Is Leadwerks Completly managed by code?

[Andrew Rowe]

I am wanting to transfer the whole application to XNA game studio, but i dont know if you can and it will work. you see, we are wanting to make indie games for xbox live and we were wondering if you could move all assets and code to XNA from here when we are done. I know that we are writing in the right language because XNA runs in C#.

Thanks, B)

Bloody Rose Games Inc.

[Canardia]

You can do it like Naughty Alien did: write a wrapper for XNA which accepts LE commands. Assets should not be a problem since you have UU3D Pro.

[Andrew Rowe]

You can do it like Naughty Alien did: write a wrapper for XNA which accepts LE commands. Assets should not be a problem since you have UU3D Pro.

 

So, im not the programmer, im the level designer and founder of the company, but if my programmer did, would levels, charactors, and all art assets be compatable with XNA since its written in a different file format?

[Canardia]

Of course, because you have all your editable files in FBX or some other editable format. LE only uses a binary read only format (GMF), and you always need the original FBX file, else you can't edit the model.

[AggrorJorn]

I think if your programmer would be joing this topic as well it might be a litlle more less confusing. B)

Good luck with your project.

[Laurens]

If you wish to publish to the XBox you will need to port the entire engine over to XNA. Writing a wrapper that uses the original engine DLL will run on the PC without a problem but Leadwerks does not run on XBox.

 

And it would indeed make more sense to get your programmer in here B)

 

Cheers!

[Canardia]

With wrapper I meant a pure source code wrapper. So you can program in Leadwerks syntax, and it executes XNA commands. You can also use the same game source then in Leadwerks for PC and XBOX, which saves a lot of time, money and debugging.

[Laurens]

Now I come to think of it, even if you were able to get it going there is still going to be the issue of shaders. Leadwerks uses GLSL. XNA uses HLSL. I wouldn't know how difficult it would be to port that over though, as I have zero experience coding shaders.

[Canardia]

I don't think you need to care about shaders, since XNA has probably exactly the same features in their shaders: diffuse, bumpmap, specular, parallax, and all the postshaders.

[Laurens]

XNA doesn't come with any shaders. Well, it comes with one but as far as I recall it only supports directional lighting and a diffuse map. BasicEffect it's called.

[Canardia]

Well, not the core XNA, but there is XNA Framework, XNA Game Studio 2.0, etc...

[Laurens]

Neither of those have shaders included. Before I came to Leadwerks I played around with XNA a lot. There is a limited number in the form of tutorials on the Creators Club website though.

[Canardia]

Well, then you can find the shaders on Google. I just looked a bit and there seems to be some working examples.

[Andrew Rowe]

If you wish to publish to the XBox you will need to port the entire engine over to XNA. Writing a wrapper that uses the original engine DLL will run on the PC without a problem but Leadwerks does not run on XBox.

 

And it would indeed make more sense to get your programmer in here B)

 

Cheers!

All we need to do is make everything incept for the controls for the controller becuause XNA has that built in, so when we transfer, all is needed is a few commands that tell what the contoller has to do for each part of the game. By the way, my company is a bunch of teens lol.

[Canardia]

It's good to have teens in the company, because by the time you finish a game with XNA they'll be 60 B)

[Andrew Rowe]

It's good to have teens in the company, because by the time you finish a game with XNA they'll be 60 B)

thats funny, but if everything is already done with LE, Ive seen how easy it is to make the controls with every console, maybe 20-50 lines of code on average.

[Laurens]

All we need (... stuff)

 

Let me reiterate, you will need to implement all Leadwerks commands in XNA to have it run on XBox. I'm not sure I understand why you are thinking about licensing Leadwerks if all you are doing is using the syntax. The wiki is open for everyone to look at the command set.

 

Maybe I am misunderstanding what you are trying to do, in which case, please set me straight B)

[Andrew Rowe]

Let me reiterate, you will need to implement all Leadwerks commands in XNA to have it run on XBox. I'm not sure I understand why you are thinking about licensing Leadwerks if all you are doing is using the syntax. The wiki is open for everyone to look at the command set.

 

Maybe I am misunderstanding what you are trying to do, in which case, please set me straight B)

We are developing the basis of the game with LE, then we transform it into an indie game, what some people dont know, is that you still get % of sales with indie games even though it isnt a full title.

[Canardia]

You still need Leadwerks to run the game on PC. Nobody will buy a game which is published only on XBOX or PS3. Red Dead Redemption did the mistake, and I didn't buy it, even though I own a PS3. I don't buy games which are not available on PC, because they are obviously more interested in destroying the PC gaming than making games.

[Andrew Rowe]

You still need Leadwerks to run the game on PC. Nobody will buy a game which is published only on XBOX or PS3. Red Dead Redemption did the mistake, and I didn't buy it, even though I own a PS3. I don't buy games which are not available on PC, because they are obviously more interested in destroying the PC gaming than making games.

yeah i see what you mean, we are making it for the PC also, I have someone setting up a site so that if you sign up, well send you the game once you pay, or in the email.

[Canardia]

Sounds good! B)

[Andrew Rowe]

Sounds good! B)

yup i just hope my xbox live account can get the word out so that people can try it.

[Laurens]

So basically you are looking at creating a fully fledged game engine in XNA that mimics the Leadwerks command set.

 

Sir, I wish you good luck B)

[Canardia]

I don't think you need to implement all LE features, as the XBOX and PS3 are basically like low-end PCs. You just need basic things, like models, physics, sounds. You can't have huge vegetation, since even CryENGINE3 can't do that on consoles, and you can't have full dynamic lights and shadows either, probably just a few lights with scissored shadows (no self shadowing of models).

 

In addition you need to do the old school style game development on consoles, where you fake everything what the player doesn't need to know or see. In LE you can develop just as things really are, and save a lot of time by skipping the faking process.

[Laurens]

I imagine that would still be a huge task B)