GLOOM for Linux

[Marcus]

More of an announcement maybe, but I've finally got the first extension, GLOOM, working on Linux. It's C part is included in the core though, so using it is just a matter of importing the library, as with any other naalaa library.

This means we can make super high tech raycasting games (as in the mid 90s on Amiga) on Linux now

Sadly I need to rewrite the GLOOM map editor for Linux ... *sigh*

[cvirus]

This looks good :-), nice work.

[Marcus]

I could re-use most of the code from the editor I wrote for Windows. I just had to replace all the IUP stuff with the naalaa-made GUI system Version 1.0.4, with the GLOOM library, has now been released for Linux.

I have thought about documenting the GUI library (NEDGUI.lib) that I've used for writing NED and all the tools. But it's very messy, so ... maybe if I clean it up.

[johnno56]

This is SO cool. I have always enjoyed playing Doom, ever since we had it networked, on 100mhz 486's... Looking for an editor for Linux (that actually works) has been an ongoing saga... Now there is Gloom. The video was awesome! I did a 'quick look' through the libraries... That's a LOT of functions! Do you think there might be some video/doc tutorials in the future? The raycaster is brilliant but this gloom will take it to another level (no pun intended). A real game changer. (pun intended... lol)

Brilliant job. Well done!!

J

[Marcus]

I didn't have a PC when I was young (in the 90s). But I had an Amiga. All Amiga users wanted to play something like DOOM, and many game developers therefor wanted to make DOOM-but-on-the-Amiga. Black Magic Software made a great attempt with their game, GLOOM. Its levels didn't have height differences like DOOM, but it was fast paced and super gory. I loved it Here's a video showing it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8r8s79g7wI&t=348s

I wrote the library because I wanted to make a game like that. I haven't touched the game for six months, but I will continue working on it now. I posted the source code in the old forum but will repost it here tonight.

The examples under examples/libraries/gloom (Linux) are pretty step-by-step:ish, but if they're not enough I can post more examples.

[johnno56]

Whoa! The Amiga wasn't bashful when it came to bodies exploding were they?

When it come to examples and tutorials, I can never get too many... If you have more, and you have the time to spare, sure I 'll work my way through them. I need to evaluate the learning curve against my ability, or lack of it, to produce a game... lol

Just to change the topic a little... okay.. a lot... Where do you see Naalaa going in the next 5 to 10 years? Based on the programs I've seen created by Nalaa, in the near past, it seems to focus on the "retro" feel. Do you think that, with the development of the Gloom library, you may see a swing towards 3D platformers (mario bros; mario karts - that kind of stuff). Just curious.

[Marcus]

I draw the retro line at what I can accomplish with software rendering. That is, I will never involve OpenGL/DirectX. I want to draw every pixel myself using only the CPU.

(Forget about the OpenGL extension that I played with some years ago. That was a misstake.)

I imagine I will rewrite my old software 3d renderer (available in naalaa 5) in the future, which means we'll be able to make real 3D games at the level of Quake or the games for the first Playstation (psx). The old 3D renderer was written in assembler, and when I moved from Borland to Visual Studio (naalaa 6) I couldn't get the code running, but it was pretty bad anyway.

But before that I might write a more advanced raycaster, one that works for DOOM-like games.

Regarding the language itself, I'm pretty happy with it as it is. I don't want to make it more messy, no OOP or such.

[johnno56]

Cool... So basically... Status quo for now? Understood. "If it aint broke. Don't fix it." Besides, when I was a kid there were no home computers and when they did appear, the current "retro look" was King. Bring on the retro!