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Dreamcast Simulant Engine - Alpha 2 Released!

kazade

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May 30, 2019
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Hi everyone! My first post here, but it's a good one!

The Simulant Game Engine is an open-source cross-platform general-purpose 2D/3D game engine that is specifically designed to work on the Dreamcast as well as Linux and Windows.

Today I'm announcing that I've tagged the Alpha 2 version in Git (Alpha 1 was released at Christmas). Here is a summarized change log:
  • Object management has been refactored. StageNodes now use pooled memory
  • The asset and object creation APIs have been simplified and been made more consistent
  • The custom .obj loader has been replaced by tinyobjloader
  • Fixed a number of bugs when rendering .obj models
  • Garbage collection has been simplified, the grace period is no longer necessary
  • The Material system has been completely refactored to be more powerful
  • Materials are now defined in JSON format
  • Many performance improvements
  • The OpenGL 2.x renderer now has smart GPU buffer management for increased performance
  • The SOIL library has been replaced with stb_image
  • GLdc has been updated
  • Particle scripts can now set material properties directly
  • Many bugs in the particle system have been fixed
  • Particles are now correctly billboarded
  • Particle sizing can now follow a bell curve based on time
  • "Resource" has been replaced with "Asset" consistently
  • "ResourceLocator" has been replaced with VirtualFileSystem or "vfs"
  • Fixed a bug where behaviours weren't correctly deinitialised when the associated organism was destroyed
  • Added QUADS as a valid mesh vertex arrangement
  • Improve the "Fly" behaviour
  • Added a "post-idle" signal that fires once idle tasks complete
  • Fixed a number of memory issues around the virtual game pad
  • Many many bug fixes and performance improvements
Since last release this represents:
  • 299 files changed
  • 22385 insertions(+)
  • 22007 deletions(-)
!!!!!

If you want to learn more, or get started using Simulant to build games, then join us on our Discord server or head over to the documentation! We're also on the Twitters @simulantengine

Here's a quick example of the kind of stuff you can build with Simulant:




P.S. Where's the Dreamcast prefix?

P.P.S. Note! If you want to build on Windows, it's recommended you make use of WSL2, or install a Fedora Workstation virtual machine (Simulant cross-compiles Windows executables from a Linux environment).
 
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FamilyGuy

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Nice! I should really look into this!

(Simulant cross-compiles Windows executables from a Linux environment)
Fun fact: I hate developing on Windows so much that when I have to work on a Windows machine, I cross compile Windows executables from a Unix environment (cygwin) using mingw. It's much easier than the alternative, but linking can be tedious.
 
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Anthony817

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P.S. Where's the Dreamcast prefix?

Don't worry, I messaged the admins yesterday asking them to fix the missing Dreamcast prefix, so it should hopefully be added back eventually.

I am loving the Desert Strike homage! Will we see a game made from it? I love those early 3D games on Genesis/Mega Drive like F-117 Night Hawk game from that time period.
 
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Anthony817

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Excelent I can't wait to hear more on it! This engine is shaping up' nicely!
 

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