Coding question

[Exoduz]

Op2 source code is in all likelyhood destroyed and not available anymore, so i have a couple of questions reguarding that;
Did outpost 2 use some kind of game engine?
Seeing as decompiling and retracing all coding would be immence, would it be better to rewrite op2 in c++ or maybe c#?
What would you start with if you would like to begin, do you use a newer free game engine such as Garagegames Torque 2d engine?
What would be the most obvius thing you would start with in for example Visual studio?

I am asking this since i am new to coding and am really eager to learn coding.
If someone could point me in the right direction to how you should start from the beggining?

I´ve seen that many people here knows coding, and collaborating on a big project like op2 would be awesome, and in doing so we could get our own source code which later would be usefull for someone who wanted to make a sequal etc.
Or if we all would like to redo outpost 2 and make outpost 2.5 with better graphics, performance and gameplay among other things.

For me this is tempting, and i do know that many people have started and tried but ultimatly failed with making outpost 3 or outpost 2 HD etc, but you know, you gotta start somewhere.

Is there possibly a shared source code from the guy who started building OP3?

//Exo

[Hooman]

Dreaming big is super fun. Though before getting too carried away about re-programming a new version of the game, there's something often overlooked that I'd like to point out.

Open up Outpost 2, and on the main menu, click on "About Outpost 2".

Human resources:
2 Directors/Designers
5 Programmers
20 Artists
2 Music/Sound people, plus an external company
27 Quality assurance people

One, programming was just a small part of the effort. Two, these were likely all professional people, with training and years of experience, being paid for their time and skill.


So you say you're just starting out programming. Excellent! It's a wonderful pastime. I highly recommend it!

In terms of game engines, I don't think Outpost 2 used one. It appears as if they coded things against DirectX ... directly. If you'd like something cross platform, SDL might be a good choice.

As for higher level games engines, I'm not much familiar with them, so I can't really comment. You'd have to figure out yourself which ones were suitable.

Though if you're in this for learning, where do you want to start? If you start with a high level engine, and have no foundation, there might be so much going on under the hood that you never really develop any confidence in what you're doing. Or maybe you only care about the high level picture and don't want to be bothered by the minutia of the low level details. This really depends more on who you are as a person, and what your goals are.

I'm not aware of any shared OP3/remake code being released publicly. Or at least I've never looked at it long enough to remember it.

... would it be better to rewrite op2 in c++ or maybe c#?

These days, people would use JavaScript!
(Yes, I'm being subversive, please ignore)

[Exoduz]

Coding seems fun and challenging, and for two days now i have been sitting and watching som videos and trying a bit by myself with c++ in visual studio.
though its not going to well since i am not familiar with all the funtions and statements etc.
as a starter program i have chosen to try and make a calculator of some sort with the user getting choice between division, multiplication etc, and user gets to input 2 digits and it will calculate for them and write out the sum.
I am having a hard time figuring out how to get the right way to read which option the user made by reading the input.

I guess i have to watch some more vids to learn more statements, operators etc etc, before i can actually finnish my small project

If we would undertake a big project like rewriting op2 or even going for op3 I would be up for it as soon as I have learned more.

Heck, I guess i would learn more if someone would start out by making just the background and star manu from op2 

[leeor_net]

We've been through this idea many times. There are a lot of us that would probably be interested in rebuilding OP2 from scratch but it's ultimately not a small project.

C++ is a decent choice but C# may be better in terms of accessibility. I don't have a lot of experience with it myself but I think Vagabond does. There's a user on IRC, Brekkjern, that has expressed interest in this as well (also C#) so if you chose a language I'd say C#. I know I would be interested but I want to avoid potentially stretching myself thin by working on too much at once. Besides OutpostHD, I'm also working on another project that's taking up a huge amount of my time.

At the very least I can say with at least some confidence that the core parts of such a game wouldn't take me too long to build -- particularly the terrain/mapping code, pathing, mouse picking and UI.

Other users have also brought up, instead of simply cloning Outpost 2, building something new inspired by Outpost/Outpost2. lordpalandus has been doing some work on something like this though I don't know the current status of his project, it's been awhile since I've heard from him (BTW, LP, you should hop back on IRC some time!)

I don't want to discourage the idea, I like it, I just don't know how much support you'd get unless:

• You had a clear direction of what to do
• You had a great deal of self motivation (something a lot of users have claimed but have failed to live up to)
• Have more experience with development (the level that I think you're at based on what you've said suggests that you've got a lot to learn before taking on such a challenge)
• Ensured that the code remained open source either via our own SVN or via GitHub (I recommend Git)

Given the above, it could be successful. But keep in mind that it's really going to take one person to push the project forward and if you don't have that forward drive you'll lose interest and slowly stop working on it until you forget about it. It's not a judgement on character, it's just a fact of human nature.