Goals
I wanted to get basic OpenGL code setup, a scene created in 3D Studio Max rendered in OpenGL, and possibly a character model imported and animated.
Accomplishments
I aquired the NeHe base code and spent a fair bit of time understanding how it does things. I started to look over a free library I found for loading 3D Studio files into OpenGL called L3DS. I went over a sample program using L3DS and used it as a base to put code into the NeHe base code that can load a mini level I created. I found some sample code for doing the keyframe animation from Quake 2 and 3 models but haven't managed to get anything implemented yet.
Goals not Accomplished
Some how I managed to not find the time to get the character models or animations working yet. I've been spending more time than I thought I would just getting going on really basic stuff.
Goals for Next Week
Texture map the basic level. Get models and animation going (this is probably going to be Karen's doing, though). Get the basic code for our game engine written. We are supposed to be integrating next week, but we're behind in our coding, so we need to get some serious work done in the next week.
Morale
I'd say I'm not feeling the best right now. I feel like I'm personally behind and that we are behind as a group. I'm worried about my own competence at creating the OpenGL code we need. Hopefully this next week will be better than the last.
Physics - we decided to use a physics engine (tokamak) at the beginning of the week and worked out some rough design for it. Then later in the week, based on the professors input, we decided that working on our own physics would probably be a more worthwhile experience. Therefore, I have been working to read up as much as I can on it in the past day or two. It is a little intimidating and I will have to push more time at it.
Game Engine - Sean and I had some basic discussions on the flow of the server-side engine. It looks like we have something that will actually work when it comes to implementing.
Goals for week3
Have some basic physics working: Object-object collisions, and object-plane collisions.
Have a good idea of the game engine (and how it is going to interface with the other modules) and start coding something at the end of the week.
Accomplishments
Unfortunately, we were not able to get anything done for physics by today (wednesday) besides reading, research, and initial design. The reason is a combination of not being able to commit enough time needed, and also needing to revert to doing our own physics. Definitely behind schedule on this module.
For the game logic/engine, we are sort of on schedule, having a concrete idea of all the type of logic that will be going on during the game simutation (character classes, attack class, rules/logic, etc).
Goals next week
For physics, my goal is to work hard to have the intended basic physics done by the weekend (Sunday). That way going into week 4, we will have something solid to build on.
For the game engine, my goal is that we are able to have some starter code that is able to integrate with the physics, passing it information for the basic simulation, and some code for manipulating the player data. Also, working with the others to start integrating networking to the serverside game engine.
Morale
I am somewhat worried that we are a little behind schedule. Still, I am optimistic that once we get down to writing concrete code, things will progress more quickly.
Goals
- decipher directplay demos and have some working code demonstrating our customized networking
- decipher directinput and have some working code of our own
- design framework for game engine
Accomplishments
Networking got further than I had hoped, which is a very good thing. Initially we were planning to the frame locking method where every client is synchronized, but decided that it's best we do it asynchronously so that a lagged client won't take down the game. Currently we can send messages between client and servers. We figured out how to do multi-threading and shared memory in Windows so we are ready for integration with the game engine.
Goals not Accomplished
DirectInput did not get very far. I was struggling with the trouble of building a driver to test the input since I'm new to the Windows API. We did decide on what actions there are and that we're going to use ActionMapping provided by directplay. Since the networking is near completion, now we have something to build and test on. We didn't get much done on the game engine (game logic) either in terms of coding, only discussions about how the game should play.
Goals for Next Week
- Have input complete
- Have game engine framework, and at least some base code
- Integrate input and game engine with networking
Morale
Overall I didn't get all that I wanted to get done, like input and the game engine. I am pretty satisfied though because I got through a lot of startup work which is time consuming. Now we have something to build on and things should move more smoothly.
Goals
Wanted to get the design of the Physics engine done, and to begin writingcode. Wanted to get a good handle on how DirectInput and DirectPlay worked so we could start writing those modules.
Accomplishments
Looked at DirectPlay and Input pretty closely and have a good understanding of how it works and what we need to do for our game. Made decisions with group members about how we would go about implenting the networking code.
Designed our physics module around using the tokamak(sp?) physics sdk. Later found out we would be implementing collision detection on our own, but our design shouldnt actually change very much.
Goals not Accomplished
Personally, i really wanted to get some code written, but was unable to. Other group members picked up some of my slack and have written stuff.
Goals for Next Week
Next week i want to have the networking and input modules fully working. Also i want to have the physics module at least doing basic collision detections so we can integrate very soon.
Morale
Not so great. Didn't get any code written personally, but this week has been really full of outside commitments. Luckily no other weeks will be even close to this one so productivity will improve drastically.
Goals
Getting the physics engine designed. Knowing how to handle 3ds file formats for animation and static objects. Finalize design. Create simple models.
Accomplishments
The design and the vision of the game have been formed.
Goals not Accomplished
Didn't get physics engine design finalized due to a switch from using a premade engine (Tokamak) to a self-coded one. Haven't got to work with 3d Studio Max yet nor created simple models.
Goals for Next Week
Play catch-up with what was not accomplished in addition to the predefined goals for next week.
Morale
Same as Nikhil, a bit overwhelmed with outside commitments this week, but things should be much better from next week on. I intend to give much more dedication from next week on.
Overall we did not accomplish all we would have liked to this week. We have not started coding a number of key parts of our project. We have made some progress in the networking and minor progress in the graphics. We are well behind in the physics and game engine. Next week we need to work REALLY hard. We need to be working in the lab a lot more.
Morale
Not too high. We are behind. We must make sure things get better by next Thursday.
UCSD Spring 2004 CSE125. Allen Ding, Nikhil Dvivedi, Karen Hom, Zhao Yong Liu, Sean Ojakian.
