Re: [Adonthell-general] Some general suggestion

[Kai Sterker]

On 4/21/05, Ingo Ruhnke <address@hidden> wrote:

Hi Ingo,

thanks for your extensive E-Mail.

> Documentation:
> --------------
> There seems to be lots of it, however most seems to be scattered a bit
> far across the webpage and hard to access, ie. the API-docu comes in
> form of a tarball instead of being directly linked, some other docu
> comes in form of PDF files instead of HTML and some task list stuff
> comes in the form of txt files. 

PDF seems to be a good choice for documentation that describes a final
state and which does hardly change. The API doc should be available
online though, and a Wiki might be a good idea for the TODOs.

> There also seems to be some secret
> repositories for story and artwork floating around somewhere not
> directly linked from the webpage.

Yes, but that is somewhat intentional. They should be kept out of
player sight, while developers have access. Actually, there are even
links to them on the website since a short while. We will also keep
the data for the next demo game in public CVS, in contrast to the
Waste's Edge demo game.

> If needed I can help a bit
> with installing, far from being an expert on the topic, but still have
> a little bit experince with Wikis.

We'd need some suitable webspace for that first (although we should be
able to set up a PHP Wiki at linuxgames.com. If it requires Perl
though (or Python or anything else) we'd need a location for it first.

 
> Graphics:
> ---------
> How far are the graphics for 0.4?

Little done on that front. It's a little the problem of hen and egg.
No graphics --> little motivation to complete the mapengine. No
mapengine --> little motivation to draw more graphics.


> Engine/Map:
> -----------

v0.3 map engine will not be reused. A new one is in development (and
there was even a working demo of it some years ago). We're trying to
get it up and running with the v0.4 branch and release it to the
public. But it's not complete yet (especially missing collision
detection and path finding). Writing a spec might be required though.

In brief, it's not tilebased; instead objects of arbitrary size can be
used. A 3D model is used internally to allow different height levels,
but all objects are 2D. Objects themselves can be composed of multiple
graphics, respectively animations. All this needs to be properly coded
though. Parts could probably be reused from v0.3, but a few things
should change, like no custom gfx format. Instead all objects should
simply refer the graphics they use.


> Editor:
> -------
> I know there is a dialog editor, but how much else? 

Nothing yet. I've started with a quest editor, but so far I haven't
done more than creating its gui with glade. A mapeditor would require
a spec of the engine first and almost certainly an implementation of
our graphic objects. Although for latter it wouldn't matter if it was
created for the editor or for the mapengine.

I've been considering flexlay, as its support for Python/SWIG will
blend nicely with Adonthell's Python/SWIG scripting abilities.
(Basically, all of v0.4 can run as a Python module)

> Story:
> ------
> How much is that done, how far is the character development, dialog lines, 
> etc?

As Andrew set, story and characters are mostly done, no dialog written yet.


> Status of Development and the Devolpers:
> ----------------------------------------
> In general, how far is the devolopment, what is readily usable in CVS
> or close to be usable? 

The engine architecture doc pretty much describes what we have for
v0.4 right now. A mapengine prototype could be ready within weeks (if
Alex can dig out the datafiles somewhere), but all in all a lot of
integration work needs to be done.

http://adonthell.linuxgames.com/files/architecture.pdf 


> Happypenguin's Help Wanted aka. 'GotM':
> ---------------------------------------

We were thinking about this, but it did not make much sense without a
list of tasks and enough documentation to get people started. As you
say, it could still be easier for developers, so maybe some more work
is required before applying. Having the mapengine preview running
might also help, as it seems easier to start with partially working
code than starting with nothing. And as far as I can tell, GotM is
about improving upon existing stuff, not writing things from scratch.
But latter is also what we need at parts.


> IRC Meeting:
> ------------
> To tie it all up I would suggest to have a IRC meeting, say Saturday,
> 30.04.2004, 18:00GMT or whenever it fits most current developers. 

Might be a good idea to pass information rather quickly. 30.04 will be
impossible for me, though. I'll post something once I have a chance to
check my calendar.

> BTW. Are any of the developers around in that channel regularly these
> days? I had it in my autojoin quite a long while back, but beside from
> the sporadic meetings it was basically all empty for the rest of the
> time, is that still the case?

Yes. We only used the channel for our monthly meeting, but we hadn't
any of that for a long time now. Sad.


> Short Summary:
> --------------
> I have basically absolutly no idea what the actual status of the 0.4
> game is, have enjoyed 0.3 a lot, and might be able to offer a little
> help when it comes to graphics and the level/map editor.

As said above: see
http://adonthell.linuxgames.com/files/architecture.pdf . It describes
what is there and how it works. It also includes the bigger picture.

You already helped a lot with this email. Thanks. If you can help
further (be it with graphics, documentation, mapeditor) that would be
cool.

Kai