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Jonas Plotzky edited this page May 24, 2023 · 10 revisions

Welcome!

FUDGE is a lightweight open-source game engine and editor created for educating students in an academic environment in the field of design and development of games and highly interactive applications. It may also be used as a rapid prototyping tool to easily convey and evaluate ideas for applications and games, as well as a tool to create educational games.

Check out these examples to see what can be achieved with FUDGE:

  • GameZone: Visit the GameZone to explore a selection of applications created by students using FUDGE. You can filter for "FUDGE" in the technology dropdown to see FUDGE-powered projects.
  • Prima-Lectures: The Prima-Lectures repository contains material from the Prototyping Interactive Media-Applications and Games lectures. You can find examples and resources related to FUDGE there.
  • UfoUndLost: UfoUndLost is a project created at the GlobalGameJam 2021 using FUDGE. Take a look to see how FUDGE was utilized in this game jam submission.

Get Started

To start creating with FUDGE, follow these steps:

Prerequisites

Before installing and running FUDGE, make sure you have the following prerequisites:

  • Node.js: Node.js is required to install and run FUDGE. You can download and install Node.js from the official Node.js website. Follow the installation instructions for your operating system.

  • TypeScript: While not strictly required, TypeScript is recommended for creating custom scripts for FUDGE. You can install TypeScript globally using the command npm install -g typescript. Alternatively, you can also use JavaScript to create scripts.

Installation

Once you have the prerequisites set up, follow these steps to install FUDGE:

  1. Head over to Releases and download the latest version of fudge.zip.
  2. Unpack the fudge.zip file to a location of your choice on your computer.
  3. Install the required node modules to run FUDGE by running npm install --omit=dev in a terminal within the folder containing FUDGE or by invoking install.bat (on Windows).

Or alternatively clone this repository and proceed with step 3. If you don't need the whole history of the repository you can use the depth parameter while cloning to reduce the download size:

git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/JirkaDellOro/FUDGE.git

Start

To start the FUDGE editor, you have multiple options:

  • Type electron Editor/Electron in the terminal.
  • Run npm run-script run in the terminal.
  • Double-click the FUDGE.bat file (on Windows).

FUDGE Editor

Once you have the editor up and running, you can start creating assets in the project panel and build graphs in the graph panel. The editor is fully controlled by the menu bar, and you can right-click in various views for context menus and use drag-and-drop between the views. Take advantage of the hints in the views to guide you.

If you prefer to start without the editor, you can include the script FudgeCore.js in the head of your HTML page for a minimal setup. Check out this example of a minimal scene on CodePen to see how to set it up.

Resources

To learn more about FUDGE, explore the following resources:

Wiki

Browse through the Wiki to gain an intuitive understanding of FUDGE's core concepts and inner workings.

Test

Explore the tests to examine isolated functionalities of FUDGE and see code in action. Run your local clone with a local server or visit the Test page.

Documentation

Refer to the following documentation and references for in-depth information about different modules of FUDGE:

Repository Overview

The FUDGE repository consists of the following folders, which contain different functionalities.

Core

Contains the core functionality of FUDGE needed to create games. It implements an entity component system to build scene graphs, prepares its content for rendering with WebGL2 and WebAudio, manages game loops and time, offers some standard meshes, shaders, a lighting system, handles user input and keyframe animation, serialization, and more. For many games, working with this module is sufficient.

Refer to the FUDGECoreClassdiagram.svg diagram for an overview of its structure.

Physics

Contains an adapted version of the Oimo-Physics-Engine that works with FUDGE. It supports rigid bodies of different shapes to approximate visual structures and impose physical behavior, joints with several degrees of freedom and restrictions connecting rigid bodies, collision detection triggering events, and raycasting for rigid bodies. For a detailed explanation, visit the Physics classes in the FudgeCore reference and OIMO.js.

UserInterface

Contains classes for easy and automatic creation of graphical interfaces using the mutator concept (see Wiki). This module is heavily used in the editor and can be used and extended for games.

Net

Contains components for gaming over networks. It comes with a core implementation of a server and a client that dispatch events with a standardized message format. Clients connect to the server via WebSockets and to each other via RTC, creating peer-to-peer connections. Clients and server offer standard functionality to build a full mesh, where each client is connected to every other client, or an authoritative host structure, where one client is connected to all others and serves as the central hub for information.

Aid

Contains collections of classes for convenience, bundling, and simplifying common procedures, as well as experimental features that may become a core part in the future.

Editor

The directory of the actual standalone editor, which can be executed with Electron or packed as an executable using an Electron packager. The editor helps set up projects and create complex scenes. The resulting graph and the created resources are stored in the "Internal.json" file, and the "index.html" file serves as the main file for the project.

Test

Contains programs to test the functionality of various components of FUDGE separately. These tests also serve as resources for learning about those functionalities and how to set them up. Use a local server to run the tests on your machine.

Miscellaneous

A collection of various other documents and resources, including unmaintained experiments from developers who worked on FUDGE and thesis documents about aspects of FUDGE that former students graduated with.

Call for papers

ToDo

  • Cameratransformation, Axonometry
  • Diegetic User-Interface
  • Grapheditor/Wiring for Shader and Animation
  • Importer for standard file formats
  • Runtime-Recording for Replay
  • Undo/Rollback
  • Selection-Sets to store temporary Groups
  • Advanced texturing
  • Input-Manager
  • Graphic Feedback/Feedforward in RenderView
  • Image-Tracking
  • Pathfinding System
  • Procedural 3D-Assets

In Progress

  • Light and Shadow

Done

Name Area
Robel Teklezgi Foundation WebGL/Angular/Electron
Jascha Karagöl Foundation Scenetree
Kathrin Fuhrer AR-Core with FUDGE and Electron
Lukas Scheuerle Sketch- and Animation System
Thomas Dorner Foundation Audio
Falco Böhnke Net-Components
Monika Galkewitsch UI-Components
Lea Stegk UI-Design
Elke Scherffius Tutorials
Marko Fehrenbach Physics
Jonas Plotzky Particlesystem
Robin Schwab Modeller
Luis Keck Shader-System
Marius König Integration Golden Layout 2
Moritz Beaugrand Terrain
Matthias Roming Skeleton System & glTF Importer
Jonas Plotzky Particle & Animation Editor
Matthias Roming Skeletal Animation
Valentin Schnidtberger VR Components
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