Well this topic just exploded while I was in the hospital.
A lot for me to cover, so I will miss a lot.
Okay, firstly, we might all know some about my project and if we don’t, well let’s not go into too much detail about its intent.
I can, however, go into full detail about its current capabilities, since they all fall within the “Model Viewer†category for now.
Firstly, I should mention that my project has been in the works for over 2 or 3 years now and when I started it I wasn’t solid at programming, and was looking for a fun way into DirectX®.
But because of my lack of experience when I started the project I did not modularize everything, or create .dll’s for any specific part of my engine.
In other words, most of it is written to work only within itself. Some things depend on other things, which are somewhat hard coded (though very rarely).
The things my engine can do:
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Load .tex files and convert them into .bmp files for use with DirectX® (modular).Load all 3-D model files, attaching colors and textures to them correctly (modular).Load hierarchy files. Both on over world models and battle models (mostly modular).Load over world animation files.Load the first frame of most battle animation files.Load Kernel.bin and/or Kernel2.bin, minus the save information because my engine will not use it (modular). This information includes all weapon, armor, item, attack, command, accessory, Materia, and character names, data, and descriptions.Load battle scenes. This includes the battle world (3-D entities) and placing enemies in the correct positions on the scene (but not always the correct direction).Enemy information both per enemy type and per enemy instance is loaded during the loading of a battle scene.80% functional menu system. Buttons, images, bars, icons, text, etc., are done. But new controls and unique controls are not. These include sliding bar controls and text-input boxes.Unpack LZS and GZ files as well as extract files from LGP archives.
However, my engine does not:
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Show transparency in 3-D models (yet).Load the 2-D field files.Load the over world 3-D map tree.Animate battle models.Load any walk meshes.Run battles or provide any engine for proceeding through the course of a battle, imaginary or real-time.
I already have C++ with DirectX® code for loading the 3-D model files, and ALL of my code is 100% stable with one exception: the maximum path length for Windows® is 260 characters, which means if you copy my executable into a folder tree with over 250 characters, it will not be able to create some of the files it needs to run. Okay, so that is a stupid problem which is easy to fix but other than that, it’s stable and runs with 0 memory leaks.
I often leave it on as a screensaver over night. During that time it will load a new map scene (3-D battle world, all monsters in the fight, all data for the monsters, etc.) about 1,560 times. Checks reveal no memory losses or crashes.
So, although the early code is a little sloppy, it is stable.
However, I do not use the same menu system as in the original.
I have made my own menu engine and my menus are reconstructed that way. This is for speed and size. My menus are extremely faster than theirs and at extremely high resolutions.
In their menus, for example, the text redrawn to the screen each frame.
In my menus, the menu is drawn once and saved as an image. Then the image is drawn. The downside to this is that some menus are huge and some video cards do not support that size of bitmaps.
So now to the point.
I’ve already got a lot done on an engine remake, although mine is not geared in the same direction as the one proposed here.
However, mine is geared similarly enough that it can be of use to this project as well, should everyone get organized and decide on a language and specifications.
I know that OpenGL® is favored here and my code is DirectX® (for compatibility), but the rest of my code, in C++, should be useable directly.
I imagine that my coding to load the 3-D models and texture files will work after a simple copy/paste and change from DirectX® to OpenGL®.
I can help in many ways, but I am afraid I can do no direct coding on the project, or little to say the most.
I am overrun by my job and my projects, and I am still working on the battle animation file format, all while searching for a female companion and sitting alone in dark loud pubs while my Japanese friends dance and hang out with rich kids who don’t know how to drive.
At the same time, I would like to ask for your assistance when your engine does something mine does not.
L. Spiro
P. S.: halkun, err, I can show you how to use zlib with this project if you would like. My engine uses those libraries already to get everything out of BATTLE.BIN and Kernel.bin.
And, as for Almighty_gir, well, in another topic I have mentioned that I would be willing to give my project to SquareEnix Co., Ltd., just to ensure that it sees the light of day, however, under the condition that they keep the original’s graphics throughout all of it.
The problem I have is with companies thinking every detail about games is in graphics, causing them to forget the game play. Well, that isn’t quite the case here, since we already know Final Fantasy® VII has game play, and we aren’t talking only about graphics.
However, Final Fantasy® VII, in any form, in any future release, MUST have the same graphics it has now in order to be worth mentioning at all.
These are the graphics people loved.
These are the graphics people remembered.
The corny square-armed creatures with tiny elbows are exactly what gave the game its graphic appeal, and now it is more about nostalgia than anything else.
If the graphics are changed, just forget the project. Consider it a flop before you even bother to release it.
Well, that’s where my project stands anyway.
You guys can do as you like with yours.
Oh yes, makefiles. Hrm well I'm building my code with the MS compiler, but if the code is standard I guess it should be easy enough to write a few makefiles for it later.
