Horde3D

Greeting from Hungary,

I was looking for a good 3d engine on the web for a while, but I finally found Horde3D. It is easy to use and has a very logical hierarchy so I choose it for my new game.

I'm creating an Online-Adventure game (not MMORPG) with Horde3D. The main concept is all about the Adventure. The online players can move to the next stage if they are working together. The second stage can only be reached if two players are working together, the third can be reached if three people are working together and so on... I want to add many logical puzzle to the game (like in the old Broken Sword games). This will hopefully keep the online traffic busy.
The other concept is: the open-source code (this is also good for other people to learn how this engine works)

I've got plenty of ideas but few people (1). So I'm looking for programmers, designers, and everyone who is intrested in this project. My MSN id is public, so everyone can contact me or join me.

I'm planning to make a devblog like SpOOky did with examples and pictures so the developing process can be followed.
So lets get started :

I've just started learning Horde3D engine a few days ago so lets see it from the beginning:

1) Creating a small virtual world based on the Sample Chicago. I will reduce the code in the sample and make a small starter program which only contains the necessery headers and lib files. All this small starter program will do is to shows the scene (with lighs), the sky, and a box in the middle of the screen. This is very minimal. I make my own pipeline.xml with the Horde3D engine default settings. I'm almost done with this and when it's ready I'll post another blog with the source code and a picture.

2)I'm planning to keep the SDL code from the Chicago sample because it is always a good thing (when you developing) to walk around in you word to see your models closely. ('w','a','s','d', and mouse movements and these keys will be the basic movement keys for the player so I just keep it.)

3)The model (box) is created with 3d Studio Max 9 and exported with a smart util called Multiverse Tools: http://www.multiverse.net (I know studio max it's not free, but I prefer it couse it's professional and I can use only this... by the way exporting was working fine: box appeared in the scene )

Thats all for now,
meehi

Source code: http://www.divshare.com/download/2295016-fc0

Now this code is simplified as possible (hope so ) and for beginners it could be a good start.
The pipeline.xml is a simple deferred shading pipeline copied out from the documentation and the engine configs are set to default values.
I didn't touch the shader xml files!
The box was exported from 3d Studio Max 9 but there was some difficulties with the size. The box height was 38 inch but in the virtual world it looks too big, so I had to resize it from the code. Anyone can help why happened this?

Code:

Horde3D::setNodeTransform( box,0,0,0,0,0,0, (float) 0.1, (float) 0.1, (float) 0.1 );

Hello meehi,

welcome here to the community. I'm happy to see that another interesting project is beginning to use Horde3D.
Hopefully you will soon find the team members you need. I also appreciate much the idea to create a devblog since that is very useful for other people to learn.



The problem is probably that you didn't set the 'bake matrices' option in the Collada exporter. Since many people seem to forget this I have modified the Collada Converter so that it can also cope with a transformation stack now.

Hi marciano!

Thanks for you reply and inspiration!
Bake matrices seemed to be a good idea, so I changed my exporter from Multiverse to Feeling ColladaMax http://www.feelingsoftware.com, because the second one supports bake matrices. Unfortunately this didn't solve my problem. I made some test with centimeters too, but no change. Any other idea?

Anyway I continue my work with the second step:

1) Implement some xml file handler liberies (to configure the pipeline.xml from the code). Maybe TinyXML will help me out, it is mentioned many times in the forum. This will be good for the graphic setup menu. (to write back the EngineConfig values to pipeline.xml what the player has set up).

2) Meantime I will create some .3DS object to the world, the plan is to make some enviroments (streets, cars, people, birds, trees, etc.....) and creating the virtual world itself.

3) Thinking about the puzzle games. (this is hardest part )

4) Thinking about the story...

5) Hopefully I can post some more pics in the next days which should be more effective than the first one

6) Source code will come out when I finish implementing the XML liberies.

Best wishes,
meehi

It doesn't matter if your modelling program is displaying units in inches or centimetres or cubits - they're all just "units" once they come into your program.
If your program is designed to move the camera at a speed of 1unit/second, then it's going to take 38 seconds to fly past your box (so it will seem very large). If you change it so that the camera moves at 40units/second, then the camera will fly past in less than a second (so the box will seem small).

You need to adjust all the models in the scene (ground, lights, etc) as well as all the distance/speed values in your program so that they all use the same unit scale (such as 1unit = 1inch).

[Edit]P.S. I think the dev-blog is a great idea, and wish you luck with this project

Thanks for your smart advises!
I think we are in different opinion . Its a good thing that you have pointed out the speed/distance values, but my opinion is that the model's dimensions and the speed must be divided from each other. The problem is about the scales. Everything looks too big when exporting from 3ds max. I have no trouble with speed setting yet . The player will sense when he walks or runs, etc..., but what he can see through the camera is another thing.

Hey everyone!

I played a bit with the lights and I've got the following results. Unfortunatelly the house is not textured yet, but soon it will be :





I'm still looking for team members, this project could get even more complicated

I think DarkAngel is right with what he his explaining. The subjective size as you see it is completely relative and depends mainly on velocity. The trick is that with a higher speed you usually don't get very close to an object so that it would seem really enormous.



Cool building
I fear finding people to help is usually not that easy. Have you already posted on gamedev and devmaster that you want to build up a team?

Yes you have right. DarkAngel comment was very usefull, I did some test last night and found the problem. So thanks again .

Helo again everyone!

The XML integration is not ready yet. I was working with the lights. In this source code you can find a small lighthandler utility. It could be very usefull for desinging the world. You can turn it on and off with pressing the 'i' button. The main functions are that you can pick up one of your light from the scene, and make manipulation on it. The controls are written in the code. You can also create virtual lights with it.
I made some more optimization on the code: http://www.divshare.com/download/2373170-7de



Good idea, maybe I'll try gamedev too.

This need some more adjustment but a rising sun should look like this (created with Horde3D, of course )

Looks great! Keep up the good work.

I guess this is just a skybox? Yesterday I have implemented loading of HDR textures, so a nextgen-sky with tone-mapping and a (decent ) bloom are not far away. But I still have to do some more basic things before I can take the time to experiment with these techniques...

Yes this is just a texture, nothing special particle system (yet ). (Actually it is sphere, but I'll maybe change it to box )

HDR textures are great thing that you have implemented! Another nice feature of nextgen engine . I'm looking forward to see it. Good luck with it!