I agree with ventilator on the SDKs, they seem too complicated to use. I tried to use one from C# and it just wasn't easy!

I decided to manually parse the WMB format, from the online specification although it would help if it was accurate, because I have found numerous errors.

for my editor, I'm using the .wmb to read in existing levels, but writing out .$$M files, which can be compiled by the map compiler, so i don't have to mess about with lightmaps etc.

will sprite instancing still allow sorted semitransparency?

Hey Hummel, what's up with this:

Have you tried bmap_zbuffer? I'm pretty sure that's its job.

Jibb

I know I know, Slin already told me
...should probably read update features more carefully^^

Ah k. No worries Very useful for AA with post-processing chains -- as I see you've already done in the off-topic thread.

Jibb

year but there I used a vertex shader to move the vertices an arbitrary count of screen-pixels (for AA just fractions), means I´ve to render the scene several times

Okay, that makes sense since you described it as "expensive". It's a pretty clever workaround.

Jibb

contrary to 'normal' SS my solution had to calculate the vertex stuff also multiple times but the much more expensive part of both SS-methods is certainly the pixel shader specially when using more complex effects like relief mapping.
I optimized my technique later so that the offset direction is defined by the world space normals of the vertices (means I scale objects instead of moving) which eventually reduces the SS sampler count by the half while reaching nearly the same AA quality (rotated grid is not possible with this method) but prevent the textures from getting slightly blurred. ( 3 sampler SSAA )
I could imagine that my solution could be used as per-object defined AA or something like that but nevertheless since this thread is about A8 I should stop talking about my clever solutions for not existing problems

...sorry for the off-topic crap

I appreciate the info

But yeah, it's about time we left this for A8-related questions. I think many questions here have been left unanswered

Jibb

Hi, I agree with you on this, the easiest way to use the SDK is with C++ and it's difficult to use the headers in say PureBasic (using PureBasic itself). On the forecast page, there's am entry about allowing LiteC to create standard WIN32 DLLs, I think this will be the best way to create wrappers for other third party languages rather than use the SDK. However, this feature has been on hold for over a year or so so I'll probably hold off buying A8 until it's implemented (my initial assumption was it was going to be implemented in A7?).