FreeSpace2 Source

[technomage]

Hi everyone

i've been toying with this idea for a while now.

Anyone interested in helping out on a FreeSpace 2 Source code conversion for Delphi and Free Pascal :?:

Everyone these days seems interested in First Person Shooters, personally I would love to see FreeSpace 2 running under Free Pascal but I don't know if anyone else would be interested.

I made a start but to be honest it would take me ages to convert it all myself (on top of all the other projects I'm doing). So if anyone is interested please let me know and I'll try and get something together for people to work off.

Dean

[WILL]

Wow, they released the FreeSpace 2 engine source? :o

Even the first game rocked! A worthy translation if you ask me. :)

[savage]

Are you using the SDL sources from - http://www.icculus.org/freespace2/?

[technomage]

It was released a while ago, I've had it sitting on my hard drive for a while now, I just got hold of the fs2open version which has been updated and had a few bug fixes by the open community http://scp.indiegames.us/news.php I've made a start but I haven't got very far I'm afraid. :cry:

If there is enough interest I could setup a web site similar to the Quake 2/3 projects and use the same rules to get it converted.

[WILL]

That would be cool. The Freespace 2 engine for Linux. :drool:

What was the company who made those games again?

[Robert Kosek]

I think it was MicroSoft?

I'm interested, but doubt I have the neccessary skills ... let alone the fact that I never even played the game.

[technomage]

It was made by Volition (Micro$oft did Free Lancer). I think there is already a linux version. the existing C++ code has DEFINEs for mac OS and linux.

C++ to Pascal conversion is usually quite straight forward. It's when you start doing pointer arithmatic it get's complicated.

If you want a good place to start on C++ to Pascal conversion check out

http://www.delphi-jedi.org/APICONVTEAMS:244282
http://www.drbob42.com/headconv/

As well as the Quake 2/3 projects.

[WILL]

Ah... thats right. They're sotta the new guys aren't they?

Don't count on the FreeLancer source to become available anytime soon. ;)

[technomage]

I feel sick and happy at the same time :D :(

I found a mod for the FS_Open (Freespace 2 open source engine) for Battlestar Galactica , it's work in progress but here is the promo video

http://www.game-warden.com/bsg/Video/BSG_Mod_Teaser.avi 12mb Divx
http://www.game-warden.com/bsg/Video/BSG_Mod_Teaser.wmv 11mb WMV

Now I'm happy cos it looks great but sick because I've been working on Alert Fighter (http://alertfighter.mirthmedia.co.uk) for about 6 months and it looks absolute pants next to this....DOH!

[technomage]

For those of you who don't want to see the video heres a screen shot

http://www.game-warden.com/bsg/staff_images/WIP%20Gallery/BSG_Vipers.jpg

[savage]

Don't give up the dream. Use it as inspiration!

[savage]

I just saw the video and I reckon you could do better. That video didn't have the same intensity as any of the versions of Decent.

[technomage]

I'm not giving up on AF, just having to rethink a few things.

One of them is the models, I need to get some low poly models with a decent high poly counterpart to generate the normal maps from.

the other is shader support, my initial engine does not support shaders and as such will work on just about any Opengl 1.3 compatable machine. But shaders should allow me to do a few special things that you just can't do using the fixed pipeline.

I also want to switch to openal for sound, I'm currently using FMOD.

And switch to Newton from ODE...

All in all that's a long list.

[WILL]

So has anyone joinned up in helping with the FreeSpace 2 Source's Pascal conversion effort?

[tanffn]

I’m willing to help, but since the semester is starting soon you can’t count me as a strong player..

btw technomage, why the switch between ODE and Newton?

[technomage]

No one really signed up. :sad: To be honest I didn't get time to even start a conversion project. I might start that off though. One of the big problems would be keeping it up to date with fsopen.

As for newton and ODE. newton is updated more regularly and supports all the platforms I need. I had problems with ODE accuracy and objects getting out of control, Newton provide interfaces to ensure that objects have a maximum linear and angualr velicity, ode does not you have to calculate that manually.

in addition Newton's callback method seems to work really well.

[technomage]

Ok boys and girls. :)

I finally got round to creating a project web site ( in the last 30 minutes ). Currently ther is no content. So can anyone who actually wants to help out converting the Freespace 2 open source code to pascal head over to

http://fs2pascal.infinitespace-online.net

and register.

I am going to need help getting the Quake 2 Delphi conversion rules onto the site as well as getting posts written for the Getting Started section. I will also need to figure out a way of assigning tasks.

I need to create a sourceforge project as well.

Let the conversion begin. :D

[WILL]

I'd recommend SourceForge for maximum exposure.

But as far as organizing, I'd follow in the steps of the more successful group-conversion efforts. Quake 2 Delphi was definately one, but I'm afraid I know of no others. How about contacting McCLaw to ask him about this? He may have some very useful tips and suggestions for you.

[technomage]

I have sent the registration in to sourceforge, we'll see if we get the project created.

So now it's down to getting the documentation setup (yawn :wink:). Then once there is enough people we can get started :lol:

Dean

[JernejL]

Wow, they released the FreeSpace 2 engine source? :o

This is a bit off topic, over time i compiled this list of game engines that have released source code, quite a list:


Aliens vs. Predator - Rebellion
Wolfenstein 3D, Doom 1, 2, Quake I, II, III - Id software
Heretic, Hexen, Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force - Raven Software
Battle of Britain - Rowan Software
Blood 2 - Atari, Inc.
Descent 1, Descent 2, Freespace 2 - Parallax Software (Interplay)
Allegiance - Microsoft
Civil War - Empire Interactive
Civilization: Call to Power 2 - Activision
Star Trek: Elite Force 2, Heavy Metal FAKK2, SIN - Ritual Entertainment
Shadow Warrior, Duke Nukem 3D - 3D Realms
Blood 2: The Chosen - GT Interactive
Rise of the Triad - Apogee
Rune - Human Head Studios
Marathon 2: Durandal - Bungie Studios
No One Lives Forever - Monolith Productions
Kingpin - Xatrix Entertainment
Warzone 2100 - Pumpkin Studios (now Pivotal Games)
Homeworld - Relic
Golgotha, Abuse - Crack Dot Com
MiG Alley - Rowan Software

[technomage]

I have one person registered to help out on the conversion at the moment (thanks JSoftware :D).

Come on people we need more help on this one, even if you can only convert 1 file it will help. :D

Dean
http://fs2pascal.infinitespace-online.net

[technomage]

Ok, we now have two people.

Is no one else really interested :?: :?: :?:

I just had to modify the sourceforge project request , they have a few questions about the type of licence I selected. :cry:

Dean

[AthenaOfDelphi]

It will undoubtedly be an excellent learning experience so I'm certainly interested, but I simply don't have the time :-(

[technomage]

It looks like many people just dont have the time. :cry:

Well we'll get started asap. I will post updates on our progress here as we go.

Dean

[savage]

I can try and convert at least 1 file. Might even pull out my old find and replace converter as well.

[technomage]

The good news is that sourceforge have created a project for us.

I'm trying to check in the base code for this now. This is just all the .h and .cpp files with changed extensions to .pas (only one file per .h and/or .cpp)

Hopefully we can convert all the header files over then work on the cpp files once the headers and function prototypes are compiling.

That's the plan anyway.

Dean

[savage]

If you want to maintain the C style hierachy you could rename all .h files to .inc files and then include those into the .pas files. Only problem is of course that you can't jump to the declaration from within Delphi ( at least you couldn't I can't remember if they fixed that recently ).

[technomage]

I'm not a big fan of the c style .h / .cpp stuff, source should be in one place. :D

[technomage]

I'm having trouble importing the directory into cvs.

Tortoise just hangs when I try to create a new module after it prompts me for my sourceforge password (which is correct)

the CVSROOT is

:ext:drellis@fs2pascal.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/fs2pascal

can anyone see what the problem might be?

Dean

[Legolas]

I have resolved all cvs problems I had by switching to svn :roll: :oops:

[technomage]

I thinking of doing that now....

[savage]

Hi Dean,
Are you using the steps outlined here...
http://noc.postnuke.com/docman/view.php/6/41/guide.html#startingnew

If that does not work could you either email me the archive or put it somewhere where I can download it. Then I can try and check it in this evening as well.

Btw, there is also a new version of Tortoise CVS which was released on 15th September 2006 - http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/tortoisecvs/TortoiseCVS-1.8.28.exe

[technomage]

Well the conversion is under way. :D

We have a couple of headers converted already. The project is converting all the header files first then moving onto the cpp file. The idea being that we can get a skeleton application which just has structures and function/procedure headers compiling before doing the actual code.

We do need some more help, there are two active developers on the project, and if we managed 2 files each a day it would still take us about 3/4 of a year...

[technomage]

We are making good progress with the conversions. Some technical challenges have presented themselves but we're getting there.

If anyone wants to help out head over to

http://fs2pascal.infinitespace-online.net

any join up :D

[savage]

Just gearing up for a release here at Channel 4, so I'm a bit snowed under at the moment. But as soon as they decide to delay it or we go live on November 12th I'll be dipping in and helping out with a few conversions.

[savage]

Have you been keeping tabs on this project - http://www.game-warden.com/bsg/ ?

[technomage]

I have , This is the project I posted some screen shots off a few months ago on the Alter Fighter thread. It's looks very good

[WILL]

on the Alter Fighter thread

"Alter Fighter" huh? :lol: Is that anything like Battle Pope (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Pope)? :D


So whats the latest estimate on the conversion? You guys sound like you're making some pretty good progress.

[technomage]

There still *allot* of files to go... and I mean *allot*

[tanffn]

Apparently Uni started a week ago not next week.. so I have even less time then I believed I had few moments ago.. I’ll let you know if I can join the effort in 2-3 weeks.

[technomage]

Well the Guys at Game-Warden have been busy.

http://www.game-warden.com/bsg/index.html

A demo version of "Battlestar Galactica - Beyond the Red line" has just been released. I'm downloading it now, if it's anythink like the video's it'll be cool.

For those that don't know, Beyond the Red Line is a Freespace 2 mod which uses the FS_Open engine.

[Robert Kosek]

WOW, that looks awesome!

What license is the engine under? I might attempt to help in the translation some time if I could potentially use it without royalty. (I gotta find a way to eat... :s)

[savage]

Not directly FreeSpace related, but I just saw that Descent 1 and I think 2 were ported to GP2X -
http://www.dxx-rebirth.de/download/gp2x-demo/dxx_rebirth_trailer.avi

Dean what was that game like?