[mvBarracuda]

This is my first post here so I hope this is the right part of the forums for this kind of discussion.

Fact sheet:
License: Open source GPL 2.0
Platforms: Win32, Linux, Mac
Libs: SDL, OpenGL, boost (and some more)
Suited for: all kind of isometric 2D games
Costs: Free

About FIFE:
FIFE stands for Flexible Isometric Fallout-like Engine. Just like the name of our project suggests we work on a new open source engine for all kinds of isometric games. The people working on it got a RPG background but it should be possible to customize the engine so it even works for other ISO games like RTS. The engine started as a Fallout-only project but we recognized very fast that it offers the potential to be used as a general 2d ISO engine for the development of cross platform RPGs.

Why FIFE?
Half-life 1 revolutionized PC gaming back in 1998. The most important part of Half-life wasn't the great game with the story but the engine behind it IMHO. HL1 was the first game that offered good modding support combined with a company that provided useful tools to support the new growing modding community. Today there are a bunch of good open source 3D engines out there like Ogre or Irrlicht. However there are several problems:
1. These are mostly GFX engines. That means they focus on gfx code while they provide just few code that is needed to make a fully working game with them.
2. More important: they've been made for the creation of 3D applications. But unfortunately there is no flexible 2D ISO engine (that I know) that is comparable to what Ogre and Irrlicht are for 3D games.

So our aim is to "revolutionize" 2D ISO games as HL1 did it with 3D games quite some years ago. We want to create a platform for the creation of isometric games that all indie developers can use for their games so they don't need to create something from scratch. We focus on good modding abilities so we'll bundle the engine with an easy to use and full featured editor tool called FIFEdit.

The advantage over other engines is that FIFE is meant to become a full game engine. So we don't only provide 2d gfx code for the rendering but also feature code that allows the modders to easily script game logic. FIFE supports SDL & OpenGL rendering modes and is uses different open source cross platform libraries. This way the engine and the editor (that uses Qt4) will run on Win32, Linux and Macintosh. So we can ensure that game developers can easily provide their games as FIFE mods that run all kind of platforms without needing to care about writing cross platform code themselves.

Our editor will support a plugin system so you can easily add new features that are needed for specific kind of games; e.g. RPGs or RTS games.

The current status of the project:
The FIFE project is about 9 months in development now and we have released three public pre-alpha versions of the engine on sourceforge / freshmeat in January and May 2006.

The gfx part of the engine is the most "mature" one at the moment. The rendering code is encapsulated well with a "renderbackend" approach; so you can easily work on the OpenGL part of the renderer without being afraid of breaking something on the SDL side. Our coders are currently working on the map model to be able to integrate some first game logic code later. You can already script a GUI using lua code; lua will be used as scripting language for all game logic too.

The second part of the team is working on the new FIFE editor FIFEdit. The design phase has been just completed and the work on the code started. You can view the design document with all planned features for FIFEdit here:
FIFEdit design document

You can also already access Fallout 1 / 2 .dat archives and display maps, view animations and listen to the original .acm sound files. But I guess this information is just important for the Fallout fans here. The Fallout maps just serve as example implementation to show what's already possible.

Intention of this post:
We would like to know what you think about our idea of a flexible isometric engine that focuses on modding abilities. Do you think this concept will work out or isn't it worth the hassle? Are there other projects that want to achieve something similar? Do you think that our engine is worth being used later or is it easier to create an engine from scratch for indie teams that plan to create ISO games?

Are there ISO fans out here that really like the idea and want to support us working on the engine? What kind of features would be really needed to make this engine attractive? Which parts of our design documents are well worked out and what's missing? Feedback is really appreciated :-)
FIFE design documents

More information:
FIFE help wanted thread @ Gamedev
FIFE homepage
FIFE development wiki
FIFE screenshot section

Screenshots:
These screenshots were taken using FIFE with the original maps from Fallout 1 / 2. You'll need a valid copy of the Fallout games to load and display these maps; FIFE doesn't come bundled with copyrighted material!

[Rainer Deyke]

I believe that you are in violation of either the GPL or the Boost license, since those licenses are incompatible.

According to section 3 of the GPL 2.0, if you distribute a GPL program in binary form, you must also distribute its complete source code under the terms of the GPL.

[mvBarracuda]

[Rainer Deyke]

OK. I'd be interested in why the GNU project thinks that the Boost License and the GPL are compatible, but it's enough for me that they do.

[tcaudilllg]

Nice work.

GPL this, Boost that. No wonder I never use opensource libs. :\ (except Allegro...?)

[Nodtveidt]

It looks very cool but I'd never use it due to the fact that it's GPL'd. A few people here know my opinion of the GPL... :)
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If you play a Microsoft CD backwards you can hear demonic voices. The scary part is that if you play it forwards it installs Windows. - wallace

[LeoDraco]

I love how the original poster's intention was to ask for feedback about the (non-license related) aspects of the project, and yet all anyone can comment upon is FUD regarding its license. Bravo community.

mvBarracuda: I do not care too much for static isometric games; as a way of projecting a true 3d space onto a 2d surface, the effect can be nice (it can lead to some interesting effects, such as roto-zooming the screen without, necessarily, any extra tiles/textues/maps needing be built), but I assume that is not what your engine does. Even if that were the case, I'm mostly wary about engines in general: part of the fun of programming for me is to figure out the nuts and bolts of something myself, and only rely upon other components when I know I am out of my league.

That said, I doubt you would not be able to find support for such a thing, at least amongst denizens of Fallout forums and such. In general, I like the idea of a game that is highly modifiable.
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"...LeoDraco is a pompus git..." -- Mandrake

[Nodtveidt]

Hey now, I said it looks very cool. And it does!
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If you play a Microsoft CD backwards you can hear demonic voices. The scary part is that if you play it forwards it installs Windows. - wallace

[mvBarracuda]

Unfortunately our lead coder had to pause working on FIFE as he's writing on his final papers for university ATM. If you're an experienced C++ coder with serious engine design knowledge we would really appreciate if you could check out this thread:
http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=404901

We hope to find a new lead coder so we can continue working on the engine at full speed. ATM there is simply a person missing who got the needed experience to decide about specific engine design questions. Hope somebody reads this :-)

[mvBarracuda]

New experimental SVN builds available for win32.

For more details:
https://mirror1.cvsdude.com/trac/fife/engine/wiki/2006/07/30/09.21

Download:
http://members.fifengine.de/bin/FIFE_r655_win32.exe

[mvBarracuda]

New win32 builds available (experimental!)

Grab them here:
http://members.fifengine.de/bin/FIFE_r673_win32.exe

[mvBarracuda]

Really noone interested in this project?

It would help us to get some feedback how we could enhance our help wanted posting to increase the chances to find an interested developer who's willing to fill a position in the team.

Do you think that the project aim to create a whole engine for isometric games is too ambitious, is the team too small for this undertaking? Didn't you like our code, coding standards, progress rate? Do you think that 2D ISO games are dead anyway and it's not worth working on such a kind of engine anymore? Any kind of feedback from the community would help us to find out where we can do better and bring the project forward.

We started working on FIFE as there was no similar 2D ISO engine that worked on different platforms; so we thought that there would be surely a "target audience" for such a kind of engine :-/

But anyway: here is some new eye candy for the ones who want to have a look at some fancy new pictures. Image #1 shows the new hex grid mode; the NPCs are already scripted and move over the map. Image #2 gives you an impression of our new ingame console; it accepts lua command / scripts and you can already take screenshots and load maps via the interface. Click on the screens for the fullscreens versions, they were rather huge so I just posted the thumbnails in this thread.

[mvBarracuda]

OMFG it's done:
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/fife/FIFE_2007.0_win32.exe

Install guide:
1. Download
2. Execute the self-extracting 7zip archive and uncompress to a folder of your choice
3. Read the readme.txt that can be found within the folder where you uncompressed FIFE

Linux src package coming tomorrow :-)

[mvBarracuda]

And here is the src package for the guys who want to dig through the sourcecode or compile FIFE on a non-win32 system:

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/fife/FIFE_2007.0-r1_src.tar.bz2

[BadMrBox]

How big is the file Barracuda?
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