A Month With Leadwerks
Entry posted by Benton ·
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It has been a month since I started with Leadwerks. It was also the best month since I started game development. I made bigger and better things with Leadwerks in one month then I had with all the other engines I have used for the last couple years.
Part of this is experience. If you can learn one engine, it makes learning another one much much easier. However, a large part of this the one simple fact that Leadwerks excels at doing things the best and most simplest way.
Anyway, I thought I would share my experiences, maybe some new Leadwerks Developers may benefit from it.
When I first got Leadwerks, I was pretty confused. I was used to engines like Unity and ShiVa, where it is one IDE that does everything, from loading models to writing scripts. So when I first opened the Leadwerks SDK folder, I went "what the hell, where do I start!"
Well, it turns out that the best place to start is the Documentation!
I had a couple questions about how to start a project. I did not really understand if I was supposed to copy the install directory, or use the Project Builder, or use the install directory. So I made a post on the forum. I expected to get an answer in a couple days, cause that was the type of forum I was used too. You can imagine my shock when I got a reply within minutes. I was very happy.
With that out of the way, I was able to focus on developing my project. I had a couple problems about importing models, but it turns out that you need mipmaps for textures, and if your mat file uses a skin shader and your model does not have a skin it will not be rendered. The FBXtoGMF converter refused to work, but Ultimate Unwrap 3D has a GMF plugin that works flawlessly, and I already had UU3d so no problem there. It is a great tool to have for any game developer.
Lua scripting is SUPER easy. I am definitely not a scripter. I don't like coding. The most I can do is with a language like Python or Lua, something without needing to be compiled, simple languages basically. And Leadwerks Lua fits the bill perfectly! I was able to understand every line of Lua I have seen so far (well almost). I was very happy about this.
I found building a scene in the editor is really easy! I had no problems at all with this, nor with terrain creation. Sculpting a terrain, adding trees and vegetation was a breeze.
Anyway, long story short, my game has really progressed with Leadwerks. It is not yet finished, and when it is I will post more details but for now, let me leave you with some eye candy 
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