Changes between Version 2 and Version 3 of WfgAcademiaInto
- Timestamp:
- May 14, 2007, 2:50:20 AM (17 years ago)
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WfgAcademiaInto
v2 v3 3 3 == Introduction == 4 4 5 Wildfire Games (WFG) is in the process of developing a freeware game. The name of this project is 0 A.D. (``zero ey-dee"), a historically based Real Time Strategy (RTS) game focusing on the years 500 B.C. to 0 A.D. In short, it is a war/economy strategy game that allows you to recreate or rewrite the ancient history of western civilizations.5 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 game engine supporting modern game features. 6 6 7 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, and none of the participants have or will be compensated financially for the contributions they have made. The reward for us is the experience we have gained and the pleasure of creating a game RTS enthusiasts like us have been waiting for.7 Our built-from-scratch game engine, called Pyrogenesis, is specifically designed for flexibility and ease of modification. Game logic, art work and data can easily be changed through data files. The engine itself is designed to provide maximal flexibility while while 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. Wildfire Games is actually developing a second project based on the Pyrogenesis engine in parallel - a Lord of the Rings-based game called The Last Alliance. 8 8 9 0 A.D. is built on WFG's Pyrogenesis game engine. With its modular design and ease of modification, the game itself could be transformed into something entirely different than the development that WFG has done so far. Whatever you can imagine: pirates, ninjas, and space aliens are always a popular choice. WFG actually has another development project called The Last Alliance which is a Lord of the Rings-based modification of Pyrogenesis that is a RTS/RPG hybrid.9 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, and none of the participants have been or will be compensated financially for the contributions they have made. The reward for us is the experience we have gained and the pleasure of creating a game RTS enthusiasts like us have been waiting for. 10 10 11 Wildfire Games is now creating a new branch of development. As students ourselves we are aware that working on interesting projects requires laying untold amounts of foundation code, which can be a daunting task. Therefore WFG would like to offer the source code of our game to professors and students of universities all around the globe as a means of enabling projects for computer labs, coursework, projects, or theses.11 Wildfire Games is now creating a new branch of development. As students ourselves, 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. In return, we would benefit from the contributions of students and researchers that are experts in their fields. 12 12 13 13 == Pyrogenesis Features == 14 14 15 The Pyrogenesis Engine was designed from the ground up by WFG programmers. Its open-ended architecture can accomodate RTS and RPGgame types.15 The Pyrogenesis Engine was built from the ground up by WFG programmers. Its open-ended architecture can accommodate real-time strategy (RTS) and third-person role-playing game (RPG) game types. 16 16 17 17 A brief feature list of the Pyrogenesis Engine follows: 18 18 19 SUPPORT20 - Access to extensive documenation21 - Well-commented code22 - WFG developers just an email away23 24 19 TECHNICAL 25 - Language: C++20 - Engine Language: C++ 26 21 - Scripting Language: Javascript 27 22 - Data files: XML (with transparent and automatic conversion to binary files) … … 35 30 * MacOSX (in progress) 36 31 - System Requirements: 37 1 GHz CPU, modern graphics card (GF3 at minimum), 512 MB RAM 32 1 GHz CPU, modern graphics card (GeForce 3 at minimum), 512 MB RAM 33 - Tools used: 34 - Visual Studio, g++, !CppDoc, COLLADA 35 36 GRAPHICS 37 - OpenGL based rendering engine with shaders 38 - Hierarchal skeletal animation and deformation system based on COLLADA 39 - Fancy animated water with refraction, reflection 40 - Realistic Shadows 41 - Particle effects 42 - Environmental lighting effects (time of day, sunset) 43 - Flexible terrain renderer that uses alpha maps to seamlessly blend terrain 44 45 AI 46 - A* pathfinding 47 - Designed to support "RTS style" AI (workers, NPCs) 48 49 MULTIPLAYER NETWORKING 50 - Peer to peer, no central server 51 - Lockstep simulation 52 (planned: reliable UDP for firewall punchthrough, detection of cheating/OOS) 53 54 LEVEL EDITOR 55 - Includes a level editor (Atlas) integrated with the Pyrogenesis engine. 56 - The editor uses the same rendering engine as the game itself. 57 - Deform terrain in real-time and sculpt intricate landscapes quickly and intuitively. 58 - Create a level and try it out in the editor immediately. 59 - Includes an Actor Editor that has a GUI interface to assist in defining the entities visually in the game. 60 - Includes a Random Map Generator and custom scripting languge 61 - A sound tool allows defining sound properties. 38 62 39 63 MODS … … 44 68 - Uses open, standard file formats: COLLADA 3D assets, Zip archives 45 69 46 EDITOR 47 — Includes a level editor (Atlas) integrated with the Pyrogenesis engine. 48 — The editor uses the same rendering engine as the game itself. 49 — Deform terrain in real-time and sculpt intricate landscapes quickly and intuitively. 50 — Create a level and try it out in the editor immediately. 51 - Includes an Actor Editor that has a GUI interface to assist in defining the entities visually in the game. 52 - Includes a Random Map Generator and custom scripting languge 53 - A sound tool allows defining sound properties. 54 55 NETWORK 56 - Peer to peer, no central server 57 - Lockstep simulation 58 (planned: reliable UDP for firewall punchthrough, detection of cheating/OOS) 59 60 GRAPHICS 61 — OpenGL based rendering engine with shaders 62 — Hierarchal skeletal animation and deformation system based on COLLADA 63 - Fancy animated water with refraction, reflection 64 - Realistic Shadows 65 — Particle effects 66 — Environmental lighting effects (time of day, sunset) 67 — Flexible terrain renderer that uses alpha maps to seamlessly blend terrain 68 69 AI 70 — A* pathfinding 71 — Designed to support "RTS style" AI (workers, NPCs) 72 73 TOOLS 74 - Visual Studio, Premake, autobuilder, !CppDoc 75 - COLLADA, DDS Plugins 76 70 SUPPORT 71 - Access to extensive documenation 72 - Well-commented code 73 - WFG developers just an email away 77 74 78 75 == Why? == … … 83 80 - 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 81 - The software is portable (works on Linux and Windows, MacOSX coming soon). 85 - The code and design are fairlywell documented (comments, !CppDoc documentation, Wiki,82 - The code and design are well documented (comments, !CppDoc documentation, Wiki, 86 83 some full technical reports, reams of forum posts with rationale and discussion). 87 84 - We willing to go open source.
