Storm Engine 2 Development Base

[Snehk]

Something I posted on idtechforums just a while ago.

 

I hastily made some simple assets, defs, materials and a basic level to create a quickstart base for anyone willing to try Storm Engine 2. It lacks a player model, but there's a workaround I described in it's readme. Letting those files simply rot on my hard drive would be pointless, even if no one is going to use it.

 

https://github.com/Snehk/SE2DevBase

[RPGista]

Could you please say more about this project? Its the same engine Motorstep was working on, isnt it? Wheres he anyway? Ive been out of the loop.

[freyk]

Nice, but is there a binary package?

I dont want/have knowlegde/time to compile that. (for starters, windows and linux binary should be fine)

[Snehk]

It's a simple base asset pack basing on minimum required assets shipped with Storm Engine 2. It's aim is to allow starting development quickly - a quick start base containing placeholder textures and simple assets that can be reverse engineered to see how to make something like this. It also provides entity defs, giving mappers entities to work with. I'm using Motorsep's engine. He's still around idtechforums, but I don't know if he's doing anything related to his engine, Doom 3 or development at all.

 

The reason I haven't included binary is not to release the source code again (GPL - if you release a binary, you must release code) - there already is a repository for that, and the change that you need to do in Player.cpp is a minor hack, not a solution. The real solution would be providing the base with player model, which is something I'll do eventually.

 

After some time I'll work it into base for general idTech4 engine.

 

I can send you a binary I compiled myself if you wish to check it without any compiling.

Edited October 20, 2017 by Snehk

[freyk]

How about putting the binary on your git (with a refference to the code location) , for all to download?

[Snehk]

I'd still have to upload changed source code with it.

 

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0-faq.html#GPLRequireSourcePostedPublic

[Oktokolo]

I'd still have to upload changed source code with it.

The engine is on github and you are on github. So why not fork the engine on github and start sending pull requests to "upstream" your patches. Forking just for developping a single bug fix or feature is okay. That is the natural way when working with git repositories.

Github is made with that in mind and knows the initial repo you fork on their site. Therefore i am pretty sure it internally deduplicates away everything that already existed before your fork anyway. So feel free to fork any project you want to write on.

[Epifire]

So for the non-engine compiling savvy, what's all different in Storm 2 vs standard id4? I guess the selling points if you will. I'm looking at the Motorsep video on the engine and it's not really making it clear either.

[Snehk]

List of improvements is on the engine source code repo. There is a link to it in dev base readme.

 

I'm working on test player model - geometry is mostly done, I still need to UV map and texture it. Then I'll add a shadowmesh, animate the model and rig it. Next I'll have to add defs for it.

 

Adding a player model will completely remove the need for any coding hacks, so you'll only need a binary to use the base. It won't take that long to do simple test model, but I don't have a lot of time to work on it. I'm giving myself a deadline of two weeks to commit the model.

[New Horizon]

I only see a readme in the base detailing how to get it running, no readme in the base. Am I missing something?

 

Link would be handy.

[Snehk]

The link is in features section in point 1, where I mentioned minimal required assets. It's a link to Motorsep's repository. But I'll update the readme to make it clearer later this day.

 

Once I'll get through early maintenance issues and add player model, I'll start working on entity demonstration maps (current test level is more like asset demonstration), and beginner level tutorials.

Edited October 21, 2017 by Snehk

[nbohr1more]

I only see a readme in the base detailing how to get it running, no readme in the base. Am I missing something?

 

Link would be handy.

https://github.com/motorsep/StormEngine2

 

See "OVERALL CHANGES AND ADDITIONAL FEATURES"

[LDAsh]

I'd really like some help too, with getting binaries, because I'm getting errors installing the Visual C++ Community Edition and I don't wish to make a mess on my system just to compile 1 thing 1 time... Maybe one day I'll get another HDD and install a copy of Windows that I can garbage up with all kinds of different SDKs and IDEs, but for now I just don't want to deal with it.

 

Suddenly the GPL source release issue seems like a thing, but 99% of the time the "developers" are like "Yeah, the source code IS made available... on my HDD... and yearhrh I'll totally send it on over to you, like, next week after my mom maybe dies of cancer? But actually you'll never hear from me again hey."

 

Or, if some instructions on how to use a different (more "lite" and more friendly) IDE to compile this with, that would be wonderful.

[Snehk]

I'll either fork the engine and upload Windows 32bit binary (tools have issues on 64bit, but that's the only problem with it), or simply add them with next commit. It'll be most probably today.

 

There's also the issue that currently the base is more suited for developers generally familiar with Doom 3, Quake 4 or Darkmod, and that the quality of test level is not that good. I put it up quickly mostly due to not having too much time to work on stuff during week. But now that I've made the repository, I can slowly make improvements. I'll be working on player model right now to remove the need for coding hacks, then I'll work on example maps showing how all the entities work.

 

EDIT: Added binary and source code with latest commit.

Edited October 22, 2017 by Snehk

[LDAsh]

Hey, thanks a lot Snehk, I really appreciate the binary. Editor is working just fine, which is what I was mostly interested in. Engine in general is interesting although without decent content it's difficult to draw any worthwhile conclusions.

 

Just wanted to say thanks and bump this, since it almost flew under my radar and I was about to give up.

[Snehk]

The base is still WIP, and I've got higher priority things over my head right now. You may want to use dark radiant for most editing though, and only use the GUI editor from the executable. Dark Radiant is excellent for most editing and has a nice particles editor.

 

Geometry of player model is done, UV Mapping is not a problem. Texturing will be kept simple, like a flood fill. I'm considering giving it a shadow mesh as well. I'll have a few troubles rigging it, but I may simply export player rig from Doom 3 or Darkmod for reference.

 

Next I'll work on example levels to demonstrate how entities work. I'll also work on some more assets, like more particles, water textures etc. Basic tutorials will be done in the future as well.

 

Currently the engine (like any other BFG fork) uses Flash for menus, HUD and PDAs. I'm considering dropping support for it and getting back to old Doom 3 GUI files. Restoring GUI for HUD is a matter of few edits in Player.cpp but things get more complicated when it comes to PDAs and menus.

 

The reason to replace Flash is that it's deprecated and uses old ActionScript, but most importantly: Only one person have ever reverse-engineered Flash menus on this engine. Motorsep spent half a year on it, and I really appreciate the effort, but I'm not really keen on spending just as much time on learning how it all works. When I started messing with Doom 3 GPL and made my base from scratch, I was able to make a simple screen with map launching button in a few minutes, using reference scattered across the web. I still haven't delved into Flash, but I guess that it won't be so easy.

 

Ideally, there should be two branches - master with Flash, and a separate GUI branch for all those magicians, stubborn fools like me, or Doom 3 modding veterans.

[freyk]

Is it possible to use both?

[Snehk]

I think it should be possible with a few changes in the code. Full GUI functionality is still in the code and is used for world surfaces. Too bad I don't have enough time to tinker with it right now, and I guess I'll be busy until this weekend. I'll send a message to OpenTech Engine guys, they have changed Flash to CEGUI, so they should be able to give me a hint how to make the engine work on both.

 

I, think that changing a few functions would only be required to make the engine use both (flash if gui files are not found and vice versa), but I'm not sure about it.