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Danicron

Danicron
Ireland  


  9/20/2019  1

Hello, my name is Dan (Danicron on the discord and IRC chats) and i have decided to have a go and see if i can do anything with openc2e, however stepping into someone elses project is somewhat disorientating and im not sure what has been done and what is still to do, so i am thinking it might be best to have a chat with someone that worked on the project.
If anyone that worked on the project happens to see this post and wouldnt mind having a chat with me i would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks for reading this post and i hope you all have a great day!

:D :D


Edit : if anyone happens to be in contact with any of the original authors if you could point them in my direction i would also greatly appreciate that.

If you cant find me on Discord or the IRC please email me at shreddanity@gmail.com

Thanks again!


The Dan With A Plan
 
Kule

Kule



  9/21/2019

Hi Dan, I can't offer help but this would be an amazing project if it gets back off the ground. I had not heard of openc2e before but after reading the wiki entry it seems like the type of project that could drastically breathe new life into the games and community.

C1 and C2 are great games but they could do with a bit of modernising behind the scenes. I can't for the life of me get C2 to work satisfactorily and when C1 is at higher resolutions it has weird stuttering issues when a norn is at the bottom or top of the world map. I'm hopeful that these type of issues could be fixed if this project were to be continued.

The wiki doesn't really go deep into the details of this project so if you wouldn't mind, could you post your goals if you were to pick it up from where the original team left off? What modding potential would there be for C1 and 2?

 
xan

xan



  9/21/2019

If you need a place to start, getting it to actually build on a modern system is as good a place as any.

don't quote me on it, but as I recall, the next big hurdles for the engine were reverse-engineering the physics engine (objectively tedious for any 2D game, really) and reverse-engineering the brain itself.

 
Danicron

Danicron



  9/21/2019

i have it compiled and running on Lubuntu 18.04, however getting it to build for windows is another question entirely... lol

The Dan With A Plan
 
FlyingEttiNorn

FlyingEttiNorn



  9/21/2019

i have basically 0 programming knowledge but i'll be cheering you on behind the scenes!
it would be nice to have a free game to shove at my friends that actually works outta the box, LOL

 
Scatty

Scatty



  10/19/2019

Openc2e is fascinating and I'll be pleased to see someone work on it.
 
bedalton

bedalton



  12/12/2019  3

That is exactly how I felt when I opened up OpenC2e a few months ago. I was so disoriented (I had never seen C++ before this, at least I think that is what this is), I decided to step back for a bit. I recently decided to give it another go. I have been reading over the source code the last two weeks, and I decided to port it to another language that I was more familiar with.

It is probably a big waste of time, not using the code directly, but rewriting it makes it easier for me to see what is actually going on. Reading the code doesn't do this for me to the same degree. I got on this forum though to see if anyone else was doing the same thing, and I can see that someone is, and that you asked this question about the same time I first decided to give it a go.

The other reason I am porting it is so that I can do more things with the code. I am porting it to C#, so I can use it in Unity. Unity compiles to just about every device out there, so I figured it was a good bet. In order to support more kinds of devices, I plan to re-bunde all the parsed data into my own format, so it can be transferred more easily to web browsers and mobile devices. I dream of running Creatures in a browser.

I am not actually trying to recreate the games exactly or anything. I do not plan to load existing worlds, or existing norns, but I want to get something similar to C1 starting with the OpenC2e base. Like I said, it is easier for me to use my own serialization format. It will help with network transfers later on. It will allow me to combine the necessary files into fewer files which will help with asset download, and versioning.

I've done very little so far, though I started a few weeks ago. I have not had much time to work on it due to life commitments, but I have the C1 sfc file parsed and the background loaded and drawn efficiently from the background tiles, one draw call for the whole thing(if that means anything to you).

I am currently trying to get a handle on the CAOS engine in OpenC2e. It is a huge bit of work, and I am trying to get a handle on the code, but I think it is something I will need to be more deliberate about. At the moment though it is a bit overwhelming. I am spending quite a bit of time reading through the CAOS code documentation for the three games. I never actually wrote any CAOS code, so I am seeing all of this for the first time. I was always aware of the language, but I never actually took a stab at it.

Anyways, this is what I am working on. Like I said, I am not trying to make a fully compatible or feature complete version, just something for myself. I am also only trying to get creatures 1 to work.

I am most anxious to work on the actual Creatures. I have spent a great deal of time researching the mechanics, and I really want to see if I can replicate it. Unfortunately, creatures need a world to interact with, so I have to start there.

I wish you luck on your journey, it will be good to see the community version expand. Mine is probably a long ways out, having to recode the entire OpenC2e codebase, and only whenever I find myself with enough time to sit down and work on it.

There have been some things I really do not understand in the OpenC2e code, and I have had to find resources where other people have done similar things, and have used their explanations and code. It is exciting though.

 


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