Technical Engine question...

[Wavesonics]

So I am a hobbyist engine programmer and am always interested in things like this that don't come out of the big production houses.

So I was wondering what type of technologies you guys used to solve the common problems.

For hidden surface removal what do you use? Oct Trees? BSP Trees and Potentially Visible Sets? Do you pre-calculate visibility? Do you do fulstrum culling?

Is the engine portal based? What are you using to cross-platform things like window creation, are you using SDL?
Is the engine based around a single thread?
Is the engine built around a client server model or strictly a single process?

It's a GREAT engine guys! I'd love to hear a little bit about what it's doing under the hood if you wouldn't mind sharing!

[Thomas]

Engine uses Frustum culling + Portals.

It is uses SDL for setting up graphics mode and Input.

Threading is used for sound but nothing else.

client server model vs strictly a single process: Not sure really, but I would have to say single process.

[sybesis]

Thomas Wrote:client server model vs strictly a single process: Not sure really, but I would have to say single process.

As there is no other binaries when you install it. Penumbra.bin is the only binary for the game but there is still some libs but they are for input/ouput/shaders...

It could have used thread for simulating a server side of the game (i believe it should be possible to do something like that) but you said no threading except sound.

By the way, I still have a little question... Are the collada files standard?
I tried to open them into blender but it wasn't able. If it's standard, i could write a loader for blender. Does the license let me do that?

It could be fun to mod some models and add details etc.

[Thib_G]

sybesis, Collada specs are from the Khronos group, the same guys as OpenGL.
Collada ( .dae ) files are text files, with models and physics informations.
There already is a little plugin for Blender, but it's quite buggy.

Here is the plugin on my system : /usr/lib/blender/scripts/colladaImport14.pyc
It's GPL2-licensed. So, you can freely improve it.

Hm... I've a question about the future of the engine... Since it use several open standards and LGPL libs... I'm wondering, if, in the future ( after several Penumbra: Overture episodes ), it will be free software ?

PS : I'm wondering it, because Penumbra: Overture is quite impressive, and all files are easily accessible, that's not usual in commercial closed-source games. In addition, your engine is usable on 3 different plateforms, including GNU/Linux.

[Thomas]

Have not yet decided what to do with the engine. First thing before anyone can use it is to do some serious documenation

I have considered making it open source, but as I said nothing is decided.

[Thib_G]

Ok Thomas, that's would be great

[sybesis]

I found a new version of the collada importer and it do import the penumbra's model.

Collada is pretty cool.

But it may not load things properly -> Animations
I believe because i never seen something animated after import...

By the way, its pretty fun to be able to modify some files...
In exemple, some tweak on the shaders etc

[WindexGlow]

Have fun exporting the model and getting it to work in HPL/Penumbra
If you're like me and it doesn't work, than use Maya 7.0 and collada .86
I forgot the exact website name, but I have a link for collada .86 in my tutorial-links topic, and there's a forum member that has a website which also has Collada .86 in it.

I'm currently trying to find a maya 7.0 Ple download location, because I doubt the developers encourage pirating ;-)

[sybesis]

WindexGlow Wrote:Have fun exporting the model and getting it to work in HPL/Penumbra
If you're like me and it doesn't work, than use Maya 7.0 and collada .86
I forgot the exact website name, but I have a link for collada .86 in my tutorial-links topic, and there's a forum member that has a website which also has Collada .86 in it.

I'm currently trying to find a maya 7.0 Ple download location, because I doubt the developers encourage pirating ;-)

Lol i tried to load Maya8 PLE but It doesn't accept my Postal Code so i cant complete my account. I don't know if my old account on the alias wavefront still exist.

Anyway...blender will do the job for most of the things. And i could tweak the loader if needed myself...

[MakeMe]

wow it will be great if it will be Open Source.
and it will make your game more poplar and more pepole will know about them bcz to download the engine you need to see this webzite and pepole with talk about the engine and your games...