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Sunday, November 16, 2014 - 15:47

They look good to me.

Sunday, November 16, 2014 - 15:44

That is the happiest skull I've ever seen :-)

Great model though.

Friday, November 7, 2014 - 23:35

Some progress: this screenshot shows the test map (in TMX format) loaded directly into Darkplaces.  Plus the player position and light positions are also in the TMX file (using object layers).

Next thing I want to do is support adding torches and switches on the walls, and the gratings which can rise to open, and the ability to press a switch to open a grating.  That plus grid-based movement will mean we have an actual game (albeit a very basic one).

Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - 22:40

I'm using Linux, so I personally don't need a Darkplaces binary for Windows, but it will be needed for test packages so people using Windows can try it out.

The TMX loading code is quite straightforward and is coming along, it can already load the floor pieces.  Thanks for the offer though.

Sunday, November 2, 2014 - 02:21

I have been working on modifying Darkplaces to load TMX files and construct the map itself from pieces in OBJ format.

So far I have been able to load in the "column" piece, place it in three hard-coded places and get them to render properly (a lot harder than it sounds actually).  Today I worked on reading the TMX file.  All this is going to take a while to complete, maybe two weeks, maybe longer.  I also have to figure out how to compile Darkplaces for Windows, that can be a non-trivial task too.

I realize no-one else can do much until this mapping pipeline is ready and there is a snapshot you can actually play with, and I am hoping to have that by the end of November.  Of course more will be needed, so by the end of December I hope enough will be in place that we can really get stuck into developing the game itself.

Saturday, November 1, 2014 - 16:55

FreeDoom has been around a long time, possibly before the CC licenses came into existence (or at least before they become well known and commonly used).  I agree that using a CC license would be better, but there are a large number of contributors and it just wouldn't be feasible to contact them all in order to relicense everything.

BSD-style licensed code is often used in GPL-licensed software, with the whole program being under the GPL license, and that's all perfectly legal and common.  But when it comes to art, it does seem a bit strange (to me) to relicense under the GPL, e.g. to upload to this site.

Monday, October 27, 2014 - 15:26

grid-based movement: I think it can work, but like yd said if it turns out to be too limiting then we should ditch it.

@cemkalyoncu: I'm ok with your story and gameplay idea.  The engine does allow you to look in all directions (up and down), and to describe every object in the world.  Adding these objects may be a bit painful in Tiled, probably have some layers like "north" which places an object near the north wall, and you have to edit some properties to move it from there.

@Julius: there is no occlusion culling when using an OBJ for the whole map, and yes I am concerned that performance will be bad once the maps become a normal size with many lights and objects.

So last night I had an idea, I could modify Darkplaces to load the Tiled TMX file directly, and compute a visibility matrix (PVS) from the tiles (I already have code for doing that).  I will investigate this possibility more to see if it is really feasible.

Friday, October 24, 2014 - 23:53

@yd : yeah it looks very grainy here too, at first I wondered if mipmapping may have been disabled for some reason.  I will try some other settings (there may be a setting for how "deep" the bump mapping is).

@cemkalyoncu : that story sounds good to me, more in the "aliens and technology" genre than "wizards and magic", which is fine by me (and does not rule out magical or demonic elements).  Perhaps he accidentally triggers a teleporter which places him deep underground, and figuring out how to use these ancient teleporters is a big part of the how he must escape.

Any ideas about the eventual gameplay?  Already specified is (a) real-time and (b) grid-based movement.  I keep thinking that we will need some combat to keep the game interesting.  Ever played the original Tomb Raider game?  It had lots of exploring with only occasional fights, and that might be a good model to follow here.

Thursday, October 23, 2014 - 03:13

@ulf : that's cool, no need to hurry.

P.S. I did get the test level into Darkplaces.  I am concerned about performance though.  I will make another snapshot so people can try it and see what framerate they get.  If it is too low, we will need a different mapping pipeline (still using Tiled though).

Wednesday, October 22, 2014 - 00:49

I can keep your resources separate, e.g. in a "yd" folder, and make it clear in the README documents that all those resources are under special licensing terms (the ones you have specified for this project.)  OK?

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