[ODFAEG] (Open Source Development Framework Adapted for Every Game)

[Lolilolight]

A small presentation

Hi, for those who don't know me.

I'm Laurent Duroisin, I'm Belgian so sorry if my English isn' always at his top level.
I've a master in computer sciences and I've already cotribuated at some opensource games developpement.
Everytime I try hard to get a job but without any success since the 2 last years so I decide to continue to developp my own project that I launched some years ago. (A framework for my own game, and, I hope so to create my own company and have success, it seems at the moment I've not the chooise anyway. (Even if I find a job I'll continue this project as a passion.)

ODFAEG and Sorrok presentation.

ODFAEG is a framework based on my first rpg project in 3D iso. (Sorrok)
http://fr.sfml-dev.org/forums/index.php?topic=12616.0

But rather than work on the gameplay of Sorrok and let the framework in a garbage.

I decided to share the framework.

The main purpose of the framework is to build an opensource library who'll be used by the most of games developpers as possible, to have people's returns and to build the simpliest and fastest game framework.

The creation of multiplayers games and of full 3D games  will be also possible in the next versions.

For the moment, an entity system is implemented and I've just begun to write a 3D support with SFML.

But actually we are working hard to launch the first version of the framework.

But I think over 1 mounth we'll be able to launch the first release. (Just the time to create the documentation and tutorials)

The main interests of the framework are :

-The use of the framework is not limited to 2D/3D or a particular kind of game, you'll be able to create any games as you want in a simple way, even small games who don't needs to have an entity system. (You can also draw sfml objects with the framework, but I think SFML only can do the trick then, I don't have plan of implementing the support of other's libraries like SDL, Ogre, Irrlicht, etc...)

-The framework allows the developpers to create the entity manager, and all the entities that he wants, he's not forced to use the entities or the entity manager provided by the framework. (The entity system are like the Qt widgets, they are components who can contains other entities and it'll be the same for the entity managers who'll manage collisions, the storage and the generation of any kind of entities in the world of the game. (lights, shadows, etc...)
But if you want to do your custom Entities and entity managers, you'll have to inherits from some classes and to redefines some members fonctions. (The entity class for entities of the framework by example)

-With the state system, the user'll be able to set the game in pause, this feature is not implemented in many rpg's or mmorpg, and often, you must disconnect of the game if you have to do a break (a phone call or something like that), it's very embarassing.

-The framework'll always using cutting edge tehnologies like the new c++11 feature to provide a framework who'll stay alive in time, so, you don't have to worry about the framework compatibility and maintenance.

If you want to contribuate at the projet, giving your advices or improve it, you can find the source code on githhub by searching and dowloading the repository.

The repository name is ODFAEG.

You can also visit my devblog if you want to have more news about the project advancement.

http://laurentduroisin.wordpress.com/

PS : it's my first project and I want to create my own game developpement company so, I hope that the project'll become great!

[eXpl0it3r]

Seems like you didn't get a lot of attention oved at the French forum.

The screenshots thers look quite nice!

For a first game the goal is quite ambitious and I wish you all the best. Usually it's better to start small, so one can learn all the details of game development in a smaller and more controllable way.
I also hope that you're focusing on making the game itself and not trying to make an all general engine first, because that way you'll most likely fail. Writting a general engine is hard and making it in a good fashion is even harder, especially if the experience is missing. See the famous article Write Games, Not ENGINES.

[Lolilolight]

Hi, it seems I forgot to explain some things.

-I've a master in computer sciences.
-I've already developped a lot of small games, and I even contribuated to developp big 3D or 2D opensource games (like holyspirit, yildiz, etc...) but, I was quite disappointed of the complexity of some engines used by the developper and also of the source code of these projects who was too draft. (Even if the game was running well)

So, i'm not so new, it's just the first project when I'm the author. ^^

It's why I decided to create my own engine who is based on the SFML book. ^^

So don't worry.

I think I'll update the topic with a brief presentation of me.

I'm sure when I'll launch the first version, I'll get a lot of attention.

[eXpl0it3r]

Yeah I thought you knew already a few things more, but given the pattern where everyone wants to ths most awesome game anx thus develops the most awesome and as general as possible engine, I tend to be careful.

-I've already developped a lot of small games, and I even contribuated to developp big 3D or 2D opensource games

Well technically it's not your first game then.

-I've a master in computer sciences.

To be honest that doesn't say anything about programming skills nor experience, actually it even often goes in the other direction. But maybe your university is one of the few that actually teach good and practical programming stuff and doesn't just hammer through theory, so who am I to judge? You'll certainly have a better understanding of certain aspects.

[G.]

I even contribuated to developp big 3D or 2D opensource games (like holyspirit, yildiz, etc...)

And they don't seem very happy about what you did back then on those projects. (thankfully, very little)
The most hilarious part was when you kept telling everyone that the project leader of holyspirit was jealous of you.  (and when you were convinced that League Of Legends is absolutely not a 3D game) (and when you faked being invited to some video game festival to show your not even delopped game)

[Lolilolight]

Yes you're right eXploit3r, at my university they didn't teach us only a lot of theory but also programming methods, UML, structurogrammes, etc...

@ G. yes you're maybe right but :

-I was influenced by the ex co-foundator of the sorrok projet. (The famous project detractor)
-And anyway the past is the past then I don't want to reset that on the table.

Then don't pollute the topic please or I'll just ignore you and if you've some things to regle with me, do it by mp.

I'm sorry but lol is not a fully 3D game.

[Lolilolight]

The first version'll be released soon (in February or March probably), I just to have to do some tests and some example, purge the code a bit and genrate a the documentation with comments, I"ve just begun to write the tutorials. (See the French forum)
I'll write an English tutoriel later.

But don't forget that you can check the source code on github if your are impatient. ^^

https://github.com/Lolilolight/SFGL

I don't think I'll have the time to build my own website now (because I've to adapt the source code of the framework with the Sorrok project too), thus I'll build some tutorials on a tempory website to don't wasting time.

I'll set all the links here to the source code and the tutorials.

[Nexus]

Do you really not want to choose a more original name than SFGL, which is essentially a cheap SFML rip-off? It will only create confusion and people may accidentally associate it with SFML. Why don't you create a unique name that represents the philosophy behind your library?

[Lolilolight]

Yes I have to change the name because the philosophy is not the same than SFML.

The philosophy of SFML is : We create a simple and fast multimedia library but not more, it's you who must modify and adapt the libary to create your own game.

SFGL is a framework, then, the philosophy is very different and the source code have to change a lot to be directly usable by a wide range of games developpers.

I think I'll change the name and call it GSAF) Game specific adapted framework, we can even propose and vote for a name if you want.

[Grimshaw]

I don't even want to comment on this topic or enter a flame war, but:

League of Legends is a pure 3D game. It is a 3D game as much as anything that comes out of the Unreal, CryEngine, Unity, you name it..

[Lolilolight]

There's a missunderstanding between us I think, because, a 3D game for me is not a game who use a 3D engine but a game where you can rotate the camera to see the objects from every angles. (Like wow or rift)

Well, the name of the framework'll change, I found a good name who represent really better the philosophy of the framework : ODEGAF (Opensource Developpement for Every Games Adapted framework)

[eXpl0it3r]

I don't think there's a clear definition of "3D Game".

A great example would be Age of Empires II vs Age of Empires III. While both are set to simulate a 3D environment, I wouldn't call Age of Empires II a 3D game, because it uses flat sprites for everything, the fact that the sprites might have been generated from 3D models before getting into the game doesn't matter. However Age of Empires III use full 3D models in-game, thus making it a 3D game, even though the isometric "look" is being kept in most situations.
Could one now say a game is a 3D game as soon as it uses 3D models in-game? Kind of but then you'll run into games with pre-rendered 3D scenes, where you're essentially in a 3D environment like in any first person shooter, except you only get full 360° sphere to look at and can move from certain locations to others. Such techniques can be found in the Myst games. For me they sure are 3D games, even though the environment doesn't use 3D models, but instead has pre-rendered scenes you can navigate from one to the next and it will give you the feeling of "being" in a three dimensional world.
But if we define 3D games based on the simulation of a 3D environment, we'd have a problem with Age of Empires II again, since that is certainly a simulation of a 3D environment.

Further more I think whether the view is locked at a certain position/angle doesn't matter. Regardless whether your body in the real world was locked into only moving left and right or up and down, you'd still be in an 3D environment. Your movement is limited to a 2D space, but it won't turn the whole world into a 2D world.

Thus I think there's no clear definition of "3D Game", personally however I'd call games that render 3D models in real-time "3D Games" and thus LoL is most certainly a 3D game. The whole terrain is based on 3D models, all the characters are 3D models, etc. - i.e. you can't make a LoL clone just with simple and flat 2D sprites and still get the same effect. If you had a debug version of LoL I'm sure you could use a debug camera to freely move around in the 3D environment.

But again, as we've seen it's hard to make a clear definition and everyone values certain aspects more than others. I respect others opinions, even if for me their view is rather illogical.

BUT back to the topic!

You might want to edit the original title with the new name.
Also you might want to think about the title a bit more, because currently it's a bit bumpy and contains some mistakes: OpenSource Development for Every Games Adapted Framework

Maybe something more into the direction: Open Source Development Framework Adapted for Every Game?
It at least is a lot easier to understand.

[Lolilolight]

Ok, title updated. 

[Nexus]

Just a little hint: Other than in French, in English it's written "Development"

[Grimshaw]

I disagree a little bit on the "There is no clear definition of 3D game".. At least in my opinion, a game which uses 3D assets to represent most of its world its a 3D game, but more importantly, a game who projects its geometry into perspective is even more a 3D game. That's the crucial part I guess.

For example, league of legends is a full 3D game, everything about it is made in regular 3D code and assets, so there is no room for guessing and having opinions on this, it is as 3D as any FPS shooter or any other 3D game, but has a constrained camera, for the RTS perspective they wanted to achieve. There are mods for that game which make it work with 3rd person cameras and make it as any other game camera-wise.

Another great example is Trine I think, its a classical platformer, made in full 3D, and it doesnt cease to be so just because you can only see from the side at all times.

And now I notice I spent all my budget for 2014 for using the word "3D" and I will shut up. Ups, I said it again!