So how is developpement of Terra going?

Slowly, but I'm making progress. I changed the structure a bit to "decouple" renderer from the actual engine. Model rendering is basically done and now I'm working on scene graph organization (spatial subdivision, it's abstraction and such). Next is GUI and input subsystem

As for working with the Terra Reconstructed thing...

I don't have any programs that can mess with, import, export, or anythings else with .X files. I also don'r know anything about C++, open GL, or Lua.

How easy is it work with any of those three?

Impossible. You can't do it. It's a feat beyond your capabilities. Give up.

I don't know exactly how to work it but this road starts with a speed bump so I know it's hardest at first. Other than that I don't know how to start from the beggining with a project. I wish there were better turorials and clear software that could explain this process. Strangely enough I havn't been able to find too many sites that give a simple and complete guide to using C++ programing and what you need to run a full application properly. If the members of the project wants more people to get involved this should be made more available, unless it isn't at all.

If you need a hand just say so.

Who? Me, or JanDeis?



AFAIK Blender can export models into .X files (it's one of those python export plugins). Lua documentation can be found on it's official site - http://www.lua.org/. And you don' have to know a thing about C++, or OpenGL. It's being used only for the engine core, not for the rest of the game.

Lua is quite minimalistic, but very powerful and flexible. Like other scripting languages it has garbace collection and automated memory management, dynamic types and so on.

You can go with Blender if you wish, but it won't be any easier. Terra doesn't have nearly as much documentation as Blender, nor has that much features (yet), but you can relay you wishes/question directly to it's creator (me ). Besides there are certain things Blender doesn't do for you (and which Terra or I will ), like networking or AI and you'd have to make those from scratch, which might a problem for some people without deeper knowledge. And if something is hard to make it just work, it's even harder to make it work properly (no exploits, no cheating in multiplayer etc.)



Ok, I will I just have to finish this scene graph first...

Edit:


There might not be many tutorials on this, but there are lots of books covering this topic and this is also the stuff they teach at university However I can tell you that projects stars with lot of thinking (this phase is called analysis). You take a paper and a pencil and write down all the things you want the program to do. Then you try organize things a bit and think about possible pitfalls and implementations. In the end you might even find out that you've wasted several notepads and pencils

And this is also what I'd like you to do. Leave the engine specific questions for later and instead focus on the actual game itself. Not just settings and factions, but on all the mechanics (resource management for example, even differences between multiplayer and singleplayer), then on the GUI, units and so on. Once you really know what (and have a rough idea how), then you can start thinking about implementation. You might consult Terra's design document for inspiration

Hmm, I can't find that AFAIK thing. Could you point me in the right direction?

Also, as of right now, I can't work with anything but basic 3D modelling in a limited variety of file formats. Is there anything I can do to fill the gap while I try to learn how to use Lua?

3d Exploration is a brilliant program for 3d file conversion.

Chmm, it should be in the export menu among with the other formats (File->Export->DirectX) Python scripts are easily recognizable in Blender because they have green snake icon with them. If you don't see these green pythons anywhere then perhaps you don't have the plugins installed (although it should be by default by most distributions).

And few tips about making models for computer games: focus on low-poly models and texturing. If you want to have hundreds of ships firing at each other at the same time on the battlefield, it's obvious that every extra polygon rendered slows the framerate down a bit. So try to eliminate coplanar or invisible polygons (polygons that got somehow inside the model), the tiniest details (details that won't be visible most of the time, or that can be emulated by good texturing - like bumps on the ship hull) and focus on the most visible parts of the ships. There are many ways to do this (you can make a big detailed model using curves and boolean operations at first and then simplify it or you can make it like a sculpture - start from a cube and then shape it). Just look at any strategy game to see what I mean

You can also check out http://www.xwaupgrade.com/. They have some nice tutorials on texturing starships.

Also if you have any questions just ask and I'll try to help you out.

Aren't there any useable game-makers anymore?

Rebellion is basicly a card-game, maybe it can be reconstructed in such a software with adding some 3d design.

There are some game SDK's (Clanlib, Allegro?) but they're mainly 2D biased (if that's what you had in mind).

But why not to make it fully 3D? If you don't want the third dimension, you can always ignore it and you're nevel limited by the fact that there's no such thing as a third dimension.

I say let's show 'em what we can do!

Lol!!!!!!

Just to clarify for ya JanDeis, AFAIK means As Far As I Know. Blender is just "Blender" (not AFAIK Blender), and you should be able to easily find it using google or live.com

To back up Moribundus, I am also available if anybody has questions. I don't do lua/C++, but I do have extensive knowledge regarding the direct x/Microsoft/C#/XNA side of game development.

I don't hang around these forums as much anymore, but if you shoot me a PM, drop me a line via my website, or post on this thread I should get back to ya

Oh, oops. Ok.

And I did find the .X export/import in Blender, so I can do modeling for Terra. Just tell me what you need, and I will do it. I am a beginner, so I won't be able to do anything very complicated until I get better at using Blender.

I tried blender once awhile ago and hated it.
I bought a copy of gamespace, which turned out to be ok, but not really great.

Recently I've been working with this:
http://www.softimage.com/products/modtool/
It looks pretty nice. It says that its for hl2 and xna, but it supports other formats as well..

Ohh.

Do you need Half Life 2 to use that? Or can you make stand-alone .exe files that only need xna (XNA right)