Topic: Impressive work!!

My Compliments to you for your work!

It's a while I've been searching for a portable engine/framework with a good design, and this seems definitely the case!

One question: is somewhere available an example on how to instantiate a simple window with the engine only (no gui/editor functionalities for the time being)? I would like to experiment a little and try to create a simple scene completely in c++

Thanks!!
Davide

P.S.
beside the VC projects, do you have available the xcode ones too? I'm working on both win and osx

  • anael
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Re: Impressive work!!

Thank you smile

If you don't want gui/editor, you can use MaratisPlayer.exe, you can also see it's code to see how to init Maratis engine in c++.
You can also completly take the hand using a Game.dll plugin (see WaterGameDemo), advantage is to have the Editor AND custom c++ code where you can shortcut everything.

For the xcode : Im still working on the OSX version, I have in fact only one unsolved problem, maybe you can help me if you know xcode programming. How to embed custom dylib into an app ? my app is only searching in /usr/lib and cannot link.

Re: Impressive work!!

I'm not an expert in specific osx programming, 'cause usually (especially for my work activity) I develop with the multiplatform concept in mind. But If you can send me a set of xcode projects to build and test, and give me a little assistance if needed, I would be happy to investigate the dylib issue you're having.

Beside of that, another question... do you use any kind of build system for maratis or do you rely on visualc/xcode projects only? I've a good experience with SCons (also Blender is using it) and a few with CMake and I can assure you that for multiplatform activities they make the life a lot easier... but maybe you're already using one of those.
My first step with maratis, would be to integrate such a build system. could you be interested? (I cannot dedicate a lot of time, but a few hours per week I should be able to work on it)

  • anael
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Re: Impressive work!!

I'll contact you by mail.

For CMake, I never used it, so yes I'm interested smile

Re: Impressive work!!

I have experience in Mac/iPhone development and would like to help out with this. I'm strained for time so if there's someone who can fix it quickly, even better. But if not, I'll take a look.
On MacOS X, the typical way to do this would be to distribute a Framework instead of just .dylib. A framework contains the required libraries, but also headers and any other support data. I'll know more when I take a better look at the code.

As for build systems, my personal opinion is that while they are invaluable for some projects and situations, they may not be the perfect solution here. If you had to support 20 different platforms/compilers, it would probably be too much work to keep the project files up to date. But as long as it doesn't go over 4-5, I think a build system such as SCons or CMake are more overhead than they're worth. They do require a more intimate knowledge of the compiler system and platform you're compiling for and understanding the intricacies related to each. Compiling a project directly using the compiler is much more work than using the IDE to generate most of the parameters for you.
In addition to that, requiring Windows or Mac users to install such a system may be an annoyance. This is not the same as with Blender for example, where nobody except developers will need the source code.
Again, it's just my opinion - take a look for yourself and see if you find the build systems useful.

Re: Impressive work!!

Hi Igalic

I am, personally,  a big fan of build systems (in particular scons) and I use them *especially* or small size projects, since with a few lines I can create projects that at the end will be maintained automatically. But I agree 100% with you saying that it's only my opinion and depends a lot on the way everyone is used to work.
What I believe is that if you work alone on a project, then using an IDE it's easies, but working in a team an the same IDE is always a pain. And the same for external dependencies

I put in place a set of scons scripts for building maratis and all the external dependencies, it took me a couple of days and now it builds on both OSX and Windows; the only requirement is to have python installed on the system, and in the osx case it's already there. Now I'm working on packaging everything in a bundle for the app and in a framework for the core/engine libs

About your experience with OSX and especially iphone, if I encounter any problem, can I ask you for some suggestions? probably you already found solutions for the problems I can get in smile

thanks!!! Davide

Re: Impressive work!!

dbacchet wrote:

Hi Igalic

I am, personally,  a big fan of build systems (in particular scons) and I use them *especially* or small size projects, since with a few lines I can create projects that at the end will be maintained automatically. But I agree 100% with you saying that it's only my opinion and depends a lot on the way everyone is used to work.
What I believe is that if you work alone on a project, then using an IDE it's easies, but working in a team an the same IDE is always a pain. And the same for external dependencies

I put in place a set of scons scripts for building maratis and all the external dependencies, it took me a couple of days and now it builds on both OSX and Windows; the only requirement is to have python installed on the system, and in the osx case it's already there. Now I'm working on packaging everything in a bundle for the app and in a framework for the core/engine libs

Excellent smile Can't wait to try it out. Have you thought about packaging/building it for the iPhone?


About your experience with OSX and especially iphone, if I encounter any problem, can I ask you for some suggestions? probably you already found solutions for the problems I can get in smile

thanks!!! Davide

Of course, I'll help in any way I can.

Ivan

Re: Impressive work!!

igalic wrote:

Excellent smile Can't wait to try it out. Have you thought about packaging/building it for the iPhone?

I have no experience with the iPhone (although I have a developer license I never used...).
There are a couple of licensing issues to be solved first: dev-il and libsndfile can only be linked dinamically in non-gpl projects, and if I remember well, targeting the iphone the static linking is required. Correct me if I'm wrong please

Of course, I'll help in any way I can.

Ivan

thanks!!

  • anael
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Re: Impressive work!!

Yes, static linking is required on iPhone.

For iOS, to avoid licence issue, it's necessary to use a different Image loader and sound loader,
as on Maratis, data loading is virtual, it can be done using the cocoa file loader functions, or using libpng, libjpeg, libogg etc

Except if you plan to make a GPL iOS application, in this case you can link DevIL and sndlib statically.

Re: Impressive work!!

What do you mean by static linking... I do not know about it a lot... So I want to you to please elaborate it a bit for me... I shall be grateful to you...!!