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Will agate fit for my project?

Submitted by amiga on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 05:33

Hi,

We want to create a new strategy game somewhat like the original "Master Of Magic".
I barely have experience with graphics and I'm trying to understand if Agate fit for my purposes.

We can do the game a minimal 2D game and than it'll be probably OK, but what if we wish to create a more advanced game terrains which contain "3D" mountains, etc.?
Something like CIV4.

Thanks,
Eden.

‹ Sprite not animated
#1Submitted by Tatsu on Sun, 03/14/2010 - 04:57.

I am currently not able to

I am currently not able to help develop agatelib, but since it uses the .NET api, I am able to use it and I have it almost fully working in Visual Basic.NET in both 2.0, and 3.5. I am currently making a game right now with it and it seems to be a well built and fairly well easy to use engine when working with .NET.

So this works in VB.NET as well as C#.

I am fluent in VB.NET but I have very little knowlege of C#. Ive worked with this engine for a while now and it seems to be the most stable and powerful .NET engine out there.

#2Submitted by kanato on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 10:34.

Yeah, so currently Agate has

Yeah, so currently Agate has strong support for 2D drawing, as well as support for audio playback and joystick input. 3D support is in development, but it probably will be a while before it is really usable. Right now it's usable for tile-based or isometric type games, but nothing perspective corrected.

#3Submitted by amiga on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 11:05.

Kanato, why aren't you using

Kanato, why aren't you using some more advanced forum system?
It's maybe harder to create a community with such system - a more user-centric system like the standard PHPBB/vBulletin will do great. Don't you think?

#4Submitted by kanato on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 11:09.

well, I like drupal because

well, I like drupal because it has content management for the whole site, as well as forums, and I don't have to do any work to have eg. logins be the same in the content part of the site and the forum part of the site. Drupal has tons of modules for extending its functionality too, so maybe there are ways to improve the forums to make them similar to the functionality in say, phpBB. Did you have something specific in mind that could improve the forums?

#5Submitted by amiga on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 11:20.

You right - Drupal AND Joomla

You right - Drupal AND Joomla are great, but do you really using all these great features?

It's just I wish there was a good .NET graphics engine (though guess it can't compete performance-wise with good c/c++ engines doing the same).
And moreover, I wish it would be open-source.

But it can't be real good without a good supporting community. If you have intentions to make it so, I guess you have to make it more community-centric and as you said - to make these libraries known.
---
As for Drupal - have you checked their forums options? I'd guess they have something.
But you can also use a separate forums system, though it will add some work (maybe I can assist).

+ you can upload these project in the Microsoft opensource site - CodePlex.

#6Submitted by kanato on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 12:21.

I am using quite a few of the

I am using quite a few of the features of drupal. The content management and easy theming interface to name a few. I have not looked into the options for extending the drupal forums much. One "problem" is that there is so much stuff available for drupal that without something specific to look for it takes some time to read through everything.

So are you not aware that AgateLib is open source? It's uploaded on SourceForge rather than CodePlex.

And as for performance, I'd claim AgateLib is very much on par with what you'd get out of a C++ engine. All of the testing that I've done with AgateLib has indicated that programs are very much GPU bound. The main performance consideration is how many pixels are being pushed to the screen, and the GPU's ability to quickly process them. This is independent of what language is used to develop the code running on the CPU, whether it's C# or C++. Also, other tests have indicated that typically unoptimized C# performs better than unoptimized C++. That is, it's easier to write reasonably performant C# code than C++. This was certainly my experience porting Ball Buster from C++/ClanLib to C#/AgateLib, the framerate actually increased when it was converted to C# (both versions are extremely unoptimized). Now, C++ does give a much greater amount of flexibility than C# when it comes to hand tuning the performance of the code. C# also has some special performance considerations that have to be made for the garbage collector. But the GPU limitation is quite significant, and very little can be done about that.

#7Submitted by amiga on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 12:34.

Agree. The GPU anyway does

Agree. The GPU anyway does the most. I've also seen such comparisons as you described concerning some Math operations and so in which C# was as good or better than the equivalent C++ program without the fine tuning.
Anyhow, for my type of game it's no real concern.

I know this project is an open source, of course. But why not make it more known?

Also, considering that there are almost no active registered users + the primary use registered users currently is the forum, you can add some separate forums system.

#8Submitted by kanato on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 13:19.

Well, I plan to promote it

Well, I plan to promote it more once I am though with my current todo list. My hope is that eventually people will be interested in contributing to the documentation, and the current system is set up to allow for that. Also, once there is an official release of the project module for Drupal 6 then people will be able to submit feature requests and bug reports in a much more systematic way.

#9Submitted by amiga on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 19:26.

Well, that sounds great. I

Well, that sounds great. I guess that people might want to participate also in developing it.

#10Submitted by Agon on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 07:22.

Hi, if you take a look at the

Hi,

if you take a look at the svn there is a branch which extends AgateLib from 2D to 3D and adds GLSL shader support.
http://agate.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/agate/branches/agate-3d/

I think AgateLib provides enough functions to do a 2D game like "Master of Magic" or Civ and if you need some 3D objects you need to wait a bit.
I think the only thing which is maybe missing is video support?

#11Submitted by amiga on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 07:43.

video support for in game

video support for in game videos?
well, maybe, but it's not that important.

The reason I'm trying to use Agate is it's has a .NET API.

Thanks.