Tools in the engine

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3 comments, last by LuNo 21 years, 8 months ago
I''ve read that Doom III will have the tools in the same executable as the engine. This is a great idea in my opinion, but I don''t understand how this is done. I''ve tried to accomplish this, but since I use MFC for my tools, I see no other way then for the game-engine to run on a MFC code-base. This is NOT an option! Can anyone help me get a clue on how this is or can be done? Any input is helpful
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sure, MFC is nice for creating windows GUI''s which you''ll need for any tool you make, but do you really have to use it? if you have some time to implement your own GUI classes like buttons, listboxes and so on, you can create your own GUI in your engine (which you will probably need for a menu screen in the game).

concerning Doom3, the hard part is not the GUI but the map-editor itself and integrating it directly into the game!
Use DLLs... then you can mix and match. For example you could have an "Editor.DLL" written totally in MFC with the game and engine written in another language.

You could also do it the other way round and have two different executable files, one for the game and one for the editor, but then most of the engine etc in multiple DLLs.

I''d actually prefer the latter method since you can then write the editor UI in things like Visual Basic while the game itself is say C++. It also allows other tools to ditch the parts they don''t require, e.g. a mesh exporter for 3DS Max could use your engine maths and mesh DLLs, but wouldn''t need the networking, AI etc..

--
Simon O''Connor
Creative Asylum Ltd
www.creative-asylum.com

Simon O'Connor | Technical Director (Newcastle) Lockwood Publishing | LinkedIn | Personal site

Thanks alot
First time i clicked your link in your signature, cool site Simon

Dreddnafious Maelstrom

"If i saw farther, it was because I stood on the shoulders of giants."

Sir Isaac Newton
"Let Us Now Try Liberty"-- Frederick Bastiat

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