limits of the TRUEVISION3D Engine? + some general Questions.

[arshish1612]

Hi,
    Lemme introduce my self. My name is Arshish Maneckji and have been a develper for the past 5 years now. I have worked in .NET, JAVA and dabbled in c++ off and on. However all my experience has always been in "boring" business applications. I have no experience however in writing any 3D applications or games. (Have made a few simple models in 3ds Max though just for the fun of it.. nothing complex)

Writing a game has always been an interest of mine but the thought of digging deep in C++ and working directly with DirectX has always given me the shivers. Also quite frankly I dont even know where to start. Having played around with the examples for 6.2, I have now have a vague idea of whats needed but quite frankly thats just not enough information to start making a complete game especially for someone entirely new to this concept. What i wanna make is a multiplayer Cricket game which would have each of the 22 players actually playing together. Firstly is this possible in TV3d? I know 6.2 has no networking support so thats out, but would this be possible in 6.5? Also, what problems would i face with such a game assuming I use 6.5? Is there any complete game tutorial available for TV3d that is fairly complex which one can use to understand the concept behind making a game?

Secondly, I have read the comparisons between TV3d and other products and quite frankly the idea of being able to completely code the game rather just script it appeals to me. What i would like to know is how would 6.5 lack in comparison when compared to some of the expensive game engines out there. (like the FarCry engine). What would be completely out of the leage for a product TV3D 6.5? How would 6.5 stack up to lets say the UNREAL 3 engine?

Thirdly, while playing with the examples, they show how to generate a Huge Terrain. How would you generate a never ending terrain like the ones in WOW? Also, is it recomended that the terrains a built from using code use a Map editor and import the terrain? Please keep in mind that i have NO game development knowledge so I appologise is this is a stupid question. What would render faster?

Lastly, im already pretty sure im buying the 6.5 license but as im sure this has been asked over and over again, how long will we have to wait till it will be released? I have not seen a fixed release date anywhere. I dont mind buying the Beta right away as long as i know the realease is gonna be out in about a month. Can i get some info on this.

Thank you, and please bear with me if some of my questions are stupid. I'm really new to this.

Regards,
Arshish Maneckji

[Velen]

Hi Arshish

TV3d as an engine is not lacking at all But here is where there is a lot of confusion for many. TV3d is a display engine that can be used for games or any other application that requiers a high level 3d real time display enviorment.

TO make a game useing TV3d you will need to compleatly create the game from the ground up and TV will display the results for you. TV 6.5 from what I understand will have some for of net code to aide in this process of creation but is not there yet. There are a number of networking engines out that can be use in conjunction with tv 6.2 . so your networking can be handled.

The choice of a game engine will depend compleatly on what you want to create verses what the engine you are looking at was created to do. Farcry is a first person shooter, and is a compleat game there engine is available for licence and has sorce with it at that point. But to do your crikit game I would think you will need to do a lot of rewriting. also farcry's networking is not the best.

There are many game maker pacages out that are designed for faster development of first person shooter types. Some have or claim to have networking but i have yet to see any of these actualy produce a game with reliable working net conections.

If you want easy then TV is not nesasaraly the way for you to go. If you are a programer then there are many books on game design that can help you with the lay out of the game you want to make and TV would permit you to make presisly what you want with fewer compramises.

6.5 has been in beta for 2 years now and there is not official release date yet. The vidio engine portion of it is nearing compleation as is stated by the Dev's but from what i have gleaned the networking aspect is not implamented yet. So as to release in a month who knows, the compleat release with out implamentation in beta yet of various parts I would say nope. I partial pre-release I sapose could be done but would not be in keeping with the way things have been done here before.



Hope this helps clear things a bit for you.

Toodles

[arshish1612]

Hi Velen,

Firstly, thank you for your reply.

Regarding TV3D being a display engine and not a complete game development environment, I had figured that out by going through the forums and that is one of the reasons I want to use TV3D. Coming from a programming background, i find this rather appealing.

Could you recommend any books or complete game tutorials (not just examples on how to render things) using TV3d? Since ive never programmed something like this before, haveing a resource like that to get my hands dirty with would be invaluable.

Arshish.

[arshish1612]

Can anyone give me some insight on this....?

Thirdly, while playing with the examples, they show how to generate a Huge Terrain. How would you generate a never ending terrain like the ones in WOW? Also, is it recomended that the terrains a built from using code use a Map editor and import the terrain? Please keep in mind that i have NO game development knowledge so I appologise is this is a stupid question. What would render faster?

[zaky]

well, a good idea for getting an idea about game development with a 3d engine will be to create some smaller games first.. space invaders type

[potato]

Infinite terrain is a bit complicated. You will have to implement a system where you unload and load new terrains into memory as your character goes along.

Note that unless you plan on generating your terrain computationally, there can never truly be *infinite* terrain, such things are capped by the amount of content you are able to generate.

Search the forums under "landscape paging" for more info on this technique.

If you come from a professional software background you shouldn't have too difficult of a time with TV. Many aspects of game code parallel what is already done in high-performance apps. Things like paging data is nothing new, just now it has a 3D twist

[sgrippa]

I do believe that 6.5 has a setpaging option that duplicates "endlessly" your current heightmap.

[Velen]

Hi

Smile I would say one of the best resorces atm for game divlopment would be MSN if you are useing Visual Studio to program. The XMA express has a number of game tutorials for the C# language they are mostly for 2d but that dosent mater to give you an idea. MS also release a full 3d shooter title Mec comander or warrior cant remember but it is the full code for the game and very big but you can run through that to get the lay out of a larger game.

Other wise go to your favorite book store and browse a bit, only you can deside what writer presents things in ways to make sence for you. Game designe is like anything else, be it a database app wordprocessor or any thing else. You need to sit down and draw out what you want to achieve. What features you want in your game and so on. Then its like any thing else break that down to programing componit level and do it. Games are seen as this black box thing when in fact they are the same as any thing else.

To get an idea why I refrain from giving spacific titales try googeling Game Design lol You will get the point.

Good luck and welcome to insanuty Frustration and when it works King of the world

Toodles