Distribution

So, I have made some pretty decent progress the last day or so on the engine. I finally finished the in game command console keyboard input handling. I simply added a repeat feature for keys being held down as well as encapsulating the functionality into a class. This also got me thinking about how to structure the rest of the states.

Ideally, when the engine is complete, I want it to be able to be sort of a generic piece of software that the developer can use to extend things upon. Of course for my current level of skill this is very challenging for me to come up with concrete designs to actually implement. I have general ideas of how to accomplish certain design goals, but at the same time the more complete versions of certain features and the way things are handled with be an evolutionary development process. This also comes down to me wanting to start dealing with game objects, getting shit on the screen, as well as diving into data management and eventually developing into the engines scenegraph. All of which I have no experience with at this point.

On top of these issues I was finally able to get an understanding of side by side assemblies and packaged an application for deployment for the first time today. It was pretty educational. Up until this point in my coding career, most things I've written have been standalone console applications so I never really had need for a deployment system. Also prior to windows xp it wasn't a requirement to use such a distribution process.

Anyone out there having similar issues or wanting to learn more about the process in VS2005 should check out Deployment Walkthroughs

Looking a head over the next couple of days, I am going to be concentrating on finishing up some base object classes, after which, I will have to make a decision either to build a game prototype(demo) with the engine in it's current state or continue to add more functionality into the engine. I also still need to begin writing the interfaces for python scripting, write the camera classes, light classes, and a host of other things yet to be completed.