Re: Where do I begin?

["subnet_rx" <aaron@hubfirst.com>]

> Just one thing I think most people have missed (possibly deliberatly
;) so
> far is the nastiest bit of writing a game, or the most boring
perhaps: the
> support tools. It's all well and good to import textures from png,
objects
> from such-and-such, sounds from here but sooner or later you will
(at least
> with objects, possibly textures, definately with other "custom"
stuff) run
> into something that is not done with any standard format and you
will have to
> write something to make suitable files. For the game that is
mentioned in my
> sig I'm working on:
>
> - - texture editor. Loads images via imlib into a heirarchical
structure (
>   interface shows a texture tree into which textures can be
grouped),
>   saves them out as RGB/RGBA with additional data telling the engine
>   about animation sequences, material properties and some other bits
>   and pieces. Texture files are obviously larger than PNG, but
there's no
>   need for two or three files per texture and they load faster.
>
> - - object editor. Loads objects from Lightwave, Imagine and any
editor
>   anyone can be brave enough to write a plugin for. Used to set up
texture
>   coordinates, lighting, scripting and control points, weapon mount
positions
>   and 20 million other things.
>
> - - ship editor. Associates models, AI .so files (so several ships
can share
>   the same basic AI), statistics (masses, descriptions etc), initial
AI
>   tweaks.
>
> - - map editor, race editor, mission editor and item editor.
>
> This is certainly not a trivial amount of code (the object editor in
> particular) and you need a very good idea of what you will be doing
in the
> game before you can start to write them!  I've onto the second
revision of
> a couple of tools because I've got half way through implementing
things and
> suddenly hit upon a way to to something as well with less code, or
better
> with the same.
>
> Chris

I'm making a compilation of all these messages so that the rest of the
group can read, so I hope all of this advice is licensed under the
GPL.  Thanks for all the replies so far.