Revolution Engine

Status Report

2011-01-22T10:17:00.000-08:00

Thought still far from completion, rev-0.7 keeps growing. This is basically the current status, where you can see that many important subsystems are running, and that some developer tools have been added or improved from older versions:
-Multi-platform support:Being able to compile your projects both for wii and windows allows you to use a lot of powerful tools to debug your code and inspect your game's internals. This makes a faster, more comfortable and more reliable development process.
-Log system:A good log system is always a good friend.
-Improved time system:Allows for precise and safe timing, which will help creating better physics, profiling and more.
-Memory:Memory management is being redisgned to help debugging pointer bugs and avoid some crashes like trying to delete a block more than once, warning you when that happens so you can track the problem and fix it.
-Script system: lua based script system that will allow faster and more flexible development for your games.
-Model loading: RMD models can now be loaded into the engine and rendered correctly. RMD format is fast to load and optimized for Revolution Engine.
-Camera: Cameras are working on this version also. This is a basic featured that has been present in all versions of the engine but one that will see many improvements in the near future.

And that's most of it right now, as always you can checkout the SVN for a more precise look into the engine.

Enjoy!

Going Multi-platform

2011-01-10T04:14:00.000-08:00

If you checkout the SVN repository for version 0.7 you can see the latest changes talk about multi-platform. This is an idea I've been thinking about for long.
Should Revolution Engine become a multi-platform engine?
Initially, Revolution Engine was concieved to show that Wii had more graphical power than showed in it's first games. Given Wii is not a complex platform, developing an Engine froms scratch might not be as hard as for more advanced platforms. Also I wanted to take advantage of Wii controllers, unavailable in other platforms. And at last, I wanted to develop on a console, that I had never done, and wii homebrew was starting off.
But now there is the PS3, completely hacked, and so tempting...and I don't have one.

Well, I don't have a PS3 so I can't port REV to PS3, but still I can prepare the software to be easier to port. And the best way to do this is to port it for another, moreless generic, platform. So I'm writting the Engine itself platform independent, except for some pieces of code, isolated in well defined parts of the engine (the drivers) so if ever me (or someone else) wants to port it, it will be easy.

But there are other advantages. At the same time I'm writting a Windows openGL driver for the engine, so everything compiling on your wii, you can compile it for windows, where you can debug your code easily with visual studio or whatever. I really like this, because I don't have any USB/SD Gekko, so I've never been able to debug code on my Wii, and I really missed it.

Learn how to create a 3D engine from scratch

2010-12-20T01:21:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I did some work on Revolution Engine SVN. Now there are two versions of the engine in it. One is the latest, almost functional REV-0.6. Almost functional because there are some random crashes, probably related to the text system.
These version is not going to be continued because I designed it's architecture in a way that no longer can support the complexity level the engine was reaching.
That's how the other branch was born. One of the main reasons for creating Revolution Engine was learning. Not only learning, but also sharing all the knowledge generated in the process.
So what I'm doing now, is create a new version for Revolution Engine, and make it's source public from the very begining.
Right now, v0.7 does nothing but a little initialization and some mathematical calculus. I'll try to document all the process. Writing here, in the forums, or the wiki, the reasons for design decisions, architecture decisions, explanations for some optimizations or how subsystems do their work.
All of that will be public, and I'll post here screens and reports of the development process.
Enjoy the development :)

RMD Ready

2010-12-02T00:51:00.000-08:00

Recently I've been working a lot on REV-0.6 (You can checkout SVN for the latest revision). Most of that work has been on the new material system and the new models format (rmd). Now both of them work, and I can say that most of the functionality that was present in REV-0.5 works now at REV-0.6 at svn. However this version is not ready yet for a big release because I still plan to do major changes to other subsystems.

Anyway, I wanted to say that rmd models loading is up and running. This format is easier to expand and loads about 3 times faster than rms or obj so it will be the standard for Revolution Engine now on. Support for animations is planned but not working yet. You can download the new obj to rmd converter from downloads tab at www.revolutionengine.tk

One of the add ons of this new format is the ability to load models that use more than one material. check the wiki at google code to learn more of it.

Subversion

2010-10-23T02:29:00.000-07:00

Revolution Engine has become rather a big project. It always takes me a lot of time to prepare a new release. And what if someone suggests a small change? what if I want to add a little fix? Working only with big releases is not practical.
Those are some of the reasons why I've decided to set up a subversion repository for Revolution Engine.
I'll keep doing big releases for each complete version, and since this system will also increase the development speed, it will allow me to add more content to these releases.

Right now, Subversion holds the WIP 0.6 version. It basically implements everything that was in 0.5 version except for material system, that I'm rebuilding into something more powerful and even easier to use. Those of you who want to keep an eye on development can track the subversion log or checkout the last version (feedback is greatly wellcome)

This is the project link Revolution Engine SVN at google code

Bye

Developer console, scripting system

2010-09-13T01:30:00.001-07:00

Wii is relatively a low power machine, and thus, one of the goals of revolution engine has always been to get the most out of those limited resources. Optimization.
That's why i didn't ever think of adding a scripting system to it. Scripts are low, and everything you can do with a script you can do it by code. But the thing is that, one other of the main goals of the engine is ease of use also. And develop a game is much easier if you have a console and a script system that allows you to modify things on the fly, fine tuning your game to the very best of it. About a month ago, however, adding a script system to Rev wasn't the best of the ideas because lighting system consumed A LOT of resources and computation time was gold-priced. But due to the recent advances in Hardware lighting, CPU is almost free all the time, and this re-opens the door for many resources-consuming subsystems like Physics, AI, and scripting.
So that's all, hardware lighting freed the CPU, so many new and interesting features can now be expected for the next version, more news on them (and probably some videos) as soon as I finish my exams :)

More hardware, more triangles in screen

2010-09-02T14:53:00.000-07:00

Revolution engine lighting system is something that makes me feel proud. It can light objects in a very realistic manner and is very extensible. However, it's very slow since it's all software based, almost all calculations (except for some blending between layers and a couple of things more) are done by software. This decision was made because wii hardware lighting system doesn't work right in homebrew, and if I wanted to have a realistic lighting system, I had to write it.
But, after all, not All of the hardware is working bad, so some parts of the lighting system can be ported to hardware.
And that's what I'm doing: port everything I can from software to hardware (and it's working quite well). Remember that 8% speed boost from 0.5 to 0.5.1? well, now I expect about a 30-40% speed boost :)

Looks familiar?

2010-08-30T12:05:00.001-07:00

Maybe some of you recognize what this screenshot means. Personally I wouldn't have recognized it a couple of days ago, but I started to work on this yesterday, and now I'm proud to show the first screenshot of this in-dev new feature of the engine. I'm pretty sure it will be a big step in the right direction. Post a comment if you know what this is :)

(More screens soon)

Quick note about image formats

2010-08-30T11:53:00.000-07:00

Rev-0.5.2 will add support for more texture formats by the use of the freeImage lib

REV-0.5.1 Released

2010-08-29T01:14:00.000-07:00

Here you can download the latest version of Revolution engine.
This is a minor update featuring some optimizations and bug fixes along with better memory management, better use of TEV and some other things like a screenshot function.
You can see the whole changelog at wiibrew
Enjoy!

In-dev screens of Model Viewer

2010-08-28T06:23:00.001-07:00

These are the first screenshots of model viewer.
It's still in development stage, so there are many things missing, but you can see how easy you can view your models and edit your materials.
Hope you like them :)

PT:These screenshots were taken with the new screenShot functionality in REV-0.5.1

Rev 0.5.1 speed boost

2010-08-25T06:32:00.001-07:00

Due to lighting algorith enhancements, Rev 0.5.1 will be about 8% faster rendering polygons. Currently it lights more than 400.000 faces per second (about 7000 faces per frame)

Some of the changes in this minor version will be:
-Lighting speed boost
-Better memory management
-Advanced screenshot function
-Added offClick onOver and offOver functions to buttons
-Added getType, getParent, getNext and getChild methods to N2D and NODE classes
-WINDOWs for 2d system
-Custom expansion data for nodes and 3d nodes

Comming soon.

Demos are Up

2010-08-16T23:41:00.000-07:00

Demos are already uploaded to the wesite.
You can get them here wwww.revolutionengine.tk

Enjoy!

Rev 0.5 Released!!

2010-08-16T08:52:00.000-07:00

Yes!!
The final version of Revolution Engine 0.5 is finished, uploaded and ready to be downloaded.
I really think you all will enjoy it. Demos will be released in the next 24 hours.
As alwais, you can download it at Revolution Engine and see specifications at www.wiibrew.org

Screenshots from demos

2010-08-15T13:45:00.001-07:00

Screenshots from the initial demos of REV-0.5
Hope you like them:

Rev 0.5 will be released by the end of August

2010-08-11T09:08:00.000-07:00

Yes, so many times I've talked about this version, but it's now ready, finished, tested, etc...No alphas, no betas, no more half-finished versions, Just the final Revolution Engine 0.5 version. Feature list won't be revealed until the release day, but I will post another list right now: Examples list.
Yes, for the first time, Revolution engine will come with a set of examples showing how to do the basics. Thought there might be last minute changes, this is the list of examples incuded:
//For 3D
-Objects & Model:, display 3D stuff on the screen
-Materials & lights: increasing realism
-Nodes: Attach, deAttach, move, rotate, setPos...all that useful stuff
-Cameras & Viewports: Using cameras, split-screen, etc...
//For 2D
-Panels & Nodes: the basics
-Texts: no description needed
-Buttons & pointers: Actively using wiimote pointers in the engine

I'm sorry I can't post any captures/videos now, but soon you will be able to run those examples on your own wii, even more, soon you will be using it all to create your own games for wii

Release

2010-05-14T11:46:00.000-07:00

Last days I've been thinking a lot about this project. The fact that my Wii is broken prevents me to develop actively for a while, but I think there is no need to stop the project itself just because I have to pause. This is why I have decided to release the code "As is" right now, and as it was befaore last add ons. Since I anounced the core was finished and running I've made some improvements and bug-fixing, some deep changes also and I've also broken something in the render system (I could repair this if I could test it).
What do I mean? easy, I'll release and publish the source code of the engine, and some of the ideas that guided me in the development, in the hope that the Scene comunity can help the project and continue it with me. This is a call for developpers interested in this project to join and maybe make a team to support this powerful engine and finish it.
First of all, let me a few days to organice everything and generate some basic directrices, roadmaps or something. Sugestions and advices will be wellcome.
Then, when I think everything is ready, the code will be published, so everyone can take a look at it.
Moreover, from right now on, any developer interested in the project can send me an email and I'll be pleased to send him a copy of the source code or answer any question he has.
My e-mail is cjtech90@gmail.com

Thank you everyone who follows this project.

By!

My Wii is Bronken

2010-05-09T00:45:00.001-07:00

Yes, my wii is bronken, bluetooth doesn't seem to work. So I can't do any test and this prevents me to work on the engine, until I can repair this. Sorry, but the project is paused at the moment.

Edit: Donations for a new wii would be appreciated.

Core Engine: finished and running

2010-03-08T23:48:00.000-08:00

Yes, it is. A couple of days ago I got to finish the 0.5 version (alpha 1) that I will publish soon. I can't publish it yet because the extra tools and the documentation aren't ready, but the hardest, largest part is already finished. Soon I will upload some screens from the model viewer.

Goodbye!

Almost...almost!

2010-02-24T11:59:00.000-08:00

20 days after, what's left?
Well, I'm having some problems with 2D system. While in earlier versions the 2D system was quite simple, this time it's much more complex. Changes involve a new node-based structure, dinamic layer updates, multiple coordinates systems, memory "pools" (they're actually more like queues), etc...and such a complex system requieres a lot of work and debugging, so it's dalaying me.
And there are good news also: 2D is the biggest problem but the ONLY problem.
Everything else is ready inside the engine.
I still have to finish the extra tools like model viewer and 3ds max plugin, but the engine itself is almost finished!
So keep an eye on this blog!

Status Report

2010-02-04T06:06:00.000-08:00

Well, so... What's the current state of the engine? is it almost fnished? is it starting? can it render anything? That's why I'm writing today, to say what the engine can do right now, and what remains to be made for the first alfa of v5.0 to be released.

Let's start with what it does right now:
-Rendering System:
Multiple viewports
Multiple cameras
Basic Skybox rendering
Static model loading (RMD format)
-Lighting system
Software lighting
-Materials
Diffuse Color/Map
Specular Color/Map
Gloss
Specularity
Based on Phong lighting ecuation

Now, What can we expect from 0.5 alfa one?
Ok, I will add basic 2D support, correct transparency, fix some bugs and...that's all.
So that means the first alfa release will be very soon.

But..is that all there is? No, but you guys have alredy waited for long for this version, so I will release it with basic features and will update it quite often to add new features (i.e. Shadows, animated models, terrains, more material types, more skyboxes, etc...)

Moreover, the engine won't come alone, three useful tools will be in the packet: Model Viewer (to visualice your RMD models on wii), obj2Rmd converter and a 3ds max script to export your own models natively.

And even more, there will be some basic examples on comon tasks like loading models, working with 2D, cameras, lights, etc...

comming soon

Hi Again

2010-01-22T01:21:00.000-08:00

This post is just to say sorry for the absence of updates these past months. I've been a little away from this for some time, but the engine is not forgotten. Now I'm back from holidays and ready to keep working in Rev-0.5

Bye!

REV 0.5 progress

2009-09-27T13:13:00.000-07:00

Today's post is just a report on Revolution engine v0.5 progress.
First of all I want to say what we should expect from this version. Since 0.5 means half-way to 1.0, half-way to complete the engine, I'm creating a very reliable version. Why C++? well, I really belive that any good Game Engine nowadays must be written in C++, or at least in some Object oriented language. Most C++ capabilities of C++ can be easily emulated in C, but this leads to uggly, buggy code.

This is the last time I'm writting the engine from the scratch, so next versions are going to be written on top of 0.5, and much of the code is gonna be kept. So if I'm keeping some code, it must be on the final language, and I must be sure it's reliable, modular, bug-free, and all those things.

This is good, since now on we're going to enjoy a much more robust and reliable engine.
And it's good because finished code can be documented, wich will help everybody start using the engine.

Documentation, testing and debugging take a lot of time and effort, so developping the engine is now a bit slower.

Now it's time to some aproximated figures:
-Code development: about 70% to first alpha release
-Documentation: First stages
-Testing: First stages

I Know it's not much, but be patient ;)

Thank you all.

Guess what's next?

2009-09-07T11:43:00.001-07:00

These are my homemade HT glasses, guess what I'm working on? :D
Comming soon

In Development Screens of Rev 0.5

2009-09-05T04:16:00.000-07:00

First screens of Revolution engine 0.5
Version 0.5 is the first C++ version of the engine, much more robust and reliable than earlier versions and further more documented ;)
It's still under development, of course, and nowadays these are the only working features:
Rendering system
-3D Nodes based
-Multiple Viewports (Split screen)
-Multiple Cameras
-SkyBox rendering
-Model loading (rms)

Lighting system
-Software lighting
-Directional lights

Miscellaneous
-Boosted initialization code
-Time Wrapping effects (e.g. Bullet time)
-Correct screen blackout at start

No more delay, here are some screens:

Ah, remember that thought version 0.5 alredy is under development, 0.4 keeps being developed too.

Bye!

Critical bug in alpha 3

2009-08-29T02:30:00.000-07:00

There is a bug in the current release of alpha 3. When you try to assign a material to a visible Object, the wii hangs in the middle of the render process. I'm still trying to figure out why is this, but in the meantime i suggest using alpha 2 instead.

Alpha 3 released

2009-08-27T03:20:00.000-07:00

Revolution engine Alpha 3 is released. You can check it in the downloads zone, as usual, in www.revolutionengine.tk. Rmd format isn't supported yet, so please keep using the Rms instead.
Now I have one more piece of news: C++
I've started to write a C++ version of the engine. Hopefully it will be easier to use and more efficient in object oriented tasks (most of them in a game engine). More details in next posts ;)

Model Viewer Video

2009-08-25T09:38:00.001-07:00

This is just the first video of the Under-Development Model Viewer for Revolution Engine 0.4.
Since Revolution Engine is supposed to be a full Game engine, it will have it's own editors and viewers, and Model Viewer (or Object Viewer, name is not decided Yet) is just the first of them.

Enjoy

Bugfixes update

2009-08-13T07:07:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-10T07:22:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-04T14:31:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-28T02:05:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-25T01:40:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-07-18T07:46:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-15T11:54:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-12T09:54:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-01T00:42:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-19T14:12:00.000-07:00

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!

Revloution Engine 0.4, Work in progress

2009-02-16T01:44:00.000-08:00

Long time without news. I haven't stopped working on this project, in fact, I'made a lot of work. So today I write to make a quick report of the development state of REV 0.4 and what we should expect from it. This new version is full written from scratch and most of it is purely new code, so the hardest part of the development has been recompose the previous functionality (as well as cleaning some bugs in it). Nowadays almost all previous functionality has been recovered: Automatically managed root, 3D static models rendering, simple texturing, collision detection, camera moving, etc...but many of this systems have been redisigned and re-implemented in order to work in a more proper way. For example, in the new cameras system, there is no need to create an initial camera, there is a default one, thus simpliflying the learning curve of the engine as well as the use in 2D rendering. Core system has also been redisigned to introduce a new concept: The content manager. Content manager accounts for content loading and tracking, now you dont have to worry about the same mesh being loaded many times. If a mesh was already loaded, the content manager returns a pointer to it instead of loading a new instance of it. Another important change is about language. As in this blog, the language of the engine has changed, now full syntax is in english, no longer spanglish. I know this can bring some problems when upgrading previous applications, but I think it is a necessary change and now it is the best moment for it.
Ah, I almost forget, I've repared my capture card so soon I'll upload new screenshots and videos of the engine.

Quick note about md5

2009-01-19T03:31:00.000-08:00

Maybe I should have said this before. When working with version 0.3, md5 support is only experimental, the code is not clean and correct working is not asured. Use it only to start getting used to the format, but for fine implementing, wait for next releases.

Revolution Engine 0.3

2009-01-15T11:40:00.000-08:00

The day has arriven, Revolution 0.3 is now avaiable.
Download it in the downloads zone Revolution Engine.
Current Features are:
2D system:
-Images and texts
-rotation and scale of images
-Colors and sizes for texts
-transparency
-Multiple (thousands) layers
-Hardware Rendered
3D rendering sistem
-Hardware rendered
-Static mesh loading
-Animated meshes loading (md5)
-Textures
-Transparency
Physics
-Collision Detection points, spheres, boxes.
-Time speed adjustements (bullet-time effects for example)

Next days I'm going to start uploading tutorials and content as well as demos. Enjoy it ;)

The MD5

2009-01-15T01:06:00.000-08:00

Here I post a new video. This time is about md5 loading, that is finally implemented in the engine. The system is still quite primitive, but it works.

So the engine is likely suportiong md5 in its 0.3 version. The release is near, just needs some adjustements, I guess I'm publishing it today, tomorrow, or so.
Enjoy it.

Oh, I almost forget...I'm making a website for the engine, with a gallery, documentation, demos and so. It's SO ugly and simple because it's the first time I make a website and it's html. Visit it, it's still almost empty, but I'm uploading content regularly www.revolutionengine.tk

Novedades, la version 0.3 esta cerca

2009-01-08T04:47:00.000-08:00

Hola a todos, os escribo para comentaros en primicia que pronto estará disponible la nueva versión del Revolution Engine by Technik. Sera la version 0.3, Una version de estabilizacion y optimizacion mas que otra cosa. La version esca casi lista, a falta de testeo y de unas funciones a medio impementar, las previsiones para esta version son:
-Sistema basico de 2D listo: En una version anterior habia sistema de 2D, pero era lento, poco eficiente, poco estable y sin casi nada en funcionamiento, el nuevo sistema es mas completo y robusto, aun no esta confirmado, pero se espera que traiga soporte para imagenes normales o fraccionadas, con zoom y rotacion, soporte para textos con fuentes trueType (implementacion de la libreria freetype), transparencia, ordenacion automatica por capas...y quiza alguna cosa extra. Basicamente todo lo necesario para hacer un juego completito (a nivel de 2D).
-Mejoras en el sistema de 3D: Sobretodo fiabilidad. Se ha repasado el engine linea a linea de codigo, anotando cada fallo que se encontraba y reparandolo. Ahora las escenas se dibujan muchisimo mas rapido, la mejora de rendimiento es proporcional al numero de poligonos, lo que quiere decir que podremos crear escenas geometricamente mucho mas complejas sin perdidas en el framerate. Tambien cabe destacar que ahora se trabaja mejor con la memoria, haciendo flush siempre que se debe (esto era un fallo importante en versiones anteriores), lo que nos ahorrara muchos quebraderos de cabeza con nuestros videojuegos. Se esta preparando tambien la carga de modelos animados md5, pero es probable que no llegue para esta version. Ademas se prepara el sistema para futuras (proximas) implementaciones de efectos graficos y temas como la iluminacion, las sombras, los reflejos, etc...
Esto es todo por el momento, os informare cuando se publique. Hasta entonces disfrutad del año nuevo! (tampoco estaria de mas alguna donacion para el proyecto ^^, todo sea bienvenido)

Un par de ejemplos

2008-12-07T11:15:00.000-08:00

Aqui cuelgo un par de ejemplos sobre como usar el engine. Espero bug reports eh, jeje
Descarga

Revision 0.2.5

2008-12-07T08:54:00.000-08:00

Despues de un tiempo inactivo, retomo el proyecto. He revisado una por una cada linea de codigo del engine, haciendo algunas mejoras y optimizaciones y eliminando varios bugs. Por tanto he decidido publicar una nueva version, mucho mas estable, y que trae algunas novedades, aunque aun no todas las que he mostrado en el blog.
Las novedades mas destacadas son por un lado la inclusion del archivo "RevPhysics", que permite por primera vez la deteccion de colisiones entre objetos, y por el otro una modificacion radical en el sistema de funcionamiento del engine, que libera al programador de la necesidad de trabajar con root. Olvidate de newRoot, AddObj, etc, etc... Ahora crear objetos 3D en tu wii es tan sencillo como llamar la funcion NewObj, asi de simple. Espero que lo disfruteis y le saqueis partido, podeis descargarla Aquí

Nuevo 2D

2008-09-29T13:08:00.000-07:00

Bueno, me siento en cierta medida obligado a dar una explicación sobre los continuos retrasos de esta nueva versión del Motor. En cierta medida se debe a que he decidido que la voy a sacar una versión bastante completa de una vez, algo muy cercano a la versión 1.0
Una de las cosas que Pienso hacer es la remodelación del sistema de 2D (muy relacionada con sustanciales mejoras en el 3D, pero eso es otro asunto). Tengo la intención de ofrecer un subsistema de 2D a la altura de las librerías gráficas 2D mas completas que hay ahora para wii, o incluso superior. No me extenderé mucho mas por ahora, no hasta poder mostrar algunas capturas de pantalla aceptables. De momento me conformo con enunciar algunas de las características básicas que incorporara, frente a la simplicidad actual:
-Multi layer efectivo
-roto-zoom
-Imágenes animadas
-Paneles compuestos
-Texto

Ya vereis las imagenes.

Iluminacion, que ya tocaba xD

2008-09-09T07:54:00.000-07:00

Primera captura de iluminación en el Revolution Engine. Esta característica estará disponible a partir de la versión 0.2 del Engine. Por ahora el efecto se aplica 100% por hardware pero éste esta limitado a tan solo 8 luces, por tanto añadire mezclado por software de luces extra ilimitadas (bueno, todas las que aguante la wii).

Edit: Añado una nueva captura para mostrar que las luces no solo funcionan en escala de grises xDD

Fisica 01

2008-08-28T07:05:00.000-07:00

Por si pensabais que ya no estaba trabajando en nada o que habia dejado de lado el proyecto...aquí esta la prueba de que no es así. Ahora mismo estoy trabajando en un motor de fisica y detector de colisiones para el engine, que sera incorporado en la version 0.2 (que esta cada vez mas cerca). Se trata de un pequeño video demostrativo que demuestra que el sistema funciona y es mas o menos estable (aun tiene mucho que mejorar). El video muestra una bola animada dinamicamente rebotando sobre otra estatica.

Revision 0.1.5

2008-08-19T06:22:00.000-07:00

Ya esta disponible la nueva versión del Revolution Engine. Esta versión es en realidad
una revisión de la versión anterior, con algunas optimizaciones y algunos fallos reparados. Podéis descargarla ya de aquí. Esta revision incluye dos nuevas Demo-Tutoriales para que aprendais a utilizar el engine, la primera es para trabajar con 2D y con el mando y la segunda es para aprender a cargar modelos en 3D.

Release 0.1

2008-07-24T08:36:00.000-07:00

LLegó por fin el esperado momento: Lanzamiento de la version 0.1 del Revolution Engine by technik. A continuacion os detallo las caracteristicas mas importantes:
-Capacidad para renderizar completas escenas en 3D, con multitud de objetos dinamicos en ella, cada uno con una textura y un modelo en 3 dimensiones.
-Capacidad para renderizar sobre el 3D una capa de imagenes en 2 dimensiones para utilizar como puntero, botones, barras indicadoras, o cualquier cosa que se te ocurra.
-Sistema de camaras basado en vectores, para poder hacer seguimientos en tercera o primera persona y desplazar tu posicion en el espacio virtual.
-Carga de modelos desde formato propio, facil de entender y sencillo. Caulquiera podra crear sus propias herramientas y exporters facilmente.
-Carga de texturas en formato png gracias a las librerias pngu de frontier. Muchas gracias.
-Grandes posibilidades de ampliacion para futuras versiones.

Ahora, paso a detallar algunas de las cosas que le faltan y que espero ir corrigiendo segun valla sacando nuevas versiones:
Para el 2D:
Alfa y transparencias, uso de layers, proveer al usuario de menus personalizados, botones, barras con desplazamiento, scrolls, y un largo etcetera.
Para el 3D: Luces (que se me han quedado fuera de la release al final), otros cargadores de modelo y exporters), shaders, multitexturas, materials, bump mapping, particulas, animaciones por vertice y con esqueleto, revision del formato de modelo. Scene managers, formato propio optimizado para terrenos, objetos, animaciones, bodies...Todo un sistema de fisica por implementar. Head-tracking y otros alicientes relacionados con las amplias posibilidades del mando.
Optimizaciones por todas partes, ordenar un poco el codigo y limpiarlo, etc, etc, etc...

Bueno, por otra parte falta hacer ejemplos y documentarlo todo, pero creo que lo mejor es que el engine sea publico ya porque creo que asi sere capaz de mejorarlo mucho mas rapido. Ademas lo mas importante es que ya hay una base mas o menos solida sobre la que trabajar, solo queda mejorar ;)

Este es el enlace de descarga:
Revolution Engine Version 0.1

Luces, Camaras,Accion

2008-07-18T07:26:00.000-07:00

O mas bien 2D, camaras y accion, porque las luces ya estaban de antes xD.
Pues si, esta entrada es para decir que el 2D ya es estable, queya he escrito el sistema de camaras (aunque probablemente lo reescriba para futuras versiones porque aun no usa quaternions, pero esta quiero sacarla ya asi que asi se queda xD)y que ya he probado los mandos con el engine para asegurar la compatibilidad. Aqui teneis un video que lo demuestra

Que a que me dedico ahora y porque no lo saco de una vez?. Que que me queda si ya tengo 3D, 2D, etc? Bueno, aun me queda ponerle una fisica basica (por lo menos deteccion de colisiones con bounding boxes y bounding spheres), meterle sonido, y ajustar el formato de modelos que usara. Que al final no sera wavefront object pero sera muy similar en la primera version (mas adelante se parecera mas a un MD5).

Espero que os guste y que pongais vuestros comentarios.

Subsitema de 2D

2008-07-16T06:39:00.000-07:00

Bueno, esta vez hare una entrada cortita porque el avance es pequeño aun. He añadido ya el subsistema de renderizado 2D al engine. Ya se pueden mostrar Imagenes PNG sobre la pantalla. De momento es muy primitivo y lo unico que hace es mostrar las imagenes en la pantalla, en el lugar que se quiera, encima de lo que halla renderizado el sistema de 3D. Es primitivo pero muy potente porque trabaja sobre una lista de objetos 2D. Esto permitira la implementacion de fisica, botones, scrolls, textos, degradados y otros efectos de forma muy sencilla y limpia. Ademas es mas rapido y ocupa menos memoria que hacer lo mismo en GRRLib porque en vez de crear un buffer intermedio, cargarlo como textura, aplicarlo a un Quad, y luego renderizar este quad (si, todo esto lo hace GRRLib), trabajo directamente sobre los pixels del EFB, con funciones de GX para el acceso a este. Todos los pasos resumidos en uno y ademas eliminamos la necesidad de un buffer intermedio, resultado mas rapido y gastando menos memoria. Es por esto que en un futuro el engine puede ser tambien una buena opcion para quien quiera desarrollar juegos o aplicaciones en 2D. Pero eso sera en el futuro porque por el momento el soporte es muy basico. Ya colgare unos renders y le pasare a anarcadio un video para que lo cuelgue ;) espero que os haya gustado la idea.

Videos de las Demos.

2008-07-10T01:59:00.000-07:00

Gracias a Anarcadio, del foro de Elotrolado.net, ya tenemos en Youtube lo videos de las demos que han salido del Revolution Engine. De ahora en adelante se iran colgando los videos de las futuras demo, aunque no por ello vamos a dejar de colgar las demos para que todos podais probarlas en vuestras propias Wii. Sin mas dilacion aqui os dejo los demops de las 3 demos que han salido hasta ahora , espero que os gusten.

Demo de Iluminacion (I)

2008-06-20T02:11:00.001-07:00

Aun no he podido dar los ajustes finales a la version de desarrollo del Revolution Engine. Pero mientras sale esa version os dejo aqui la primera demo de iluminacion. Es tan sencilla como podia ser, calcula la luminosidad por software para cada vertice. Es simplemente para que sepais que es en eso en lo que estoy trabajando ahora. Actualmente ya soporta calculos por Hard de luminosidad, pero eso no esta incluido en la demo porque asi es mas estable de momento. Espero que os guste, pronto actualizare con una nueva version acelerada.
Como siempre agradecer a frontier por sus pngu, usadas en esta demo, y a los creadores de libogc, sobre las que esta desarrollado todo el engine, y del homebrew channel, que me ha simplificado mucho la tarea de desarrollo. Tambien gracias a todos los que estais siguiendo este proyecto y que me apoyais en el.

Nota: La demo trae incluidas las texturas que necesita para funcionar. No estoy seguro de donde hay que colocarlas, yo las coloco en la raiz porque utilizo el ftp, pero creo que si colocas el dol dentro de una carpeta en App/ siempre tienen que estar en la misma carpeta que el .dol

Demo

Formato Interno

2008-06-18T03:06:00.000-07:00

Bueno, como ultimamente no tengo tiempo por culpa de los examenes no estoy haciendo nada relevante con el engine, pero creo que mi falta de tiempo no deberia ser motivo suficiente para su paralizacion. Por esta razon he decidido fijar un pequeño estandard para que todos podais hacer vuestras contribuciones, ya que me consta que hay interesados en colaborar. Para empezar he decidido fijar un formato de modelos que use el engine internamente para mostrar modelos 3D. Asi podreis todos los que querais podreis colaborar creando vuestras propias funciones de creacion de modelos. Empecemos:
Por ahora el engine utiliza internamente para los modelos la siguiente estructura:

typedef struct REV_Mesh{
u16 NVerts;
u16 NFaces;
u16 NCoords;
u16 NNormals;
f32 * Vertices;
f32 * Coordenadas;
f32 * Normales;
u16 * Lista;
} MESH;

NVerts debe contener el numero de vertices que tiene el modelo.
NFaces el numero de Caras.
NCoords el numero de coordenadas UV para cargar texturas.
NNormals el numero de normals.
Simple, ¿no?
Vertices es un puntero a un Array de f32. Esta array debe estar alineada a 32b y contiene las coordenadas de los vertices en el espacio ordenadas como x, y, z.
Lo mismo sucede con Coordenadas (almacenadas como U,V) y los normales.
En cambio lista es un poco mas complicado. Al principio pensaba poner Display lists. Pero he decidido que para las primeras versiones del engine no es necesaria demasiada optimizacion en este sentido. Por tanto en vez de haceros crear displaylists (con el trabajo que ello conlleva), y para que os vallais familiarizando con el Revolution Engine, he implementado una pequeña variante de las display lists. En futuras versiones esto cambiara, pero me parece una buena forma de comenzar. Sin mas dilacion:
List debe apuntar a un Array (no tiene por que estar alineado) de u16. Estos U16 son los indices de los vertices que compondran el modelo. El numero de indices total debe ser multiplo de 9, y vendran dados en este orden: Cada grupo de nueve indices representan un triangulo del modelo final. Se dividen en tres grupos de 3 indices cada uno (cada grupo se corresponde con un vertice del triangulo, y deben aparecer en el sentido contrario a las agujas de un reloj analogico para que se muestren desde el frente y viceversa (por aquello del backface-culling). Dentro de cada grupo de 3 el orden sera:
Indice de Posicion, Indice de Normal, Indice de Coordenadas UV.

Con el fin de que podais probar vuestras funciones sacare dentro de unos dias (2 o 3) Una version Alfa de desarrollo del engine. Con esta version vosotros podreis crear vuestras propias funciones y probarlas, pero ya podeis empezar a crear funciones del tipo creacion de primitivas, cargadores de modelos, etc...

Muchos cubos

2008-06-10T11:55:00.001-07:00

Pues por votacion popular he subido otra demo de cubos, esta vez en vez de uno se ven un buen monton de cubos (mas de 400, que fue lo que me pidieron jeje) Todos con textura desde la SD y toda la parafernalia. Además tambien me habian pedido que colgase el source para poder ir viendo como funciona, así que aqui lo pongo, para que veais que usar el engine sera sencillo (cuando salga xD):

/////////////////////////////////////////////////
//Este archivo forma parde del Revolution Engine.
//Coded by Technik
/////////////////////////////////////////////////
#include
#include
#include
#include
#include
#include
#include

#include "REV.h"

int main()
{
VIDEO_Init();
WPAD_Init();
REV_Init();

GXTexObj texObj1 = CargarTextura("plasma.png");
Object * auxiliar = NULL
u16 i,j;
f32 px= -105.0f, py = 0.0f;
MESH * cubitos;
cubitos = Cubo();
Root * mRoot = NewRoot();
for(j=0;j<20;j++)
{
px = -105.0f;
for(i=0;i<7;i++)
{
Auxiliar = NewObj(cubitos, Vtr3(px, py, -20.0), Vtr3(0.0, 0.0, 0.0), 4);
SetRotSpeed(Auxiliar, Vtr3(-1.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f);
AddObj(mRoot, Auxiliar);
px+=35.0f;
}
py-=60.0f;
}

while(1) {

WPAD_ScanPads();

if (WPAD_ButtonsDown(0) & WPAD_BUTTON_HOME) exit(0);

// do this before drawing
REV_Process(*mRoot);
}
}

No esta muy organizado, la verdad, se puede hacer mas bonito, pero es que lo he copiado directamente del programers notepad, y las cosas las voy poniendo segun las necesito. Comentadme que os parece, y si pensais que deberia cambiarle algo. Todos los comentarios son bienvenidos.

Muchoscubos

PD: Siento que no se vean los include, pero es que me da problemas el HTML

2008-06-09T13:02:00.000-07:00

Estrenando el blog os cuelgo la primera demo con texturas. Para seguir con la tradicion es un cubito dando vueltas jejeje. Estamos un paso mas cerca de poder crear los primero juegos! Lo proximo que hare (ya mañana) sera empezar a cargar modelos 3ds. Cuando logre eso a lo mejor os publico la primera version del engine.

Demo del cubo

2008-06-09T12:14:00.001-07:00

Iba yo a crear un blog y resulta que todas las url estaban cogidas con blogs en blanco...sospechoso...pero me da exactamente igual jaja sera por imaginacion y por nombres xD
En fin, que os he creado este blog para ir poniendo todo lo que haga nuevo en el engine. Esto no quiere decir que valla a dejar de usar el hilo de EOL, pero es que ya las demos son demasiado grandes para adjuntarlas, asi que aqui os las podre ir colgando mejor.