Switched to Unity

Well, at this point I just want to get a finished game out there so I switched to Unity3d.  In this one weeks time I completed Alpha v1.0 of my game, Avoider.  Hopefully by next week I will have a private or maybe public beta ready!  All that's left to add for a beta would be an extra game mechanic or two, and more media (the main menu is currently using Unity's default GUI design).  In the future I will be working on a game that will hopefully utilize the editor that I've been working on for a while, but still be powered by Unity.  Next week I will definitely upload some screen shots and possibly a beta!

Graphics Improvement

I was sick for a couple of days this week so I didn't have as much time to work on the game as I would have liked, but I managed to add some shaders.  Per pixel lighting and bloom are working, however the game lags a ton when they are used with CEGUI so I have to look into that more before moving on.  My goal for next week is to have working per pixel lighting, bloom (preferably HDR), normal mapping, and GUI.  Sounds like a lot but most of it is done.

Gameplay

I started on the gameplay for my first game that will be using my game engine.  The camera, player movement, and other basic game mechanics have been implemented and now I can start making it a fully functioning game!  I also implemented Crazy Eddie's GUI so the game will really start to take shape soon.  By next week I plan on having the gameplay and in-game GUI finished and then I can start on improving the graphics using shaders, adding sounds/music, making the menu's, and finally releasing it!

Editor Coming Together

I forgot to post the last 2 weeks, but I still got some stuff done anyway.  Most of it is just fine tuning and making the editor actually usable.  I fixed up some of the windows, fixed many glitches, and started working on objects to allow for easy modding by the user.  I think I said it a few weeks ago that I am converting my all purpose editor to a level editor for a specific game to be used for modding.  I started working on that game, but it doesn't really need an editor so I'll be taking a break from the editor to work on the game.  Hopefully by next week I will have some interesting screen shots! 

New Transformation Gizmo

I didn't get a whole lot done this week, but I started upgrading the transformation gizmo.  I originally had it as a model that is loaded for the current transformation type (arrows for movement, etc.).  Now I'm creating the mesh in the code, and changed the original style to the style used in most 3D editors.  For movement the gizmo is simply 3 lines with arrows on the end of each.  I didn't do this from the start because I was unsure of how to check if the user clicked on the gizmo, because they are lines.  But, now I make the model and make am mask to be used for mouse picking.  The rotation gizmo is almost done and that's the most difficult because it's a circle, so hopefully by the end of the day the gizmo will be done!

Object Editing

I mostly improved/added to the object editing aspect of the editor.  I changed the way the object editing worked and looked, of course you didn't know how it originally looked, but the new version is a lot nicer and easier to use.  I also started the entity editing for an object.  An object contains any number of entities (models, lights, etc.) and I started on the editing of those entities.  I also fixed some global variable problems that I had in the code, it didn't affect the result of the editor, but it's a lot cleaner code now.  I also added the ability for me to add a new viewport at any time anywhere on the screen, which will be very useful when I get the point of editing mesh properties, shaders, etc.

Busy

Well with a combination of PS3, work, and camping I got nothing done!  I'll try to continue tomorrow, it's just a matter of motivation now.  I guess I have to concentrate on the finished product, check back next week for some updates!

A "Game" Runs!

Yay!  After a few days of work I got the editor to run the user's current project!  The game opens up and loads a level and then executes all of the scripts in each object.  I also worked on saving and loading a project.  It's not 100% done but the resources are saved and then loaded again.  I also made some optimizations to the scripting engine, but there is still a lot more to be done until it's at game ready speeds.  I'm not sure how much I'll be working on it this week because I just got a PS3 and I start work on the 22nd.  Maybe I'll get some more done on the project saving and maybe start on mesh management and applying them to objects!

Almost There!

I got a ton done this week and am very very close to being able to run games!  I fixed some bugs, worked on the resource list for a day or two and got a lot done on the object system.  Basically I added objects as a resource that contain basic properties such as visibility, mesh, collision, and scripts that it utilizes.  Then when an object is added to a screen an entity is created linking itself to the object.  So when a property is changed in the object resource the change is reflected in every entity of that object.  The individual entities also have more specific properties such as rotation, position, and scale.  Scripting wise, I have the engine save all used scripts to a single file and all of the objects have proper variables and such to access these scripts.  All I have to do is output the object's properties to a file and then load them into the game itself and it should be working!  I WILL have the engine working enough to add objects to the scene and run the game by the end of this week! 

It's been a while...

I forgot to post last Sunday, but I remembered today!  I added a do...while loop to the scripting engine and called it done for now.  There is more to do with it, but I just wanted to incorporate it into the level editor/engine, so that's what I've been doing.  I have a working system to compile and output all used scripts, but I'm still working on allowing the user to add their own scripts and edit objects.  It's almost done, but not quite.  By next week I will hopefully have it working so a game can be compiled and the scripts can be executed!  I also fixed some programming crashing bugs, specifically the selection buffer was being difficult, but that's all good to go.  This engine is slowly but surely becoming usable!  Check back next Sunday for more updates!

Progress!

I finally got the 'else' statement finished and working, so now entire decision structures are working including scopes.  I also implemented built-in functions.  They are fully functioning with return values (or no return value) and multiple arguments.  However, I have not yet tested overloading and there is no user defined function option yet.  Lastly, I implemented while loops.  They are probably the simplest loop structure to implement but it provided a nice a framework for do...while and for loops.  After I implement those last two loops I will implement some engine specific things such as states and events.  After that it will be a fully functioning scripting engine!

Nothing to Report

I didn't work on anything this week so... yeah.  I will hopefully have 'else' statements done and hopefully the beginning of functions by this Sunday though.

Busy Week

I managed to get the start of the 'else' statement done, but other than not much was accomplished.  I fixed a few bugs and did a little optimization, but after Tuesday I got really busy.  Maybe this week will be better.

A Bunch of Progress!

I got a lot done this week!  I have a working intermediate code generator and virtual machine, basically the code can be compiled and ran.  I still have more to implement, specifically functions, but so far I have variables (numbers or strings as data types), assignment statements, and decision structures.  The 'else' statement isn't implemented yet, but I have the framework for code generation done so the rest will be easier.  Here is some example of code that would compile correctly:

num a = 100;
num b = 20;
a = a + 5 * b;
if ( a == 200 )
{
      b = 50;
}

The result would be, a = 200 and b = 50.  I also implemented complex conditional statements such as:

if ( a == 50 & b == 20 | ((c == 56 & d == 23) | e == 10) )

By next week I hope to have full decision structures done and some simple functions working (no return type or parameters)

Slow Week

Well, I haven't really gotten much done.  I wrote the syntax tree class, but didn't actually implement it yet, and I swapped a stack of symbols with a class to manage them instead.  That's about it.  Maybe next week I'll have something more interesting to report on.

SwitchScript

Well I have been very busy this past week so I didn't get a ton done, but definitely some useful things are finished.  So far here is the progress for the basics of SwitchScript:

Lexical Analyzer - 100% (Did a little optimization today with the symbol look-up)
Parser - 100% (The system works and all, but it doesn't contain all structures in the final version yet)
Syntax Tree - 0% (Hopefully tomorrow I'll start this...)
Intermediate Code - 0% (Might skip this part, not sure yet)
Executable Code - 0% (Not a .exe, just code that the VM can read and interpret)
Virtual Machine - 0% (Executes the code)

Yep, that's about it!

Scripting Started

I finally started writing my own scripting language!  It will appropriately be called SwitchScript.  I only got the lexer done so far, but I only really spent today working on it.  By next week I am confident that I will have a simple working parser.  Comments/suggestions are always welcome! 

Remember: On Wednesday I will be changing the url to switchge.blogspot.com to reflect the title change!

URL Change

As this has become less of a engine for my old game Avoider, and more of an all purpose engine, I will be changing the blog url to reflect that.  I already changed the title to Switch Game Engine, and next week I will be changing the url from avoiderthegame.blogspot.com to switchge.blogspot.com.  So remember, if you try to come to this blog and it says it doesn't exist, then try switchge.blogspot.com

Progress

After scrapping my previous content browser (a pop up window to add content to the scene) I started working on a simple tree type of list with resources.  Basically there is a list of folders that can not be changed or deleted ("Models", "Levels", "Scripts", etc.) and in these folders you can import the respective content.  So, if you right click the models folder you can import models.  Then when those models are imported you can simply double click the model and it gets added to the scene.  All of this may not seem like a major advance but it is definitely better then the previous content browser.  I also started working on a prefab system along with scripting!  I didn't actually start the scripting itself, only the general editing and use of scripts in the editor.  However, I am going to start the scripting language soon.  Probably be better to get that working before I progress further into the engine.  Hopefully, by next week I will have a well thought out design of the scripting language.

Some updates

Well this week I didn't get a whole lot done, but I did get some significant things fixed.  One being a performance issue where the scene was laggy with it it being empty, and a couple of input problems were fixed.  However, I also started working a new resource management system.  I ditched the previous content browser window and swapped my level list window in the AUI with a resource list.  This is set up like Game Maker where there are core folders (Models, Levels, Textures) and each of those core folders can only hold the resource type that they denote.  So the Models folder can only hold Models, etc.  I have basic importing working, but I'm still in the early stages of this addition.

Started Again!

I didn't get the website finished yet, but I really wanted to work on the engine so that's what I did!  I got some basic file management stuff done like creating a new project and running a project, but I'm still working on the media management.  Hopefully by Sunday I'll have a fully working (but simple) editor working!

Temporarily stopped

I've been working on a programming website with a friend of mine for the past week or two so I haven't really worked on the engine at all.  Once the website is up and running I will be getting back to the engine, and I will be posting updates on the website rather than this blog.  Once I get to the alpha/beta stages I will also be hosting downloads on that website for this engine.  I can't give an accurate estimate of when I'll start working on the engine again, but it will be soon!

Not much progress

I got some level loading/saving things done but I ended up focusing most of my efforts on getting a website with a friend of mine up and running.  The website will include tutorials, other projects we're working on, and will contain information for this engine.  Hopefully I will get a blog in there too so I can have everything on that website.  That's all for now, check back in a week for some more updates!

More to do than expected...

Shortly into the design process of incorporating the scripting engine I realized that I need to be able to load a final product of the game.  In order to do that I must be able to save levels.  In order to save levels I have to be able to manage levels in the editor.  So that's what I've been doing!  The past week I've been working on in editor level management.  It's working well now so tomorrow I'm going to start on writing the level saving system and then I'll be very close to starting on the scripting engine.  By the end of next week I will either have simple scripting ready or be very very close!

Started on scripting

I started designing and planning out how I'm going to be incorporating the AngelScript engine.  My hope is that later on down the line of this editor that I create my own scripting engine specific to the editor and hopefully faster.  However, until then AngelScript will do just fine.  I hope to have a simple implication ready by the end of week, but I have a lot to do other than running AngelScript to make it work (Script editor, object script list, the base game, etc.)

Content browser

After about of week of on and off work I finally have a content browser working.  With it you can add a folder anywhere on your computer and then select one or more folders and watch the supported media show up.  Then simply double click the file name and it'll be added to the scene.  It's not 100% finished but it's enough for me to work with and move onto more exciting things.

Not sure what I'm going to do with the extra space yet...

Just some screen shots

Thought I would post some screen shots of the editor in it's current state so here we are:

The content browser, still a WIP but finished the directory adding.

Stay tuned for more!

The Start

Today is the first day for this blog however I started the game about 2 weeks ago so there is some progress done.  Currently what is guaranteed for the game is it will be 3D, it will be released for Windows, it will be moddable and will come with an editor for modding.  The editor as of now is my top priority for it will help me create levels and it will be essential for modding.  I will post some images of the editor in the next couple of days, so stay tuned!