[Leadwerks 3.2 Indie : Proof Of Concepts & Several Tests.]

The dynamic nav mesh was taken out before any of the performance bugs were fixed. Maybe now would be a good time to check and see if dynamic nav mesh works better with the higher frame rate.

[What's the Big Idea?]

Will we be able to make our content private so we can only allow certain team members access to models, scripts, and more ?

[Teaser from Tron land]

Very nice work . I think you will find that you will get less tearing in your mesh with quads.

[Leadwerks 3.1 Pre-orders Now Available, Indie Edition coming to Steam January 6th]

 

 

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Assuming mobile isn't included in all of this (pending clarification from Josh), we got the software for $199 and now pay $99 per upgrade. New people get the software for $199 and now pay $99 per upgrade going forward. The newest users will always get the deal. You were a new user at some point so at that point you got the deal. This cycle has to start at some point. He can't keep adding each upgrade cost to the new user price. It'll get way to high for a new user and we'll get no new users. The community won't grow and the product will die. He can't not charge for upgrades and only rely on new customers because he'll lose money and not be able to run his business. You always have to have repeat business.

 

 

 

 

 

Are you saying the base priced should never go up? No matter how many features are added the base price should be the same? I do not understand this thinking. If I go buy a new car and add some options (features) the cars price will go up. So how can you expect the base price for LE to stay the same forever, no matter how many features are added. And the only people that absorb the cost and profits for creating that new feature are the return customers.

[Leadwerks 3.1 Pre-orders Now Available, Indie Edition coming to Steam January 6th]

As I first said. $99 for existing customers is fair. I think some smaller improvements should be free. Like hopefully in the future more modeling tools will be added for free. But for the larger features like, high end render, networking, crowd steering path finding.ect... so my only problem is the new customer price.

You talk about return customers. Return customers should never have more invested into the same amount of features.

 

Earlier you referenced a cable company or dish. Yes a new customer will normaly get a few months cheaper if they choose to get the same old cable box that been out for a few years. Where the award or benefit comes to the return customer is that the new customer normaly pays full price for new technology like a new and Improved cable box. And the loyal, faithfull, reliable return customer get the new tech for a discounted price.

 

I think each feature could be a seperate add on. And depending what your needs are you could pick and choose which feature is good for your game.

[Leadwerks 3.1 Pre-orders Now Available, Indie Edition coming to Steam January 6th]

From this blog right above our comments. "Leadwerks 3.1 for Linux and Windows will be released together next, with the exact release date to be determined.  Leadwerks 3.1 for Mac will follow this, with mobile add-ons for iOS and Android coming last.  (There is no upgrade purchase necessary for the mobile upgrades for Leadwerks 3.1.)"

 

Each "feature upgrade" should be an add on. Not bundled into the sdk.

 

Most of the products you are referring to Rick are cheaper because they became older overtime. Most likley no new features where added to the product or software. When windows 9 comes out I will think you will able to "upgrade" to 9 from 8 cheaper than buying 9 outright. Right?

 

Edit- p.s. the people that bought Leadwerks 3.0 were the real beta testers!

[Leadwerks 3.1 Pre-orders Now Available, Indie Edition coming to Steam January 6th]

Let me just say first that I think that $99 is a good upgrade price for existing customers. However I am trying to figure out why loyal customers (beta testers) had to pay $400 for Leadwerks 3.0. And new customers get a hell of a lot more features for half the price. There is not one company out there in buissness land that does this (repeatedly) to it's loyal base customers.

 

Cost of Leadwerks 3.0 $199. - Windows and Mac. Low end renderer

Cost of ios add on $99.

Cost of andriod add on $99.

Cost of 3.01 upgrade $99

 

Cost of Leadwerks 3.01for new customers $199- windows, mac, linux, ios, andriod, high-low end renderer and additional features still to come from kickstarter.

 

Being slapped over and over again by Josh- priceless

[Virtual Texture Terrain]

 

 

 

I don't think this is a problem because tessellated geometry is small compared to the physics geometry.

 

 

 

I think Flexman was thinking of somthing different than simply tesselating terrain. What if you were to use a displacement map as a decal to tesselate a bomb crater? Once the crater was made the physics mesh would not be anywhere close.You would some how have to tesselate the physics mesh also.

[A fresh new look...or a blast from the past?]

No you did more than that. You took out the status update, gallery preview, header slide show. All of which to me, made it look and feel like a community. Now it just looks like any other forum.

[A fresh new look...or a blast from the past?]

I think you are going backwards. I thought the site looked pretty darn good. Now not so much

[Gameplay!]

For the resizing and or scaling of models you said the "CSG tools". Does this mean the only models that can be resized or scaled is leadwerks CSG models. Or will I be able to scale a model made from a differnt modeling tool?

[One Last Thing]

 

 

 

Even if I used multiple navigation meshes, the agents on differently sized nav meshes would have no awareness of each other, and would not have flocking/avoidance behavior.

 

Xaitmap has the ability to use different size nav mesh and different unit radius while being able to have awareness of each other.

 

[First UV Unwrap from my character model]

Pretty nice. How many triangles is the head? The head you have there has enough detail to be the highest LOD. And as you said you can create a much higher poly count head to get finer details for the normal map. For your lower LOD's it is kind of amazing how much detail you can get out of normal maps. Below I will show an example of one my low LOD head with and with out normal map. ChrisMan posted a pretty good tut on hair. I have done some myself but I think that the Uncharted series has the best hair(male) in video games. I will also post a wire frame pic of their lead character hair so you can get an idea on how it can be done.

 

 

Below is the low poly on the left and high poly on right.

 

 

 

Low poly with out normal map. As you can see there is not much detail in the mesh.

 

 

 

This is a wire frame of the high LOD for facial animation.

 

 

 

 

I can not find the wire frame of drakes head but go to the link and check out the original artist pics. http://rd3d.com/

[Amazing Tools]

@Benton, I do not think you would be able to see any problem with anything intersecting with the teapot because, there is probably less than one cm in difference. I do not think you could see a sword,gun,finger,ect,ect... intersecting with the pot. If the difference was alot larger I would agree with you.

[Snow Day]

shadows could use some work

[Leadwerks Gets Balls]

I must admit, Leadwerks balls are quite nice.

[Where the Pedal Hits the Metal]

Hey Josh, everything looks great. Would it be possible to import a model and convert it to CSG?

[Mounting Weapons Equipment and Armor]

No this is just theory, and sorry I can not test it my self right now because my computers are still packed up since I am still remodeling my house.

 

I was doing the same things you are doing about a year ago and, running into the same problems. I was never really kean on having a underlying animated mesh like you would have with the characters shin and foot mesh under the boot. Everything I have learned always pointed to creating one clean mesh. So I decided to go in a different route. Instead of parenting bones of different body parts or accessories that had to deform, I decided to merge vertices. Now let me explain. For every character there is one bone rig. But the mesh of the character is cut up into different sections. Head, upper body, hands, lower body, feet. Now each mesh section is weight painted to the same bone rig. This way my character editor can just merge the vertices of the head to the neck and everything will animate nicely. Now realize that say each boot will have to have the exact number of vertices as the shin, or hand to wrist and so on.

 

 

Now my character editor is not actual finished because I am a modeler not a programmer. So I was paying someone to make it for me. My first game is not going to need a character editor so I decided to put it on a shelf and let it marinate till the next game. Now saying this I know it will work because this is how a character editor that I used a few years ago worked.

 

Now after most people watch the video their going to say "I wonder if I could export a character from Iclone3,Iclone4,Iclone5". Sorry you can't. And I have tried several times to contact to ask or beg that they allow game developers to use their tools.

[Mounting Weapons Equipment and Armor]

I would not try to parent the boot bone directly to the shin and foot bones. I would name the bones in the boot the same as the bones in the shin and foot. That way the boot will have the same animation data as the foot. Then parent the boot like you did the weapons. Have separate bones attached to the mesh of the boot and foot. Then you can parent those bones and the boot should follow nicely.

[Revamping A Modular Asset Idea.]

Looks great Marley. You know, that picture of the dock in the water is what pretty much sold me on leadwerks. Been hooked ever since.

[Freedom of speech.]

That is a great point Pixel. I am sure it could get to that point if the game was popular enough. Movies do it. I wonder how much GM paid to get their whole line of cars in the Transformer movies?

[I had an idea..]

I think that this might be easier if and when we get tessellation in the next engine because then you could place weathered decals on your models.

[Happy Christmas and Happy New Year Everyone.]

Hope santa did not have tacos.

[Darkness Awaits]

I like 3, but I think it would look better if the letters were blackened like they were burned in.

[My First Demo]

The animations do look nice. keep up the great work.