97 lines
4.8 KiB
C++
97 lines
4.8 KiB
C++
/** \file documentation.h \mainpage Main Page
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*
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* This is the documentation of Engine -- a game engine without a name.
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*
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* \section General Information
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*
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* To get an overview over the most important functions and classes have a
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* look at Engine. For the structure of the Engine look at Engine::Engine. In
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* \ref usecases you find documentation on how things are supposed to work and
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* what the ideas behind certain designs is.
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*
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* \section Physics
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*
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* So far we only use a very simple physics system which is mostly defined by
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* the Engine::Physics class. It uses the coll2d collision library. Collision
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* response so far only tries to prevent interpenetration.
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*
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* \section Networking
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*
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* For easier networking it is assumed that everything runs over a network.
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* The game itself is rather a smart client to a simple synchronization
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* protocol. What is being synchronized is the game state and the client
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* simply displays the current state it knows. The client is "smart" as it
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* tries to guess what the next state will be.
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*
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* For networking we want to use Enet http://enet.bespin.org/.
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*
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* Notes for networking: At
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* http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=550962 is an
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* interesting thread about modeling the updates. Especially the answer of
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* Antheus at http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/viewreply.asp?ID=3546077
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* describes two fundamental models:
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*
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* Level Triggering (GoF Observer Pattern): Entity A sends its changes to the
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* Observer pattern and all objects that are interested in the state of Entity
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* A get notfied by the observer.
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*
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* Edge Triggering: For each Entity A the Observer B is interested, it stores
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* a flag for a value it is interested in (e.g. one for position, one for
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* velocity, etc.). When Entity A modifies one of the values it notifies the
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* observer that its current state has changed and the Observer sets the flag
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* to "dirty". Anyone interested in events polls at the Observer and decides
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* what to do with it. When the value is queried, the Observer reads the value
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* from the Entity and clears the flag.
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*
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* For networking a combination can be used: During the simulation loop only
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* Edge Triggering is performed and at the end of it, all dirty States get
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* sent over the network.
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*
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* When notifying events such as "Add new Entity X" the user tomv describes at
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* http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/viewreply.asp?ID=3545586 a method
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* to circumvent these messages. Instead, the server simply sends out updates
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* about the Entities around a player where close Entities are updated more
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* frequently than ones that are further away. It simply sends "Entity X
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* changed by D". If a client does not know what the Entity X is, it queries
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* the type and current state of the Entity X and therefore reconstructs the
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* surroundings step-by-step. It is also robust against dropped messages of
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* the form "Add new Entity X".
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*
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* At tomvas model there are some problems: How are events "Delete Entity X"
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* handled? How to handle malicious clients that request the state of all
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* Entities? (Solution for the last question: Request Queues).
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*
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* Kylotan cals tomvas model as a unreliable system for generic state
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* [synchronization?] (http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/viewreply.asp?ID=3548662).
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* Additionally he mentions that it can increase occurences of short term
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* unsynchronous states and reccomends using some reliable message passing.
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*
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* \section ToDos
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*
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* This is a loose list of items that are to be implemented. For a list of all
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* todos within the code have a look at the \ref todo.
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*
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* \todo [high] Create a simple racing or asteroids game
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* \todo [med] Clear all references of EntityVisualState and EntityGameState
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* \todo [med] Clarify functionalities of CreateEntity, KillEntity, RegisterEntity, UnregisterEntity (which frees memory, which does only change the state of the Model?)
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* \todo [med] Add basic networking
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* \todo [med] Add serialization
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* \todo [med] Add cal3d support
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* \todo [med] Smooth Physics at convex collisions (somehow there is jitter)
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* \todo [med] Create better collsion response
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* \todo [med] In rare cases two Actors can penetrate each other (probably at slow velocities)
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* \todo [low] Add a timer object to keep track of what is sucking performance.
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* \todo [low] Add a inspector widget that shows information about a selected Entity
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* \todo [low] Use a std::map<string, string> as initialization parameters for
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* Engine::Module::Init()
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*
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* Done:
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* - [high] In Physics remove dependancy on the Model to pass on collision
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* events
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* - [high] Fix Physics bug when two actors collide actively (i.e. velocity
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* towards each other)
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* - [med] Better Game Input so that each Entity has its own ControllerState
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* that can be modified
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* - [med] (31-01-2009) Add support for loading levels (and saving!)
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*/
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