andy_s

Hi, I own the Leadwerks standard edition. Now that 3.5 just came out, I wanted to get back into LE again. However, I can't find any option to create a new C++ project. How do I create a project that is C++ based? It looks like I'd only have the Indie version which only generates Lua projects....any help is appreciated ;-)!

I think what is needed more is something like unity's mechanim or ue4 persona...a tool in the Editor that helps with Setting up animations. Also,while it's nie to have pathfindngin LE, i woul by no means sa thi s suffcient. wht i also needed would be a behaviour System. I wul much prefer that ladwerks ues ist ressouces to create suc Systems, than to provide some assets only.

One more question: which is the recommended GUI library (C++) to use with Leadwerks?

Thanks for the answers rick! And what about the Performance and the Vegetation? Also, is there some Kind of water entity in the engine now?

Hi, I am looking into buying LE 3.1 standard, with C++ support. I read trough the docs, but I wonder how one combines C++ and Lua. Are there any tutoials for this? For example, If i build a Level with the Editor, how can I access all objects from C++ in code? Can I use flowchats together with C++? Or are they Lua only? Another question: What's the preferred way to do grass/Vegetation? I did ot find any Special Editor Tools for this? And last question: How is the Performance of the engine now? There was a thread in the Forums here regarding bad Performance...is this fixed? How many Units can I have at he same time using skeletal anim and pathfinding? Thanks for your time!

Hi, most impressed by the new release! I have a few questions tough: - Is it also possible to publish to Windows, Mac and Liux using the indie Version? - What are the benefits of the full Version, except the possibility to code in C++? What is the real benefit of c++....I mean the full Version costs 100 more than indie? - Will it be possible to upgrade from indie to full Version at a discounted Price later?

I have decided on an engine now, and I did not choose Leadwerks 3. The reason why I did not purchase LE3 is mainly because I think it really is not a finished product. There is a lot of good things, for example clear and precise documentation, the CSG editor is nice as well. Plus the possibility to deploy to Win and Mac and of course the integrated pathfinding. However, for now I think the features offered by the rendering engine are way too low. Plus I think a GUI Editor or at least a library with functions is nowadays a must for an engine. Of course I could have bought LE3 now, as it seems all these things will be added over time. But as there is no clear roadmap, I have no clue what will get added when or at which price. I also own LE2.5 and when LE3 got announced it was said there will be a lower priced update for licence holders, which finally was there, but only for a short time. The price for the engine was initially announced way higher, then it was changed again to a lower price.....so to sum up honestly I don't trust the company enough to justify a purchase now. But I will monitor LE3 and see how it develops, and maybe in the future buy a licence. As said, I really think the engine has lots of potential, but in its current form, it is not finished. Maybe it was just released too early. I am not bashing LE, just giving my opinion hoping that it might help the devs to further improve the engine.

Thanks for the answers. So as there is at the moment no GUI included, what is everyone using? The game I am planning to create is kind of a remake of the original syndicate. It will be isometric like the original, but real 3d with a rotateable camera. What I like in LE3 is the editor. The CSG seems to be very well suited to create the levels, water is not a must, but would be nice to have.The built in pathfinding is one of the best features for me. As I don't aim for very realistic graphics, i think the renderer as it is now is sufficient. Besides the own and enemy agents, i will need lots of pedestrians running around, as well as vehicles. What is the maximum number of objects LE3 can handle using pathfinding on a lower end machine?

Hi, I am still interested in Leadwerks 3. While the option of a trial is really nice, I think the website fails in showing the capabilities of the LE3 engine. Why not have the features listed as with LE2? So I have a few questions: - Is there occlusion culling implemented? - What kind optimisations regarding performance are included? Or is it more like in Ogre, where such things must be created by the developer? - Are the bone animations done on the CPU or GPU? I plan to have around 50 to 100 bone animated entities running around...can LE3 handle this or will performance bog down? - I dabbled around with the trial. There is no C++ game example.....so to actually use the editor, does it mean I have to create the game objects behaviour in script? or is it also possible to program it in C++, and then have these gameobjects in the editor to place in the level? - Is water implemented? - Which shaders are implemented? - Is there a roadmap so I can see which features are coming? - What will be in the next update and will it cost money? Also, in which areas is LE3 at the moment lacking? What are your opinions after using it for a while? Things you like the most? Thanks Andi

I have one more question. In the demogame, it looks like it is completely scripted. Is this how the engine is intended to use? Is there an example of a game created in C++ and the game objects are scripted objects?

Thanks for the replies. But is there some roadmap somewhere? I am just concerned I buy now and then have to buy soon upgrades only to get the features I might need.

Hi, I have just downloaded the LE3 trial. I really like the engine so far. However, there are still a few important features missing, like particle editor and terrain editor. is there somewhere a roadmap available so I can see which features come with which version? I think the new website should be improved a lot...it's not really clear what features the engine supports right now. Thanks Andi

Thanks a lot aggor!

Thanks for the fast reply. Hopefully bugfixes will still happen then...

Hi, I have a few qiestiosn regarding LE 3 and the future of LE 2. I am not interested in mobile game dev and from what I get from the LE 3 website, it seems LE 3 is geared very much towards mobile dev. - Is LE3 also using a deferred rendering engine? - Does it support the same graphics features like LE2? - When LE3 ships, for how long will support for 2.5 be continued? - Is there a complete feature list for LE 3? Thanks Andy

thanks for the answers already! Another question: is LE automatically optimized for indoor areas? I mean, will it draw only the room the player is in, or always the whole scene? What's the best way to construct a big indoor level...one big gmf, or put it together out of many small ones?

Hi everyone, after a long time without following LE, I hopefully have now time again to work on some projects. I always dreamt of recreating a game like descent...anyone remembers this? I have a few questions, hopefully I get some answers: - can gravity in LE2 be turned off? - is it possible to implement 6DOF movement? - how would you do the levels...model them in a 3d app like Maya, or maybe using 3d worldstudio? - AI: is there a resource the would allow the bots to fly around the caves? Thanks a lot for any input already!

Thanks guys for all the replys, I have now some directions to go for the next weeks.

Wow so you were actually working on one of the helo games I spent a lot of time with back in the day! I checked out Grome, it seems to be a very nice editor.So the way to use it for a flightsim would be that a huge terrain is created in Grome, say with the size of 500km x 500km. Then Grome tiles this terrain and exports the tiles. Say the tilesize would be 50km x 50km, so Grome would export 100 meshes, and for each mesh it's textures? Then in the engine, one would have to load in the corresponding meshes depending on where in the gameworld the aircraft currently is? What I plan to create is something like the old dos game Fleet Defender, so actually most of the world would be ocean and at the edge of the map there would be landmass. I thought on setting the game to the northern scandinavian peninsula, or maybe the mediterranean. If a big part of the gameworld is an ocean, does it make it easier to create a big world? I mean, as there is much less terrain, would I maybe get away even without tiling and just have a big world where i place the terrain mesh at an edge? Thanks a lot for your posts so far, it's very interesting to read from such experienced devs.

Thanks a lot flexman and frednaar, this was very interesting to read! I also thought about using the scaled down world, so that my aircrafts have the size of 1m. But would it then not be very difficult to get enough detailed terrain? It seems like just not using the LE terrain object and instead using separate terrain meshes seems a way to go. I thought about this before as well, but then thought that probably because of performance issues this will not work, as i suppose the LE terrain object is way more optimized to render a terrain than just an exported mesh out of some 3d package. Flexman, it seems you have a lot of experience with flightsims. Have you been working on some of them in the past?

thanks for the insight guys. So then it looks like LE is maybe not the right choice for a jetsim. Hopefully LE 3 will support such a terrain. Generally it seems to me that there is no such solution out of the box available in any of the engines I checked out. Flexman, could you elaborate a little more on the old sims? Also, are you evaluating Grome to possibly change to another engine for your helo-sim?

Hi, I am wondering how terrain in "golden age" of flightsimming was done? I mean in games like Janes F15, Janes F18, EF2000, JSF, Fleet Defender, F15 Strike Eage 3, Apache Longbow. Or never ones like the Thirdwire series? Were they done by creating the terrain from a single heightmap? How was it possible to have areas of 500km x 500km modeled? If it was heightmap based, what resolution did they use? I doubt it that in these times it was possible to have textures the size of 1024x1024 or even bigger. How is the problem solved with very big units, when the problem of floating point precision starts? I read in various forums that in huge game worlds, there is the problem of floating point precision. What would be necessary to say build a terrain with the size of 500kmx500km with sufficient detail/resolution for flightsim use? Is there an "easy" way or is the only way of doing it having multiple heightmaps and basically have the whole terrain tiled? I am not sure if this is the way it is done. For example, the terain editor for the Thirdwire games just imports a 512x512grayscale heightmap to build up the 500kmx500km terrain. The heightmap is created using DEM files. How is it possible to cover such a large area with only a 512x512 heightmap? It would mean the resolution of the mesh would be almost 1km, which seems way to sparse...How to deal with these floating point precision errors? I hope there is somebody who can explain what is exactely needed for a flightsim. Thanks Andy

thanks a lot laurens, this clears it up.

Thanks guys. I don't have it in the bin/debug or bin/release folder. Will try tonight, but I guess this is it.

I have a problem loading scenes. I get the error stating that LE.NET can't open scripts/class. I have the complete scripts folder from the sdk in my project. I use the latest LE.NET. Here is the c# code I use: namespace Loading_Scene_NET { class Loading_Scene_NET { private const int ScreenWidth = 1024; private const int ScreenHeight = 768; private const string MediaDir = "D:/Leadwerks_Projects/Loading_Scene_NET"; private const string AppTitle = "Loading_Scene_NET"; static void ErrOut( string message ) { Console.WriteLine( message ); } static void Main(string[] args) { try { // Initialize LE.Initialize(); LE.SetAppTitle(AppTitle); LE.RegisterAbstractPath(MediaDir); // Set graphics mode if( LE.Graphics(ScreenWidth,ScreenHeight) == 0 ) { ErrOut( "Failed to set graphics mode." ); return; } // Create framework object and set it to a global object so other scripts can access it TFramework fw = LE.CreateFramework(); if( !fw.IsValid ) { ErrOut( "Failed to initialize engine." ); return; } // Set Lua framework object LE.SetGlobalObject( "fw", fw.Handle ); // Set Lua framework variable IntPtr lua = LE.GetLuaState(); LE.lua_pushobject( lua, fw.Handle ); LE.lua_setglobal( lua, "fw" ); LE.lua_pop( lua, 1 ); LE.TFilter(1); LE.AFilter(4); // Get framework main camera TCamera camera = LE.GetLayerCamera( LE.GetFrameworkLayer(0) ); LE.PositionEntity( camera, new TVec3(0,0,-2) ); //Load the scene TEntity scene = LE.LoadScene("abstract::scene.sbx"); what am I doing wrong?