Question Engine Version and APIs.

Do you wish to see the engine and OpenGL versions publicly shown within the launcher and main menu?

  • Yes.

  • No.

  • Maybe? I'm not sure on this one.

  • What are you even talking about?


Results are only viewable after voting.
Greetings. While I am not used to working with these forums, please bear with me on this one.

While browsing around and doing a bit of research on TLOPO, I had found that its version of Panda3D (the game engine used to develop POTCO and by extension TLOPO with it being a private server of the former) was not clearly specified. I assumed then that, given the age of the game, it was clearly not the latest version of the engine (Version 1.9.4 as of several months ago), nor was the OpenGL API used for obvious reasons.

That being said, I would like to know three things in regard to the engine itself:
1. What version of the engine is being used by the game as of now, and whether it can be publicly displayed on the game's launcher with the Server and Launcher versions.

2. Whether this version can be updated to the most recent version of Panda3D, and if doing so is in the best interests of the dev team.

3. What version of OpenGL is implemented with the currently assumed to be quite old version of the engine, whether it can be publicly shown in the Display Options section of the launcher alongside the experimental DirectX 9 version which has yet to be fully implemented, and whether it can be upgraded if it is not currently using OpenGL 4.3 or more preferably 4.4, the last versions released before the original POTCO's shutdown.


With this I am posting a poll asking about these, and whether you would like to see the engine upgraded if possible. Also, feel free to share your thoughts on this matter in the comments and such.

Regards,

—Matt.
 
What would be the benefits of seeing the engine version.. I can understand upgrading the engine to make the game perform better but i don't see the point.
 
Seeing the mere information of the engine version would provide players with an immediate understanding of it, and is at the very least one thing the dev team could do if upgrading the engine is far too drastic.

The reason why I propose it first before the idea of upgrading the engine is that it is, in theory, a far easier change to make, whereas rewriting the original engine code to work with a newer engine version and newer APIs is far harder due to the additional time, resources, and funding needed to make this overhaul a reality.
 
Most of the players in this game are children, and people who wouldn't care about a engine version. Considering how old the game is, a newer engine version would be too time consuming and it works pretty well how it is. Sure there's a few crashes hiccups and bugs within the game svs being one of the biggest but all in all it's fine how it is.
 
I understand. I am proposing this in light of upgrading to a newer engine possibly being worthwhile in terms of other improvements, such as overall rendering, taking advantage of x64 standards potentially, and having more options to work with in terms of what to do with the game's assets.

Sadly, I cannot easily say if there is any concrete benefit to upgrading the engine, which is why I put out this ask to receive others' thoughts, as well as hopefully receive feedback from those more versed with these items of note so as to broaden my own understanding.
 
Thing is, doing so in itself is also quite costly time and resource-wise, thus it creates even greater strain on the dev team as a whole. Especially in porting older assets to the game if it is rendered less simple and efficient.
 
Greetings. While I am not used to working with these forums, please bear with me on this one.

While browsing around and doing a bit of research on TLOPO, I had found that its version of Panda3D (the game engine used to develop POTCO and by extension TLOPO with it being a private server of the former) was not clearly specified. I assumed then that, given the age of the game, it was clearly not the latest version of the engine (Version 1.9.4 as of several months ago), nor was the OpenGL API used for obvious reasons.

That being said, I would like to know three things in regard to the engine itself:
1. What version of the engine is being used by the game as of now, and whether it can be publicly displayed on the game's launcher with the Server and Launcher versions.

2. Whether this version can be updated to the most recent version of Panda3D, and if doing so is in the best interests of the dev team.

3. What version of OpenGL is implemented with the currently assumed to be quite old version of the engine, whether it can be publicly shown in the Display Options section of the launcher alongside the experimental DirectX 9 version which has yet to be fully implemented, and whether it can be upgraded if it is not currently using OpenGL 4.3 or more preferably 4.4, the last versions released before the original POTCO's shutdown.


With this I am posting a poll asking about these, and whether you would like to see the engine upgraded if possible. Also, feel free to share your thoughts on this matter in the comments and such.

Regards,

—Matt.

We use a custom stable version of Panda3D, which was tweaked to suit our needs. For that reason, we don't intend to update it any soon.
 
Ah, I see. Thanks for confirming, but, uh, what version of Panda3D does it most closely resemble or is based off of?
I can't give you an exact version number because there isn't one. It's based on multiple stable releases and a bunch of fixes backported from 1.10.0 plus custom stuff.
 
I can't give you an exact version number because there isn't one. It's based on multiple stable releases and a bunch of fixes backported from 1.10.0 plus custom stuff.
Hum. So, just a selectively developed and improved build, with no specifically distinguishable engine version, correct?

Also, I'm not currently aware of this 1.10.0 build. Is it one of the unstable development builds on the Panda3D site?
 
Hum. So, just a selectively developed and improved build, with no specifically distinguishable engine version, correct?

Also, I'm not currently aware of this 1.10.0 build. Is it one of the unstable development builds on the Panda3D site?
It's the build currently being worked on. If you compile it from git the version will be 1.10.0 there are also some SDK builds compiled here.
 
It's the build currently being worked on. If you compile it from git the version will be 1.10.0 there are also some SDK builds compiled here.
Ah, I see. I hadn't found that side of the site, nor did I think it to be relevant, as I believed it was purely for development of Panda3D itself, and, due to its supposed instability, an inadvisable thing to work with at the present time. I'll have to take a look into it.

I will also try to edit the poll to only cover OpenGL itself, as it is a bit easier to tack on a version number to that implementation in my opinion depending on what features are supported and used by the game.

Though, that being said, what even is the highest level/version of OpenGL you have implemented in the game, if that is easier to pin down?
(For instance, if Direct State Access is not used, I would assume it isn't OpenGL 4.5 or uses all of that version's introduced features.)
 
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