6 ms·

Tilengine – A 2D graphics engine with raster effects

20 points by felhr 11y ago

analognoise 11y ago
It looks like the site is down due to traffic.
- megamarc 11y ago
  The site is online again. It had an unexpected peak of traffic when I released the python wrapper and my ISP blocked the website. I upgraded to a paid plan (yes, I was hosting it with a free plan :) ) and no problem
vortico 11y ago
Here's what it looks like, since the website is down. http://www.moddb.com/engines/tilengine http://www.moddb.com/engines/tilengine This is actually a great idea if I understand it correctly: An engine built for modern platforms that emulates the limitations, gfx modes, emulates the sound engine of the NES/GBA, etc. without limiting CPU/video memory or CPU speed. I imagine it could be reimplemented as a subset of libSDL.
- Mahn 11y ago
  Closed source though. The author seems to be distributing only compiled binaries.
- megamarc 11y ago
  You're quite right. Tilengine is designed to emulate the inner working of 2D VDPs, so it has all their features. I preffer to say "features" than limitations because it's a very different way of rendering graphics compared to modern GPUs. But obviously this kind of graphics are technically more limited, of course. It's not a full game engine, only a graphics engine: it doesn't offer sound or any other feature that would be outside of a graphics chip. It's not an emulator of a particular hardware either: it's based on their working principles but it's a fresh implementation from the ground up.
- megamarc 11y ago
  Regarding SDL, I don't want to tie it to a specific OS or graphics library. It acts as a back-end renderer and it will work on any host environment capable of providing a 32-bit video surface where to draw. In fact the internal windowing system of Tilengine (which is optional and can entirely be bypassed) already uses libSDL for display and user input.
smaili 11y ago
Cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:fWeJ9d2LIIQJ:www.tilengine.org/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:fWeJ9d2...
jarcane 11y ago
Disappointing that this is 1) proprietary, and 2) Windows/MSVC only. Impressive results though.
- felhr 11y ago
  I totally agree, that's the worst part of the project.
- megamarc 11y ago
  1) I started releasing it as closed source because I don't have knowledge about open source management. I work in the corporate world for many years and I know how to manage private projects. At this moment I fear that if I release it as open source, it will fall in a kind of anarchy and that I will lose control over it. I know this idea is wrong, there are many well driven open source projects that generate revenue, but until I know how does this world work, I prefer to share it as closed. I hope this aspect is not so bad that people don't want to at least try it to check if it's worth it... 2) The MSVC-only build is for the moment. In my roadmap I've planned builds for at least Linux, Android (NDK native) and Windows Phone. But the platform I know more is MSVC, so it's the first release. In fact I have a working build for GCC that will be the starting point for Linux and Android, but I still have to integrate libpng. This build only loads BMPs (not PNGs) and CSV tilemaps (not zip compressed) as the MSVC build does
InfiniteEntropy 11y ago
I think it'd be better to just use unity or unreal, or anything else really that provides you more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS2nlGyu4fk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS2nlGyu4fk As someone has already done some. Also visual studio 2005? How old is this thing?
- bcit-cst 11y ago
  2015 - 2005 = 10 years
  - joshuapants 11y ago
    Not the IDE, the project. It's conceivable that someone would use an old IDE (they're comfortable with it, they paid a ton of money for it and can't be bothered to upgrade, etc)
    - megamarc 11y ago
      You're right. I use VS2005 because in my daylife job I work mainly with industrial Windows CE 6.0 projects, and Platform Builder is a VS2005-only tool (why, Microsoft?) so I'm somewhat forced to keep using this version. Just as the blacksmith that fixes everything with a hammer because he is proficient using it (despite not being the most suitable tool in all cases), I use VS 2005 for everything :) There's another reason: any newer VS version can import projects from older versions, but the opposite doesn't hold true. So I'm not leaving anyone out.
- megamarc 11y ago
  Of course, they're very powerful engines. But my goal is to provide true retro graphics, with scanline rendering and raster effects in its core. No other engine can do this because all engines (even the 2D-only ones) try to make use of modern GPU acceleration, that has a very different approach for rendering graphics. Choose what you think it fits more your project. This thing is about a month old since its first public release
megamarc 11y ago
Hi guys, I'm the author of Tilengine, what a surprise to find a discussion about it here :) I'd like to answer all your comments so far

20 points by felhr 11y ago

analognoise 11y ago

It looks like the site is down due to traffic.

megamarc 11y ago
The site is online again. It had an unexpected peak of traffic when I released the python wrapper and my ISP blocked the website. I upgraded to a paid plan (yes, I was hosting it with a free plan :) ) and no problem

vortico 11y ago

Here's what it looks like, since the website is down. http://www.moddb.com/engines/tilengine http://www.moddb.com/engines/tilengine This is actually a great idea if I understand it correctly: An engine built for modern platforms that emulates the limitations, gfx modes, emulates the sound engine of the NES/GBA, etc. without limiting CPU/video memory or CPU speed. I imagine it could be reimplemented as a subset of libSDL.

Mahn 11y ago
Closed source though. The author seems to be distributing only compiled binaries.
megamarc 11y ago
You're quite right. Tilengine is designed to emulate the inner working of 2D VDPs, so it has all their features. I preffer to say "features" than limitations because it's a very different way of rendering graphics compared to modern GPUs. But obviously this kind of graphics are technically more limited, of course. It's not a full game engine, only a graphics engine: it doesn't offer sound or any other feature that would be outside of a graphics chip. It's not an emulator of a particular hardware either: it's based on their working principles but it's a fresh implementation from the ground up.
megamarc 11y ago
Regarding SDL, I don't want to tie it to a specific OS or graphics library. It acts as a back-end renderer and it will work on any host environment capable of providing a 32-bit video surface where to draw. In fact the internal windowing system of Tilengine (which is optional and can entirely be bypassed) already uses libSDL for display and user input.

smaili 11y ago

Cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:fWeJ9d2LIIQJ:www.tilengine.org/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:fWeJ9d2...

jarcane 11y ago

Disappointing that this is 1) proprietary, and 2) Windows/MSVC only. Impressive results though.

felhr 11y ago
I totally agree, that's the worst part of the project.
megamarc 11y ago
1) I started releasing it as closed source because I don't have knowledge about open source management. I work in the corporate world for many years and I know how to manage private projects. At this moment I fear that if I release it as open source, it will fall in a kind of anarchy and that I will lose control over it. I know this idea is wrong, there are many well driven open source projects that generate revenue, but until I know how does this world work, I prefer to share it as closed. I hope this aspect is not so bad that people don't want to at least try it to check if it's worth it... 2) The MSVC-only build is for the moment. In my roadmap I've planned builds for at least Linux, Android (NDK native) and Windows Phone. But the platform I know more is MSVC, so it's the first release. In fact I have a working build for GCC that will be the starting point for Linux and Android, but I still have to integrate libpng. This build only loads BMPs (not PNGs) and CSV tilemaps (not zip compressed) as the MSVC build does

InfiniteEntropy 11y ago

I think it'd be better to just use unity or unreal, or anything else really that provides you more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS2nlGyu4fk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS2nlGyu4fk As someone has already done some. Also visual studio 2005? How old is this thing?

bcit-cst 11y ago
2015 - 2005 = 10 years
- joshuapants 11y ago
  Not the IDE, the project. It's conceivable that someone would use an old IDE (they're comfortable with it, they paid a ton of money for it and can't be bothered to upgrade, etc)
  - megamarc 11y ago
    You're right. I use VS2005 because in my daylife job I work mainly with industrial Windows CE 6.0 projects, and Platform Builder is a VS2005-only tool (why, Microsoft?) so I'm somewhat forced to keep using this version. Just as the blacksmith that fixes everything with a hammer because he is proficient using it (despite not being the most suitable tool in all cases), I use VS 2005 for everything :) There's another reason: any newer VS version can import projects from older versions, but the opposite doesn't hold true. So I'm not leaving anyone out.
megamarc 11y ago
Of course, they're very powerful engines. But my goal is to provide true retro graphics, with scanline rendering and raster effects in its core. No other engine can do this because all engines (even the 2D-only ones) try to make use of modern GPU acceleration, that has a very different approach for rendering graphics. Choose what you think it fits more your project. This thing is about a month old since its first public release

megamarc 11y ago

Hi guys, I'm the author of Tilengine, what a surprise to find a discussion about it here :) I'd like to answer all your comments so far