IceX3 - Alpha Version v0.1a

########## Update 12th of December 2012 - v0.1a released ##########

With the following link you can download the first Alpha Version of the editor:
http://www.stonehill-games.de/downloads/IceX3.v0.1a.rar

It's a very early version with the basic features. A manual is in the root folder.

Here are some basic tips for this alpha version:

• models and textures which you want to use in the levels must be placed in the "ASSETS" folder.
• in the ASSETS folder, there are already some models and textures which can be used in the editor for testing.
• Specular Maps for entities must be saved in the alpha channel of the Normal Map (see example models in the ASSETS folder).
• The editor uses its own LOD system. LOD files must be name with a "_lod" at the end of the filename (see example models in the ASSETS folder). Every entity can have its own lodrange.
• Levels can save with Key K and loaded with Key L. No filenames are supported yet. The level is saved in "My Documents\IceX3" folder as "map.icex3".
• Level export is not implemented yet.
• If you want a German version of the editor, go to "data" folder, delete the file "gui.txt" and rename "gui_DE.txt" to "gui.txt".
• For statistic and improvement purpose, the editor records some user information (language, country, Windows Version, etc..) and sends it to the Stonehill-Games server.

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A few weeks ago I started the development of IceX3. As some of you know, IceX and IceX2 was an outdoor level editor for A6 and A7.

Here you can read some information about the predecessor (IceX2), if you haven't head about it (sorry, only german): http://www.stonehill-games.de/index.php?site_id=icex


The new IceX level editor will be completly compatible with A8 and C-Script. In this thread I wanna show the progress of the editor.

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First I wanna start with the 3D Model Browser. If you wanna insert an entity, a file dialog will be opened. There are not even files listed, you can even see a textured preview of the model file and rotate it with the mouse. This 3d file dialog is completly made with the A8 panel instructions.

Here you can see this 3D Model Browser in action:
VIDEO: http://youtu.be/s6VKNs2HH7M

I am very excited!

Today I've implemented the "Texture Layer Manager". There you can add new terrain texture layers and assign diffuse textures, normal maps, detail maps and specular maps for each layer.

It is planned, that the new IceX3 terrain shader will allow up to 32 terrain texture layers at the same time.




I also adjusted the 3D model viewer dialog. Now it can also show 2D texture previews. This very helpful if you load a texture from hard disk:

LOOOKS AWESOMME"!!

Thank you alibaba!

Really awesome and useful. I`m looking forward this.

really cool project! the more editors the better
the terrain shader sounds fine too.

Oliver2S: Why dont you use the default windows FileOpen dialog? It spoorts file preview and thumbnail-prerendering?

Because I need some tweeks and the Windows file dialog let freeze the engine while it's open.

@Oliver: then run it in an extra thread
And which tweaks are required?

Mainly manipulating the previewed entity. This is a lot easier if I do this directly in the engine and Lite-C.

The basic multitexturing terrain shader and painting tool are almost done.

Now you can have up to 32 textures/detail maps at the same time. Every single detail map can have it's own scale and shift factors.

The speed of the shader is really fast. It almost doesn't matter if you assign only 1 detail map or 32 detail maps. If further speed tests will be positive, I can add support for even more texture layers, for example 64 or more, but I'm not really if sure someone would really need that much terrain textures.

The next step is to add Normal Mapping and Specular Mapping support to the detail maps and make smooth blending available while painting.

Looks very good! But are those white borders wanted?

No, they are not wanted. Smooth blending is not implemented yet, but will coming up next.

I'm still working on the terrain shader and painting tool. Smooth painting is now implemented, but needs some further improvements.

I also added distance LOD for detail maps. The detail maps fade out smoothly if the camera moves away. If they fully faded out, only the terrain's diffuse texture is visible. In my example screenshot below, I used a one-color diffuse texture to show this effect. But you can also use a low-res texture as diffuse map.

really great, i really missing an good WYSIWYG Editor... WED suxx... -.-'

I didn't update this thread for a while. Had many other things to do.

On the following screen you can see the new features:

• a material editor (nothing special)
• native Windows navigation bar on the top

Later I will add some kind of simple Effect-Editor (Shader) to the Material-Editor.

hi
just some suggestions, what I found useful when I added similar features to my editor:
- it is practical in the material editor to see the colour of each property.
- it is really handy only if it is real-time, and you can see in the level view your models changing according to actual values.
- to have real freedom, you need apply/cancel/reset options.

Thank you for your suggestions, sivan.

If you change the material settings it is already immediatly visible on the entities who have the material applied.

The color of each property would be a nice feature, didn't think about that yet. I will add it to my list.

"I will add it to my list." Sounds like JCL

hey oliver, what do you think about non-static windows ? It seems you creating the same layout like IceX2.
in our Leveleditor weve styled the whole window panel things very small and the option to move all panels to let the user chose how he wants to set the windows.

yes, a flexible gui is necessary.
it was my main conclusion this week in connection with my editor, as my new notebook screen max resolution is 1366x768, so my old windowed mode solutions are not okay for me and probably for some users too...

Basicly the GUI is mostly following this rule: all windows where you need to see the level are static (deforming, painting, entity manipulation,...), all other windows (model loading, texture loading,...) are non-static windows and fully moveable.

First part of entity manipulating is finished.

- is possible to move, rotate and scale in X,Y,Z,XY,YZ and XZ direction
- moving and rotating is possible in absolute or relative direction
- entities can be rotated around there origin, around there center or around the selection center (if multiple entities are selected)
- you can select (and deselect) multiple entities via mouse selection box or by clicking with holding CTRL

Worked the whole day on the terrain shader. Now it is possible to add to each detailmap a normalmap. At the moment you can have up to 12 detailmaps + normalmaps + specularmaps (not integrated in shader yet).

Looks good, what about performance? Oliver, please provide a set of high quality textures with your editor. I'm currently working with the UDK which is awesome because of all the fantastic assets that are shipped with the editor.

The framerate on my laptop (with a crappy 2 years old ATI card) in an empty level is ~380 fps. If the terrain is visible it drops down to ~140 fps. And it's still in development. I think there's some space for framerate improvement (but I think it's really fast yet).

I can't promise to provide a bunch of HQ assets, but I think that's a good idea. This would be even better if they come along with a small demo level like the Forest Level in CryEditor3.

Today I wanna show a short video of the finished terrain specular mapping shader.

For EACH of the 12 texture layers you can adjust

• normalmap strength
• specularity strength
• sharpness of specular highlights
• texture scale

There's only specular mapping available yet, but I plan to add also a bump mapping shader. Then you can choose in the editor between specular mapping or bump mapping (or nothing) for each texture layer.

The terrain shader will be a little slower in the editor than in the final level/game, because there are some image processing routines in the pixel shader for tweaking the normal maps and specular maps at runtime.

[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_72p4mcdec[/video]

cool, it's quite effective and makes city design much simpler, with different pavements, and for simulating wet surfaces in rainy weather.

With the following link you can download the first Alpha Version of the editor:
http://www.stonehill-games.de/downloads/IceX3.v0.1a.rar

It's a very early version with the basic features. A manual is in the root folder.

Here are some basic tips for this alpha version:

• models and textures which you want to use in the levels must be placed in the "ASSETS" folder.
• in the ASSETS folder, there are already some models and textures which can be used in the editor for testing.
• Specular Maps for entities must be saved in the alpha channel of the Normal Map (see example models in the ASSETS folder).
• The editor uses its own LOD system. LOD files must be name with a "_lod" at the end of the filename (see example models in the ASSETS folder). Every entity can have its own lodrange.
• Levels can save with Key K and loaded with Key L. No filenames are supported yet. The level is saved in "My Documents\IceX3" folder as "map.icex3".
• Level export is not implemented yet.
• If you want a German version of the editor, go to "data" folder, delete the file "gui.txt" and rename "gui_DE.txt" to "gui.txt".
• For statistic and improvement purpose, the editor records some user information (language, country, Windows Version, etc..) and sends it to the Stonehill-Games server.

I really like what i see there! I tested and the features you listed here, all work great!

Please go on with this project!

Thank you for testing

There's still a lot to do, but great to hear the basic features work well.

I found strange bug, just created new terrain, and painted textures on it.. I used simple texture instead of details one (dirt_ground_c_col.bmp), then I create additional texture layer, and after that I try to paint it on terrain, here is the result:

Anyway, I'm not pretty sure, maybe this is how it should work for now, as it's still in alpha stage All in all, I loved it! Could you add zooming with mouse wheel? It would be useful

hi,

is it a wise thing to use an own lod system? why not _0.mdl, _1.mdl... ending is okay? it would cause problems when users use levels created in IceX want to use it in their games/applications, or they will be forced to use loops for each entity which is not costless on performance. or it works simply beside the engine default lod system?

imo it would be more practical to use a heightmap on normalmap alpha, and use a separate specular map skin. but it depends on your taste

@3run: Can you upload the level?

@sivan: I use my own LOD system, because it is much more flexible . You can adjust the clip distance of each entity individualy. It don't use a loop for each entity. There's a main loop to do the LOD switching. Every frame only 20 entities are checked if they need to get switched. This works very accurate. And if you don't want to use the IceX3 LOD system it's no problem. You can still use the engines LOD system by using _1.mdl models.

okay, understood, thanks, this solution can be useful for a fade-out/in lod system for important entities like large buildings, only the DYNAMIC flag should be handled if a lot of entities are managed.

oliver2s@ I'll be happy to, but how? It doesn't save anything yet...

You have to press key K. Then the level will be saved in "My Documents\IceX" folder. With key L you can load the level.

Here:
demo level

Thank you!

For me it looked some kind of a texture blending problem, but I'm not sure Anyway, I hope that you'll be able to fix it soon and keep this up!

Long time no update, but I still work every day on the editor.

I rewrote the whole terrain system and shader. Each terrain tile now "only" supports 4 detail textures, but different tiles can have different textures. This mean you now can have REALLY unlimited terrain textures WITHOUT performence loss or slow performence (per tile), because each terrain tile just renders 4 detail textures.

I also added bump mapping to the shader:



The detail textures are saved as atlas textures, because of the limitation of 4 material skins. Each atlas texture includes the detail diffuse map, the normal map and the specular map (as alpha channel):



This new terrain (shader) system works very well. And because the terrain tiles are very small (2400x2400 quants = ~60x60 meters), there's usually no need for more than 4 textures per tile.

nice stuff..... can you give any releasedate and conditions ?

I can't give any release date, but I plan to finish it the next 2 months. It will be for free.

oliver2s@ thank you man. just for everything you've made so far.

Nice man! Then please don´t forget a "donate" button!

Maybe

I would use a Donate button.

I bought IceX2 years ago. I thought Oli is a rich man now.

Was a great pice of software. I got only in trouble with the default 3DGS water shader that mirrorred the paintmap. And yes I'm happy to see he is developing a new version.

That's just because the reflection view normally has the NOSHADER flag set.

That's the reason why I can give away IceX3 for free

The LOD system of the terrain is now finished. It's similar to the system of IceX2.0 but with some nice extra features.

• For every terrain tile the LOD and clipping distance can be set indivually. So if you have some markable places like big mountains they can stay high poly while other terrain tiles in the foreground will be switched to it's LOD stages.
• Every terrain tile can have an indivual texture size. This is usefull for terrain tile in far distances which the player can't reach, those terrain tiles can have a low-res texture, while the terrain tiles near the player can have a hi-res texture.
• There is the option to save the terrain textures as PNG or DDS. If you choose DDS as output format, you can add compression and mipmaps afterwards with an external tool like ATI Compressonator.
• The modfied terrain tiles are directly saved as MDL7 model files. So you can open them directly in MED.
• Terrain tiles can be selected and moved with the mouse. Multiple selection/moving is supported.

I also finished the script framework. This means you don't need to export your level to a certain format. Just include the IceX3 framework script (icx3_io.h) and load the IceX3 level file with a given instruction/function and the level in your game will exactly look like in the editor. Here's a simple code example:


It's very easy and simplified.

The vegetation tool is almost finished. Here I have s short video that shows the current version (click on the image):



Several models can be grouped together and will be then placed randomly on the clicked position within a defined radius. You can also set random rotation, random scaling and many more parameters. Removing vegetation is done the same way as creating, just select the models in the list on the left you want to remove, then only the selected models will be removed if you move the brush through the level.

hello,
any updates?

Still working on it.

oliver2s, you are a genius. This looks so handy (especially that last video). I also love the simplicity of the ui (/user friendly), makes it very clear. Can't wait for it .

Can´t wait for the vegetation tool, looks amazing

When will we get a new update?

any update?