Improved support for writing games using Qt

troubalex · wrote on 29 Jul 2010, 11:19

Has anyone thought about filing a wishlist bug if there is some common agreement on the topic?

perim · wrote on 14 Aug 2010, 14:27

The most basic thing that people seem to agree is missing is the ability to change screen resolution. It has been suggested at least twice before in the bug tracker and each time been closed: "http://bugreports.qt.nokia.com/browse/QTBUG-3049":http://bugreports.qt.nokia.com/browse/QTBUG-3049 and "http://bugreports.qt.nokia.com/browse/QTBUG-95":http://bugreports.qt.nokia.com/browse/QTBUG-95 Should I open another one?

As for 3D audio, as was mentioned above, it would be nice with a platform independent way to initialize an OpenAL context through Qt. It is already supposed to be cross-platform, but each platform/driver combination appears to have its own unique series of OpenAL bugs and quirks.

kleimola · wrote on 14 Aug 2010, 17:14

Maybe we should start a wiki page about wished features for game development purposes. And maybe divide it to integration/bindings to other libraries and native implementation requests.

dragor · wrote on 16 Aug 2010, 20:04

I've been using Qt to create my game engine for years now. There are definitely features missing that I would love. Fullscreen support is a big one. One of those bugs linked above was due to a request I made. It seems like it won't be done. I've had to do fullscreen support myself on Linux/mac/windows. It's possible to go around Qt to do it, but it's very annoying. About 95% of the time I spent doing the mac port of my engine was working on the fullscreen mode.

Another feature would be Joystick/joypad support. I was able to get around that by using SDLs Joystick module. It was written in such a way that Joystick module can be used without touching any other part of SDL. For anyone needing joysticks, use SDL.

Another issue I've ran into was support for keymaps. In Qt, there's no way to answer "Is this x pressed or released?". The same goes for the mouse buttons. When I talked to the trolls about this, they said the need for keymaps was not strong enough to add support for it. Afterall, it's a hairy thing to do in a crossplatform way. I was able to add this feature myself that suits 99% of my uses cases. So it is possible to get working.

perim · wrote on 16 Aug 2010, 20:16

Would you be interested in sharing some of that lower level portability-related code? It might be an idea that those of us interested in writing (or porting) Qt-based games could cooperate on a low-level Qt game library to work around some of Qt's shortcomings in this area.

dragor · wrote on 17 Aug 2010, 16:22

Absolutely perim. I plan on GPLing the code once I get around to it. There's too much on my plate right now though.

Taamalus · wrote on 31 Oct 2010, 00:20

I'm not sure if I understand the concept of the thread here, but for the first week using QT Creator, I've got more than enough to make games. I imported three different game engines and rendering tools. My focus are AI routines and character development. For that, the IDE has to be able to simulate the game during debugging, and so far it works, better than I thought, since we are dealing with GDB.

Where ever QT want to go, I hope they keep up the good work and stay flexible in being cross platform and enhance the debugger further. A fly-out window would be nice to have, so I can compare logs quicker. We've got many game makers (engines). You can pick one up for $0 to $100k, or more, and none have a debugging device, they must think all programmers are perfect. A good debugger, that gives intelligent data about threads, stacks, pointers, variables, function call backs and what not, well, how many are available? - Just my opinion, if of topic ignore or delete. Thanks :D

kleimola · wrote on 31 Oct 2010, 07:42

Well said, thank you. Did you import open source libraries and tools or proprietary? Can you name some good ones you have been using?

Taamalus · wrote on 31 Oct 2010, 21:59

Hello Johannes!
There are a lot of engines around. All I can do is state how I selected mine. Make a list of the essential features you need, and Google with those key words. The result for me was Irrlicht, Ogre and Misfit 3D. Those could be completely useless for other people, but is exactly what I need right now.

If you're serious about making a game and got a team, my pick is then the Havok sets of tools. Halo is good sample game, on what the SDK can do. This is very much proprietary, but compared to my neighbour's hobbies still a bargain, and I can play it year around. :D

marsupial · wrote on 1 Nov 2010, 21:37

Hi,

I have good experiences combining Qt with other libraries as well.
Right now I'm working on a project involving Qt and Irrlicht and, although it took some time to get everything right and good-looking, it works.

As far as i know there also have been projects combining Qt and Ogre, but I have no experience with that.

Nevertheless I think for mobile platforms it probably isn't that easy. So here might be potential for extending Qt.

Taamalus · wrote on 2 Nov 2010, 01:09

Ah, another Irrlicht user! Great! :D Speaking of Ogre – it does have support for iPhone build in. And you can use Ogre with Irrlicht by incorporating their classes into it. Topped with a superior IDE like QT Creator, the sky is the limit. I can't get over it how good this IDE turns out to be. - I have not touched the QT mobile set, yet, judging by how they made the main IDE, it's probably flexible enough to make a simple port into it, but if they have room to make more simple, why not? :)

evelynz8735 · wrote on 11 Nov 2010, 09:00

(deleted, mariusg)

kamalakshantv · wrote on 13 Nov 2010, 19:19

[quote author="evelynz8735" date="1289466057"]
[quote author="Johannes Kleimola" date="1277375306"]Andreas wrote a nice "blog(blog)":http://labs.trolltech.com/blogs/2009/09/16/improved-support-for-writing-games-using-qt/ with the above topic and triggered a lot of comments and ideas from people. I wonder if that discussion is still pounding in the back heads of trolls or if it was silently buried to deepest of dungeons?[/quote]

Thanks you for the post.
Hi guys, Im a newbie. Nice to join this forum.

[/quote]

Seems to be a spam - why would someone link to watch movies online here?

Taamalus · wrote on 14 Nov 2010, 05:38

Simply ignore spam, and better not quote the actual post, thus the moderators can make a clean sweap when they've got a moment.

Anyway, back to the topic, I just made a remake of Tetris on my very own phone. All I can say, thank you Nokia! :D Now back to learning the controls, it's different than a Joystick :D but it is exciting!

chakie · wrote on 3 Jan 2011, 21:44

Another thing that is nice for games is some way to play sound effects, such as short wav files. Low latency, easy to use is key here.

Support for spritesheets (aka. texture atlases) would also be nice to speed up loading lots of sprites.