D.A.E.M.O.N. Programming Blog

Hey hey!

Screen shots are here, some basic ones from the development of the engine.

These are very basic still, but hey, atleast they are here!

Hey hey!

I've got some questions as of late where Sandstorm/CombatMud are, to answer those questions, I've created this simple post.

They are here, but hybernating slightly, I am too consumed by work, family, and my home business (see the zombie project) to focus on the mudding community at the moment, but rest assured, they will make their way back.

A side note:

CombatMud is being re-written in a base I call D.A.E.M.O.N.  (Daves Advanced Environment Module Operated Network), Yeah, I know, its a mouthful.  In anycase, Its a ground up, c++ interlinked mud engine.  Basically, the design is to allow for all muds using it as a base, to connect with each other, and be 100% interconnected.  Muds on the network, have all their equipment balanced to the network standard. (so no one mud can be more powerful, detection of a overpowered mud drops them from the list)  This means 100% interlinked chat modules between all muds, and one giant who list, with 'portals' that link to each world (mud).  Its quite the large undertaking, but I feel it is well worth it.  Think, advanced futuristic mud meets medieval mud, via portals.   All share the same capabilities, but completely new quests, monsters, equipment, and even skills. (cool eh?)

As for sandstorm, it is retired, has been for years.  the links on the different sites should of vanished/been updated to combatmud ages ago, but even with that said, I do plan on resurrecting sandstorm someday, when I have the time to bring back the legend.  I miss the days of having 80 players online, (thats not including the 30 staff)  All at once, those were good times.  And someday, I'll make that happen again.  Mudding is in my core, but it doesn't pay the bills, so I'm going to focus on my 3D project in the meantime :P

Well, this is just a small update for the few who actually read this website.

I am currently in the business of redesigning the entire game engine.  The Ogre 1.7 change gave me a whole new perspective on the game's overall capabilities.  On top of that, I've decided to embed Lua into the engine now as its background script interface, and I've also ditched the level editor in favor of using Blender to build and export levels.

Example of capabilities are as follows.

You build a level (graphically beautiful) and in said map, you have, lets say, 10 rotating gears, that need to be activated by a series of switches, all of this, just to turn a simple door to move forward (because you know when your running from zombies, its important to have revolving doors stop you)  In anycase, so now, you build the level, export it, and load it into the game itself.  Now heres the fun, you can enter into our developer console, and script out the above.

Ie, via simple Lua scripts, you can make the level as interactive, or not as you want.  All it takes is you incrementing the amount of switches hit by 1 till 10, and then on the 10th one, give just 1 of those gears a physics value (to make it turn) and because all the cogs mesh together, it'll cause the door to turn :)

The beautiful part of it is, if a script fails, the application doesn't.  So building levels/maps/missions/quests, whatever you wanna call it, is stable, despite bad programming in the script language.

Its fun. but still in its baby stages.  In a week or two, I'll have the physics interaction completed, and a nice new dummy video will be made to show it all off.

Anyways, thats my update.

Well, for those that know, the unnamed zombie project is using Ogre3d, 1.6.5, however, today, I began the vast change of upgrading to Ogre3d 1.7.0 from the trunk release.  This is a huge change to the entire system, as CEGUI isn't part of Ogre3d anymore, I'll have to compile yet another middleware dependancy into the mix.  Not really a big issue, but its just one more task to add to the overwhelming list.

In anycase, with the upgrade to Ogre3d 1.7.0, I will be able to completely replace the current terrain system and replace it with a much better one, the Ogre1.7 terrain system infact.

It by nature is better then our existing one, not to mention it pages properly, which will be a *HUGE* save on memory allocations down the road.

Other changes that are coming with my next update, (it will have a nice new video as well).  I am replacing the current sky system with that of SkyX, its from the creators of Hydrax, which is the water engine we are using, they work with each other, which obviously, our current system doesn't work well with the water.  So thats a change to enjoy/expect in the next week or two.

Also, I'll be adding some perlin noise additions to terrain generation, so the level editor can literally create beautiful terrain, raised/lowered properly, for hundreds of thousands of KM's (the program's sizing system for terrain management)  What this means is in the long-run, instead of dynamically creating everything ourselves, we can just tell the noise generator to do it, and it can create a seemless world, which interacts with our water module to create oceans, lakes, streams, the works, just by how it will automatically size things.  Then all we have to do, is texture-splat the terrain the way we want it to look, and raise/lower sections that we want.  This creates a realistic view on the world.  For those who are still confused, I recommend you google 'Perlin Noise Generation' to find out what I am talking about.

Other additions/changes to come is the playtest mode, (which should be in the next video) where you will see the player interact with the environment, enjoy the physics, pickup objects/drop them, push things around, and of course, just plainly wander.

Also, A whole game layout has been devised, and can be expected to be talked about soon, but for now, its my little secret.  But needless to say, the way the gameplay is going to interact in openworld and closed area's is definately going to be a defining factor in the whole way the game is interpreted by the masses.  Whether it is received in a positive or negative manner is yet to be seen, but I bet it'll be quite well received.

Anyways, this rant is gone on far too long.

I've been spending allot of time working lately on the game engine, and I began realizing something, I've spent all my time focusing on terrain, sure, I've tinkered with water and objects before, but nothing really serious.

So, without any more hesitation, I present the latest video from the editor.  I bet it'll turn a head or two.

Enjoy people.