Welcome to Homura
Welcome to the Official Homura Project Website, home of the Homura Games Framework, Net Homura Web Framework and Homura games development IDE. The site contains all the information required to learn, demonstrate and develop using
the Homura software projects. Information regarding the Homura project, and the software created by the Homura development team can be found in the About and Features pages
of this site, respectively. The Homura software releases for the Project APIs are available to download from the Downloads setion. To see the Homura games framework and the deployment process in action, via our sample
games and technical demos, please visit the Games Showcase.
The release documentation, academic papers and presentations relating to the project are available from the Documentation section. The licensing conditions for the downloadable content available from this site can be found within the License section. The Links section of the site contains links to other Homura-related projects, links to the published academic papers and links to external sites relating to the technologies used in the Homura projects. Finally, we have released some of the Assets generated during the execution of the Homura project under a creative commons license, these are obtainable from the Assets section.
The release documentation, academic papers and presentations relating to the project are available from the Documentation section. The licensing conditions for the downloadable content available from this site can be found within the License section. The Links section of the site contains links to other Homura-related projects, links to the published academic papers and links to external sites relating to the technologies used in the Homura projects. Finally, we have released some of the Assets generated during the execution of the Homura project under a creative commons license, these are obtainable from the Assets section.
Project Aims and Purpose
Homura is a collaboration project between Liverpool John Moores University and the BBC, researching areas related to games technology.
The project is comprised of various sub-projects each with the aim to providing tools and functionality across this broad and challenging
research domain for the design, development and distribution of modern games applications.
The purpose, aims and objectives of the project undertaken by the Homura team are as follows:
The purpose, aims and objectives of the project undertaken by the Homura team are as follows:
Project 1Development of Web-Based 3D Games Engine and Level EditorStarted January 2007
The functionalities of the engine will provide a set of libraries enabling the development of game such as:
- Supporting the development of Web-Based application including deployment via web-portal and database.
- Sprites and Games assets Management.
- Level Design and management(Loading, Displaying, Resizing, Clipping, Scrolling, Tiling, Parallax effect)
- 2D and 3D Collision Detection.
- 3D Model Loader or plugins to 3D modelling tool(e.g. 3DS Max, MD5..etc)
- Level of Detail(Static, Dynamic)
- Terrain Generation(Heightmap, Procedural...)
- Special Effects(Lighting, Shading, Texturing, Weather Effects...)
- Particle System Engine.
- Artificial Engine(FSM, Pathfinding, Flocking...)
- Level Editor to support design of a game including direct access to the engine functionalities and scripting.
Project 2Dissemination of Web-Based 3D Games Engine and Level Editor and Development of Middleware for Multiplayer Online Games.Started January 2008
As we further our research and complete our aims and objectives we continue to release our results
in various forms such as technical showcases, academic research papers, presentations, and even the project source code and assets themselves.
These can be found on this site under the Showcase, Documentation, Downloads and Assets pages of this site, respectively.
The functionalities of the engine will provide a set of libraries enabling the development of game such as:
- Research and Development of the Middleware for Multiplayer Online Games Development using NetHomura IDE.
The libraries to be developed will be based on scalable Peer-to-Peer architecture using JXTA and will be implemented for specific game application examples. - What is required is a robust library providing functionalities to implement client, servers, peer, lobbies and proposing a wide range of communication protocols to facilitate the design and implementation of multiplayer online games.
- Dissemination of the Homura IDE, as a suitable platform for Web-Based 3D Games Development, in form of publications for conferences and journal papers, evaluations of the platform and comparison with similar tools. Seminars and presentation will also be organised for the BBC staff and third party partners, and the students and staff at Liverpool John Moores University.
Latest News
As we add more and more content to this site, we will endeavour to keep you abreast of the latest developments, below:
- 20/02/10 - This website has undergone a transformation to integrate new content, new features from the Net Homura web framework and is now completely XHTML and CSS Standards compliant!
- 03/02/10 - The About page has been overhauled to provide a greater depth of information regarding the Project.
- 03/12/09 - The two new Homura Release have been optimised to provide a minimal download size, both are available from the Downloads page.
- 28/11/09 - A new version of Eclipse for both the Homura and Net Homura Workspaces is now available, based on Eclipse Galileo (3.5), it is available from the Downloads page.
- 28/11/09 - An additional version of the new Gaming Workspace which supports both Net Beans 6.7+ and Eclipse 3.4+ is now available from the Downloads page.
- 28/11/09 - The latest version of the Net Homura framework has been released, with a sample deployment application based on the new Homura API, it is available from the Downloads page.
- 28/11/09 - A new version of the Homura Gaming Workspace has been made available, based on the jME 2.0 engine, with improved applet support, it is available from the Downloads page.
- 09/10/09 - The Homura framework is to be adopted by students of LJMU for the Advanced Media Production Module for 3rd Year and Masters students.
- 06/07/09 - An updated version of the applet-support release has been made available on the website from the Downloads page.
- 30/05/09 - New assets have been added to both the 2D and 3D art collections, download them from the Assets page.
- 29/05/09 - The applet-supported release of the Homura application framework is now available from the Downloads page.
- 22/05/09 - You can now play all the Homura Technical Demos as next-generation Java Applets, try them out on the Showcase page.
- 06/05/09 - The Code for the Net Homura PHP library to integrate Homura games online can be found on the Downloads page.
- 06/04/09 - The second release of the Homura Application framework, including the updated demos can be found on the Downloads page.
- 06/04/09 - The latest versions of nine of the Homura Technical Demos can be found on the Showcase page.
- 01/04/09 - We have released some of the assets created for the Homura game demos on the Assets page.
- 30/03/09 - The first release of the Homura application framework and demo applications can be found under the Downloads page.
- 01/12/08 - The Net Homura Games Application Portal is now live at java.cms.livjm.ac.uk/homuragames/.
- 17/06/08 - The Dr Bubbles game concept site is now live at java.cms.livjm.ac.uk/drbubbles/.
Seminars and Presentations
Seminars run for BBC R&D, Rapid Application Development, CBBC, Backstage and Learning departments, in different venues:
- Seminar on 21-22 December 2008, at Liverpool John Moores University, for BBC R&D.
- Seminar on 20th January 2009, at BBC Henry Wood House in London for BBC Rapid Application Development Department, CBBC, Learning at Backstage Departments.
- Seminar on 21st January 2009, at BBC Research and Development at Kingswood Warren, Surrey, for BBC R&D.
- Seminar on 25th February 2009, at Broadcast Centre Building in White City, London, for BBC Rapid Development department and Future Media Technology Department.
