Print

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

[Mikael]

Hi!

I'm on the lookout for a new engine for my games, and I've heard so many good things about this one. I have three questions:

I know that WME runs on Vista, but are games created with WME compatible with Vista?

Is the engine suitable for creating 1st person games?

Are much coding needed when using the engine?

Thanks in advance!

Mikael

[TheDerman]

I don't know about the Vista question, but I can tell you that WME is definitely able to create 1st person games. It's simply a matter of writing actor=false; in the script. Scenes can then be set up in much the same way as for a 3rd person game, just leaving out the walk areas, and anything else that is required only for 3rd person games. You can find several 1st person game in the game list on this very website - check them out.

As for the coding - it's really not that difficult - I started with no knowledge of it at all, but after following the instructions for making the demo game, I soon found my way around it, and if you have problems, the people here will help you.  I don't if there is "much coding" required as I'm not sure what too much coding would be. I find it acceptable though. Everything has its own script virtually, which keeps the projects organised and well structured.

WME is the best engine out there, unless you want 360 degree 1st person. It's my wish that WME had this feature - then it would be able to do everything except full 3D, and there's plenty of time for that in the future

[Mnemonic]

WME games do run in Vista (or at least I didn't discover any outstanding issues). When running in windowed mode they ran slower compared to XP on my machine. I don't know if it's caused by the Aero desktop or if the graphics drivers aren't yet fully optimized. Also, the games should use the "Personal savegames" option to act Vista-friendly.
There's no Game Explorer integration, though, because it requires a digitally signed executable [edit: not true, it only requires digital signature to display ESRB rating, Game Explorer is supported since WME 1.8].

[Stucki]

i have some problems compiling my game on vista ....

Error copying the engine runtime to the output folder
Error copying plugin wme_sample_pixel.dll
Creating package ´data´
Packages created successfuly

but in my package folder there is nothing

And if i choose project settings and switch to plugins i can see no plugins listed ... but if i click in the blank list i can highlight sample pixel plugin and the sample plugin snow generator but they are still not displayed in the list only the infotext is visible. And shouldnt there be more than two plugins listed its a little bit wierd ...

any ideas ??
its a little urgent, because i wanted to mail a demo to an interested publisher tomorrow ...
greets stucki

[Mikael]

Thanks for the excellent replies!

It obviously sounds promising. I have some completing questions before I dive into the program.

Is there any limit to how many "rooms" you can use? I'm interested in using at least 1,000 rooms, or frames, or whatever you want to call it. I know that some of the other engines out there has limitations on this. Is it time consuming to constantly switch between these rooms during the game making process?

How many sound channels are available?

Thanks again in advance!

[odnorf]

There are no built-in limitations.

There are 5 sound channels.

[Mnemonic]

There are 5 sound channels.

Five music channels, to be exact. There's no practical limit on the number of sounds playing simultaneously.

[Mnemonic]

And if i choose project settings and switch to plugins i can see no plugins listed ... but if i click in the blank list i can highlight sample pixel plugin and the sample plugin snow generator but they are still not displayed in the list only the infotext is visible. And shouldnt there be more than two plugins listed its a little bit wierd ...

This is a known bug already reported by Mac. It will be fixed in 1.7.2.

but in my package folder there is nothing

I can't test it right now, but isn't your project directory in Program Files? If it is, Vista might be moving the files to your "Application Data" directory.

[Stucki]

okay where is the folder application data meant to be .... if i do a search for it i cant locate it ....

but why cant the the engine runtime not be copied to the output folder ??
will this be fixed in 1.7.2
and when will it be released ...??

sorry to bother you with this, but i told the publisher he will get the demo tomorrow ....
Greets stucki

[Mnemonic]

The best thing you can do is to move your project directory to other location than "Program Files" on Vista. But if the project is in Program Files, you'll probably find the files in "C:\Users\Your User Name\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\WME DevKit\".

[Stucki]

big thanks for your quick help !!!

i moved the folder and now everthing works fine ....
had to activate show hidden files first in windows .... than i could find my project .... stupid me ....

but why is vista doing this strangs things

glad you could help !!

stucki

[Mnemonic]

but why is vista doing this strangs things

The reason is: if you are running Vista with non-admin rights, you don't have the right to write-access the Program Files directory. But since many pre-vista programs do write to that directory, Vista automatically redirects all writes (and subsequent reads) to the AppData path, not to break compatibility with old software.

[Mnemonic]

I also found Windows Explorer displays a "Compatibility files" button in Program Files which will transfer you to the appropriate AppData\Local\VirtualStore\... directory.