Release Panopolis - a game designed by an amateur

[senorgomez]

Panopolis is a persistent multiplayer multiple-level urban simulation. '
http://www.scribd.com/doc/14882579/Game-Design

First, I'll be the first to say that this project looks crazy. It hits all the classic points of being a project destined to failure. Observe the following:

1. I have no formal coding practice, just scripting and hacking. I have no graphic coding practice.
2. I am a general nerd whose ideas are probably better in theory than practice
3. This is my first serious coding project and first game.
4. The game in question is remarkable complex and probably not feasible
5. The game in question is not compeletly original, 'just another urban simulation'
6. The game design document is poorly written and done by an amateur.

But you know what, whatever. Who cares. Please stow the probably correct criticisms about this project not getting done and being too big for one person. Try to think of it like the pandora itself, the devs have said if they knew what a hassle it would be they might not of done it. Only I hope to have something to show for it in less than a year.

What I DO want is ideas to get around the many problems that are inherent in a multiplayer simulation.

I plan starting the first tier (SimTower Clone) this summer.

So, onward to the document: http://www.scribd.com/doc/14882579/Game-Design

 

[senorgomez]

Oh yea, I am doing tutorials in OpenGL ES because I think that is the best language to fit the job.

Or should I do SDL?

Edit: Meant library, not language. C++ is the language for both. My bad.

 

[lulzfish]

Well, it's like this, okay?

SDL is a software rendering library. You get pixel-level access to all your graphics stuff, but EVERYTHING goes through the CPU.
It is slow as hell.

OpenGL is a hardware rendering library. You get triangle-level acces, but there are ways to do pixel-level stuff. It's a bit harder, but there are ways. It is incredibly faster than SDL alone.

I'd recommend doing what I do: Start with SDL to set up a graphics context and handle input, then use SDL's OpenGL setup to do all the graphical stuff in OpenGL. After you've drawn everything in OpenGL, use SDL_GL_SwapBuffers to paint it.
You end up using SDL anyway, but OpenGL accelerates it, and there's no point using SDL-only when you'll have the PowerVR SGX sitting there waiting for you to use it.

 

[dflemstr]

Oh yea, I am doing tutorials in OpenGL ES because I think that is the best language to fit the job.

Or should I do SDL?

Dude, OGLES is an API, not a language; same thing is true for SDL.
I'd start with SDL if I were you, but that's just me.

And you should really read up on some things before starting a project like this.

Good luck, it seems that you will need it.

 

[skeezix]

As a senior developer to large companies, as someone who successfully runs his own company and won awards, and bene coding my whole life ...

I like your chutzpah and bravado.

If people didn't try to climb high mountains, who'd know what was at the top? Someone has to. People will fail, but some will succeed, noobies or not. Go, do, try. Give up if you want later, but heres to trying.

jeff

 

[Vorporeal]

This is slightly OT...

I'm also starting on a very ambitious game using OpenGL. I've heard that the famous "Red Book" is the guide to read and reference. Anyone have anything to say about this? (Senorgomez - I'm thinking that this book might be a good place for both of us to read for the purposes of actually learning how to do graphics, hence me posting it in your thread.)

 

[Unfathomable Depths]

Don't know about the Red Book but I bought the 'OpenGL ES 2.0 Programming Guide' aka the Gold Book and I'm finding it tough going, mainly due to my 3D maths being pretty much non-existant

I'm pinning my 3D hopes on Irrlicht :lol:

Back on topic : This sounds an interesting project, good luck with it senorgomez

 

[lulzfish]

I might have read the Red Book at one point, but it was pretty useless last I remember. It's arranged as a graphics tutorial rather than an OpenGL reference, so it doesn't tell you about everything concisely.

If you already know a bit about graphics, you would probably be better off just reading though the OpenGL specification itself.
At the very least download the 2.1 spec and use it as a reference. It's great for looking up function names and parameters, and you don't have to hunt through tutorials and other people's code. It just says, right there, what the function does.

Only thing is, neither Red Book nor the spec use platform-specific stuff, so you have to figure out how to link with the GL libraries on your own, and how to get SDL to start OpenGL for you.

 

[Vorporeal]

I might have read the Red Book at one point, but it was pretty useless last I remember. It's arranged as a graphics tutorial rather than an OpenGL reference, so it doesn't tell you about everything concisely.

If you already know a bit about graphics, you would probably be better off just reading though the OpenGL specification itself.
At the very least download the 2.1 spec and use it as a reference. It's great for looking up function names and parameters, and you don't have to hunt through tutorials and other people's code. It just says, right there, what the function does.

Only thing is, neither Red Book nor the spec use platform-specific stuff, so you have to figure out how to link with the GL libraries on your own, and how to get SDL to start OpenGL for you.

The last of LazyFoo's tutorials is on OpenGL integration into SDL, and one can also look at the Linux/SDL versions of the source for NeHe's tutorials to figure that out too.

 

[senorgomez]

Thought I would post some interesting info I have found.

I hope to start really developing soon. Finals are over this week (yikes) and then I will be able to focus my attention on completing the first tier of panopolis. I still haven't figured out if I should use a language on top of the SDL & OpenGL ES libs or just do the whole thing in c++. I was looking at pygame and similar projects for doing that. I need to find some more benchmark tests for pandora-like devices. I need to figure out if I can use an 'easy' language like python and still be able to make the game I have in mind.

Anyways the interesting info:

Looking up some other open source simulation games. Seems no one has made a simtower clone yet.

http://lincity-ng.berlios.de/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
LinCity is a city simulation game. It is remarkable different from simcity, as there are no zones. I would really like to use zones myself.
Download here: http://lincity-ng.berlios.de/wiki/index ... stallation


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simutrans
Simutrans is a transport simulation game. It is patterned off of transport tycoon, a game I never played. However it does seem interesting.
Download here: http://simutrans.sourceforge.net/