ZGE interview on 3d-test.com

[VilleK]

http://www.3d-test.com/interviews/ZGameEditor_1.htm

They've formatted the text a bit odd so I repeat the interview here for easier reading:

Q1. ZGame editor can create lightweight games : is it true that you can build 64 kb games?

Yes ZGameEditor (ZGE) generates executables that optionally can be compressed using Upx-compressor. Currently an empty application compresses to around 30kb which leaves plenty of room up to 64kb if you use procedural content generation of graphics and audio.

Q2. In a context where program footprints are always larger ; why is it so important for you to produce optimized programs?

It is to prove a point. If developers just gave a little thought about footprint and efficiency then programs would not need to grow as much as they do. ZGE is definitely not built in optimized assembler or anything wild like that, instead it use a clean modern and structured object oriented design with readable and highly modularized source code. So you don't need to be an optimization expert to make efficient software, you just need a little bit of knowledge about the technology you use so you can pick the path that leads to the smallest footprint. This would make all the software we use much faster so we would not need to upgrade hardware as often.

The race to upgrade is driven by the hardware industry. It's always the same procedure for me: I buy a new PC once every three years. This PC has got specifications that are 4 times more powerful than the one I had before. All software runs lighting fast. Then a couple of years later the software has become too slow to use so I need to upgrade the hardware again. Simple maths would then suggest that the software I use have become at least 4 times more demanding in memory and cpu requirements during this time, and yet I sure haven't noticed any improvements in the software that would justify this increase.

For at least the last 10 years personal computers are really ridiculously overpowered for the tasks most people use them for: surfing the web, email and office applications. So the software houses try to think up new features that will use the extra performance and motivate people to upgrade the software. But in reality I cannot think of a single feature in those software packages that I really need. Instead I upgrade my computer because later software are more compatible with the ever-changing environment of internet standards and also because they keep fixing security holes (as well as introducing new ones of course). So I upgrade because the old software deteriorates, not because I need any new features.

So to summarize you could say that software like ZGE exists to remind people that software can be small and efficient. There is no need to swell with unnecessary features just to fill the limits of the current hardware. On the Linux platform people are much better making use of limited hardware and of course on mobile devices this is always an important concern.

Q3. Is ZGame Editor capable of displaying rich graphics 3D objects ?

Yes, you can generate complex 3d-objects using procedural techniques. Either by using the built-in components or by typing mathematical expressions. You can also import geometry from files.

Q4. What is the typical workflow with ZGame Editor (importing 3d assets, programing, generating exe...)?

It works best with a iterative approach. Say you want to create a game. You create some content you want to use, perhaps using simple placeholder graphics to start with, add some scripting to make it interactive and then when you are pleased with the result you can fine tune the content and adding detail.

ZGE does not enforce any specific order of tasks so you can work in any order you want. Perhaps you want to start with designing the sound effects, or developing a fragment shader, or simply choosing the colors of the background. All changes to the content are displayed in realtime in the ZGE designer. You can also at any time generate an exe-file, just press F9 and you instantly have a freely distributable self-contained executable.

Q5. What is the language of ZGame Editor?

ZGE use a simple scripting language based on C-syntax. It currently supports strings, integers and floating point datatypes. You can write your own functions or import functionality from external DLL-files.

You can read about the details here:

http://www.zgameeditor.org/index.php/Ma ... xpressions

Q6. As a very optimized engine, do you target embedded devices or web publishing?

ZGE can currently generate executables for Windows, Linux and OS X. The ZGE runtime is very portable because it use no other external references except OpenGL, so we are investigating other platforms. It is important to note that ZGE is a non-profit driven project completely developed by enthusiasts in their spare time. The source code is free and we welcome anyone to help in making ZGE a better product.

Q7. What is you plans for the next release?

There is no large scale roadmap. We just pick the features that seem like a logical step to the next release. The scripting language needs more functionality so that is highly prioritized, also we could support more features of the latest OpenGL standards, and we must also think of additions that can make ZGE more intuitive to use.

[kattle87]

nice shot Ville! Hope we can get an array declaration and array in functions by release 2.0... Do you think this will be feasible? That would give the last big bit missing to scripts IMO.
Then we can try to publicize ZGE by any means I think!