Thread: Game Engine Discussion

Originally Posted by Kanati8869

well it's likely got an IO system sure... but keybindings are, as I said, a higher level functionality implemented by the game creator and not the engine itself. For instance W,A,S,D. We take for granted that they will move you up, down, left and right. But that is entirely up to the programmer and not the engine.

Well then I don't think you understand how that system should work. My game engine that I'm creating has the ability to add input mappings to an action, the source engine by itself should have the same ability plus the ability to modify what key is used to cause that action. Trust me, I have some experience in this since it took me a WHILE to make sure my input and configuration system worked the way I wanted them too. It's still a work-in-progress but they can at least do more than what you think the Source engine doesn't have.

ok. you've piqued my curiosity...

I'm going to guess you are talking about something along the lines of the following... And I'm guessing you are talking more along the lines of an engine PLUS a framework...

In writing a game for your "engine", I would have a set of user actions... Lets say the following:

Player_Jump
Player_Left
Player_Right

Your "engine" will read from ini, xml, registry, whatever a predefined key binding set when it's initialized.

So to throw some pseudo-code out there I'd then do something like:

Code:

Switch (Key_Input)
{
    case Key_Left : Player_Left();
    case Key_Right : Player_Right();
    case Key_Button1 : Player_Jump();
}

Yes no?

I would still contend that that part of an "engine" should be left to the programmer or as a framework laid on top of the engine. But not the engine itself.

Is Source the only engine that is that way?

I have used a number of engines. I have not used the source engine so I can't say for sure if they initialize a "keys" dataset on initialization or not... If all source games use a similar or the same text file to do so then I would have to assume that it does. I cannot think of any other engine that *I* have used that does it that way. Unity MAYBE but I haven't dug into that one very deeply.

As I said, mines still a work in progress but it works the way I want for now. The way it works for me is I have this:

addInputMap("FireWeapon", Keys::LMOUSEBUTTON);

That adds a new mapping, that I can modify or delete if needed. The engine also automatically adds, for now, that to my configuration file.

Then later on wherever I need to use that I do this in the game/app/demo.

if (g_engine->getInputManager()->IsPressed("FireWeapon"))
Log(L"FIRE!");

Then in the game/app/demo its just a simple compare that the game developer has to do in their update function. The rest is handled by the engine.

I think we're actually talking the same thing with different terminology. You have an input system/IO system. You simply add some aliasing on top of that. It really doesn't matter if you are calling IsPressed(LMOUSEBUTTON) or IsPressed(FireWeapon). You are just giving the programmer a "friendly" alias to use for his/her program. And from your description you are writing a config file at the time of the programmatic setting of the alias. I like the design.

Originally Posted by gehn

Then in the game/app/demo its just a simple compare that the game developer has to do in their update function. The rest is handled by the engine.

We should have a development section...................

Originally Posted by Kanati8869

We should have a development section...................

Ya, who is going to help me make the next flappy bird!!?

do you do mobile development?

Originally Posted by Kanati8869

do you do mobile development?

lol, no but I guess I could cuz I know java. Teach me Kanati!!