William Bartlett

Tools

Raylib/ENet Listen Server

Two clients: one hosting a listen server, one joining Listen client log showing a player connecting

A networked game client with server hosting capability, built using Raylib and the ENet UDP library. Forked from the raylib-extras/networking_example repo, the original project only included dedicated server and client builds, so I decided to create a listen server build. This project was my first time building a networked game outside of Unreal, as well as using multi-threading.

See project on GitHub

Features

  • Host & client capabilities
  • Multi-threaded client/server design
  • Supports up to 8 players (with ability to scale to more)

Details

  • Utilised Win32 threads
  • Designed to start server as separate thread on hosting client only
  • Client can enter any server IP to join

Challenges

  • Multi-threading
    • Needed to refactor parts of the server to avoid race conditions
    • Saved performance by only starting the server thread on hosting clients
  • Networking
    • Learnt how to use the ENet UDP library to autoconnect the host to their local server

PCG Map Editor

PCG Map Editor generating maps with cellular automata

A lightweight map editor application I created with C++ using the Raylib graphics library for 3147GFS Advanced Games Programming. This project was my first foray into the C/C++ family, as well as working outside of a game engine. I learnt and utilised a variety of modern programming principles such as OOP and RAII.

See project on GitHub

Features

  • 3 PCG algorithms (Cellular Automata, Perlin Noise, Random)
  • Manual tile editing
  • Save/load maps as custom .fyl binary file

Details

  • Implemented cellular automata and Perlin noise functions in C++
  • Utilised basic Win32 functions for save/open explorer dialogs
  • Designed modular functions for re-use in further projects (this tool is intended for a future game project)

Challenges

  • Memory management
    • Utilised smart pointers to manage generator types, eliminating the need for manual new/delete
  • Object oriented design
    • Generators are derived from a base MapGenerator class, defining their own generation logic
  • PCG algorithms
    • Designed & implemented a cellular automata algorithm from scratch

UE5.4 Data IO Plugin

BP_DataLoader loading a .fyl map file and printing it in UE5

A simple UE5.4 Blueprint Function Library plugin built for importing map data exported from the PCG Map Editor above. This project was my first time using C++ in Unreal Engine, learning Unreal-specific syntax and creating plugins.

See plugin on GitHub

Details

  • Can load any file (.txt, .fyl, etc.) as a string
  • Built as a plugin, so it is reusable in any compatible project

Challenges

  • Working with Unreal Engine 5 C++
    • Utilises UE5 custom library types (FString)