Retro game engine for developers that enjoy creating games like it's 1997 • Hacker News Board

Re: Retro game engine for developers that enjoy creating games like it's 1997

#41

Post by openbasic » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 9:04 PM UTC

git-pull wrote: post #37

This is a cool project! - CMake, yay! These make generating build files for a variety of platforms (even Windows) a breeze. It also works with code completion stuff (CLion IDE, KDevelop both have CMake-based projects) - I like how it splits stuff up as well ( https://github.com/klaussilveira/qengine/tree/master/src/gam... ). - As for vendorizing SDL2, there is an opportunity for optimization: The shared libraries and…

The license can be a problem for some studios, specially ones with uncomfortable contracts with publishers. If you are in that situation, I highly recommend writing a LuaJIT integration layer.

The game code is very well separated from the engine, and qengine already removes a lot of non-generic game code from Q2. So all you have to do is delete a little bit more, write some glue code to tie in Lua, and you can write the entire game logic in a separate codebase, with a separate license. Also, you get moddability.

Re: Retro game engine for developers that enjoy creating games like it's 1997

#42

Post by openbasic » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 9:10 PM UTC

Jaruzel wrote: post #12

This is great. I remember back to the late 90s when I was busy hacking gamex86.dll to customise my Quake2 Death-matches with my friends. One thing I wonder about this release is though - the Original Quake2 engine had a very fixed palette and also some odd lighting that always skewed the palette to a brown tint - does qengine fix this? Also... Bonus... Some Quake2 maps, that I made way back: http://www.jaruzel.com/bl…

Cool maps, btw. :)

Re: Retro game engine for developers that enjoy creating games like it's 1997

#43

Post by openbasic » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 9:12 PM UTC

badsectoracula wrote: post #26

zokier wrote: post #9

> Removal of OpenGL Huh. I suppose CPUs are fast and all, but still seems odd to replace perfectly good OpenGL renderer with SW rendering.

Considering this, I wonder why the choice of Quake 2 instead of Quake 1 since the main thing Quake 2 introduced has over Quake 1 was colored lighting but that was only available in the OpenGL version.

I don't like QuakeC or the QuakeC VM.

Re: Retro game engine for developers that enjoy creating games like it's 1997

#44

Post by beetwenty » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 9:15 PM UTC

badsectoracula wrote: post #26

zokier wrote: post #9

> Removal of OpenGL Huh. I suppose CPUs are fast and all, but still seems odd to replace perfectly good OpenGL renderer with SW rendering.

Considering this, I wonder why the choice of Quake 2 instead of Quake 1 since the main thing Quake 2 introduced has over Quake 1 was colored lighting but that was only available in the OpenGL version.

The MD2 model format is considerably extended over MDL, in size limits, vertex resolution, and features like texture animations. And while Q1 had the split between Netquake and Quakeworld networking, Q2 has a single system. Those kinds of refinements can make the difference.

Re: Retro game engine for developers that enjoy creating games like it's 1997

#45

Post by quickthrower2 » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 9:18 PM UTC

jenscow wrote: post #20

Quake 2 is retro ? Shit, I'm old.

Quake 2 was released closer to the Star Wars release date than the present day.

...those xkcd style "make you feel old" statements are quite fun to make.

Re: Retro game engine for developers that enjoy creating games like it's 1997

#46

Post by madrox » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 9:18 PM UTC

This is really cool, and I can’t believe I’ve lived long enough to see Quake 2 be called “retro.”

I’ll likely live long enough to see the Unreal Engine of today called retro. I’ve never thought of this before, and it’s wild.

Re: Retro game engine for developers that enjoy creating games like it's 1997

#47

Post by marvin » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 9:19 PM UTC

Was anyone here at HN into Dark Forces II / Jedi Knight back in the day? The retro graphics of this post made me a bit nostalgic. The in-game scripting in Jedi Knight was my first exposure to software, and the modding community at Massassi was an incredibly creative and lively place.

The poor checksums on game assets in Jedi Knight, along with early multiplayer on MSN Gaming Zone made the whole gaming community an adventure. You could never be sure what kind of shennanigans you encountered, with people having all sorts of weird gameplay hacks.

Re: Retro game engine for developers that enjoy creating games like it's 1997

#48

Post by klodolph » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 9:31 PM UTC

peterkelly wrote: post #31

klodolph wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Since this engine is GPL-licensed it seems like any game built with this engine would then also need to be GPL-licensed, correct? Yes, mostly correct. In order to comply with the GPL, and distribute game binaries, you need to make the source to any game you make with it available under the same terms. Technically that does not mean that you have to distribute the game under the GPL, but in practice that's how you w…

It depends on how the game engine works. If your game code is directly linked with the engine in the same executable (or a shared library) it would fall under GPL. If the game engine provides a virtual machine that executes bytecode compiled from game scripts I don't believe that would count.

That's an argument, but I belive it wouldn't stand up in court.

If you have something like the JVM, you can make a case that the program and the JVM are separate works. If you have something like Quake, I don't think that would hold up, I would consider the bytecode and Quake to form a combined work.

At best, I think you would be testing in-court what a "derived work" is or what it means for a work to be "based on" a program. The legal risk is not only the fact that your game might be considered in violation of GPL (and therefore copyright infringement), but that the case might be difficult and involve sophisticated legal arguments (which would make it expensive) and you might also experience adverse effects before successfully arguing your case (DMCA takedown notices, etc).

Re: Retro game engine for developers that enjoy creating games like it's 1997

#49

Post by peterangular » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 9:34 PM UTC

mikepurvis wrote: post #23

peterangular wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're moving off of it last I heard. Sounds like it's a legacy solution at this point. https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-230

Huh, I wonder what that'll mean for cross-platform compatibility. As they say in the post, Allegro supports a lot of platforms, whereas if they end up just targeting DirectX 11, that pretty much locks out everyone other than Windows and Xbox, doesn't it?

I believe they support Linux as a first-class citizen, even with removing Allegro! I've had VERY good luck with Factorio running through Steam, on Debian Linux (both 8 and 9). I have also ran it on Mac OSX and Windows 7 without any issue.

That game is so rock-solid as far as stability/system support that I would literally buy it again out of general principal =)

Re: Retro game engine for developers that enjoy creating games like it's 1997

#50

Post by robbrit » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 9:35 PM UTC

Apocryphon wrote: post #39

robbrit wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People in their early 20's don't even know Half-Life (released at the end of 1998, over 20 years ago now), let alone Quake. We're definitely getting old!

Blame Valve's lack of interest in maintaining their franchises for that one.

To be fair if I was in their shoes and had the cash cow that is Steam, I probably wouldn't care too much about maintaining franchises either. Games are expensive to build and profit isn't guaranteed; a distribution platform that is being used by everybody has much better economics.