The CodeBlender Blog

One tricky part we have stayed away from in our past games are animated characters. The reason has simply been that writing the tools to export animated data and then write the engine to actually use that data and animate a character is quite a complex task. But no more! For the current project we are working on, simple static game objects was not going to be enough. We need real animated models. So I finally decided to dig in and get animation support into our game engine.

There were two main problems to deal with here. First, finding out what kind of data is needed and then to get that data exported correctly. Second, getting the game engine to actually animate a model using the data. What makes it extra difficult is that you can’t really try things out along the way to see if you are on the right track. You need the correct data exported and you need a correct animation code using that data. So when it doesn’t work you can’t really be sure if the problem is with the data or the animation code. Or both.

To make a long story short, I had to export a very simple animated model, analyze the data to see if it was really correct and fix any problems. After that it was time to debug the animation code and see what came out the other end. After much head scratching, the pieces finally came together and I had a nicely animated model on the screen!

It feels very good to have got this part working knowing that now we can have pretty much any kind of model in the game and not being limited to simple “static animated” objects.

I have been a happy CodeWarrior user since 1995 and I loved it right away. It was easy to use and had an intuitive user interface. And it had a fast compiler. Sure there were a few times when things didn’t work quite as they should but overall it was a pleasant IDE to use. Move forward in time and OS X comes along. No problem, CW is still working fine. Most of the time. Apple comes out with Project Builder and I give it a try. Horrible! was my reaction or something similar. A cryptic interface that did not make much sense and mostly reminded me about the times I have had to use Windows for something. No switching from CW here!

Move forward in time some more and along comes Xcode. Not much different. Basically same thing with a new name. Buggy editor, slow compiler and in general a really messy UI. I really tried to use it and like it but it was just too painful to use. I felt I had to constantly fight the tool instead of getting some real work done. New versions were released and some things improved a little but overall it was the same. In the meantime CodeWarrior was getting long in the teeth and definitely had trouble keeping up with the progress of OS X. It was clear that CodeWarrior for Mac was not what it used to be.

Then came WWDC 2005 and Steve told us Macs would get Intel chips. This was the death blow to CW for Mac. It could not and would never build Intel binaries. Now moving over to Xcode was the only choice if you wanted to build universal apps that could run natively on Intel Macs. I knew that sooner or later I had to do it but was holding on to CW as long as possible for the main work. The final nail in the coffin came when I wanted to use some fancy template stuff and the CW compiler could not do it. Xcode had no problem compiling it though. Ok, I have to switch to Xcode sometime and I guess this is it.

It was not very pleasant at first but after months of using it, now I have to admit I’m getting along with Xcode really well. There are issues I’m still waiting for Apple to fix and I keep hoping that day will come. To be honest Xcode has features that are way better than what CW had, if CW had them at all, and this helps keeping my Xcode relationship positive. And best of all, Xcode is free. For now at least.

Welcome to The CodeBlender Blog. This is where we will tell you about projects we are working on, exciting news, etc.

Recently we released the DeepTrouble 2 v1.1.7 update and you can download it from the Updates page.

We are currently working on our next generation game engine and game that will use GLSL and many other cool things and we are very excited about this project. As it progresses we will bring you more news about it with screenshots and all that.

Well, that’s it for now, back to work! Please come back from time to time and see what’s going on.