| 6 | | Wildfire Games (WFG) is a group of hobbyist game developers in the process of producing a freeware real-time strategy (RTS) game. The name of this project is 0 A.D. (``zero ey-dee"). In short, it is a historically-based war/economy game that allows players to relive or rewrite the history of western civilizations, focusing on the years between 500 B.C. and 500 A.D. The project is highly ambitious, involving state-of-the-art 3D graphics, detailed artwork, sound, and a flexible and powerful custom-built game engine. |
| 7 | | |
| 8 | | That game engine is called Pyrogenesis and it is specifically designed for flexibility and ease of modification. Game logic, artwork, and data can easily be changed through data files. The engine itself is modual in design to provide maximal flexibility while still remaining efficient. Pyrogenesis therefore provides a solid platform on which to work on individual features of RTS games, and can be used to create a completely different game from 0 A.D.'s design. Wildfire Games is actually developing a second project in parallel based on the Pyrogenesis engine - a Lord of the Rings-based game called The Last Alliance. |
| 9 | | |
| 10 | | 0 A.D. has been in development for five years. The team members are largely students and game development hobbyists. The game has always been intended to be released as freeware and available to all. None of the participants have been or will be compensated financially for the contributions they have made. The reward for those that have contributed is as varied as: the ever elusive experience gained by working on a large scale group projects, to simply the pleasure of creating an RTS game they have always wanted to play. |
| 11 | | |
| 12 | | Now here is what may interest you. Wildfire Games is now creating a new branch of development. As many of our members are students, we are aware that working on interesting problems in an academic setting is often difficult due to lack of access to a complete real-world system. Therefore, Wildfire Games would like to offer the source code of 0 A.D. to universities under an open-source license, as a means of enabling coursework, theses and research based on problems in game development. What Wildfire Games gains in return is contributions of students and researchers that are experts in their fields. |
| | 6 | 0 A.D. has been in development since 2001. The team members are largely students and game development hobbyists. The game has always been intended to be released as freeware and available to all. None of the participants have been or will be compensated financially for the contributions they have made. The reward for those that have contributed is as varied as: the ever elusive experience gained by working on a large scale group projects, to simply the pleasure of creating an RTS game they have always wanted to play. |
| 20 | | TECHNICAL |
| 21 | | - Engine Language: C++ |
| 22 | | - Scripting Language: Javascript |
| 23 | | - Data files: XML (with transparent and automatic conversion to binary files) |
| 24 | | - Rendering: OpenGL with shaders |
| 25 | | - Libraries used: |
| 26 | | OpenAL, OpenGL, Boost, Crypto++, !CxxTest, DevIL, SDL, |
| 27 | | !SpiderMonkey, Vorbis, wxWidgets, Xerces |
| 28 | | - Operating Systems: |
| 29 | | * Windows 2000, XP, 2003, XP64, Vista |
| 30 | | * Linux |
| 31 | | * MacOSX |
| 32 | | - System Requirements: |
| 33 | | 1 GHz CPU, modern graphics card (GeForce 3 at minimum), 512 MB RAM |
| 34 | | - Tools used: |
| 35 | | - Visual Studio, g++, !CppDoc, COLLADA |
| 36 | | - Debuging and Profiling tools included |
| | 13 | === TECHNICAL === |
| | 14 | * Engine Language: C++ |
| | 15 | * Scripting Language: Javascript |
| | 16 | * Data files: XML (with transparent and automatic conversion to binary files) |
| | 17 | * Rendering: OpenGL with shaders |
| | 18 | * Libraries used: OpenAL, OpenGL, Boost, Crypto++, !CxxTest, DevIL, SDL, !SpiderMonkey, Vorbis, wxWidgets, Xerces |
| | 19 | * Operating Systems: |
| | 20 | * Windows 2000, XP, 2003, XP64, Vista |
| | 21 | * Linux |
| | 22 | * MacOSX |
| | 23 | * System Requirements: 1 GHz CPU, modern graphics card (GeForce 3 at minimum), 512 MB RAM |
| | 24 | * Tools used: Visual Studio, g++, !CppDoc, COLLADA, Debuging and Profiling tools included |
| 38 | | GRAPHICS |
| 39 | | - OpenGL-based rendering engine with shaders |
| 40 | | - Hierarchal skeletal animation and deformation system based on COLLADA |
| 41 | | - Fancy animated water with refraction, reflection |
| 42 | | - Realistic Shadows |
| 43 | | - Particle effects |
| 44 | | - Environmental lighting effects (time of day, sunset) |
| 45 | | - Flexible terrain renderer that uses alpha maps to seamlessly blend terrain |
| 46 | | - Script based Graphical User Interface |
| | 26 | === GRAPHICS === |
| | 27 | * OpenGL-based rendering engine with shaders |
| | 28 | * Hierarchal skeletal animation and deformation system based on COLLADA |
| | 29 | * Fancy animated water with refraction, reflection |
| | 30 | * Realistic Shadows |
| | 31 | * Particle effects |
| | 32 | * Environmental lighting effects (time of day, sunset) |
| | 33 | * Flexible terrain renderer that uses alpha maps to seamlessly blend terrain |
| | 34 | * Script based Graphical User Interface |
| 57 | | LEVEL EDITOR |
| 58 | | - Includes a level editor (Atlas) integrated with the Pyrogenesis engine. |
| 59 | | - The editor uses the same rendering engine as the game itself. |
| 60 | | - Deform terrain in real-time and sculpt intricate landscapes quickly and intuitively. |
| 61 | | - Create a level and try it out in the editor immediately. |
| 62 | | - Includes an Actor Editor that has a GUI interface to assist in defining the entities visually in the game. |
| 63 | | - Includes a Random Map Generator and custom scripting languge |
| 64 | | - A sound tool allows defining sound properties. |
| | 45 | === LEVEL EDITOR === |
| | 46 | * Includes a level editor (Atlas) integrated with the Pyrogenesis engine. |
| | 47 | * The editor uses the same rendering engine as the game itself. |
| | 48 | * Deform terrain in real-time and sculpt intricate landscapes quickly and intuitively. |
| | 49 | * Create a level and try it out in the editor immediately. |
| | 50 | * Includes an Actor Editor that has a GUI interface to assist in defining the entities visually in the game. |
| | 51 | * Includes a Random Map Generator and custom scripting languge |
| | 52 | * A sound tool allows defining sound properties. |
| 66 | | MODS |
| 67 | | - Aspects of the game can be tweaked with tools or by modifying XML and Javascript files to totally change the game. |
| 68 | | - Easily modify content (units, buildings, the tech tree, ..) without touching any C++ code. |
| 69 | | - Console command panel |
| 70 | | - The game code is separate from the core engine. |
| 71 | | - Uses open, standard file formats: COLLADA 3D assets, Zip archives |
| | 54 | === MODS === |
| | 55 | * Aspects of the game can be tweaked with tools or by modifying XML and Javascript files to totally change the game. |
| | 56 | * Easily modify content (units, buildings, the tech tree, ..) without touching any C++ code. |
| | 57 | * Console command panel |
| | 58 | * The game code is separate from the core engine. |
| | 59 | * Uses open, standard file formats: COLLADA 3D assets, Zip archives |
| 80 | | Why should you as a student or a professor be interested in using Pyrogenesis? |
| 81 | | |
| 82 | | - The game itself is visually attractive as delivered. Instead of the all too frequent ``programmer's art", you have quality artwork at your fingertips that allows showing your project in its best light. |
| 83 | | - WFG has taken great pains to emphasize history through out development stressing authenticity and accuracy; always remembering the educational opportunity we have in games. |
| 84 | | - The software is portable (running on Linux, Windows, and MacOSX). |
| 85 | | - The code and design are well documented (comments, !CppDoc documentation, Wiki, some full technical reports, reams of forum posts with rationale and discussion). |
| 86 | | - We are willing to go open source. |
| 87 | | - The project is made up of gamers / people looking to get into the industry; a good deal of experience in this area has been gained and can be passed on. |
| 88 | | - One of our goals is that this project will gain some traction with the public as development progresses. You as a student or a education program would be able to point to a well recognized development project that has a tangable release of software. |
| 89 | | - Templates to assist in creation of art assets (textures, meshes) will be provided. |
| 90 | | - Various tutorials and guides will be available for ease of iniation. |
| 91 | | |
| 92 | | Why would we as a game development project be interested in offering our work to Academia? |
| 93 | | |
| 94 | | - Aid to help us reach the finish line to completion of the 0 A.D. development project. What Wildfire Games will do is provide an up to date list of tasks and jobs that required tasks to reach milestones in development. Suppose a student found one of those tasks to be a subject that would be interesting to complete course work and they completed that task, they would then under the GPL license release that contribution. Wildfire Games would then review the code and if it meets the requirements then incoorperate it into the official build of the game. Of course, students are free to do a project radically different than the Wildfire Games suggests. We would just not be able to offer exposure by including it in the official game release. |
| 95 | | - Students are very creative and origional with a fresh perspective, uncluttered by by the "this is the way we do it and have always done it" mentality one may find in the work environments. |
| 96 | | - Assist students and professors by providing an affordable (free) game engine for coursework. Free is something we have always stressed throughout development. |
| 97 | | - <add more> |
| | 69 | * The game itself is visually attractive as delivered. Instead of the all too frequent "programmer's art", you have quality artwork at your fingertips that allows showing your project in its best light. |
| | 70 | * WFG has taken great pains to emphasize history through out development stressing authenticity and accuracy; always remembering the educational opportunity we have in games. |
| | 71 | * The software is portable (running on Linux, Windows, and MacOSX). |
| | 72 | * The code and design are well documented (comments, !CppDoc documentation, Wiki, some full technical reports, reams of forum posts with rationale and discussion). |
| | 73 | * The project is made up of gamers / people looking to get into the industry; a good deal of experience in this area has been gained and can be passed on. |
| | 74 | * One of our goals is that this project will gain some traction with the public as development progresses. You as a contributor would be able to point to a well recognized development project that has a tangable release of software. |
| | 75 | * Templates to assist in creation of art assets (textures, meshes) will be provided. |
| | 76 | * Various tutorials and guides will be available for ease of initiation. |
| 114 | | |
| 115 | | When can this get started? |
| 116 | | We need to make arrangements for efficiently distributing the data files and would like to finish the second revision of the network code. However, we are in principle available for collaborative work starting now. |
| 117 | | |
| 118 | | What is WFG's angle? |
| 119 | | Two of our programmers have had the pleasure of being able to work on parts of 0 A.D. within the scope of a course project. This yielded attractive results because the new work could be shown in the context of a full game and also advanced the project's development. Having seen the success of this approach, we would like to extend the same chance to interested students and hopefully integrate new developments into the public version of the game. |
| 120 | | |
| 121 | | What is to stop us from taking the game and selling it? |
| 122 | | We have already been offered <blah blah> and refused <blah blah> |
| 123 | | |
| 124 | | }}} |
| | 94 | When can this get started? [http://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/GettingStarted Now!] |
