To the source?

[ToastMaster_M]

Has the team behind tremulous ever considered switching to using Valves Source SDK engine?
I've played Pirates, Vikings and Kinght 2 which uses the Source engine and the graphics are amazing, AND it has an awesome physics engine to boot.

I'm just sayin', y'know, ragdolls would be totally awesome, and tremulous could use a graphical upgrade too.

[Atom Eve]

Short answer: No.
Long answer: No, it isn't open source, it would require a lot of extra work, it raises the system requirements, etc.

[Taiyo.uk]

Oh for crying out loud, engine changes have been discussed to the ground in an excessive number of different threads. The search term "engine" will quickly find many of them.

But again, to recap, a new engine needs to be open source, and, unless a complete code and substantial content rewrite are to be avoided, Q3 compatible.

Even changing to another Q3 based engine (XreaL et al) involves allot of work and would exclude a substantial portion of the current community due to system requirements.

Ragdoll and similar effects would indeed be cool but without a complete overhaul the Q3 physics engine does not allow for this, again allot of work.

Finally, the posh graphics features of Source and other recent engines need the associated content to use. In other words normal maps, gloss maps, bump maps, etc... will need to be created for all the textures and skins. Once again, allot of work.

[n.o.s.brain]

it would require a whole new set of developers to pull that off... i don't think the current devs will be persuaded into re-making trem.

[player1]

@Atom Eve, Taiyo.uk: I can't applaud you quickly enough.

@OP: 10b: The Dreaded Engine Change Suggestion

Added just for threads like this... :roll:

[mooseberry]

Duh guys it's obvious what to do. Do like blood2.0 and ask Bill Gates to give Tremulous millions so that we can buy a new engine... and than pay the devs so we can make it open source... duh.. (idiots)

[your face]

Fine, I'll have to ask Bill Gates to gimme millions of dollars to run my new super-ultra-mega-lightnin'-gamin'-rig... then I might not lag as much!  And with that money, I'll also buy fiber-optics!

Seriously, I like trem just the way it is... the engine ownz... but the best part is that it's free, and what can you expect for 1337, free game anyways?

[ToastMaster_M]

Oh for crying out loud, engine changes have been discussed to the ground in an excessive number of different threads. The search term "engine" will quickly find many of them.

But again, to recap, a new engine needs to be open source, and, unless a complete code and substantial content rewrite are to be avoided, Q3 compatible.

Even changing to another Q3 based engine (XreaL et al) involves allot of work and would exclude a substantial portion of the current community due to system requirements.

Ragdoll and similar effects would indeed be cool but without a complete overhaul the Q3 physics engine does not allow for this, again allot of work.

Finally, the posh graphics features of Source and other recent engines need the associated content to use. In other words normal maps, gloss maps, bump maps, etc... will need to be created for all the textures and skins. Once again, allot of work.

Well, Rome wasn't built in a day, and if they begin accepting donations, y'know, it begins to become a bit more tangible. And are you sure SDK isn't open source? I could have sworn it was. Greedy ass Valve.

But yeah, EVERYTHING good in life requires work, why should a new engine be any different? I'm sure there are a lot of experts on how game engines work in this community, if we could get them to contribute, things might see a whole new trem, a BETTER trem (RAGDOLLS DAMN IT!)

And as for the increasing need for hardware upgrades to run games at sufficient quality: Get a job. Thats what I did, and thats what I've done up until this point. Sure, some people may live in high-cost areas and don't have the extra buck, but if know how to live frugally, you'll notice a few fiscal growth spurts.

[David]

wtf dude?
You want the community to write an engine like source?
They had teams of developers working full time for years.  Not to mention teams of artists etc.

And the SDK isn't open source, and even if it was it doesn't matter.

The simple end is:  There is no such thing as porting trem to a new engine.
It would be a whole new game based on trem.  There would be nothing of the current used.

(Oh, and I'm a student.  I could save up for a better computer, but I would prefer to eat...)

[ToastMaster_M]

wtf dude?
You want the community to write an engine like source?
They had teams of developers working full time for years.  Not to mention teams of artists etc.

And the SDK isn't open source, and even if it was it doesn't matter.

The simple end is:  There is no such thing as porting trem to a new engine.
It would be a whole new game based on trem.  There would be nothing of the current used.

(Oh, and I'm a student.  I could save up for a better computer, but I would prefer to eat...)

1 word for you : Ramen

anywho, what about improving the existing engine?

[Taiyo.uk]

Well, Rome wasn't built in a day, and if they begin accepting donations, y'know, it begins to become a bit more tangible. And are you sure SDK isn't open source? I could have sworn it was. Greedy ass Valve.

But yeah, EVERYTHING good in life requires work, why should a new engine be any different? I'm sure there are a lot of experts on how game engines work in this community, if we could get them to contribute, things might see a whole new trem, a BETTER trem (RAGDOLLS DAMN IT!)

And as for the increasing need for hardware upgrades to run games at sufficient quality: Get a job. Thats what I did, and thats what I've done up until this point. Sure, some people may live in high-cost areas and don't have the extra buck, but if know how to live frugally, you'll notice a few fiscal growth spurts.

Tremulous has taken seven years to reach it's current state. The developments you describe require somewhat greater work than what has already been done.

Valve, Id and other game houses pay many professional programmers and artists hefty wages to develop their games full-time. Even they take years to develop a game.
On a side-note, even if the Source SDK is open-source, you'll still need to license the source engine to distribute it.

As for improving the existing (Quake III based) engine.... Study the code. You'll see that it could well be easier to use an engine that was actually designed for the capabilities you want.

The community here indeed have much skill in engine coding. However, depending on their situation, they also have jobs to do, studies to complete, social lives, etc. among other activities higher up the priority ladder than video games.

To conclude, if you want this so much, there's nothing stopping you from making a start. There are plenty of open-source engines with the capabilities you want. Set up a website, get the foundations laid. Put some work in and get something working, a screenshot of a hollow-cube test map to demonstrate that you've assembled a basic engine should help here.

At this point you can start to accumulate a development team. Good luck.

[mooseberry]

To conclude, if you want this so much, there's nothing stopping you from making a start. There are plenty of open-source engines with the capabilities you want. Set up a website, get the foundations laid. Put some work in and get something working, a screenshot of a hollow-cube test map to demonstrate that you've assembled a basic engine should help here.

At this point you can start to accumulate a development team. Good luck.

So that's how they did it?

[Taiyo.uk]

I don't think so.

[Amanieu]

IdTech releases the Quake 3 engine under the GPL
ioquake3 continued the development
Trem is an ioquake3 mod
Then trem became standalone

About the engine... It is nearly 10 years old, so of course, it won't have every feature you want it to have.

[mooseberry]

first post= /sarcasm

o.0

[ToastMaster_M]

Well, Rome wasn't built in a day, and if they begin accepting donations, y'know, it begins to become a bit more tangible. And are you sure SDK isn't open source? I could have sworn it was. Greedy ass Valve.

But yeah, EVERYTHING good in life requires work, why should a new engine be any different? I'm sure there are a lot of experts on how game engines work in this community, if we could get them to contribute, things might see a whole new trem, a BETTER trem (RAGDOLLS DAMN IT!)

And as for the increasing need for hardware upgrades to run games at sufficient quality: Get a job. Thats what I did, and thats what I've done up until this point. Sure, some people may live in high-cost areas and don't have the extra buck, but if know how to live frugally, you'll notice a few fiscal growth spurts.

Tremulous has taken seven years to reach it's current state. The developments you describe require somewhat greater work than what has already been done.

Valve, Id and other game houses pay many professional programmers and artists hefty wages to develop their games full-time. Even they take years to develop a game.
On a side-note, even if the Source SDK is open-source, you'll still need to license the source engine to distribute it.

As for improving the existing (Quake III based) engine.... Study the code. You'll see that it could well be easier to use an engine that was actually designed for the capabilities you want.

The community here indeed have much skill in engine coding. However, depending on their situation, they also have jobs to do, studies to complete, social lives, etc. among other activities higher up the priority ladder than video games.

To conclude, if you want this so much, there's nothing stopping you from making a start. There are plenty of open-source engines with the capabilities you want. Set up a website, get the foundations laid. Put some work in and get something working, a screenshot of a hollow-cube test map to demonstrate that you've assembled a basic engine should help here.

At this point you can start to accumulate a development team. Good luck.

Well of course, I meant contribute in any spare time they manage to find, no one should break up with their girlfriend or quit their job just to improve a 10 year old game engine.
And I would attempt this my self if I had the mathematical know how, but unfortunately I was born with an artistic mind, so much that I sometimes wonder if my math mind was sacrificed to my art mind

[Taiyo.uk]

That's not necessarily a disadvantage - we need more art than math. The content usually takes longer to develop than the code, and there appears to be more coders than artists here (i.e. more mods than new content). Decent content can easily be the motivation to write decent code to use it.