Star Trek : Freelance - Project (Questions)

[GriffinEndurance]

Hello everyone, this might be a bit of a long post so bare with me. I go by the name of Griffin Endurance, and I am the founder and General Manager of the Star Trek : Freelance development project. Freelance is currently a Modification for Raven Softwares, Star Trek : Voyager - Elite Force. Built on a slightly updated version of the Quake 3 engine. The game is approaching 10 years old and seems to be really bringing down the potential of the project.

I came accross Irrlicht through pure chance. I was looking for existing open source engines that I would have the ability to port the project too "so .bsp support". After trying several different ones I found IrrLicht to be the strongest, most stable, fastest and simplest solution.

Now with the background story out of the way, I have a couple of questions.

1. Would it be advisable to port such a large scale project to Irrlicht, or would it just be creating too much work?

- My lead programmer and myself have both tested Irrlicht and been able to load up the bsp maps from the project, using some of the tutorials and documentation. Although the maps are complete, none of the entitys like doors (among other things) work. Is it going to take a long time to code in the doors and other entitys? Is it going to be like rebuilding the whole quake 3 engine from scratch and adding in all of the more advanced features of EF and IrrLicht? Or is there a more simplistic option.

2. Are there any IrrLicht developers out there that might have an interest in the project, and would like to help with implementing it? More information can be found at the website www.stfreelance.com.

So summary, what would you recommend out there as our next course of action. Keeping in mind this is a large sp project. Try stand alone and port it over, or leave it where it is?

All opinions are welcome.

Thanks for reading.

[PI]

Hello!

Very nice project you've got here!

Off:
And here's something I have to admit: the last weeks I've been looking around the net for other graphics engine alternatives just because I was curious, but I've ended up at Irrlicht again! It's features are awsome: I can use the very same code for creating a Win / Linux / Mac game, it's fast, extremely easy and powerful; it has a lot of potential! Some minor glitches exist, but you can't find an other engine that you could modify for your own taste as easily as it is with Irrlicht!

On:
Do take your time testing all the aspects you want in your game! Also, when you're more familiar with Irrlicht, stress-test it or create the game prototype... I know yours is an existing and large project, but by having a prototype you can decide if the engine really fits your needs!
I'm sure Irrlicht won't handle your map-realted entites, sorry. However, you should consider using a physics engine for them, there are a lot of wrappers around that can make this work joyful and easy! Try out them, find the one that's the best for your needs!
Yeah, I know, sounds tons of work, but if you're first just having fun with the engine, then re-make the game, you'll enjoy the whole process!

Good luck, guys!
PI

[hybrid]

Did you try with the q3 explorer (example 21) or at least example 16? Because otherwise, entitites are not loaded at all. However, support for most of the map elements have been added via extra method calls over the last years. Read up the code carefully, those things are easily overread otherwise.

[GriffinEndurance]

@ PI

Thanks for all the info an the nice post. We will of course have a little play . Any recommendations for physics engines would also be apprechiated, if theres any you have worked with personally that you would recommend.

@ hybrid

I have tested alot of the models, remade the tutorials and tweaked alot of settings aswell. I also loaded up the quake explorer, and tested all the projects maps "all in a pk3" and they all render at least as good as the original game "many engines I have tested usually have a drop in quality or FPS where as IrrLicht seems to even run it faster". As you can see from the image below, the only thing that stands out is the consoles on either side. I would guess the shader is not supported by the original quake 3 shaders, so the whole thing is glowing.

(alt+p)

Also, I was attempting to change the weapon model displayed on screen in the quake exporter to an md3 model from our project and encountered multiple problems when it came to complile. Any hints would be apprechiated.[/img]

[3DModelerMan]

I think it wouldn't be too hard to port to Irrlicht. The entities could just be done as custom nodes. Is this actually a commercial game for the star trek company?

[GriffinEndurance]

No, is currently a modification of an old game, well more of a total conversion. Think Star Trek meets Mass Effect.

[GriffinEndurance]

We have decided to go ahead with the port from EF to IrrLicht, and should be recruiting over the next 3 weeks. So if anyone is interested in joining us with this project "as it is indeed a large project and we could use all the help we can get" then just let me know.

[3DModelerMan]

I sent a PM. Is this going to be pitched to a publisher or are you going to buy licensing or anything?

[GriffinEndurance]

Freelance is a fan made game designed for FREE public release. Made by fans for fans. I'm still discussing what licensing will be necessary for a free release.

[nathanf534]

Any recommendations for physics engines would also be apprechiated

I prefer Newton. Simple to use, and very powerful.

http://newtondynamics.com/forum/newton.php

[3DModelerMan]

Havok and Bullet are the best so far.

[slavik262]

I pitch tent with Bullet. Free, open-source, and powerful enough that it's been used in several major film and game titles (inlcuding the Toy Story 3 video game, and the movies A-Team and Sherlock Holmes).

[3DModelerMan]

2012 used it too.