Hi.
I am a complete newcomer to 3d game design and I have been looking for some good links/references to information about the basic components that would be necessary to build a MMORPG.
I'm bascially looking for a document that would break down each part of development along with the basic terminology used with examples or links to some (preferably free) tools that would be used for each part.
I am not really looking to create the next best game or anything, but I am a developer (not gaming development) and I also play alot of games.. all the while thinking to myself "Good God, HOW did they do this?!?!".
Obviously there is a the graphics engine, of which there are many.. and many that are free like Irrlicht and Crystal Space, and OGRE. I stumbled upon Irrlicht while googling and it intriques me because all the documentation on the site here is broken down into very easily understood terms. Futhermore, I was up and running Irrlicht demos out of Dev C++ (which I had never even heard of before today) in under 30 minutes!
I hear buzzwords on the net all the time... persistant world design.. modelling... concept art.. sound.. physics engines... directx.. openGL... and all the different file formats like tga, mdl, etc. How many basic components are there to designing a 3d game? What tools (preferably free) are most commonly used for developing each of these component? How do you throw it all together in the end?
I guess I'm really just looking for a roadmap, and I hoped someone here with much more experience with these kind of things could help.. or point to a place that might have info like this. Like I said, I'm not looking to build the next best game or anything like that.. just a pure hobbyist looking to learn more and play around with Irrlicht.
Cheers!
- tm
What's it all about? Total n00b seeks help.
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themurph2k
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Sun Nov 14, 2004 6:28 am
MMORPGs are hard to make. REALLY HARD. Id recommend that you start building on the tutorials, making a much more simple game, to get the idea of how irrlicht works, game terminology and how to put it all together. the tutorials already have a lot of the stuff you need to make a simple game (when it comes to graphics and 3d) you just need to put them together with code.
What i'd recommend to get a simple game running:
-take the collision detection tutorial
-fiddle with each part until you understand what it does
-add a couple of monsters(you could use the faerie models that come with the SDK)
-figure out how to detect collision with your monsters, add hit points (ALL games where something takes multiple hits to die use HP internally) and delete them when HP <= 0
-get the monsters to shoot back, give your player HP and reset the game when he dies
-get the monsters to move around, you could probably use a followSpline animator for this
-expand the game in whatever way you want (add new levels, storyline, different weapons, multiplayer networking, etc)
just remember that games can take a long time to make and, if you cant figure something out, you can always ask in the forums
What i'd recommend to get a simple game running:
-take the collision detection tutorial
-fiddle with each part until you understand what it does
-add a couple of monsters(you could use the faerie models that come with the SDK)
-figure out how to detect collision with your monsters, add hit points (ALL games where something takes multiple hits to die use HP internally) and delete them when HP <= 0
-get the monsters to shoot back, give your player HP and reset the game when he dies
-get the monsters to move around, you could probably use a followSpline animator for this
-expand the game in whatever way you want (add new levels, storyline, different weapons, multiplayer networking, etc)
just remember that games can take a long time to make and, if you cant figure something out, you can always ask in the forums