FE Developers: What's your FE WIP status

[Dariusz]

Dear FE developers,

I though I'd post this message to ask FE developers to list their WIP status since their last public release. The reason being just to share information on what's happening and what to expect in future FE.

Please be free to post your latest behind the scenes development here, and if you wish, hint on when you're next release date may be.

Kind Regards,

Dariusz

[Howard_Casto]

Lazarus at this point is 90% complete based on the orignal design I started with.  Next version adds a search feature, video previews of games, possibly title snap support, more filters, and a big suprise.

A relase should be within october.

[SirPoonga]

Lazarus at this point is 90% complete based on the orignal design I started with.  Next version adds a search feature, video previews of games, possibly title snap support, more filters, and a big suprise.

A relase should be within october.

I know what the suprise is:)  at least I think so with all the stuff HC has been telling me:)  You'll like it

Anyway,  my FE is on hold.  My friend and I are on completely different schedules.  And I won't be around here much for awhile.  I have little unemployement left and I am going to be searching REALLY hard for a job that can pay rent.

I'm also completely redesigning the backend for my FE.  Found a hack to get aroud some of flash's limitations which requires a rewrite of the entire backend.

However, I have been talking to other FE devs, we do talk to each other.

[Minwah]

I think the one of the main gripes with my FE is the lack of customisational options, so next release you will be able to:
Change colors,
Change font types,
Change font sizes,
Add event sounds,
Have MP3's play with the screensaver,
Have a different 'no snap available' image for each emu.

Obviously, the fonts/colors thing is present in pretty much all FE's already, but surprisingly VERY few people have actually requested it in mine - maybe they like my colors?

Also, I'm now extracting much more info from MAME -listinfo.  This basically means you can filter on much more stuff - like when you get your gun you can just show gun games.  CatVer will be supported too (I just have to add filters for each category).

I expect to release this version next week.

For the following release I hope to add:
Resolution Options,
Simple Skin support,
Howards Wrapper support,
Customisable controls (maybe).

I have to say that when I've done these things my FE is pretty much 100% all I ever wanted plus more.  But I'm sure I'll think of something to keep me busy  

[)p(]

Full animation support and a better way to do collision detection with animation because when you get close to an animated object the collision detection goes nuts and slows down the fe noticable ;-)

Some small stuff and hopefully I will find some some time to make my dream arcade model...think about 60's futuristic architectural designs..something like that  

Peter

[Dave Dribin]

The next Game Launcher release will have a very cool theme engine.  Themes will not be just replacement images and sounds.  It will be a totally customizable look and feel using a scripting language.  GL will be able to rotate left AND right (currently it can only rotate right).  Much better joystick support.  All key and jostick inputs can be configured to any action.  Support for emulator logos, instead of just text.  Cabinet and marquee shots.  Many bug fixes, esp. under Windows.  I don't want to give a release date, but it'll be ready when it's done.  Hopefully within a month.  A lot of this is already implemented in CVS, but the components need to be glued together.

-Dave

[Lilwolf]

I scrapped most of jfronts code and doing a full 3d frontend.

But I've been getting into the java 3d engine I've been writing more then the frontend recently.  I've spend a great deal of time optimizing the opengl code from the object structure.  So now all my objects are basically just as fast no matter how complicated the object is (as long as the bottleneck was the transfer from to the videocard...  But I'm hoping to get some time to work on it in a next few weeks, I need to add one more feature to the engine and I'm back to the frontend.  

btw, it's different then >p<'s, very very different...  

[SirPoonga]

I scrapped most of jfronts code and doing a full 3d frontend.

But I've been getting into the java 3d engine I've been writing more then the frontend recently.  I've spend a great deal of time optimizing the opengl code from the object structure.  So now all my objects are basically just as fast no matter how complicated the object is (as long as the bottleneck was the transfer from to the videocard...  But I'm hoping to get some time to work on it in a next few weeks, I need to add one more feature to the engine and I'm back to the frontend.  

btw, it's different then >p<'s, very very different...  

Yeah.  I;ve been playing around with OpenGL, mainly with cel-shading and blur motion.  I have a really cool idea for a 3Dish FE.  I want to make it for my cocktail in the future.  It;s be 3D, as in 3D object are there, but it's still be a menu based system, kinda like super smash bros.

First, however, I am making a scorched earth remake to understand how to do some code:)

[Lilwolf]

cel shading huh?  Are you doing the calculations or are you using a predone engine?

I have an article on how to do it and think its really cool... I still love that to make a 3d engine draw with crayons takes WAY more horsepower

I might have to come out with a version soon that does almost everything I want.  Just to get more ideas and show people what I've been working on.  There are a ton of little ideas I have... and I've only implemented a few... sigh...  Time...time

[SirPoonga]

cel shading huh?  Are you doing the calculations or are you using a predone engine?

I have an article on how to do it and think its really cool... I still love that to make a 3d engine draw with crayons takes WAY more horsepower

I might have to come out with a version soon that does almost everything I want.  Just to get more ideas and show people what I've been working on.  There are a ton of little ideas I have... and I've only implemented a few... sigh...  Time...time

I will be doing it, no engine.
www.gdmag.com
www.gametutorials.com

[Lilwolf]

Here is another example of cel-shading.  

http://nehe.gamedev.net/

trouble is it doesn't go over the math, but has an example.