Plan for Chris "DiGi" Timberlake
by Chris "DiGi" Timberlake · 09/14/2004 (9:37 am) · 9 comments
(I just typed this whole thing up, and lost it because I hit ctrl b instead of shift b and it took me back. lol. Now, for those of you who are disgusted with the talk of a map editor, and/or me, dun worry about reading this.)
Now, for some of you who don't know. I worked for a company back in August who needed a map editor for their Torque project. (Cannot say the name) I found the Tread 3D's source and started working with it, and liked it. So we worked with that, but i found the company and project holding me back from what i wanted. So i quit, and formed my own company (Darkness Studios).
As alot of you already know, I found lots of bugs within the Tread 3D Source which made it impossible to work for Torque without some Mods. There was the UI (Which was always a problem, read on) which was made in MFC, and old MFC, and Code Jockey MFC Libraries, which were all version 6.0. Then there was the .Map format which wasn't Valve 220 compatible (now is i believe). Now the UI never has been a real problem in early builds and tests, it usually compiled with a little work. But not now, upon further digging and observation, the UI is just wrong, theres no words to describe it, it has to be replaced. The only reason to the human eye why the UI needed to be replaces earlier is because it relied too much on Code Jockey, and it wasn't cross-platform, yes granted he had tried to make it for mac. So now we come to the question "What do we do now."
I have thought this over alot. I've stressed over it slept on it, and thought hard. Seeing has this has set my company back a couple months. I find the only solution is to redo the UI in OpenGL, and/or another cross-platform library, i perfer opengl though. Now i know your going "Wow! WOuld this make it cross-platform???" My only answer to that is that it will make it alot closer, it wount make it 100% cross-platform because of a few things, one being I don't have a mac (If anyone is selling a G4 Laptop, Desktop, or a G5, for a reasonable price I might be able to take it off your hands), 2nd being i need to program the memory allocations and all that for each platform. Other then that I see no obviouse problem why it wount be.
Now, another thing, some of you have heard my 'crazy' ideas on a new mapping system, and i bet some of you are wondering about that. Well, yes i think a face based mapping system with OCTree terrein is an awsome idea, and it might happen with Torque or the idea of an engine my company and i are "toying" with. Thats all for now, next time i will hopefully bring screenshots, and some cool stuff, untill next time, Byes.
Edit: I'm looking at NUi right now http://home.gna.org/ngl/shots.html i will go into further depth later.
Now, for some of you who don't know. I worked for a company back in August who needed a map editor for their Torque project. (Cannot say the name) I found the Tread 3D's source and started working with it, and liked it. So we worked with that, but i found the company and project holding me back from what i wanted. So i quit, and formed my own company (Darkness Studios).
As alot of you already know, I found lots of bugs within the Tread 3D Source which made it impossible to work for Torque without some Mods. There was the UI (Which was always a problem, read on) which was made in MFC, and old MFC, and Code Jockey MFC Libraries, which were all version 6.0. Then there was the .Map format which wasn't Valve 220 compatible (now is i believe). Now the UI never has been a real problem in early builds and tests, it usually compiled with a little work. But not now, upon further digging and observation, the UI is just wrong, theres no words to describe it, it has to be replaced. The only reason to the human eye why the UI needed to be replaces earlier is because it relied too much on Code Jockey, and it wasn't cross-platform, yes granted he had tried to make it for mac. So now we come to the question "What do we do now."
I have thought this over alot. I've stressed over it slept on it, and thought hard. Seeing has this has set my company back a couple months. I find the only solution is to redo the UI in OpenGL, and/or another cross-platform library, i perfer opengl though. Now i know your going "Wow! WOuld this make it cross-platform???" My only answer to that is that it will make it alot closer, it wount make it 100% cross-platform because of a few things, one being I don't have a mac (If anyone is selling a G4 Laptop, Desktop, or a G5, for a reasonable price I might be able to take it off your hands), 2nd being i need to program the memory allocations and all that for each platform. Other then that I see no obviouse problem why it wount be.
Now, another thing, some of you have heard my 'crazy' ideas on a new mapping system, and i bet some of you are wondering about that. Well, yes i think a face based mapping system with OCTree terrein is an awsome idea, and it might happen with Torque or the idea of an engine my company and i are "toying" with. Thats all for now, next time i will hopefully bring screenshots, and some cool stuff, untill next time, Byes.
Edit: I'm looking at NUi right now http://home.gna.org/ngl/shots.html i will go into further depth later.
About the author
#2
09/14/2004 (5:56 pm)
Ok, I think you blocked me on msn tho, send um over.
#3
http://www.mozilla.org/newlayout/
09/14/2004 (7:05 pm)
Mozilla's gecko rendering engine is cross platform and quite usable (They did make a web browser, email client, calendar, and irc client out of it) Dunno how difficult it is to use though.http://www.mozilla.org/newlayout/
#4
09/14/2004 (7:53 pm)
I was looking at that, but i'm leaning towards GTK, as its fast Efficient, and cross-platform. Thanks for the sugestion!
#5
09/14/2004 (11:43 pm)
gtk or wxwindows! 
#6
Why not use Torque as your GUI and cross-platform front end? It's more than a game engine...
- LightWave Dave
09/15/2004 (6:10 am)
Greetings!Why not use Torque as your GUI and cross-platform front end? It's more than a game engine...
- LightWave Dave
#7
09/15/2004 (11:40 am)
David, i've thought about that also, but i have plans which i'm not dis-closing. I really don't want the editor inside torque, i think with my plans and such it would be tacky, but i'm going to integrate Torque and this editor very well, i've already started on a new Directory Structure, fot the editor. 
#8
-Jase
09/15/2004 (11:37 pm)
Which do you guys think is better, GTK or wxWindows? I'm planning to do some crossplatform application development as well and I'm looking into both of them. Any suggestions would be appreciated.-Jase
#9
09/16/2004 (8:53 am)
Depends on what you want, WxWindows uses GTK on Linux, but to use GTK on Windows or Linux youd need to install the 3rd party gtk libraries on their computer aswell. Inshort WxWindows, but i wouldn't narrow it down to just those 2, using oepnGL to make interfaces is hard but well worth it, you can also use GLUT or an OpenGL UI Toolkit. 
Torque Owner FruitBatInShades