FIFE hits 2008.0

Brother None

Brother None

This ghoul has seen it all
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Straight from mvBarracuda.<blockquote>We've done it again! We proudly present the FIFE 2008.0 release :-)

Download:
* Source package (FreeBSD, Linux, Macintosh)
* Win32 binaries

Youtube promotion trailer:
FIFE 2008.0 promo video

Theme of this release:
For the 2008.0 release we decided to pick up the island_demo concept again. Right: again. We already used this concept for the 2007.1 release but we put it on ice as we worked together with the Zero-Projekt developers on a different example game for the 2007.2 release. The cooperation didn't work out as planned for either side and so both teams stick to their own projects again now.

After the cooperation has ended we considered all possible options and finally decided to flesh out the old island_demo concept and base our future example game upon it. Although we were able to finish the initial planning work for the new island_demo game some days ago, there is almost none of the new planned content in place yet. On the other side the engine itself and the editor tool that ships with it now made _huge_ steps forward since the last release about 4 months ago. Therefore we decided to release the current status as stable release although it offers not many new aspects on the content side and the content that is in place is very likely to change with the 2008.1 release.

The milestone itself seems to be a very important step into the right direction. You can build your own maps now with the help of the editor tool. Furthermore a basic application structure is in place that should give you an idea how can create your own FIFE-based game. We'll surely adjust the structure of the island_demo client over the next months but this release is stable enough to start working on your game now.

This release is surely not the beginning of the end of the road for us, but it's the end of beginning for the FIFE development team. Enjoy it as we do :-)

Important changes since the 2007.2 release:
* New audio module with support for some more advanced audio features.
* Optimized view code to improve the performance and resolve map instance z-order issues.
* Switched back to island_demo concept; this will be the example game that ships with future FIFE releases as well.
* Ability to save maps
* Routing pathfinding (previous release only had linear pather)
* Pluggable rendering system with several new plugins included.
* New editor tool, which can be used to layout maps
* XML-format improvements: stack position, z-position, camera definitions, animation x/y offsets
* Vastly improved pychan extension; XML based GUI definitions
* Quadtree adjustments
* Ability to define own settings formats and interpret them from scripts
* Ability to attach cameras to instances (so that they are tracked while they move)
* Separate x/y scaling for cellgrids, allows more flexible geometry definitions (e.g. rectangle)
* Basic mouse map instance picking.
* Improved engine-script exception reporting
* Mouse cursors can be changed from scripts

Few non-code related changes:
* Rough task list for the whole island demo has now been created
* Vastly improved documentation with nightly updates for engine core & scripts
* Lots of new content gathered and created for island demo e.g. agent definitions, clouds graphics, music...

Read the full release announcement at the FIFE developer blog.</blockquote><center> </center>
Link: FIFE 2008.0 announcement on NMA
 
Oh man, I saw this on the codex and didn't report it... Bad bad Morbus :\

Anyway, it's mvBarracuda, right?

Looking great.
 
Re: fife

john_preston said:
Can anyone tell me about fife, and tell me exactly what is it? Thanks you all!!!!
Click to expand...
The acronymn FIFE stands for Flexible Isometric Fallout(-like) Engine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFE). The original purpose was to create a free, open source engine that was compatible with the Fallout 1 & 2 game data but more flexible for easier modding.

The engine has been through a long process but the end result is that due to the valient efforts of many of the programmers and other contributers on the team the engine now surpasses the Fallout game engine. The engine is flexible enough to be used in multiple game genres (RTS, RPG, turn-based strategy, etc.). It can utilize square or hexagon tiles. Furthermore it can take the 2D view and tilt, rotate, or zoom into it. It can also place different 2D scenes on top of each other in a layered effect.

I highly recommend that anyone with more than a passing interest check out the FIFE wiki to see engine details and also the games that are coming along which use FIFE. The bottom line is that this is a top-notch free engine that makes it easier for budding gamemakers to create Fallout-like games.
 
Re: fife

iridium_ionizer said:
john_preston said:
Can anyone tell me about fife, and tell me exactly what is it? Thanks you all!!!!
Click to expand...
The acronymn FIFE stands for Flexible Isometric Fallout(-like) Engine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFE. The original purpose was to create a free, open source engine that was compatible with the Fallout 1 & 2 game data but more flexible for easier modding.

The engine has been through a long process but the end result is that due to the valient efforts of many of the programmers and other contributers on the team the engine now surpasses the Fallout game engine. The engine is flexible enough to be used in multiple game genres (RTS, RPG, turn-based strategy, etc.). It can utilize square or hexagon tiles. Furthermore it can take the 2D view and tilt, rotate, or zoom into it. It can also place different 2D scenes on top of each other in a layered effect.

I highly recommend that anyone with more than a passing interest check out the FIFE wiki to see engine details and also the games that are coming along which use the FIFE. The bottom line is that this is a top-notch free engine that makes it easier for budding gamemakers to create Fallout-like games.
Click to expand...



Thank you!!!
 
I tried it out. I followed the readme, installed Active Python (which is required to use FIFE), and found out that this is little more than a technical demo (shouldn't this be mentioned in the news post and also in the readme?). This is confusing because there are games listed that are supposedly being developed using the FIFE engine. Also the little guy in the island demo does not move where you click.

Very poor demonstration IMO. Maybe that's just me though. I'm sure people who understand programming languages like JASS, C++, etc.. will probably find it useful when it's released.

Okay time to uninstall. :P
 
Q: What engine without wheels, suspension, frame and a body?

A: big useless hunk of metal.

The next steps are to add the Python game framework.
(framework type things like event engines, sprite/entity behavior, basic interaction models, ect... the boring parts of any RPG/Game (the parts YOU NEED))

The good thing about this is that usually the time-expensive things for developing a new game are the core engine itself. If this is already finished, developers could start immediately on building real 'game play'
components.

You'll appreciate Fallout more if you tried remaking just a tiny part of it.
 
At first: thanks for the news coverage Brother None :-)

The question how FIFE works has been already answered by iridium_ionizer; thanks for that. If somebody is interested in more details I propose to read this FAQ entry from our wiki to clear up some common misconceptions about FIFE:
http://wiki.fifengine.de/index.php?title=Frequently_answered_questions#How_FIFE_works

We moved away from our Fallout roots over the last year and I recently updated our FAQ section with a more detailed entry about possibility of playing through Fallout with FIFE:
http://wiki.fifengine.de/index.php?...ed_questions#Playing_Fallout_by_using_FIFE.3F

To summarize it: especially implementing the SPECIAL ruleset is an important hurdle we can't tackle without breaking the IP of Bethesda. Therefore FIFE-based games that utilize the SPECIAL ruleset (e.g. a Fallout remake) are _very_ unlikely.

PaladinHeart said:
I tried it out. I followed the readme, installed Active Python (which is required to use FIFE), and found out that this is little more than a technical demo (shouldn't this be mentioned in the news post and also in the readme?).
Click to expand...
Yes, it is a technical demo, not a full-featured game. Thanks for the pointer, we'll mention this in our next release README just to avoid confusion.

PaladinHeart said:
This is confusing because there are games listed that are supposedly being developed using the FIFE engine.
Click to expand...
The are FIFE-based games in production and you can start working on your FIFE-based game right now. There is a lot of work to do in pre-production phase for your personal FIFE-based game and our engine will be more mature once you're starting with full production.

PaladinHeart said:
Also the little guy in the island demo does not move where you click.
Click to expand...
Works fine here. Could you please elaborate?

PaladinHeart said:
Very poor demonstration IMO. Maybe that's just me though. I'm sure people who understand programming languages like JASS, C++, etc.. will probably find it useful when it's released.
Click to expand...
Yes, this release is far more useful for programmers. Basically we're not targeting the usual player but interested developers who would like to create their own (roleplaying) games. So it's quite reasonable that a normal player will find this release still quite boring. Hopefully our work in progress example game will improve the situation over the next releases.

PaladinHeart said:
Okay time to uninstall. :P
Click to expand...
Thanks for your feedback :-) Hopefully we can release something more playable with the next version of FIFE.
 
Maybe Vista is the culprit, but when I would click to walk on the path.. the little guy would go for a stroll up into the woods.

I did attempt to use the editor, but it did not seem capable of doing anything. That's why I was confused. I mean.. there are games being developed with the FIFE program, but this download doesn't do anything? Are you saying there is an alternate download that has more function?

Again, maybe Vista was the culprit, but I expected to at least be able to change some graphics in the Island demo.

I guess I was just hoping that your final release might be as easy to use as the GUI in Blizzard's World Editor that comes with Warcraft 3, but without the pre-disposed RTS element, and without the limitations of the World Editor. >.<
 
Hmm Vista could be the culprit indeed. Some days ago one of our developers tested FIFE on the notebook of his girlfriend and this was the result:
FIFEvsWinVista.jpg


The editor that ships with the 2008.0 release should be able to:
- open existing XML maps
- edit metadata fields
- remove map instances
- add new map instances
- browse existing datasets
- save the result as an XML map

In case this is not working for you, check out the "Help" button near the upper left corner of the screen; this will bring up a little introduction widget that explains the basics of map editing.

And if it's still not working then Vista might be the culprit again. Hopefully one of our developers can get his hands on Vista for a longer period of time so we can track down the problem and fix it.

Concerning your question about an alternative download with more functionality: yes there is one, you can grab the latest improvements directly from our SVN repository:
http://wiki.fifengine.de/index.php?title=Subversion_repository

Here is a screenshot of the editor tool that can be found in the SVN trunk:
2008.1.001.jpg


Developers who utilize FIFE for their games do usually work with the latest SVN versions so they can get their hands on new features as soon as they're added to the engine and the editor.
 
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