Some questions before I start

Game Engine Game Engine Support and Discussion
#1

This topic, contains a lot of usefull stuff for beginning BGE (blender game engine) users.
I will post all usefull stuff I find here, so you can read it, instead of wasting time searching for it on the forum and internet.

One important thing I wanted to squeeze into here, before you move up to other stuff.
BGE uses python (coding language, that you also can use to create your own plugins for blender itself) and logic brics (visual way of letting your objects/characters do stuff in your game).

Here is your start to BGE python scripting language:
http://solarlune-gameup.blogspot.com/search/label/BGE%20Tutorials

Here is your start to logic brics:
BGE logic: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.5/Manual/Game_Engine/Logic
BGE properties: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.5/Manual/Game_Engine/Logic/Properties
BGE sensors: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.5/Manual/Game_Engine/Logic/Sensors
BGE sensor types: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.5/Manual/Game_Engine/Logic/Sensors/Types
BGE controllers: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.5/Manual/Game_Engine/Logic/Controllers
BGE actuators: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.5/Manual/Game_Engine/Logic/Actuators

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Hi,
I am currently working on a game for small children to learn new words. It would be great to have the game work on Windows, Mac, iPhone and iPad. Is this possible in blender, or do I need another tool for that. And Windows, Mac and Linux, are those supported?

Also another simple question: I wanted to create a torus, that rotates exactly 20 degrees left after the left arrow was pressed.
So what I did was a keybord imput that starts a simple movement 20 degrees arround z. I also added a delay of 10 blender ticks, set it to reverse. I linked the keyboard imput and delay to an and, and linked the and to the movement. The result was a torus that started rotating when the left key was pressed, after 1-2 seconds delay. Yet, the movement was constant… I need it to rotate exactly 20 degrees and then stop some time, before it can be re-activated and rotate 20 degrees again (the final result will be a plane, with some objects on it. When pressing the left arrow, the next object will rotate inside the camera view).

Daniel

#2

Windows, Mac, and Linux are supported by Blender, but not iPhone or iPad. The GameKit can export to iPhone, I believe, though it will require coding in C++.

As for the torus turning, perhaps you should use Tap, or not set the true [’’’] or false pulse sensor settings.

#3

Well to make a game run on iPad or iPhone you can put your blender game into Ogre 3d and from there you can make it a iPad/iPhone game.

#4

SolarLune: thank you! The tab was exaclty what I needed. I think I need to dive into the engine docs. Is there by the way a good digital book or good video tutorial on the net for learning BGE?

Zbryanz: where can I find info on the procedure of getting a BGE game into Orge? Is it (I hope so :wink: ) a simple import, or a complex process involving a lot of scripting?

#5

There are a lot of BGE tutorials online if you Google for them. I myself have quite a few tutorials on the BGE, but they’re of Python coding.

#6

SolarLune: Ah, yes I see. I have visited your site (SolarLune Games), but skipped to see the two sites below :wink:
Super game you are making! And now I also see the tutorials.
That is coding. Should be very usefull. But are there also good tutorial sites like blendercooky? I found there tuts there: http://www.blendercookie.com/category/all/tutorials/game-engine/
But those are just few…

Also I was searching for GUI in Blender. Now I know there are two methods: BGUI (http://code.google.com/p/bgui/wiki/GettingStarted) or making a scene overlay. Since BGUI is jet just a little bit uncomprehensable for me (lot of coding), how to do the scene overlay? What I look for is:
1 Create a plane with ortho view camera
2 When user clicks the plane, rotate the object that is in front of the camera…
Whait, that still requires coding… Because the visual click system would not know that object to rotate. :frowning:

#7

Seems the tutorials of blendercookie show a lot (also how to make a main menu). Still i am searching how to blend two scenes in one. Could anybody explain where I can find how to do it.

#8

‘Blend two scenes in one’? Do you mean link or append objects between scenes? This tutorial should work.

#9

Seems I got the answer before I read your post.
What I did, was screate a new scene (top of the screen). Next created a camera. In the camera settings set it to Orthographic. Next I created a plane with texture and aligned it to the camera view, so it did fit OK. Next I did some logics with the plane active.
Back in the old scene I selected the camera. Added an always sensor -> and -> Scene, Add overlay scene (and select the scene you made).

Le’ts see if it corresponds to your tutorial…
I also managed to do a nice roll out menu now! Getting the hang of this finaly. I will post a small youtube soon.

#10

Now I added an escape game option using the ESC key. Just select your camera and in game logic editor: Keybord (set key to esc) -> and -> Game, quit game.

(i am not spamming, just collecting some usefull things in this post for newbies to read).

#11

It should do that by default?

#12

Of course, almost all of the players often ignore that! You do gain so many ideas, hope you good luck and enjoy your stay here!

#13

@Verdec - Yes, the ESC key automatically exits the BGE. However, if you override it with your own ESC key Keyboard sensor, then you can make it do something else, like back out of a certain dialog or display an ‘Are you sure you want to quit?’ screen.

#14

OK, I did not know. I made the system in case I could not exit my project.

Now let’s see how exporting to an exe works. I guess that when I need a Mac version, I need to save it as executable on a Mac? Good I have an old one :wink:
Hmm… I just did File -> pack all. I enabled the addon for exporting a game to exe and exported it. But i got errors and no files were created. I wanted the exe in a new, clean folder… Now I read something about needing dll’s. Do I need to copy some dll’s to the folder prior to exporting the game? Or how does this work in blender 2.5? The link to the dll’s in the sticked post does not work… Wait, I see that in the newer versions it automaticly copies the dll’s. Still I get the following error:

http://www.gamesatnight.com/share_files/error.gif

Getting to that point: what are blender’s system requirements for games. Do my customers need to download some plugins or updates before they can run the game (like install python)? And I still would like to know where to read on how to get my game on iPad and iPhone.

After I have the basic system working (getting very far now), i will have to model some more, before I can make a first release.

#15

I’m not exactly sure about exporting runtimes on a Mac, but I think that there aren’t any system requirements to run Blender games - I thought that with the bundled DLLs (for Windows) and the included Python installation, it should run right out of the box.

#16

OK, that is cool.
Anybody know what is going on with the error?

#17

Thank you zbryanz! I have looked into it and it seems fair enough to understand. What I see is that it basicly is even better to use it standard, because it will have direct support for all of the platforms. But I will have to experiment with it first. I also need to see if it is compatible with the latest version of blender.

About the error: anybody knows what the cause is? (http://www.gamesatnight.com/share_files/error.gif

#18

In some other post, I found this as an answer to the error. I will have to check it out when back from work

Find the Blender EXE and right click it. Go to properties, and somewhere in a section like “compatability” the is a check box that says 'run as administrator. Check that, press ok and double click the exe. Now open and export to exe as normal.
That should work

#19

Yep it worked! But those dll’s take a lot of MB’s. 29 MB for only dll’s… And how to get rid of the upper and lower bar in the final compiled product? Is that because of the game reder settings 640x480?

#20

That I think is a bug.

As an alternative to .exe I would make a small script, that download the official blenderplayer if not found (in right version), download the game (as a zip or something), unpack, maybe add start menus and start the game.

That way You only need to distribute the zip and a tiny script Yourself.