Other game development tools ?

Hmmm....this DXStudio is amazing It's powerfuller then 3d Gamestudio and easy to use. Any other opinion about this software ? Shiva is too complex for me for now...and for GameCore i don't have found any free demo or trialversion.

I do not think that Game Core supports lws for animations. I was never able to get it to work.

>The BV team have lost my trust

What happened?

they didn't publish updates or maintained their website for quite some time. some already thought it would disappear in near future. but now they're back with a new name, amazing features and a straight time table.

The GameCore Alpha looks indeed impressive. The shaders are also very good. They use conditional statements to render only what is really needed. So it will render faster with 1 or 2 dynamic light but you can use up to 7 of them per model. I saw even scenes with 13 visible dynamic lights. This works if your scene is splitted into several models.

The feature-set is very good. There is AI, physics, all the modern rendering options available. You can tweak your scene-management with hand-made low-poly occlusion models.

And they try to do something that Conitec also does: They deliver lots of templates for several games (FPS, racing, chess, multiplayer and more).
They said that they want to have a complete game template including everything you need for a game with GUI, loading, saving, cameras, moving and so on.

The reason why I still wait to buy a license is: I am afraid about documentation. They claim to have 700 script functions and the feature-set is great. But this needs tons of docu and examples. The existing old documenation is very limited and they did not reply to my email asking for progress on docu.
The best AI will not help me if I dont know how to use it.

So I will wait until April. They claim to publish it then. I am sure with good documentation this will become the best prototyping and beginner tool for game-making.

I hope that they make a demo of GameCore....and in my opinion the documentation is one of the most important things off any software. Is april a sure release date ?

Is

Ok, GameCore is released i think (or only the alpha ?). But i don't see any demo

it's still alpha and in testing. if you have a valid 1.1 license, you can already play with alpha2.

I heard they have a new scripting pdf documentation. It has about 100 pages. But for 700 script functions it means that every command is written on only 1/7 page. So I am sure they miss examples, explanations and more. It is just a simple mentioning of functions with a short sentence about their intention. This is by far not enough to understand an engine conception.

Asking for every problem in a forum might be a new habit but it is not effective and leads to very long development times because of waiting, reading forums and such

Yes, DXStudio seems to be very slow....and the fact that no one(the whole community) has built real game is not realy positive.

Did you make actual comparison test dxstudio \ 3dgs as far as speed is concerned or is it just a gut feeling, same as in my case ?

I have the feeling that it's slow, because a little demo ("Hut of the Dead") takes many time to load.

gameCore2 Feature list has been published:

[homepage quote]----------------------------------------------------------------

Visuals

1. DirectX9 renderer
2. 100% shader-driven renderer and animation pipeline. All transformations, lighting & animation is done on the GPU, not CPU.
3. default shader library including of thousands of different shaders (literally), supporting shader 2.0 and up.
4. Unified Per-Pixel Lighting
5. Shadow Mapping (realtime soft shadows)
6. Planar Reflection Mapping, Cube Mapping, Normal / Specular / Detail mapping and many other combinations of shaders
7. The new shader-based renderer adds a HUGE amount of functionality / featureset to the engine. It’s almost impossible to list all of the cool new toys that are available to you ;}

Tools / Editor

1. Completely revamped interface (much better layout)
2. New Object manipulation ‘Widget’ for moving / rotating objects (similar to what you see in 3ds max, maya etc)
3. Integrated Object Properties Editor (OPR) - no more editing endless text files ;}
4. TTF Font Generation
5. Export to Obj - select any objects in the editor and export them as a unified Obj model for editing in your favorite modeling package (including terrains & roads).
6. Complete set of Object Alignment tools, including ’stacking’ (alignment of multiple objects at once, with ‘jitter’ and/or ‘random spin’ allowing a bit of randomness into the alignment).
7. Automatic Sky Generation - simply apply a texture ;}
8. Basically all the stuff that used to require a seperate application or tools or utility has been integrated into the Editor. GameCore is a TRUE ‘Integrated Development Environment’ for Games. We feel it is a revolution in how games are created, a true paradigm shift.

Physics

1. Realtime Physics Editor - edit your collision & physics bodies in realtime
2. Test Physics in the Editor without having to run the game!
3. Rewritten character / vehicle scripts for much more stable physics interactions
4. Joints can be connected across multiple objects (truck / trailer, etc)

Materials / Surfaces

1. Integrated Surface / Material editor allows you to edit / replace and otherwise modify any object’s textures and materials (similar to what the old BV1.1 object viewer did, only built right into the editor)

Procedural Geometry

1. Procedural Geometry (roads) system updated to support banking of roads.
2. GUI editor for Road Connectors (roads snap to these), for intersections etc
3. Automatic generation of Paths for Road objects

Pathfinding

1. GUI Path editing. Paths are object-specific, so you can edit a single template and ’snap’ them together to build your paths.

Cinematics

1. Redesigned Cinematic panel provides a much better system for creating cinematic flythroughs and machinima.

Other Functionality

1. JPEG screenshot export
2. MPEG Movie Capture - export MPEG movies of gameplay!
3. Obj model export

I’m sure to be missing any number of things, but the simple answer to the ‘what has changed’ question is that so much has changed, it’s pretty much a new engine. The tools may feel similar and much remains the same (ie your old projects port seamlessly), but the end result is a completely different engine, feature-wise and capability-wise.

Plus all of the new Scripting Functionality that has been Added (which i’ll cover in a later post)…

[quote ends]--------------------------------------------------------------------

Link?

google?

well, the homepage is for testers/old BV licensees only, but you can access the temporary blog http://www.gamecore.ca/blog/ and select the latest entry.

two small demos are already up, but they show nothing of these features, in fact, they feel almost like the old BV. but if you would judge 3dgs by its demos, you would draw wrong conclusions as well. so let's wait until the real site goes online.

http://www.gamecore.ca/

here shots from my MP_demo





Christian_Ger

Looks great

uuuh.. what does that nuclear pwer station remind me of... if i only knew... :P

yeah this looks indeed incredible. i was referring to to FPS, CHESS and RACING demo which aren't pretty after all. but these shots kick ass.

it does not look great or incredible! look at that idiotic reflection of the wall. this is something so damn annoying i cannot look at it anymore

I can't wait for the real website.

It has pros and cons. The power plant looks good. The reflection shader is broken, and the ground is lacking shadows from the trees and the bridge. I guess with some more work put in it it will be fine.

ello, all you can say about these screens is "the reflection shader isn't accurate"?

I think those shots are showing some nice artwork and good designskills but other than that the first thing I noticed was the water and a bit later the lack of shadows for a cuple of objects.
Is the fences shadow realtimeshadowmapping? At least its resolution is VERY low...
But hey, nice screenshots

I have to agree, more work is necessary on this level and then it could look great. The lack of shadows on the floor is a frequent mistake, you also see this in Gamestudio levels a lot. It spoils the otherwise good artwork of the buildings.

@Nexus: The criticisms above are valid; however those are still some of the best, if not the best, looking levels I've seen showcased on this forum.

That's the problem nowadays, nobody accepts criticism for what it is anymore... I think the shots look great, but they are flawed at the same time.

of course, since the rest is artwork which would work and look good everywhere

Please keep in mind that the last images are made by one single person (Christian) as a side work
while making a new model package. GC is only the tool he had chosen to show his work in real-time.

But I can assure you that GC can do both: apply static shadow-maps as well as use real-time shadows
(stencils and/or soft-shadows via shaders). So if you want, then you can do an overdose on shadows
but you don't have to if you want big amount of fps.
And all the shadowing can happen with normal-mapping or other shaders on textures (yes, even the static shadows).

It is up to you.

By the way: I like the shots and I barely see so nice real-time level design from single persons in the
game forums. Christian is talented without any questions.

There now is a video from Christian_GER's scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTxFzOijj3U&fmt=18

Enjoy your meal
Toast

this is so stalker really cool.

I could play a early version of this level. It was not perfect... but a lot of fun.

gameCore 2 update: Alpha 4 is uploading now.

Here are the release notes from the build.

NOTE: This version of GameCore will require re-activation of the Alpha. You will need to re-enter your old BV 1.1 serial key at the activation prompt in order to activate the software. You DO NOT need to re-purchase the software from the GameCore Alpha store, simply re-enter your old BV 1.1 serial key in order to re-activate the Alpha.

-------------
Version: v2.0 Professional Alpha 4
---------------------------------
- ShowWideScreen() functions work again
-- forces the viewport into 16:9 mode (useful for cinematics etc)
- Realtime Cubic Environment Maps fixed
- removed run game as fullscreen option from editor
-- directx9 forces us to reload the entire game if we do this so it's just not a good idea
- added 'export as single file' option for game export
-- packs the game data and executable into a single file
- streamlined game data export
-- only 2 files exported now
-- instead of the exe & 'gamedata.dat' being exported, it exports 'projectname.exe' and 'projectname.dat'
- bvo object cache files optimized considerably to streamline exported game file size
- optimized texture cache support added (bvj files) reduces game size considerably.
- re-added depreciated 'SetTexture()' function to improve BV 1.1 backwards compatibility
-- use SetDiffuseMap() readded for additional backwards compatibility with older scripts
- displacement mapping support
-- displacement map needs to be added as the 'alpha' channel of a normal map. Adjust the 'displacement value'
-- occlusion maps can be also added to enhance the displacement appearance.
--- add as a detail map with blend mode 'multiply' and adjust
- new Sprite class exposed in script
- new FX management functions (new FXObject class) allows script-based modifications of FX.
- bug fixes from forum / community
- new integrated Object Viewer with complete support for surface editing / animation viewing
-- editor can be switched between two modes 'object mode' and 'game editor' mode.
-- select an object in the world and click 'open in object viewer' button to jump to object viewer mode

Is Gamecore 2 still using Angel script same as B.V. ?

Yes. It is told to be compatible to the previous BV projects.

GameCore Beta is coming. read about the various improvements and cool new features on the official dev blog i linked below.

http://www.gamecore.ca/blog/2008/06/23/gamecore-beta-public-launch-updates/

1) Integrated / updated FX Editor
2) Integrated Menu Editor
3) New streaming texture management system
4) statistics in the editor
5) profiling in the editor
6) surface layers
7) optimizations, optimizations, optimizations
8) new TreeView enabled listbox
9) Completely redone Store / Website

Sounds interesting. Also the Lightwave-Connection is a real time saver.

But it seems there is a problem with timing. I played this level ( the first video... http://www.gamecore.ca/blog/video-gallery/ ).

Sometimes movement and rotation of the camera is slow, normal, slow, fast, slow, normal... and so on.
Usually movement and rotation should be FPS-independent.

sounds like a scripting/programming problem, not an engine problem.

Hmmm....the website says :
"GameCore Beta will begin July 4th 2008."
So far, i see any beta Ohhh, I'm so excited

//well, the website exactly says,

A era ends, another begins

We have reached the end of the GameCore Alpha testing period. What does this mean? Well, for starters, it means that we have temporarily closed the Alpha testing site for all logins. This is required so we can rearrange a few things and take the wrapping off the new site & framework.

If you have been involved in the Alpha test, don’t worry - all of your accounts and logins are still valid - we just needed to close the doors for a moment to get a few things polished prior to launch.

Launch you say?

Yes, the next phase of GameCore’s evolution is to open the doors to the general public and let everyone in on the fun. We will be launching the new site, store & gamecore Beta all at the same time. This should be interesting (eek), but if all goes according to plan, later this week, everyone will have access to the next generation in game development - GameCore!

Stay tuned for more details as we get closer to the Launch.

Its a bunch of PR, i hope the engine is on par this time around

Here the news :

"
Oh the joy of release day

Ok, we missed our internal date of July 4th. Was hoping to have a nice present for the american’s in the crowd, but alas, it was not to be. Our goal with the next release is to throw it out to the masses - yes, the GameCore Beta will be our official ‘unveiling’, both of the new engine and the new community site that we’ve been developing. But, as with any project of this size, there are always a billion things that you want to get finished before things get exposed to the public scrutiny that is the internet.

At this point, we are down to the nitty-gritty. Technology (both for the site & engine release) is good to go. At this point it’s down to a crapload of writing, for documentation and marketing materials for the site. The ‘Beta’ part about the release is going to mostly be the lack of documentation about the new features. We try to make our software as self-documenting as possible, but it’s still a very crucial component of the big picture.

But, the world can’t wait forever, so tomorrow is the big day. One final pass on the engine to fix a few known issues, and a mad rush of writing for the site, and we will be live, ready or not (here it comes!)

Stay tuned for more info.

"

"...ready or not (here it comes!)"

This is great at the one hand but dangerous at the other. They make an interim solution in terms of documentation, performance and stability. And as many of you know, such interim solutions meant to be temporarily can last forever (like they did in the last BV version).

I am not sure if this is the right attitude for software engineering and development. And there is a reason why the first comment to this announcement is:
"Get it right, don’t rush it folks, I certainly do not mind. Those that are eager, please be patient, this crew does a great job."

But lets see what happens this time.

Jepp, lets hope that all goes right.

And another missed date...

The last news :

------
Release dates are evil

The last 10% of any project takes as long as the first 90%. This is pretty much true about any project, and unfortunately, my estimate that we’d be ready for earlier this week got blown out of the water. There are a couple of reasons why we are delaying things, but the biggest is simply that this will also be the first ‘public’ version of GameCore, and we want everything to go smoothly for the release.

Even with the extra days of development / polish, we will still be woefully unprepared I’m sure - documentation is a nightmare as always - and trying to document software that does as much as GameCore does is an extremely factor of difficulty to the task.

So, we are hoping for later this week, but at this point I’m going to stop (again) mentioning release dates and simply go with the ‘iD’ method - it will be done when it’s done. Which will be soon…ish…
-------

Stability wise and feature wise I'm pretty happy with GameCore as it is, it's the documentation that's the important bit so I hope it's worth waiting for.

And we are waiting and waiting and waiting.....they don't rush it.

i have spoken with mike from GC team, he write me over MSN

MIKE: there's a bunch of stuff broken at the moment, it won't be ready to go until tomorrow (21.juni) unfortunately. we've redone the launcher and some other stuff but it's not finished quite yet.

he say for 2 days beta starts, but nothing, is very unprofessionel, no infos on blogsite or launch the old forum.

i had see new shots from the beta, realy nice shots and features.

Christian_Ger

The website (only the website) is online !

Ok, the Beta is now also online. But they haven't made a trial version jet....