[Bf-committers] Node system for game logic

[Ton Roosendaal]

Hi all (GE team!),

If I understand it correctly, the GSoC project for game logic will  
work on a 'proof of concept', designs and a proposal for future work  
on node editor implementation. Both Sven and Benoit have defined a  
couple of ways how to do this work, and I think that can happily move  
forward of course.

Based on reviews Benoit did for the Hive system, it does appear to me  
that Sjoerd already fully delivered such a system, although with some  
different internal design decisions. Benoit also stated in his review  
that the GSoC project shouldn't stop further evaluation or work on  
integration Hive at all. He was impressed with the current code &  
design.

For both projects, my own concern is mostly that I'm not so much  
interested in great code design (which is obvious ;) but about the  
possibilities to provide a great end-user experience for advanced  
control over editing logic for games. The GUI for it (node editor),  
the APIs for it (scripting), the ways things store and load, the ways  
how to keep things work and compatible, and especially speed (no  
startup times, no external files required) are all relevant  
integration topics for making decisions here.

I know it's a luxury, but not uncommon either to have people work in  
parallel on testing out their ideas. Therefore I'd propose to provide  
Sjoerd with a svn Hive branch, to allow him to further work on proof  
of concept (on integration level) and welcome him as part of the team  
with our support as well.

The discussion on BSD or GPL licensing I also don't need to continue  
here for now. There's too many unknowns now anyway, and I'm sure  
Sjoerd will be open to look into changing licenses once there's an  
opportunity for actual re-use of Hive in other projects.

In due time, after the summer, we then can check on what to do next!

Regards,

-Ton-

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation   ton at blender.org    www.blender.org
Blender Institute   Entrepotdok 57A  1018AD Amsterdam   The Netherlands

On 28 May, 2011, at 18:49, Benoit Bolsee wrote:

> Hi Sjoerd,
>
> Thanks for sharing the hive system. I've started to read the
> documentation and so far I'm impressed by what you have done. I  
> already
> have a good idea of the system but I still have to figure out how you
> have achieved all the goals that I stated in my proposal. At some  
> point
> I will contact you when I know enough to not waste your time with  
> stupid
> questions.
>
> As far as licensing is concerned, I would prefer if you go to a
> BSD-style license but you should in any case take a firm and  
> definitive
> position quickly to cut short what seems to be an endless discussion  
> on
> licensing again ;-)
>
> Regards,
> Benoit
>
>>
>> Message: 1
>> Date: Thu, 26 May 2011 14:55:19 +0200
>> From: Sjoerd de Vries <sjdv1982 at gmail.com>
>> Subject: [Bf-committers] Node system for game logic
>> To: bf-committers at blender.org
>> Message-ID: <BANLkTimDz3cDduuLbCqm8fELMcqF0VF0xQ at mail.gmail.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> I would like to present to you the hive system, a working
>> node system for game logic (and other things).
>>
>> It implements the complete list of goals of Benoit's Nodal
>> Logic proposal:
>> http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Source/GameEngine/NodalLogic
>> Some of the design decisions are different, but the hive
>> system contains all of his features.
>>
>> The source code is available under GPL:
>>
>> http://launchpad.net/hivesystem
>>
>> It also has a GUI for editing hivemaps (node graphs). It is
>> basic and quirky but it works. This makes it possible for
>> non-programmers to create and modify game logic. I have made
>> a screencast that demonstrates this for a simple 3D scene:
>>
>> http://launchpad.net/hivesystem/trunk/0.7/+download/screencast.swf
>>
>> New nodes and hives can easily be built in Python. However,
>> the coding style is different from normal Python scripts. I
>> have written a long manual with many examples. If anything is
>> unclear, please tell me.
>>
>> The main limitation is that there are no bindings yet to the
>> BGE, only to Panda3D. It still needs to be ported to
>> Python3.2, and I am not very familiar with the BGE source
>> code. Also, a lot of important nodes (sound, physics, mouse
>> picking, networking) are still missing.
>>
>> I am looking forward to join forces with Benoit and Sven, and
>> with anyone else who is interested. Any feedback is welcome!
>>
>> cheers
>>
>> Sjoerd
>>
>
>
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