Solve equation: Bullet + x = Game

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gamemaker
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Jan 23, 2011 10:14 am

Solve equation: Bullet + x = Game

Post by gamemaker »

Hi. :-)

I have years of programming experience, but I've only made some tiny toy-games so far. Now I'm about to make a real game.

Physics is going to play a large part in my game, so I started with selecting the physics engine. I've chosen Bullet and I am really lost with the amount of game/graphics engines listed on the net. It's not tens, but hundreds.

Would somebody with experience suggest some good combination that merges well with Bullet? I couldn't find any recommendations on Bullet's website.

I'm looking for a good combination of Bullet with some libraries/engines (graphics/audio/input/algorithms, etc.), so that the whole well-working game can be developed easily.

I don't know what I need (libraries/engine, etc). This is left for your kind recommendation.

Some of the requirements I think are important for the whole setup:

1. Platform/compilation:
- Must work in GNU/Linux 64 and 32 bit, Mac and Windows. I work in GNU/Linux, but if I want to sell the game, I guess it better work in Mac/Windows. Working on some game consoles would be an advantage, but is not required.
- Must allow the game to be compiled into single binary file without dependencies. I don't want the user to install anything except for the game itself.
- I was thinking about C++, but if some other language fulfills my requirements (can be compiled to native code), that's OK.

2. License issues:
- Must be very cheap. I don't have money for buying expensive licenses, so I would love if it could be free of charge or very cheap. Of course if there is e.g. some paid engine that will save me a year of work compared to best free alternative, please say so.
- Must allow to license my game so that it can be sold as binary without problems.
- A big plus would be if I could release the game as open-source, say after selling it for a year, so open-source libraries are much preferred.

3. Features:
- Must be easy to learn with good documentation and tutorials.
- Must integrate well the physics with graphics, so that I can easily create some bodies with textures that will work well. In other words I don't want to move/rotate textures/sprites by hand in response to physical movements. I don't want to have two separate worlds (physical and graphical) that I would have to keep synchronized by hand.
- Must provide high-quality results, so that e.g. graphics is drawn well with antialiasing and hardware acceleration.
- Must minimize the amount of coding. I don't want to code things that are common for games. E.g. let's say I want to add some terrain, then it should ideally be as easy as: scene.addTerrain(someTerrainCharacteristics);
- Must be as feature-reach and customizable as possible, so after a year of coding I don't decide that I have to switch to another solution.
- It would be nice if it included many common game algorithms/effects, e.g. short path finding, flames, explosions, etc.
- Must be relatively mature, actively developed, with good support (e.g. community/forums).

It looks like I require a lot. :-) But as an example, Bullet fulfills all of my requirements, so I am just looking for other pieces of puzzle that also do.

I guess many people who want to use Bullet for making a game (or some other software) have the same problem as I do. I hope some experienced users can suggest some good additions to Bullet so that a good game can be made quite easily.

Thanks in advance.
deltaone
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2012 7:06 am
Location: India
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Re: Solve equation: Bullet + x = Game

Post by deltaone »

Hello,
I have been lurking around with the same idea of creating a game. I also have nice coding experience in C++(Somewhat in java and python too).
So if you wish we can collaborate to learn and develop some nice game.
Well I have dome some reading and here is a few things that I found out.
For Graphics:
Game engine:
1. Blender (http://www.blender.org/)
  • Best opensource modeller/animator (One of the best softwares).
    In-built game engine.
    Bullet physics integration.
    Complete game engine.
    Python Scripting
    A lot of exporters available.
    Has a lot of books.
    Open Source
    Opengl based
2. Panda3Dhttp://www.panda3d.org/ I personally would like to build some game around OGRE3d (http://www.ogre3d.org/). Tools I would like to use for a game:
C++ as programming language
Boost (Boost.org) as utility library.
Ogre3D for Graphics
Blender3d for content creation
Bullet for physics (even this can be used I think http://www.adrianboeing.com/pal/index.html)
Other libraries.
I am fairly experienced with C++ but new to game and graphics programming (Though I have worked in OCR and image processing.).
I work on Linux/Unix (In work place) and Windows(At home). So mostly I will work on Windows for open-source.


As far as I know learning curve will be there for all engines. So I don't know if I am correct or not but I would like to go for a open-source game first. This will help build the game engine and pipe line and other can help too from open-source community. Once this is done a game can be made.
Please let me know your views.
Let me know if we can help each other in game designing and programing.
~Thanks
DeltaOnehttp://www.codeproject.com/Members/Shakti-Prasad-Misra
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