[Freeciv-Dev] OpenGL client (was Re: Re: Project)

[Franck Guillaud <f.guillaud@xxxxxxx>]

               Hello World,

On Tue, 25 Jan 2000, Jules Bean wrote:
->Hi Rob!
->
->Exciting ideas!
->
->> > I, and (potentially) 4 others, plan to be making an opengl interface for 
->> > freeciv as a final project for a graphics course at Rose-Hulman
->> > Institute of Technology (Terre Haute, Indiana).
->
->Someone else was working on an opengl interface once - they posted here a
->couple of months ago. Maybe they'll speak up again, or maybe they can be
->found in the archives.

        It's me. I wanted to post a screenshot on a web site, but my ISP ftp
server don't accept my files !? Sorry about that. I can send a 19K jpeg here
or to anyone asking for.

        What you'll see is only the geometry data, with different colors for
each tile type. The map is an array of heightfields. Each "smoothed" tile
(mountains, hills and their neighbors, rivers, and also beachs) 
has heightfield data. Other tiles are 'flat' and drawn as simple quads.

        Actually, the code is a patch to the 1.9.0 gkt client and uses the gtk
GLArea widget. It works on my P133 and a voodoo2 card, GNU/Linux OS. Another
option would be to use the SDL libs (because work on BeOS, Win32,Unix,Mac...). 
The patch doesn't alter the server, but it only works with an existing game : 
you need to create a game, save it and load it with the client.

        Autoconf stuff is done, also basic terrain generation and texture
loading with Imlib. My plans are first to make this code clean and efficient.
 I then plan to add script and/or plugins capabilities to allow themes. After 
that, I need to handle textures & textures masks rendering, with also 
plugins and/or script. I think it will be complex, but the existing code 
will help.

        To handle units & cities, I think a good 3D object loader (.3DS,
.lwo,...) is needed. If it is efficient, it would handle most of the work.

        I must say that this work is my first attempt to be involved in a
free software project. So I spend must of my time learning how to program
and use GNU tools under Linux. But I enjoy a lot. I do it on my spare time,
and urgency is low.

        What are your plans Rob ? Maybe we could merge our efforts. My
code is actually too bad to be shared but I hope it will change, sooner 
or later ;-).




                                        Franck.