Since I started working on Caveland, my commercial game, I could put less work into the open source Wurfel Engine because I have to make a living. The last version I released was v1.3 so this update skippes v1.4 which had been used only internally and therefore this update brings some major changes.
Main features are the improved console including console variables, a simple sound engine, improved split screen support and normal map shading.
The console variables allow changing of the configuration during run time via the in-game console like in many game engines e.g. source engine.
v1.5 expects that you use normal map based shading. Vertex based shading is still included but it is currently too dark.
The quality of the documentation is currently not very good because of the reasons stated above.
Therefore you maybe prefer v1.3, which you can download in the download section. I still recommend to use v1.5.
I recently published an article on gamasutra on the technology used in Wurfel Engine. The new chunk format mentioned there can be found in v1.5.
Change log
v1.5
- improved console GUI
- reimplemented basic vertext shading (not properly working again), use normal map rendering instead
- added upper limit to game objects to be rendered
- fixed visuals of basic main menu
- improved CPU performance
- fixed bug with wrong clipping for second camera
- drastically reduced memory size for chunks
V1.4
- added CVar system
- added support for multiple views on completly different places on the map
- rewrote chunk handling
- improved z value of coordinate class
- improved chunk loading speed
- improved music handling
- added simple sound engine for volume control based on position
- replaced intelligent hidden surface removal by simple algorithm
- added normal map rendering
- deprecated vertex based rendering
- added Wurfel Engine intro screen
- added support for separate tools for left and right mouse button in map editor
- added entity selection tool to map editor tools
