[xoreos-devel] Start problems

[Sven Hesse]

Hej hej!

On 2012-09-11 11:40:29 -0700, Enrico Zschemisch wrote:
> The TODO-file is empty, so: Are there some easy tasks or start points to
> play around with the engine and maybe do something useful?

Yeah, the (non-exhaustive) TODO is in the github project wiki:
<https://github.com/DrMcCoy/xoreos/wiki/TODO>. The TODO file should
probably mention that, you're right.

The most pressing issue is the graphics code. My knowledge there is
very basic, and while the code kinda works, it's nowhere near ideal.
Someone with actual OpenGL / 3D graphics experience needs to
completely rewrite that subsystem. Especially since most of the other
open tasks depend on that.

Luckily, I have been approached by another person, Kirill, who has
kindly offered to do just that, beginning in mid-September, if his
time permits.

A relatively easy-ish starting point for KotOR could be properly
implementing the menus. That was something Nathaniel Brandes wanted
to do, but his free time is quite limited, unfortunately. You might
want to speak with him if that's maybe something to tackle together,
if he won't mind.

Another entry point could be copying what the NWN engine currently
does for area objects into the KotOR engine, and then moving along to
the script system. This might interfere a bit with the aforementioned
graphics rewrite, though.

The next step there would be conversations, so it might also be
possible to implement the lower levels of KotOR dialogs (and the new
features in the KotOR2 dialogs) and/or KotOR2 script system changes
first.

Apart from that, there's several things I've started but haven't
finished yet, like the XMV/WMV decoder which is currently still
missing support for p-frames and j-frames; or a NWScript decompiler
based on the ScummVM decompiler GSoC 2010 task. Those are not easy
starting points at all, need prior knowledge of certain things and
will probably take a considerable time to get into.
Even worse starting points would be complex things I've looked into a
bit, because those will be needed in the future. For example support
for Granny, FaceFX and SpeedTree for NWN2, and FMOD banks and events
for several later games.
Of course, if you have a knack for any of these, you are free to take
them on.


Hope that helps
	Sven
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 198 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
URL: <http://xoreos.org/pipermail/xoreos-devel/attachments/20120912/a8ba131c/attachment.pgp>