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Very cool idea. What kind of battle system are you planning to incorporate into it?

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Real time.

I want to make the game feel as free form as Oblivion (as in movement, go anywhere, anytime.) with the game play of Fable (run around, and kill enemies in real time in 3rd person.), if you know what I am talking about.

I am going to try and make this as much of a community based project as possible, but I am willing to do this whole thing on my own. I am not asking people to stop what they are doing to work on this, more over get people see that this could help newcomers in their decent into game making by a basic skeleton and pitch in a little bit of code here and there, fix a bug if they know what is wrong and such. I see this as me paying back to the community that helped me when I needed help, and fine tuning my programming a bit.

Progress on the second map:


No portals yet, and I will not upload till I get them to work, this is a SS in DBPro, after I came from the first map.

**Edit**
PORTALS WORK! And easy to implement (if you have ETXYZ). Just make the file, copy it to the folder, make a .dat file of the same name (must be exact, case sensitive) and the structure of it is this:
+ Code Snippet

1 : Number of portals.
500 : x scale.
50000 : y scale.
.1 : z scale.
1200 : x position.
-750 : y position.
2200 : z position.
1200 : x position to put the hero.
350 : z position to put the hero.
Second Map : Name of the destination minus the .etm.
***** : repeat x scale on till it matches number of portals. If there are more than 2, change the arrays dim portals(2, 8) as float : dim portalLocation$(2, 2) first dimension from 2 to how ever many you need.

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so pretty much you are making a game by yourself and having people help you and you also help them by making it open source? i like the idea...are you using DBpro?

i made a map for this but i am having some export troubles and it might be a while till fixed...here are some screens though.

http://img11.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=terrain1.png

i was thinking one side can be a zone entrance and the other two spots as exits to other zones...know what i mean?

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Pretty much. I am trying to get the basic mechanics in a game made so that a use can just make a basis with this game and be able to make a full game easily with a little bit of editing. The point of it is to get that person then to edit the code to make it unique, so they learn to program as they do it. Like a started kit.

If you export as a height map, I can put it in. If you have any custom textures you would like to put in it (I can add a stone one for the parts with stone easily), feel free to include them. Just make sure there is no copyright on them. I could use this as a town map by the looks of it..

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ok, try this... the terrain is in 3 parts as a .x format with a supertexture for each one though i have not tested it in DB...let me know how it goes.

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I do not see a download...

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ahahaha, i posted in a rush and later in the day i realized i forgot to upload it.

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Lol, no problem, I will work on it now.

As for now, gaze in the awesomeness of my modeling skills! *cough* I wish *cough*. Here is what I have been working on all day:


Whatcha think?

'Tis the hero!

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Looks nice lol! You might want to make the main sphere a little higher poly

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Hi Maindric,

Do you have a GUI planned? I've been developing one that uses FREE DLL's: IanM's Matrix1 Utils, Thomas Cheah's DBMXL, Barnski's LUA Scripting Plugins. I'm sure you could find these Plugins useful in your RPG. I'm also working to make the GUI portable for use in other projects.

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I have not yet.

I was not planning on working on GUI for a little while. I want to first get this model fixed up, animated and imported to the project. After that, I was gonna give him a sword, and start on the combat system. I was honestly planning on working on the gui, or a simple variation of one after that.

I will look up those plug ins, I already have IanM's, but I am unaware of a few of those, I will look them up now, thanks for letting my know about those.

As for your GUI, are you making those available to the community free? If so, I may consider using it, I just need to reach that stage first.

ANY GOOD MODELERS OUT THERE!?

If so, can you help me on the model? I am not that great at modeling (nor texturing), and if you wish, can you help me out with this model? Attached is a .rar with the .x file and .dds texture.

Yes, I realize it is high poly for the detail, and the hands look messy. That is why I need help, the hands are not that great, and animating them to hold a sword will not work out well...

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How inconsiderate of me to forget the links: DBXML, New Lua5.1 Plugin - Free Scripting Pack for DBPro!


These Plug-ins are extremely powerful and boost productivity 10 fold!

Short Answer: Yes.

Long Answer: At one time I desired to make my entire MMORPG Server and Client Open Source. However, use of Commercial Plugins and Network Securities placed heavy restrictions on that. So I'm making specific modules available that don't have any restrictions available. The GUI is one of those modules. I will not be advertising these modules publicly, but, only offering them for use in other open source projects.

If you anticipate the game engine having any type of modern day point n' click interface for Inventory, Character Creation, Gear Selection, Dialog, Game World Editors, than a GUI should be very high on the list of things to do.

GUIs are fun to create but extremely time consuming. Thus, I highly recommend you pick up a Free GUI already developed such as FREE Windows GUI DLL for DarkBASIC Pro.

MAUI is written in DBPro and its source can be easily modified and expanded upon. MAUI uses only the 3 Free Plug-in modules mentioned, however, by design requires XML Import/Export and scripted Behaviors, Transitions, Styles, and Themes. Its designed with `Game` Menus in mind with support for Animation and Game Keyboard/Mouse I/O.

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Thanks for the links TechLord. Once I get done with said objects (More customizable maps, combat, and changeable equipment.), I will get to work implementing your gui.

Downloading DLL's now.

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tried the terrain yet?

---

I have decided instead of converting it, to enable .x terrain importing, so I can just use the .x file directly. It should be up and running soon. Sorry it tis not in yet, it will be soon.

@TechLord

Can you please upload the 'Windows GUI DLL' for me? For some reason, I cannot get to the download page.. If you can, that would be great.

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About Hero.

Why even create Hero, when you can use one of the FREE FPSC Characters? Developing a decent Character Animation Management system is something I neglected to do in several past RPG failures. Using one of the FPSC Models will give you something with bones and animation to play with. You may be able to even find free sword swinging animations for it.

I'm weak on modelling too and I'm using free 3D, 2D, Audio for placeholders and anything else free I can put to use. Since my Modular Entity Construction Set (MECS) system assembles all game Entities from 3D Parts & Connectors within the Client Engine, I forced myself into a situation where I have to model custom parts. My solution, take free models/textures and dissect them.

I'm a lazy programmer and lazier artist. If you dont have to Model it, don't! Use every freely available asset you can find to move forward, stay motivated, get'r done.

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And if you have DarkMatter that can work to.

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I know, but there are some animations I cannot do with certain models, and there are almost no sword based animations.

I am going to try and work with two friends of mine (One is a highly skills artist, she drew the 'hero' in about 4 minutes, and the other is a game designing potentialist, but he is just to lazy to do anything. When I make him work on something, if he does not get immediate results, he stops, I am trying to get him away from that...), and I want do to some custom animations. I am going to try and get my artist friend to draw some key parts in the animations, and animate them based on that.

I am going to get some free models in there, I just want to try and get some advanced sword moves in here for more practice...

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Agreed. However, the FREE models I suggested have a working skeleton with all the needed joints for humanoid animation which is most common for RPGs.

Checkout http://mocap.cs.cmu.edu/search.php. It has a database of free humanoid mocap. It may require some format conversion and joint renaming to apply swordplay animations to the models, but its possibility.

Another possiblity is to procedurally animate the arm and sword movement in realtime. Systems have been proprosed before such as using the mouse to draw paths for arm/sword to follow. I have pondered a couple of ways to achieve this: 1) simply following the mouse; 2) point, click, lock target - moving arm/sword towards it; 3) Select from list of pre-generated paths. Heck, you could even add physics and pathfinding AI to it for some complexity and realism.

IMHO, if you intend to stick with this philosophy the engine doesn't require complex animation, but, require a system in place to support it. Of course you would have to create a complex animation to test it, hehe.

Just some ideas to ponder...

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What I mean by 'complex' animation, is if the 'hero' jumps, then attacks, have him spin and hit the ground attacking, have different attacks for different attacks on the ground, and so forth. Not really 'complex', but more like sequences.

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you are talking animations like this right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZIw3oCLjIM

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Maindric,

I started writing a portable MAUI Module and ran across a possible issue with object/asset ID management. In my server/client engines I use ID management system for everything that requires one. I use lots of IDs. I will swap out my ID Management System for yours to eliminate conflict.

My system is extremely simple: a stack for recycled IDs and global var for permanent IDs. Recycled IDs for objects deleted during runtime, and permenant IDs for objects that aren't deleted until the app is terminated. I dont recommend using a range of IDs for specified needs, because I ran into too many conflicts with using others code.

ID Management Stack Example
+ Code Snippet

#Constant MYAPP_OBJECT_MAX 16

Type MYAPP_Object
	`Purpose: Generic Object with properties in MYAPP
	Value$ As String
EndType

Dim MYAPP_Object(MYAPP_OBJECT_MAX) As MYAPP_Object

Dim MYAPP_ObjectIndex() As Integer `Index Manager

Function MYAPP_ObjectIndexPush(MYAPP_ObjectIndexValue)
	`Purpose: Push ID to Stack
	`Parameters: MYAPP_ObjectIndexValue
	`Return: True
	Add To Stack MYAPP_ObjectIndex()
	MYAPP_ObjectIndex() = MYAPP_ObjectIndexValue
EndFunction 1

Function MYAPP_ObjectIndexPop()
	`Purpose: Pops next available ID off Stack
	`Parameters: None
	`Return: MYAPP_ObjectIndexValue
	MYAPP_ObjectIndexValue = MYAPP_ObjectIndex()
	Remove From Stack MYAPP_ObjectIndex()
EndFunction MYAPP_ObjectIndexValue

Function MYAPP_ObjectStart()
	`Purpose: Sets up Object ID Mgr Stack; Called when Starting app 
	`Parameters: None
	`Return: None
	For MYAPP_ObjectIndexLoop = MYAPP_GIZMO_MAX To 1 Step -1
		MYAPP_ObjectIndexPush(MYAPP_ObjectIndexLoop)
	Next 0
EndFunction 0

Function MYAPP_ObjectStop()
	`Purpose: Destroys all objects; Called when terminating app
	`Parameters: None
	`Return: None
	`Delete All MYAPP_Objects
EndFunction 0

Function MYAPP_ObjectNew(MYAPP_ObjectDefaultArg1)
	`Purpose: Virtually Creates a new instance; Pops ID off ID Mgr Stack
	`Parameters: MYAPP_ObjectDefaultArg1
	`Return: MYAPP_Object ID
	this = MYAPP_ObjectIndexPop()
	MYAPP_Object(this).Value$ = Str$(MYAPP_ObjectDefaultArg1)
EndFunction this

Function MYAPP_ObjectDelete(this)
	`Purpose: Virtually Deletes Object Instance; Sets object values to 0 and returns ID to ID Mgr Stack
	`Parameters: this = MYAPP_Object ID
	`Return: 0
	MYAPP_Object(this).Value$ = "" `Nil
	MYAPP_ObjectIndexPush(this)
EndFunction 0

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@DB newbie

I started working on importing your .x into the program, I now just need to get all four to load, not just a single corner. 0.o I got it loaded, but the seems are slightly noticeable...

@TechLord
That looks pretty cool. However, it may just be me, but the links seems broken.
If you do not mind, can you explain the code a little? (Sorry, not 100% sure what stacks are, I am not a pro programmer..)

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Yah, with T.ED big maps are exported into multiple sections...sorry about that, and how does it look in DB?

and yes, that link is broken.

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Here is the SS.

The seams are slightly noticeable. The rest are almost perfect, except this one...

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hmmmmm, any ideas on how that can be fixed?

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Not yet, I will look at it when I get home from school.

I started working on this, and I do have to say, I hate how T.Ed exports textures.. Is there a way to export it so that it uses 2 textures and tiles them instead of having four large textures? Less work on the graphics card with only two small images...

I fixed the seam. Now all I gotta do is make the second map disappear, and I can upload the new file.

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MAUI Module Ready. Let me know if you have any trouble installing and running it. I'm put together a help files to explain how it works. Theres some Gizmo Behaviors missing such Checkboxes, I will update MAUI Module as soon as I write them. Also I'm setting up a FTP folder on my Web Host to ease sharing files etc. I'll email you a username and password when its ready.



PS: I highly recommend finding a FREE alternative to you ETXYZ considering this is a open source project. I use several commercial plugins in my MMO and thats a major reason why I cannot make it entirely open source.

I truly think we could get way standard Terrain System using DBPros Advance Terrain commands OR perhaps a completely custom system using standard Mesh Terrain Tiles. Whatever we come up should be replacable with ETXYZ or other lib, but, to require a pay-to-play plugin to even start using the project will put it out of reach as open source.

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@TechLord

I just implemented .x terrain support, so if you cannot use ETXYZ, then make a few .x terrains to use. It is the same way as ETXYZ, but with .x files. Now consider it as "Open source with .etm support."

I will now update my commenting and clean up the code a bit.

As for MAUI, I will start looking into it now. I feel like it should be time to make a main menu, gui, and such. Thanks for this.

I just looked at it, and nice. I will get to work on this ASAP. =D

Hmmm... There seems to be a problem. When I try to run the MAUI.mod.DBPro file, I get an error saying that it ould not recognize the LUA Load File command...

**Edit**
Using your 2D graphics you supplied in the download, I decided to go ahead and make the main menu. All of them just takes you to the game, but I am working on that.

Here is a SS:


I used Craig Chipperfield's tutorial in newsletter 59 for the bitmap fonts, link here.

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MAUI also uses a modified version of Craig Chipperfield's Bitmap Font system. Theres a lil work left but its functional. Updated the MAUI Module with a new maui file example. To compile MAUI Mod Required DLLs: DirectX 9.0c, Matrix1Util_20080927b, BarnskisLuaPlugin_1.1.1, DBXML which are all freely available.

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When I go to try and download the lua plug in, I get this screen...

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Barnski is the owner of the plugin and responsible for the download, I highly recommend posting your trouble in the LUA thead. If Barnski doesnt have an issue with me supplying the zip I will post the zip for download.

I'm gonna work on help files later on tonight to explain how the MAUI works and MAUI XML. I will be constantly updating the system for my own MMO, but, will update the Module when changes are significant. I will also be writting an embeddable MAUI Editor. The editor should ease creating dialog boxes and other apps for the engine.

Did you do any research on Stacks?

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the menu is looking great.

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@TechLord

Alright, I will post there, I already saw someone posted the error, so I did not see the need to post as well.

I am about to work on looking up stacks. I was waiting until I was ready to implement your module.

@DB Newbie

Thanks, but give TechLord the credit, he(I am assuming TechLord is a he) made the graphics, I just programmed it in.

@All
Currently, I am working on my webs site where I will host info about Maindric RPG, (I will host a little here, but full info there, all SS's from start to finish, and such.) I will put a link to it when I am ready to release it.



~~~~

Ok, I just looked stacks up, and if I am reading it correctly, a stack is stored information that adds information and receives takes out the data that was most recently put in. From what I have just read, it uses a push-pop method. When storing information, it does a check to make sure there is space (Seems like arrays to me), but it also uses pointers. Pointers point to a specific point within the stack (If I am not mistaken, just like in C++, pointers point to a specific block in memory.), where the stack pointer grows downward. I do not feel like explaining it now as it is quite a bit of typing, but I think I understand it.

Am I correct in that, or not? If it is, then I understand the concept, but not the practice...

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if you need me to make you another terrain just draw something up and i will do it.

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@DB Newbie
Thanks for the offer. If something comes to mind, I will contact you. I am thinking about using the map you provided as a town map.

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sounds good...and i looked around and i don't think i can export the large maps as a single .x and same with the super textures.

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Alright, no problem. I will look into as well, see what can be done...

Could you export as .dbo with vertex alpha? Would that work?