Josh

I like standard interfaces. I like the consistency of having all programs look the same. That's why web browsers bug me a lot sometimes; They each have their own unique look. It's disappointing to me how Microsoft has gotten away from this idea. Why oh why can't Windows have skins? But I digress. In terms of performance, my favorite browser would probably be Opera. In terms of appearance, my favorite is Internet Explorer 6. I know, web designers hate it for its quirks. I don't use it due to security issues. But I still like it because it is the only web browser out there with what I consider a simple standard interface. So I took matters into my own hands and found a skin that makes Firefox look like IE6. Then I replaced the program icon with the IE6 icon. I also edited some configuration settings to change the name of the program. I give you Firefox Explorer!: In all seriousness, the reason I am getting away from Microsoft Office is the ribbon interface. I've been using it since 2007, but I still prefer the Office 2003 interface. If they still had that as an option, I would be happily buying Office 2010. Maybe I am not representative of the average customer, but I have my likes and dislikes, and consistency is a big one for me.

Phygen and obj2phy are added in the Tools folder now.

The conundrum is that I want to tell everyone what I have planned, but I can't announce things yet. So we'll all have to wait until the time is right.

I recommend performing a clean install in a separate folder from your version 2.31 installation. Fixed a few minor problems. Added a few missing files. Not yet verified to work with ATI cards. Editor has debugging for crashes that occur during script execution. I would like to know about any problems you encounter at this point.

I would use 3D World Studio to make individual buildings.

We shall see!

I've been working a lot on the business side of Leadwerks lately, and although the results aren't yet visible, it's important to ensure our long-term goals are achieved. I wish I could say more right now. My main machine is back on Windows XP. I don't want to discuss the relative merits of operating systems, but for me Windows XP is more productive. Other people might not work the way I do, so they will have their own preferences, and no one is "wrong". That said, I am surprised with how simple everything feels. Instead of "experiencing" someone else's idea of what a computer should be like, I feel like I have things back under my control. I looked up a lot of registry tweaks, and am tuning XP to work just the way I want. Here are some of the modifications I made: Modified Explorer search to include all file types. "Computer" now opens with file tree on the left. Shortcuts don't display an arrow. Modified places bar shown on the left with file request dialogs. Disabled Autoplay on all drives. Disabled logon screen. Yeah, I know it is funny that a programmer is talking about Windows XP like it's 2001, but I like it. TweakUI is a neat little application I found handy that you might like, and it's offered on Microsoft's website, so it might be a little more reliable than some others. Another good aspect of my setup on XP is security. I love Sygate Personal Firewall. It prompts the user for every single connection that is attempted, and gives you the option to allow, deny, and save your setting to use again later. There's probably other Firewalls for Windows 7 that work just as well, but none of the ones I tried were as intuitive. I'm surprised with how few program I actually need. It's also interesting to see how they have changed over the years. Here's a partial list of installed apps: Firefox Digsby (I had a brief quarrel with this program, but I love it.) SmartFTP (inexpensive and fantastic) OpenOffice Microsoft Visual Studio BlitzMax BLIde Plus XNView Media Player Classic (I like Media Player 12 a bit, but it's not available for XP, and I always keep this installed anyway) WinAmp 2.95 with Blackdawn skin. Paint.NET Sygate Personal Firewall Avast Antivirus CDBurnerXP (very good free program!) Steam (of course) WinRar TGA thumbnail viewer DDS thumbnail viewer Windows Texture Viewer Adobe Reader So I have everything the way I want, in my own little obsessive-compulsive method of organizing my computer. I think today will shape up to be a very productive day, programming-wise. What common programs do you find useful? How have these changed over the years? Now that I have Digsby, I don't need Windows Messenger. I'm attempting to replace Microsoft Office with OpenOffice.org. What about you?

The model viewer is not included in 2.32 beta.

Perfect.

This issue was recently brought to my attention. It just started occuring due to some optimizations that were made in version 2.31. It has been fixed for version 2.32. You can replace the spotlight with a directional light to see how it should work.

No program should overheat the GPU, ever. The driver should be self-limiting so that the card never gets too hot. I experienced this with some drivers with an nVidia GEForce 9800 GTX. If it continues to be a problem, using Flip(1) can prevent this, but it's really a problem with the driver, and should not be happening. If this does occur, you will know it because the screen will go black and a notification will appear in the system tray saying that the display driver crashed.

It's used for syntax highlighting in the script editor.

The explanation of the lua state refreshing was very good. You don't actually need the scilexer DLL. I would also copy the interpreter debugger (engine.debug.exe). At around 22:30, you did misspell "deferred". This is a really good runthrough of things. A lot of stuff you mention is thing I wouldn't even think to explain, but when you do I can see how it would be useful for someone brand new to game development, or at least to Leadwerks. Nice stuff!

I created a new app and have my status updates syncing. If your account is still associated, you should be able to remove that now.

I don't see any reason the GMF converter would have any problems with that. If Sketchup can export an FBX or Collada file, I don't see any problems.

I recommend using RakNet. It handles everything, and is very extensive.

I'd rather not deal with bug reports for this, but you can post any odd behavior in this thread.

Robin, if you bought the program from this site please email support at leadwerks dot com.

The framework command set is used to create a "framework" that handles bloom and other effects, so you can just switch them on and off.

That's pretty clever, but how would you blur the depth buffer of the particle image? I do like that idea a lot. It makes sense to render the shape of the volume first, and then make it look like particles after.

I don't know how XNA works, but that does not sound like what I am describing.

In the future, I want to implement a feature I am calling "stages". This will allow you to define a stage for an entity or material, and then render a camera one stage at a time, with your own code in between to handle effects. Something like this: camera.BeginRender(); camera.Render(-1);// draw skybox camera.Render(0);// draw main stuff //Do whatever post-processing stuff you want camera.Render(1);// draw transparent objects camera.EndRender(); This would eliminate the need for multiple worlds and multiple camera renders.

Leadwerks has an advanced and highly optimized occlusion system utilizing all the techniques discussed here. The entity rendering routine uses an octree, and the vegetation uses a method so advanced I can't even explain it in words. But it works and it is really fast.

Well, you should use two triangles facing each direction, unless it is a primitive that faces mostly upwards and you want backlighting through the surface.

I don't know if you will have much luck trying to make something that different with our engine. A system like that will be extremely non-optimal for most kinds of games, except for the one type they are making.