Yet Another RTS / News: Recent posts

For the last month, I have been unable to spend much time working on YARTS. I have made some tweaks and made improvements here and there, although I have worked quite a bit on a library that I will release LGPL which YARTS will heavily use. I still don't have a name for it, and I have not released it anywhere yet, and I am not planning on doing so until it has enough functionality, which I'm expecting in about a week. After that, I will resume more work on the core of YARTS.

This release of YARTS includes yarts-engine-0.1.1a and yarts-client-0.5.0a. The engine remains very incomplete since it is still an early alpha release, although the code has been standardized over both the engine and client. This release of the client is a late alpha and therefore is mostly complete. The interface is a basic terminal, and I will later create a new client with a GTK+ interface, although most of the core code will be preserved over both clients. Also, all files have been given proper versions and some contain partial documentation. More information to come.

Upcoming this weekend will be a 0.5.0a release of the game client, and I will include a precompiled binary for Windows. In addition, I will release version 0.1.1a for the engine. Although there has not been much done to the engine since the 0.1.0a, I am releasing it since it is perfectly compatible with the new version of the client. Also, both of these work on both GNU/Linux and Windows. Stay tuned.

The next release of YARTS will feature an entirely redone game engine that should allow for multiple users to seamlessly join a game and play simultaneously. Files are still in the process of being given version numbers, and updated information on building YARTS will be provided. Release 0.5.0a in the near future will mark the point in time where YARTS may be easily compiled and run, but, until then, the building and running of YARTS will be sloppy, at best. Some of my efforts focused on YARTS will be diverted by my current hunt for a job, although I still suspect the pace of development will remain steady.

Finally, I got released the next alpha. Still, there isn't much functionality going on, although you can see the resemblance of creating a networked game through the client. Also, the client works as an effective command-line chatroom. For 0.1.1a, I plan on having a seamless interface between the client and the engine along with much better documentation and standardization of files.

In the new few days, I will be releasing the latest source code, which will include a functional, though very rudimentary client that should connect computers over a network to initiate a game. The client/engine relationship will form the backbone of initiating a game, with two sub-projects to develop a dedicated server application as well a base game to be run as default and provide an excellent testing dataset for both developers and users alike.... read more

YARTS will now be split up into four individual sub-projects consisting of the engine itself, a networking client for finding and joining games, a server for connecting multiple users, and a default playable game. In addition, I am changing the license to the GNU GPL, which has been also been agreed upon by the other developer. By the end of the week, I expect to have a basic client application completed by the end of the week, and, once I get everything organized, I will post another release.

Despite that it has been a little over a month and a half since the last release of YARTS, I have been working steadily. Much of the networking interface has been reworked, and, since I'm developing primarily on a GNU/Linux computer, it will be fully compatible with Linux. Some free graphics are in store to be used as a sample set, which will greatly relieve the burden of attempting to produce graphics (I am awful at anything artsy). Anyway, it should only be another week until I release another alpha. This next one, alpha-10, will include a lot more functionality and much more of the code is closer to it's final form.

Yesterday, I finished up two papers that I had due for school, which signals the end of my college classes. With that over with, I can now focus a lot more of my attention back onto YARTS, which I have made a few tweaks here and there over the past month, but nothing major yet. I'm looking to make it appear more complete and not look as if it were sloppily thrown together. So, expect things like the ability to chat in the pre-game lobby. I'll see how things pan out and post another alpha fairly soon... perhaps this weekend or early next week.

There we have alpha-9, which now loads PCX and PNG images in addition to bitmaps. Work may be slowing down for the next week or two, and should really pick back up after Thanksgiving. Gameplay is the next focus, and perhaps there will be a playable game by the end of the month.

I have spent quite a bit of work getting ready for the release of alpha-9, nearly entirely dealing with graphics. For testing purposes, I have been extracting graphics from Starcraft, which will also give YARTS a remote amount of graphic appeal (something about dots doesn't generate awe). My estimated completion time will be Friday or Saturday, depending on how things play out.

With this release, textures now load and work for buttons, although you can only use bitmaps. Upcoming, textures will load from PNG files, and units will be able to be textured.

With alpha-7, Yarts almost completely works on Linux since I got Ubuntu up and running on another computer. Also, unit building works along with externally editable menus. This will lead into loading glitzy graphics, which will be in alpha-8.

Alpha-6 features proper implementation of unit movement and correct network latency defaulted to 200ms. Building units is nearly complete, and will definitely be in the next alpha. In addition, alpha-7 should contain units avoiding collisions and major code cleanup. The path looks set for alpha-8 to include textures and lead into graphical menuing beyond boxes and text.

I released alpha-5 a few days late, but included a few things that would have otherwise been released later. These additional changes are so informatively summed up as "other stuffz" in the changelog. Alpha-6 will be out around the beginning of next week. I hope it will feature buildable units and allow for units to attack eachother.

Alpha-4 has been released a couple days late because I came down with a cold. YARTS is almost to a workable, not-so-crashable state, which will be the goal of Alpha-5. Expect that by the end of the weekend.

Miraculously, alpha-3 has been released perfectly on time. This alpha doesn't do much more than the previous one, although it contains a few implementations that will pave the way to the glitzy, fun stuff. It looks like alpha-4 will be playable, as in you can play a game with another player with units that move, and that should be completed by Sunday or Monday at the latest. Stay tuned.

I've just uploaded the alpha-2 release only a day late. This time YARTS does a little bit more, but still doesn't have any type of graphics or real playability. It works using X as well, although that has some errors that need to be worked out. Alpha-3 is looking like mid to late next week unless I get something cool done really soon.

The title basically says it all. I should have alpha-2 released by the end of the weekend. Basic improvements will be the fact that it work with X now instead of just windows. Also, depending on how much headway I make, I might be able to have multiple computers connect to the same game.

Just to have something for anyone who is really curious to look at, I've uploaded my current progress, which only runs in Windows. You can't see it doing much of anything, so please don't expect anything. I wrote it in Dev-C++ and kept the project files, although I will later I will change it to be compiled for either Windows using MinGW or *nix.

Although there's *very* little functionality that has been completely so far, I plan on putting up the source code for download either tonight or tomorrow. I'll post more once it's ready.

As of right now, only the very basics have been completed. By no later than early next week, I'll have something that can be downloaded to see what has been done so far. It'll contain no graphics but instead use primitive shapes for debugging purposes only. I'll update once it's done.