Need a programming team for a Frets On Fire clone

Ok so I'm trying to reprogram Frets On Fire, a computer game like guitar hero. Anyways, its programmed in Python, but I am trying to get a team together and possibly try to reprogram it into C or C++ (if its even possible). I'm still new to computer programming, but I do know some stuff and I'm continually learning, but I thought maybe if anyone knows how to read python code and knows how to code in C or C++, they could possibly help translate the Python code into C++. It would greatly be appreciated if anyone could be of help to me. Thanks a lot!

I know how to code on C/C++, know just a little about Python. But the more you learn the better :) So, I see it as a challenge. I believe if you know a programming language well, you can learn the rest quite easily if there style is similar.

Why do you want to do this, since you are new to programming? Just curious...
In anyway, upload the code to see of how complex a game we are talking about. Is everything programmed in Python?

We can start little by little and see where it goes. What graphics the game uses is also an issue

The biggest reason that I want to do this is because everyone on fretsonfire.net and keyboardsonfire.net are always talking about how cool it would be to have certain things implimented in the game. The thing is, the guys on the site that know how to code this stuff just don't really seem to care what everyone wants, mostly. They seem too worried with making new mods that are just spin-offs of guitar hero and rockband and its actually getting annoying. They also say that implimenting things like, for instance, a whammy bar, is impossible or takes too long. The things they say are impossible to do, I don't know if they just dont want to take the time to try to figure out or if they actually are.

As for the coding, I think its all in Python. I'll try to upload it ASAP, and the graphics all depend on the mod. I guess I'll just upload the code from the v 1.2.541, which is pretty much the newest version of the ORIGINAL game (without all the heavy graphics modding and what not) and start from scratch.

And as far as starting little by little, that's what I'm aiming for. See, I get this "Online modding teams are bad and they fail and you should just mod this yourself" crap all the time. I wanted to put together a team to have everyone chip in, whether it be code or graphics, no one person hogging all the glory. And most of the time, I get crap for it. If everyone chips in on ideas and knowledge, it makes for a better product. One guy may want to see something cool in there and doesn't have an idea as to how to code it or something while another guy may be able to figure out how to.......... know what I mean?

Hmm, ok, I get the idea.
But, why not implement it directly on Python? If I get you correctly you want it to be in C/C++ because it is easier in a way, since the language is known by more people and of course this is a C forum.
But, I believe it will be much harder to do so. Since you are talking about implementing, which is good, we should stick on the language. Thus, we may not have to change the main methods. If for example you want to add some new feature in the game you can just add some more code w/o doing anything else (except endless hours of debugging of course).

It is up to you, but I recommend stinking in Python...

Python is a fun language. Though I don't think I'd write a game in it. :S

well, I didn't necessarily mean that I JUST want re-write it in C/C++. It is one of the things I wanted to do. Partially its because of a wii hack I've heard of and that's a big part of it. See, I don't know how many people have heard of the twilight hack (i just found out about it a few weeks ago)...... anyways, there's a FOF/Guitar Hero Clone for it, but it absolutely sucks. Then I saw a few guys saying something about FOF on the wii, but because it's programmed in Python, it wouldn't be possible, and it would need to be in C++....... That's where I got the idea. And its not necessarily that I thought that it would be easier to have it programmed in C++, its more the less for reason of the wii hack........ well thnx anyways you guys, still, if anyone is interested and can help, please do!

> it wouldn't be possible
Yes it is :)

Well, I'm starting to get some peoples' attention with this idea so if anyone knows how to maybe translate python coding to C++ or something like that, please let me know! I really could use all the help that I can get right now!

Oh and thanks for not being a bunch of ..........holes about this. I cant tell you how many sites and forums I've gone to and people are just truly dicks.........

I know that you can use the Python C API to call Python code from C++. There's also Boost.Python, which is probably a better idea.

Personally, though, I think you'd be better off sticking with one language, whatever that may be. Or you'll probably be spending a lot of time and code and effort just passing data from one language to another and stuff like that.

Maybe you wouldn't, you never know. I guess you'd have to try it. :)

(Oh and if you do use more than one language: make sure you're reasonably proficient in both, so you can understand what the code is doing . . . .)

well, that's a big reason as to why I'm getting a coding team. It will be a group effort, a shared thing so no one person has to remember all of this stuff for both languages by themselves, maybe just snippets of both codes. I mean, it makes sense right?

Well, I suggest to post the code already :)
People can see then more what this is about and decide if they are really interested in not to participate in a coding team

ha ha ha ok sorry havent had a chance to lately, though it is quite lengthy (if its the right file?)....... Anyways, I'll post it ASAP, most likely by monday, my computer has been pretty messed up lately so.........

Ok, well there a quite a few files to, but I found one of the modders of the newest version of the "Alarian Mod" and he made the new, unreleased (for now) source of FOF. Here's the website if you feel like checking it out:

http://organact.mine.nu/viewvc/MFH-Mod/trunk/src/

metalforever: I would really recommend you to talk to the guy who made that mod and tell him about your idea.

So far I see some inconvenients:

1) You're a C/C++ newbie. First you'll need to research about multimedia libraries.
2) You need to make sure you're writing cross-platform. So you'll need cross-platform libraries. OpenGL is a good idea, but it's huge and it's ugly.
3) Translating Python code to C++ is the wrong approach. Why? Because code written in python isn't "just python", it's a complicated mess conformed of python source code, python libraries, badly programmed python libraries, badly programmed python code, all of that glued together with duct tape. I'm not saying all python code is bad, but most projects I've seen in python look like they were written by newbies. I'd say python is the Visual Basic of Open Source.

As an example, the latest version of FoF (1.2.512) has some really awful bugs, that have NOT been fixed. Everyone's recommending using the older version (1.2.4something)., and the author said that some bugs are caused by a module over which he has no control. That, and I've found that FoF keeps hanging just because I decided to press ESC to go back to a menu, or because some files in the songs had illegal characters (WTF?).

If you translate the python code, you'll end up translating all the programmers' mistakes. So you need to write it from scratch. It's the best choice.

So, grab a cross-platform multimedia library, and start designing the program from scratch. The hardest part is writing the "gaming" module (the one where you play the "guitar" and the notes keep sliding down).

4) The biggest problem I see with rewriting FoF is that if you want it to have plugins, you need:
* To know How to use shared-object libraries (dlls)
* Have a well-designed API for modders to write their plugins.
* Have a deep knowledge of event-oriented programming

Are you sure you'll be able to do it? The very reason most open source projects die is because they were made by programming newbies who end up realizing the project was too hard for them. You also need A LOT OF TIME. Most of the time you'll need to do stuff on your own before people want to help you with the project (I'm recruiting people to help me with an open source video editor, and at first some guys joined, but they weren't constant or had to leave because they lacked the free time). It usually takes over a year before the project is good enough that people begin to join it.

Also, you'll need to study C++ (especially the use of the standard tag libraries - trust me, you're gonna need them) and OOP a lot.

Now, if you're sure you won't get tired of the project and are willing to spend at least 90% of your free time (no girlfriend, no partying, etc.) to the project, go for it. I'm also sick tired at the lack of support for FoF. I support your effort in a 100%.

BTW, if you'd like, I can be a beta tester and help write some code once in a while (which won't be often, since I'm also working on my own project ;-) ).

ill join your team and help