Artists != Programmers: Make Those Tools Early!!!

A problem we have been having in the development of Tribal Aeronauts is the problem with getting assets into the engine. Ir's rendering engine is extremely flexible, but is limited in the formats that can be used. Ir's rendering engine is based off of another rendering engine called Horde3D, which uses the Collada format as an intermediate format. Converting this to a format the engine can use is accomplished by running the asset through an intermediate tool. As it stands, it currently only exists in command line form. I should have realized from the get-go that this was not going to go well.

There is one thing that I have realized, and that is that most of the time, artists do not have the time or patience to learn how to use the same tools that programmers use and are used to. If our frameworks require special tools, then we can't approach the problem the same way we always do. It is like using Qt's moc from commandline versus from Qt Creator. When artists are involved, it is essential that you automate the workflow as much as you can and provide them a visual method of making sure that the assets they create will appear as they expect them to in-engine.

So to that end, I have been working on an asset conversion tool that I call "ictoanots" [ick-toe-an-ots]... yes it's an acronym. It stands for "I Can't Think of a Name On The Spot". Aren't I just so clever? The experience so far has been rewarding. Conversion of Collada files works, and I am currently in the process of implementing the visualization aspect. I believe it can also be expanded to any other assets that may need to be converted in the future. But this tool may be too little too late as deadlines are fast approaching. This is something I should have been working on from the start. I believe alot of problems could have been solved had a dedicated GUI tool for file conversion existed.

So lesson learned, if it involves artwork and file conversion, just bite the bullet and write a GUI frontend for that thing.

First Poast?

O hi there. Welcome to my blog. Here you will find the ranting, ravings, and occasionally insightful observations and commentary from a typical 20-something programmer.

I am about to graduate with a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science and actually started the blog per the suggestion of my teacher.

I work for a defense contractor, but if I told you my responsibilities, I'd probably have to kill you.

I do have a personal project, and that is mostly what this blog will be about. I will be making posts as I implement new features and think of other things pertaining to it.

About the project, it is a game I am working on with a few friends called Tribal Aeronauts. It is being developed in tandem with a game engine of my own design, so there is always new stuff to do/fix/break. The game itself is an arcadey flight simulator that aims to be faster paced and have an engaging story. I also plan to implement an online multiplayer component that includes a persistent metagame where players form into tribes and compete against each other. This, of course, is much later on down the line.

I am also a huge Linux fan, and an avid supporter of games on Linux. You can be certain that any programs I write will always work on both Windows and Linux. I will be posting about games on Linux later on down the line as well.