hey guys,
greetings from a new member.
guys i wonder can we create a city simulation game like simcity deluxe edition with panda3d. i am interested in programming and i am learning python. i want to do a real city simulation game better than sc4 that can be run both on linux and on windows.if anyone has knowledge about this please make comments.
Yes it’s completely do-able.
Will it be easy? Well like anything else it’s programming, you’ll have to do most the work yourself.
Panda3d is considered a ‘blank slate’ it starts out as an empty scene… Then you can add 3d objects that you have exported from Blender or 3DS Max
You get to move and rotate the camera, any lights, and all objects in the scene.
So pretty much what I’m saying is “Yes, just like any other 3d game engine, it can be used for that” at the same time panda3d is designed to be able to handle any type of game.
So there is no built in configuration of some sort for simulation games, you’ll have to code it yourself.
Hope this helps,
~powerpup118
I was on a team that attempted to do so. It seems like I was the only one who understood how difficult it is to make a game! So the team fell apart (that and I was the only one publishing code. Grumble)
The biggest hurdle is managing the number of meshes being send to the graphics card. Most cards can’t handle more than a couple hundred objects before grinding to a standstill. Texture memory use is another.
SC4 used a fairly ingenious method. Each building was rendered as several 2d billboards, 4 for each direction and a set for each zoom level. It then rendered the buildings to an offscreen screen. The 3D components (like terrain) were rendered, and the giant bitmap overlayed. Whenever the screen was moved it would pan the rendered bitmap and only update the parts newly visible. It was an ingenious solution to get around the hardware limitations.
On the game side sc4 had tiles, or cells. These cells would interact with its neighbors. I think it is called cellular automata, but I may be very wrong on this.
The outcome of this is that the game was locked into only 4 views, plus discrete zoom levels. This and how the simulation worked also locked the game into using tiles. I think the sc4 developer diaries are still online and make for fantastic reading.
My suggestions:
Develop an outline on how the simulations will work and the core features. This does not mean you can’t add features down the road, but you need to have that core vision so you, or any devs who join, know exactly what the vision will be. Sadly our project was designed by committee and each dev had different, and sometimes opposing, visions. It also means you have a good idea on what to do. Making a sc4 clone with mp will be very different than making a sp full 3d game.
You might also want to consider doing a roadmap and determining which order to develop features.
Also it takes a bit of work before enough features comes together to make something that even resembles a game. You might want to make a few techdemos, each showing off a different aspect. This also gives you practice. Then, when you are ready to put parts together, you can use the lessons learned.
I still have my code somewhere if you wanted to take a look at it. It is a client, server that does little more than a terrain engine and founding new cities.
guys, thank you for commenting and i have a few questions too. can i compile the source code i mean can i create exe-extensioned file for windows or executable files for linux. and also i want to create a big city. you may know if you have played sc4 the maximum city has 256x256 tils but i want more than tiles and also some features in city sity isnt satisfied me for example roads . there are some tools such as ilive reader, lot editor, … for editing and recreating the objects but they dont work completely according to me. and also sc4 is closed-source game we dont know how its codes and which lang is used to write it. but if we create an open source game it will be fantastic. someone will be able to edit it and recreate it maybe new edtions will be better. and croxis i want to see your source codes and i want to develop it i am not good at programming but i want to help you maybe we can find someone who can help us.
Unfortunately I’m in the middle of student teaching and have very little time for programming so I can’t offer much more than my experience.
If you are using python there is no need to compile anything. You can run the python file directly. You can also package the file as a p3d file which can be run stand alone or in a web page (a great way to make sure people are using the latest version!). Instructions are in the manual.
As for the rest that really depends on what you are trying to make. Are you going for a sc4 clone (even though it is closed source, the modding community has a really good understanding of how the game works), or are you going to try something different?
Here is my code, you will need to learn how to use bazaar if you have not yet. I can’t promise that it will even work. We were designing it from the ground up to be multiplayer so there is a client and a server that has to be run at the same time. IIRC two of the dependencies are google protocol buffers and pyyaml, so this may be daunting to try and get working if you are new to python.
well i have done some research and i found some information on sc4devotion forum about your game citymania. but it is writtenin c# and unfortunately i dont have any knowledge about c#. thank you again for sharing the codes.
We did not code in C#. All of the code released was in python.
really? i couldnt download the source code but i have seen a page for your game in sc4devotion and there was an article about the code that it is written in c#. anyway i have ralized that creating a game is so hard and i dont hav enough knowledge for it. i think i must learn more thing about programming and simulations. thank a lot again.