Jing Chan

Progress Report (December, 2002)

Plan:
Research for the creation of an OpenGL window has not been completed since the last iteration report. Research and development in this area will continue. Also, a game loop has been created to compensate for different system speeds while maintaining the same game mechanics across platforms.

Design:
The OpenGL window creation is self-explainatory and has already been described in the previous progress report.

It is important to create a game loop that compensates for system speed so that the game does not run faster on one computer than it does on another. This is especially important in a multiplayer game, because computers must be synchronized for the game to be enjoyable. If left unsyncronized, then certain players could run, jump, attack, etc. faster than another player, giving them an unfair advantage.

The way the program handles this is by running an infinite loop that does this in order:
check_time;
if(enough_time_has_passed)
update_scene_by_time_step;

Coding:
The code for the OpenGL portion of this code does not deal much with the project, itself.
Code relavent for the game loop can be found here (Linux System Code) and here (Global Game Routines).
(Note: Code not dealing with this topic has been deleted for clarity)

Testing:
This program is not in a testable phase, currently.

Users:
This step is important because it enables users of average machinery to have an equal playing field with users owning top-of-the-line computer equipment. Though realistically, those with better computers still have an advantage, those advantages don't interfere with the game's dynamics and physics.

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