ArcLib Development Blog

ArcLib to begin maintenance phase

2008-05-15T06:45:00.000-07:00

Arc has been an interesting spare time project. Arc began in 2005 as a library that needed to be developed in order to complete my Warbots game project. After 3 years, it slowly took on a life of its own as I forgot about Warbots. I wrote code that would be useful to me and assimilated it into one library.

I have learned much about the D language, binding, and writing 2D game style code. I’ve had fun, but time doesn't permit anymore to actively develop 2D game code.

ArcLib will now move into maintenance phase. For this maintenance phase I have split ArcLib up into an ArcLib core and several extensions.

Current Arc Project Structure
1. Arc Core
2. Arc Extensions
- Blaze 2d physics
- Freetype font rendering
- GUI (currently crashes, however, due to assocArray.keys call, but tech has worked well in past)
- OpenAL sound
- Particle system
- Scenegraph
- Sprite

These extensions will all depend on the ArcLib core, but compatibility between extensions will not be guaranteed.

From now on, ArcLib will be on a yearly maintenance cycle.

ArcLib and all its extensions should soon be installable via DSSS as well.

Only example code will be kept up-to-date, tutorials and the like will not be.

ArcLib all-in-one vs. modular design

2008-05-01T08:03:00.000-07:00

Forum thread: http://www.dsource.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3861

Here's an idea that I'd been thinking about in my head a while, about
which design route I should be taking ArcLib in.

1. Modular design
- Arc Core Library
- Arc Scenegraph
- Arc Particle
- ArcLib compatible Blaze
- etc.

2. All-in-one design
- The way it is now. Everything is well mixed together.

I'd rather stick with one design or the other, to have a strong design
philosophy behind the library, at least.

I've been leaning towards the all-in-one design, which is what ArcLib
is currently, for ease of use. However, to keep up with this design, I
/will/ need to integrate Blaze directly into the ArcLib code base. It
also puts the pressure on me to maintain / develop more code, and
slows down the release cycles.

Recently I've been thinking of a modular approach as well... this
approach works well for the SDL library (SDL_image, SDL_ttf, etc.) It
would allow game programmers to 'pick and choose' which components of
ArcLib they would want to use, and the core of ArcLib would become
really well polished. DSSS would remove the pain of installing all the
libraries separately. This way, different members of a future 'arclib
community' can make arclib compatible extension libs and people can
choose to use them or not, and my 'GUI' implementation would have the
possibility of 'disappearing' if a better one from the community
emerged, or certain sections of arclib can be redesigned without
really much of a problem.

Anyways, I've been struggling with these ideas for a while and kind of
want to know what others think about them.

Last 2 weeks of semester....

2008-04-12T13:55:00.000-07:00

Last 2 weeks of the semester... nuff said.

Just posting to say I'm still thinking about ArcLib stuff and expect some new stuff for the summer, but right now and for the next 2 weeks I'm totally booked to the point where I can't even write a decent blog post about it.

Tango XML and Blaze

2008-03-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

Blaze is nearing a 1.0 release. See Announcement. Blaze supports 2D physics for polygons, and has recently added joints. Since Blaze is too fast for me, I added some timing code into the Blaze demos that will cap the frame rate on faster machines.

I also replaced my XML code in ArcLib with the Tango XML code. The whole process was pretty simple, I only had one or two questions for the Tango folks about Tango XML, and then using Tango XML allowed me to reduce my lines of code count quite a bit, too.

First Blaze 2D Physics Engine Release

2008-02-17T12:37:00.000-08:00

See the announcement for more details.

Get the Windows Demo: Blazed-Demos

*nix Users: dsss net install blazed-demos

What does this mean for ArcLib? It means, finally, that a major roadblock for Arc v.3 (polygons in physics) is removed, and all the built in Box2D Lite stuff that was built into ArcLib will be removed, as well.

Also, the next release of Tango looks like it will feature XML, so I can remove my own XML code from ArcLib in the next release. I can also remove a bunch of my templated code in ArcLib, thanks to Tango.

Box2D4D Officially Abandoned...

2008-02-15T06:53:00.000-08:00

If someone wants to pick up where I left off...

1) branches/ has the old c++ --> D port and the attempt at a java --> D port
2) I think trunk/ may have the new c++ --> D port

The reason Box2d4d is being abandoned is because...

1) Impossible to debug (been trying to debug it for about the past 3-4 months)
2) Code is too complex for its own good
3) There is something better on the horizon...

:)

~ Clay

GlazeD, Chipmunk --> ActionScript 3.0 --> D

2008-02-11T09:36:00.000-08:00

Alright, so box2d4d is a no go because it is impossible for Mason and I to debug. If somebody else can figure it out, feel free.

So, Mason found an Action Script 3.0 port of Chipmunk, except that it doesn't support joints. We are now trying to convert it to D, and it does compile but we haven't had the chance to figure out if it works or not.

As usual, I kept my habit of making doc comments. Here are the Ddocs.

So, hopefully this one will be easier to debug because it is simpler, and this one at least supports polygons.

Then, if we get it to work, Mason will base his rb2d efforts off of glazeD and add various features and things to it over time.

And, the big picture for me is, that I will have a physics engine in native D that I can integrate into ArcLib, that I won't have to maintain or add new features to myself.

Play Tankwars on Win32

2008-01-28T20:07:00.000-08:00

Alright... probably should have posted this a long time ago... but here is tankwars for win32. For *nix users, wine will probably work.

Just in case anyone out there on windows wanted to try it.

Box2D4D 1.4.3 Documentation

2008-01-24T12:08:00.000-08:00

Box2D4D 1.4.3 Docs

Ok, so I started over again with the latest box2d, and one of the things I did this time, was to give every variable and function a doc comment!

I got it to compile, and immediately compiled these docs.

Enjoy, Box2d fans :-P

On a side note, here's a link to a promising 2D physics engine written from scratch in D, rb2d. You can obtain it with 'dsss net install rb2d.'

Both these projects are one man wonders, so if there are any 2d physics programmers in the D community, feel free to jump in and join the fun!

TankWars Screen Shot

2008-01-15T10:01:00.001-08:00

http://svn.dsource.org/projects/tankwars/downloads/screen.PNG

Just in case anyone didn't see it on the project page.

ArcLib Development Slowing Down...

2008-01-14T18:24:00.000-08:00

ArcLib has been slowing down its development rate. I simply don't have the time to develop as much as I used to, so development from now on will probably be in short spurts every couple of months or so, and be more into a maintenance phase.

~ Clay

Finishing TankWars

2007-12-05T11:34:00.000-08:00

It's the end of the semester, and my partner and I spent about 7 hours yesterday finishing up tankwars with about 30 svn commits total, mainly loading tanks and helicopters and allowing them to randomly move and shoot on the map, adding sound effects, and letting the player shoot at the tanks. We had some trouble trying to get the tank pointed at the player, even using the point.angle(point) function, which we never resolved.

If you want to check out the final (unfinished) product, svn co svn.dsource.org/projects/tankwars/trunk/game, and run game.exe. There is a level editor that allows you to place objects and there is a game that allows you to 'play.'

Anyways, unless I get some abundant future free time, this project will most likely be stalled from this point onward, as I'll probably be spending time on my arclib and getting that in better shape.

Box2D for D, take three

2007-11-24T17:38:00.000-08:00

Alright, the java port was not giving me the correct output that I wanted. So, I decided to take the C++ D port, remove the memory management code, and implement the java solution for dealing void*'s. Now I'm getting an assert error. So, what I'm going to D, is mostly use the C++ version to base off of, and trace the C++ code versus the D code to see where I have gone wrong.

Box2D for D, take two

2007-11-19T16:19:00.000-08:00

Alright, so I become stuck on box2d4d not only with the custom memory management code, but also with all the pointers, of which Erin Catto is a fan of. I didn't really have time to deal with the pointer problems, so I'm taking a different strategy.

There is already a java port of box2d, so I'm taking that code and porting it to D. I already got it to compile. After I get some examples working, I will then add doc comments, upgrade it to the latest box2d version, and perhaps the re-implement custom memory management.

The box2d4d project already has more files than my own ArcLib project has, to give an idea of the scope of the project.

TankWars Development Update

2007-11-15T10:33:00.000-08:00

The media is almost all complete. All required sound effects, and still images of the tank, helicopter, and person, as well as missle and tank shell. We have some tiles too. We still need person/tank/helicopter fire muzzle flash, destroyed vehicle art, and some dirt tiles.

Also, the XML level reader and writer is 90% done, the last 10% will just be testing it to see if it works.

My next task is to hook up the editor with the level reader and writer.

ArcLib get's a logo...

2007-11-13T09:19:00.000-08:00

Keyframe win's the logo contest! Many thanks and appreciations to all those who entered. It was a difficult toss up for me between CodexArcanum's logo and Keyframe's logo, but I feel that Keyframe's logo has a more professional look, and indeed more professionalism will be the theme of the Arc v.3 release as I believe that will be the first one on which real work can start being done with games and such as things start to stabilize and the scope of Arc is realized.

ArcLib Logo Contest Final Showdown!

2007-10-30T16:41:00.000-07:00

The ArcLib Logo contest final showdown has begun! There have been a lot of good logo submissions, and there is still time to submit a new killer logo.

Here is the link to the final logo contest thread. As you can see, if you decide to submit a logo based on the specifications given in that thread, you can guarantee you'll win if you submit the only one and it is somewhat decent.

Good luck!

TankWars Editor Interface Complete

2007-10-29T12:37:00.001-07:00

I've completed the TankWars level editor interface... you can now change the tiles on the tilemap and place game objects on the screen such as Tanks, Helicopters, and rocks. My group member is working on loading and saving a level with XML, and once that is done, the editor will be able to load up levels, edit them, and then save them back as XML files.

The editor is really simple and consists only of 'hotkeys' to edit. The most difficult part for me was simply trying to think in terms of a scene graph, but that took me a day or so and then I figured it out. The way I have my scenegraph set up right now is like so...

WorldTransformNode
-> TileMap (draw all the tiles)
--> Mouse notify node (sends signals to tilemap when mouse is clicked, gives relative mouse coordinates to the tilemap, based on transformation)

The advantage of the scenegraph is not having to calculate transformations myself, which saves a lot of hassle and is worth it once it is figured out.

Also, one of the aspects of Arc v.3 that I'm looking forward to is a large reduction of code without any loss of features :) This will be accomplished by moving all physics code to another project, simplification of the scenegraph, and reliance on Tango's template containers, as well as a possible re-factor.

TankWars Update...

2007-10-23T20:53:00.000-07:00

Here is a little update on my semester long class project that is now 'officially' started.

The TankWars main screen is pretty much complete, it just needs a 'resume' button and a title. It has a 'New Game' button, an 'Editor' button, and an 'Exit' button. When the new game button is pressed, it takes you to a screen that shows a TileMap in a world transform node that can be controlled with the players keys.

Nothing too fancy yet...

I myself am semi-new to the scenegraph in Arc, I havn't really done too much with it until now. I got myself running with it pretty quickly from the scenegraph test, however. The scenegraph is probably not the most newbie friendly concept, and today I thought that it might help to store a scenegraph scene in an XML file and have some sort of scenegraph builder program. It would shorten the users code dramatically, and the scenegraph could be seen visibly as it should be. Until then, ArcLib users need to be pretty proficient in programming to use it.

Development halted for a week or two...

2007-10-17T13:31:00.001-07:00

Alright, development has pretty much halted for a week or two. This week I have 3 midterms and this weekend I went to the ACM conference and watched presentations by the founder of the XKCD web comic, the guy who wrote the digg.com software, the authors of Girl Genius web comics, and a few other presentations.

When I get time, I'll be working on TankWars.

Flashbacks from the past...

2007-10-04T17:10:00.000-07:00

Today, I delighted myself by stumbling on one of my old school WarBots projects. Before I started ArcLib, the project was actually called WarBots and was meant to finish a game that me and my friends attempted to build in High School but never got very far because the lame school admins shutdown the project from their lack of competence (grrr... see: http://warcoders.sourceforge.net/ for more info on what the project was meant to be and how far we got).

Anyway... I ran the exe and amazed myself at what I could accomplish in 2005 with limited D and OpenGL knowledge back in the day, when compiler numbers were still in the .70's and one had to write their own bindings from scratch.

For the curious, here's the way to access the files via SVN.

1. svn co -r 172 http://svn.dsource.org/projects/arclib/ warbots/
2. cd 'warbots\trunk\current'
2. Run 'game.exe'

To interact with the game, click the building, click 'train unit,' type 'miner' then hit enter. Then proceed to witness the miner vehicle collect metal scrap on the map. It uses per-pixel collision detection and a lua script to define the miner's AI.

I'm also amazed that SVN actually kept /EVERYTHING/, I'm afraid to know how much space my project takes up on poor old dsource.

The part that gets me is that I didn't even realize how far I got on that project.

And, as time passed, I decided I needed to write a good generic 2D game library before attempting to write any more game code. I've discovered that large projects have a 'point of no return' where, once the project reaches a certain size or complexity, more and more manpower must be used to achieve less and less of a result.

WarBots reached that complexity for a 1 man project, and ArcLib was the answer to reduce it. Look how far it's gotten me ;)

Current Development Highlights ...

2007-10-03T12:28:00.000-07:00

1. ChristianK was able to figure out the problem with one of the D files crashing. Apparently it has to do with forward references and enums, and putting an enum in its own file fixes the problem. For the curious, here is the actual bug link.

2. Box2d is almost able to compile, there are just a few last minute memory management codes that need to be implemented and some other small fixes in b2World before it will be able to compile. After it can compile, then the next stage is getting it to work.

3. When working on my TankWars game, I ran up against an OPTLINK bug. Thankfully, that was fixed by using the beta linker found in the bugzilla issue. All that is done for the project is the project layout and a simple 'main screen' for the game with 3 buttons, New Game, Editor, and Exit.

4. I'm really busy. Most of my time will go to my new TankWars project I'm working on for a class, and if I do get any free time, I will be working mostly on the Box2d4d port.

5. ChristianK has implemented some really sweet particle effects in the current development version of arc & asteroids.

6. Tango's logging system is really nice. Each module can have it's own logger, and each logger is part of a tree hierarchy, so you can grab a hold of the root logger and then output all the information of each logger anywhere you want, I like to use the FileAppender. The output looks like this.

Box2D C++ porting woes...

2007-09-20T18:28:00.001-07:00

My projects are somewhat stalled now, due to the porting of box2d.

1. This problem has stopped me for a while, until I gave up and asked for the answer on the Box2D forums. I knew what pointer + i was, but pointer - i is new to me.

2. D compiler crashes when trying to compile some of the .d files. I'm hoping this will resolve itself as I get more and more D code to compile. If not, it's another potential time waster as I look for a work around or wait for a compiler fix.

I still have some hope that I can get it done soon, though.

Box2d, for D!

2007-09-14T12:34:00.000-07:00

Alright. Erin Catto's Box2D (www.box2d.org) is going to be /the/ 2D physics system, as the success of his original Box2D has already created many spin-offs.

I want to be able to have access to the most advanced 2D physics I can have in ArcLib, but keeping the physics system up-to-date with Erin's new stuff is going to prove a challenge, and in order to accept this challenge, I started a seperate box2d4d project on dsource which aims a providing a close-to-source as possible translation of Box2D.

The ArcLib physics system upgrades is now a three step process, now without pressure of us ArcLib developer's having to develop new physics features ourselves, but merely staying up-to-date.

The pipeline goes like...

Erin Catto Updates Box2d --> box2d4d updated --> arclib updated if needed to support latest version.

Simple, mechanical 3 step process. The first pass will be the hardest, the rest will be easy and I can concentrate on other aspects of ArcLib, like lighting and the API. Until then, my time will be spent on box2d4d.

~ Clay

Requested Project on Dsource

2007-09-11T11:34:00.000-07:00

Today, I gave my partner the run down on arclib, had him install D + DSSS + Arclib, and requested a dsource project for the game.

~ Clay