Damocles, you need to have the latest directX, we just confirmed that problem, for anyone else that got AU_ERROR, please create an empty folder in the game folder and name it "profiles" no quotes ofcourse, we're running a test now and need more ppl, germanunkol and another member is in, the game is being pulled from the contest so this may very well be your last chance at testing with multiple people, feel free to join....

ok server offline, thanks for those who tried it, for those who it have problems, i apologize, just look forward to the official alpga and keep in mind what you saw here was only about 50 percent in terms gameplay functionality

our preAlpha didnt go exactly as planned and all download links for it have been pulled but we did get enough data and we're still hard at work, ive decided i'll start posting screens every now and again, you guys can give feedback and see where we're headed.

first set of screens -

[explosion effect: particles, soft sprites, volumetric fog, refractions]
status: 75 percent complete

looks awesomely nice, good work.

some points:

either there is too much refraction or refraction texture should be something like radio/sound waves(circular).

width of the flares coming out of explosion(flames shaped like lines) should vary.

on last 2 shots, the flame texture inside the smoke(light yellow one) is too repetitive. you could use 2 variations of that with different rotations.

ok points noted, but to be honest, i could take 20 more screenshots and it may never look like the above screens because its quite random, so as for the repetitive fire, dont think i'll change that, also i dont want to load too many images, agree with the streak lengths however

looks better in motion but wont render a vid anytime soon