Bugfixes update

Revolution Engine v0.4 alpha 2's been updated to fix some bugs and add little improvements (e.g. a camera creation function). Some other things have also been included (as a new type of material). Remember that Rmd format is not supported yet, please wait to alpha 3. I've also found some bugs in the converter and will update it with the fixes as soon as i finish the specification and the loader.
Oh I almost forget, specular maps alredy work in basci material.

Enjoy the update!

File Converter and Rmd format

I'm working on a better and faster file format for models in Revolution engine.
When it's finished it will support both static and animated models, triangle faces, quad faces, triangle strips, various uv sets, and a more things. It will be called rmd (stands for Revolution MoDel) and first revision will be supported in v0.4 alpha 3 (work in progress). It's basically a binary format based on nested lists and is designed to be loaded without recursive readings. Speed, light-weight, and flexibility.
You can download the first release from the web (includes source code) and I'll try to post the specification as soon as I can.

See you!

Revolution Engine 0.4 alpha 2

The second alpha of Revolution Engine is ready to download.
Here is a list of improvements compared to alpha 1:
-Boosted Nodes system (initNode, attachNode, etc...)
-The size of some structures has been optimiced
-Materials now work for real (some problems remain, see notes below)
-Added a Screenshot function (So I want to see more of your screenshots :) )
-Some bugs fixed

Download


Note About materials: Now, when you add material to an object it no longer dissapears. However, materials are not fully supported yet since specular maps don't work properly. You can use materials with specular color, diffuse color, alpha (diffuse color alpha), glossiness (as specular color's alpha), specularity and diffuse maps (replacing diffuse colors). All that stuff should work properly in Basic materials. Masked materials are not supported yet.

tutorials, comming soon

Thank you everyone that follows this project. Today I just want to say that i'm preparing a few tutorials about the basics of using revolution engine and will release them as soon as I can, probably this week.
Thank you

Edit: However, you can post whatever you want to know in the forum. This way I can directly answer your questions, which may help others, and know more about the topics that tutorials should cover.

Revolution Engine 0.4 alpha 1

The day has come. The new version of the very first 3D Game Engine for Wii is here.
Full of new features, improvements and optimizations. The list is long, so I'm posting just the major changes and letting you discover the rest.
-Full support for transparency. Many transparent objects can be superposed one after another and change position dinamically without causing render bugs.
-Software Vertex lighting: You finally can render lighted scenes. Multiple lights, specular lighting, diffuse lighting, etc...It's so basic in alfa 1 but will be improved n future alfas.
-Multiple viewports and cameras: Now you can divide the screen into multiple viewports, for multiplayer gaming, for example.
-Materials system: Will be improved in future alfas, but it alredy is quite powerful. Difuse and specular colors and materials, different flags, specularity, glossiness.
-2D system: buttons, true type texts (GX based), windows...
-Automatic pointers: forget about programming all those things about the IR pointers etc...it's done by default.
-Discover the rest yourself ;)

Another important change is about naming conventions. Now function names, flags, macros, definitions, etc...are all in full english. Say goodbye to Spanglish because English is the convention for all versions now on. Names start in Lowercase and Uppercase is used for separating words.

You can download the engine at Revolution engine, downloads zone.

Enjoy

How to release 0.4?

This post is because I'm preparing the first release of revolution engine 0.4

Yes, the first one, but not the only one. Why?

Well, Revolution engine 0.4 is a huge, ambicious porject. It's big enough to take many months on development and carry a lot of bugs inside, and me, i'm just one developper. So there are two options: First, after a few more months, I finish the engine and release it with many bugs and absolutely no documentation. Everybody has to wait a lot for the engine and when it finally arrives, almost no one can use it. It doesn't look like a good option, right?

The other posibility is: I finish a part of the engine, and release it, at the same time, I release some short tutorials on how to use that part. People can start using it and learn about it step by step. As they use it, they tell me about bugs they fing or features they miss. So, as I prepare the next release, also fix those issues. More documentation, less time to wait, faster bug-fixes, easier learning curve...better for all, right?

So you can expect the first release within a week. Revolution engine 0.4, coming soon.

Node Based

Hello everyone!

Today I'm talking about nodes. 0.4 is the first version of Revolution engine that allows us to work with some kind of hierarchy. This means that both in 2D and 3D subsystems, every entity (panels, buttons, objects, lights, cameras, etc...) is at the same time a node in space (either 2D space or 3D space). This way you can use the same functions to move a camera, an object, a light, whatever. Futhermore, nodes let us attach some objects to others and simplify move functions so much(because child nodes alwais move relatively to their parents, instead of in the absolute space). Let's see some examples:

-You can attach a camera as a child to the player, and the camera will automatically follow that character.

-You can attach wheels to a car and so, when the car moves wheels will move. But at the same time you can make the wheels rotate respect to the car. Later you can de-attach the wheels when you blow up the car and throw them far away ;)

-You can create a complex 2D menu for your game, made of many panels, buttons and texts, all of them attached to a single node, or to differents nodes that are also attached to a single node. This way you can show or hide the whole menu just by showing or hiding the parent node. Just one instruction to hide or show hundreds of panels.

I'm sure you can imagine so many more uses for this feature ;)

Back 2 Work

Long time without news, right?

Ok, I'm back. I'm back working on the new version of the engine, that i think will make the difference in Homebrew. You'll have more news soon, but by now I just can say that I'm preparing the release of Revolution engine 0.4 alfa version.

keep an eye on the web or on the blog and you won't regret ;)

bye!

Object Viewer

Hello,

it's been more than a month without updates, quite a long time. Today I bring good news: An Object Viewer is being developped. One of the current lacks of revolution engine is the lack of tools. There are almost no tools to simplify the task of creating a game, almost all is made by code, even materialas have to be coded. But this is gona start changing. The first tool is almost finished and will most likely be released among next week. It is a small application for our Wiis, running the current implementation of revolution engine 0.4 (W.I.P.) and allows us to quickly see how our objects would look in a game using revolution engine 0.4. We can adjust things such us lighting conditions and material properties and even save this into a material file so we don't need to code that stuff ever again. This visual material editor makes easier, faster and more intuitive the process of creating materials for our objects and at the same time fits perfectly for artists because you don't need to write a single line of code. With that, I say goodbye, but I give you a couple of screenshots of the development of Revolution engine Object Viewer.

Materials and lighting

Hello everyone!
I know, I don't post frequently, but believe me, it doesn`t mean I'm not working. In fact, soon I'll start posting media content of version 0.4, wich I promess will be much more visual than earlier versions. That is today's topic, Visual improvements: new material system and lighting.
Let's start with lighting:
Revolution engine 0.4 wil be the first version featuring lighting. I can only say three things about lighting so far:
-First: won't be limited to the eight lights supported by wii hardware
-Second: Will be customizable (colors, types, etc...)
-Third: Will be per vertex, using a variation of phong equation, modified to proper integration with tev, and featuring amient, diffuse, and specular lighting.

Now Materials: Materials are probably what I'm working harder on. Until now, materials system in the engine has been SO simple. You could just set a diffuse color or a diffuse map, just a simple texture for your objects. This is changing.
Beside some basic effects such as tiling and so, Materials now feature many different types of shaders. I'm only going to explain what the basic one consists of:
-Diffuse color or map: This is obvious.
-Gloss map or gloss coefficient: because different objects shine different.
-Specular color: no specular maps yet, that will come in later versions, but this will work (I'll post renders soon)
-Specularity coefficient.

Of course transparency and all those effects are still avaiable and some are improved.

This is a work in progress screen about lighting



I really think you all will enjoy this update.

Bye!