31/03/2007

Pywracer upate

Pywracer ( http://pywracer.sf.net ) is undergoing a rewrite. This time pywracer will not use soya but custom code written by me. Im specifically targetting OpenGL 2.0 compatible cards so I can use the features of modern cards and save some cpu time. So expect shaders,a much higher vert count and generally a nicer looking game :)

Thanks to improvements in blender since the last pywracer we can now bake lightmaps ( albeit atm without anitaliasing ( and smooth faces?! ) - hopefully these will be fixed). The lightmaps give the pywracer world a much nicer look. Ive also written various city/city building generators in BPy that should help with the war against content. With all this data I've implemented a "data build"; it transforms blender/gimp exported data into game ready data. By doing this is scons I've also saved myself some time because I can reuse the python classes Ive used in writing the exporters and game itself ( specifically one Track Settings class which contains all the info required to build a track, this file is exported from blender and used both in-game and by the build scripts ).

For physics I'm currently looking into Bullet ( http://continuousphysics.com ). It seems great atm - sure I cant do actually do what I need and a lesser prob: there is no c api, but its nicely written and the forums seem good for help. I'd definatly recommend looking at Bullet if you find ODE a bit old/big/scary.

Today I'm going to try and get the ship following a spline around the track and possible create some simple effects like lens flare. I want to start being able to show off the gfx ;)

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