Another step beyond...

 Well I have added the PNG Loader back into Ultim this takes any png file and loads it into the engine's UImage system for use in the engine, once its loaded we can use it as we want. On the whole this was quite painless which was nice. At present we have the wav audio loader done, now we have the png loader down.

We have the basics of a 2d system done as well so what we need to do now is the rendering system and then start fleshing out the other sections of the engine to make it useful, once we have a more robust renderer it will be ready for a basic game test to move put it through its paces.

On the whole the entire engine is written in raw C++ and OpenGL there is no external engines being used like SDL etc this means that if there are any issues that arise when writing the engine we do not have to wait for external groups to fix bugs in their code before we can continue.

More soon...

a little more...

After starting the C++ version of Star Rogue more as a test to get Ultim to render something other than the standard tests I have enjoyed for the most part coding in Code::Blocks. Yes I did look at the Unity C# version and that does look nice as well but scripting still doesn't feel like coding to me no matter how you dress it, we have versions of SR for Unity, AGK and C++. AGK has been retired in favour of the Unity version due to performance issues with AGK and that development is easier in Unity at present.

On the C++ front we still aim to have a kick butt engine that can do everything we want from GUI apps to games all in one place, it's a solid aim and one we are striving towards (Unity and AGK are more games related).

More soon...

Loaders and Ultim C++

 Loaders are finally getting there for Star Rogue, these ones are for the Ultim/C++ version of the system, the loaders themselves use the standard data from all versions of the game engine. Once this version is done I will be adding to the Ultim engine and making it more complete, we want to complete a GUI module and a networking module.

The C++ version is more of a test than a complete product at present it gives us something to test the engine out with, as games go it would be a 2d version of the game (not always a bad thing as there are to many 3d space games out there these days).

More soon...

continued development

We have been quiet of late as it's been so hot over here which is causing all sorts of havoc with supply shortages and other issues during the pandemic.

On the Star Rogue front we are making slow progress through porting it from AGK to Unity5 but we are making progress. One upshot of it all is the lighting in Unity is soooo much more amazing than AGK with shadows rendered perfectly and once it's ready I will post some shots of the space station using the new system :)

More soon....

Ever onwards...

This week we have been doing loads to our systems and planning out and starting new ones, to this end we have been doing the following:

1) Firstly we have been working on Star Flight:Star Rogue in Unity, we have loads of prototypes for this game over the years but now we are ready to get it to the finished state for version 1 so we're getting that down. We have the loaders for all the data complete now and I'm just working on the scene layouts. After that I will flesh out each scene making sure it's all working as intended and once thats all down we can release a new demo.

2) Our second project is Ultim, this is our own internal C++ engine and it is still coming ever onwards now. Just today I have added the basic graphics window creation to the mix and started the UMessage system so the games we write can check for messages from the engine etc.

3) Blokymo is also still in development in Unity this is another project that we are going to bring up to date and get another version out there.

We have chosen Unity and C++ as these two systems meet our requirements for the current games make yes we also have AGK2 but that isn't 100% the system we need so we aren't using that at present.

More soon...

More progress...ever onwards...

Well I now have several sections of the old Star Rogue code ported from AppGameKit Classic code to Unity C# code. At present these systems are as follows:

Star Systems - this loader takes the relevant system file then loads it into game usable information so I can lay out a star system.

Galaxy data - like system files this lays out the galaxy map.

Naming system - loads all the names and allows for name generation

Mission loader- This loads the mission scripts and allows the game to generate them for the BBS system when it's in there.

As with everything as I port other sections of the game over I merge that into the new code and this will in the end allow me to have all the old code ported over. Once it's all ported I will go back to adding more to the game and getting it back out this using the new system...

We have also got the UAudio audio system back into Ultim C++ engine as a separate audio module, this simply uses OpenAL to play audio but allows for volume, looping, playing and mixing of sounds and data.

More soon...

Getting there slowly...

 Like most things that take time we have been porting over the different sections of the Star flight: Star Rogue game from AppGameKit to Unity. This mostly is going very painfully the idea behind it is so that everything we code will be under one single code base and not on several platforms. As I said in my previous post that Unity is our tool of choice and one we will be committing to in a big way, its not our only tool we will still use C++ for tools etc.

    The conversion process is going nicely we have ported over the star system loader and the galaxy map loader there are some more data sections to port over and then I can start to make the renderer so we can see the basic star system once its in there and from then on lay out the game as a whole.

More soon....

Making everything unified in Unity....

Finally after many decades of coding I have finally settled on one language for main development, yes there are loads of languages we know and use over time but this will be used for 95% of everything. What language and system I hear you cry... Well it's...

Unity...to put it simply the reasons this is a thing is quite simple. It's free to install and for the most part you just get the Unity Hub and install a version, and finally it supports most of the targets I want.

Unity is the easiest thing to install and use so far the other languages and systems out there are either niche, hard to get going, degrading digitally or out dated. Unity is always being actively developed and moving forwards.

I have tried:

C++ with code blocks... This is a close second BUT will take so much more to get to the same functionality as Unity.

AppGameKit...is nice has a nice selection of targets but is already replaced by AGK studio so it's in maintaining mode... maintenance mode means no new features so if something breaks in a target it gets minimum fixes and that's it...

BlitzMax... monkey...BRL stuff was best when max was out but now is nostalgia.

Unity using C# is the best so far and quickest to get going so we are using that from now on for all projects....

We are porting out code to C# now...

More soon...