Cocos2d-x Improved Particle System and Editor (Demand Analysis)

First, I declare that with my understanding of the game engine and my familiarity with graphics, this article is more about speculation and clear directions. I don't have much hope for it. However, many times you know the direction, so you can finish it step by step. Sometimes things that are difficult now may feel appropriate in the near future.

First of all, Let's explain why we want cocos2d-x to become a perfect 2.5D game engine.

At a very early time I had a variety of sprees on the cocos2d-x, and I had to write a 2.5D game engine myself. But later I want to come, a lot of unhappy may be more habits, with the development of cocos2d-x is getting better and better, I also use the familiar, but not so much can vomit slot place.

The UI system is also complete, and the text rendering efficiency problem is also solved (it seems that the cache mechanism of FreeType is used, which is different from what I previously understood to use a whole large texture for caching, it can be determined only after testing, but at least it is not a short board). Although manual reference counting is still a bit disgusting, most code has moved closer to C ++, the overall performance of the engine has also been greatly improved. The new multi-threaded rendering also makes the engine architecture more flexible.

Now, using cocos2d-x to develop 2D or 2.5D games should be the right option. On the one hand because of the familiar, so more comfortable, on the other hand, cocos2d-x in cross-platform, 2D game development and model adaptation has been very mature. There are many open-source 2D/3D engines, which may look good and meet the needs of game development. However, if not many games use these engines for development, if there is no successful masterpiece, these engines will always have only learning value, but not practical value. Because the use of engines that have not been tested by the market may be risky, there may be endless pitfalls, and project delays or even overwrites and retries. Basically, no one can take such responsibilities.

Using unity is also a good choice. However, if we talk about the 2.5D engine, it is far simpler than we think. More work is not about the engine, but about the game framework. At this time, of course, you should be familiar with which engine to use.

I 've always wanted to improve the Particle System of the cocos2d-x. If the current particle system is a 2D particle system, a 3D particle system must be added. Skill effects, character, or weapon light effects all require a complete particle system.

The new particle system should include the following features:

1. 3D particle systems, I .e. deep, can be used together with models.

2. The framework is complete and the editor is complete.

3. multi-system nesting and Particle System editing are supported. Basically, no special effect can be done by a particle system. A fireworks effect requires smoke, flame, and Mars. Therefore, the editor must support multi-subsystem combination editing.

4. The particle system can be combined with Model Animation and frame animation. Many special effects are not fixed by simply transmitting particles. For example, a skill blade involves the animation of an image frame.

5. Supports physical systems. Basically, box2d cannot be implemented. You should add physix. This will be used in many special effects, such as rock or corpse cracking effect, flowing rock dissolution, water flow, and so on.

6. Most numerical parameters can adjust the variation curve to produce more complex results.

7. Supports the drag-and-tail effect. Many special effects also need to be dragged to the end and brought to the performance by light.

Now we can see that a particle system with a complete editor is based on the Ogre particle universe, meeting most of the requirements I mentioned above. torch light also uses this system to make special effects. How to embed this framework into the cocos2d-x is a relatively troublesome thing.

If you can make good use of this editor, you will not worry about making special effects, because the torch has a lot of cool special effects to learn and reference. In addition, if the unity particle system is compatible with this system, it will be perfect. Of course, this may be because I think too much, but I am still hungry, and I want to make 5 million yuan.

Zookeeper

Cocos2d-x Improved Particle System and Editor (Demand Analysis)