|
|
 |
IMPERA home page
|
07/06/02 - 15:40 |
Beh! I think I'm going to use fltk
instead.
|
07/05/02 - 12:35 |
My first update in over a year.
I finally found a user interface I think I can use: it's Cpw (www.mathies.com/cpw/).
I haven't touched the game in over a year, mainly because I couldn't figure
out how to get a user interface to work with OpenGL. Well Jim Mathies,
the creator of Cpw has taken care of that for me.
I think I will try to make a simple version and work on improving that.
In the meantime, check out freeciv -
it's an open source civ-like game.The great thing about this game is that
you can modify it any way you want. The downside, perhaps the graphics.
ps - I'm sorry if some of the images are no longer available. Someone
was leeching my bandwidth and I got a nasty letter from my host.
|
02/24/01 - 18:04 |
I've been quietly chugging away at the terrain generator. It's pretty
much done: take a pull:
click for larger image (800x600, 27kB)
I think I'm going to start working on importing both of the "finished"
graphics components into the MDI (Multi-Document Interface) Win32 framework
I have. This should be fun...
ps FiringSquad (Thresh's web
site) did a little write-up on the
lack of the turn-based-strategy (TBS) games. The article asks if real-time
strategy (RTS) games like Starcraft
and Command & Conquer are making turn-based strategy games (like Civ2
and Masters of Orion 2) obsolete. I'm sorry but in my opinion, RTS games
over-emphasize quick clicking. I spend half of my time trying to round
up stray units like a sheep herder. I think there's "room at the
table" for both. I love Civ2 but I also like to play Command
& Conquer Red Alert2 once in a while. It's an interesting article,
go take
a look.
|
02/06 - 10:42 |
I fixed the "seam" problem easily the other day. I haven't
worked on it for a few days, but I'm sure I'll get back in the groove
soon.
I'm really happy with the terrain engine. It creates, in my humble opinion,
pretty realistic terrain. I already have in-place settings so the user
or program can change the ratio of land/sea, the starting (therefore average
elevation 'z'), the "roughness" or "smoothness" of
the terrain...etc.
I even got rid of the "spottiness" of the prvious implementation.
click for larger image (800x600, 21kB)
Keep in mind that this globbe is only going to be the small map in the
corner of the main gameplay screen. The main gameplay will take place
on the tile-based system below.
|
02/03 - 05:30 |
Good news: I got the fractal terrain generator done (well...
pretty-much done).
I'm using the diamond-square method (thanks to Paul
Martz's tutorial). I'm also using Andreas
Löffler and Jeff Molofee's texture blitter code. (don't worry, they'll
all get credit in the game).
Bad news: I get this ugly seam along the globe where the texture
wraps. I still have to fix this. If anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate
hearing 'em. (stuff like "get a job" doesn't help).
click for larger image (800x600, 38kB)
Once I get this working, I can drop this and the stuff below into the
MDI (Win32) interface I've got going. That will pretty much finish up
the graphics "engine" (who am I kiddin?).
Not to tease, but after I did this fractal terrain generator, I was thinking
that it wouldn't take much effort to use the Z (elevation) values for
each tile in the code that draws the "flat" map (below) and
therefore make the game truly 3D. I don't know if I want to go there though...
Stay tuned for more news...
|
01/26 - 05:46 |
In my latest progress, I finally figured out how to get "selection"
to work: if you're not into OpenGL, that's where if you click on the screen,
it needs to figure out what tile you meant to click. Yeah, it's easy on
lame 2D games where the you can just do some addition on the mouse coordinates,
but when you tilt the whole map in 3D it gets kinda complicated. Luckily
OpenGL makes this really easy once you get the hang of it.
Did I mention that the map size is basically unlimited? This map is 150
tiles wide and 300 tiles in height.
click for larger image (800x600, 105kB)
|
01/22 - 14:16 |
To take a break from coding up the game, I redid the logo. This one's
also done in 3DSMax with zero modification in photoshop. The lo-res version
doesn't do it justice...
|
01/21 - 03:09 |
I've been working on my game a bit:
wrapping works - map now wraps correctly
ocean botttom pretty much complete - all shores adjacent to water have
a "shoreline"
viewing fixed: user controls view with mouse... can rotate in all 3 directions
+ zoom
positioning map via arrow keys fixed
moving unit via keypad fixed -> especially along map left-right edge
What's left?
Oh, everything. Next up is fixing the "c" key centers the map
on a given unit
... This work
on the right, but not on the left.
I also want to get this imported into the MDI Win32 application framework
I have running
I also need to fix the subroutine I have to draw the map onto a small
globe.
And I need to fix the textures used for the "shore" and ocean
bottom... and all the other textures
There's a ton more stuff to do...
Here is the latest screen-shot from my development:
click the above image for a larger
version
|
12/27 - 23:55 |
Here is the latest screen-shot from my development:
click the above image for a larger
version
I have added gridlines and made some minor changes to facilitate easier
addition of more textures (terrain "tiles").
|
12/27 - 00:22 |
Here is the latest screen-shot from my development:
click the above image for a larger
version
|
updated: 12/27 - 00:22 |
update: 12/27:
When?
It just occurred to me that I didn't put up a date when I expect to
finish the game:
Well, to quote a great developer "when it's done"
which in english means, 3 years from now...
Seriously, I hope to have a working beta by summer (Q2, 2001) but I may
never get there...
original faq: 12/18:
What is Impera?
Impera is the tentative name for a game I am working on.
What does Impera mean?
Impera is latin for "rule" as in "to rule" or "conquer"
(I think).
What will Impera the game be like?
I want to make a turn-based strategy game loosely based on Sid
Meier's Civilization 2. I would also like to incorporate some cool
features of other great strategy games like, Masters of Orion 2 and Norm
Kroger's Operational art of war. I also want to use some things found
in the original Avalon-Hill Civilization board-game.
What features will Impera have?
I don't know yet. I'm in the early stages of development and I still don't
know how to do many of the things I'd like to implement, like AI (computer
opponents) and Net multiplayer.
What stage of development is Impera in?
I
am working on the basic graphics concepts. For example, drawing tiles,
drawing units. I have many ideas on paper, with ways to implement them,
but right now (12/18), very little code. Take a look at the sample screenshot
(left).
I would like to contribute to your game...
if you
would like more information or would like to help...
If Impera is ever released, what will it cost? Will you relase the
source?
I would very much like to make the game free. I also plan to make the
source available during development and have the source always be available.
Speaking of source, what are you using to write the game?
I am writing the game in Visual C++6. I am using OpenGL
as the graphics API. I might incorporate DirectX 8 for keyboard/sound
features, but I don't know yet. I am using Kinetix 3D Studio Max R3 and
Adobe Photoshop 6 for creating the graphics (like tiles and units).
What platforms will the game run on?
Unfortunately, the game will only run on Win32 (Windows) platforms. I
have to do a lot of menu/toolbar/buttons interface stuff and I think I
can only do that in Win32. Since the graphics are all OpenGL, they should
port easily to other platforms, but I don't know how to make a GUI (user
interface) that will work across all platforms, so I think I'm going to
start with Win32.
|
12/18/00 - 19:10 |
Impera is the tentative name for a game that I have been working on for
about two years on and off.
This page will be the primary source for information about the game.
Who knows if it will ever be completed (released) but I decided to whip
up a simple page anyway.
If you have any questions, email me at: