FIFE - a next generation Fallout-like engine

[Dark_Raven]

Those screenshots are pretty neat.

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

That's some nice artwork also a fairly high resolution which helps

[jaguars4ever]

@ Barracuda: I offer to lend you my services and "take care" of this Nightguy for you. In return I expect a total conversion of FO1 and FO2 using your bling-bling FIFE engine.

 

If your response is a favorable one, contact my representative through the usual channels, and mention "The weakest gang in New Reno", to which the response should be "are the Wrights".

 

*hides in shadows*

[mvBarracuda]

Just a short update ) a first SVN snapshot of the upcoming 2008.1 release is availabe for win32 systems.

 

Download URL:

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/fife/FIFE...r2282_win32.exe

 

Important changes since the 2008.0 release:

- Instance outlining

- Real stepless zoom for OpenGL render backend

- Curing singletonitis by getting rid of audio manager & vfs singleton via refactoring

- New music by the new composer torrent71

 

Unpack to HDD and read the README.txt that resides in the root directory.

 

Screenshots of new features that ship with this release:

Improved editor tool:

 

Instance highlighting:

 

Zoomed in:

 

Zoomed out:

[Nick_i_am]

Open Source means that this thing is free and that anyone can adapt the code or use it right?

[Gorth]

Just a short update ) a first SVN snapshot of the upcoming 2008.1 release is availabe for win32 systems.

 

Download URL:

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/fife/FIFE...r2282_win32.exe

 

Important changes since the 2008.0 release:

- Instance outlining

- Real stepless zoom for OpenGL render backend

- Curing singletonitis by getting rid of audio manager & vfs singleton via refactoring

- New music by the new composer torrent71

 

Unpack to HDD and read the README.txt that resides in the root directory.

 

Screenshots of new features that ship with this release:

Improved editor tool:

 

Instance highlighting:

 

Zoomed in:

 

Zoomed out:

 

Man, I so hope somebody picks up this engine some day for the purpose of a Syndicate Wars remake :sad:

 

It's looking better and better btw.

[mvBarracuda]

Welcome to yet another FIFE news update.

 

A lot of topics to cover and just few time on my hands so I'll just list everything and you decide if it's worth reading )

* New project manager on the team and first blog update by him

* New composer on the team and first music tracks available

* Experimental networking branch (woohoo! multiplayer FIFE)

* Experimental MSVC2008 build system support

* Physfs branch

* New context menu

* A new name for FIFE?

* First Zero-Projekt video released

 

In case one of these topics sounds worth checking out, head over to our developer blog:

* Blog update: the smell of spring

* Blog update: Panic

[Musopticon?]

If anyone is interested, the video for Zero-Projekt can be accessed here.

[mvBarracuda]

Yep thanks for the pointer Musopticon? )

 

The youtube version can be found here:

 

HQ version (40mb):

http://zero-projekt.net/files/video/Dev_Showreel-2008_0.avi

Edited March 18, 2008 by mvBarracuda

[mvBarracuda]

Howdy and welcome to yet another FIFE news update )

 

This time we cover our ongoing efforts to release the next FIFE milestone under a less restrictive license compared to the current GPL licensing. This topic seems to be especially interesting for independent developers who consider to use FIFE for a game project but are afraid of the current licensing policy.

 

You can read the whole news update at the developer blog:

License mumbo jumbo at the FIFE blog

[mvBarracuda]

Hello and welcome to yet another FIFE update )

 

Unfortunately this one contains somewhat bad news as the majority of our key developers have been quite busy lately. Now I'm facing some serious university issues so I'll need to take a temporaty break from the project as well.

 

We appreciate all kind of help by new interested developers. We know that there are more tempting tasks than applying for a development team that is currently going through a drying time. But we wanted to be always up front about the status of the project so that's we think it's our duty to inform the community about lack of progress and issues as well.

 

You can read the whole update at the FIFE developer blog:

Temporary drying time for the FIFE project

[mvBarracuda]

There are two important things to talk about so we decided to post a little developer blog update to keep the community up to date about the current status of the project.

 

FIFE is still progressing rather slow because of the lack of active developers who can invest time into the project. If you think you could help, please don't don't hesitate to grab the latest code from SVN to have a look into it and get in contact with us after that.

 

We recently released an upgraded compile SDK for win32 systems. You can read about all of this in detail at the FIFE developer blog:

http://mirror1.cvsdude.com/trac/fife/engin...008/05/29/18.38

 

Enjoy the good weather outside and remember that you don't need a weathermen to know which way the wind blows.

[Nick_i_am]

No, just a peice of grass or similar small object.

 

What a strange thing to say.

[J.E. Sawyer]

mvBarracuda, you're making the right choice. Finish your exams, then finish FIFE. Take this advice from a Latin-class-failure.

 

And think of how handy Latin will be when you make a Darklands sequel using FIFE.

[Sand]

I took a semester or two of Latin. Its a hard class on the college level, especially compared to Old English. I really don't know why I took Latin in the first place, nor Old English for that matter.

[Humodour]

I think FIFE is an excellent idea! The world needs a decent open source 2D isometric engine; for both RTS and RPG.

 

If this thing is still around when I finish my CS degree, I'd love to contribute. I'm guessing the language is C/C++ using openGL libraries? I think the graphics courses here are taught in C/C++, so I'm sure I'll pick up the basics at uni. In the meantime I think I'll continue mastering Python.

 

I've mostly ignored FIFE because I was under the impression it was just an engine remake for Fallout (like with the IE games).

Edited June 3, 2008 by Krezack

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

I took a semester or two of Latin. Its a hard class on the college level, especially compared to Old English. I really don't know why I took Latin in the first place, nor Old English for that matter.

 

Because you're a bizzare strange deranged human?

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

I think FIFE is an excellent idea! The world needs a decent open source 2D isometric engine; for both RTS and RPG.

 

If this thing is still around when I finish my CS degree, I'd love to contribute. I'm guessing the language is C/C++ using openGL libraries? I think the graphics courses here are taught in C/C++, so I'm sure I'll pick up the basics at uni. In the meantime I think I'll continue mastering Python.

 

I've mostly ignored FIFE because I was under the impression it was just an engine remake for Fallout (like with the IE games).

 

I'd suggest taking a look now, if only to get an impression of the codes structure. It's fairly pattern heavy ahem and I still don't see any point in singletons.

 

That said if you wanna contribute having a read of some of the code sure would help in the long run, I implore you take a look.

[Humodour]

I'll consider that.

 

How does FIFE compare to GemRB, btw?

[mvBarracuda]

Finally some time on my hands again so here is a roundhouse kick reply!

 

mvBarracuda, you're making the right choice. Finish your exams, then finish FIFE. Take this advice from a Latin-class-failure.

 

And think of how handy Latin will be when you make a Darklands sequel using FIFE.

Hehe, never played Darklands ( I had an AMIGA 500 back in this time and bought a PC some years later. Missed it somehow.

 

Concerning my Latin studies: I've worked out a basic plan and I can invest at least some time into FIFE again (approx. 5-7 hours a week) so we're currently trying to get things running again. Some new programmers are already interested in getting involved but let's wait and see if they stick to it.

 

 

I'm guessing the language is C/C++ using openGL libraries? I think the graphics courses here are taught in C/C++, so I'm sure I'll pick up the basics at uni. In the meantime I think I'll continue mastering Python.

We're using C++ & Python. The C++ engine core gets built as dynamic library and we wrap it into Python with the help of SWIG so the main loop runs in script side (python). As you have prior python experience, feel free to check out our code from SVN.

 

I've mostly ignored FIFE because I was under the impression it was just an engine remake for Fallout (like with the IE games).

The project started as an improved Fallout-like game engine but we've moved away from these roots over the last two years. Now FIFE is more and more becoming a full featured 2.5d game engine that supports all kind of isometric and similar pseudo 3d views.

 

 

I'd suggest taking a look now, if only to get an impression of the codes structure. It's fairly pattern heavy ahem and I still don't see any point in singletons.

To be fair: we refactored the code over the last months and more and more singletons have been removed. The only remaining singleton that I'm aware of is the logging module one but we didn't find a satisfying way to get rid of it. We appreciate every hint if / how we could refactor this part of the engine as well.

 

That said if you wanna contribute having a read of some of the code sure would help in the long run, I implore you take a look.

Seconded )

 

I'll consider that.

 

How does FIFE compare to GemRB, btw?

That's a quite complex topic so it would be useful to have some kind of list of aspects that you would be interested in. In general FIFE seems to go down the route of becoming an independent 2.5d game engine that is not tied to any specific game type. GemRB seems to be geared towards RPGs and although their aim seems to be that some new games get made with the engine, it seems to be still somewhat IE-specific. 'though I need to admit that I haven't had a look into their code for over a year so take this with a grain of salt.

 

If you got questions about any specific engine aspect and how it compares to GemRB let me know and I'll try to find some time to investigate it and reply here as soon as I got some free time on my hands.

[Moatilliatta]

Hehe, never played Darklands ( I had an AMIGA 500 back in this time and bought a PC some years later. Missed it somehow.

You should, if nothing else just for the character creator, as it is quite unique. The rest is mostly similar to Daggerfall except in medieval germany and the bad design decisions and general age show through quite clearly, but the character creation and system should be interesting to anyone with an interest in games.

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

To be fair: we refactored the code over the last months and more and more singletons have been removed. The only remaining singleton that I'm aware of is the logging module one but we didn't find a satisfying way to get rid of it. We appreciate every hint if / how we could refactor this part of the engine as well.

 

I'm glad to hear you guys finally ditched the singletons, but that's also commonly refered to as the "anti-pattern", singletons pretty much break the whole point of OO design. That said, there are other patterns which I picked up upon, but it was a while ago, I do intend on taking another look now I've finished my degree.

 

As for the logging module, first thing I'd suggest is a static class.

Edited June 8, 2008 by @\NightandtheShape/@

[mvBarracuda]

We've done it again! We proudly present the FIFE 2008.1 release )

 

Download:

Source package (FreeBSD, Linux, Macintosh)

Win32 binaries

 

For the 2008.1 release we decided to stick to the tropical island concept and called our example game "Rio de hola".

 

Caution: this release is still lacking a lot of polish, especially the "Rio de hola" game that ships with it. It lacks almost any form of gameplay but there is a reason why we decided to ship the release in its current form nevertheless. We planned to release future FIFE milestones under the LGPL to offer a less "restrictive" license to possible FIFE users (we know that the term "restrictive" is just our personal point of view).

 

We had to clear up the legal situation first and fortunately the software freedom law center helped us with the transition. The agreement of all developers who contributed code that was still used in FIFE was needed and because over three dozens of people contributed code to the project, this took us a lot of time. We were not able to reach all of them so we decided to either remove or rewrite the code of the contributors who didn't reply to our license switch proposal mails (from scratch).

 

We were able to replace the last parts of the problematic code today so now FIFE is officially LGPL'ed software. We're glad that we were able to make this step after it took us so long and we think that the new license alone is worth a release. Therefore we're proud to finally present the first FIFE release that is published under LGPL 2.1 or newer (your choice).

 

Engine and the editor tool made _huge_ steps forward since the last release about 5 months ago. Therefore we decided to release the current status as stable release although it offers not many new aspects on the content side and the content that is in place is very likely to change with the 2008.2 release.

 

The milestone itself seems to be a very important step into the right direction. You can build your own maps now with the help of the editor tool. Furthermore a basic application structure is in place that should give you an idea how can create your own FIFE-based game; this release is stable enough to start working on your game now )

 

Most important changes since the 2008.0 release:

* License switch from GPL 2.0 to LGPL 2.1 or newer.

* Improved map format & resource loading (datasets branch).

* Vastly improved editor tool; batch object loading.

* New (work in progress) Rio de hola demo: new maps, graphics, sounds (still unfinished!).

* Eye candy: stepless zoom (OpenGL mode only), instance coloring & outlining.

 

Screenshots & videos:

Just two somewhat representative release screenshots.

 

Rio de hola:

 

Editor tool:

 

No videos from our side this time. You might see a video presentation of the new FIFE release soon nevertheless as the FreeGamer blog considers to cover the release with a short video soon. No final decision made yet but if it they actually create a video of this FIFE release, we'll let you know here )

 

Read the full release announcement at the FIFE developer blog.

[mvBarracuda]

It's time for a little FIFE update again ) We're currently considering to change the name of the project or to choose at least a new meaning for the FIFE acronym to express that we've moved away from our initial Fallout roots. The engine is simply neither limited to Fallout-like games in particular nor to RPGs in general anymore.

 

We would like to hear what the community thinks about it. You got two weeks to bring up proposals for new names or new meanings for the FIFE acronym at our forums:

http://forums.fifengine.de/index.php?topic=93.0

 

After that we'll open a poll and all registered forums' users can vote for two choices from the list of all proposals. The poll will stay open for four weeks; after that the developers will try to agree on one name from the top 3 of the poll.

 

You can read about our plans in details at the developer blog:

http://mirror1.cvsdude.com/trac/fife/engin...008/07/19/21.53

 

A little screenshot from work in progress FIFE-based game OpenAnno:

 

I plan to cover OpenAnno in the second episode of the FIFE community spotlight series soon. Stay tuned )

 

Last but not least: Urban Breznik, a friend of our team member Lamoot, was so kind to provide us with a draft for a new FIFE logo. We're interested in all kind of feedback concerning the draft. If the community thinks it suits the project we'll introduce it as new official FIFE logo after we decided on a new name (text can be adjusted; the cube itself would stay regardless of a possible name change). Discussion concerning the logo takes place at the forums:

http://forums.fifengine.de/index.php?topic=86.msg873#msg873

 

 

That's it from our side for today ) see you at the next update.

[mvBarracuda]

Welcome to yet another FIFE update! This time we're proud to bring the second issue of the community spotlight series to you.

 

In this episode we cover the progress (or the lack of it) of the current FIFE-based projects in general but also the development of the OpenAnno project in detail. OpenAnno is a free and open source realtime economy simulation with strategy elements loosely oriented towards Sunflower's Anno series.

 

You can read the full community spotlight article at the FIFE developer blog.

 

Here is a little visual teaser for those who would like to get a first impression of OpenAnno before deciding if it's worth to dive into the mass of text. More screenshots can be found in the full article that is linked above.