The time has come to take what I've designed in Lua and create a similar, yet more powerful engine in C++!

In case you're wondering, I've been working on the framework for an MMORPG project for the past few weeks. The interface is mostly in Lua with only the exact positioning, input, and drawing of the interface being handled by the engine. (Which is currently in GML.)

Here's what it looked like:

The item tooltip's keywords can all be clicked to open a tooltip containing a description. Handy for new players. :D

That tooltip is not hardcoded. In fact, it is dynamically adjusted to the stats of both the Ability used and the Target of the simulation. (since there is no player in the prototype version)

The actionbars are created using one line of Lua code and the buttons can be interacted with individually without impacting the performance of the engine. However, rapidly moving your mouse over the bulk of them does cause a 2 FPS drop. They do not draw themselves every step. They await for the engine to throw the recalc or redraw state flags. Should nothing need to update and the AI units are in the corners or not doing anything, the engine in GML gets a solid 60 FPS. The interface components themselves actually only draw to a single surface to improve the framerate.

I was not happy with the performance that this gets, as such, I've decided to begin working on the 3D game engine in C++. I've learned a lot about C++ in the past 2 years, but the thing that still scares me is graphics implementation. Since I've lived a mostly sheltered GM life, I've never had to worry about things that it had done for me. Graphics and audio control was a major factor in this.

Ah well. Starting tomorrow after a good night's sleep. Wish me luck!

-DF81