[HN Gopher] Permafrost engine - An OpenGL RTS game engine writte...
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Permafrost engine - An OpenGL RTS game engine written in C
Author : rysertio
Score : 117 points
Date : 2023-04-09 16:12 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| doodlesdev wrote:
| Cool, but why use OpenGL 3 and Python 2 instead of newer
| counterparts?
| david2ndaccount wrote:
| python2 is easier to embed.
| doodlesdev wrote:
| Why is that? In this case why not opt for Lua which is
| basically made to embed in C?
| TulliusCicero wrote:
| Not that I'm a fan of using an old version of python, but
| my experience using/teaching Lua to my kid is that it's
| rather horrible. Felt like a jumbled collection of language
| design bad ideas.
|
| Would be great if someone made an easily embeddable
| scripting language that doesn't feel hacked together.
| baq wrote:
| Obligatory mention of another open source RTS engine (lineage
| tracing back to the original Total Annihilation):
| https://springrts.com/
| wood_spirit wrote:
| Also, see:
|
| * Glest http://glest.org/en/index.php which is modded by
| editing config files. There are lots of mods that add
| "factions" to the base game, as well as mods that are
| standalone games.
|
| * 0ad https://play0ad.com/
| dumpsterlid wrote:
| [dead]
| capableweb wrote:
| One great example of Spring RTS being used in a game is Beyond
| All Reasons, A Open Source RTS:
| https://www.beyondallreason.info
|
| > All units and projectiles are simulated in real-time. The
| game offers fully simulated projectile ballistics, explosion
| physics and terrain deformation.
|
| > The shape of every battlefield in-game imposes which
| strategies work and which units are effective. No two maps will
| play the same. Radar cannot penetrate mountains and nuclear
| warfare will physically alter the terrain.
|
| Unexpectedly fun game.
| amrb wrote:
| Did you also play ZeroK?
| amrb wrote:
| OpenRA is another open engine!
| EamonnMR wrote:
| Spring engine games do tend to end up feeling like TA which is
| fine if that's your thing, but I think the mainstream RTS
| audience these days expects SCII.
| sgt wrote:
| Cool. Can one build a game using this but by only using Python?
| zenojevski wrote:
| Perhaps using Cython?
| daveidol wrote:
| Awesome! I keep hoping RTS will make a comeback in popularity
| pjmlp wrote:
| Actually they are ideal for touch devices.
| DizzyDoo wrote:
| Are they? A traditional RTS like Age of Empires 2 or a
| Starcraft requires quite a lot of accuracy in quick-selection
| and movement orders, it would drive me nuts to try and do
| that on a mobile screen with no mouse. I know MOBA-style
| games are popular on mobile, but there's only one unit to
| control there.
|
| The only non-keyboard-and-mouse RTS I can think of is Tooth
| and Tail[0], designed to play nicely with controllers (in a
| similar way that that Halo Wars was back in 2009), and while
| I'm sure high-level play in those games was indeed very high-
| level, the whole experience nonetheless just doesn't work for
| me, it feels 'dumbed down' still.
|
| [0] -
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/286000/Tooth_and_Tail/
| Nahtnah wrote:
| Check out Line War, fwiw
| pjmlp wrote:
| Game design is the key here.
| DizzyDoo wrote:
| Could you expand? I'm a video game designer myself, so I
| enjoy thinking about these things - how can you get
| around the hunt-and-peck nature of a mobile phone screen,
| where your thumb or finger covers up the unit you're
| selecting? And then how do you ensure accuracy in the
| exact spot they move to?
| thanks4tip wrote:
| One way is to decrease the granularity possible, so a
| finger can easily pick the "exact spot". Basically make
| movement discrete (maybe not the animation, but the
| locations you can be at from a game logic perspective).
| epups wrote:
| Ok but you're losing complexity, and still need accuracy
| in that case. I think your suggestion would work for a
| turn-based game, I just don't think mobile is a good
| media for RTS.
| zwirbl wrote:
| One might assume that and it is mostly true for round based
| games, but for real-time you just cannot achieve the actions
| per minute needed on touch. A game like Starcraft or similar
| is barely playable
| pjmlp wrote:
| Sure, my remark was about controlling, how the game is
| designed is another matter.
| epups wrote:
| Controls essentially define game design.
| ianlevesque wrote:
| Yeah there's so much skepticism but you're right on that
| this genre can thrive on mobile. It's a way more natural
| fit than FPS for example.
| ecshafer wrote:
| I do not think that is the case for traditional RTS games. At
| first glance, sure you touch the unit you want and you touch
| where you want them to go. But there is a reason why single
| button mouse to two button mouse was a huge improvement for
| RTS. You don't always want to do one thing or have it be
| context aware. The other is that RTS games typically involve
| you dealing with hundreds of units, all across a map, so
| things like hot keys to build additional units, or control
| groups to manage different unit groups is critical. Mobile
| seems like it could work for some casual RTS games, with
| small numbers of units. But not for a traditional RTS.
| mxkopy wrote:
| The best game I've ever played on mobile is Eufloria, which
| is an RTS. I wish there were more games like it.
| bytehowl wrote:
| Isn't Eufloria just a GalCon clone? There are a bunch of
| games like that, albeit without the plant theme.
| hgs3 wrote:
| I could see a casual RTS working, one where you select groups
| of soldiers rather than individual units.
| TulliusCicero wrote:
| Company of Heroes works like that and it's on iPad.
| ForgeableSum wrote:
| Back in ~2016, I spent a year of my life trying to make this
| happen. I ended up with a very cheap looking version of age of
| empires, which runs in the browser... It's still up!
| http://feudalwars.net/
| [deleted]
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Pulled the Everglory demo down on Steam Deck.
|
| Because of the small display on the Steam Deck, the text on the
| menu buttons on the right hand side were nearly indecipherable.
|
| I wonder to what degree game devs should be testing their games
| on a small display like the Steam Deck/Switch.
| TulliusCicero wrote:
| Depends on the game I suppose. I think most would agree that
| for a typical RTS game, that's a niche within a niche.
| nightowl_games wrote:
| I work on games that go on many platforms. I've got a secret
| debug menu that lets me simulate a bunch of screen sizes, then
| I've got some internal stuff to let me scale just the UI, and
| control the viewable distance of the in game world (it's all 2d
| games).
|
| Safe Areas are a PITA because I can't find a reference of every
| devices safe area.
|
| Our designer is also good at designing things that work across
| screen sizes.
|
| The mobile world has forced us to get good at this. It's been a
| few years of struggle though.
| albertzeyer wrote:
| How does it compare to other open source RTS engines, like 0
| A.D., OpenRA or the Spring RTS engine?
| mnd999 wrote:
| I was hoping this was an open source implementation of the
| Frostbite engine.
| deathgripsss wrote:
| For some reason this made me think of Frostpunk, not quite an RTS
| game though
| sharpercoder wrote:
| Very nice :). I'd recommend picking a font that produces clearer
| text though, since the current font is hardly readable and
| dimishes the experience.
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