Marleys Ghost

I have to concur, either that or it does not work how we expect it to which leaves the question, how do you truly free and Entity?

Well, after an hour of testing I dont think FreeEntity() free's an entity entirely, its more FreeALittleOfTheEntity()

Before the data loss, I think Flexman and Paul had voiced concerns over a possible bug with coronas.

Yeah thats what I would think, but I cant confirm this to be the case for the LOD's of a particular model .. even when the main models usage count is zero. If I load a model, say 10 times, 10 different instances of the same model, then freed all 10 then I assumed that all references to that models main model and LOD's , textures/materials would be deleted. Thus when loading a new instance of that model the system would have to reload all again as there would be no cached instance of it or its LOD's, Textures or Materials.

What exactly does FreeEntity() free on an Entity?

File Name: Furious Frank Demo 0.03 File Submitter: Marleys Ghost File Submitted: 21 Apr 2011 File Category: Games Description Furious Frank V0.03 Demo Furious Frank V0.01 came about from my requirement to have a simple application in which to test code in my code archives from the last year. What was supposed to be a simple cleaning out the harddrive exercise got a little side-tracked. This version was achieved in about 14 hours on a Monday. Furious Frank V0.02 is the 10 or so hours I have worked on it since. With the prospect of a whole 3 days ahead with nothing to take up my time, I wanted to get Furious Frank V0.02 uploaded and start on Furious Frank V0.03. It has so far taken the best part of 3 hours to wrestle out that which was required for this demo from my oh so tidy development folder. I have coded the settings to make this still an easy "game", but as its still in development with feedback on the functionality and performance being more important, if you died in a few seconds then there would be nothing to report, except maybe "its too hard <sniff>". When you die you die, so keep that health topped up. Controls: Mouse - Camera Look WASD - Move Left Mouse Button - Fire Right Mouse Button - Launch Grenade Reload - Key R or MMB Run - Left/Right Shift Gravity on/off - Key G Sniper View - key Z Screenshot - Key J Music on/off - Key M [AI]deBUG on/off - Key B Pause App - Key P PostFX Key 1 Toggles Antialias on/off Key 2 Toggles Bloom on/off Key 3 Toggles GodRays on/off Key 4 Toggles HDR on/off Key 5 Toggles SSAO on/off Added: Basic Application Launcher New explosion handling system (80% completed, but removes ~90% of the issues in V0.01) Bug Funeral Service Fatigue Meter Bug Detection Radar SImple HUD (retains some simple development information at the top of the screen) Auto-Reload and Manual Reload Structure Limited Ammo (Bullets) Limited Health Ammo Powerup (periodically regenerates) Health Powerup (periodically regenerates) Basic Scoring System Gamezone Barrier Fixes & Tweaks: Quite a few, leaving only, quite a few Grenade Powerup is non functional at this time but an ample 200 grenades have been made available. Other tweaks were made which related mainly to models/lods & textures. Feedback is more than welcome, I am aware of a few thousand issues currently, and will address them in due time (reincarnation permitting that is lol). Furious Frank V0.03 Additions Clouds ToD Zombie NPC's Also, various minor "bug" fixes and patches. (leaving only a few thousand to go!!) I am currently not able to find as much time as I would like to dedicate to this side project. You can use the Y and U keys to advance and reverse the ToD between 9.00AM and 4.00PM .. no point going past this as I have not yet sorted a torch or any "dark" time lights. The clouds will simply go about their business. The Zombies I have squeezed in at the last moment, they still need tweaking although I did manage to tie in the damage they inflict with their respective animation's (something I still need to do with the bugs). I hope this weekend I can start to tidy up the code I just spent two hours making a mess of whilst doing this version. I have again left the settings on an easy level, you can now also select the numbers of bugs (1-8) and the number of Zombies (1-8) that will be active at anyone time, the default is 2 x Bugs and 8 x Zombies. I have also changed the music (can hear Paul Thomas and Macklebee cheering lol). I am using a track created by xzessmedia which is available here. Again, special thanks to Paul Thomas for his contribution to this little side project. Paul kindly integrated into Furious Franks source code one of his older basic cloud and ToD (Time of Day) systems. It will need tweaking for the project but it was most generous. Feedback is more than welcomed. Click here to download this file

No problems Flex m8, I tend to write tools that I need, I will see if I can find a .gmf model with child objects to check if I can develop it to rename them.

File Name: Very Low Poly Filing Cabinet File Submitter: Marleys Ghost File Submitted: 21 Apr 2011 File Category: Models Triangles: 12 LOD Versions: No License: Licensed developers may use this model in any personal or commercial Leadwerks Engine game/project only. Do not distribute this model in any format other than Leadwerks GMF. Do not distribute the image files in any format other than DDS. You may not sell or give away this model as part of a model or media pack. Credit is always nice, but not necessary. Very Low Poly Filing Cabinet Asset came about from my experiments with methods for creating normal maps for low poly surfaces. It seemed a shame to banish it to some dark corner of a storage device. Click here to download this file

Hey Flex, not sure, not something I looked at as I use UU3D and if I recall correctly the entire mesh hierarchy is combined on import, hence only one mesh on export with a single name. Having all meshes called "U3D_MESH" made trouble shooting a pain in the sitting muscle so I quickly knocked up the tool. Which I have just re-upped after Josh bought a DeLorean with a Flux capacitor.

File Name: GMF Static Mesh ReNamer File Submitter: Marleys Ghost File Submitted: 21 Apr 2011 File Updated: 22 Apr 2011 File Category: Tools Just a small tool to rename a static mesh in .GMF format that I put together for myself to overcome UU3D's naming of all meshes converted to .GMF format as "U3D_MESH". Instructions: Simply drag and drop the static mesh you want to rename onto the .exe, enter the new name and click ok. A backup of the original file will also be created. Warning: This is for use only on static single object meshes. Click here to download this file

Actually that's quite insulting to the community I think, which is made up of many individuals who have spent many hours of their valuable time contributing to it, with "Asset store files, screens, blogs, posts, etc." and much more, but as none of that was critical I am sure they can now take it easy, stop uploading files, writing blogs, posting, helping with technical support, writing tools, headers and tutorials.

You'll need to check everything for its date ..

Actually I don't hate AppTime() I just don't like using it in some instances. Its extremely useful and from what I can tell a more accurate mechanism to use than AppSpeed(). Whilst working on Furious Frank, one thing I noticed and it always caught my eye, was what I term “Chorus Line Syndrome” where using the basic AppTime() frame incrementing code for looping animations results in a regimented animation playback for like models/characters. I have ignored this issue thus far as it was not such a big deal in the early stages. However I decided it needed to be sorted, rather than just left as this issue will no doubt crop up again and its always handy when problems do arise again to have a basic template solution. First I took the lua entity script for the bug and removed all dependence on AppTime() completely using AppSpeed() to adjust for running speed variations. This worked fine but still broke down under high stress tests. The only way I can simulate high stress is to run some background applications and Fraps. Of course some breakdown would come about when the stress is heavy. I then switched to using a mechanism that relied on AppTime() as the base, but not in the same way that it was used for the basic AppTime() frame incrementing code for looping animations. There was still some breakdown under heavy load but not as much as the AppSpeed() based script. Utilising this script with other aspects to add extra randomness to same type character animation playback I made a few tests. The results are in the video below, in the first part the “Red Bugs” are running the original script and the “Blue Bugs” the new one. In the second half of the video I applied the template to some “Fast Horde” zombie AI I had been working on previously: Some synchronisation still occurs but that's just inevitable given the constraints of the character models used, that is, how many frames per loop are used in a cycle of animation and indeed how many animation types per action there are. Even slightly interrupting the “Chorus Line Syndrome” has much nicer results. I added some small mechanisms to the “Fast Horde” zombie script to continually mix things up over time. But all in all I am much happier with the results than not having addressed it. There is still some translational movement patterns, like the "flying V" the Zombies exhibit in the video now and again, but I already have a solution involving types of same entity types to add a few extra parameters to help limit the occurrence. As for Furious Frank, I'd like to say a big thank you to Paul Thomas for his contribution to this little side project. Paul kindly integrated into Furious Franks source code one of his older basic cloud and ToD (Time of Day) systems. It will need tweaking for the project but it was most generous. Heres a little look at the current stage of integration: When more time is permitting I will continue with working toward a release of Furious Frank V0.03 The current version of Furious Frank can be found here: Furious Frank V0.03 Previous entries for this project: MAGIA .. Monday MAGIA .. Monday ... and a little bit. MAGIA .. Monday .. a little bit .. and beyond Source

Furious Frank V0.01 came about from my requirement to have a simple application in which to test code in my code archives from the last year. It What was supposed to be a simple cleaning out the harddrive exercise got a little side-tracked. This version was achieved in about 14 hours on a Monday. MAGIA .. Monday MAGIA .. Monday ... and a little bit Furious Frank V0.02 is the 10 or so hours I have worked on it since. With the prospect of a whole 3 days ahead with nothing to take up my time, I wanted to get Furious Frank V0.02 uploaded and start on Furious Frank V0.03. It has so far taken the best part of 3 hours to wrestle out that which was required for this demo from my oh so tidy development folder. I have coded the settings to make this still an easy "game", but as its still in development with feedback on the functionality and performance being more important, if you died in a few seconds then there would be nothing to report, except maybe "its too hard ". When you die you die, so keep that health topped up. Not had anytime yet to code and develop a spawning system for the Bugs so I kind of just drop them in on the player, so, wear a hat. Showcase Page & Download Link Here. Source

Just a little update, I have managed only to grab a few hours here and there to spend on this since last Monday, and its now looking like it will not be until thursday when I can get into it like I did last monday. So heres a quick low quality video of how it stands at the moment. Have a good week all. I hope to get V0.02 uploaded by the end of the week. Showcase Page Source

Feeling the need to finally start sorting through my storage HDD's I came across my Blitzmax code library. I needed to test the code snippets and sort through what was worth keeping and what was broken. I found a FPS framework I had been working on but the code got broken with the release of 2.32, so before I binned it I thought I'd have yet another go at getting it at least to run. This was about 6.00 am monday morning, well I did have the whole of the day to myself, quite a rare occurrence. At around 11.00 am it was up and running, took an hour to locate all the assets it utilised lol. Still full of bugs and problems, I thought what the ... Heck .. and sat down with a gallon pot of coffee and tinkered with it ... and tinkered.. and tinkered a little more .. by the afternoon I was down to two issues, both to do with parenting objects in the transparency world. I left this and started looking through other code and slowly began to add different proof of concepts I had worked on over the last year or so... Don't you just hate it when that happens ... OOP's I did it again .... I continued to tweak and tinker and add ..at around 10pm .. I had an Idea how to tackle the original transparency/parenting problem whilst chatting with Paul. At around 11.30pm I realised, the makings of a game had been born ... that game is currently known as: Furious Frank Well, its quite an easy "game" at the moment with infinite ammo and infinite life even if the HUD is telling me its running down .. but not a bad days work I felt .. hopefully next monday I can wrangle some more time and tweak it and add to it. If I get time today, I will upload a demo to the showcase under the title, MAGIA Monday (as I Dont have time to spend a month on it). Source

Last April, I blogged about the news that Crytek might be releasing a free version of the CryEngine, much in the same way that Epic did with UDK and the Unreal 3 engine and also Unity licensing the indie version of their engine as free. Well, it seems that this will happen with CryEngine 3. According to Crytek co-founder Anvi Yerli, "The barriers for entry will be very low, and perhaps [it will be distributed] for free." Details and a release date for this CryEngine 3 Lite SDK have yet to be announced. It seems resonable to speculate that such a release could be similar to what Epic Games did when it released its UDK tools in 2009. Full Article Here Sean Tracy also mentions this at the end of an interview recorded at GDC 11. It is turning out to be an interesting year for indie developers. Source

"We're pleased to share the first ever in-game trailer for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the next installment in The Elder Scrolls series from award-winning creators of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Fallout 3, Bethesda Game Studios. " You might find you need to log into Youtube to view the trailer for age verification. It seems Skyrim will be released world-wide on 11.11.11 on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC ... so something to look forward to at the end of the year other than the cold weather. If they release another instalment of Fallout at the same time ... then hibernation this coming winter will just not be an option

Time is proving to be a most scarce commodity at the moment. So having a few hours spare I set myself some tasks and as usual did something completely different I started work on a room and ended up on a new 90 degree section, corridor doorway section (with separate reusable door frame / doors and simple placeholder keypad switch box all to need textures), a few WIP scripts for the doors and some hashed together sound FX for them to and a short corridor "Door Plug" section to allow the standard sections to fit the door frame. Part of the plan for this modular approach to the level is that as many sections/parts as possible will be able to "plug" into each other. I also wanted to test out some new base metal textures to try and break up the "monotone" look. The door keypad switch would also require some sort of 3rd person object interaction functionality which was hastily coded and again as with everything else, still very much a WIP. Simple keypad switch prop: Development in Silo PRO: A quick medium resolution video to show the "worksite" test scene. I can't take credit for the blue and yellow textures they are curtesy of Paint.NET's floodfill tool.. Hopefully next week I will be able to free up more than only a few hours to get fully back into this "adventure", but I was not unhappy with the progress I made in only two hours. Source

With the basic texture workflow pretty much sorted for the modular level design (see here), I have turned my attention to getting a scale I am happy with. When this is done then after each section is modelled and then UV mapped it should be just a simple case of converting to .gmf format (famous last words). Scaling seems to be an issue that crops up across all the engines I use. But truthfully it matters not what others scale to, but that the relative scaling used in a scene is consistent for all static and animated meshes from props to scene to characters. LE has a scale of 1 unit is about 1m, I simply use 1 unit as 1m, therefore a character needing to be 6 foot tall would simply be a "metric" 6 foot.. or 1.8 units. This is the rule of thumb I use for all scenes and corresponding code. But sometimes its also good to check how it looks by eye. In a 3rd person situation its not just the scale of the level and the characters but having to remember the camera offset and how this would be effected. I normally do two tests, a simple static scene with characters and props placed to get a simple overall picture of the scaling. And I like to knock up a quick app with a basic 3rd person collision cam and have a quick walk through (HD available): So far I am happy with the results which means when time permits I can get on with creating the rest of the sections/rooms ect. I have also checked the scaling to make sure I can easily "block out" the level and run it through my pathfinding mapdata generator app which I had some success with in earlier tests of A* pathfinding (see here). Source

Firstly, I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a belated happy new year. I hope you all have had a great start to it. I have not been doing much on the coding front for the last few weeks. I decided to get some assets created and try and develop my texturing skills a little further. I also purchased Silo 3D Pro over the Christmas period as it was on offer. I had used the demo and was impressed at how "comfortable" it was to use. I now use this package as my main modeller but in conjunction with AC3D and UU3D. Basically Ultimate Unwrap 3D is the junction where all my modelling and art packages meet. Not only for Leadwerks with its .gmf export for both static meshes and animated assets but for all the engines I use, for me its an invaluable tool and a good investment for the minimal cost. I have need of a modular corridor/room set, and decided to set about seeing just how low you can go with the poly count and how much you can offset the inherent "flatness" of a low poly environment with normal mapping and "hand painted" textures. This would be moving on directly from a previous flirtation with texturing which can be found here. Some more incriminating evidence can be seen in the gallery as well, fairly obvious I am no artist. Another aspect of texturing I have been playing with is bump mapping. I use ShaderMap Pro which is great but making bumpmaps from diffuse textures can have horrible "side effects" when creating panelling. Diffuse only: Diffuse and Normal map created directly from the Diffuse texture by ShaderMap Pro: Not really the effect I was after. After a few ideas and some testing I found hand crafting a Normal map "template" from which a Normal map would be generated by ShaderMap Pro gave much better results for this exercise. I then made the first test section of the low poly modular level pack: The textures were then UV mapped onto the section in UU3D and then converted all over to .gmf .dds and created the .mat files using ADN ... I love ADN truly one of the most useful tools written by a community member ever!! I Lined a few of them up just for show .. 480 polys not bad .. considering the default rusty oildrum is 256. Encouraged by the result thus far I moved on, making the section bigger but retaining the tilable nature of the textures Unfortunately real life commitments caused a pause in my endeavours until a day ago so I have spent the last few hours refining some aspects and making a few more test sections: The overall effect of the technique I am developing can be seen better in this video (HD available): This is currently the point I am at, With some preliminary drafts for doors/doorways rooms and elevators/elevator shafts ect. I am trying to reach a point where variation is only a texture change away on standard section low poly models. I am still getting my templates organised and fine tuning the work flow and still very much a WIP, but so far I am quite pleased with the results. Source

From the menu at the top of this forum. Support\Tutorials\Blitzmax Downloads\Code\Blitzmax And of course this section of the forum.

nope .. am using firefox and not seeing a problem with loading.

I see, so less than 9% of what they charge for a one time fee per title?

And your idea of a "good price" is? http://www.speedtree.com/sales/#sdk