wxwindows is a cross platform GUI builder. It runs on just about any platform you can think of (with a Mac OSX in the works). It also supports OpenGL. I was basically just going to use it as an interface for the user to build the units rather than design my own GUI from the ground up (like I''d know how to )
Check out OGRE from ogre.sourceforge.net. It''s open source and has some pretty neat ideas and useful features for RTS style games. For example, it does have a GUI interface and it also has a HUD style overlay so that you can build interfaces on top of the screen display. Definitely sounds useful for building the interface elements of the game.
The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount." - General Omar Bradley
A little off the thread title, but if you let players design units, why not let them also design unit/group icons. After all, in real life, armies, and major subdivisions of them have had their own icons (standards) and they''ve been used to allow generals to follow the battle more easily, and modern generals (I assume) use their own models to represent troops on their master maps, why not allow the player to do the same in game?
I envision clusters being marked by their (unique) icon on the mini-map, and individual units on the main map being marked by their unit-type icon. New types of enemy unit could be automatically assigned a generic icon (tank, infantry, jeep) which can then be customised by the player if they so choose.
Also, I imagine the TO would be represented in the interface by a Windows Explorer style collapsible tree - each cluster can be expanded/collapsed independently, and individual clusters/units selected directly, possibly having some sort of statistics come up in a nearby area.
You got it Dauntless. I''m not sure how you managed to understand my rabble but we must be on the same page because you did.
I think there is something to the RTS engine . . . but as we''ve mentioned, it would need work on the time scale, victory conditions, and on mass unit characteristics to work. For instance, as most of you know I''m sure, during the era linear warfare tactics, armies that were not well disciplined could not perform many maneuvers on the battlefield. This would give rise to tactics like Napoloeon''s "charge column" - even though it was initially used at Valmy (later he would have more disciplined units). Highly disciplined units, like Frederick''s army, could perform such maneuvers as the "oblique" - which others could not.
Great stuff Dauntless, I''ll be watching for your game. I have also amended my Christmas list after visiting battlefront.com - LOL.
Questions about my post? You can email me at ahill@loah.biz.
Questions about my post? You can email me at ahill@loah.biz.
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