Cross Platform Game Development
The latest update to SDL was released yesterday.
According to the release notes, this is a major release. They also highlight several OpenGL chnages and updates as well as major changes to the build system.
The most significant change for me is the ability to build Universal Binary applications for Mac OS X. This is possible using Xcode or traditional makefiles. This is great news for all Mac game developers.
You can always get the latest version of SDL from their download page.
Gamer Within has a two page Q&A with John Carmack. It covers his new MegaTexture technology used in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.
The idea behind MegaTexture is to use one giant texture to cover the entire terrain. The example given in the article is 32,000 by 32,000 pixels. Current video cards obviously can’t directly use this texture to render the terrain, but this does allow game artists to create very detailed terrains.
The article doesn’t provide any technical coverage of the technique, but it is still an interesting read. Here’s a quote that caught my attention concerning terrain rendering:
Geometry level of detail on terrain…there have been thousands of papers written about it, and I honestly don’t think it’s all that important. The way the hardware works, you’re so much better off setting down a static mesh that’s all in vertex and index buffers, and just letting the hardware plow through it…
I remember spending a lot of time a few years ago trying to figure out things like ROAM for rendering terrain. Even back then it was usually faster to just dump all of the triangles on the video card and let it sort them out.
The screen shots in the article look great. I can’t wait to try this out in person.
All three Lua tutorials have now been updated to cover version 5.1 of Lua. I’ve also started working on a fourth Lua tutorial that’s more of a real world example of using scripts within a game. Hopefully I’ll have it finished next week.
The downloads have been updated to include project files for Visual C++ 2005. I can’t think of any good reason to support Visual C++ 6 anymore. I left the older downloads at the bottom of each tutorial in case anyone is still interested in Lua 4.0 or 5.0.
Last month Microsoft announced that the Express Editions of Visual Studio 2005 are now free forever. This is great news for anyone looking for a low-cost way to get into game development on the Windows platform. Linux and Mac OS X have both provided free developer tools, it’s about time Microsoft started catching up.
Although targeted mainly at student and hobbyist programmers, the Express Editions can also be used for commercial development. The Express Editions also include the optimizing compiler and can be used for both .Net and traditional Windows development. The only things missing from Visual C++ 2005 Express are MFC and ATL. This comes from Microsoft’s Express Edition FAQ.
If this sounds good to you, head over to the Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition Download page and get started. You’ll also need to download the Platform SDK and make a few configuration changes, but the instructions on that page are pretty easy to follow.
As a result of this, I will be updating all of my tutorials to cover Visual C++ 2005 on Windows as well as the GNU tools on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. I’ll also update the Lua tutorials to cover version 5.1 while I’m at it.
One of my favorite new gaming sites has got to be 2old2play – the Older Gamers Paradise. It’s written specifically for the “older” gamer, which by their definition is 25 years or older.
They have a pretty active forum going, but you to be (or at least claim to be) 25 years old to join. They also have clans set up for lots of different games, a podcast, and a monthly magazine. The second issue of their PDF magazine was recently released.
The quality of this magazine is every bit as good as what you might find in a store. There are a couple articles that make this month’s issue worth downloading for me – an interview with indy game developers Stardock Entertainment and a history of the Legend of Zelda.
The Legend of Zelda is probably the first game that I was really addicted to. Before Zelda, I played lots of games off and on, but once I discovered Zelda, I had to beat it. I played day and night. Then once I beat the game and started over, I realized that some places in the world had changed and I was hooked all over again.
So if you’re old enough to remember the “good old days”, check out 2old2play. Most gaming websites are filled with boys who have never kissed a girl. Here many of the members are married with children.
Two SDL tutorials have been added to the site:
These should be enough to get you started with SDL. More advanced tutorials are coming soon.
Three Lua tutorials have now been added to the site:
These should provide everything you need to start adding Lua scripting to your games.
The first tutorial has been posted.
This tutorial will show you how to easily transition between different states in your game. For example, from the opening screen, to the menu, and then on to the game. Check it out and let me know what you think.