Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2014 4:23 am
I would be remiss if I didn't highlight two Allegiance 2 projects as well as a current attempt to make Allegiance cross platform compatible. Meaning you wouldn't need to be running windows to play.
This project in particular is open to anyone who wants to contribute.
Backstory:
The two other "Allegiance 2" projects are being worked on simultaneously, both taking different approaches. This just goes to show how strong and valuable Allegiance development is.
Marketing for and getting new players for the current Allegiance will add interested and talented people to our development team, allow more testing to be done, and inspire further development and growth.
It is critical that the Allegiance community take this opportunity to do something positive for the game, and take some ownership over what happens now. We are the stewards of this game and there are opportunities to help it grow, so we must take them.
For how you can help get new players to the game: Click here
This project in particular is open to anyone who wants to contribute.
Backstory:
Most recent post of Factoid's:factoid wrote:QUOTE (factoid @ Mar 4 2014, 05:24 PM) About 2 months ago I started missing Allegiance a lot, even though I still don't have a lot of time to fly regularly. I work and game mostly in Ubuntu these days, so the lack of a linux client also hurts a little. So what started out as a though experiment and a little bit of exploratory hacking has turned into what I hope will be the start of a new chapter for the software. To date I have written an asset decompiler which converts the allegiance mdl files into open formats (obj, png, json, etc..) for use by a yet unwritten client, though I also have an MDL viewer which renders the results of my decompiler app, it's proof of concept, but it works.
Right now I'm in the process of updating the IGC libraries to C++11. So I'm about half way done resolving the syntax issues of moving the code away from MS centric stuff, but once it actually compiles into a dll I'll have build a testing framework to make sure it actually still works the same as the classic allegiance.
At that point, we'll have a cross-platform version of the game's mechanics and physics engine. The next step would be to build a new network layer, which if done right, might allow us to replace the dplay libraries from alleg and get the current clients talking to a cross platform server, while development on an openGL based client continues.
The end goal is to build a GPL engine that can play classic alleg, making use of modern tools and frameworks to reduce the amount of stuff we have to manage, and to hopefully make the project easier for new developers to get inovlved in. If we ever got around to implementing "allegiance 2" from the ground up using that engine, we'd have a completely free allegiance at that point. But this is all about two weeks worth of two weeks worth of work.
I plan to get what I have properly split up and licenced so that my modified IGC code (MSR-SSL) and everything else (GPL or LGPL) can live in separate repositories, but once that's done I'll get them on github so that people can get involved or watch the train wreck unfold.
I ultimately want the work I'm doing to complement what's been done by the community thus far, but I think many of us know that the dependance on DirectX 9, COM, and ATL really makes the project a royal pain to work with. These technologies won't be around much longer, so I would like to bring the source into the modern age while we have the chance.
Also, C++11 is so damn awesome. Takes so much of the pain out of type safety.
This project is awesome and potentially opens up new avenues for growth. If you're interested, please get in contact with Factoid for more details!factoid wrote:QUOTE (factoid @ Apr 6 2014, 08:53 PM) Windows binary works! Woot!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/meomslx4a5x1wtq/FreeAlleg.zip
If you want to give this a run, please be aware that it's setup to crash if the code encounters something I haven't yet delt with, so docking, hitting an aleph or a rock will take it down. However, now that I know the build process works on both OSes I can go back to focusing on adding functionality back in. I can provide the build environment for VS2013 if anyone is actually interested in jumping in.
The two other "Allegiance 2" projects are being worked on simultaneously, both taking different approaches. This just goes to show how strong and valuable Allegiance development is.
Marketing for and getting new players for the current Allegiance will add interested and talented people to our development team, allow more testing to be done, and inspire further development and growth.
It is critical that the Allegiance community take this opportunity to do something positive for the game, and take some ownership over what happens now. We are the stewards of this game and there are opportunities to help it grow, so we must take them.
For how you can help get new players to the game: Click here
project that aims to replicate alleg as a proof of concept for a larger project of his. I am not certain whether they accept new team members. I also do not know of the actual state/progress of the project.
