Re: [Opde-devel] The release plan

[Joe T. <gea...@co...>]

Hello,

These are some good points, and I want to quickly address a few.

Version 0.2.0 todo:

1. I have tons of example code for implementing consoles, give me the 
interface you want and I can get to work. We may also want to think 
about a scripting system to go along with the console system; something 
simple, like a batch file interpreter. If we need more, we can possibly 
use lua or something.

2. This is dependent on #3. Let's think about implementing a robust 
materials system, creating a skeleton for shaders and other advanced 
materials for later on. Perhaps swipe the one from Quake 3 (it's GLP'd, 
whee!).

3. I have tools I can use to reverse engineer Thief, at least it's files 
anyways. I would like to take some time to analyze at least the .mis 
files to definitively identify the exact structures needed for world 
geometry rendering, including lightmaps. While we have darklib, I think 
there is another way to go about parsing the level files. I need to look 
into this.

4. On windows anyways, I've figured out what is necessary to create a 
linkable dll, which is merely to prefix any exported functions with 
__declspec( dllexport ). Static linking isn't really required, but dlls 
are completely optional. One thing I am thinking is that we may want to 
implement a dll-based plugin system for expanding the engine at a later 
date. This plugin system would integrate nicely with the console system.

5. I have no problem commenting my own code, but what style do we want 
to use? We should map that out. I have no idea what doxygen is, I'll 
have to read up on that.

Something that you didn't bring up is the matter of copy-protection. Do 
we need (or even want) some sort of mechanism to ensure that the user 
does in fact possess a legitimate set of data files? Not implementing 
even a token check could land us in hot water with the publishers once 
we begin distribution of the engine.

OK, that's all the comments I can think of for now.

Regards,
Joe