BloodXL lives again

Discuss and hash out the Blood universe here.

Moderator: General Discussion Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
Tchernobog
Tchernobog's Love Child
Posts: 1404
Joined: Tue May 27, 2008 07:30 am
Location: Rural Alberta, Canada
Contact:

BloodXL lives again

Post by Tchernobog »

So there has been some updates on the Blood XL project:
luciusDXL wrote:I have not updated this site and blog in quite some time. However, despite appearances, the project is not dead. For a variety of reasons the project had to be put on hold until the beginning of next year. Despite this, there has been some progress made ... I have been building tools and other work that will allow me to release source-port accurate support for Dark Forces and Blood at the same time as Daggerfall early in the new year. They too will support software rendering as well as enhanced features ... The first Beta build, coming early in the new year, will feature support for Daggerfall, Dark Forces and Blood. However the initial release will be limited to the software renderer with only limited enhanced features (although basic stuff like higher resolutions will be supported) ... The XL Engine will even allow you to play with your existing save games ... It will feature a streamlined interface for adjusting features that the original games did not support (such as adjusting resolution, rendering quality, etc.), rather then implementing game specific interfaces as seen in previous releases ... Linux and OS X support is still planned but will not be available for the first Beta release.
http://xlengine.com/xl-engine-state-of-the-project/
luciusDXL wrote:Beta 1: the initial release, all the games previously stated should be working at 100% with the exception of multi-player. As stated before only software rendering will be available but higher resolutions will be supported.
Beta 2: the OpenGL 3.2 device should be implemented and true 3D hardware rendering support added – basically Daggerfall will surpass previous builds visually in addition to being gameplay complete.
Beta 3: the “Unified Sector Theory” release – perspective correct hardware rendering for 2.5D games. At this point Dark Forces should surpass the current build visually in addition to being gameplay complete.
http://xlengine.com/short-term-roadmap/

That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons even death may die.
User avatar
N0t_mINe
Acolyte
Posts: 631
Joined: Wed Nov 30, 2011 05:35 am
Location: LURKERS DON'T DRAMA.

Re: BloodXL lives again

Post by N0t_mINe »

Wow, some Dark XL news with Blood news to boot, certainly not on my radar.
User avatar
dosgamer000
Acolyte
Posts: 310
Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2011 07:57 pm
Location: Boggy Creek

Re: BloodXL lives again

Post by dosgamer000 »

This is some good news about Blood that I love to see.
User avatar
Tchernobog
Tchernobog's Love Child
Posts: 1404
Joined: Tue May 27, 2008 07:30 am
Location: Rural Alberta, Canada
Contact:

Re: BloodXL lives again

Post by Tchernobog »

The sound system implementation is complete for Beta 1, barring any game specific needs that have not yet arisen. For music the XL Engine supports midi synthesis using Gravis Ultrasound patches, midi synthesis using Sound Fonts (sf2) and direct music playback using Ogg Vorbis. Beta 1 will support “music mods” – where midi songs are replaced by Ogg files. Peformance of Wild Midi, Fluidsynth and Ogg Vorbis is very good if you have a multicore system (which almost everyone has today). The engine also supports framerate limiting, vsync with low latency input and can limit cpu useage (assuming your CPU is fast enough to start with). Even running a bunch of threads (game code in one thread, input and OpenGL in another, streaming sound in yet another, etc.) – the CPU usage on my system is around 24% with a heavy game where the game framerate is 120 fps and graphics refresh rate is vsynced at 60 fps (even using the frame limiter to set it to 120 has little effect) ... The engine work is essentially finished for Beta 1, though I have to finish some UI panels still. Now that sound is in and working and the engine support is fleshed out, I’m going to be focused on finishing the game “porting” until all of the games are fully working. Once that is complete I will finish the UI panels and release the Beta 1 build.
http://xlengine.com/progress-update-2/
So this means that Linux support has moved from Beta 4 to the initial build, Beta 1. To make this happen I will probably enlist some help a few weeks before the build with packaging for various Linux distributions.
http://xlengine.com/new-look-and-more-news/

:D
User avatar
Manhs
Cultist
Posts: 67
Joined: Sun Feb 28, 2016 01:02 am

Re: BloodXL lives again

Post by Manhs »

Really awesome, i follow this project since some month ago, can't wait the first beta ! ^^
User avatar
Tchernobog
Tchernobog's Love Child
Posts: 1404
Joined: Tue May 27, 2008 07:30 am
Location: Rural Alberta, Canada
Contact:

Re: BloodXL lives again

Post by Tchernobog »

Welcome Manhs.
When working with the Blood code, one of the things I wanted to do was match up the decompiled source with the Build source in order to reduce the amount of work I had to do. I realized, however, that for best results I should test the Build source integration with something working and complete. So to that end, I added the first – and currently only – game that uses the original source code: Shadow Warrior. The purpose of this integration was as follows:
* Get something working with Build in the XL Engine.
* Start refactoring the code and getting it ready for Blood.
* Test the XL Engine functionality, including game life cycle, XL Engine services, sound, input and other systems.
* Have a complete experience to test with the engine and UI.
* Test the performance and memory usage with a complete game running.

When, in previous updates, I mentioned matching up Blood code with the Build code – I already had this working in the engine. In fact Shadow Warrior is 100% playable, including sound, music, controls, memory management and so on in the engine and has been for a month or two.

So why play Shadow Warrior using the XL Engine instead of an existing port? Honestly there aren’t really any compelling reasons, the existing ports do a great job. Of course I plan on changing this with future releases and in the future there will be more reasons to play Shadow Warrior on the XL Engine. Regardless it has helped me tremendously with the engine and Blood – so its a worthwhile addition even if no one actually plays it. :D That said, when it comes time to build the unified sector engine it will be very useful – like Blood it pushes the Build and adds Room over Room, drive able vehicles and other features.
This is a surprise I’m sure but, if things go well anyway, Shadow Warrior will not be the biggest surprise in store for the release.
http://xlengine.com/xl-engine-update-3/
User avatar
Manhs
Cultist
Posts: 67
Joined: Sun Feb 28, 2016 01:02 am

Re: BloodXL lives again

Post by Manhs »

Thanks !

Here some screen, from the facebook page of XLengine!
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 324&type=3
Im not totaly sure but the render looks smoother : https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t3 ... 3490_o.png
Specially if i see the cultists with the wall behind. :)
User avatar
Tchernobog
Tchernobog's Love Child
Posts: 1404
Joined: Tue May 27, 2008 07:30 am
Location: Rural Alberta, Canada
Contact:

Re: BloodXL lives again

Post by Tchernobog »

I am still interested in knowing how he intends to handle Blood's game logic. Rendering has always been a fairly simple thing to reverse engineer, but because Blood did not use external scripting such as CON files, getting to the game code has always been more difficult.
Post Reply