FIFE - open source RPG engine with Fallout support

M

mvBarracuda

Vault Dweller
Just a short announcement:

After serious communication problems with the ianout project leader SztupY, the rest of the team decided to found an own project to create a new Fallout-like engine.

We just called the engine FIFE, the Flexible Isometric Fallout(-like) Engine. With FIFE the team is still following the aim to create a modern Fallout engine which has good modding abilities and is provided as open source, so modders can even change the source code if they want / need to.

ATM our coders are working on a first prototype version of the future engine core. FIFE will be SDL-bases like ianout because we want to make the engine multiplatform so it runs under Linux and Windows and we're considering MAC too. FIFE will include an powerful scripting language so you can customize aspects of the mod you're created with the engine easy and fast.

Current release:
Stable:
FIFE 2008.0 (2109) win32

SVN snapshot:
FIFE 2007.2 (2109) win32

Screenshot from the current development version (changed from time to time to show the recent progress):
2008.0.002.jpg


Zero-Projekt (FIFE-based Fallout-inspired RPG):
Zero_projekt_spotlight1.jpg


Website:
http://www.fifengine.de

Wiki:
http://wiki.fifengine.de/index.php?title=Main_Page

IRC channel:
http://www.fifengine.de/fifewiki/index.php?title=IRC

Forums:
http://forums.fifengine.de/

Roadmap:
https://mirror1.cvsdude.com/trac/fife/engine/roadmap
 
Well i wish you guys good luck with your project.It seems very interesting (catchy name,by the way :P )
Also,something i didn't quite understand.Are you going to continue ianout (take the current code of ianout and continue from there) or are you starting completely from scratch?
 
Bloodlust said:
Well i wish you guys good luck with your project.It seems very interesting (catchy name,by the way :P )
Also,something i didn't quite understand.Are you going to continue ianout (take the current code of ianout and continue from there) or are you starting completely from scratch?
Click to expand...
We're starting completely from scratch. But we would have done that even if we would have continued ianout: beta 5 of ianout should have been a complete rewrite and so no beta 4 code left over. The beta 4 core is quite messed up in therms of good coding standards so working with the code is quite hard and its not optimized.

So it will take some time for the first FIFE release as we're just starting from scratch (again :(). But you can always check out our subversion repository to get the latest code. We provide make files for windows and linux! (scons & devcpp)

SztupY will continue working on ianout although we don't know if he works on it as a one-man project like before or if he tries to build up a new team. But he said that he's coming along nicely with the new core so maybe ;) there is an ianout beta 5 soon, but that are just guesses.

And we're still searching for dedicated developers and members that want to support FIFE. ATM we're in need of coder that works under MAC, a gfx artist and a coder that worked with different scripting languages before and is experienced in this field of development. If you want to join the team to help us building up FIFE, please contact the team under mvBarracuda@web.de or contact a team member in the irc channel:
http://www.fifengine.de/fifewiki/index.php?title=Developer_IRC_channel
 
Update time:

Chris integrated a first simple renderer that can read Fallout 2 maps and display floor and roof tiles. Sourcecode can be found in our subversion repository.

prototype1_001.jpg
 
wow thats awesome! i do not fully comprehend the scale and granditude of this project but it looks immense, like a whole new game. just imagine all that coding and scripting energy poured into fallout universe...oh and some gfx to make it look pretty and you got yourself a guaranteed insomnia for months to come lol
 
Update time :)

New features since the last update:
- Added a basic audio framework using SDL_sound & OpenAL
- Started working on object loading
- Settingsmanager to easily adjust setting with config file
- Cycle trough map elevations using the "e"-key
- Render not existing tiles black
- Started working on an OpenGL version of the renderer
- TrueTypeFont text output using SDL_tff library

The full roadmap / timeline:
https://mirror1.cvsdude.com/trac/fife/engine/timeline

And another (boring) screen:
prototype1_002.jpg
 
Welcome to New Reno :)

(yes: the animated gfx aren't working yet)

prototype1_003.jpg


New features since the last update:
- Background music playback possible over settings file
- Object loading finished and object placement correct
- First openGL renderer finished and merged with the core (about 10 times faster than software rendering)
- Gamma adjustment key
- Scons now working for Windows
- FIFE compiles on MacOsX using scons (thx to Tesseract and RogerWilco for testing!)

Update: screenshot of the new OpenGL renderer
prototype1_004.jpg
 
Nice.. if the scripting is more easyer than in Fallout 2, maybe I 'convert' my mod to F.I.F.E.
 
If you want to wait 2 years that is: according to the roadmap.

Amazing progress so far though, awesome.
 
Wild_qwerty said:
good work guys :)

I cant wait to try it out
Click to expand...
So why don't you do so? :)

The first release could be @ Christmas or even later but there is a quite simple way (even I got it in about 1h) to work with the newest version now :)

You can always download the latest sourcecode from our subversion repository:
http://www.fifengine.de/fifewiki/index.php?title=Subversion_repository

After you've downloaded e.g. TortoiseSVN (great subversion windows client), you can check out the code and just compile it.

I've created a windows compile tutorial and a SDK for it to make compiling really easy :) All tools needed are entirely free; thats important because it was a major flaw of ianout: you needed the commercial Microsoft compiler to get it running :(

Here is my windows compile tutorial:
http://www.fifengine.de/fifewiki/index.php?title=Windows_compile_guide

So here is a list of stuff you'll need: (all download links in the compile tutorial)
- TortoiseSVN or any other windows svn client
- Boost c++ library
- Python (to get scons running)
- Scons (we use it as our cross platform building tool)
- MinGW (the windows port of the famous gcc compiler)
- The FIFE windows compile SDK

After you've set it up one time, compiling is damn easy:
- Download the latest sources from subversion
- Go to command line and move to the "core" directory
- Enter "scons -c" to delete the created files from former compiles
- Enter "scons opengl=1" to build it with OpenGL support, "scons" to just build it with the standard software renderer

Update:
For the ones who don't know if its worth downloading the whole compile stuff: I've just compiled the latest version and bundled it with all needed .dll files.

http://members.fifengine.de/mvbarracuda/FIFE_rev71.zip

But you still need to set up the test environment like described in the tutorial:
http://www.fifengine.de/fifewiki/in...compile_guide#Setting_up_the_test_environment
 
will it be possible to build several floors ontop of eachother the tactics way? So that the player can walk up the staircase and then the ground floor will be covered by the tiles in the second floor, instead of using it and beeing translocated to another level of the map.
 
Bloodlust said:
I suppose since they are building a new engine from scratch,this is possible but i don't have an idea on how hard it is to implement.
Click to expand...
ATM we're using just the original Fallout maps and load them but a new FIFE map format is planned.

There is still a long way to go but we'll try to support different levels, if its possible with the existing Fallout art.
 
Looks excellent, and releasing the code (especially over SVN) is a fantastic idea. I don't think I'll have the time to contribute or tinker around, but I wish you the best of luck!
 
Update time :)

_virus_ optimzed the renderer so it runs smooth on even high resolutions.

[MODEM WARNING]
The screenshot is about 800kb, so only click on the image if you really want to see it.
[/MODEM WARNING]


ATM we're thinking about including an ingame console like in modern shooters so you can easily call scripts and tweak stuff ingame. Nothing decided yet but we think that this could be very useful.
 
hmm just one thought.. in fallout, the range of the players view was limited by the scrolling function.. with resolutions this big ingame you should implement something else.. like line of sight?
ex (warning! the size is humongous!):


maybe not this extreme but atleast not show all the objects (like people and stuff) thats too far away..
 
We're thinking about line of sight but thats nothing for the current point of development, we've just started with FIFE so it will take a long time till you'll see such advanced features.

And about the resolution thing: I've tested different resolutions with FIFE and I can say that everything above 1024x768 does make no sense me, you can create cool screenshots with 1600x1200 and it does run quite well with OpenGL but its not playable as the objects are too small.

Like this one:
 
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