Dage - New 3D Adventure Game Engine

[Ali]

This looks very promising!

Can Blender export to milkshape`s format? i barelly remember...

I don't believe so, and in the latest version it's 3DS importer is also broken I think.

[Dataflashsabot]

seconded, and the exporter doesent work either, not for me anyway. you could export to obj and convert that to 3ds with another program. as for smd, i think theres a script for that, google it

[Ali]

The 3DS importer and exporter work without problems in Blender 2.46.

I found that exporting an object as 3DS file from Blender would crash DAGE. Reimporting it into Blender and exporting it again solved the problem, except that I accidentally replaced the room with a big purple cat.

[Dataflashsabot]

2.48a here, doesent seem to work

[Rahakasvi]

I have no trouble exporting mesh from Blender 2.48a. However I'm exporting sample Monkey head, as I cannot use Blenders interface to create anything else . But if someone could give me a 3DS file that crashes Dage, please give it to me and I can see what crashes it.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

This looks like it has a lot of potential, but without an easy to use editor you're excluding about 70% of your user base, and that is coming from someone who has designed an engine before.  Assuming you have a purpose to this other than a school project or just for the hell of it, an editor will draw far more people to your project.

[Haddas]

How advanced can the characters, backgrounds and objects be in this engine, as in, is there a polygon limit? Would it be possible to make something like Grim Fandango in that engine?

[Rahakasvi]

Dage doesn't limit polygons by any mean. So you could theoretically make as high polygon count as possible. But most computers can't run the game then

If you mean having 3D characters over pre-rendered 3D scenes? Then answer is not officially. I can add to next release that you can have background image, but all the scrolling and hotspot detection etc, you have to code yourself. I'm keeping the development to the full 3D scenery.

Maybe you could use Wintermute instead?

[Ali]

I have no trouble exporting mesh from Blender 2.48a. However I'm exporting sample Monkey head, as I cannot use Blenders interface to create anything else . But if someone could give me a 3DS file that crashes Dage, please give it to me and I can see what crashes it.

I think it's probably Blender's fault rather than DAGE's, possibly because the mesh had multiple materials in Blender, which the Suzanne Monkey head wouldn't have. Reimporting the 3DS file split the separate materials into different meshes, and exporting that collection of meshes created a 3DS file which worked in DAGE.

I don't have a questioanble 3DS file at my fingertips, because I'm not on my home computer. I'll try bring one to your attention when I next get the opportunity.

2.48a here, doesent seem to work

Yeah, it's one of the ironies of Blender that as the software improves, some things get left behind. You should be able to download and run an older version (say 2.46) as a zip file to solve this trouble.

EDIT: I've tried to recreate the crash and haven't been able to. I can only assume it was not a problem with DAGE or Blender, and that I must have made a mistake putting the object in the script.

[Rahakasvi]

Oh well.. Mind asking how you find using Dage? What have you been creating for?

[Joseph DiPerla]

I'm using DAGE. I really like this thing!

Just so you all know, its up to 0.1.6 and supports md2 models now. I also read the forum just now. Apparently you can also create more than one room!

[Eggie]

Here's how it looks for me - http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/EggHeadCheesyBird/dage.jpg
It's not all bad, though. the music played fine.

I hate this computer...

[Rahakasvi]

Eggie, what computer hardwarer are you using? Have you upgraded your video card drivers to the latest?

[Gilbert]

Why? Eggie, your computer is not as bad as mine!

(Well, it's nothing new. I had stated the reason for this in my last post in the last page. Dage worked fine with my home computer.)

[m0ds]

Looks like fun, I'd like to give it a try. You can download AGS and pretty much just make a game from scratch using apps on your pc, but I guess with this I should expect to have to download world building and 3D character making tools too. If so, what are the basic additional apps I will need to make something in dage? ahh vu?

[Joseph DiPerla]

You can use Blender to create the room file. You can use any md2 modeler or again, blender to create your smd and your own md2 files. In fact, there are so many MD2 models out there already made and that have the animations set. All you have to do is change the skin and your done. Just look at Transformers Quake.

[Joseph DiPerla]

OK. This engine has gone through major updates and I think it deserves some more attention than its getting. So I figured I would let you all see the release notes and see what has been added since the release of the engine, which is now at 0.2.6:

1.1:
Changes include:

    * OBJ file format support
    * Skybox
    * MouseUp events
    * Script can disable mouse events and shadows
    * Bugfixes
    * More things that can be customized

1.2:
Biggest change is Music & Sound support

Dage now uses Audiere sound library!

It can play Ogg Vorbis, MP3, FLAC, uncompressed WAV, AIFF, MOD, S3M, XM, and IT files.

1.3:
Changes include:

    * Keyboard binding
    * Helper functions for third person cameras
    * Again more customizable properties


1.4:
Changes include:

    * Room onUnload event
    * PNG support
    * Possibility to put Hudsprite to background (behind models)

1.5:
Changes include:

    * Various actor functions concerning MD2 model loading

1.6:
Changes include:

    * Helper functions to changing rooms easily
    * Added missing TSprite.Destroy

1.7:
Changes include:

    * Game resolution changes including..
    * Game.Width
    * Game.Height
    * Game.Fullscreen=1 to switch to fullscreen. (Debug hotkey F10)
    * Fixed bug with disabling shadows
    * Game.Close(); -- closes the game (debug hotkey ESC)
    * Helper functions for MD2 loading


1.8:
Changes include:

    * TMesh.ChangeMaterial(NewMaterialName : string, Meshobject_index: integer (default = 0), FaceGroupIndex: integer (default = 0))
          Note: Must be material in use when loading object. Otherwise Dage won't load it.cluding..
    * TMesh.CastShadows : boolean
          Set to 1 to cast mesh shadows
    * TMesh.ReceiveShadows : boolean
          Set to 1 to receive shadows on mesh
    * First Dage Tool: Icon xChanger. Little tool to help you change to boring icon to new, existing one!

1.9:
Changes include:

    * TMesh.ChangeMaterial bugfix. Now should work.
    * TMesh.ShowSubObject(ID:integer);
        - Shows Subobject of mesh.
    * TMesh.HideSubObject(ID:integer);
        - Hides Subobject of mesh.
    * TMesh.GetSubObjectID(name:string);
        - Gets the id of mesh subobject by name.


2.0:
Changes include:

    * Almost perfectly working Save and Load game function
    * Mouse can be customized more now
    * One can place TSprite object in HUD to make animations to HUD
    * Some annoying bug fixes


2.1:
Changes include:

    * User can now create up to 8 lights
    * Lights can be customized even more. Spotlight, annutation etc. see script reference
    * Fixed saving actor rotations and inventory saving bug

2.2:
Changes include:

    * Game.SetTimer(time:double; functionname:string)
    * Inventory helpers, see later on script reference
    * Actor.PointTo

2.3:
Changes include:

    * Inventory structure mainly changed

2.4:
Changes include:

    * TAnimation object
    * Game.MouseLook : boolean
    * Game.MouseLookInvert : boolean

2.5:
Changes include:

    * TAnimation rotation bugfix, previously did almost random rotations
    * TShader code changed, now supports textures

2.6:
Changes include:

    * Plugin manager (To edit games during runtime)
    * Main toolbar

Check it out. The more people show interest, the more he works on it.

[Brad Newsom]

Looks great. Definitely shows a lot of possibilities.

[Chicky]

This looks great, point and click! I'm working on a low poly character model at the moment, how many poly's would be the max for good performance within DAGE?

And how big can the environments be? Is there are script for changing rooms?

[Rahakasvi]

Hi.

Demo project features two characters both having around 800 polygons, and a room model that features around 2000 polygons (but i have tested 10 000 polygons and no speed issues). Textures are the thing that affects the performance, if you keep textures optimal, no larger than 512x512, you shouldn't have to worry too much about polygon counts.

Changing room is easy. See Tutorial 4 for example how to make a extremely simple two room game.

You can post questions to Dage Forum, and read more information about Dage on Dage Documentation

Pauli,
Developer of Dage