The Crawl (3d RPG Maker)

Watch the news for updates on the new engine, built using GLBasic for multiplatform support and more control over rendering.

**New demo for Quickplay, download version includes code, updated editor(more bug fixes) roof objects, stair & door placement and auto roofing for plaster and log walls. 8/15/10

**Strip2vox program available here > http://gamejolt.com/open-source/games/voxel-rpg-maker/files/strip-to-voxel-wip/download/2479/3599/ <still a work in progress, check the video section for a example of how it works.

**Forums created for the project on SourceForge > https://sourceforge.net/projects/thecrawl/forums

I've started working on a 3d RPG using a voxels, going for a look of a console rpg if it was 3d looking. In the process of making it I'm creating some tools to make it a moddable project as well.

It is being written in Evaldraw, a real time compiler based on C, created by Ken Silverman who made the Build engine for Duke3d.

This is still very early in developement.

So here's a bit about the planned features, limits and tools.

Lets start with the tools since I mentioned those last and most are avaible.

TOOLS

Evaldraw, made by Ken Silverman, the program that currently is used to run and edit it. Currently it has no support for storing strings yet, so a lot of data is hard coded. But not impossible to figure out for making modifications. I'll be keeping functions that hold the lists of models at the bottom of the code to make it easier to find. And comment stuff later.

Strip2voxel, the program I made in GLBasic converts a strip of images into a raw VOX file. There are currently some limits, as GLBasic seems to have some issues handling very large images. So I may need to remake this in something that only uses software rendering in hopes of better accuracy. Another alternative is to just use bmp files and read straight from them instead of loading them. Right now the limits I've found are with 64x64 images with a limit of 14-16 'layers' before the program starts to chew up the image.

Slab6, also by Ken Silverman, allows more fine tuning of the vox, and then you save as a KV6 file. Color, pivot point, scaling and such can be modified.

poly2vox, also by by Ken, but I'm not sure. This one is very useful for converting models, with textures included. It supports 3ds and OBJ formats and you can set the sizing 1-255 for the largest point.

map editor, also made in GLBasic by myself and still a work in progress, but it'll handle creation of various sized maps, light, object, event and entity placement.

paint3d, created by Atomic, a more feature filled voxel editor, but not free. Supports its own format and the format my project uses. Can also export models as polygons. NEW

Templates & tutorials, because nothing is easier than working from templates and examples, I plan to provide mask templates with template man that you can easily create your own 3d person w/ animations. Right now just simple walking is done, but I still have some modifications to do.

Now for limits, because there are always limits...

LIMITS

Single story, there are no rooms over room, and may not plan to be any. There will be the ability to create double story walls, but I'll save that for the features bit.

Size & Index, Entities, objects, events and lights are currently limited to 64 of each. I may increase this later. 254x254 is the max map size. A tile is a 64x64 voxel object. The largest voxel model can be 255x255x255.

Visual bugs, been experienced on some platforms but not all. Strip2voxel has some issues on certain computers using onboard memory for video ram. Other glitches have occured but only one system tested. **Noticed flickering in higher resolutions on slower systems***

No strings, none. Editing to the source file required to add text. However the Voxlap version coming out after will. Otherwise there are a few work arounds for things like player name.

Saving/Loading - Only one save file, saved as 'save.txt' can be used. This has not been added yet. However its possible to have multiple save slots in this one file.

some more!, but can't think of them now...

So on to the positive, planned features.

FEATURES in progress

(1) Special stair objects - since theres no true rooms over rooms, when placing down/up stairs, adjacent walls will be cloned to make it seem like you have two stories worth of stairs going up.DONE

(2) In addition to this stairs will have a special light source that either fades them to black(background color) or white(like outside). Going up stairs will be an automated movement and fading transition between levels. This will also be applied to exit halls and exit doors. IN-PROGRESS

(3) Two piece doors that swing like doors. Consisting of a frame and door itself.

(4) Dynamic lights, this is already working. DONE

(5) Dynamic enviroment lighting, much like I've done in past projects with a time based color change for outdoor enviroments. Would affect the 'white' fade out screen. IN-PROGRESS

(6) Good, bad & neutral NPCs.

(7) Text speak built into Evaldraw, could be promising because it can be modified at any point. *May not use

• (8) Basic RPG features, stats, items and possibly item creation and resource collection.

(9) Conforming tile objects, objects that change depending on their neighbor. Like a group of grass getting taller or having curved edges to reduce the squarish look. Also including roofs, paths(maybe) and a few other objects that may benefit from this. Another thing I'm taking from my past attempts.

(10) Instances, including but not limited to water drops, splashes, smoke, fire and so on. IN-PROGRESS

And more to come...
#rpg