Mmm, new games. Yeah, well. Games can be fun but I wonder if 3D isn't overkill sometimes. Many modern games today use 3D, stunning textures and sfx, but when all that is known to you, what is the game idea? What is it that would draw you right back to be willing to play it again and again?
Are you a person who wants to learn programming, why start porting a big 3D game? It will most probably fail - maybe you'll make it, but mostly it'll fail. Start with something a lot more easy. Some remakes of old Amiga games perhaps?
Well, I'm not much of a programmer either - not a serious one anyway. I tell myself from time to time that I should learn C (again and better) and perhaps C++ to be able to make some real programs - instead of some ugly hacks in Basic for my private needs and fun. But I don't know how to find the inspiration for it.
Well, anyway. If you're going to start up some project. Start small and succeed, then you can continue bigger and bigger. Small programs (or games) can be absolutely overly adictive. I for one, just love Kakuro atm - not easy to code, but it's mostly about smart coding and uses few system resources, and is therefore fairly good as a beginners project. Suduko is another one.
If games are of importance I would vote for mind teasing games, not games with long stories and learning curves - but hey, that's just me.
Apps is another imortant matter. Games are for fun, but useful programs are very importan too, if it's not a game box we are talking about - and it's not. It's Amiga. ;)
One thing I have thougt about porting. As long as you have all libraries it's all okay, but when you have to make an whole API-translation or something, I more or less think that it's more easy to just rewrite the whole program. Then you know what everything is for and how it works. Of course that differs between sources and techniques, but still, there are ports with rather great ponds of money that havn't bared any fruit yet - maybe it will, but I think the project is so great that a rewrite is easier.
Look at the world today it has changed dramatically from the heydays of Amiga classic. We have quality releatively cheap game consoles coming out our bums. Yet wWhat we lack is a quality responsive, small footprint and intuative Desktop/PDA etc OS'. AmigaOS is in a great position to get there but we have to be realistic it will take time. The Hyperion guys and developers have been working their guts out to get us this far and the distance to travel again is just as immnense.
If you are holding out for games you are wasting your time go and get a console, or do what I did, sit a PC next to your A1, not that I use it much.
Good things are built on solid foundations, good buildings take time and care to build and all that won't happen without skillful craftsmen and astute project managers.
Be patient, play games on your mobile/console/set-top or whatever. Allow our craftsmen time to produce quality.
Yet an other obstacles, is that most Amiga developers are used to 2D games programming, there is learning curve to be over come whit 3D graphics.
Modern graphic card are slow in the 2D department in hi resolutions, while 3D there is lots of potential to be taken advantage of, you can easily do sprite like effects or multilayer effects to keep it old school looking.
As you say it?s not smart to start whit large projects, it better to start whit tiny example codes, and maybe projects like tiring to redo simple 2D games in 3D types of projects
(NutsAboutAmiga)
Basilisk II for AmigaOS4 AmigaInputAnywhere Excalibur and other tools and apps.
I personally think we need less people saying "we need this and that". I mean, how often do I hear "we need Firefox". Hello? It's not like this one isn't blindly obvious. Of course we need Firefox. Of course we need more games.
However, postings like this will not help. It is time people get active themselves. Every time the source code of a game was released I received mails that essentially asked me to port them. I see hundreds of postings asking for this and that to be ported, but no one actually trying it.
What can *you* do (You in this case meaning no one specific)? Well, learn to program. That doesn't work overnight, and you will not be porting games the next day, but if you never start with it you will never get there.
I can only agree with Orgin.
Seriously, if you do want to contact me write me a mail. You're more likely to get a reply then.
Yet an other obstacles, is that most Amiga developers are used to 2D games programming, there is learning curve to be over come whit 3D graphics.
Well for starters, grab the source code of Quake 2 or 3 and make a game with that. It works on other systems. Granted your game source code needs to be GPL'ed but there's your chance to use a commercial grade graphics engine to produce your first game yourself without the learning curve involved, and learn along the way.
Seriously, if you do want to contact me write me a mail. You're more likely to get a reply then.
That's a really good idea, to use an allready ported engine to create a 3D game.
2D and simple graphic games are good for learning a language. Modifying an existing 3D game will learn how to use different tools needed besides programming. But what format are the objects in Quake? Are there any 3D-programs on the Amiga that can be used to make objects? I actually don't know since I havn't checked it up. Well, maybe it's time to do that.
A modern game is written in C/C++ and the code usually is well structured and with portability in mind so after get a licence and access to the source is relatively easy to port it.Another story is if you want to make a moder game from scratch.
If we're talking modern game, we're talking things like Unreal Engine 3 and so on. Things our hardware cannot even handle. That means you'll either have to remove effects entirely or wait for our graphics cards to catch up.
Even so if a game was written for e.g. DirectX it's not exactly trivial to port it, unless you've done other ports already and have tools to help you.
Well, learn to program. That doesn't work overnight, and you will not be porting games the next day, but if you never start with it you will never get there.
Well said!
"Plugin King" Curty only started programming recently and look what he is doing now!
've ported OpenAL... it's not optimal (and no shared library), but it works (my Freespace 2 port uses it).
Oooooh,... did i miss something, there is a port of Freespace 2???
Will it be commercial (the port), from Hyperion, or is it a "hobby project"? Is it 3D dependant? (Most surely) So no 3D hardware, no go? I got a Radeon9800, will i be able to use it?
Wow...eehhm, when i can have it .. WE have it?
I have to admit this one caught me by surprise, nice christmas pressie ... even if it won't be available for some time.
've ported OpenAL... it's not optimal (and no shared library), but it works (my Freespace 2 port uses it).
Oooooh,... did i miss something, there is a port of Freespace 2???
Will it be commercial (the port), from Hyperion, or is it a "hobby project"? Is it 3D dependant? (Most surely) So no 3D hardware, no go? I got a Radeon9800, will i be able to use it?
Wow...eehhm, when i can have it .. WE have it?
It's a hobby project, and yeah, it's 3D dependent.
I haven't released it yet mainly because the sound still sucks (it's off by a few fractions of a second).
I might just release the source code so somebody else can pick it up.
ikir wrote: Macs has a lot of modern games like Quake 4, Prey... and in next months a lot of new title will be ported to Mac.
Right now, on Amiga, we must focus on basic application.
Uhm, to be honest, and from what I hear with people working on Mac game ports, the chances of new titles for MacOS are getting a lot thinner now that Windows works on those new Intel Macs. A lot of people working on these things complained about that.
I could not read the whole thread, but I guess I got the gist of it. Well, what can I say... I tried hard with uniVERSUS to contribute, but, as it seems, I failed to raise enough interest
Apart from that, I'm sorry to see that more and more people think that "modern"="3D"... oh, well... too a long issue...
Oooooh,... did i miss something, there is a port of Freespace 2???
Will it be commercial (the port), from Hyperion, or is it a "hobby project"? Is it 3D dependant? (Most surely) So no 3D hardware, no go? I got a Radeon9800, will i be able to use it?
Wow...eehhm, when i can have it .. WE have it?
It's a hobby project, and yeah, it's 3D dependent.
I haven't released it yet mainly because the sound still sucks (it's off by a few fractions of a second).
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