| January 5, 2006 |
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I zipped the dawnpatrol game files so people can download them. I've been working on an engine to compliment my new editor. I added vertex manipulation and patches to the editor. I'm holding on to this new version and won't be releasing it until I have some engine issues worked out. I posted a new pic
I'm looking for work so if you need an experienced engine/tool programmer email me at forged3d@lycos.com |
| March 1, 2004 |
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Wrote a better raytracer, one that uses recursion. Raytracing page has more info. Also, the Heaven 7 folks wrote an incredible realtime raytracing demo that's out of this world. They discuss techniques on their site that made raytracing in realtime possible, very interesting indeed.
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| February 27, 2004 |
| I've been spending time away from graphics, doing programming lang. and code design related tasks and thus I missed doing some gfx things. So to fix this I wrote a simple raytracer. I have not written a raytracer before and now that I have I must say that it was a fun project and the maths were similar as those of my editor renderer. I have posted pics and some description on the raytracing page. I've also read Michael Abrash's Black Book that is available for free at http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/gpbb/. Some of the technology in the early chapters is mostly replaced with 3D gfx accelerators but the general advice that Michael gives on problem solving and optimization is very insightful. I've experienced many of the same things as he has so I can relate. I especially like the later chapters as they provide insight into technologies that are still relevant today. Very good book and I'm glad I was able to finally find time to read it. We take 3D accelerators for granted these days but in the hay days we had to be really inventive to overcome lack of advanced technologies that today do many things for us. |
| August 07, 2003 |
| Posted projected shadow and ambient light pics. Been studying design/analysis and patterns and am rewriting the editor to conform to the abstract communication layer. Will also implement Finite State Machine paradigm for the gui. Good articles at www.objectmentor.com. Also, been playing with the free community edition of Poseidon UML tool. It's an amazing software. I also checked out free Violet UML tool but it's suited for very small designs as the screen navigation limits it, otherwise it's pretty good. Joe from abducted team www.joecodegood.com has good engine articles. I do something similar except I use geforce2 card that doesn't have shaders. |
| July 24, 2003 |
| Posted spotlight pictures on page 16. I'm reimplementing features that once worked before I redesigned the app. I have put in new features like a headlamp and ability for objects to be hidden to speed up rendering in 3D view. I'm not sure if I'll reimplement frustum culling as the visibility feature might do the trick and is user selectable/manipulated. The headlamp is put in so that one could texture objects without creating a temporary light just to see the bumps and glossmaps. This omni light won't cast shadows and I think I'll allow the user to adjust its radius. |
| July 20, 2003 |
| Posted some more pics, page 15. I would have liked to see more objects in the rooms but was short on time. I'm now thinking about engine design and lighting/shadowing + collision detection systems. I will have to come up with some clever way to do this as the brute force isn't too fast. The lighting and shadows I feel are problematic as both can cross into other rooms and be visible while the source room isn't. I lean towards portals or octrees and away from bsp and their long compile times and complexity. |
| July 19, 2003 |
| Released binary of the editor. Several features are broken as this is the work in progress version. You need to have card that supports multitexturing and dot3 features. Nvidia cards can use OpenGL register combiners feature to make nicer specular reflections toggled from the editor's Options menu. Only two texture units are being used so cards like Nvidia's Geforce1 and up will work nicely. The last section in the manual explains what doesn't work in this version. For fun you can create two rooms connected with a small doorway and place a light into one of the rooms, making it large as to cover both rooms. Then csg merge all the inward facing cells together and create a door from outward facing cell. Place the door in the doorway and raise its bottom edge. Then watch as light creeps into the dark room. |
| July 16, 2003 |
| Remade the website. The editor was redesigned as well, major change has been in the renderer. I now use OpenGL instead of Direct3D. I've added specular reflections with glossmaps and now use diffuse lighting rather than attenuation only. World can be bumpmapped as well. Take a look at pages 13 and 14 in the screenshots section. Shadows are also implemented and along with lighting are done in realtime. I have to finish rewriting some editor features before I start working on a demo level. |