DISCLAIMER: JAVA RUNTIME ENVIRONMENT(JRE) Must be installed on your device in order to run the program through runGame.jar The exe file is not optimized, as such it is preferred to run through runGame.jar
A three-dimensional platformer game developed in the OpenGL application program interface. This project and report will go through the process of building the necessary interfaces which are needed to run the visuals and mechanics of a video game. These major interfaces consist of an engine on which the game will be built on and run and a renderer that is the part of the engine that manages graphics and how they are displayed on the user screen.
The game itself consists of a sandbox environment where the player has to travel across the map and collect three main items to end the game. In order to do this, they must solve a puzzle and fight or manage to avoid simple enemies.
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This project represents the creation of a video game from scratch using the OpenGL Application Programming Interface.
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OpenGL API contains functions that directly target the capacities of the Graphics Processing Unit to output display on an external monitor. OpenGL is also basically a specification that is directly integrated into the Graphics Card by the manufacturer. The drivers supplied by the manufacturer contain the actual implementation of OpenGL.
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There is a form of programming language specific to coding the shaders for OpenGL called GL Shader Language, which this project does use for dealing with code for shaders, but this is limited to the vertex and fragment shaders necessary for rendering, so the majority of the project will be coded in Java using the library called “Lightweight Java Game Library” which allows calls to OpenGL using the Java Runtime Environment. In addition to this, “slick” and “PngDecoder” are libraries that this project uses to easily import the .png image format which will be used as textures, menus, in�game text, and more. Although these two libraries are needed for a similar task, the necessity for both of them exists because they come with different sets of functions and levels of accessibility. For example, slick can load images much more efficiently in the project and is good for general image use on textures, but PngDecoder comes with functions that can also return detailed information about images if those details are needed for computation.
*The java game library provides the programmer with a unified set of methods that perform calls to OpenGL functions; Since they are coded by the Graphics Card manufacturer they may differ depending on the manufacturer. The library recognizes the format used by each manufacturer (e.g. Intel, AMD, Nvidia) and performs the call while the programmer only needs to know the function names defined in the game library. It also provides access to an alternative branch of OpenGL that deals with audio manipulation and decoding. Therefore, it is possible to set up background music for the game and implement functions such as audio location, movement, intensity, and infinite replay loops.
*Because the project starts from scratch, the majority of the workflow is first directed towards creating a renderer and a simplified game engine. This is the prerequisite to generate a game world environment and gameplay functions are added in the final stage.
*Rendering must be performed efficiently from the initial coding stage, as large models later on can add exponential complexity due to bad calculations and limit the potential for creating objects, environments, and features.
*In the initial phases the game engine has the job of declaring the structure of the display and what type of objects and entities are there to be displayed, how many, where, and in which way. It also stands that in the game engine we will have the conditions and functions to initialize the program and calls to destroy functions when the program ends by user input. After the renderer is finalized, the game engine will become the focus as the game world is populated and gameplay features are added.
*I chose this project because of my passion for video games and my desire to learn their inner workings in order to produce games myself. The learning process will familiarize me with game developing techniques, what works and what does not, and prepare me for future projects in the industry I want to work in. *I am very interested in learning the limits of a solo developer-made engine and how much optimization can be done so that the program runs as efficient as possible within the capabilities of the Graphics Card. *I also intend to learn and implement features present in video games today and discover the inner workings. Among these are some that affect the whole rendering process as shaders, lightning, texturing, reflections but also common features such as particles, tiling, and camera effects. *In the end, I want the project to evolve into a functioning three-dimensional game with a generated world that has a controllable player. I also want to add as many mechanics in the end to allow a variety of actions aside from the features rendered in the world that grant the user some capacity to interact with this environment.
