Game Developement...on Windows

Well, I figured we could start on the platform that game development is mostly programmed on. Microsoft, or MS is certainly a strong contender for the place of development. With the inception of XNA, .NET and ActiveX games for the XBox are becoming easier and easier to prototype market.

PS/3 has much to learn about creating a user friendly development environment for aspiring gamers, but from what I am told one is in the works.

So lets look at what we have

Win32

Win32 is probably the most "standard" of development environments in the game development biz, the core .NET, DirectX and XNA has made very successful tools for getting into the game development world and as a consequence has been way ahead of Sony's PS/3 in the game variety department, hands down.

Altho Microsoft has their own libraries that enable the 2D and 3D rendering capabilities OpenGL can be run on Wn32 units with the GLUT and OpenGL frameworks, practice with simple C level code for a logical library of solid C code, built with solid practices.

In regards to C++ in Windows, Visual Studio is probably the best one for its class. The ticket price is in the low to mid thousands of dollars, the windows system is buggy and prone to viruses and trojans and would not be a good to use the unit as anything other than a development client and even then in a virtual box (Parallels, etc.).

PS/3 Development...Where we are at.

Ok, everybody wants to know the "real deal" with the Linux-development-on-PS3.

And here it is....

There is none...yet.

Ok, lets be cool everybody, XBox in my book is the clear "current" winner in the development of games for there system. XNA kicks ass, period.

So you shelled out $600-700 for a PS/3, plus a wireless keyboard and maybe a game or two. Put it at a grand easy. If you have been following our blog, you should be at the point where you have Linux installed and the Wi-Fi working correctly, maybe even with Apache running....sweet.

But, you say, Halo3 is out and all my friends are playing the coolest game out. All I got was a PS/3 with little to no games and Linux running in very confined quarters that is governed by the Hypervisor.

Home, the Secondlife for PS/3 users has been delayed and GTAIV is delayed too.

So where do we stand?

Ok, lets look at the deal Sony paired us with.

Because of problems with access to the 2D and 3D acceleration on board the PS/3 their are complications involved with making the PS/3 as a game development platform under Yellow-dog Linux and developing in OpenGL.

So just what level of graphics support is available on the PS/3?

The short answer is very limited. At this point in time, Yellow-dog Linux runs in frame-buffer mode on the PS3, meaning there is no 2D no 3D acceleration and thus no direct support for OpenGL.

A work around is the x.org driver, as it is fully functional in its frame-buffer mode, offering quality support for a wide variety of hi-def televisions and computer monitors that comply with the PS3 video output signals.

The gameOS, of course has the full gambit of the device, the Linux side is severely gimped.

For now we are going to continue to develop OpenGL, but on our Macs or PCs. I will have instructions for both platforms.

A Gamer's Life

The original installment of The Gamer's Life.

A gamer who makes a game of life.

I am happy with the PS/3, for the most part. Runs Linux and Apache well, just a bit tricky when you have a SDTV.

Now it comes to my attention that Sony has special plans for the PS/3 and development on it and boy I am excited. I will get more details by Friday, on this.

Yellowdog Linux, so far, is not too bad. Doesn't come with many bells and whistles, however, its great to get used the Linux-Line-Commands. X Windows starts up without a hitch, but my SDTV does the resolution absolutely no justice.

We are working hard to save for a nice Viso at Costco that is 1080p.

Planets in OpenGL

Some new code, demonstrating spheres the large one, the Sun and the small one a planet.

Developed in OpenGL and GLUT with C. I modified the #include to accommodate Linux and Mac, this should compile on Win32 (Windows) systems.

I built this as a C++ tool, with Xcode and included the OpenGL and GLUT frameworks. I really like developing on my Mac, I can prototype code quickly and port it to other devices, including PCs and even embedded Linux devices, particularly cellular platforms.

Custom OpenGL games are certainly possible on advanced cell phones, units like Nokia's N93 & N95.

J2ME, is our current development platform for mass-production of OpenGL code ported from our C code.

Here is the source from our demo session.

robot.c from the OpenGL Redbook

This is the screenshot on my Mac.

Well here it is fully compiled from the Redbook, we modified the #include statements to incorporate more "dynamics" from this code using C and C++.

Fingers, as the Redbook suggests and maybe some texturing to make this look like a real robot arm. The possibilities are virtually endless with 700 functions to choose from, OpenGL and GLUT.

I am more for space and virtually replicating accurate space travel, in tune with our understanding with Physics and Gravity.

The fundamentals are always great to draw from, graphics and 3D code are always more flashy than system administration and network programming. But make no mistake, just because its "behind the scenes" doesn't make it any less important.

OpenGL cube demo

Hello everybody. Just finished with some OpenGL code to demonstrate the simple cube. This is the beginning of working with OpenGL and demonstrates color, shading, lighting, etc. Our source is available and is written in C using OpenGL and GLUT ported for the Mac.

I wanted to get this out so everybody could get there hands on the code and have fun with it. Our OpenGL and Game development group will demonstrate more OpenGL/GLUT code and also look into Microsoft's XNA. Our goal is to make some monster game developers for all platforms.

Also a big thanks for the giants at NeHe for their tutorials without which we would still be scratching our heads on how to make the cube spin.

Keep in tune with our blog for more details.