[ALPHA] Update - Respawn: Oh the Humanity...
It has been a while since my last post but this in no way means that I have been idle, the change log for release v1.0.0.7 speaks for itself. But don't believe me, read the full changelog here and judge for yourself.
I have been diligently working my way through my "To Do" list and making some solid progress, I did get side-tracked a few times but quickly managed to get my focus back on the jobs at hand. During this period I bought copies of Forester Pro and Medusa Pro and started using them to get some more scenery added to the current set of maps. These tools are well worth the price and although I feel the prices of the packs are a little too steep individually and a bundled price should be offered, I purchased a couple of add on packs that had the content I was looking for.
The decision was also made to offer a similar map to Proving Grounds for different biomes, so armed with trusty old LT3D, I set off creating the various biomes. The next step is to do a merge of the Sahara code (that Konrad Kiss from BitGap Games has given me permission to tackle) and try to port it from the older versions to the new T3D 3.5.1. If you don't know what Sahara does, then go here and check it out for yourself. This will allow me to add some semblance of realism to the maps, as can been seen in some of my test shots below.
Please read the original forum thread and released resource regarding Sahara for more information. Feel free to use the publically available GitHub repository to fork your code until the updated code becomes a part of the master branch.
The team has also finalised the list of game modes that we are going to support and I am in the process of posting this list up on the wiki. Speaking of the wiki, things are starting to take shape nicely and I have added the first couple of achievements to the wiki as well. Almost all the instructions are complete and there is even some background and game mechanics information on there now.
The basic achievement page.
The detailed achievement page.
Karl Muller from Karl Muller Music and Sound Design has done an outstanding job on the sounds for the game and we now have new sounds for almost all aspects of the game. This was one of the items brought up during testing and I am hoping that in the next release players will be happy with the quality and the result. Speaking of quality, I realised that I was exporting all my sounds to low quality and had to spend a day re-exporting all the sounds, now that was fun.
Version 1.0.0.7 sees the introduction of PhysX 3 support. We now have PhysX objects scattered all over the maps to provide cover, but they are destructible, you have been warned. During the introduction of PhysX, I also merged in the latest update from Torque 3D MIT 3.5.1 as well as rolled back Awesomium to 1.7.2.2. These have now given me a solid base on both Windows and Linux and thus I am now even closer to finally get a workable build on Linux for my servers and Game Changer system. See this post for more information regarding my frustrations with PhysX 3 Windows Client and Linux Server interoperability.
The next release will see the introduction of some basic achievements, more servers in the following regions (US East - New York, US West - San Francisco, Europe - Amsterdam, and Asia - Singapore) as well as the ability to start renting your own servers and managing them through Game Changer.
After the next release, things will quieten down for a little while as we start working on the next phase of Game Flow. This will see the introduction of regional servers, the separation of core Game Flow functionality from the game engine in to a separate DLL, and a more optimized master server and messaging system. We are also investigating the inclusion of a Jabber server for the lobby and help system. By using a Jabber server, our support team don't have to be logged in to the game and can stay logged in to the Game Flow control panel and provide assistance from there.
We are also going to start work on the next phase of the Distributed UI system and will start introducing language support for the various regions. The system is also going to be updated to support a more dynamic GUI that will update more efficiently with changing resolutions and will finally get push notification support.
Overall, things are progressing nicely, albeit somewhat more slowly then I initially anticipated but some very valuable lessons have been learnt. These lessons have allowed us to identify potential bottle necks and address these before we go ahead with our Steam Greenlight push. I need to make sure all my services are in place and that they can potentially grow with the user base before I can even think of doing large scale marketing pushes.
So please stay tuned, we are moving forward and we are getting ever closer to providing you with an awesome gaming experience.
I have been diligently working my way through my "To Do" list and making some solid progress, I did get side-tracked a few times but quickly managed to get my focus back on the jobs at hand. During this period I bought copies of Forester Pro and Medusa Pro and started using them to get some more scenery added to the current set of maps. These tools are well worth the price and although I feel the prices of the packs are a little too steep individually and a bundled price should be offered, I purchased a couple of add on packs that had the content I was looking for.
The decision was also made to offer a similar map to Proving Grounds for different biomes, so armed with trusty old LT3D, I set off creating the various biomes. The next step is to do a merge of the Sahara code (that Konrad Kiss from BitGap Games has given me permission to tackle) and try to port it from the older versions to the new T3D 3.5.1. If you don't know what Sahara does, then go here and check it out for yourself. This will allow me to add some semblance of realism to the maps, as can been seen in some of my test shots below.
Please read the original forum thread and released resource regarding Sahara for more information. Feel free to use the publically available GitHub repository to fork your code until the updated code becomes a part of the master branch.
The team has also finalised the list of game modes that we are going to support and I am in the process of posting this list up on the wiki. Speaking of the wiki, things are starting to take shape nicely and I have added the first couple of achievements to the wiki as well. Almost all the instructions are complete and there is even some background and game mechanics information on there now.
The basic achievement page.
The detailed achievement page.
Karl Muller from Karl Muller Music and Sound Design has done an outstanding job on the sounds for the game and we now have new sounds for almost all aspects of the game. This was one of the items brought up during testing and I am hoping that in the next release players will be happy with the quality and the result. Speaking of quality, I realised that I was exporting all my sounds to low quality and had to spend a day re-exporting all the sounds, now that was fun.
Version 1.0.0.7 sees the introduction of PhysX 3 support. We now have PhysX objects scattered all over the maps to provide cover, but they are destructible, you have been warned. During the introduction of PhysX, I also merged in the latest update from Torque 3D MIT 3.5.1 as well as rolled back Awesomium to 1.7.2.2. These have now given me a solid base on both Windows and Linux and thus I am now even closer to finally get a workable build on Linux for my servers and Game Changer system. See this post for more information regarding my frustrations with PhysX 3 Windows Client and Linux Server interoperability.
The next release will see the introduction of some basic achievements, more servers in the following regions (US East - New York, US West - San Francisco, Europe - Amsterdam, and Asia - Singapore) as well as the ability to start renting your own servers and managing them through Game Changer.
After the next release, things will quieten down for a little while as we start working on the next phase of Game Flow. This will see the introduction of regional servers, the separation of core Game Flow functionality from the game engine in to a separate DLL, and a more optimized master server and messaging system. We are also investigating the inclusion of a Jabber server for the lobby and help system. By using a Jabber server, our support team don't have to be logged in to the game and can stay logged in to the Game Flow control panel and provide assistance from there.
We are also going to start work on the next phase of the Distributed UI system and will start introducing language support for the various regions. The system is also going to be updated to support a more dynamic GUI that will update more efficiently with changing resolutions and will finally get push notification support.
Overall, things are progressing nicely, albeit somewhat more slowly then I initially anticipated but some very valuable lessons have been learnt. These lessons have allowed us to identify potential bottle necks and address these before we go ahead with our Steam Greenlight push. I need to make sure all my services are in place and that they can potentially grow with the user base before I can even think of doing large scale marketing pushes.
So please stay tuned, we are moving forward and we are getting ever closer to providing you with an awesome gaming experience.