Lack of 3D Homebrew

[1magus]

There seems to be a trend with Dreamcast Homebrew and basically all the games I have seen are 2D which I don't have anything against, but I'm a 3D modeler and I was wondering how difficult is it to get the Dreamcast to load models with textures?

[BlueCrab]

Its not that its hard to do 3D homebrew, its more along the lines of that most coders can't do modeling/art (at least I know I can't). Doing pixel art is quite a bit easier, and heck there's plenty of libraries of Public-domain and otherwise free art that could be used in a 2D game (there's significantly less that would be usable for 3D).

Plus, in all honesty, there really haven't been any large-scale homebrew game projects in a while for the Dreamcast that weren't ports (or didn't use something like Fenix/BOR/etc. that would significantly hamper efforts to do 3D).

[1magus]

Its not that its hard to do 3D homebrew, its more along the lines of that most coder's can't do modeling/art (at least I know I can't). Doing pixel art is quite a bit easier, and heck there's plenty of libraries of Public-domain and otherwise free art that could be used in a 2D game (there's significantly less that would be usable for 3D).

Plus, in all honesty, there really haven't been any large-scale homebrew game projects in a while for the Dreamcast that weren't ports (or didn't use something like Fenix/BOR/etc. that would significantly hamper efforts to do 3D).

I'm a modeler and would be happy to team up with any developer to start a project :thumbup:

[JLF65]

The problem is that 3D games take a LOT more resources than 2D games. That makes it more desirable to devs to work on 2D instead of 3D. The extra resources require extra manpower, and homebrew devs can be a bit - twitchy - about working together.

[1magus]

The problem is that 3D games take a LOT more resources than 2D games. That makes it more desirable to devs to work on 2D instead of 3D. The extra resources require extra manpower, and homebrew devs can be a bit - twitchy - about working together.

Cmoooon there has to be a way to at least put SOME 3D in a game, I mean look at Crash B, it had full 3D but could of easily been a hybrid between the 2 since half the time you had side-scrolling platforming.

I mean is there a simple way to load some 3D models into a SHUMP or some type of 2D play style game?

[BlueCrab]

The problem is that 3D games take a LOT more resources than 2D games. That makes it more desirable to devs to work on 2D instead of 3D. The extra resources require extra manpower, and homebrew devs can be a bit - twitchy - about working together.

I dunno about the last statement there... At least in my experience, most of us in the homebrew community are happy to try to work together. The problem comes when none of us have the time to devote to stuff...

I know personally, I've had very little time to work on stuff lately, which I find kinda sad (and what time I have had to work on stuff has been going toward the Sylverant PSO server project).

[-x-]

use, if you want, Vertex Buffer Object - like technique without all the binding.

texture coord formula --> http://paulyg.f2s.com/uv.htm
not a must have but can help with character texture mapping

"Cmoooon there has to be a way" , yep but it w'll take some time

[project-firestorm]

im not sure if i still have the code, but i once wrote
a programm to load
.X model files inc. the textures

i wrote it in 1 or 2 days,
so its not so difficult to load models

[wuffox64]

I'm not too new to the homebrew scene, but I've really taken interest in the prospect of keeping the Dreamcast alive. I like 2D games, sure.. But I agree, though, that more 3D homebrew games for our beloved console would be excellent. This is why I've enrolled in several programming classes to major in Game Development at college over the next few years.

We've seen what is possible with Dreamcast homebrew (look at Neverball, that's a prime example of 3D homebrew), now we need the effort and skill to build up to and onto it. Though I might sound a trite bit ambitious with this plan, I really think that with some time and effort a well-made 3D game can be made by the hands and minds of dedicated individuals or groups of individuals.

As for me, I'm practicing my skills with various open source projects, as I've found they provide an open ended program learning environment.. Unfortunatley I have trouble using CMake, as a lot of these open source games used an older version of it to compile the code.. I will either have to learn to update those CMake files myself, or recieve help with doing so; I plan to follow the former as much as possible.

Sorry for the rambling, I kinda felt the need to get my mission statement out there with my first post here.

ANYWAYS, case and point, I'm dedicated, so I'd be glad to work on any 3D game development for the Dreamcast. Just keep in mind I prefer the texturing aspect of 3D, so if you need that, it's my area of growing expertise. I hope to raise my other skills too, but that's another story.

~wuffox64~

[-x-]

yeah i did load model a long ago
... i was just too lazy to release it :rofl:

no seriously i made a 1 texture per vertex_map
but i figured out it would take more than 1 to map detailed env,
model, ... and also the code was a mess