[Bf-committers] Call for GameEngine developers

Kester Maddock bf-committers@blender.org
Tue, 23 Sep 2003 13:33:57 +1200


Hi Ton,

Currently I'm just poking around - I should have a good knowledge of the code 
base by the time Solid comes back. I would much prefer to work on official 
Blender releases.

How does the enji engine compare featurewise to the ketsji engine?

If Saluk and one or two other developers are committed, I think we can make 
ketsji work.

With the python interface proposal implemented, separating Ketsji out becomes 
a lot easier without changing it's user interface inside Blender.

Apart from that, I agree with the proposed roadmap - do a Solid release and 
split it off as a module - I'd rather not fork the entire Blender tree. ;)

Kester

On Wednesday 17 September 2003 21:24, Ton Roosendaal wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Still no news from the Solid frontier...
>
> It might be a little too early to start a dedicated mailing list now on
> the game engine topic. I think there are about 3-4 people here
> interested in actively supporting it. But if they prefer such a list,
> you only have to say so!
>
> It might be interesting though to hear your opinion on the possible
> roadmaps for creating games in Blender. For example; interesting
> development like supporting OpenGL shaders are very important
> decisions, that will affect it's usabality among the various platforms.
>
> For game engine coders it's important to decide whether they want to
> work on 'official' Blender releases, or want to work on more advanced
> features in the engine, based at their own specific needs. I really
> don't mind hosting at our projects site 'forks' for the engine. It can
> be like the Tuhopoo tree, to enable experiments with the code without
> being bothered with all requirements an official release has. Of course
> you can also participate in the Tuhopuu project itself. Their admins
> are open for almost anything! :)
>
> I've posted remarks on future engine roadmaps before... as a reminder,
> here's what I had in mind:
>
> 1- We make at least one release (2.30) which has full 2.25
> compatibility. This means that improvements or changes in the engine
> are not committed until 2.30 is out. The Tuhopuu tree is available for
> most work on the engine now.
> 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.
> 3- We bring back the 2.04 engine (nicked Enji). Which is aimed to work
> fully integrated with Blender code and Blender features.
>
> I know this strategy has potential dangers in it; especially in how the
> two engines will compete, with Enji getting the advantage of being
> integrated in the core bf-blender project.
> However, Enji is *so much* more simple and basic. The focus for Enji
> can be "reflecting what Blender can do", and not putting emphasis (at
> all!) in adding features in Enji that are not in Blender itself.
> For Ketsji it can be the opposite; by treating Blender as 'level
> editor', and pushing engine performance & features as far as the group
> members think is desirable.
> Since the Ketsji architecture is completely different from Blender it
> will attract different 'types' of developers as well.
>
> Lastly; we have the compatibility problem. Actually the Ketsji engine
> was far from completed, with a maintenance backlog and long buglisting.
> The burden of keeping an engine 2.25 (or GameKit book) compatible is
> not something I can not expect from anyone to be responsible for. We
> have to be realistic here, how much pain it might cause for our users
> even...
>
> -Ton-
>
>
> On Tuesday, Sep 16, 2003, at 13:20 Europe/Amsterdam, Kester Maddock
>
> wrote:
> > Hi Martin,
> >
> > I've also been poking the game engine recently - with Hos's help I've
> > updated
> > the ODE physics support in tuhopuu2.
> >
> > I'm also thinking of trying to break into the OpenGL side of things -
> > maybe
> > look at Cg & nVidia's pixel shaders.
> >
> > Kester
> >
> > On Sunday 14 September 2003 22:53, Martin wrote:
> >> Although a relative newbie to Blender, my reasons for wanting to use
> >> and
> >> contribute to it are:
> >>
> >> 1)    Open source (a moral sort of thing)
> >> 2)    The BlenderPlayer and browser plug in capabilities
> >> 3)    The skeletal animation and vertex weighting features
> >>
> >> So I am really interested in anything which will keep alive or
> >> resurrect
> >> the game engine - count me in! (to the limit of my abilities).
> >>
> >> What I want is a game engine which is small, easily downloadable and
> >> installable, capable of network connection for control of gameplay and
> >> loading additional geometry while running.  This means decent Python
> >> support in the game engine!
> >>
> >> Martin
> >> ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: "maci_ray" <maci_ray@yahoo.de>
> >> To: <bf-committers@blender.org>; <bf-python@blender.org>;
> >> <tuhopuu-devel@blender.org>
> >> Sent: Saturday, September 13, 2003 12:41 PM
> >> Subject: [Bf-committers] Call for GameEngine developers
> >>
> >> | Hi GameEngine developers!
> >> |
> >> | Don't you think we should bundle our efforts in
> >> | improving the gameengine?
> >> |
> >> | If we are enogh people, maybe we can get our own
> >> | list for more discussion. But this is future...
> >> |
> >> | For now I think it would be good to know from
> >> | each other at which area everyone is working on.
> >> |
> >> | Maci_Ray.
> >> |
> >> | P.S. For clearness I propose to answer only on
> >> | bf-committers@blender.org.
> >> |
> >> |
> >> | __________________________________________________________________
> >> |
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> >>
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> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> --
> Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation ton@blender.org
> http://www.blender.org
>
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