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Here are brief specifications for my engine:
- uses DirectX to render pictures, perform sounds and music.
- any number of paralax layers, each with settings for dynamic lights, sun light, fog and physics.
- all the graphics are designed from .jpg and .png textures with real-time importing and updating of the files.
The scene that you can edit contains:
- static objects: they are made from textures, you simply drag and drop a texture from texture library to the scene. Then you can edit this object. It is defined by four curves, so you can bend it to various shapes. Of course you can move it, scale, rotate, flip, duplicate and move to another paralax layer. Other graphical settings for the objects are: blending type (see Materials), color, fog, and its color and density and lighting. For the physics each object has a vector-defined border for collisions and "slippery" and "stickyness" settings.
- objects can be animated via the curved animations. I simply add frames and bend them by the bezier curves. Each frame contains new curves for the object and the object is morphed between those frames. The animation is then soft, easy to edit and low capacity for storage. A good example for this type of animation is a waving plant, tree, leaves and other things that you can see moving softly in the Gumboy games.
- frame animations are ready to be used, too. They can be attached to static objects and gumboys with a specified sound or randomly chosen sound from a sounds-group.
- physics are done for small objects like the gumboys with elastic deformations and slippery and stickyness settings. Objects for physics can be created in various shapes (computed automatically by the texture vector-defined border). They can behave like a balloon, gum, water-filled, or clothes. There is the possibility to set a new physics type, for example a balloon that falls down and a balloon that flies up. I could make more physics if needed, for example a rope or a chain, a hammock, objects that could be punctured or blew up, real-time diminishing and shape changing, etc.
- particle systems are very well done in the engine. Particles can interact with the scene, physics objects, wind and magnets. Particle systems have a lot of settings that respond in real-time as you change them. Thousands of particles are computed and rendered in real-time.
- wind and magnets do interact with physics and particles. Amazing things were done with magnets in the Gumboy games. Wind and magnets can also be attached to objects, boosts or gumboys.
- boosts are the objects that make the game play. Wind, magnets, objects, lights, gumboys and particles can be attached to the boost with various behavior. Boost is based on impulses, so when an impulse appears in the boost then the boost makes another impulse to the attached object. For example: An OnTouch-impulse appears when gumboy touches the boost and the boost gives impulses to particles to explode, an impulse to an attached magnet to switch it on and an impulse to an attached light to light up.
- lights make the scene look much better. Each light can affect any layers that you select. The light has the possibility to fade in various colors, so you can easily create a light for a fire, under-water scenes, magic effects, etc. Slowly fading lights make the scene 'breath'.
- various materials can be used for objects, gumboys, and particles. The most common special material is additive blending for magic effects, f.e. volumetric lights, glow, etc.
- there is also a menu editor done in the engine to create a nice and clever menu for a game, containing labels, buttons, hints, progress bars, listboxes, splash screens and others. See the menus in the Gumboy Tournament game.
- 3D sounds and music are ready to be used, using free OGG format. To make the sounds more variable I use a change of sound frequency a little. More special effects could be done if needed.
- the engine is also ready for the language packs and fonts. The Gumboy games were successfully published in English, German, Russian, Italian, Czech, Slovak, Croatian, Polish and Romanian. The engine is ready for more languages.
- and much more... a communication with game web site, testing and self-testing tools, all the game data in one file with a clever ability to update, statistics, etc.
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