Brussells Development Blog

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve updated the ol’ site but I come bearing lots of updates to Piston3D. Since the last writing I have added just some of the following I can remember off the top of my head:

• Basic Scene Graph ( Includes AABB Frustum Curling )
• HLSL Diffuse\Specular Lighting
• Basic GUI System ( Form, Labels, etc. )
• Render to Target ( Dramatic FPS gain in GUI system so far )
• AABB on all Scene Objects for fast Curling in Scene
• First Person Camera Implementation
• Basic Event System ( Input, Windowing Events, etc. ) coupled with Listeners

Well below is 2 screenshots, in the first you can see a basic GUI system which is first rendered to a Target ( dynamic texture ) then until any states change that texture is rendered on a simple 2 primitive box representing the owning form. Also shown is a simple Torus model with Diffuse + Specular lighting that I started with HLSL. Take notice of the Vertice & Face count numbers in the first screen shot. Now in the 2nd screenshot you will notice the torus is no longer drawn, I actually moved the view and now when looking at the Vertice & Face counts you will see a dramatic drop b\c the AABB Frustum Curling system I’ve implemented so far in the Scene Graph system quickly cut it out with very little over head. I will implement more advance Sphere Curling calculations as I move forward and so on, this is just a dirty test of my theories and knowledge thus far and it appears to be working rather well =). Did I mention the whole project thus far is modular in design and API Graphic Independant =). But I only have DirectX 9.0c and HLSL implemented thus far.

I thought I would drop the news of what I have been up to lately behind the scenes in programming. I’m currently working on starting up my own Software company on the side. This blog will be the first mention on this new company that I’m calling IronWorks Software. I have a domain up and a base website just up for place holding till I get some of my work done to showcase and offer on it. The website can be found here: http://www.ironworkssoftware.com/.

One of the first pieces of a possible product that might be found offered on it is a pure Win32 Menu system for developers to use. It’s different in that this menu system is built from the ground up using straight OS API access for speed and durability. So far the feature list is far too much to write here and much of it is going to be re-worked before release I’m sure. I have a peek at this new component in action in a win32 test program.

I haven’t ironed out the name of this new component ( “ironed out” heh, no pun intended ). So I’ll just call it IronMenu for now.

Enjoy,
-Brandon

Since leaving Valve Software back in 2003, I have found myself longing to get back into game programming. For me it was an awesome experience to be not only a programmer, but a game designer with a voice over how the game flowed and molded. Working for a game company to me would be very cool, but too much like where I work now in working for the man up the ladder in the coporate office. No I can’t have that. For me, game development is like the best of all worlds in my book. I can get technical and program to my hearts content, be a film director or writer to help the story along, or put on my art hat and beef up the visuals and sound. Finally, in the end you get to feel your sense of accomplishment when the fans start crowding the forums, or sending emails talking all about your game ( good and the bad ). It’s then you get to put on your PR (public Relations ) hat and deal with the public. When release ( sell ) time comes, if you plan on selling your work, you get to play coporate professional in advertising, selling your game. There is so many hats to wear in Game Development for those who choose to go alone or on a small team that it keeps it fun and interesting.

I thought I found my new home with a local company here in Bham, AL called ClownKeep. I actually worked with the owner ( head artist / 3d guru ) and another scripter / artist at my full-time job. Oh the plans we had in motion for taking over the world … it was such fun. You can actually search Garage Games for clownkeep and see one of the projects we had going. Unfortunately, life isn’t always perfect … people move on to other jobs, life, kids, and house improvements take away from the joys of spare time Game Development as did with our team. After Dave, the owner of clownkeep, left for another job up north in Huntsville, the team decided to take a short recess, but I knew what that meant and it came true unfortunately. That recess has turned into nearly a 6 month silence for our team, one that I’ve seen far too much in the past.

So now, back on my own in this lonely world of Game Development in AL I find myself asking the one question all solo developers find theirself asking. Is there really any hope for my game development obsession ? Will my futile solo work mean anything in the end ? Or will it just be time wasted ? I geuss the only true answer is never give up, always keep your head up, and your code flowing.

With all that back story out of the way, I now get on to the good news. I am continueing my solo work in my spare time. I need to narrow my 2 platform choices down though before things get too complicated. I’m currently implementing a XNA engine and game, and a C++ engine and game. This is bad and leads to slow progression. My first reaction is to dump the XNA one and go with the tried and true method of C++, but for some reason that naggin voice in the back of my head keeps me hanging on to the XNA. Could it in fact be the future for game development ? One thing is for sure, .Net development makes life so much easier with the facts of built in memory managment, cross platform implementations, and the backing of Microsoft as possibly the “future” pick of programming platforms. Unfortunately, being on the frontline of a work in progress such as .Net and XNA comes with a price. No matter what people say, writing a game for it such as a normal FPS, or normal RPG style game with cutting edge graphics has it’s performance hits vs. C++. But unlike others, with PCs quickly overpowering in specs, and video cards ramping up the onboard memory and processing power, and now having physics hardware cards, the future is looking alot brighter for XNA. I have much faith that Microsoft will only continue to make the .Net language more stream lined in future releases, and even more so for game development in XNA.

So chasing this rabbit down the hole and returning back out, I find myself asking the all to important question still. Should my project stay with XNA and .Net and hope the future improvements and my work join paths in the near future ? So many possibilities and questions, and not enough facts and answers.