Thread: FIRST FRC Game Simulator for the HL2 Engine
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Unread 13-03-2008, 06:45
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lachoneus8 lachoneus8 is offline
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AKA: Dave
no team (5th Gear - First Robotics Simulation)
Team Role: Programmer
  
Join Date: Feb 2008
Rookie Year: 2008
Location: Northern VA
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Re: FIRST FRC Game Simulator for the HL2 Engine
XNA has the benefit of being free for everyone to develop for, and is based off of C#, which is relatively easy to learn. Halflife 2 of course benefits from one of the most advanced graphics and physics engines in the 3d market.

I think both FIRST simulation engines can have their place. There are many ways that these applications can be used, and each can focus in a different direction. These simulations could be used for spreading FIRST to larger markets through an online game, helping teams plan their strategies early in the build season, teambuilding excercises, etc etc.

What model formats does the Halflife engine support? If people produce their robots in a common format both engines could use, that would help both simultaneously. XNA reads in only Autodesk FBX and DirectX .x formats, but with Blender (3d modelling software) I can import from 3DS, OBJ, and a bunch of other formats. 3DS might be the best format all around seeing how common it is.

I could see about exporting our 3 models into 3ds if you would like, cbale.

Dave
Last edited by lachoneus8 : 13-03-2008 at 06:47.