I recently conceived an idea for an opensource 3d game to be written in c++. It would take me close to a year of steady work if I'm to do it alone, so I'm opening up the development process to everyone who would like to be part of the project which includes c++ programmers, concept artists, 3d modellers and animators, sound engineers (or anyone good in sound effects), and anyone who has something to offer, you don't necessarily have to be a professional. Note that this is a participation call and not a job posting what I mean by that is that there is no payment to anybody for whatsoever ever contribution made, this is more like a community work. The major form of reward is the joy of being part of the team that made an Proudly Nigerian Opensource 3D Game ( at least for the record ) . Unfortunately there is no inclusion of financial sponsors in the list of needed people. The Main aim of this project is to make a good (if not excellent) 3D game with free and available tools so that everyone can easily learn from it and make greater projects later


WHYS:

1 ) why no financial sponsor?
Yeah I will also ask myself that question. Do you remember that time you had a great idea that could turn you to the next Mark Zuckerberg only for your potential investors to call it a scam . That's so bad and I wouldn't want our honest effort to be rubbished by such accusation. If anyone has some cash to drop in, well, that will be appreciated ,but we will not make any donation call of any sort for this project

2) why c++ ?
Building a game engine from scratch for our game to run on is really not a easy task, however, there are a handful of game engines, free and proprietary, we can use. But in order to make sure everyone can afford it I decided to go with an opensource game engine, most preferably Ogre3D game engine ( well its more of a rendering engine). Now to the question, Ogre3D is coded in c++ ( my mother tongue ), so I guess we sing the same tune with it. Besides c++ is fast and efficient for real time application like games and simulations.
And most importantly to show those young programmers out there that c++ can really be fun and its far easy to learn as against the rumor of it being hard.

3 ) why opensource ?
Who wouldn't love to make cash ,but I've benefited a lot from opensource projects that I think its time to give back, even if its one tiny little project . Actually my major reason for choosing to make it opensource is so that ideas will be easily crowed sourced thereby helping the project to grow. And also to help all those fellows struggling to comprehend how " cout << "HelloWorld \n", " could ever make any sense in a bigger perspective.

4) Why don't you have to be a professional?
I am not a professional either, but I'm very very good in the things I do . If you are a professional, well good, if you are not but you are good in what you do, excellent. We won't be checking certificates


CONCLUSION
Lets just see what we can do in this project and see how far its going to go (it's gonna reach the end for sure )

gud day sir.when I c things lyk this I feel Nigeria has a bright future. I wud like to be part of the project. I have no programming knowledge but l'd love to learn.so what are ur ideas.

Nice idea bro. If I see this idea is taken seriously, I could learn C++. currently, I know Java and python. C++ won't be my prob if Dis idea is taken seriously.

Nice move bro... willing to do on the job learning of C++ as I have some languages under my belt if this project is taken seriously ...

Good evening everyone. From the few replies I've gotten (and those still coming ) I am far more motivated to move on with it. So then lets roll out some more information.

The Project is code named DARKDOVE and its based on an urban warfare( Lets go Recon ). There will be more info on that as the development team forms. Our development and deployment environment can be any environment but I have chosen to go with Microsoft Visual C++ as the compiler of choice and, of course, Microsoft Windows as the deployment environment.

Now we seem to have a bit of an issue with Ogre 3D being a Rendering Engine as against a Game Engine . You see guys, as a Rendering Engine, Ogre mainly performs rendering duties, not as if that's bad, just that that's all it does (though it does it well). What does that mean? It means we have to supplement it with our own Input System for mouse, keyboard and even joystick events, and also we have to add in our own Audio System for sounds. Another necessary component we need to add to Ogre is a suitable Physics Engine for appropriate simulation of physics in the game ( or games hopefully ). Well, luckily for us we have good and wonderful Open Source libraries that can help us out of these difficulties.
For the Input System, Ogre3d makes things a bit easier for us with OIS (Object-oriented Input System) which help with handling keyboard, mouse and joystick events. OIS is going to be the primary system for Input System, though I'm still considering other libraries like SDL (Simple Directmedial Layer) or SFML (Simple and Fast Multimedia Library) which provides both Input System and Audio System .

For Audio, to say the truth, I haven't really experimented much with any Audio System for Ogre though I've tried SDL and SFML for other unrelated projects. But that's not bad 'cause there is plenty of rooms to experiment with SDL and SFML, and there is even OgreOggSound which is a third party sound library for Ogre.

Bullet Physics Engine is going to be used as the projects Physics Engine. There is an Ogre wrapper for that, by name, OgreBullet... I'm currently experimenting with Bullet alone and its going well so far. When I'm done tinkering around with it I'll investigate OgreBullet wrapper.

In a way, integrating all these libraries together will give us our own Game Engine to use



WHYS (yeap, its time to answer the whys)

1) Why Microsoft Windows Platform?
Well, this is Nigeria (for those that have forgotten ) and by that I mean that for desktop Operating System Windows is running on more than 80% of all laptops and desktops here, and laptops and desktops are the target machines (Gaming Consoles ) for this project. So in order to let this project reach more audience its best to target the Windows Operating System. I hear the Mac OS guys grumbling, ( wait a minute, so they are large enough for me to hear their grumble ) I'm sorry Mac OS guys, even Linux, Ubuntu, iOS and Android guys ( wow!! did I forget Windows RT and windows Phone... Damn!!! a lot of OS to keep track of). I guess we have to start off somewhere folks .

2) Why Visual C++ ?
If you go to Ogre3D website http://www.ogre3d.org/download/sdk you will realize that the Windows Prebuilt Binaries are built with Visual C++ except for older Ogre releases that have binaries for MinGW... You know, I feel its best to dance with their tune. Its not that you can't build from the source, anyone can try it if that's the best(I actually built the one I use from source... I had to remove a nasty code that gave me problem using the OpenGL render system in the prebuilt binaries ). Please NOTE that you can use any IDE of your choice but for now it's advisable to use Microsoft Visual Studio, you don't necessarily have to go for the Professional Edition, the Express Edition is just Perfect (and its free ).

3)Why Bullet Physics ?
There is Newton, ODE, Nvidia Physx and a host of others but Bullet is really easy to use and Integrate into projects. It's physics functionality is enough for Project DARKDOVE.

4)Why the name DARKDOVE ?
seriously? I had a tough time figuring that name out . Actually it's just the code name of the project, the product of the project will have another name for sure

CONCLUSION
Time to return back to my work station and chart the course forward. Project DARKDOVE has officially started. Those interested can still indicate here or reach me on darkdove@cyberdude.com (that's the email address for now) .

Greetings to All Creative Minded people . I hope we all had a great week. To be honest I had a very rough week battling codes just to see how good and viable they will be for DARKDOVE , actually it was worth it .

Now Time For More Info

In order to attain an organized structure for effective performance in DARKDOVE, I have decided to group all volunteering participants into two groups:
1) Art Group
2) Coding Group

By mainly looking at the names of these two groups their respective functions becomes obvious. However I'll still add a bit more explanations.

ART GROUP
yeah that's what it means, "art" (so basically anyone can be in this group so long as you can think up a good design ). The art group is going to be in charge of everything that adds life to the game that's not coded. So if you can draw or you can make a sound that can be called music you're all welcomed here. Not just that, if you are good in imagining out great spectacular scene but you can only draw it using stick men , well, I guess you are also invited . The Art Group is going to be composed of the following teams
i) Concept Art Team
These guys (plus the ladies among them ) will be creating the overall tone of the game world and how the scenes will look like. They will create images or even shoot short videos ( if that's what it will take to understand a particular concept) in order to pass across to others the nature of the game environment. Designing concept visual interfaces that will be chosen for the game screen is also in their care. And last but not the least the Concept Art Team will double as Level Designing Team, that is, they will be fully responsible for the visual and logical designs of the various levels in the game. its a big Team we all depend on.
ii) Sound Team
This team is responsible for playing good music for us whenever we're having a meeting ...Just kidding. On a more serious note, this team will handle all sound effects requirements of the game ( explosions, vehicles roaring, gun shot sounds, you name it). It will be good if project DARKDOVE has its own soundtrack , yeap, that will be cool, and we're all looking up to the Sound Team for that as well

ii) Modeling and Animation Team
Yes we need you guys sooooo much. This Good Fellows will be modelling the game characters, the game objects and basically every single thing visible in the game world. They won't just stop there, they will also rig and animate characters or machines that have defined movements. To sum it up, they are in charge of the visual game assets DARKDOVE will need. The preferred modelling software is Blender 3D, but if you prefer to work on any other modeling software of your choice that has no license restrictions on the use of its outputs then you are totally free.

CODING GROUP
Did someone just mention coders . Everyone is welcomed so long as you know what "std::cout <<"Hello, World!\n" is. Now these Priests Of the Machine Deity will be responsible for all communication between Mortals and Machines. Or in a more human advantaged tone, these Masters of the Sacred art of Machine Language will command their forever obedient Machines Servants to make DARKDOVE a reality. Now back to earth these are going to be our programmers, tackling everything from framework design to physics integration, sound integration, level loading and game logic implementation. Just like the art Group, this group will also have various teams. I'm going to just list them out and next time I'll give full details about their roles
i) Level Coders
ii) Physics and Sound coders
ii) Base Framework Coders

(I had to rush it up cause I still have a coding trouble to sort out before morning sets in)

WHYS

1) Why Blender?
There are really good modeling software suits out there; Maya, 3D Studio Max, Cinema 4D, Houdini, LightWave3D and others... and there is also Blender3D. The problem is that most of the good modeling packages you can get out there are commercial, and among the free ones Blender is the only one that can manage to rub shoulders with these commercial packages. And again some of these commercial products I just mentioned are just what they are "modeling software" , if you want to rig and animate you'll have to export your work to another program. Now for DARKDOVE which is a small startup project, we wouldn't need all those hassles. Now don't get me wrong, these commercial modeling programs are really GREAT but to make this project easy for anyone to participate I think it will be good to use something that's free and easy to obtain. Actually the choice of a modeling software is not a problem so long as there is an exporter to export models from the program to Ogre 3D

2) Why are there so many teams?
Really? are the teams much as six? well, if each team has 10 people we'll just have 60 people wow!!! now that's much, luckily we don't have to be that amount in the development teams, a population of 4 per team is more than enough giving us a total number of 24 Great Minds, coupled with the fact that dual team membership is allowed so long as it will not slow down productivity. And for the Friends and Well-Wishers Team we can have a million members and everyone is qualified for that


CONCLUSION
(Still a lot of things to do before I sleep , at least one down ) That's all folks I will be back later with more info and good news, don't forget you can reach me through the email address darkdove@cyberdude.com

Washing coding gloves to be used later , #team-DarkDove

GREETINGS to all Great and Creative minds, to all warriors that have mastered the sacred art of Machine language and those eager to learn . Sadly enough it has been a while since I updated whats going with DARKDOVE, now here is the bottom line of the Whole Truth, DARKDOVE is still on and would not stop till it has been completed . The long silence has heavily been as a result of Reality Bites, but that not withstanding, We are making progress. So before I head for my Xmas break I thought it nice to inform every one of the progress that has been made thus far.

Despite the delays due to Reality Bites, I had to carry out series of frustrating, infuriating and heart breaking experiments on Ogre e.g building it from source with minGW compiler on microsoft Windows, integrating ogre into wxWidgets and Qt . It all felt as though I was in a Romantic Relationship which, filled with so many crisis, was destined to fail but yet I was struggling to see if I could do something to save it . If you think you've had a bad dream before but you are yet to dream of an error in your code haunting you in the dream then I must say you don't know whats called a bad dream .
Forget about the dream, but how did my Romantic Relationship go? well, I can honestly tell you that It wasn't easy, but at the end all the crisis were resolved and the Relationship was saved .

So the information on ground is not that we are now married but that I was able to build Ogre from source with minGW compiler on windows thanks to this link http://www.ogre3d.org/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=Building+Ogre+with+boost+1.50+upwards+and+MinGW. Therefore as against the information earlier passed of using Microsoft Visual C++ as the compiler of choice, MinGW can equally and effectively be used ( as long as you build the ogre source with it).

Integrating Ogre into wxWidgets was also successful and lots of ideas are already pouring into my head of what to do with it. Equally Qt-Ogre integration went well, though with a few rough edges that will be corrected very soon.

As an additional tip: the Physics Engine of choice, Bullet Physics, comes as source so you'll have to build it yourself. The issue is that it comes with a visual studio solution file for easy building with Visual C++ but for MinGW things might not go that smooth. Well, that's bygone cause using the cmake file included you can configure for a MinGW build.

WHYS
There is non for now ( till after the xmas break )

CONCLUSION
Merry Christmas to all those that celebrate Christmas and Happy NewYear to ALL .

If I had know NL didn't have recent backup of its site I could have had the backup of all my posts... Just lost all the posts I made this year

Well... Thats not a problem, though lots of information were lost. So to quickly bring everyone up to date with a summary of whats happening: project DARKDOVE is still on and progressing, though members and contributors are highly needed ( its more or less a one man army for now ). A logo has been designed and will be re-uploaded for those who didn't see the initial one that NL lost.

Still part of the summary update...

A proof-of-concept (POC) is on the way to show that the project is possible. The POC is going to be a highly scaled down game (possibly a single level game).

I came across a game engine, Urho3d (pronounced euro3d), [url]urho3d.github.io/[/url] , and to be honest, the folks in charge are doing a pretty decent job. Ogre3d is still the engine of choice here, but currently, I'm heavily testing out Urho3d, and to be honest I'm impressed with the outcome.
If all goes well then I might develope the POC entirely with Urho3d

@ OP I just found this thread and so missed all your posts from the data loss. I'm interested, and would need you to feel me with any necessary info I missed.

misteri: @ OP I just found this thread and so missed all your posts from the data loss. I'm interested, and would need you to feel me with any necessary info I missed.

I'm pleased to learn of your interest in project DARKDOVE, and its unfortunate that NL misplace some information already posted. But, never the less, those info will be of no use if Urho3D is used as its game engine of choice cos those info were basically updates on my Ogre3D and bullet physics experiments (Urho3D has a decent physics integration). Also I'm reviewing the choice of a hosting site for the project and for a better medium in which we can interact and exchange ideas (NL will then basically be for updates on the project).

Once again, I'm pleased to learn of your interest and I will definitely keep you guys up to date

Good Day All Creative Minds ... Time for another round of re-updating for those that didn't get the info earlier.

All Works of Art which includes 3D assets( with or without their textures), Audio assets, concept arts, logos and every other design related to the project is to be licensed with a permissive license that will in no way inhibit creativity, most prefarably Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (CC BY-SA) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/

It's highly encouraged for the 3d assets to be Original Works. And for the textures, if one must use an already made texture from somewhere else, the texture should either be free with no string attached or have a license compactible with CC BY-SA

Here is the Logo for the project I posted earlier. It is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike, the description of the license reads thus

This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to “copyleft” free and open source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use.

This is a screenshot of Urho3d editor featuring a test model I did (she's likely to feature in the POC ). The tile texture used for the plane she's standing on was gotten from this guy, Yughues, at [url]shareCG.com[/url], he is very good and has generously give out the texture free for personal and commercial use. He is also on DevianArt with user name Nobiax [url]nobiax.deviantart.com[/url]

I dont know how long the gestation period of project 'dark dove' will mature and be running on the wings of future updating patches and add-on to other internal libraries within her project :Now that we are compromising on which game engine to be adopted in order to achieve the common realistic goal of seeing project 'dark dove' float freely on air and not otherwise; as you are the sole leading visioner and technical architeck of 'dark dove' headcracking without her yet-to-be-known team members showing merticuous committment to paddling her heavy-laden body across 'the red sea' of continous bugfixes and unsolved de-code scripting, more or likely proning to future decrypting entry denials. Ogre 3d might look a bit promising with her advanced 3d rendering feeds and the controversial MGwin built-attached c++ as the open source code on which her game engine is being raised currently. And if we were to go via this route thus, bringing project 'dark dove' to a sound footing, then we face seriously coding challenges in terms of bugfixes, lockjams or unimaginable crashes as a result of continuous patching with other rendering and library platforms; but it's obvious Ogre 3d is still lagging behind in terms of updating patches, unresolved bug issues,(check last updated dec_2013, etc as other third-party platforms like bullet, blender, SDL etc are already catching pace with the ever-changing technological trendings, thus upgrading and adding exciting features on their individual ends respectively. MY SUGGESTIONS FOR OGRE 3D would be- WE SHOULD GO BACK TO OUR DRAWING BOARD(it's obvious we don't have any) AND WITH THE ALMIGHTY SOURCE CODE ON OUR HANDS, RESTRUCTURE OGRE 3D FROM SCRATCH BY RE-PATCHING WITH C++ programming all through since is the industry standard on which all mobie apps are based on; more like implementing a reverse engineering solutions and by this way, making project 'dark dove' 100% efficient, when in the forseenable future re-phasing some areas in the case of debugging, test-driving and coding implemention via Visual c++ now its new compiler would be handled smoothly. But nobody would want to devout wasteful time and resources on a project that fails to put smiles on their faces. The main challenge is building a strong dynamic team of project 'dark dove' programmers who would demonstrate high technical skills and show unrelenting efforts, but may i remind you that 'money motivates' while project 'dark dove is still actively in the pipeline- we can outsource and be exploring other avenue of oiling the wheels of our engine's engines (we all have got some responsiblities and bills to pay) by organising and running at least four major serminers and workshops randomly in six major city states bi-monthly. Lecturing on python, c/c++, c++, javascipt, php, html5, c# programming languages and their applications/Mobile game design & development(on cross-plateforms like; ipad, iphone, ipod, mac, window, andriod, blackberry 10 mobiles window 8 phones)/ Web Application & Creation/ Custom Window Desktop Application & Design (like industry-related software solutions for hospitalities, all entry-level schools registry and achiving etc/ 3D Arts & Designs/ - Adding to our revenues that would not be managed by president Goodluck Jonathans' Cabinets. So come to think of it we can still build and grow project 'dark dove' and her own community and get it started by partnering with a stronger player like Unity3D game engine, using their free softwares & unitilies to creating games for them and working hard to harvest like 50 games a year, because all these products will be marketed cheaply by them. But we lose company credits and project 'dark dove' logo on every game product designed and 35% rip-off on all digital sales collected by unity3D (over 250,000 underground studio houses that are registerd and are currently paid for their game designs and innovations on 35% rip-off (of course why would'nt there be further hidden deductibles) and counting. This set-target is attainable, since we might have trained some coders who would want to explore along with us, by this way proving far better off kick-starting as an enterprise, while at the same time running underground checks for project 'dark dove'.BUT ON A SERIOUS NOTE FORGET ABOUT URHO3D editor IT IS A COMMUNITY FORUM PROJECT TO CREATE AND SHARE ART/DESIGNS AND WITH ITS SERIOUS BUG ISSUES EATING AWAY THEIR DREAMS OF ACTUALISING A MARKETABLE GAME PRODUCTS/ IF THE CLAIM IT'S A GAME ENGINE, WHY HAS 'NT ANYONE CREATED AT LEAST ONE FULLY FUNCTIONAL GAME FOR THE EVER-HUNGRY FUN APP LOVERS. TRUST ME UROH3d editor IS BULDING ITS ENGINE ON THE BONE-HEAP OF HER COMMUNITY AND STRICTLY OUT OF THE PRACTICABLE CONTEXT OF A REAL MOBILE GAME APP. Code programming requires strong team work and not on the burden of one man.

@beatzbyraiyub... Wow, I must confess that your write-up was amazing , men!!! I love english

Ok... Its unfortunate that project DARKDOVE is moving slowly, but that doesn't mean all has gone bad. The intended aim of this project is not to make a Next-Gen game but to show that it is possible to make an open source 3d game from Nigeria (or Africa as the case maybe). So it might be really Next-Gen or it might be just very simple, or it might be a simple game that will later morph to a Next-Gen AAA game (most likely how its going to happen). And participation is purely voluntary, team members only contribute in their spare time or in any sacrificed time.

Between Ogre and Urho3D, actually its going to be Urho3D. But no skill is lost for those that might have learnt Ogre cause Urho3D is structured like Ogre with even neater API.

With more people opting in to this project more information will be passed on

Hey man. I'm volunteering to help out on the game. I could model, texture, rig and animate. My 2d skills aren't that great, but I could also do some concept art.

Some of my 2d stuff:
mock ups and concept art I made for a fan game a while ago.

Chuksxy: Hey man. I'm volunteering to help out on the game. I could model, texture, rig and animate. My 2d skills aren't that great, but I could also do some concept art.

Greetings... I am so delighted to welcome you on board and I really thank you for considering to help out in this project.
The skills you just listed are basically what is needed right now especially the concept art aspect of it.
Now our Art Group has come to life , I will not fail to put the necessary things in order so that by this week we'll kick-off with the concept art. Once Again, you are highly welcomed

Just A brief Update
Project DARKDOVE now has a group on Google http://groups.google.com/group/darkdove. All our development discussions will be held there for now, while here on NairaLand will be for updating the General Public of the progress being made

Those interested in this project can simply head over there and join

Good Evening Good Fellas..
Hope It was a Great weekend for all

ANNOUNCEMENT
1) This is to inform all interested coders and programmers that Urho3D is now the Engine of Choice for Project DARKDOVE. This decision was made based on the advantages that will be gained by leveraging the wonderful features integrated into Urho3D. We sincerely regret any inconviniency this might result in for those that have invested a lot of time and energy experimenting on Ogre3D just for this project, and we assure everyone that this decision will be held unto till the first product of this Project is completed.

2) Do not forget to indicate your interest in DARKDOVE by letting us know right here on NairaLand or by heading over to the google group at http://groups.google.com/group/darkdove and joining.

That's All for now, I wish you all a wonderful week

Hey sup, If the game still needs a soundtrack, I'm up and I'm also good game artwork and ui..

pjae: Hey sup, If the game still needs a soundtrack, I'm up and I'm also good game artwork and ui..

Soundtrack? That would be so good, you are highly welcomed. If you are chanced you can join the project group on google groups .
Glad to have a Sound Team member onboard and thanks alot for your interest in project DARKDOVE

I would like to join this project but the thing is I've never done graphics programming though I can do GUI.

GoodBoi1: I would like to join this project but the thing is I've never done graphics programming though I can do GUI.

no need to worry, the graphics has already been taken care of by the Game Engine we are using. So long as you understand Object Oriented Programming you are good to go.

BlueMagnificent:

no need to worry, the graphics has already been taken care of by the Game Engine we are using. So long as you understand Object Oriented Programming you are good to go.

Ok, I'm in.

do you guys have a story? I would love to do the story

losprince: do you guys have a story? I would love to do the story

For the Intended game there is no story yet, but for the Proof-Of-Concept there is a story so you are highly welcomed to develope the story for the Main Game.
As notified earlier you can join our Google Group

BlueMagnificent:

For the Intended game there is no story yet, but for the Proof-Of-Concept there is a story so you are highly welcomed to develope the story for the Main Game.
As notified earlier you can join our Google Group

the google group is confusing me, and dont know how to register or post

losprince: the google group is confusing me, and dont know how to register or post

I sincerely apologize for that... The google group is more like a temporary meeting place but it seems not to be serving efficiently for the projects need. There is a forum site, proboard, I'm currently evaluating. By tomorrow I will post the link... Pls bear with me

BlueMagnificent:

I sincerely apologize for that... The google group is more like a temporary meeting place but it seems not to be serving efficiently for the projects need. There is a forum site, proboard, I'm currently evaluating. By tomorrow I will post the link... Pls bear with me

ok