[Bf-committers] Call for GameEngine developers

bf-committers@blender.org bf-committers@blender.org
Wed, 17 Sep 2003 10:00:21 -0400


Quoting Ton Roosendaal <ton@blender.org>:

> 2- We then separate the current game engine (nicked Ketsji) from the  
> bf-blender tree, turning it into a separately managed project, and as  
> an export extension or plug-in to Blender. This can be done quite  
> efficiently, because dependencies from the engine to Blender code are  
> minimal. How this will affect the 'game options' (logic editing) in  
> Blender has to be decideded on.


The "plug-in" term needs elaboration. If you mean that perhaps this project 
could include window types that have full access to blender internals including 
DNA so that Ketsji-specific data could be stored in regular blend files, then 
there isn't much difference to the current setup. But I didn't think that is 
really possible with Blender right now. Maybe with the planned script-UI 
integration features we could build "Ketsji guis" that bridge the separate 
regimes. This reliance on python for robust access to Blender data would 
hopefully strengthen the python API rather than tie up ketsji development. 

Depending on these issues, the logic gui quality and integration with Blender 
could suffer, and this is a big advantage the game engine has over other 
products despite the minimal integration code-wise. I think totally splitting 
Ketsji from Blender reduces its appeal, since although it doesn't necessarily 
need blender to make it a "good" piece of software, it does need a good gui. 
Otherwise it is just another game engine with tools that don't always serve it 
well. How about forking Blender for a "Ketsji level editor" version that 
supports Solid/fuzzics and potentially ODE? Could have:

* more logic editing support such as finite state machines
* remove some features not supported by game engines??

I know there won't be impetus for a complete fork unless there are coders to do 
the work and maintenence, so a first step could be to implement Ton's scheme. 
If there is interest at some point a full fork of Blender could be made from 
tuhopuu.

> Lastly; we have the compatibility problem.

I don't think that compatibility is an issue if we release the 2.25-compatible 
open source version. Then we should have a clean conscience to pursue the 
future ;)


Cheers,
Tom