Switch TowDown to Irrlicht?

[Michael Hartlef]

Hi folks,

as Kent suggested to switch to Irrlicht, I guess a poll would be nice.
Give your vote, feel free to comment.

[ErosOlmi]

Well, my vote is no but not because I would not like to see a Irrlicht game but because there's no need to switch.
Just create another project under Irrlicht using many of the fantastic ideas and big work done for TBGL TopDown 3D.
TBGL TopDown 3D can go on by its own road if time and willing to do it.

Attention: Irrlicht is just at the very beginning, developed when time permits. If you will need new functionalities not yet available in wrapper module, it will be not so automatic to have the next day. So before starting a big project, please better to prepare a strategy and see if all neded functionalities are already there.
Maybe you can suggest Roberto what you (plural) think could be priorities, what could be nice to have first from the massive Irrlicht function arsenal.

Ciao
Eros

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi,

I don't know but remaking one game from one engine to another is always a bit of pain.
All would change - models file format, sources ...

But it would be cool to have some Irrlicht game later too, when we will learn how to handle it, Roberto is doing great work on it.


Bye,
Petr

[Michael Hartlef]

I voted no as I see no big advantage in using Irrlicht for TopDown. Plus I hate switching from one tool to the next available during a project.

[kryton9]

I voted no too. Doing another project in Irrlicht sounds like the way to go. TopDown in tbgl is going along very nicely.

[Petr Schreiber]

Thanks guys,

I can see some space for optimizations in TBGL,
I hope with version 2.0.0 our life will be easier then :)


Bye,
Petr

[kryton9]

I was playing with Irrlicht this weekend on breaks. It is hard to find quake 3 maps anymore, lots of junk and chasing crazy links everywhere. But that is not what this post is about :)

I also looked in even more depth at the irrlicht site and tools available. I really do think for topdown the mission 3d game, ground based, that is on planets, inside buildings, irrlicht would be the way to go.

The space stuff we could do in tbgl. I think Petr and Roberto should when and if they have any time is to figure out how to use m15 models in irrlicht. And make any other commands to make it nice to integrate tbgl stuff into irrlicht. It would be neat if thinBasic allowed this for irrlicht as it would add even more to irrlicht than it already is.

I also had a question about Mike's thinPose. So I will post it here as well. Mike what format will thinPose save out to and what formats will it import if it does?
Maybe you could plan on it being a tool for both tbgl and irrlicht. Such a useful tool would be neat for any engine!!

Irrlicht has a neat level editor and light mapper. I didn't use it yet but looked through it at the site, and it looks well thought out. Maybe Roberto could add m15 file format import/export to it.

I guess the main point of this confusing post is that perhaps at this time at the early stages, in thinBasic, we should be looking at integrating tbgl and irrlicht, they could be on their own, but can also work together. To give these options to thinBasic programmers it would be neat if viable that is.

[Michael Hartlef]

I also had a question about Mike's thinPose. So I will post it here as well. Mike what format will thinPose save out to and what formats will it import if it does?
Maybe you could plan on it being a tool for both tbgl and irrlicht. Such a useful tool would be neat for any engine!!

It is not decided yet. I'll let you know when I have it set in stone.

[kryton9]

I guess the main thing is to think about upgradeability when developing our apps. I saw the limits in my model viewer as I worked on it. I am trying to figure out a system of making modular and upgradeable. It would be based on user types and ini files all over the place to make the modules. That is all I have right now. I guess once Eros gets the type within type going, it will be easier to figure it all out.