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Topic: Here a Sphere, there a Sphere, everywhere a Sphere, Sphere... (Read 61039 times) previous topic - next topic
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Here a Sphere, there a Sphere, everywhere a Sphere, Sphere...

I've been away from the community for a while -- back when the only editor and engine available was the original Sphere.  Since then, the amount of Sphere Editors and Engines has exploded and it is a little overwhelming to take in.  I don't know what to investigate and what is a dead-end project.

So, I'm just going to ask:  Is Sphere at the stage where it can support an indie-size commercial RPG project that needs to release for OSX and Windows?  I'm looking to build a solo RPG.  Examples of the scope of what I'd like to accomplish is something like Eschalon or a smaller version of a Spiderweb game.  Can Sphere reasonably create a stable game on that scale?  If so, what downloads do you recommend for Sphere?

Thanks.

Re: Here a Sphere, there a Sphere, everywhere a Sphere, Sphere...

Reply #1 –
I'd still use the tried and true vanilla Sphere editor and engine.

Sphere v1.5: Multi-platform, stable, full featured, can make a large RPG.
Sphere Editor (v1.5): Windows only(?) unless through Wine.

TurboSphere: A fast multiplatform Sphere built on SDL, feature incomplete, unstable, might be used to make something small?
SphereSFML: A 'standards' based Sphere engine, feature incomplete (but highly fleshed out), fairly stable (map engine might crash), can definitely used to make games that use custom code, stuff outside of the map engine.

PixiSphere: A web based S[here engine, highly in it's infant stages. Feature incomplete, stable but inaccurate.

SpheRun: A Sphere games launcher made with node-webkit. A standalone 'browser app' that isd basically a glorified, crossplatform games launcher. (Something that may even extend to mobile devices in the future).

Sphere Studio: A Sphere games editor that's highly mature. Windows only. Feature complete, and has a high rate of use. Not that actively developed right now, but any bug report shall get quickly handled.
If you use code to help you code you can use less code to code. Also, I have approximate knowledge of many things.

Sphere-sfml here
Sphere Studio editor here

Re: Here a Sphere, there a Sphere, everywhere a Sphere, Sphere...

Reply #2 –
Thanks, Radnen.  I'll go with the old 1.5 version to be on the safe side.  You don't happen to know the requirements for Sphere to be installed in Wine?  I use CrossOver which is based on wine but Sphere doesn't start.  Thanks again.

Re: Here a Sphere, there a Sphere, everywhere a Sphere, Sphere...

Reply #3 –
Sphere (the engine) works with just the basic Wine components. The editor requires mfc42.dll (winetricks has it, and I assume CrossOver has something similar to winetricks to get it).

The installer works fine for me with wine, you might try just using the binary distribution if that doesn't work on CrossOver.

Works the same in 1.5 and 1.6 for me.

Re: Here a Sphere, there a Sphere, everywhere a Sphere, Sphere...

Reply #4 –
Thank you!  Found it.  CrossOver has a the MSVC++ Redistributable 6.0 installer.  I just had to install that to the bottle and the editor started fine.  Thanks again.

As a side note, has anyone thought about reimplementing the sphere engine in a Multi-platform language such as Haxe or Monkey?  Wouldn't it give you certain freedoms to not worry about any OS / hardware specific code and automatically give you all of the platforms that so many other projects are working on?  One code to rule them all and all that? :)  If someone has, what were the drawbacks of this approach?

Thanks.

Re: Here a Sphere, there a Sphere, everywhere a Sphere, Sphere...

Reply #5 –
Quote from: redspark – on

As a side note, has anyone thought about reimplementing the sphere engine in a Multi-platform language such as Haxe or Monkey?  Wouldn't it give you certain freedoms to not worry about any OS / hardware specific code and automatically give you all of the platforms that so many other projects are working on?  One code to rule them all and all that? :)  If someone has, what were the drawbacks of this approach?

Thanks.


Sphere 1.5 has OS X binaries available, and is rumored to compile on Linux--certainly Sphere has been compiled on Linux in the past. I've tried, and Corona and Audiere work fine. The biggest issue I ran into is getting a copy of Spidermonkey 1.5 and getting that to work, other than that it seems to all compile.

Re: Here a Sphere, there a Sphere, everywhere a Sphere, Sphere...

Reply #6 –
Thanks, FJ.  Thats good to know.  Although OSX and Windows are all I need, iOS and Android are nice to think about.  That's why I was wondering about Haxe or Monkey.  The great thing about those languages is that they allow you to target new platforms without changing your code at all.  You do need the target setup in the compiler though but once a target is created, it is good for any project.

Re: Here a Sphere, there a Sphere, everywhere a Sphere, Sphere...

Reply #7 –
I suspect the two issues with those languages would be interfacing with a javascript engine and speed.

Re: Here a Sphere, there a Sphere, everywhere a Sphere, Sphere...

Reply #8 –
I don't know about speed (although they both can compile to C++ for native speed, I've never benchmarked them), Haxe does have a Haxe (which is Javascript-like language) parser called hscript.  It should allow you to run Javascript inside a game engine.  What it's performance would be is another matter.  It may suck badly.  However, Haxe has extensions for game development such as OpenFL (previously called NME) and Monkey was designed for game development so I'm sure it is aimed at being good for performance.

I just thought I'd mention the option, just in case it was something someone wanted to consider.  Thanks again for your help.