A new engine - Message Board Archive

A new engine

Posted by Christiaan on 11/18/01 - 14:36:48

Hi everyone, I have a quite weird question...

Is it possible to make a NEW engine for Dink? like a 3d engine or an engine with the mouse like in a strategy game? I don't think I could make a new engine -if possible- ofcourse, but maybe some people...:p

Re: A new engine

Posted by Striker on 11/18/01 - 16:41:56

Re: A new engine

Posted by redink1 on 11/18/01 - 16:40:38

: Hi everyone, I have a quite weird question...

: Is it possible to make a NEW engine for Dink? like a 3d engine or an engine with the mouse like in a strategy game? I don't think I could make a new engine -if possible- ofcourse, but maybe some people...:p

*Sigh* Yes, having better mouse support and 3d would be really freeking nifty. But designing a game engine is extremely complicated. If somebody was kind enough to put untold thousands of hours laboring over code that is more complex than the interactions of quantum particles, there is absolutely no reason why Dink Smallwood should be attached to it.

Yes, Dink Smallwood is a pretty easy-to-learn engine, and its great for newbies to work with (myself included). That is what makes it as popular as it is. However, once you start getting into more complex mouse support, 3d, dynamic lighting, transparency effects, mp3 support, and more, you lose whatever bit of simplicity you had in the first place.

If you must have the latest 3d engine and such, go get Elder Scrolls 3 when it comes out. Its supposed to have a robust level editor. However, you can forget about importing your own characters unless you know how to model 3d people... and forget about making a small adventure in 5 minutes, it'll take ten times as much time to create the same thing... and so on.

There are other RPG engines out there that you can make new adventures with; none are as versatile or simple as Dink.

Re: A new engine

Posted by Nexis on 11/18/01 - 17:37:30

Well here's the other big issue (and it would likely take over a thousand hours of coding just the engine/editor/tools): Graphics!

On most games nowadays the number of graphics artists easily outnumber the number of programmers. Especially for 3d graphics. This is because making good 3d graphics (as in low poly counts and good appearance) is very difficult. I doubt even the existing dink models would suffice as they likely have too high of poly counts.

Btw poly counts are how many polygons an object takes up. A graphics card can only handle so many at a time and so it is desirable to have objects use as few polygons as necessary.

Of course sound would take yet another person, and then there's the need for a level/world designer. And don't even begin to think making a 3d world even compares in complexity to simple old 2d.

: : Hi everyone, I have a quite weird question...

: : Is it possible to make a NEW engine for Dink? like a 3d engine or an engine with the mouse like in a strategy game? I don't think I could make a new engine -if possible- ofcourse, but maybe some people...:p

: *Sigh* Yes, having better mouse support and 3d would be really freeking nifty. But designing a game engine is extremely complicated. If somebody was kind enough to put untold thousands of hours laboring over code that is more complex than the interactions of quantum particles, there is absolutely no reason why Dink Smallwood should be attached to it.

: Yes, Dink Smallwood is a pretty easy-to-learn engine, and its great for newbies to work with (myself included). That is what makes it as popular as it is. However, once you start getting into more complex mouse support, 3d, dynamic lighting, transparency effects, mp3 support, and more, you lose whatever bit of simplicity you had in the first place.

: If you must have the latest 3d engine and such, go get Elder Scrolls 3 when it comes out. Its supposed to have a robust level editor. However, you can forget about importing your own characters unless you know how to model 3d people... and forget about making a small adventure in 5 minutes, it'll take ten times as much time to create the same thing... and so on.

: There are other RPG engines out there that you can make new adventures with; none are as versatile or simple as Dink.

Re: A new engine

Posted by Chrispy on 11/18/01 - 20:06:47

: Well here's the other big issue (and it would likely take over a thousand hours of coding just the engine/editor/tools): Graphics!

: On most games nowadays the number of graphics artists easily outnumber the number of programmers. Especially for 3d graphics. This is because making good 3d graphics (as in low poly counts and good appearance) is very difficult. I doubt even the existing dink models would suffice as they likely have too high of poly counts.

: Btw poly counts are how many polygons an object takes up. A graphics card can only handle so many at a time and so it is desirable to have objects use as few polygons as necessary.

: Of course sound would take yet another person, and then there's the need for a level/world designer. And don't even begin to think making a 3d world even compares in complexity to simple old 2d.

Well, some games go halfway. They have 2-d objects in a 3-d inviroment.

You only see one side of the character, trees are just 1 picture duplicated 8 times (placed @ 45 degree angles to each other).

For refrence : BOF3

Re: A new engine

Posted by Christiaan on 11/19/01 - 06:58:30

: : Well here's the other big issue (and it would likely take over a thousand hours of coding just the engine/editor/tools): Graphics!

: : On most games nowadays the number of graphics artists easily outnumber the number of programmers. Especially for 3d graphics. This is because making good 3d graphics (as in low poly counts and good appearance) is very difficult. I doubt even the existing dink models would suffice as they likely have too high of poly counts.

: : Btw poly counts are how many polygons an object takes up. A graphics card can only handle so many at a time and so it is desirable to have objects use as few polygons as necessary.

: : Of course sound would take yet another person, and then there's the need for a level/world designer. And don't even begin to think making a 3d world even compares in complexity to simple old 2d.

: Well, some games go halfway. They have 2-d objects in a 3-d inviroment.

: You only see one side of the character, trees are just 1 picture duplicated 8 times (placed @ 45 degree angles to each other).

: For refrence : BOF3

BOF3? what's BOF3? or do you mean FB3?

Why a new engine??

Posted by MiloBones on 11/19/01 - 21:17:36

You can do a lot with the current engine that maybe you couldn't with a better engine and still look professional. I.E. Text for speach in 3-D? I do think dink should be capable of handling realtime screens from other programs, maybe simple 3-D ones, but that would be tough.

If you want an ultra simple 3-d engine, try 3dml.

It uses BLOCKS. Of different shapes.

Re: A new engine

Posted by Bunniemaster on 11/19/01 - 20:49:51

: BOF3? what's BOF3? or do you mean FB3?

BOF3 is breath of fire 3 for playstation, paper mario also uses a type of engine but those games are both turn based fighting rpgs. Dink is a adventure/action rpg can you imagine trying to punch a characther from all the 8 differnt directions when dink is a flat 2dcharacter

Re: A new engine

Posted by Chrispy on 11/19/01 - 21:37:26

: : BOF3? what's BOF3? or do you mean FB3?

: BOF3 is breath of fire 3 for playstation, paper mario also uses a type of engine but those games are both turn based fighting rpgs. Dink is a adventure/action rpg can you imagine trying to punch a characther from all the 8 differnt directions when dink is a flat 2dcharacter

Well, um, let me think...

I know!

You would never have a battle screen, and umm, you could have an attack circle where if your within x pixels of enemy, he gets hit. Still, I doubt if anyone would ever do that...

Re: BOF3

Posted by scratcher on 11/19/01 - 08:14:50

: BOF3? what's BOF3? or do you mean FB3?

BOF3 is Big Overgrown Fist. It tells about Dink Smallwood when he hit his fist on a stone wall.

Hehe, actually i don't have the slighest idea what BOF3 could be.

Re: BOF3

Posted by ehasl on 02/11/02 - 14:10:07

: : BOF3? what's BOF3? or do you mean FB3?

: BOF3 is Big Overgrown Fist. It tells about Dink Smallwood when he hit his fist on a stone wall.

: Hehe, actually i don't have the slighest idea what BOF3 could be.

you mean "Big Overgrown Fist 3" hehe... :)

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