tkunze

@Ma-Shell Your're right - removing the steam_appid.txt will disable Steam, but the starting time was dramatically longer and the program loaded and unloaded the steamclient several times. @Admin i understand the point, that it will impact the development cycle. But i ordered a NON STEAM version of the product. The move to steam seems to be an important step for you company, however i heavily dislike, that every program i build using LeadWerks connects to Steam and i have no influence on this. And it should not be too complex to solve this using a DEFINE in the code. Picture: Steam client in the created Executable

in my program i disabled to inizialize steam as shown below: //Initialize Steamworks (optional) /*if (!Steamworks::Initialize()) { System::Print("Error: Failed to initialize Steam."); return false; }*/ However i see the following error messages in the debugger: [s_API FAIL] SteamAPI_Init() failed; SteamAPI_IsSteamRunning() failed. [s_API FAIL] SteamAPI_Init() failed; unable to locate a running instance of Steam, or a local steamclient.dll. If my steam client is running i get the steam community message inside my window, so it is obviously connecting. How can i get rid of this? I did not bought my version trough steam. Thanks in advance

Thanks - so if i understand correctly it is not supported, as it was in 2.5. To be honest as i come from LeadWerks 2 i am really frustrated with 3.1 and ask why i have payed 298$ (199$ for the LE3.0 upgrade and 99$ for the LE3.1 upgrade) for having no skybox, no vegatation, no distant fog, no post effects like HDR, SSOA, GodRays, DOF ... All this nice features already implemented in version 2 ... @aggror This framework looks nice. Thanks for sharing it. But i still do not understand why all this features are missing.

Hello Aggror, thanks for the quick response - but i am looking for an official solution. I did not owned the version trough steam - and if i understand correctly this solution is for the steam version beta branch.

I could not figure out how to set a SkyBox in LeadWerks 3.1. In LeadWerks 2 i could set this inside the Editor with a Property dialog and in the code there was a simple SetSkybox command as part of the framewerk which allowed to load the skybox. Thanks in advance for your help

Rick, on 15 May 2014 - 11:12 AM, said: It has been pushed aside for LE3. If this statement is true, than i do not see any reason for using LeadWerks. Buying an Engine is an investement in money, but even more on time you need to learn. It takes months before you're able to really work with it and before you really understand the concepts to build a real game. And as LeadWerks does not provide an offline documentation (like most other engines do) you need this somewhere on the company WebSite. So if the product and all related documentation simply disappears, only because the developer decides to do something new, this investement is very unsafe.

@Rick: The history even of version 3 has shown that you're in my opinion to optimistic with your statement. When LeadWerks 3.0 came out the focus was iOS and Android. All the enhanced rendering stuff was dropped and the result looked like what i could do with my old 3d gamestudio license 10 years ago. Now the new version 3.1 come out and iOS and Android is dropped and the new focus is Linux. So it is not just improving. It is as i said: you get something and you loose something, as always since i started with LeadWerks version 2.1 in 2009.

There is also another thing to consider. Looking back to the history of LeadWerks an upgrade is very often not an upgrade like for other products. It's a little bit a kind of a mirror bag. You'll get something new but on the other hand you always loose something (e.g. terrain vegetation, post processing). So it's always some kind of surprise to see what's new and what's gone ...

File Name: Medieval Hut Set File Submitter: tkunze File Submitted: 25 Oct 2011 File Category: Models Triangles: N/A LOD Versions: No Animated: No Medieval hut set i created for my fantasy game a while ago. Feel free to use wherever you want. Note: the texture files are copyrighted material. It is not allowed to use them without the models. Click here to download this file

I uploaded the converter i created a while ago to the tools section. Using this converter it is very ease to reascale the zombie package. Just copy the GMF files to a folder and start the tool. Now you can select to convert all models in the folderr anc you can scale to a fixed height (e.g. 1.8) by checking the option scale to fixed height. Now the converter will createa a subfolder output which contains the new GMF files where the size is adjusted to your provided height (e.g. all models scaled to 1.8).

File Name: GMFConverter File Submitter: tkunze File Submitted: 13 Nov 2011 File Category: Tools as model scaling is still an issue i uploaded my model converter i created a while ago. The converter can work on single file or directory level so you can rescale all files in a directory. This includes scale to a fixed height (e.g. 2 units) or by a factor. It also converts whole packages which are provided in OBJ, FBX or GMF and creates material files automatically. There is a full manual (readme.doc) included. The tool will not change your input files. It creates a subfolder output which contains the new created GMF files. Feature List: Scale models with a defined scale factor Scale models to a defined height Provide individual scale/height factors for each model in the folder Convert OBJ or FBX files to LeadWerks GMF Convert BMP, JPG or PNG to DDS Create all MAT files (diffuse, bumpmap or specular) Floor model Swap Axis (e.g. if Z axis is used as height ) Correct model matrix after FBX conversion Click here to download this file

attached some screens and a small testlevel showing the current progress of the zombie space station. The zombies can be hit and they already have hit zones (hitting the body is less effective than hitting the head). The movement is still my outdoor level logic, therefore the enemies are often trapped from level objects. Currently i play around using the A* algorithm in combination with the OpenSteer library which looks promising to provide good indoor movement. Control for testlevel: w/s keys = move q key = sniper view Right Mouse = shoot There are still some errors in the animation ranges and the animation blending which need to be corrected. Testlevel Sniper view pressing Q-Key

Looks fantastic and the character controller provides already a nice game feeling. There are two small things i realized during testing. - The player was kicked down from the roboter and it always respawned next to the roboter and got kicked down again leading to an endless loop. - The player count goes below zero But as said really great work.

The following video was created by accident when i played the favourite song of my little daughter on youtube while i did some tests in the leadwerks editor without limiting the frame ranges. The medieval boy group was born. http://www.darkmountain.de/leadwerks_forum/movies/dancer.mp4

Attached a screenshot and a movie from the game GalaxyTrader i am working on. It is mainly a space game but you can enter space stations and in this one something went obviously wrong... The main part of the game will be fly around, fight and trade but it is possible to move into some specific areas within the story line. High resolution movie (~21 MB) Low resolution movie (~5 MB)

It is some work to convert the models and to figure out animation frames. That's why i have written my converter and my viewer to get the necessary information easier. However looking to $20 for >10 nexgen models (<2$ per model) it is really cheap. I bought some custom created models for my fantasy style game. But if you want nexgen style (=zBrush Model + lowpoly model) and fully animated i doubt you'll get it for less than ~$300. So for me it is ok to put some effort into the conversion. However if Josh could negotiate with "The game creators" to get a leadwerks optimized version of the packages this would be great and save a lot of work. Atached a screen of the models in the game i am working on:

The document below shows my import workflow. For the package it was less than 10 minutes work. The most painfull part is to load every model into Unwrap3d and save it manually as GMF. The scaling is no problem because this is an option in my conversion tool GMFCONV which you can download from the showcase forum. The next part which is some work is to find out the animation ranges. Each model ships an FPE file which contains the animation ranges but you have to find out by your own if it is an attack, idle or whatever animation. There are always two parts of animation. The FPS Creator standard animation block and a special animation block for the model which is dedicated to this model only. You can use my tool GMFViewer to find out the animation types. In this tool you can set start and stop frame for the animation. So overall there is some work but you get cheap models of a high quality. And one thing i would like to mention is that possibly not all packages ship .X files. Some of them might run only with FPS Creator!!!The Pack 21, Pack 42 and Zombie Apocalypse will work. The Pack 17 and the Pack 18 did only support FPS Creator when i bought them but this was 2 years ago so maybe it had changed. convert.doc

@macklebee: no worry. i am not that picky However personally i think the thread fits pretty well into showcase and i also like the discussion about converting the files. If this will lead to getting the models packages in GMF i would highly apprecieate. Why i want to highlight this packages is the fact that i see great screenshots with landscape but most times no characters. This packages give you a bunch of models matching a theme for a low price. If i buy from other sides i have to pay ~30$ for a single model. Here i get >10 models for 20$ and all models fit together. Same style - same theme - fully animated. See below some more screenshots from the zombie and a fantasy theme pack.

If you need good looking zombies in your game for a decent price you should have a look to the FPS creator packages on www.thegamecreators.com. What i like on this packages you'll get a bunch of full animated characters matching a theme. Below is one of the characters from the Zombie Apocalypse package in leadwerks. And this is just one from 12 different zombies and creatures you'll get for ~20$. There is some work to import the model but this is true for all packages which do not ship GMF. Zombie Movie (Size ~5MB)

attached the beta version of an GMF viewer i did for my own purpose. It contains the following feature set: - View model and model information - Edit Material Settings - Change Material Name in GMF file - Show animation (from startframe to endframe) - Scale model The MFC applicaton and the LeadWorks are not connected at startup time so you need to wait until the grey window is loaded and sized into the application. If you hit a control before this is finished the model will not be shown. So just wait a couple of seconds. The Viewer/Editor will not work on the model itself. Everything will be copied in a subfolder "workfolder". If you want to export your settings the model will be written into a subfolder "export". Please have a look to the included manual to get more details. The code to rotate the model is not perfect but i did this program mainly to check the animation sequences and to modify the material settings. Please have a look to the known bugs/issues section in the manual to the the restrictions and current issues !!! Not all features are working correctly on Windows XP. The program is only tested on Windows 7.

what i would like to see is a more detailed shader documentation. Currently i see the long list of shaders in the material editor but i am really lost and have no clue how to combine them and what information (e.g. number of texture, additional parameter) the shader needs to function properly. A simple grid showing the shader (see sample of another engine below) and the adjustable options does not sound like a lot of work and would help a lot. Shader documentation sample

I uploaded a new version which contains now every feature i had as command line tool before . The new version contains the following: Create one model for each texture variations: Many packages contain e.g. one FBX model and many texture file which build different characters. GMFCONV can create one model per texture variation to speed up this process. It is now possible to provide a fixed texture file for bumpmaps and specular maps which will be used for all models in the folder. This is also based on the needs of some model packages where all materials share the same bumpmap and specular map. You can download the new version with the link above. I also updated the attachment.

I updated the program with the following features: - Now you can choose to convert the selected file only or the whole folder - skin shaders will be used automatically if the model contains animation frames - a second material template is available to define different templates for animated and non animated models

If a gmfconf.ini or a gmfsettings.ini is located in the same folder like gmfconv.exe it will read the LeadWerks location from here. If you delete the files it should ask you again. The MAT files are created based on simple templates for diffuse, bump and spec_bump. But you can modify the template by your own. Just hit the button "Create Material Template". This will create a materialtemplate.txt in the conversion folder. If you hit the button "Open Material Template" you get the template in notepad and you can make any change you need. Once finished just re-run the conversion and you have the correct MAT files. The file picker is a simple standard control which runs everywhere. It is too much unecessary effort to create a folder picker.

The GMFconv model converter is now full functional (at least what i intended to implement). I could import a dexsoft model package now in less than 1 minute without any manual intervention. The download link contains the software and the user manual. If you used the GMFconv alpha version before you need to delete all gmfconf.ini files to avoid problems. Feature list of GMFconv: • Scale models with a defined scale factor • Scale models to a defined height • Provide individual scale/height factors for each model in the folder • Convert OBJ or FBX files to LeadWerks GMF • Convert BMP, JPG or PNG to DDS • Create all MAT files (diffuse, bumpmap or specular) • Floor model • Swap Axis (e.g. if Z axis is used as height ) • Correct model matrix after FBX conversion Screenshot of the options dialog: http://www.darkmountain.de/leadwerks_form/gmfconvinterface.jpg Download link GMFconv Beta 0.91: Download GMFconv Beta 0.92 (12/09/2010) Download GMFconv Beta 0.91 Download GMFconv Beta 0.9