Irrlicht Engine

I want to create a futuristic space racing game using Irrlicht. However, since I am new to this engine, I have no idea how to design this. I worked through the tutorials on the website, so I have a working knowledge of the API. The problem comes up when I want to design this game. Irrlicht seems more suited for a First-Person Shooter than a racing game. Any ideas? Help is greatly appreciated!

Irrlicht works for any type of game. Don't let the IFPSCameraSceneNode fool you into thinking it's only a FPS game maker, that just happens to be what most people are making.

Break down your game idea into modular pieces: a bunch of cars and a racetrack. Seems a little like a bunch of people running around a level?

Then keep stepping through your design one bit at a time.

The minor problem is the tracks...How would I make them? Would I create them and save them as .X format? Or should I try the .BSP thing?

Hey what's up.

This is how I would approach your game.

I would make the tracks meshes, why you say? Because it's a futuristic game so a boring track just isn't gonna cut it. But thats a minor problem.

I've started making an RPG, with a 3rd person view. At the moment I'm writing a world editor where I can import up to 2000 meshes and set their desired translation, rotation, scale, texture etc. Doing it this way, I can basically create anything I want, untill my imagination stops me. (Or untill my PC bombs out)

I'm not sure what you have in mind but say for example you were going through a tunnel, I would import a large cylinder shaped thing (or 3 or 4) and then import meshes of pipes and place them inside the cylinder.

I'm not sure if you want to go through all of this but this is the way I'm doing it and it's working like a charm.

As well, the 2000 mesh limit is the limit per export file. So I could have 5 export files therefore pending 10000 meshes. This works for me because I am going to have areas, so I will have loading and unloading of areas.

Hope this helps.

What format should I use? 3D Studio MAX? DirectX? Should I create my own level format for use w/Irrlicht? What collision system should I use? ODE? Irrlicht built-in?

Well it doesn't really matter what format you use, just bare in mind that if the mesh has animation with bones, you will have to use an .x file. For normal static meshes I use .3ds. Wel 3ds because my friend is doing the art and he's good at MAX.

DirectX, OpenGL, it's your choice. I'm currently using OpenGL because DirectX looks bad with 0.7. I want to use DX9 though.

For level format, it's once again your choice, whatever is easiest for you. I'm just exporting to a plain text file. Why complicate things. I'm not gonna sell it. I might show it as a demo though.

About collision, I haven't even thought about that yet, it's to early on in development. When things start getting in depth I think I will probably use ODE or sometihng like that. I haven't really looked into the collision systems yet.

If I were you I wouldn't even worry about that now though. There's so much else to get working before you delve into that.

At the moment I'm only focusing on making the world. Then I will either move on to a particle system or player setup. Things I'm running into are, how should I do the terrain, static meshes or heightmaps, alpha masking etc.

in most engines is better to weld all the meshes you can. As many surfaces use to give much worse performance...

So for a level, I should use a .X mesh?

Syphonix wrote:So for a level, I should use a .X mesh?

Or a 3DS, or a OBJ or an own meshformat (create your own loader perhaps :p ?). Ontopic: Yes, you can.

If I were to create a .x file that is a level, and I apply the collision detection stuff, will there be the automatic no-walls thing that there is in .bsp's? I mean, if you look at that collision detection demo, you know how you can't pass through walls and stutff? Can I do that easily with a .X?

Yes.

Same commands as for a .bsp file?

Yes. Every mesh in Irrlicht is just a bunch of data.

You mean I could just go into the tutorial on collision detection, and instead load a .x file instead of the .bsp? I tried that, and it didn't work.

Where in the docs could I find more info on .x files?