Cool Changes Happening

After processing the list of feature requests in the previous session, I had a serious think about visualisation of the SplotchiTown environment. Many of the features are very visual and the 2D GnomeCanvas used so far will be limited in how well it can present those concepts.

So I've built a test application using OpenGL, which I've never used before. It's quite a learning curve, and in a way it will make SplotchiTown harder to code, but man, the visuals are way cool!

I've been working on the test application since the last blog. It lets the user drive a little "car" around a flat plane with 3 walls around it. The car can jump, and the camera rotation and height can be adjusted.

Here are some pictures:


The default view.


The car jumping.


The camera on the car.

I had a quick session with the children to tell them what I was doing. I drew on the whiteboard what our program looks like in 2D, and what it may look like in 3D. They got this because it's just like most of the PlayStation games that they play.

The clincher was this, with the "wallpaper" enabled when I pressed the 'W' key:







They have bought into the concept. Now it remains for me to get the previous creature working in OpenGL!