How would you feel about 3D Adventure engine??? PRODUCTION STARTED-JOIN IN!!!

[Joseph DiPerla]

EDIT: PRODUCTION HAS STARTED ON THIS. PLEASE SEE THE 11TH REPLY IN THIS THREAD TO KNOW WHERE WE ARE AT AND HOW TO PARTICIPATE. THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP.


Would anyone use it at all? The reason I am asking is because I have been toying around with VB6.0 and DirectX graphics. I barely ever bothered before, but recently, I have.

I started out using third party libraries such as revolution3d, nemox 3d, irender3d, xsuite, etc... I was doing ok. Then I started out working directly from vb with DX8.1 and realized I am not doing so bad with this.

Lately I have been working on trying to come up with something for a game for AGS. So I set up 3d rooms in VB and import models into it, place lighting and fix coloring etc... Then I position the camera and I take a snapshot. I have been doing OK. But it seems that I can make a 3d room editor easily.

I can also make a character walk with some basic physics. I can do Object Selecting and some other stuff. It looks fairly well. And I have a script engine I Can create.


So basically, I compiled this into a library and figured I can easily create a 3d engine. In partlicular a point and click 3d engine.

My question would be, would anyone make use of it? Well, here are the down sides to it:

*I would charge $15 for it. But upgrading will be free for life. Recently with gas prices and bad economy, I need some income. And I think $15 for a 3d game engine is not so bad...
*Limited to importing md2 and md3 actor files. With time though I may be able to import others.
*Limited to importing .x .dxf .md2 .md3 .3ds models for objects.
*Scripting language will be VBS language.
*Rooms will be created in real time with Texture and color applying. OR you can import a BSP file.
*The engine will be available for Windows only. Unless I learn how to do what I do in VB with Real Basic. Then that changes.
*I Will be doing this by myself, so engine progress will not be constant.
*I might use DX 8.1 as a graphics library, unless I use a 3rd party library like Revolution3d which uses DX 9. If I use DX8.1, not sure if it will work on Vista.

So my question is, would anyone actually buy this for $15? What if it were free then, would you still use it? Let me know. Your opinions will either let me do it or not.

[DoorKnobHandle]

I'm actually working on a plug-in for AGS 3.0 that will directly use the new Direct3D 9 graphics driver to render 3d graphics. This would allow normal Direct3D 9 "graphics" in AGS (D3D 9 is used by tons of today's 3d-games).

Put short, I'm putting you out of business here...


[now if my GeForce 4 would only support PS1.4... I'm gonna go and buy a new card asap]

[Joseph DiPerla]

LOL. Then maybe I will just make my game engine free. If thats the case though, would you mind actually allowing the DLL to be used as a reference object in VB6.0 (Without API calls)

[miguel]

Hi Joseph D.,
I guess you would not expect someone like me to answer your post.
I admire your knowledge and normally have a look at your posts because I find them interesting.
I know that if AGS would cost 15â,¬ I would buy it.
So, there is no reason for not buying your Editor, IF, it's as good as AGS.
I guess anyone  interested would first download games made with your editor, check comments, see how easy it could become  making a game with it.
It's like everything else, if it's good people want it!
Apart from the classic Lucas games and AGS games, Gabriel Knight 3 is my favorite game and if I had the chance to attempt to make something similar (or at least try!) I would!
Else, I can always get dkh FREE one!

[riseryn]

I'm actually working on a plug-in for AGS 3.0 that will directly use the new Direct3D 9 graphics driver to render 3d graphics

Allelujah

im dreaming for such a fonctional plugin for months.

In how many time do you think it will be available?

Im currently working on a new game and i can delayed it some time if it comes out  in a few weeks

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Curious bit of information, dkh. At the risk of hi-jacking this thread, I have to ask - is it supposed to complement or replace the existing AGS3d plugin? Or do they bear no relation? Or was that plugin an inspiration?

[DoorKnobHandle]

I'm actually working on a plug-in for AGS 3.0 that will directly use the new Direct3D 9 graphics driver to render 3d graphics

In how many time do you think it will be available?

Since I can not do much work (except D3D tests without the AGS part) because AGS requires Pixel Shader model 1.4 or higher, I can't really tell when it's going to be finished. Won't be all that quick though. In addition, I'm much better with OpenGL than Direct3D, so that might be another obstacle to overcome. I wouldn't exactly count on it coming out in "the next weeks".

is it supposed to complement or replace the existing AGS3d plugin? Or do they bear no relation? Or was that plugin an inspiration?

Hehe, well, in fact, I was the one who actually wrote the first bunch of versions of the AGS3D plugin. Then I gave the source-code to Steve McCrea who had a lot more time and knowledge about the mathematical stuff at the time. You could say I'm working on version 2.0 (although it's not yet decided whether or not I'll be able to release it as AGS3D 2.0 or give it an entirely new name). They bear relation because they're both 3D plugins, but things will be a tad bit different. When you use it, it'll allow you to create new 3d-objects such as levels (from files, possibly bsp-files as they were used in half-life 1 and 2 etc.) and charactors/actors/items (.mdl, .obj, .x or whatever) and set up cameras etc. by calling simple functions. The main difference is going to be speed though (and with more speed comes more ability to render better looking scenes with more polygons) since I'm using D3D directly which is nowhere near possible at the time the original AGS3D plugin+module was written. If everything works out, it should yield amazing speed-increases depending on the user's graphic card. With todays techniques (if D3D is running normally) it should handle 100k polys per scene, possibly more. That gives you enough space for very good looking, round backgrounds and still greatly detailed character-models.

[Radiant]

I would be interested in checking it out, but because there are several 3-d libraries available for free on the web, I would not be willing to pay for it.

[Stupot]

If I wanted to make a 3D adventure game I'd probably prefer to look at something that was especially designed with adventure gaming in mind... but on the other hand there are numerous general 3D engines out there, such as DarkBasic, which are versatile and could easily be used (and have been used) to make adventure games.

[Joseph DiPerla]

Well thats the thing..  The engine would be specific to Adventure gaming.

I am thinking of now using Revolution3d as it has DX9 support and from what I understand, it can be ported to other OS's if need be. So I might use that.

You know what, I am also going to make the engine free. I will only ask that a copy of any commercial game goes to me as a reward and I would leave a donation system up.

I will start programming my engine, I will also make it open source so that we can all add improvements and will post here for the first few builds until we actually have something useful and then it will be hosted on my own site.

What do you guys think?

[FSi++]

Well thats the thing..  The engine would be specific to Adventure gaming.

I am thinking of now using Revolution3d as it has DX9 support and from what I understand, it can be ported to other OS's if need be. So I might use that.

You know what, I am also going to make the engine free. I will only ask that a copy of any commercial game goes to me as a reward and I would leave a donation system up.

I will start programming my engine, I will also make it open source so that we can all add improvements and will post here for the first few builds until we actually have something useful and then it will be hosted on my own site.

What do you guys think?

I think DO IT!

[Joseph DiPerla]

Ok. So then let me start this project. First off let me explain a few details about the engine. Number one, I dont have a name for it. I was thinking of calling it one of the following names as in dedication to Chris and this community for the wonderful work done on AGS and its games:

1) 3D AGS
2) CJ3D
3) AGSI (Adventure Game Studio Inspired
4) Open to suggestions...

Secondly, to program both the IDE and the Engine, I will be using Visual Basic 6.0. For the scripting, I will be using VBA script engine as its a language I understand and is easier to implement.

For the script editor, I will be using some code I found on Planetsourcecode.com that will perform this function for us with Syntax Highlighting.

The 3D graphics engine that I will be using is Revolution3d.net as it does provide DX9 support and I am just not in the mood to go around and try to learn C++ (I know a little bit of it, but not enough) to program a DirectX 9 wrapper for Visual Basic 6.0.

Periodically I will be releasing the editor and runtime engine. I will list the new features and write a manual as I release these editions. As I mentioned above, the whole engine and editor will be open source. The engine will ONLY run on Windows Operating Systems that support VB6.0 and DirectX 9.

So, before we begin, I would like to state that the first release will be version 0.01 Alpha. The engine run-time will basically be able to load the resources and display them. The only thing I want the first beta version to do is allow the display of a room. The placement of the camera and the lighting, loading the character and allowing the character to move around the room. The editor will be able to compile to resources into its own file format for the engine to run.

Now, I want to build features side by side with the editor and the engine. And just so you know, as I am writing this engine, I will include a tutorial so we know where I began and I will also comment the source code. You should all have no problem being able to edit and add to the code.

So I want to discuss the editor first and foremost. The editor will be developed through an MDI form in which new forms will open up withing it. I can make sure the forms load up similarly to the Visual Studio IDE style.

We will have a room editor. A Character editor. A resource editor. An entity editor. A script editor. What else should be included? How do you think I should go about the editor design for its beginning stages?

[Radiant]

Ok. So then let me start this project. First off let me explain a few details about the engine. Number one, I dont have a name for it. I was thinking of calling it one of the following names as in dedication to Chris and this community for the wonderful work done on AGS and its games:

I would call it something funky multi-dimensional, like Tesseract.

[m0ds]

JD3D
or, 3DJD!
or 3D Simpsons Engine

[Joseph DiPerla]

Hmmm. Tesseract... I like it. Ok, we will call it Tesseract.

M0ds! Your a genius! but Radiant has surpassed your intellectual level of creativity...
...
...
...

Did that even make sense? God I got a head ache... I will post a preliminary screenshot of the IDE design soon, so let me know what you think and how to add to it. Any other suggestions or idea's?

[TwinMoon]

While tesseract is a kick-ass word, it's a 4D cube, so it doesn't make sense to me.

What about something like: AdventureCube, AdventureDepth or AdventureSpace.

[Joseph DiPerla]

Well, I did some research and Tesseract is already taken for an engine and a game. I was thinking of maybe calling it one of these maybe:

1) TAGE (Three-d Adventure Game Engine)
2) TAGS (Three-d Adventure Game Studio)

[Ponch]

Well, I vote for TAGS. Though of course, it's not too late to call it AGS II: Adventure Boogaloo. Or possibly AGS EXTREME!!!1!!. Or Adventure Game Hypercube 3.03D

Just my two cents.

- Ponch

[m0ds]

I don't think it's a good idea to use "AGS" in the title, no matter how much of a homage it is to CJ's engine. Call it something unique & different. Is it even made yet? Have you even started making it? You're already calling it the 3D version of AGS but there's no proof that its at all comparable to AGS. AGS is also a free product, so I don't see the sense in mimicing the name if you intend to charge for it.

[SSH]

I am struck Wintermute and AGAST at all these engine name suggestions that have been dredged from the SLUDGE of your collective minds. Not one lad or Lassie among you has made an ADePT suggestion. We need some more SAGE suggestions to avoid a SCIS-m... a real Visionaire!