mankrip

Hello. My name is Manoel, andI am creating the Retroquad game engine.<a href="https://twitter.com/mankrip" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a> —&nbsp;<a href="https://mankrip.tumblr.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Tumblr</a> —&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCicm-WqNOsqnFj_prkfNymA" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">YouTube</a>Before joining, please check out this public post:<a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/retroquad-rules-67394337" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Retroquad Patreon Rules</a>.And to know lots of in-depth technical detailsabout Retroquad, be sure to read this article:<a href="https://mankrip.tumblr.com/post/631533857388314624/graphical-breakthroughs-in-the-retroquad-engine" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Graphical breakthroughs in the Retroquad engine.</a>The philosophy behind Retroquad:Retroquad is a game engine with a 3D software renderer that employs many color algorithms independently created by myself to solve the limitations of 8-bit indexed color systems, pushing their quality above the known possibilities of their current state of art. It is intended to be an engine with all the advantages of 8-bit indexed color 3D software rendering, but without the drawbacks of classic 8-bit color renderers.When fully polished, Retroquad should be robust enough to become a viable platform for creating new commercial quality independent 3D games that can be very quickly ported to other operating systems, consoles, mobile, and all kinds of obscure hardware and independent hobbyst hardware projects where it would otherwise be technically unfeasible or financially expensive to port them (such as the multitude of generic handhelds whose usefulness is limited to emulating old gaming consoles and playing classic software-rendered retro games). Retroquad will be very scalable, from low-end platforms with low-res screens to high-end platforms with very high-res screens. Multi-core processing will be implemented to improve 1080p performance and allow for 4K rendering without sacrificing the core goals of the project.Another goal is to remove and replace as much of the old Quake code as possible, to make Retroquad's code more lean, polished and easier to maintain, hopefully turning it into a completely original engine.The whole engine is being coded in pure C with no usage of processor-specific extensions. The lack of processor-specific extensions usage is purposeful, to ensure that this engine remains highly portable.&nbsp;Another reason for this engine to remain as hardware-independent as possible is to ensure future-proofing for software preservation. Games created using this engine will be able to be easily emulated for many decades in the future, making sure that people will always be able to experience them properly, even if their source becomes inaccessible or lost.And finally, the last main reason why Retroquad exists. Software rendering is the only tech that will surely not suffer from hardware &amp; drivers deprecation, the only tech you can count on to keep developing something ambitious&nbsp;and take your time to battle with all the roadblocks in your personal life, knowing that when you come back to it, it will still be working. Retroquad is intended to be an engine for people struggling in life, an engine that even if life slows you down and you take decades to create a game, it will still work as intended. With software rendering you can say goodbye to planned obsolescense, and never have to worry about being able to keep up with hardware and software upgrades.As a lone developer, I am also commited to making Retroquad become as user-friendly as possible for other lone developers and small teams. Retroquad's development pipeline and workflow is being designed to be as simple as possible for people willing to create games from scratch, with no need to rely on asset stores or hire external help. Using common file formats widely adopted by operational systems and free user-friendly tools with years of knowledge and tutorials. And featuring software-rendered visuals that are truly retro to the bone&nbsp;— where it actually matters.Retroquad is still far from what I envisioned. With everything that happened in my life in the last years, all free time I could get I spent implementing the ideas that came up to my head to not risk forgetting them. There were many times when I spent months being unable to touch the code. I pride myself in having developed my tech without external help, but that doesn’t matter anymore. Now I also need to help my family, and have no means to do so.With your help, if all goals are achieved, I can develop it much faster than before and Retroquad will become a great engine.

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