One of the most intriguing aspect of the game development is the tendency to hide the knowledge.
This is one of the most stupid thing that we human can do: hide our knowledge.
Why that?
Lack of self-confidence, company ripoff of staffs, and many others...I think it would be very useful to study some System Engineering and Systems in general.
Maybe a lecture like 'The web of life' could be REALLY USEFUL.
Sharing of knowledge let other people to improve what you are working on: think of the open source.
One day...the gaming industry will be more open, and maybe not every company will start its own engine because it has no money to buy one! :P
Sorry for the rant...but I like sharing ALL, because I find that everybody can learn you something, even a 'negative person': it teach you what NOT TO DO!
Apart from that...I've started rewritting the engine, to go multithreading and to apply all the knowledge I'm building now. Nothing more than an engine to understand the base of all the game development and to experiment new things...
The third iteration of Hydra (codenamed 'Turgid') will be available also on SourceForge.
I'm pretty excited about it, because I can concentrate on different aspects every time!
The first iteration was about...EVERYTHING! Two years ago, I've know nothing about game engine programming. So I studied all from scratch, trying to create a base renderer.
The second was about shaders: I wanted to develop and to investigate the beautiful world of shaders! It ended in a Light-PrePass renderer with shadow maps, screen space ambient occlusion, lightshafts, hdr...many interesting things!
What about the third? I want to enter the multithreading world, I'm really fascinated about it. Also, I want to extend the engine to became a more robust and complete framework, including also a small editor, some physics, AI and sound! And...continue studying special effects, shaders, DirectX11...
The last thought about the third iteration is about the multi-platform development: the actual design had taken in account the possibility to use OpenGL and to run under Linux and MacOS; about this...time will tell!
I want to update this blog more frequently and take many screenshot of the work in progress...
Stay tuned!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
Moving forward: Portals, DX10, Multithreading!
REALLY busy time, luckly!
We are working hard and beautifully in my company...we are experimenting and learning new things, so it is a great time!
In my spare time, apart from learning playing flamenco and jazz, going gym, reading many books (Robbins, Dills, Dyer...) , I'm studying some interesting things: Portals, Dx10 and Multithreading!
Currently I'm implementing a simple Portal System, and designing a completely rewritten game engine that takes in account the multithreading as the base brick of all the structure...this is really fascinating, because nowadays most applications are single threaded and the multithreading is added AFTER the creation of the project.
I've installed Windows 7 on my laptop, and I have to admit that it seems a good operative system: vista-eye-candy, nearxp performance. That unlocked the doors to Directx10, with all the goodies that cames from...the Directx11 also can be used, but on a Geforce8600m gt there is no room for that!
So basically...time to study. Hope to post some screenshots of the portal system soon!
We are working hard and beautifully in my company...we are experimenting and learning new things, so it is a great time!
In my spare time, apart from learning playing flamenco and jazz, going gym, reading many books (Robbins, Dills, Dyer...) , I'm studying some interesting things: Portals, Dx10 and Multithreading!
Currently I'm implementing a simple Portal System, and designing a completely rewritten game engine that takes in account the multithreading as the base brick of all the structure...this is really fascinating, because nowadays most applications are single threaded and the multithreading is added AFTER the creation of the project.
I've installed Windows 7 on my laptop, and I have to admit that it seems a good operative system: vista-eye-candy, nearxp performance. That unlocked the doors to Directx10, with all the goodies that cames from...the Directx11 also can be used, but on a Geforce8600m gt there is no room for that!
So basically...time to study. Hope to post some screenshots of the portal system soon!
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
SSAO!
After some fights...here comes the SSAO!
This is the beauty of the 'waterfall effect' of the deferred/lightprepass/z-based rendering: one you have coherence between different spaces (world, view, projection, texture...) and you switch between them rather easily, you can begin working on many interesting effects :)
This is a real basic implementation, based on various post on gamedev (thanks guys!!!)
This is the beauty of the 'waterfall effect' of the deferred/lightprepass/z-based rendering: one you have coherence between different spaces (world, view, projection, texture...) and you switch between them rather easily, you can begin working on many interesting effects :)
This is a real basic implementation, based on various post on gamedev (thanks guys!!!)
Monday, September 21, 2009
Finally a new connection!
Long time no see guys!
This is the first day I have an internet connection in my new house. After 3 months actually!
I was really busy at work, but I continued programming.
My new challange is the Deferred Rendering...a real cute rendering architecture!
After many reads (mainly gamedev) I moved to my first implementation: I found really useful to do all the calculations in view space, the view space pixel position reconstruction became really simple.
Also, the G-Buffer is actually composed of only 2 render target, rendered with a MRT: normal and linear depth. The result is a Light-Pre-Pass-Like renderer...I'll show a little result:
10 pointlights on the screen with the known rockwall normal map.
I'm also working on the ScreenSpaceAmbientOcclusion so I can move to create a little demo.
Stay tuned!
This is the first day I have an internet connection in my new house. After 3 months actually!
I was really busy at work, but I continued programming.
My new challange is the Deferred Rendering...a real cute rendering architecture!
After many reads (mainly gamedev) I moved to my first implementation: I found really useful to do all the calculations in view space, the view space pixel position reconstruction became really simple.
Also, the G-Buffer is actually composed of only 2 render target, rendered with a MRT: normal and linear depth. The result is a Light-Pre-Pass-Like renderer...I'll show a little result:
10 pointlights on the screen with the known rockwall normal map.I'm also working on the ScreenSpaceAmbientOcclusion so I can move to create a little demo.
Stay tuned!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Actual State; Near future; Future;
Some changes have happened in the last month.
I changed city, company, life.
I moved 700km away from my home, in a more prolific environment and with cool guys.
This is the main reason of the slowdown of the blog!
I'm actually coding hard, because I want to study some topics in which I'm weak, and then I want to merge all of them in the new Hydra!
During these days I'm creating some really small demos that covers different aspects of game programming:
- GUI and Font handling;
- Animation;
- Collada import;
- New graphic pipeline;
- Lightmapping;
These different topics are really interesting, and I'm quite happy of the results.
GUI and Font handling it is something simple, but can give you satisfaction and OUTPUT.
Animation is a really tricky topic, I've done a small exporter in maxscript and all sounds good,
but then I've read this article (link) and found that an importing pipeline is a good choice, even if more difficult for some aspects! Then I began using Collada...really good and FREE.
New graphic pipeline. I wanted something more shader-oriented than before, so I switched to Cg...really COOL! The rendering is organized in pipelines...each one has its own stages. Every stages can specify one or more render target and all the textures produced are specified in a common pool of texture of the pipeline. The next step will be involving a node-based editor for the creation of the rendering phase...I found it very easy and powerful, something that can istantaneously change the appearence of the game to see different pipelines and render, to study the feel of the game and tune it up!
With that in mind I begun my lightmapper. Through I started only some days ago, now it output a simple lightmap with a really simple phong shading: actually I'm spending time in creating a good unwrap and to create the radiosity normal mapping brick that I need to complete this step!
Until september I've no connection at home...so updates will be randomic! :(
But...stay tuned!
I changed city, company, life.
I moved 700km away from my home, in a more prolific environment and with cool guys.
This is the main reason of the slowdown of the blog!
I'm actually coding hard, because I want to study some topics in which I'm weak, and then I want to merge all of them in the new Hydra!
During these days I'm creating some really small demos that covers different aspects of game programming:
- GUI and Font handling;
- Animation;
- Collada import;
- New graphic pipeline;
- Lightmapping;
These different topics are really interesting, and I'm quite happy of the results.
GUI and Font handling it is something simple, but can give you satisfaction and OUTPUT.
Animation is a really tricky topic, I've done a small exporter in maxscript and all sounds good,
but then I've read this article (link) and found that an importing pipeline is a good choice, even if more difficult for some aspects! Then I began using Collada...really good and FREE.
New graphic pipeline. I wanted something more shader-oriented than before, so I switched to Cg...really COOL! The rendering is organized in pipelines...each one has its own stages. Every stages can specify one or more render target and all the textures produced are specified in a common pool of texture of the pipeline. The next step will be involving a node-based editor for the creation of the rendering phase...I found it very easy and powerful, something that can istantaneously change the appearence of the game to see different pipelines and render, to study the feel of the game and tune it up!
With that in mind I begun my lightmapper. Through I started only some days ago, now it output a simple lightmap with a really simple phong shading: actually I'm spending time in creating a good unwrap and to create the radiosity normal mapping brick that I need to complete this step!
Until september I've no connection at home...so updates will be randomic! :(
But...stay tuned!
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Secret of Mana
Yes...I want to know the Secret of Mana.
Long time ago...there was two special games. One was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and another one was Secret of Mana (I don't want to mention Chrono Trigger...I'll do it in another post).
What's about SoM? I really enjoyed it, playing with my best friend and sometimes with my sister...all in realtime? What?
Great story, great ambientation...and great gameplay. The weapons you found and the spell you learn grow with the usage. The fights are in realtime, the AI can control the other in the party or you can play together.
One of my greatest dream is to create a game like that for some console one day...with the beautiful music and all the magic that Secret of Mana has.
But now the mana is weak...and later games fail in public reception.
One day, I'll forge a new Mana and all will be good for the Universe...
Long time ago...there was two special games. One was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and another one was Secret of Mana (I don't want to mention Chrono Trigger...I'll do it in another post).
What's about SoM? I really enjoyed it, playing with my best friend and sometimes with my sister...all in realtime? What?
Great story, great ambientation...and great gameplay. The weapons you found and the spell you learn grow with the usage. The fights are in realtime, the AI can control the other in the party or you can play together.
One of my greatest dream is to create a game like that for some console one day...with the beautiful music and all the magic that Secret of Mana has.
But now the mana is weak...and later games fail in public reception.
One day, I'll forge a new Mana and all will be good for the Universe...
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Updates, ideas, thoughts
Finally I'm finishing the animation demo I've scheduled. After some research I found a good way to handle animations with blending and transitions. The results are good, the code is simple and I've both CPU and GPU skinning implementations.
Next will be the 2D demo...sure I want to develop something simple yet powerful!
On the other way I'm researching on both toolset development and multithreading. The latter is a difficult and big subject to study, but also so fascinating! I've not found many resources around, I think not so many people use multithreading in a correct way...
On the toolset research, I'm creating an architecture that is both GUI and Engine indipendent.
Why so? Is it possible? Yes yes...it is possible. I wanted to create something that can grow with me: I've always believed the power of toolset, but I know also that much time is needed to create something robust and useful. This little/big idea let me create my own editor and develop it during time...I'm really excited about this software design!
Last but not least...the last guardian (sorry for the repetitions :P). Amazing. Wonderful. I want to make games with such magic...the real state of the art. If you haven't seen it...click here .
Stay tuned!
Next will be the 2D demo...sure I want to develop something simple yet powerful!
On the other way I'm researching on both toolset development and multithreading. The latter is a difficult and big subject to study, but also so fascinating! I've not found many resources around, I think not so many people use multithreading in a correct way...
On the toolset research, I'm creating an architecture that is both GUI and Engine indipendent.
Why so? Is it possible? Yes yes...it is possible. I wanted to create something that can grow with me: I've always believed the power of toolset, but I know also that much time is needed to create something robust and useful. This little/big idea let me create my own editor and develop it during time...I'm really excited about this software design!
Last but not least...the last guardian (sorry for the repetitions :P). Amazing. Wonderful. I want to make games with such magic...the real state of the art. If you haven't seen it...click here .
Stay tuned!
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