Wii Opera SDK and HullBreach MMO RPG

I've set up a blog at http://blog.wiioperasdk.com to focus solely on making software for the Internet Channel on the Wii. The blog will consist of articles that benefit developers.

Many of the Wii Opera SDK demos have been captured to video and placed on YouTube for those who cannot get online with the Wii and who have a Web browser that can't handle HTML5 standards (ex. Internet Explorer). The videos are under http://www.youtube.com/breakdancecrew.

Since I have not posted to this blog in a while, it may seem like my projects have sat dormant. Since that is far from the case, I felt that I should give an update on the status of a few projects:

HULLBREACH ONLINE
For the most part, HB has seen little more than bug fixes over the past two months. For what the game does, no technology supported by the Internet Channel will allow me to push the bounds further without considerably hurting the framerate. In the HB forums, several gamers have mentioned that they'd like to see a WiiWare version. Well, I'm already one step ahead of them. I've applied for developer status to Nintendo with a local software company. That was in late January, and warioworld.com says to expect a fee months to hear a response. I'm just playing the waiting game now.

WII OPERA SDK
For the past month, I've been dabbling in raytracing in both JavaScript and C++. Although raytracing itself is very slow (yet produces graphical results well beyond traditional rasterization methods), I am going to attempt to incorporate a hybrid engine into the SDK's flat shading functionality. I believe that I will be able to add realtime shadows to meshes. The possible speed is unknown but will obviously be slower than using just realtime flat shading. I have some other plans for the SDK in the pipeline as well. And of course I keep tweaking it for speed on a weekly basis.

Stay tuned for more upcoming news...

I've just created a new function/method for the Draw class called "drawScene()". By using this instead of a loop of triangle draws, you can get about an extra 50% speed, depending on if you are using wireframe, fill, or both. Here is the setup for the method/function:

null = Draw.drawScene(2DPoly[][x1,y1,x2,y2,x3,y3,r,g,b], style);

"2DPoly[][x1,y1,x2,y2,x3,y3,r,g,b]" is the same argument structure as the return from Draw.getTranslation();

"style" can be a combination of Draw.WIREFRAME (1) or Draw.FILL (2). Those values can be added (+) or bitwise ORed (|) to combine the two values.

Here's an example of a frame drawn to a scene:

ThreeDee.LoadMesh(mesh);
ThreeDee.Backface();
ThreeDee.Shade();
ThreeDee.ZSort();
Draw.drawScene(ThreeDee.GetTranslation(), Draw.WIREFRAME | Draw.FILL);

Version 2 of the Wii Opera SDK has been released today, opening the door for Internet Channel homebrew programmers who wish to delve into 3D game design.

The Wii Opera SDK is an unofficial JavaScript library at http://hullbreachonline.com which has allowed developers to access all four Wii Remotes and unlock the power of the HTML canvas drawing object since mid-2007. Version 2 adds the ability to create 3D games with imported meshes, real-time lighting, explosions, backface culling, and more. In addition, the official website has opened a 3D Mesh Gallery where enthusiasts can create meshes and models of their own to be submitted for inclusion for use and ratings by others. These meshes can be created in 3D modelling programs like Milk Shape then converted for homebrew games.

Two new demos of the SDK in action are available for immediate viewing at http://hullbreachonline.com/sdk/ripple.html and http://hullbreachonline.com/sdk/shooting.html . Those wishing to create games using the Wii Opera SDK can download its components for free at http://hullbreachonline.com/sdk.

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