[Area lights - possible?]

Hi guys,

 

Fiddling around some more with my model in the editor I realized the main use I'll have for the engine is not going to be oriented to gamedev but to arch-vis, so now trying to work a bit in the interior lighting I wonder if besides the lights available so far (ambient, directional, point and spot) an area light (square/rect light) would be viable. I know its use would purely or mainly concern architecture visualization, being it a light type used more oftenly in 3d rendering rather than in games.

Josh, would such light type be possible and have you ever considered the possibility of creating one?

 

I'm interested in your (and the community's) opinion about it

regards,

Alvaro

[Frigate]

Thanks a lot Omid. I had no idea of Meshlab, it really comes in handy I used to work with 3dsmax but I totally switched to blender now, so a program like the one you posted will be of great aid. Checking it out now.

 

cheers,

Alvaro

ps. Don't forget to upload your stuff to the gallery

[Frigate]

whoa! great work Omid. I admire how you guys are so pro and technical creating the different LOD models and such. I hope to learn that soon.

You should place your screens in the gallery as well.

 

regards,

Alvaro

[Batch Texture Converter]

thanks Klepto Good to know that. Please let us know about that update. I was about to download AMD/ATI's compressonator, they say it also does a great job at batch conversion. Have you tried it?

[Batch Texture Converter]

I tried converting a single texture at a time and it works OK; it just breaks when I try to batch-convert several textures

[Some WIP, some questions]

Well, I modified it in the material editor from a regular diffuse material I had for my glass. I grabbed the setup from the "transparency and refraction" tutorial, but just the basic creation part, I didn't touch anything in my code about "rendering in a second pass". Nothing fancy about reflection/refraction, just a transparent material that grabs the "greenish" tone in my dds texture.

This is the tut:

http://www.leadwerks.com/files/Tutorials/CPP/Transparency_And_Refraction.pdf

http://www.leadwerks.com/files/Tutorials/CPP/Transparency_And_Refraction.wmv

 

and here's my material setup:

and here's the code, just in case:

texture0="abstract::green.dds"
clamp0=0,0,0
blend=3
depthmask=0
depthtest=1
overlay=0
zsort=1
cullface=1
castshadows=1
specular=1.00000000
bumpscale=1.00000000
gloss=0.500000000
shader="abstract::mesh_diffuse.vert","abstract::mesh_diffuse.frag"
shadowshader="abstract::refraction.vert",""

 

hope it helps

regards,

Alvaro

[Batch Texture Converter]

I tired adding several files and when I clicked on "convert" I got this error:

[Some WIP, some questions]

glass! yay!

Josh's video tuts on materials/shaders and transparency are great! I apologize for bothering you guys with questions that were already solved in the video tutorials.

I'm now going through all the c++ series carefully

 

I still got the Lua error issue though

[Some WIP, some questions]

OK, from reading the console log I noticed it was trying to load stuff like the trees and the environment which my data.pak file didn't have, so I opted to zip the whole "Maps/Materials/Folders" into a single data.pak file to ensure everything loaded fine. I now got the trees:

But none of the lighting effects.

I get some warnings in the log about not finding the corresponding lod1 gmf files, but it's ok as I don't have them and it loads the gmfs ok after that, but I get the following Lua error:

Lua error: cannot open zip::f:/exer/projects/plazoleta/data.pak//models/entities
/environment/atmosphere/environment_atmosphere.lua: Invalid argument

I thought it had problems reading from within a zip file so I unzipped everything in my application folder and yet I still got the same error.

 

Any ideas on what's going on here with the invalid argument in the lua file?

 

cheers

 

Alvaro

[Some WIP, some questions]

I just watched the c++ "loading a scene" tutorial and used the sample files an here's what I'm getting till now:

So I still got a long way to go (time to check that console log) But I'm happy with the results and with everything I've learned so far. I guess that's the fun part, learning to make things work as you want them to with the support of people that share the same passion/interest as you.

 

BTW, have you guys tried loading the "hydro.sbx" file in the new 2.3 editor? It all falls down! It doesn't work anymore Does anyone know if Josh (or someone helping him) is working in updating these files that have become outdated? (besides all the other bunch of stuff he's updating for Lua, which must already keep him quite busy).

[Some WIP, some questions]

Thanks Tyler, sounds pretty much like what I need. It's similar to an architectural glass material with "cast shadows" set to off, as in some 3d applications. Could you please tell me where I can read further about this shader?

regards,

 

Alvaro

 

EDITED: I already found it among the shader options, but I still can't get it to be transparent, lol! Darn! is it hard to get a nice-looking glass material

[Some WIP, some questions]

Here's the vid, I wish the camera speed could be even slower (it's already at 1.0, the minimum):

 

The level with atmosphere (thx for the tip Niosop):

Now I'm playing around with the material editor to see if I can make the glass transparent

Could I add a water material to the glasses? Without bumps that is. Is there an example of a water or glass material included?

[Some WIP, some questions]

Thanks for the comments and help guys. You're most kind.

I'm trying to create my atmosphere object for the skybox, I'll tell you how it goes.

I captured a short video that's uploading to youtube now. Working in the editor is great. I'm about to start a template project in C++ to load the level. Fun fun!

 

cheers,

Alvaro

[Some WIP, some questions]

Thanks a lot JC I was able to reposition my trees.

It's very cool to see all the options are there right in the editor. I need to dig the tools I use more,hehehe.

 

I'll look for info on material creation now, to see if I can get that glass I need.

 

Also, can skyboxes be added directly in the editor or are they loaded only in your code?

[Some WIP, some questions]

Hi guys,

 

I'm retaking LE and testing all the new features in the editor.

I am working on these renders in blender:

 

And I decided to give the model a try in LE. From the last experience I had trying to load a medieval level I remembered the issues I went through, so I had to optimize all the meshes to make them load fine in LE. Here's the result so far:

 

I'm very impressed by the dynamic lighting and the performance of the level loaded in the editor. I'll try to upload a video of the scene later.

 

I had to replace many models that had a high polycount for lower-count versions of them, and definitely it's not a good idea to try and load everything at once but split the level into separate models, keeping the same origin and then insert one by one in LE's editor. It's also important to apply an "edge split" modifier in blender in any smooth surfaces you're using prior to the exportation process.

 

Now my questions:

1. Is there a way to "unsnap" the objects from the grid? I want to place the trees inside the circular grass areas but the snap doesn't allow me (check editor's 2nd pic).

2. How do you make a glass material in the material editor? I need a greenish transparent material for the windows

3. Is there a way to make the camera move slower in the editor?

 

I'll post any other question that pops up in the process here

 

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

regards,

Alvaro

 

ps. This project is already being built, you can watch some pics of the site here:

http://www.telardigital.com/blender/niel/obra_01.jpg

http://www.telardigital.com/blender/niel/obra_02.jpg

[video/sound capture]

try Jing:

http://www.jingproject.com/

the free version saves to swf directly

 

other options:

http://camstudio.uptodown.com/

http://www.utipu.com/app/

[Dev C++ or Visual studio]

ahhhh got it! cool to know that. Or unless you use a specific MFC thingie that will bound your program exclusively to MSVC, right? Otherwise and as long as your code remains standard C++ you can cross compile your apps? coolies!

 

So I definitely gotta try it out. Then...that Linux version is much closer than I thought! The only issue here would be compiling the toolset for Linux. Interesting...interesting...mmmhhh mmhhhh.

 

ps. I'm very fond of Irrlicht since it's the one that got me started in the pretty basic C++ stuff I know. I agree its model support is great, it's easy to learn and use through its tutorials, but I haven't got a clue about code cleanliness, heheehhe Still you're right, there are many things to update to keep up with today's standards but the team is working hard on it.

 

cheers and thx for the explanation!

Alvaro

[Dev C++ or Visual studio]

Lumooja, with Irrlicht there are 2 separate dlls of the engine according to the IDE+Compiler you use (1 compiled with MSVC and the other for Devc++/Codeblocks compiled with Migw/GCC), however, if you start a project in Msvc and use Mingw's dll the program will crash when running it, and same thing occurs viceversa. Are you sure we can just use the dlls included in LE and start a project manually either in MSVC or Devc++?

 

I'll give it a try

And when you guys talk about compiling the source, is the source included when we update the SDK?

 

regards,

Alvaro

[Dev C++ or Visual studio]

Won't it require a special dll compiled with GCC in order to be able to use LE with DevC++?

Besides that, a Devc++ project option should be added to the project wizard. It would be cool indeed since GCC gets along pretty nicely with Opengl. This would make the Linux port more feasible

 

EDITED: NM my comment about the project wizard; I just read what DJDD mentions about it.

[Milkshape GMF Export plugin]

File can't be downloaded. It says it can't be found

[2.3 is live]

yaaaaaaaay! got my upgrade, got my email, got my group state changed!

Downloading 2.3 now, me happy, Josh working a lot.

cheers,

Alvaro

[2.3 is live]

ordered the upgrade? Do you have to pay for upgrading from 2.x to 2.3? Where did you order from?

 

EDITED: NM, I just found out where to get it from Gonna get it now!

[2.3 is live]

No email nor account enabled yet But I'm a patient guy. Take your time to rest and let us enjoy the pleasures of 2.3 when you're back!

regards,

Alvaro

[Check your group for more goodies]

hehehe, that sounds great Josh

Lots of improvements going on. Thx for the hard work.

 

regards,

Alvaro