It's been a busy time here at TGC HQ with a flurry of new releases, and to keep those new products in the headlines we paused the dev blog series. Not normally an issue, but with the launch of our Raspberry Pi and HTML5 versions of AGK, new books and bundles we wanted everyone to see these amazing additions before being swallowed up by daily blasts of my dev blog rants. In order to create a compromise then, we've decided to make the dev blogs weekly, cherry picking the most exciting and revealing items of the week to share.
Even though the dev blog stopped, the development did not, and after the release of V1.13 we spring-boarded into the task of fixing smaller issues that had surfaced during the previous few months before starting on the major update which would release the Easy Building Editor into the world. This minor update actually turned out to be a huge undertaking as small fixes turned into larger feature requests from the community, and the nature of the time required to add them meant we could add many requests in quite quickly, but this also means more testing time which is why the planned release has been delayed. Fortunately, we did not build up your hopes on a release date so no harm no foul.
Build V1.131 includes everything from fixes, tweaks to brand new powerful features, and you can get a run-down of the work done so far in the monster list below:
- Fixed both (Peek) behavior character soldiers to now use ai_cover.lua
- Added OBSTACLERADIUS to SETUP.INI to control the margin radius of static obstacles
- Fixed issue of gun and entity animations freezing when DEBUG MODE shows AI markers
- Added 'lightmappingexcludeterrain' to SETUP.INI which can switch off terrain shadows
- Accelerated speed of the 'create smoothing normals' inside lightmapper
- Improved the lighting levels of Asylum level and changed the sky to hide occlude flick
- Changed initial default to DDS when selecting new texture in IMPORT MODEL feature
- Modified INVISIBLE WALL entity to use default.lua (from old easter script)
- Added support for better importing of FBX static meshes (skinning sidelined for now)
- The IMPORT MODEL feature now remembers the last import folder location
- Added [W][S] in IMPORT MODEL to move camera up and down to better view the target
- Added MouseWheel in IMPORT MODEL to zoom camera in and out to better view the target
- When using scaling slider, no longer interfers with object rotation if object large
- Toggled Texture Loader so PNG is the preferred image type looked for (good for FBX import)
- Added invisible wall script and fixed invisible wall entity
- Updated the DOCS file on importing models to include a section on Shadow Management
- Added new Geo Twizzle and Center Mesh options for finer control of FBX importing
- Added CULLMODE to Import Model Panel for some entities which are cull inverted
- Added new LUA command 'GetTerrainHeight(x,z)' which returns the terrain height at that point
- Fixed a bug so that characters now report their true height via entity[e]['y'] in scripts
- Fixed RADAR.LUA to allow objectives to disappear (including change to OBJECTIVE.LUA)
- Now restored collision box markers when reload an FPE entity back into IMPORTER
- Changed button highlight for IMPORTER panel buttons and renamed to 'Height Guide'
- Added new showdebugcollisonboxes=1 in SETUP.INI to visualise collision box shapes
- Fixed issue with collisionbox shapes shifting when scale and rotation applied to them
- Fixed issue so g_PlayerAngX, g_PlayerAngY and g_PlayerAngZ now wrap angles to 0-360
- Increased Sprite and Image maximums in LUA script system to 10,000 each
- Removed the WIDTH, HEIGHT and DEPTH from SETUP.INI in Standalone as they don't do anything
- When saving a standalone with multiple levels, the test game splash no longer appears in error
- Changed prompt to correct text of "LOCKED - Hold SPACEBAR and click to unlock"
- When making multi level standalone games, weapons collected in previous level carried over
- Ensured [GAMEMENUOPTIONS] is copied to SETUP.INI in Standalone, and that it works fully
- Added SAO (Scalable Ambient Obstruction) to Post Processor (needs DOF or MB > 0 to work)
- Added 'invisible_wall.lua' to script bank so invisible wall entity no longer black when rendered
- Fixed weight and friction so they now affect all objects in the game
- Weight value now changes the weight of ragdolls when created from dying characters
- Added sliders for SAO Radius and Intensity
- Fixed issue of SAO effect bleeding through FOG layers
- Added much asked for LOAD SOUND command (see bottom of global.lua for new command descriptions)
- Added LoadGlobalSound,DeleteGlobalSound,PlayGlobalSound,LoopGlobalSound,StopGlobalSound
- Added SetGlobalSoundSpeed, SetGlobalSoundVolume, GetGlobalSoundPlaying, GetGlobalSoundLooping
- Fixed issue of SAO effect bleeding through FOG layers
- Fixed issue of SAO not working on some cards that do not support 1920x1080
- Character shader no longer switches out after 3000 units (now respects AlwaysActive)
- Fixed SAO transparency on character shader revealed when adding trees to scene
- Fixed issue which caused larger levels to lose normal and specular textures (image vs texture)
- Added code to correct flicker issue caused by low velocity issues in motion blur technique
- Fixed issue of random noise generator in SAO linked to screen, now linked to world positions
- Fixed issue where LOD2DISTANCE not specified and breaking entities that only have LOD1
- Player camera (FPS) now stops instantly (no wobble fade) to prevent SAO swim artifacts
- Added extra logging to .LOG file to show what LUA scripts loaded (and if any failed to load)
- Added new link in IDE Help Menu to view the GameGuru user manual (previously a little hidden)
- Increased LUA config maximums to allow larger levels to run logic (improved scripting)
- Wholesale replacement of g_Entity[e] table with new SET/GET commands (stable memory access)
- Changed almost every default script to switch g_Entity[e]['?'] with GetEntityLUA?(e)
Currently, I am battling a rather nasty side effect of very large levels containing lots of scripts, that cause some kind of internal corruption of the LUA state, and I feel it is vital this issue is fixed before we release V1.131. My hope is that the issue will be resolved in the next few days so keep an eye out on the forums for news of the final release. In other news I am collecting more assets for the next major V1.14 build, so expect more models to play with in addition to the new building editor. As usual, my weekly GameGuru Twitch Broadcast continues on Wednesday this week, and I will also be doing an AGK broadcast for Thursday which you might be interested in (all at 4PM BST if you can make it). Until next week, happy game making and fingers crossed for a great update coming to a Steam auto-update service near you!
I am also pleased to report we've been nominated for the second year running for the prestigious 'best game engine' award. I am not expecting to win this year, but if I keep improving GameGuru both in visuals, performance, functionality and most importantly, ease of use, I might just provide the necessary qualities that could topple the old favourites.
In other news I am collecting more assets for the next major V1.14 build, so expect more models to play with in addition to the new building editor. As usual, my weekly GameGuru Twitch Broadcast continues on Wednesday this week, and I will also be doing an AGK broadcast for Thursday which you might be interested in (all at 4PM BST if you can make it). Until next week, happy game making and fingers crossed for a great update coming to a Steam auto-update service near you!