Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[atm_deev]

Realizing that WME free, I want to mention one important fact: do shader support - this is not a requirement (!) And did not even request, but only modest proposal. Shaders, much given to games created on WME. Sorry if offended anyone.

p.s.
(Jan && WME) == very_cool

[adh]

I think WME is great and for sure it will be greater.

About 3d, well, I think more 3d models support like obj model will be great, because almost any  3d application support it and it is a txt file, not a binary file, easy to create scripts to manipulate it. Another good thing, I am only thinking, is bhv support for animations, and some support for programs, like poser, a great tool, you can get it very cheap (Poser 6 $29) or free (poser 5 and Daz studio)

[sychron]

Maybe you should do it like miranda: Build a core engine with tons of plugins, and deliver a basic set of plugins as the "basic engine". You don't have to maintain all the plugins, but: if someone wants ogre for graphics -- change the graphics plugin. If someone wants lua for scripting -- change the scripting interface plugin. If the new engine consists of swappable parts, it will be easier (for professional studios with a lot of manpower) to exchange parts with the functionality they need.  And maybe (just dreaming) theese companies give their plugins back to the community.

[Connway]

Sounds awesome! However you decide to build the engine, I have faith that it will be awesome.

[Silverbristle]

The curent WME engine is great mainly because it has a neat user interface that easy to understand and quick to use. Support for more 3d file formats would speed up development for some. Because it would allow a user to get their favorite file format imported straight into wintermute rather than potentially having to pass through multiple programs converting the format.

[Mnemonic]

atm_deev: No offense taken. It's just that the development is not primarily driven by the vision of profit (I can think of easier and faster ways of making money ) That said, it would be silly if a game engine developed in 2009 didn't support programmable pipeline.

sychron: That's really not how WME(2) is designed. Scripting is a fundamental part of the engine and too much is built around it to allow for easy swapping.

Silverbristle: IMO having one format that is well supported by major 3D packages is better than half-assed support for multitude of formats with all their quirks and limitations...

[sychron]

The idea was NOT to replace the scripting engine.
The idea was to abstract script commands from command tokens, and enabling third party script compilers (and runtime translators) to be swapped in. Given the token list it would be easy to set up lua scripting or pascal scripting or whatever strange developers want to use.

And ... I see, everyone is going 3D nowadays, but always remember: The little kid in the backroom of his parents flat, trying to do a little cool adventure all by himself, may be HINDERED by requiring to model 3D stuff. So the basic 2D concept is still vital in theese days ;-)
But -- speaking plugins again -- making the "scene rendering module" a plugin, it would be possible to swap the simple 2,5D background renderer for a full 3D thing -- if someone dares developing. But -- this may have made So Blonde a wintermute game ;-(

[Mnemonic]

If, in theory, someone would write a compiler of any language, and the compiler would generate WME bytecode, it would be certainly possible. Actually, the initial plan for WME1 was to allow this, that's why the script compiler is in a separate DLL. Through the years I realized it's not such a good idea and in WME2 the script compiler is integrated directly into the engine.

Regarding 3D&stuff, we'll see, we'll see Don't jump to conclusions too hastily.

[sychron]

I had a closer look at Lua today, and it introduces a nice concept: it "hooks" into the host language via function definitions. When creating the lua interpreter object, you tell it "take this function (pointer) and bind it to this lua function name".

So if you provide some kind of WME API offering all the functions that can be accessed by WME scripts, it would be very easy to hook a Lua interpreter to this api, for example, without changing your own script engine concept.

[mylesblasonato]

Fantastic news, it will be great to get some cell shade going. Also I think physics would be a great feature for mini-games in Point and Click Adventures.

Can't wait for it!
Cheers
Myles Blasonato.

[sychron]

Physics just for mini games? I think that's not worth the effort ... If you really need physics for MINI games, you can calculate the stuff in the scripts, it's not that much.

If you really need "builtin physics", you can offer them via plugin, even in the current version of WME.

[FogGobbler]

Hi to all WME-addicts and our WME Mnemonic!

I´m so glad to hear that a new WME is being developed 

Just some thoughts and ideas I´d love to see in the future version:

- per pixel lighting of the characters with dynamic (soft) shadows
- light effects the background images
- shaders / normal mapping for detailed characters
- shaders for reflecting surfaces (mirrors, floors...)
- scriptable camera and zoomable backgrounds (like in "geheimakte 2")

I hope these things could be done..

Best regards,
Oliver

[Spellbreaker]

More options for the Characters would be great, like toonshaders and stuff. Light effects in the Background images? You can do that easily with creating small theora Videos for things like torches that create some flickering light on the wall. I personally don't want that WME goes the way of a 3D Engine, since there are enough of them.

Actually in geheimakte 2 the whole engine is able to scale the game through different resolutions. That would be a really great feature I am really looking forward to. I wrote an Email to the developers some time ago about asking how they prepare they scenes, if they pre-render it for different resolutions, or if they have realtime scaling.

That would rock

[Jyujinkai]

Silverbristle: IMO having one format that is well supported by major 3D packages is better than half-assed support for multitude of formats with all their quirks and limitations...

I think thisis the way to go for 3D support. Let the aniamtion packadges deal with teh conversion and filetypes and have a single pipline from all these apps into wme... soudns a much better way to go.

There is alos teh COLLADA file format. A lot of 3D apps use this so it can be exported from most packadges, and it supports a TON of features that panda.X dose not.

[Baron]

Thanks Mnemonic that is fantastic news. WME and the great community around it is helping me learn scripting. I can't express how grateful I am for the great documentation, support and kind explanations that yourself and many of the members of the WME dev community have provided.
Long live WME!