About
The blueTec Engine is a powerfull game engine providing the developer with an interface to create a drawing, sound and music device in order to create games. The engine is very powerfull and not limited through software so the developer has full control and freedom to design easily games without limitations.
About
The blueTec Engine was developed in order to encourage people with less knowledge in graphic programming to create games. Therefore the blueTec Engine is held as easy and simple as possible so that any developer no matter what skills he has in programming can use this engine without having to take care of all that graphic and sound stuff. Since most developers don’t take the time to go more into any of the graphic API to realize their ideas, this engine will hopefully be a good starting point and will soon find people to try.
Features
The blueTec Engine currently supports the following features:
- surface loading from 16 and 24 bit bmp files
- sound loading from uncompressed wave files (pcm)
- music loading from wave and midi files
Publish games
As an additional attempt to encourage young developers to develop games we provide the possibility to host their games on our website as long as you want us to do this. You developed a game using the blueTec Engine? You have no webspace to upload it? Drop us some lines in the forum on http://www.g-productions.net and we will provide your game for download.
FAQ
Still any questions? Check out the general FAQ or the developers FAQ below in order to get more information.
Download
Download the blueTec_sdk.rar
Features to come
– surface loading from 8, 16, 24 and 32 bit compressed and uncompressed bmp files
– surface loading from 24, 32 bit tga files
– surface loading from pcx files
– sound loading from ogg files
– music loading from ogg files
– music loading from mp3 files (?)
Developers FAQ
I have the MinGW version x.y.z compiler. Can I use the sdk?
The SDK was developed using MinGW 3.2.2 but should also work with 3.1.x Just try and you will find out. If you encounter any problems try another version or drop us some lines.
I try to execute the samples but a message appears “Could not load game api”
In order to minimize the size of the file the dll was not copied into all the sample dirs. To try out the samples just copy the blueTec.dll from the dll folder of the sdk into the sample folders and everything should work fine
I’ve created a new project. After compiling a compile error tells me “blueTec.h: no such file or directory”
Go to your project options. Select the directories folder. Within the folder select Include Directories. Within this you should add the path to the Include directory of the SDK. After that everything should compile fine
I created a new project. After compiling a linker error tells me “cannot find -lblueTec”
Do the same as above for the library folder, but then point to the lib folder of the SDK
I took a look into the header and source files of the sdk. Where are the functions?
You won’t find any. The blueTec Engine was designed so that you are able to perform a dynamic link to the engine api at runtime. This is also called late binding. Not function or class will really be build within your application since this would be static linking exporting the dll’s symbols at compile time. To have dynamic binding we choose the other way like this is done in every modern game engine.
General FAQ
What is the blueTec engine?
The blueTec engine is a game engine supporting a draw device, a sound and a music manager. This engine provides people with less knowledge on graphic and sound programming with some important and usefull tools to create their own games. Now everyone is able to create small little games withouth haveing to take care of all the stuff around a game. You can fully concentrate on your content.
What do I need to use the blueTec engine?
You need to have Dev-Cpp installed or at least the MinGW compiler tools in order to use the blueTec engine. Since it is not necessary to have an IDE installed we recommend you to use Dev-Cpp or MinGW Studio or your favourite IDE. You also need to have a basic knowledge on C++ or at least some general programming skills.
How do I use the blueTec engine?
In order to use the blueTec engine you need to download the blueTec SDK which is available for download on this site. Just download the package and unzip it to your favorite folder. To create a blueTec application (most probably a game) you might want to take a look into the documentation or at least study the example applications which give you a great entry point. We recommend both but beginners should read the documentation in order to understand what they are doing.
I want to create a big, big game, is this possible with the blueTec engine?
The blueTec engine is not limited. You can create any game you want no matter how small or big it will be at least. To make it more clear, the only thing limiting the blueTec engine is the memory available on your machine.
What are surfaces you talk about?
The blueTec engine supports only a 2d device. That means that you will only be able to create 2d games if you have the time and the skills maybe 2.5d is also possible. When talking about surfaces we mean an object which is created from a file or text to represent a drawn area on the screen.
I have a specific questions about develing with blueTec or general questions which is not covered by the FAQ
No problem. Head over to the forums and post it. As soon as possible it will be answered. Or contact us directly via the board or email address.
I just created a game using the blueTec engine. Would you host it?
Sure, contact us. We will upload it and host it for you. Optional you have the possibility to create some kind of story site or just give us a short description to post with the download.
Why are you guys providing a 2d engine and not a 3d engine?
This engine is for all who want to make small games. Not everyone has the time and the skills to create 3d games. Providing this little engine helps people to concentrate on the real work of a game and not on the, often very time consuming, framework to create a game. 2d games can also be very cool. If you have a cool idea you have now the tools to realize it.
Will there be any future updates?
Yes of course. Maybe this is only a small project compared to the blueEngine ( read more ) but that doesn’t mean that we won’t improve and enhance this project. You are greatly welcome to give your opinion, tips and feature requests.
The blueTec engine is cool but I need the feature xy. Would you implement it?
Most probably yes. The blueTec engine is from developers for developers. So if you use it and miss a specific feature or function head over to the forums and post it. As soon as possible an update will be made.
Updates
.plan update 10.03.2005
Who said we are dead? A lot of resources were put into the blueEngine so the blueTec SDK had to wait the last months for its update. But since the blueEngine is finished now I can concentrate on the SDK again in order to fulfill the needs.
The ogg support is implemented and playing avi files on surfaces also is close to finish, an update will follow soon.
Loading different image formats may be also included but is not my primary goal at current since you have with dds and bmp two powerful file formats you can play with. Future? Of course the features mentioned below will be included but also some other goodies I have in mind so stay tuned.
.plan update 24.12.2004
Introducing the new file formats is the biggest change for the new version. About mp3 file format there has to be decided since mp3 is evil and not our first choice to implement. Therefore the decision to have ogg files supported is great and can be taken from blueEngine (why to use an evil format when you can have a powerful equal format which is free?)
– loading tga of any format file and memory
– loading pcx of any format file and memory
– loading bmp of any format file and memory
– loading ogg file and memory
– loading mp3 file
– playing avi files on surfaces
– providing helper functions for conversion between color values etc
– enable/disable log, html log select since not everyone wants to use log file output. Additionally providing the interface to use the log file functionality for the complete application (not only the engine)
Download: blueTec_sdk.rar
