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Geek Culture / In-House Tools

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Fallout
22
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Joined: 1st Sep 2002
Location: Basingstoke, England
Posted: 16th Jun 2006 00:45
The last few days I've been working on my own animation program and format in DB. The idea is that I can do all my character animations in a DB app, and then export them in my own format for playback in my games. I can then merge and combine animations, plus control the frames, speed, interpolation etc. myself. It's quite cool, but unfortunately all limb rotations are on the local model axis rather than the world axis, making it a bit tricky to animate at times.

My question is, does anyone else make their own in-house style tools? What do they do, and do they actually speed up your game dev projects? I'm finding this quite rewarding, cos often non-user-friendly tools can be bashed out quickly in DB that do the job and solve a lot of technical issues for games. I'm thinking about making a level editor next for my project (not modeller and lightmapper, but piece/prefab/entity placer etc.). If anyone has made anything cool that helped them out with a project, I'd be interested in hearing about it and maybe swapping/talking about tools.

MikeS
Retired Moderator
21
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Joined: 2nd Dec 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 16th Jun 2006 01:08
Right now my general workflow is to build the tools in DBP, and then build the game using C++(and DGSDK once I upgrade Visual Studio). I like to always build my tools from scratch for all of my game projects. Being a one man team though, it's probably not as beneficial time wise as far as overall development goes. Then again, having the tools built makes it easy for modders or myself to make sequels. So in that respect, it's definitly worthwhile.

I know there's a good book that just came out about game engine toolsets, might be worth a read.



A book? I hate book. Book is stupid.
(Formerly Yellow)
Dgamer
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Joined: 30th Sep 2002
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Posted: 16th Jun 2006 01:14 Edited at: 16th Jun 2006 01:16
Yes, one i used the most was something that generated db code to import/export data into memblocks. FOr example, if I wanted to import I would tell the program to say, check the first byte and assign it the variable1, then check a dword and assign it to variable2, etc.. it made it very easy to make your own structured fileformat that db can use. I used this in my "Slither" entry into the Alienware competition, but I stopped using it now because I lost it in a harddrive crash.

Another one I attempted, but never finished was kind of like a macro editor, but instead of making programs do something over and over again, it allowed them to get more features. It contained many non-app-specific functions like "wrtbyte", "wrtword", or "calldll". It compiled your code into bytecode, which was read into db by using the program i talked about in the last paragraph. The purpose of the program was so I can add new features to a released app without recompiling the actual program. I would just release each separate "feature" in their own separate file. I got up to the point where simple variables(no arrays) were working, simple math(only the 4 basic operations. I used a tutorial about "tokens" or something to accomplish this.), and only included about 10 functions before I lost the source in the same harddrive crash.


Zappo
Valued Member
20
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Joined: 27th Oct 2004
Location: In the post
Posted: 16th Jun 2006 01:29
To tell you the truth I write most of my tools in Delphi and then write DBPro routines to load the data. I find the grid tools in Delphi especially useful for level editors.
Fallout
22
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Joined: 1st Sep 2002
Location: Basingstoke, England
Posted: 16th Jun 2006 01:44
Interesting stuff guys. The idea of a custom file format loader/handler sounds like a good bet. I'll have to put together my own level formats, character animation formats, weapon scripts etc. soon, so it might come in handy. I'll have a think about that, plus whatever scripting I need. I think the level builder will be next on the agenda though.

@Mike - how are you finding DGSDK? I have a copy of .NET and have been tempted by DGSDK a few times, but always have the feeling its a little behind DBP in terms of stability and core engine functions at the moment?

the_winch
21
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Joined: 1st Feb 2003
Location: Oxford, UK
Posted: 16th Jun 2006 01:55
Quote: "My question is, does anyone else make their own in-house style tools?"


I think it's difficult not to because finding off the shelf tools to do the job is hard and buying tools for everything gets expensive really quickly.
The problem I find is that they are yet another distraction to break your rhythm/concentration and reek havoc on your productivity. Plus the desire to get on with the game often results in very specialised tools which are not user friendly and can't really be used again.
I'm not disciplined enough to plan at the beginning and get the tools done before starting work on the game.

By way of demonstration, he emitted a batlike squeak that was indeed bothersome.
Jeku
Moderator
21
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Joined: 4th Jul 2003
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Posted: 16th Jun 2006 02:23
I prefer to make my own tools for things like level editors, which can easily be used on multiple games. However I use 3rd party art and sound editors as there's no way I can compete with Paint.NET or Reason

"I understand creative people. After all, I worked with towel designers." - Ray Kassar, former head of Atari
MikeS
Retired Moderator
21
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Joined: 2nd Dec 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 16th Jun 2006 03:36
Honostly I haven't touched DGSDK since the last patch, and I probably won't do so until it gets updated. It is a little behind in the times unfortuantly, but Mike is working on it soon enough.



A book? I hate book. Book is stupid.
(Formerly Yellow)
Jess T
Retired Moderator
21
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Joined: 20th Sep 2003
Location: Over There... Kablam!
Posted: 16th Jun 2006 03:43
Over the years, I've generated a fairly decent library of commonly used functions - Then from there, I can quickly and easily knock together basic functionality and tools which means dev is much quicker...

However, I'm slowly switching to C++ (for my DS development) so I'm having to re-write alot of them, and come up with new ones specific to the DS, etc... So it's a bit of a win-lose situation...

Nonetheless, in-house tools are usually prefereable over commercially available ones, as you know just exactly what its doing, and all the options that are available, and when needed, you can extend it very quickly (assuming you made the code extensible..!)

Team EOD :: All-Round Nice Guy
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Dgamer
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Joined: 30th Sep 2002
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Posted: 16th Jun 2006 06:13 Edited at: 16th Jun 2006 06:21
Well, my level editors cant really be considered "in-house tools" because I usually release them to the public(like My slither editor. You can check it out, the source was included.). Something like a file format handler though would only be useful on the dev's side.


Phaelax
DBPro Master
21
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Joined: 16th Apr 2003
Location: Metropia
Posted: 16th Jun 2006 11:21
To answer your question simply, yes, but not for DB.

In a class, we were stuck with some stupid Java IDE that took forever to compile (no idea why) and the school didn't even register it, so I constantly had nagging popups from it. Can't install anything on the school computers so I needed an IDE I could run from my usb flash drive. Developed an IDE in java for java and used it for the last half of the course to do my homework and labs; which also helped me test my program at the same time.

"Using Unix is the computing equivalent of listening only to music by David Cassidy" - Rob Pike

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