A good easy to use 2d engine
by Paul Fassett · in General Discussion · 02/10/2004 (12:23 pm) · 5 replies
I'm trying to do a shadowrun game in 2d art sort of how baldurs gate was done, before I go full blown onto torque. What is a good, user friendly, and relativly cheap 2d engine I could use to achieve something like this, or would I be better off rolling my own :)
I've looked at quite a few engines such as game maker, rpg designer, ect ect, and the best one I've found was a japanese engine called rpg maker 2003 and so far that was the best one I've found aside from the lack of english translation. It also didn't support high color images which is a nasty nono. I need something easy to use like that but without silly limitations like color depth. Any idea's on this?
I saw a post a while back about a 2d engine for MMogs but I can't find that resource anymore. What do you guys suggest?
I've looked at quite a few engines such as game maker, rpg designer, ect ect, and the best one I've found was a japanese engine called rpg maker 2003 and so far that was the best one I've found aside from the lack of english translation. It also didn't support high color images which is a nasty nono. I need something easy to use like that but without silly limitations like color depth. Any idea's on this?
I saw a post a while back about a 2d engine for MMogs but I can't find that resource anymore. What do you guys suggest?
#2
You could always look around the net. I believe their are plenty of free Isometric engines. Some written in DirectX and some written in SDL (I know one of them is written in Java), and a lot of them should come with source code.
02/11/2004 (10:16 am)
SDL is another choice. Very simply to use and cross platform. You can even do some opengl from within it if you decide to branch to 3d. SDL provides 2d graphics, input, audio, and networking. It can provide a lot of other things as well through its helper libraries. It is what I use for my 2d games for PC.You could always look around the net. I believe their are plenty of free Isometric engines. Some written in DirectX and some written in SDL (I know one of them is written in Java), and a lot of them should come with source code.
#3
Tim: I'll have to check out that SDL you're talking about.
Thanks
Paul
02/13/2004 (6:16 am)
I heard that direct x 8 got rid of direct draw. Wouldn't that be a bad idea to do 2d with 32 bit depth without direct draw for all those people without 3d accelration, or did they put all that back in with the SDK?Tim: I'll have to check out that SDL you're talking about.
Thanks
Paul
#4
SDL gives you cross platform code, and that never hurts :)
02/13/2004 (6:26 am)
DirectX8 got rid of DirectDraw, so either use 7 or 9 (they put it back). However it's just a tidy interface to Direct3D. There's very little reason not to use standard textured quads for spirtes for 3D these days and you tend to get more control over the alpha effects. If you're looking for a very easy approach .Net GDI+ isn't too bad for simple graphics.SDL gives you cross platform code, and that never hurts :)
#5
From the website:
ClanLib is a medium level development kit. At its lowest level, it provides a platform independent (as much as that is possible in C++) way of dealing with display, sound, input, networking, files, threadding and such.
On top of that, ClanLib builds a generic game development framework, giving you easy handling of resources, network object replication, graphical user interfaces (GUI) with theme support, game scripting and more.
The goal of ClanLib is to allow the game developer to focus on stuff that matters, avoiding all those nasty (and boring) lowlevel trivials like setting up a directdraw window, sound mixing, reading image files, etc. All those things are simplified into object oriented classes and function calls, making it a joy to write your game.
ClanLib uses a resource system to keep track of images, fonts, samples and music. It supports Targa, PCX, JPEG, PNG and BMP for images. Wave files for sample. Ogg Vorbis (open sound format that has same sound quality as mp3) and MikMod for music. By using a resource system, you cleanly seperate the physical data formats from your code, and makes it easy to make themes and other plugins for your game. The resource system is written in a manner that allows you to add your own custom resources.
02/20/2004 (1:55 am)
Just use ClanLIB. There's nothing better out there ! www.clanlib.orgFrom the website:
ClanLib is a medium level development kit. At its lowest level, it provides a platform independent (as much as that is possible in C++) way of dealing with display, sound, input, networking, files, threadding and such.
On top of that, ClanLib builds a generic game development framework, giving you easy handling of resources, network object replication, graphical user interfaces (GUI) with theme support, game scripting and more.
The goal of ClanLib is to allow the game developer to focus on stuff that matters, avoiding all those nasty (and boring) lowlevel trivials like setting up a directdraw window, sound mixing, reading image files, etc. All those things are simplified into object oriented classes and function calls, making it a joy to write your game.
ClanLib uses a resource system to keep track of images, fonts, samples and music. It supports Targa, PCX, JPEG, PNG and BMP for images. Wave files for sample. Ogg Vorbis (open sound format that has same sound quality as mp3) and MikMod for music. By using a resource system, you cleanly seperate the physical data formats from your code, and makes it easy to make themes and other plugins for your game. The resource system is written in a manner that allows you to add your own custom resources.
Torque Owner Paul Johnson
DX8 has gone from a nightmare to ludicrously easy to get a screen display going and move some rectangles about on it