN address. That SVN will be available, and I hope google keeps it up.

The reason for the change was due mainly to the fact that I was running out of available space given by Google. I experienced this already and I don’t want to go further with this. Also with the dynamic site building Bountysource has to offer I’ve pretty much everything I need to have a project site.
The new project page can be found here: https://agtengine.bountysource.com/
You can still visit and view the SVN section on the googlecode site: http://code.google.com/p/agtengine/

As far as the project is concerned all updates are logged up both SVNs and on the new project page.

I will try to post SVN logs here from time to time, but for now here’s the link to the old repository with all the revision logs.
http://code.google.com/p/agtengine/source/list

The SVN browser provided by bountysource is here:
http://agtengine.bountysource.com/svn/

** If link doesn’t work copy-paste this URL: https://agtengine.bountysource.com/svn/

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In courtesy of me I have added SVN repository for my project. All my work will be uploaded to the repository regularly. The address can be found here: http://agtengine.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/.
Though I suggest downloading TortoiseSVN so you can get a copy of the updated version of the project yourselves. I also recommend this due to the fact that it’s got some simple logging feature, which I tend to use alot on my other projects, and I tend to commit the project regularly so everyone else that has a copy can simply update their version. Google code has kindly provided access to the code anonymously so you can download and update it regularly.

If you haven’t used TortoiseSVN or just need some tip on getting the project to your computer, here’s a quick guide:

NOTE: This project is based on Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express. I’ll try get other versions of the project running on ‘older’ Visual studios.

– Download and install the new version of TortoiseSVN. It’s sometimes better keeping Tortoise updated regulary. It will inform you if your version is out-dated anyway. It’s free to use too.

– TortoiseSVN builds into the windows shell extension. After installation just simply right-click on your desktop or in a folder and TortoiseSVN menu link will be made available.

– Highlight the TortoiseSVN link and select Repo-browser

– On the URL type http://agtengine.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ and click ok.

– This will open up the browser and the files to my project.

– All the codes are found in the /trunk directory. You may view the contents of the trunk by clicking on the plus sign next to the folder. To get a copy of the whole project, right-click on the /trunk folder and select Checkout…

– Set the checkout directory. Create a new directory in your drive if need be. Leave the rest of the options alone and click OK.

– This will download the files in the trunk folder to the specified folder in your drive.

– Open the folder or refresh it to view the files. From here on you can simply update the project by right-clicking on the folder and select SVN Update. This will update your version to the newest committed version.

– Other things to look at is the log notes on the project. This can be viewed by right-clicking on the folder, highlight TortoiseSVN and selecting Show log.

– This will show all the addition/deletion/modifications of the files on the project , and comments on each revision.

You may run the project file and build it. I have created the framework so that it only requires OGRE include and lib files. You should be able to run the build and execute the program after downloading, if you have the right version of Microsoft Visual C++. Changes cannot be committed for obvious reasons.

Hopefully this serves as good logging tool for my project, useful for the tutors that will be marking this work at the end of the uni year, and for everyone else interested in the work. With SVN you can simply update to a certain revision and all the files changes will be managed automatically.

Okay I need sleep ~_~

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Began actual work on the engine. Created a new framework for the engine and game.
Progress on the project is way ahead compared to my designed schedule, altough compared to the amount I have to do (game and engine), its just a fragment of it all.

I was given the outline of the project, speccing the minimum requirements of the work, all are included in the schedule and todos for the game prototype.

As for the work done, I have coded up the Render System. This system simply intiliases OGRE renderer and sets up the window to begin rendering. I stated clearly that the render is very important in controlling the game loop. The AGT render manager only contains one class. Originally it was 2 classes working in the the render system area of the engine as show below:

Both classes have now been melded into one RenderManager class. Here’s the codeblock for this class:——————————————————–
class RenderManager : public Ogre::FrameListener
{
private: // Attributes
Ogre::Root *m_pRoot; // Ogre root pointer
Ogre::RenderWindow *m_pRenderWindow; // Ogre render window pointer
unsigned long m_hWnd; // Handler to the ogre render window
bool m_bStatsOn; // Stats display
Ogre::TextureFilterOptions m_Filtering; // Texture filtering mode
int m_iAniso; // Anisotrophic level
bool m_ShutDownRequested; // Shutdown call
static RenderManager *renderMgr; // Static pointer to self
private: // Functions
RenderManager(void); // private ctor for singleton class
void initialise(void);
void setupResources(void);
void createWindow(void);
bool setup(void); // Runs through and call all functions initialisations
void createFrameListener(void);
public:
~RenderManager(void);
static RenderManager* getSingleton(void);
void cleanup(void); // Cleans all pointers to render system
void startRendering(void); // Renders frames
bool frameStarted(const Ogre::FrameEvent& evt);

bool frameEnded(const Ogre::FrameEvent& evt);
// accessors
unsigned long getWindowsHandle(void){ return m_hWnd; };
// Returns handle to render window
// Returns ogre root pointer
Ogre::Root* getRoot(void)
{ return m_pRoot; };
Ogre::RenderWindow* getRenderWindow(void)
{ return m_pRenderWindow; }; // Returns render window pointer};——————————————————–RenderManager has inheritance link to Ogre’s FrameListener. RenderManager is a singleton class. From main this singleton can then be called and by simply calling the ’startRendering’ function, OGRE will provide a program while loop that will quit if you pass the certain functions to the frame listener functions. Virtual functions ‘frameStarted’ and ‘frameEnded’ from the FrameListener class must be implemented in order to do so. Any classes that inherits from the FrameListener will be registered for these functions to be called when update occurs.

Implemented the Object system to a point where I have 2 scenes working and able to switch between them. One of the scene is empty and the other contains a test object, flat textured floor object, done through attaching a test mesh component to the object. I have skipped initial implementation on the state manager, for the sake of testing the object and the rendering system.

Next implementation is to create the input manager for keyboard and mouse, so I can control the camera in one of the scenes, by adding a camera control component to a test player object. X360 gamepad support will be added in a later stage.
For now here’s an image of the code structure in VisualC++:

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The technical documentation of the project is due in this week and I might as well explain some the various aspects of the game and also what’s running the game behind it, the engine.

First of all let me explain the idea behind my game. Title is yet to be assigned to the game but I will eventually get to it.

The story is based on an old 2D RPG I have made long ago, with the RM2k tool kit. The idea was to implement the story to this game, but leave behind the turn-base RPG. I will try and get that game up on my blog when I have the available time.

So yes, its going to be a mixture of rpg and action-adventure with more emphasis on the latter since the idea was influenced through games such as Zelda: Ocarina of Time series.

The game will be third-person perspective(see previous post of what this may look like), in a open roaming world. Though this won’t be just an unlimited landscape, I will be segmenting different parts of the world. The assigment brief I have received today requires a complete game prototype. In the time span available I can guess that I could probably get one or 2 segments of the whole game world into the prototype.
Anyways the list continues – The player will take on the role of a character through this fantasy game. This allows me to add some interesting aspects to the game. One of them is the use of spell system that can then be upgrade by finding better ones or using it various times allowing to gain extra experience.

Within the game the player may encounter amulets that then can be attached to a weapon the player character is using, allowing the player to use its respective spell type. As the player progresses through the game they can gain much more stronger amulets from hard enemies, bosses, finding them, or doing quests. It’s a similar idea to the materia system in Final Fantasy.

Spells in this game will bare the following types:
- Damage spell
- Buff spell (for player and/or sword)
- Debuff spell (single)
- Debuff spell (Area of effect)

Some of these spells can be casted at close or long range.
The limitation is that for each individual weapon the player finds, the number of available slots can vary from 0-4. So at one time the player will be given a maximum of 4 useable spells to cast during combat. These amulets are not totally necessary as the player can go through the game will little use of spell, though when encountering harder enemies, the use of spells could help.
Other note in the spell system was to try to allow each amulet to gain experience depending on the amount of use by the player, thus making each spell much more stronger that the other. This idea may or may not be implemented at the end, as the player and spells will improve the further the progress.

So there will be no stats for the player such as Strength, Stamina, or Agility. The damage a player character can do to an enemy will be static. The health and magic points will begin at a defined amount and can then be upgrade by finding items in the world, your usual Zelda upgrades, where you would regularly search for clues and find these items, many of these items can be gained through doing a number of quests.

The meat of the game is the combat system. Again I stress there is alot of Zelda influence on this game, but I didn’t want to recreate the same systems in just the way Zelda has been doing them.

In each combat the player can lock-on to the target, this way the player may side step around the enemy. The player can attack/defend in 4 different ways. These are the directional attacks.
Examples:
- player can make the character attack the head of the enemy by pressing the forward direction and the attack button.
- Character can attack left side of the enemy by using pressing left direction and attack
etc. The other two are attacking on the right hand side and thrusting towards the body of the enemy(back direction + attack)

Obviously there will be various NPC and object interactions within the world. As I have stated, the areas in the world is free to roam in, so that player can get to various places by jumping there or finding a possible route.

So that’s the basic ideas behind the game. It’s all so far just simple ideas, but I will get to showing the appropriate concepts and designs of the game in due time.

For the engine itself I have research quiet a number of engines. I originally planned to use an object system with various types of manager connected to it, but eventually having read on object-component systems, I thought it would be alot more interesting and better to implement. After looking up on Component-Objects system I stumbled upon OGE (OpenGameEngine). Which uses an Component-Object system similar to that used in Dugeon Keeper.
I have yet to use this engine and mess around with it, but the concepts the developer made in his wiki site got be thinking of the ComponentObject system in the engine. I have used the fundemental designed of the engine systems used in OGE shown below with some changes:

The implementations however are going to be my own, as the various subsystems in the engine will use various types of coded or middleware APIs.
All of these subesections are explained through the game technical documentation, which I will try and post after submission in the end of this week.

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