Integration

[beaujob]

I think what tjensor is talking about here is comparable to the whole UNIX movement.  If indy game developers around the world all wrote really cool games, and then said, hey, you know, lets all make one big game, and call it, "the matrix" you'd start to be able to have that kind of integration.  Then, in like 50 years, after they got their shit together, and people were used to having their computers plugged into their spinal cord, a couple people in sweden would write a really good version of "the matrix" and distribute it for free.  I wouldn't mind doing kung-fu in the shadow of a bridge that I built while death and a clown get it on in the bathtub next door, but that's a long ways off.

[tjensor]

There are a lot of nice ideas on here - pivots, variable traffic, ships etc. What I would like to see could put all these into use and more - I'd like to be able to put my bridges in to other games - Sim City would be a great example! Pontifex could act as a plug-in for games like this, allowing even greater control of the environment. Is this somthing youve though about?

[baggio]

Quote: from beaujob on 10:04 am on Oct. 27, 2001
I wouldn't mind doing kung-fu in the shadow of a bridge that I built while death and a clown get it on in the bathtub next door, but that's a long ways off.

[tjensor]

Oh well, at least some good came out of my over ambitous dreaming

[falkon2]

Pray how would you get the bridges into SimCity?

[beaujob]

woah

[tjensor]

Well, if sim city or similar would be developed in a more open style, as first person games like quake etc tend to do, mods would be possible. I'm not saying you could just take pontifex as is and link with simcity as is. But maybe it would be worth approaching someone developing a game like that with the suggestion. It would open the game ot a much large audience too! There are people I know who find the idea of a bridge building game a little odd (####, I did till I tried it) but who will happily spend hours planning how to best place police stations.

[mendel]

If you are a game developer wishing to add physics to your game, there are several engines out there you can use - Havoc comes to mind as a commercial example, Open Dynamics Engine if you're into Open Source.
Or you can roll your own, as Alex has done.

Putting Pontifex in SimCity (or similar) would be tantamount to saying: I like my Quake skin to be usable in "The Sims", so why can't you make the Quake engine a plugin and have the sims render all graphics with it?
The amount of code integration, graphics conversion etc. would be akin to developing a whole new game.

These topics make great April fools jokes. Unless they're done with the same codebase, different games will usually not be integrated.

[Calastigro]

Bad analogy, mendel, you can (almost) copy and paste skins.  It may take some monkeying, but you wouldn't have to use the sims engine (who would want to, it sux0rs).  I know i'm just being picky however...

[mendel]

Yeah, but skins are just bitmap gfx - changing the underlying body would be harder?
I think using the Urban Renewal Kit you could change the pic of a bridge in SimCity??? maybe not...

Perhaps I am wrong and it is easy after all.... ;-)