So, what is it? Oh my, what isn't it?? It's so many wonderful things! Oh my the things that it can do. Not really. Bear with me, this is going to be boring...
Well it started out as a 3D engine using DirectX 8 and Borland Delphi. And was probably the most complete version of it. It ran like shit due to my inexperience with optimizing D3D and Delphi in general. But I did have a 3D model of Homer Simpson and the Tick rotating and translating at will. It was awesome, people were impressed, statues were built, bibles written, etc... So I scrapped it. Why? I don't know, it was probably a dumb reason. So zoom to a year later, and I attempt the thing again, this time using C++. Second most complete version of it. Ran a lot better due to several factors that I won't get into. I even had written a windows GUI wrapper called Cerberus to complement it and provide an actual decent object model for the mess that is C++. I scrapped it, actually, I didn't scrap it, I was playing guitar, and in a flash of genius (which I'm often prone to) I decided that it was time to give my system a cleaning. I begin the format, "Oh FUCK!!!" I exclaimed as I realized the partition I blew away was my primary partition and along with it went my extended partition which contained my code (I will NEVER have a system with only one drive in it again). Of course, no backups because who needs backups? I like having the color drain from my face and my world collapse around me, it's fun, it puts hair on the chest. Anyway, Gorgon died. Several hundred more attempts to restart it all ended in dismal failure for one reason or another.
2004
I then moved from Toronto to Calgary and began anew. I decided I would invest some time learning about this .NET thing that some people were talking about. I chose C# since I prefer the syntax (and doing VB code in my day job just gives me bad flashbacks). So in my efforts to learn C# I started to write a quick and dirty 2D library called: yep, Gorgon. I thought, "hey, this shit is whack. I be straight up illin'", and no, I don't talk like that, people who do talk like that need to organize a meeting between their head and a lead pipe. But I digress, I decided to convert it to a full on 3D thing. And I did, well, partly. I worked on it intermittently until June 2006. And when I say intermittently, I mean it. There'd be months where I didn't even see the code, let alone write anything. But then I got back into writing it more and more. Then I had an epiphany: I SUCK at math. I really really do. And I'm too old to put the effort into learning it. 3D graphics, believe it or not, requires some knowledge of math. Arcane knowledge that I don't give a fuck about (never mind that 3D has been done to death, shitty FPSes, pathetic MMORPG attempts by people who have no business writing MMORPGs... blah). I realized two things:
1. 3D is something I can never devote a great deal of time towards (not just the coding, but the study of several disciplines). I lack the patience and the devotion. I don't care what John Carmack's doing. He's a twerp anyway.
2. 2D is something that's much easier (don't kid yourself, it is), and I'm fairly good at it having written several 2D based libraries, add-ons for libraries, etc.. way back in the DOS and early DirectDraw days. And besides that, the initial 2D version of Gorgon was almost complete (it lacked a GUI and some tools and some optimization: Really, who needs more than 10 FPS?)
So, here it is:
Gorgon
A 2D graphics library. And it's way more awesome than Half Life 2 because I say it is.
(Notice the throwing up of the horns. That's how metal it is. It's so metal it makes Children of Bodom look like N'Sync)
If this doesn't work out, I'll give up and I'll just go and do database crap exclusively for the rest of my (un)natural life.
And to show how serious I'm not, here's a screen shot:
Glorious isn't it? I know, it's amazing. MUCH better than Half Life 2.
~60 FPS for 6000 sprites can't be that bad. Considering it's a .NET app, and the implied overhead that comes with it, I think it works quite well.
Anyway I've ranted on long enough, apparently I don't know when to shut the fuck up.
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Disclaimer: If you're offended by my liberal use of colorful language. Fuck off. This is MY journal. Don't like it? Don't read it.