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MapBuilder 2.5 #449093
03/04/15 08:41
03/04/15 08:41
8 Images
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,150
Budapest
sivan Offline OP
Expert
MapBuilder 2.5

Hi,

after many interesting announcements at GDC, now a 3D Gamestudio related one: the new totally refreshed MapBuilder editor is ready! Of course, with complete source code to allow users to customize it.

Nearly every part of the source code has been rewritten, and reorganized into editor and runtime (in-game) modules. It results in much faster game compilation when including MapBuilder's source (see the two little examples in the root folder), and lower memory consumption, The editor also become much more easily customizable, you can remove unnecessary parts, or replace them with your own solutions, or add new features based on the existing ones. It has a positive effect on stability too.

Of course, beside many important bug-fixes, a little package of new features arrived:

- now you can start with an empty map, and add or delete ground and water terrain any time (the new grid helps in empty space);
- quitting from the editor mode returns to the startup menu, thus you can change some graphics settings and test your levels in a more flexible way;
- automatic terrain multitexturing, based on some height and slope parameters;
- optional terrain shader supporting dynamic shadows close to camera, and fading smoothly to static lightmap over distance (when shadow_stencil is -1, i.e. exponential shadowmapping is used, thus no need for pssm);
- a new entity category called "building models", which has nearly similar properties to map-entities, but it is the preferred one, because models are rendered much faster;
- obstacles are now for smaller objects, mainly for vegetation (the sample assets have been reorganized accordingly);
- corrected model preview, which can be rotated, and aligned to surface in more different ways (now the placed entity will be exactly there, with the same rotation or alignment);
- easier entity modification (ctrl + left mouse), similar entities in the level can inherit modified properties (or delete all similar ones);
- entity cloning (shift + left mouse), making modular level design really fast;
- even tile size for entities, useful when having collision determined by x-y tile size;
- pro edition features, like terrain lod and particle instancing, are supported now;
- slightly reorganized main menu and shortcuts.

Download latest version from GitHub

Enjoy, and please donate!

p.s. The documentation is not updated yet!
Last edited by sivan; 11/14/17 10:38. Reason: Download link updated
20 Comments
Re: MapBuilder 2.5 [Re: NeutronBlue] #450126
04/07/15 07:20
04/07/15 07:20
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,150
Budapest
sivan Offline OP
Expert
sivan  Offline OP
Expert

Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,150
Budapest
thanks. in general about nexus usage:

- probably the editor requires more nexus than your final game, because you might create and delete many different entities during design time,
- it is set in the exe to 300 because of safety,
- if you run MB from WED by opening MapBuilder.wmp->File->Run (you can ignore the invalid shader file name messages), then nexus is set to 300,
- if you compile it from SED, then at least "-nx 200" is a must, "-nx 300" is even better, and "-diag" is recommended to get a log file (SED->Options->Preferences->Command line options),
- you get a red warning message in MapBuilder editor (excluded from game only code) if nexus is becoming unsafely high, it is better then to save and reload the full map (if you run the exe in theory the engine resolves it silently by allocating some more memory)
- in MapBuilder.c you can search for the word "nexus", there is a short description how max_entities correlated to nexus due to my tests (shortly: 100000 entities require about 300 MB of nexus, so max_entities is set to 75000)
- you can track max nexus and actual nexus by putting "DEBUG_VAR(nexus, 500); DEBUG_VAR(max_nexus, 525);" in the main loop (lines 385-482 in MapBuilder.c), actual nexus is also displayed when you press F11


Free world editor for 3D Gamestudio: MapBuilder Editor
Re: MapBuilder 2.5 [Re: sivan] #450588
04/19/15 05:04
04/19/15 05:04
Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 31
JerahYalyn Offline
Newbie
JerahYalyn  Offline
Newbie

Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 31
I was wondering why the shaders doesn't show for me. My GPU only runs SM2 and the default shaders in MapBuilder is set to SM3. tongue

Re: MapBuilder 2.5 [Re: JerahYalyn] #450593
04/19/15 07:24
04/19/15 07:24
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,150
Budapest
sivan Offline OP
Expert
sivan  Offline OP
Expert

Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,150
Budapest
then you unfortunately have a really ancient GPU... frown shadow_stencil -1 is the only setting that requires SM3, all the others use FFE or SM2. but today SM4 and SM5 requirement is generally accepted, unfortunately not supported by 3DGS.

SM3 offers much more, you can use more instructions in vertex and pixel shaders, and my shaders simply cannot work with SM2 (water shader, shadowmapping). I have plans to totally stop support for SM2 in future.

try to buy a new PC, SM3 support can be achieved for a really little money.


Free world editor for 3D Gamestudio: MapBuilder Editor
Re: MapBuilder 2.5 [Re: sivan] #450599
04/19/15 09:33
04/19/15 09:33
Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 31
JerahYalyn Offline
Newbie
JerahYalyn  Offline
Newbie

Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 31
I'm more on learning simple things about 3DGS anyway. I just got interested on your project with good shaders. I just wonder how 3DGS projects would look like in dx11.

Keep up the amazing work sir! laugh

Re: MapBuilder 2.5 [Re: JerahYalyn] #450605
04/19/15 11:24
04/19/15 11:24
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,150
Budapest
sivan Offline OP
Expert
sivan  Offline OP
Expert

Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,150
Budapest
thanks laugh

you can check how differently MB handles free/extra and commecial/pro editions. the 1st case only FFE is supported (what is difficult for me to understand), in the 2nd you can use shaders. the most functionalities are built in the SM3 shaders as I'm using only them. they are a bit brighter than the standard lighting, because it offers more contrast, more dynamic look. the same lighting code results also in a bit different look with SM2 and SM3 (it is a bit strange experience of me). and SM3 handles fog differently.


Free world editor for 3D Gamestudio: MapBuilder Editor
Re: MapBuilder 2.5 [Re: sivan] #461476
08/08/16 07:26
08/08/16 07:26
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,150
Budapest
sivan Offline OP
Expert
sivan  Offline OP
Expert

Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,150
Budapest
download links on homepage have been fixed.

the new update is ready, but an engine bug prevents me from releasing it... namely, when using includes in shaders, compiled exe files are crashing. moving back to previous engine version can help.


Free world editor for 3D Gamestudio: MapBuilder Editor
Re: MapBuilder 2.5 [Re: sivan] #462891
11/03/16 10:12
11/03/16 10:12
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,150
Budapest
sivan Offline OP
Expert
sivan  Offline OP
Expert

Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,150
Budapest
hi all,

MapBuilder is available now on GitHub: https://github.com/s-ivan/MapBuilder

I think it makes easier to follow updates and to get useful snippets from it.


Free world editor for 3D Gamestudio: MapBuilder Editor
Re: MapBuilder 2.5 [Re: sivan] #462898
11/03/16 17:36
11/03/16 17:36
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 868
Chicago, IL
Dooley Offline
User
Dooley  Offline
User

Joined: May 2005
Posts: 868
Chicago, IL
Nice!

Re: MapBuilder 2.5 [Re: Dooley] #465916
05/17/17 13:33
05/17/17 13:33
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,150
Budapest
sivan Offline OP
Expert
sivan  Offline OP
Expert

Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,150
Budapest
NEWS! laugh

Apparently today I fixed the crash appeared with the last few engine updates. Closing and restarting exponential shadowmapping was not okay (more exactly freeing memory).

I will provide both a Github update and a new download link hopefully next week. You will get a few new features, e.g. billboard lod for trees (requires commercial or pro edition).


Free world editor for 3D Gamestudio: MapBuilder Editor
Re: MapBuilder 2.5 [Re: sivan] #466266
06/04/17 19:39
06/04/17 19:39
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 224
NRW, Germany
NeoJones Offline
Member
NeoJones  Offline
Member

Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 224
NRW, Germany
Nice sivan, great work laugh
Is there a way, to save the water only? I need no wmb or full level, only the water hmp, textures and shader.


Errors are the engine of progress.

Version: A8 Commercial
OS: Win 7 64bit
Models: Cinema 4D
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