Happy new year!
Here is a quick update on the latest developments.
I’ve been very busy these last few months and now I have finally finished the much needed rewrite of the core game engine. It took a while but I’m happy with the final structure as it has made it much easier to add extra things to the game in a way that doesn’t generate spaghetti code.
As per discussion in the forum I’ve decided to move the editing out of the game. Ogitor, a level editor will be used to modify everything in the game. This should speed up development a bit and move things along a little faster as it means no one has to wait for the game to test their assets.
I also spent a few hours on the main menu scene as a way to test some of the new game engine code I had been writing. I still need to port over some of the other code such as the console and level loading but so far things are going pretty well.
I moved the source code from launchpad’s bazaar over to GitHub as I’m finding it more convenient to use. After using Bazaar for two years I’m starting to see some issues with it that I think Git has it beat.
Branching is much better in Git then it is in Bazaar. In Bazaar you have to make a new folder for every branch whereas git keeps it all self contained and lets you switch between branches in the same working folder. When I first started using Bazaar I hated this concept but after using Git for a month I’m really starting to like it a lot. It keeps everything much neater without having lots of copies all over the place.
The total disk usage is also much smaller with Git (35 MB) then it is with Bazaar (104+MB). The Launchpad website itself is almost always down for stability fixes. These two things are pretty important to me since I live in Thailand the internet isn’t that fast so smaller size wins. Github was a pretty big reason in itself. This website is much better catered to developing code then launchpad is.
So from now on expect all the code updates to be from GitHub rather then Launchpad.
What I’m currently working on is moving over some of the older code that I haven’t ported to the new system such as the debug console. I’m also going to work on things such as a place to store configuration data as well as the main menu when I get the latest designs for it.
Once these small tasks are done I plan to re-work the level loading code to load up the Ogitor exports and get working on the flying physics.
Just a friendly note, Bazaar does ‘not’ require different folders for branches last I looked. Bazaar’s advantage is that it supports several different ways of managing branches.
I can’t find any information about how to do that specifically, got a link?
Keep up the good work Hardwar is worth it.
I just found this site remaking Hardwar. I’m excited to watch it develop. I’m willing to bet if you made a way for people to donate to the cause to hopefully expedite things, I know of a guy or two that would pitch in.
What we really need is more people actively working on the project. Money wouldn’t really be of much help.
I wish I had the knowledge to help, the games I badly need a sequel or improved versions of, are Elite, Hardwar & Fragile Allegiance (in that order). Elite IV seems to be a long way away, whilst this looks real.