Hardwar » coding http://www.hardwar.org A free software Hardwar remake Mon, 26 Sep 2011 08:55:35 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Making it easier to build on windows http://www.hardwar.org/post/159 http://www.hardwar.org/post/159#comments Mon, 19 Jul 2010 02:45:58 +0000 Andrew http://www.hardwar.org/?p=159 Continue reading →]]> This weekend I spent 48 hours trying to make building the game on windows a much better experience. I first started by grouping together all the dependencies required to build the game into one repository dedicated to building the game on windows. Normally you would get these yourself however it is so complicated that I wanted to make it much easier for people that want to join in. This means if you want to quickly get into building and working on the code you simply download an extra repository before running the build system.

I also updated the windows instructions on the forum. Anyone who saw it before will notice that it is a very big improvement. Unfortunately I have not been able to get a visual studio linking the code. If it doesn’t build then do not be surprised, however please do file bugs or post in the forum’s code section. It should currently compile but there is some issue with the libraries that needs sorting.

Hopefully soon we will have the game working on windows and not just linux then we can start working on an OSX port too.

]]> http://www.hardwar.org/post/159/feed 2 Contributing code to the project http://www.hardwar.org/post/20 http://www.hardwar.org/post/20#comments Sat, 10 Oct 2009 08:45:00 +0000 Andrew http://hardwar.opengameart.org/?p=20 Continue reading →]]> What I have to say now is specific to the code and doesn’t involve the artwork at all.

I have been thinking about how we can get as many people playing the game as possible and I think I have hit upon a winning formula. In the very distant future when Hardwar is mature and fun enough we will try to get it distributed on different platforms such as xbox live, steam, play station, etc.

I think this would be both good for the project and open source as a whole. My plan is that we charge for the game in these distribution channels however release the same code base online for free as it is now and always will be. My belief is that people who use these distribution channels are happy to give money to get the game. If not then they always have the choice of downloading directly from our website.

With this plan issues which I have not accounted for may arise to do with the licensing on the code base. One example I can think of right now is if we need to integrate proprietary APIs to make the game work on certain games consoles. Since we’re using the GPL 3 for our code base what do we do? We would not be able to include the proprietary API in our open source code. We also want players to have the freedom to play our game anywhere even if that means they would rather trade freedom for convenience on a closed source games console.

I think the solution is that we have a contributor license agreement for the code base. This would allow us flexibility to publish Hardwar to wherever we wanted while still keeping the game free software.

It’s an issue of trust. I think that trust is earned and so far I have proven myself with my past work and also this project. I am the sole contributor to the code and own all the copyright on it. This change would be business as usual, so I don’t see any problems with this. My motivations for this change are strictly to promote the game in markets that have so far been unreachable by open source games.

Right now our community is non-existent which is why I am proposing this sooner rather then later. Everyone would know what to expect when getting involved with the code.

]]> http://www.hardwar.org/post/20/feed 4 Building Placement is working http://www.hardwar.org/post/18 http://www.hardwar.org/post/18#comments Sun, 05 Jul 2009 03:44:00 +0000 Andrew http://hardwar.opengameart.org/?p=18 Continue reading →]]> I’ve finally worked out most of the problems with the dragging and dropping of buildings in the editor and it now works! Not only that but the buildings are added to everyone who is in the game. Very exciting to see after all this effort.

I even made a video of two clients being connected to one server to show this off.

]]> http://www.hardwar.org/post/18/feed 0 threads are hard work http://www.hardwar.org/post/17 http://www.hardwar.org/post/17#comments Fri, 08 May 2009 01:10:00 +0000 Andrew http://hardwar.opengameart.org/?p=17 Continue reading →]]> I just pushed up revision 77 which includes my first implementation of threads on the server code. A thread allows for the execution of multiple pieces of code “at the same time”.

I’m currently using it only to manage the clients on the server and there are still bugs in it. I have been reluctant to upload anything until now because it has taken me quite some time to get the code back into a state where the game loads again. Unfortunately there is nothing to show off this time as it is all server side.

My plans are to get this working correctly before I move on to object placement/level editing. The idea is that only the admin can have access to such features, which is why I am working of the server first.

]]> http://www.hardwar.org/post/17/feed 0 Loading screen redux http://www.hardwar.org/post/16 http://www.hardwar.org/post/16#comments Sun, 22 Mar 2009 17:01:00 +0000 Andrew http://hardwar.opengameart.org/?p=16 Continue reading →]]> Only one day after posting my poorly done concept artwork for the loading screen and I received an amazing response back from the community.

Below I have posted my original drawing (left) and next to it is Tranberry’s effort (right).

As you can see it is really looking good and I am currently making an effort to get it into the game.

This however is taking time because I have removed CEGUI in favour of MyGUI, a different GUI library. I am also in the middle of finishing my university course so there won’t be many code updates until next month after my final year project deadline. I will be active in the forums though so please come and join in the fun.

]]> http://www.hardwar.org/post/16/feed 0 Network programming http://www.hardwar.org/post/14 http://www.hardwar.org/post/14#comments Sun, 25 Jan 2009 02:21:00 +0000 Andrew http://hardwar.opengameart.org/?p=14 Continue reading →]]>
I just started working on the networking in the game. It meant moving a lot of code around but I’m pretty happy with the results which is it very uninspiring connection screen (hint hint UI artists) which after connecting to a server will load up the main game.

We’re using Enet for the networking library which can be pretty tough to get your head around the code, however it’s worth it.

Apart from initially connecting to the server the code does not do much else at the moment. However it is exciting to see how the code forms more and more of a game whenever I get the time to work on it.

I already committed this version to bzr so you can check it out and see. You’ll need to do “./hardwar –help” to get a full list of commands.

]]> http://www.hardwar.org/post/14/feed 2 Working on the main game http://www.hardwar.org/post/11 http://www.hardwar.org/post/11#comments Tue, 10 Jun 2008 10:16:00 +0000 Andrew http://hardwar.opengameart.org/?p=11 Continue reading →]]> So the editor is progressing nicely. Discussing with c-thru we have decided to make the entire crater as static geometry but have the buildings placed in the editor. So every game could have different building locations but the main craters or level geometery would look the same. I think that this is the best decision as we want sometime playable as quick as possible and it’s much easier to just make the craters in max, export them and then add buildings.

So I started working on the main game. As usual the hardest and most difficult part is starting. I have planned for all games to be run through a server which means that if you start a single player game it would start up a server on your computer which only you can connect to. I am thinking that this would save us alot of time rather then building a single player then adding multiplayer support. It also requires doing alot of stuff I’ve never done before which is time consuming so my progess has been slow at this point while I move code around and do lots of experimentation.

]]> http://www.hardwar.org/post/11/feed 1 Editor is working http://www.hardwar.org/post/10 http://www.hardwar.org/post/10#comments Sun, 04 May 2008 10:48:00 +0000 Andrew http://hardwar.opengameart.org/?p=10 Continue reading →]]> So it’s time for a quick update. Dave joined me in the quest to make the ultimate video games and he’s one hell of a 3d modeler. Here’s some of the buildings he quickly whipped up.

For the past 4 days I’ve been in RAD mode kicking out code like there was no tomorrow. I decided to stick with Ogre and get a map editor going. Here is the result.

For more information you should see the development thread on the freegamer forums where we post more often.
]]> http://www.hardwar.org/post/10/feed 0 Progress! http://www.hardwar.org/post/9 http://www.hardwar.org/post/9#comments Sat, 02 Feb 2008 18:43:00 +0000 Andrew http://hardwar.opengameart.org/?p=9 Continue reading →]]> With the release of Ubuntu Gutsy an updated package for Ogre 3D has been included so I have now been able to easily do game development on my main OS. Since my last posts I have been busy with life (as most people are). I moved to a different country and have continued on my university course. As always progress is slow.

Anyway, I like how elegant Ogre 3D is as an engine and although I have been making mistakes along the way (as you do in any development) I have enjoyed the ride.

In total I have probably only put in about 24 hours development time (minus the days the days of wondering why the models wouldn’t load properly) but in that time I have been able to recreate the Alpha crater and fly around in a silverY.

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