Sorry your browser is not supported!

You are using an outdated browser that does not support modern web technologies, in order to use this site please update to a new browser.

Browsers supported include Chrome, FireFox, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer 10+ or Microsoft Edge.

DarkBASIC Professional Discussion / DarkBasic World Creator - 3D Level Editor - Community Project

Author
Message
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 12th Sep 2010 17:13 Edited at: 1st Dec 2010 23:23
Link


Version V0.05 - Uploaded 28-11-2010
http://www.mediafire.com/?hbxxfn6271n73o7

All source code for this editor is also in the attached download...

Updates in this version
First Run Screen
Load
Save
Hardware Info Window
Hide Object option in right click menu
Other bits and bobs

In progress of doing
BlitzTerrains
Transfering settings to registry
Zones, (Kill, Heal, Music and 3dSound Zones)
Registered File Types Window

Requirements
BlueGui DLL
IanM's Matrix1 DLL Collection
Newton Physics DLL's
400MB HardDrive Space


This is a level editor for DarkBasic which you can use to create a Scene or Level, It includes several import and Export options, and will load FPSC Entities and Levels, but load and save still need to be done, and it is littered with bugs, and runs kind of slow on my laptop, It is incomplete so im hoping members of the DarkBasic Community will step forward and help with this project as i havn't worked on it in about a year, included in the download is all the source code, include files, media, objects, ect, aswell as a compiled EXE so you can test it, I've also included lts of height maps, sky spheres and other items that you can use in your map, (Hense the 400mb HDD Requirement).

Please feel free to play around with it either to improve your knowledge of DarkBasic, or to help create a completed free level editor for the community, (you can never have too many free tools), If you do make any improvements, then please post here so i can add them for others to enjoy.


Preview Videos





Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
The Slayer
Forum Vice President
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 9th Nov 2009
Playing: (Hide and) Seek and Destroy on my guitar!
Posted: 12th Sep 2010 18:42
Link
Jeez, MSon, did you do this all by yourself? That's awesome, man!
I played a bit with it, and yah, like you said, it still has some bugs and it could use more optimization to run faster. And, lots of features could be added/enhanced aswell.
So, is this a free program? We can modify/use it for our own projects? Or would it be to create a free community World/game - editor/creator?

Well done, man!!

Slayer rules!!! Yeaaah, man!
Back to top
Profile PM Email
bergice
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Jun 2007
Location: Oslo,Norway
Posted: 12th Sep 2010 18:48
Link
It looks pretty cool.

But how come the file is so big?

9cdfb439c7876e703e307864c9167a15
Back to top
Profile PM Email
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 12th Sep 2010 18:52 Edited at: 12th Sep 2010 19:26
Link
Yep, made it all myself, feel free to use or adapt it, but let me know of additions you made and how so i can add them, its free, i added a few shaders which are hidden in a menu, (Water, Fure, Crystal, Brick relief mapping, Ect), Personally i like the Export FPSC Entity Option in the right click menu when over an object, as for 'Some Bugs', I know it has a lot, newton isn't implemented correctly so you cant activate gravity\physics, and many other problems, But debugging is the bit thats a pain.

Im making it as a free utility for the forum, any help is welcome

Quote: "But how come the file is so big?"


Lots and Lots of Objects, Terrains, Textures, SkySpheres, Shaders, BSP's, and more to add into your game are included.

Everyone Be Cool, You, Be Cool
Life Isn't fair, Its Just fairer Than Death
Death is doing nothing, life is doing what others tell you
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Duffer
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 9th Feb 2003
Location: chair
Posted: 12th Sep 2010 20:10
Link
You could make it compatible with BlitzTerrain...?

a long time dabbler with DBC and DBPro with no actual talent but lots of enthusiasm...
Back to top
Profile PM Email
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 12th Sep 2010 20:17 Edited at: 12th Sep 2010 20:18
Link
Is that LOD Terrains? If so then I could, at the moment it will load a standard terrain heightmap, but thats kind of limited in size and quality so i want to add a better solution.

Everyone Be Cool, You, Be Cool
Life Isn't fair, Its Just fairer Than Death
Death is doing nothing, life is doing what others tell you
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Eminent
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 15th Jul 2010
Location:
Posted: 12th Sep 2010 20:31
Link
Damn, dont have BlueGui.


Back to top
Profile PM
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 12th Sep 2010 22:02
Link
you can still run the EXE thats in the zip, DLL's only needed if compiling.

anyway, im just making a list of Bugs, up to 14 so far and still adding

Everyone Be Cool, You, Be Cool
Life Isn't fair, Its Just fairer Than Death
Death is doing nothing, life is doing what others tell you
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Rampage
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 4th Feb 2008
Location: New Zealand
Posted: 13th Sep 2010 09:58
Link
Looks extremely nice. Will check this out now. Good work!


Eidos!
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 13th Sep 2010 19:05
Link
Can someone post a pic of it in Windows 7 as i don know if the gadgets are aligning properly in that.

Also i had i skinning system installed as i couldnt get the BlueGui manifest to work in Vista, is it still working, Demo of the Skinner used has run out on my system so i cant test it.

Thanks

Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Brendy boy
19
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 17th Jul 2005
Location: Croatia
Posted: 13th Sep 2010 23:34 Edited at: 13th Sep 2010 23:42
Link
Quote: "Can someone post a pic of it in Windows 7 as i don know if the gadgets are aligning properly in that."

here:



I experienced one problem:
when i click on toolbar button nothing happens: open, save, ... doesn't work,
the same thing with the menu: open, save, exit... doesn't work

EDIT: after playing a little bit i succesfully clicked a button,
every button need to be clicked as few times for a click to be detected

BBB GUI Plugin
Landscape & Map Creator

Attachments

Login to view attachments
Back to top
Profile PM Email
PAGAN_old
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 28th Jan 2006
Location: Capital of the Evil Empire
Posted: 14th Sep 2010 10:16
Link
that looks cool, is it complete? i wanna use it

dont hate people who rip you off,cheat and get away with it, learn from them
Back to top
Profile PM Email
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 14th Sep 2010 12:48 Edited at: 14th Sep 2010 12:49
Link
hi, its not complete as its still a WIP, next version i will post in a week or 2 will have load and save working and hopefully i will also get a few bugs removed

Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
StOrM3
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 24th Sep 2003
Location: Cyberspace
Posted: 14th Sep 2010 20:20
Link
I own all of those plugins you listed, but don't know how to get the updated versions of those DLL's anymore, like the Blue GUI stuff, none of those plugins that I purchased ages ago are listed on the purchased programs page with keys etc.. If anyone / someone please, can tell me how to regain all my lost plugins from the authors again, please tell me, I think if I dig on one of my server computers harddrive backups, I can find my old list of keys and the older dll releases to bluegui, newton graphics dll's, and my nuclear collision dll's, the Cartography Shop Loading etc.. plugins, and the Nuclear 3D Engine stuff.

As for Ian's Matrix1 DLL's not familiar with those...

Umm I think I can help on this project quite a bit, since I just finished some work on another world editor with David Ball for 3D Game Studio, we created a World / Object Moving type thingy, similar to the one in Caligari, with the 3D Arrows, and different move/scale/rotate widgets, it turned out pretty good, I still have alot of the code we wrote for it. Also, if noone else has fixed the saving and loading stuff yet, I can add some various object support, maybe either BSP or Cart Shop formats, or DirectX, with DBO's or just a format based off of the Matrix's that make up the world, combined with the objects, textures etc..

I'm sure we can figure out the best way to optimize this, or maybe even make it XML based so it could be edited & read by humans also, or maybe the next new big thing that every1 is jumping on the bandwagon with Collada / FBX format support. Probably though it might be better to do both XML for Localized saving and editing, and then also allow the users to Save / Export things to MAP / DIF format, which is the standard for quake bsp map editors, and would allow us to create prefabs and use other prefabs, to make level creation that much easier, which I also just finished a pack of 25 new prefabs for 3DGS A8 release, I can convert those to a format we can use with the editor as well, they are fully textured, and complete with displacement / bump maps & alpha maps, so we can keep them low poly but still look high poly.

Have you looked into the Quark Sourcecode yet? But I agree your going the right way also making use of the FPSC sourcecode, since I have been looking at it myself as a good place to start creating Editors / Modeling type apps, they definitely got the interface for creating the levels right, everyone I talked to, loves that style of navigation / adding pieces, and overall design, them mention it is as easy as if you were using a 2D map editor, but somehow they managed to make it work greatly for 3D Worlds..

Anyway, I'm done rambling, but let me just say, I'm in, I'm down for the cause, I think this could / should be a priority, and a gr8 thing for the DBPro / Dark GDK community.. We need this..

OK, that said, I'm going to check out the download I just snagged, and see what all works, and what doesn't.. I'll make a list of broken stuff, stuff that works well, and suggestions for new features / changes we should make.

I'll report back either sometime tonight, or tomorrow morning, if the kids have too much homework tonight.

Ciao' 4 now, thanks again for doing this man..

StOrM3

PS. I am busy making some models for a game for the appup contest, but I can at least work on pieces and bits for now, and after the contest, I'll try and hammer down on it..

[PKE] Pain Killa Entertainment(tm) [PKE]
Pain Brings Reality...
[PKE] Pain Killa Entertainment(tm) [PKE]
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 14th Sep 2010 21:10 Edited at: 14th Sep 2010 21:22
Link
This was my old save format, it shows where all the data is stored, but i made a lot of changes so this no longer works and needs updating.


the editor can already import standard BSP Files which are compatible with Darkbasic, but not added any menus or properties for changing a BSP yet.

Quote: "As for Ian's Matrix1 DLL's not familiar with those..."

Its a free collection of 33 DLL's by the Mod IanM containing essential commands for Darkbasic, it should really be pre installed with Darkbasic, Dont know why they never include them as default, But i'd recommend them to everyone as a essential, there was a new version released for free a month or two ago.
http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=85209&b=18

There are some old Include Files which are no longer needed, so i will be removing them, just left them in this version incase anyone wanted them as there are quite a few useful functions that could be taken out, may help the speed a little once there removed

Most of the created objects are stored in the ObjectData(#) Dim, It stores things like Objects and Lights, This is the arrays format.


Quote: "EDIT: after playing a little bit i succesfully clicked a button,
every button need to be clicked as few times for a click to be detected"

BlueGui can be temperamental, I need to optimize it a lot to fix that, Holding a button down longer than a standard click fixes that at the moment.

I already have list of bugs im working on now listed here
http://code.google.com/p/darkbasicworldcreator/issues/list

Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
GeeBee
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 26th Aug 2008
Location:
Posted: 14th Sep 2010 22:34
Link
MSon

I could only achieve a max of 16FPS on my machine (Intel 2.4Ghz/3Gb RAM) - and that required lowering my screen resolution to 1024x768.

Not sure if others are having the same issue - but it certainly stops me from enjoying all your hard work. I note you have "improve speed" on your things to do list, so I guess I'll have to wait.
Back to top
Profile PM
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 14th Sep 2010 22:46 Edited at: 14th Sep 2010 22:47
Link
I know theres an FPS Issue in the one above, i've already managed to get 50 FPS by altering few commands, and still looking for more ways to increase it.

Deleteing Nice Sleep 1 : Nice Wait 1 from the end of the loop gave an extra 10FPS by itself

Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Sasuke
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 2nd Dec 2005
Location: Milton Keynes UK
Posted: 15th Sep 2010 00:01
Link
This is pretty neat MSon, though the issue with the frame rate (of what I hear, haven't tested yet, computer needs cleaning first) needs to be sorted out before anything else is added. Since I have a lot of experience with editors, I'll post a few snippets on things, for instance a proper Gizmo, so you can move objects around easily. Because my editor is built into my engine, it will take a bit to port it, so I'll post a something later for the community to devour.

A dream is a fantasy, if you achieve that fantasy it was never a dream to begin with.
Back to top
Profile PM Email
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 15th Sep 2010 00:27 Edited at: 15th Sep 2010 02:01
Link
Thanks, All help and any source is welcome, version above does have very slow frame rate, already got a partial fix for this which will be in the next version in about a week or two, Program now starts with around 50 FPS, (Much better but still need to improve when lots of objects added).

Also the bug in the object right click menu where it crashes if no item is selected, i've tracked it down to the shader items in the menu, fixing that now

Edit: Just noticed there was about 50mb of screenshots i never deleted s0 can save some space there.

Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 15th Sep 2010 16:01 Edited at: 15th Sep 2010 16:21
Link
Hi all, Another speed boost idea, in the function MakeWater() which is in the 'Shaders.dba' Include File, if you reduce the Texture Size in half, there only a little drop in water reflection quality, but i get an extra 7 FPS, (Reducing texture from 512 to 256), Its these two lines of code to change for this FPS Increase.



at some point i will be adding changeable water properties so i will add an option for higher quality texture, but it will automatically be set to 256 when created for better FPS.

FPS is now up to 50 when program starts, and 26 FPS with a textured terrain and a few objects loaded, (On my old laptop).

Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
StOrM3
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 24th Sep 2003
Location: Cyberspace
Posted: 15th Sep 2010 19:55
Link
OK, here's the thing, you DO NOT want to drop the texture size used to achieve the better fps. As you will lose details on other features down the road. You may not notice it that much now, with the level your testing, but the shaders & texture sizes up to 1024 are possible and that is with decent fps speed. I would look else where for speed increases, like unrolling loops that aren't needed, trying to optimize the scene rendering, removing hidden objects, I'll post more here in a little bit, when I actually get to look at the code more closely and print it all out.

Sorry I didn't get a chance last night as I was up until 4 this morning fixing all the kb shortcuts & setting up the nostromo stuff for silo, so you can actually use it without pulling out the kb tray every time.. I had to redo it like 4 times, thats what took it so long last night, because I had to write & change the silo kb shortcuts over, then setup the macros file, then make a new profile, and make it all work together in a logical order, so that you can use it, without having to change pages everytime just to do something.

But anyways, I'm on it now, so give me a little bit here, checking it out, then printing only certain parts of the code, that I know will speed things up, then hi-lite write my ideas, then post them here for everyone to tear apart and try..

BTW: if that other guys doesn't come through with the widget let me know, as I said me and DBall did that other editor for 3D Game Studio, and I still have alot of the code and solution we finally came up with.

Thanks, ciao' 4 now,

StOrM3

[PKE] Pain Killa Entertainment(tm) [PKE]
Pain Brings Reality...
[PKE] Pain Killa Entertainment(tm) [PKE]
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Indicium
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 26th May 2008
Location:
Posted: 15th Sep 2010 19:58
Link
Quote: "OK, here's the thing, you DO NOT want to drop the texture size used to achieve the better fps."


Correct me if i'm wrong, but it's fine to drop the quality within the editor, as long as the game it's used in uses the full quality.

Back to top
Profile PM
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 15th Sep 2010 20:16 Edited at: 15th Sep 2010 20:17
Link
I've already added an item in the Property Window so people can change the texture size on the water if required so i could leave the texture at 512 or 1024
and people could just lower it if required.

Also fixed the Property Window for Lights now, (Position, Rotation), and added a Range field

Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
StOrM3
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 24th Sep 2003
Location: Cyberspace
Posted: 15th Sep 2010 20:23
Link
OK Kewl, that's better, I just read what you put about the customizable water setup, but just having it default to 256 in case the water textures aren't that important, which is a good idea. and your only half right, about the game that uses it setting up their own, this isn't really possible on textures and formatting, because when you create the level, and save the textures for the objects and stuff, if the editor saves into 256x256 format, and then the user sets up his game to run water / objects in 512x512 your not going to get anymore detail, just bigger copies of the same detail. Which another thing to consider is: what are the videocards of the systems the people are complaining about the low speeds and stuff, because if you have a good videocard that can handle like 8192x8192, 4096x4096, 2048x2048, 1024x1024 textures and are hardware accelerated for shader tech, and shadows, etc.. then I don't see the need to change the texture size and shaders used.. Maybe to make the editor useable on more computers, we all the user to specify different shaders in the editor, that they want to use for different things, but NOT use them inside the editor, but merely save the settings for those shaders, in the format so that when the users create their levels, and setup their games to use the levels, they can decide if they want to support hardware only shaders and stuff, or if they don't want them, they can just skip the shaders all together if they want on loading..

Thats just an idea, but I think that's the way to handle it.. For example: 3DGS A8: if you want bump mapping etc... you have to #1.) include the script support for it in your main script for your game, #2.) then go to each object and specify what shader they use, technique etc.. and each level has other req's to use shaders still like: must contain at least one dynamic light, either user created or the level sun, all the textures must have a 2nd one in tga uncompressed format that contains the normal map info, alpha info in the alpha channel of the normal color texture.

Something similar to this. Also, for outdoor levels, that might contain water, you are going to want to really use ABT instead of BSP, for visible object determination, and culling non visible objects, figure out some way to limit viewing past a certain distance, this will also speed things up greating..

I'll have more in a little bit..

StOrM3

[PKE] Pain Killa Entertainment(tm) [PKE]
Pain Brings Reality...
[PKE] Pain Killa Entertainment(tm) [PKE]
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 15th Sep 2010 20:36
Link
Well the water shader is responsible for a lot of the FPS Drop, just disabled it to check and FPS jumped up 30 to over 80FPS.

Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
StOrM3
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 24th Sep 2003
Location: Cyberspace
Posted: 15th Sep 2010 20:47
Link
OK listen to this: There is a major memory leak somewhere, causing huge slowdowns, that I'm almost positive is the problem.. When I first run it I get a solid 16 FPS, then after time of moving around, rotating around, clicking on buttons to try settings like physics and shadows and stuff, it completely drops off to 1 FPS, and nothing you do, including re-turning off the physics / shadows buttons. Also, the Arrow keys stop functioning almost completely but the asdf type keys are still working, and they actually rotate and move around decent when compared to arrows, but still the 1 < fps isn't going to get it at all, and it has NOTHING to do with the water shader and textures, because I turned off the water shader, and even just loaded the plain jane concrete texture to make a giant parking lot in place of the rolling ocean you created.. eheheh

and my point is, that all the results I stated, even the drop to 1 fps actually happened sometime after I had already switched to concrete, moved around, changed the rotation and movement sizes, which greatly helped out the useability of it, I set the rotation value to 80, movement about to 140 this helped as well.

Then I began to click on the physics / shadows and that is when I hit the 1 fps brick wall, so i would suspect, there is a huge memory leak or somekind of bug in either physics or shadow code, and I'm willing to bet that is the problem behind the overall slowdown from the get go.. Probably shadows and physics actually, I'll take a gander at both sections.. alrighty, now the hard parts, give me a little bit here.. to look it over, and find the places in the code I need to study.. I'll msg you back when I get some info for ya.. BTW: if you don't care maybe we can start msg'ing each other via PM from now on, to keep all the general chatter out of the forums.. I'll send you my email address also via pm, that will also make things alot easier...

Talk to U L8r,

StOrM3

[PKE] Pain Killa Entertainment(tm) [PKE]
Pain Brings Reality...
[PKE] Pain Killa Entertainment(tm) [PKE]
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Dia
19
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 16th Jan 2005
Location:
Posted: 16th Sep 2010 14:55
Link
keep the chatter here!

people can probably learn more from the fixes that you come up with than they could by someone just giving them the code

This is not the Sig you are looking for....
Back to top
Profile PM
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 16th Sep 2010 15:06 Edited at: 16th Sep 2010 15:12
Link
OK, I took StOrM3's advice and lowered the view distance, i also fixed the 2 options i the Window Menu, (Alight Left and Alight Right) which apply to the MiniWindows, (Properties, Project Manager, Ect), and as can be seen below, i've added a menu for the water which im linking up now with options to change shader effect, (3 water effects available), changing Texture Size, and Enabling and Disabling Reflection and Refraction as disabling these during Editing will give a boost to the FPS.

Lower texture size on the water will give a better FPS, but lower quality, but the option is now changable, Size in pic is 1024 with reasonable FPS of 32.

Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
StOrM3
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 24th Sep 2003
Location: Cyberspace
Posted: 17th Sep 2010 11:22
Link
OK,

here you go, this is some code I had from another editor I worked on, and used for older projects using another engine. This code is in VB but you can get the point, and I can very easily port it to dbpro as well..

Public Function StandardCamera(ByVal Name As String) As CamData

Dim Data As New CamData

With Data
.Active = False 'not active until first win created.
.AspectRatio = 0
.FarClip = 1000 'here is a realistic value 4 editor
.FOV = 70
.ID = ID_CAMERA
.Name = my.Name
.NearClip = 0.1 'here 2...
.PosX = 0
.PosY = 0
.PosZ = 0
.ProjectionType = PTYPE_PERSPECTIVE 'this was my 3d window.
.RotX = 0
.RotY = 0
.RotZ = 0
End With

Set StandardCamera = Data
End Function

also.. as for cull / blend modes,
straight from my code for landscapes:

.BlendMode = BLENDMODE_NONE
.CullMode = CULLMODE_DOUBLESIDED

we should really use Double Sided culling mode, which will allow us to check both ways for intersections, and quicker bsp sorting as well.

From this snippet I just wanted you to see, the values used for clipping, and culling, and near plane values for the camera, and view blending, culling, all of this should help to speed it up even more.

After this it is just a matter, of ensuring we are free'ing up variables, etc.. properly.

NO mem leaks!

Reuse variables where possible, else b sure, to dispose of them by clearing them or unloading the systems / functions we are not using so they don't just take up more and more memory, etc.. as the user continues to use the editor for a while.

Things like texture & model loading also, I noticed the AVI creation system gets initialized from the start, whether or not the user even wants to record an avi. This is bad, need to set this up so it defaults to not loaded / on from the start, and don't even think about initializing the avi creation / screen shots until the user is either A.) Loading an already done level, which he has already culled & tested the BSP on, and then I would see if he clicks on an editing tool, if not has he recorded an avi / or screen shot before ? Yes, OK, then he most likely is going to be using it now, so initialize it, but down hand it a file to save shots or avi to update, unless he clicks the record avi / or screenshot button. I noticed this because the avi system initializing is like in the very beginning, and whether I told it to or not, it created a screen shot, and setup a file for an avi, and I had no intentions to use the record to avi system, I seen the files in the the directory the editor was in, after I ran it. These things need to be looked at more closely, either you can check into them, or when I get back from vacation sunday night, I will dig into them, also we need to start sending our updated source files back and forth, so we are both on the same page, not stepping all over each others fixes, and wasting time on something that has already been fixed, when we could move on to fix something else.

Also, are we leaving huge variables /or arrays containing multiple copies of textures in memory? Are we moving around huge amounts of data that don't need to be? Also, we need to check variable types, to ensure we aren't using way bigger types then what we need for the value, unless we plan to make use of larger values in the future, this way we can lower our footprint, and enable it to run faster n better on lower system specs.

no since in using up 8 bytes when we only need 1 or 2 at the most.
This may not seem like much, but over time, with more and more entities, models, textures, sounds, cutscenes, GUI bitmaps, other misc. 2d bitmaps, event testing, 1000's and 1000's of particles, controls to monitor, viewers, cameras, 1000's of strings for localization, scripts, ini files, ai stuff, map data, well you get the picture..

Finally the last step before we go nuts adding features, etc.. is to profile the code, so we can find out what functions / dll's are causing the biggest slowdowns, hogging the most resources. Either using a profiler, or B.) Poor mans profiling tools: try commenting different systems / functions out, if you can't comment a function out, then create a simple version of the function, that just contains the function name, takes the values as the real one, and simply have it do nothing in the function except return a value you need or true or false as needed. Do this one part at a time though, so you don't get a false result, on something you think is the reason for the speed increase, but U can't b sure, as you commented 2 functions out instead of 1. Anyways we are a while away from these steps.. Gotta crawl be4 we walk.. I can/will provide more of my other code, as we need it, and once we figure out who is doing what parts, like I have some different filetype loading stuff as well, mdl,md2,ms3d,3ds 4 example..

anywayz hope this helps some more..

b bak on sunday night, enjoy, have @ it until then..

StOrM3

Ciao' 4 now,

StOrM3

[PKE] Pain Killa Entertainment(tm) [PKE]
[PKE] Of All The Things I've Lost..[PKE]
[PKE] I Miss My Mind The Most! [PKE]
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 23rd Sep 2010 16:40 Edited at: 23rd Sep 2010 17:04
Link
hi all, just got back of holiday so i will be updating the download on sunday with one that has a better FPS

View distance has been reduced now, i was going to add fog to further hide objects in the distance, but im using an old laptop, so i dont think it supports fogging, View Distance is now set at 5000, but I will try to reduce it some more if needed, 5000 is enough to fit the whole Newton Terrain Example in screen in its original size.

I thought about what StOrM3 said about not automatically activating AVI Globals to increase speed, but all that was being activated was the following.

During the loop if AVI Recording is not activated then when the function is called then this is the only line which is run

theres no actual increase in FPS from what i could see by removing this, but i will change it so its only activated when needed, as for why AVI recording was so slow, i think that is down to grabbing the screen area and saving each frame as an img before movin it to the AVI File, I did think about removing the AVI Recording feature all together as in its current state it runs far too slow when recording, (or on my Laptop anyway), AVI Recording is currently done using BlitzAVI, Although its a BlitzBasic DLL, Its better than any DBPro DLL i could find as it allows you to pick compression for a smaller file size.

I've also removed the skinning\theme functions as its only a visual thing as isnt necessary, if need be then i will add a dual boot with XP on my laptop so i can activate the windows themes with a manifest file, (BlueGui Manifest file only works if compiled under XP), But without the Themes DLL and Functions, its a few FPS Extra, and it wasnt actually being used at the moment.

Culling is automatically activated on all created objects except the water plain, this is because when i activate culling on the water, the object disappears, and im unsure why.

FPS is now at 33 on my laptop when water is set to maximum quality, (Big improvement on above download), but if you reduce the texture quality and disable reflection\refraction on the water all which can be done via the new water menu, then on my laptop it doubles the FPS Rate to 50\60.

I am going through it now as you suggested to see what integers can be changed to Boolean, ect as you said, its only a bit, but it adds up, I know that i have a lot of Globals for Menu Items which BlueGui and DBPro dosnt need, (as shown in code below), but i find that that this makes it easier to edit the code.


I might aswell remove the Physics Buttons and the Newton Physics at the moment as its not implimented at the moment, that may give a few extra FPS, also there is an Issue with shadows that i need to fix.

StOrM3, If you have altered any of the include files, then can you email them to me saying whats been changed, (on link below), as i said above i will post a new download on sunday with the better FPS.

Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Neco
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2008
Location: Waterloo, Wisconsin USA
Posted: 23rd Sep 2010 20:09
Link
Just wanted to say, I hope this reaches completion, or truly useable stage.

I can't fathom learning all I would need to know about doing a 3D game and making the levels and loading it all, and a tool like this will probably make all that a lot easier

Old Skool Games - Bringing the gaming past to the present
Back to top
Profile PM Website
Daniel wright 2311
User Banned
Posted: 23rd Sep 2010 20:37
Link
ok, Im downloading, testing, and if possible will add some of my own code to, thanks

my signature keeps being erased by a mod So this is my new signature.
Back to top
Profile
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 24th Sep 2010 16:11 Edited at: 24th Sep 2010 16:37
Link
Hi all, Just a quick question, Does an WORD Type take less space in memory than an Integer, If so then i will change all my menu items to words, a bit could be saved in memory there, I may get away with declairing them as BYTE instead, but need to tally them up as there would need to be less than 255 menu items in total for a Byte.

This is what i've been using to find out what to change my declared values to.



Thanks

Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
sladeiw
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 16th May 2009
Location: UK
Posted: 25th Sep 2010 20:18
Link
Quote: "Does an WORD Type take less space in memory than an Integer,"


I think IanM said it's not worth using bytes/words purely for speed increases because dbp always reads and stores full 32bit values, even for a boolean. I looked for his original post but couldn't find it.

Nice editor btw.
Back to top
Profile PM
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 26th Sep 2010 17:11
Link
v0.03 Posted above, Also can DOWNLOAD HERE

Features Added
3D Text
Image Maps, (Useful for creating Original Doom Style Levels)
Water Right Click Menu + some water Options
Fixed crash when light color changed and added a light range option
and some other small changes and bug fixes

Still a lot of bugs to be fixed, FPS is also better in this version But still needs to be improved.

heres also a new Video showing some of the new added features, (ImgMap and 3D Text)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ap0tlupYtw

I want to get load and save working in the next version, and do some work on increasing FPS a bit more, I also had to disable some of the shaders so i will get them back up and working in the next version.

As before, if you have an improvement or find a bug, then please post it here.

Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
DVader
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 28th Jan 2004
Location:
Posted: 27th Sep 2010 20:03
Link
Looks a nice editor, good luck with it. One point I would say about texture size, as I have seen a few posts about it here. Remember, if you use huge textures 8192x8192 for instance I saw above lol (a little OTT I would imagine and also out of reach of many users), you would run out of memory quickly. Remember you have a 4 gig limit with DB including your code. Really 512x512 are good enough in the main, I certainly wouldn't bother going higher than 1024 anyway, unless you really need high detail. Giving the option like you have is the best route, people can use textures of whatever size they wish then.

http://s6.bitefight.org/c.php?uid=103081
Back to top
Profile PM Website
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 27th Sep 2010 20:31 Edited at: 27th Sep 2010 21:42
Link
I assume your talking about the SkySpheres and Terrains as some of the them are quite large, i'll try and reduce them now, if it helps increase the FPS, then it will be worth it, water texture is changable, but will go up to 1024 max.

Also im working on the load and save functions now, dont think this will be the final format, but just wante to add somthing quick so i could save a level and load it in darkbasic.

Load and save functions so far, (working on now).


Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 3rd Oct 2010 16:19
Link
Time for an update, when i upload the next version, theres mainley bug fixes and a few small addons, but load and save is working which is a big plus, Plus loading a BlitzTerrain.

@ Duffer
Quote: "Could You make it compatible with BlitzTerrain...?"

YES

I've managed to add loading of a BlitzTerrain into a project aswell as the standard Advanced Terrain but as for editing a BlitzTerrain, apparently a DLL will be on sale about the 15th, once its out, i'll buy it and add BlitzTerrain Editing, that should be a nice addition.

Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 4th Oct 2010 05:18 Edited at: 4th Oct 2010 05:25
Link
hi again, in the version above, the project manager wasn't done, instead it had a strange right click menu in the properties window, this was a temporary fix, but im now adding the project Manager contents, (showing objects, lights ect), to replace it as can be seen below, at the moment this is only being used to view and select items, so if there is anything else you think should be added to the properties window, then let me know and it will be added for the next version.



Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Mr Bigglesworth
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 4th Mar 2008
Location:
Posted: 11th Oct 2010 05:22 Edited at: 11th Oct 2010 05:23
Link
Really awwsome editor, haven't had any major speed problems, my FPS is a constant 350-750 with a full FPS creator level loaded.
Back to top
Profile PM Email
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 13th Oct 2010 12:24 Edited at: 13th Oct 2010 12:45
Link
You must have some hell of a system to get that kind of FPS, but I think one of the reasons lot of problems with FPS are caused with people as some of the Terrains included are bigger than would usually be use with DarkBasic.

Have not had time to work on it for the past few days so i'll have to catch up as i will be uploading it to one with a working load\save this weekend, i'll also include a BlueGui Manifest to enable Advance Styles, all you will have to do is recompile under XP to enable them.

Also i've found a neat way to make a Glass Object, In the Object shaders menu, select 'Crystal and Glass', Then Ghost the object, Thats whats been done on the text below, or do this on a Sphere and it looks like a nice bubble.

[img][/img]

Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 27th Nov 2010 05:39 Edited at: 27th Nov 2010 05:42
Link
Hi all, i dont know if anyone is using this, havn't ad time to work on it, but over the past 2 or 3 days i've completed load and save and started adding zones, (kill zones, heal zones, music zones, ect), I will upload over sunday with these working.

Also its now at a stage that i can make a game map successfuly in it


Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Shadow Legacy
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 20th Nov 2010
Location: Infront of my computer
Posted: 27th Nov 2010 18:35
Link
slightly off topic, but same sort of thing, I heard that google sketchup could be used to make objects for use in dbpro, if that is true then wouldn't it be possible to create an entire level using google sketchup and load the entire level as 1 big object? if it is possible would that use less memory than making the level from loads of objects like wall pieces ect?

if this makes no sense then look at my sig

DBPro noob here
Skype = Shadow-Legacy
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 27th Nov 2010 19:18 Edited at: 27th Nov 2010 19:19
Link
It is possable to create a full level in Sketchup, but i've found that if there is too much detail in the Sketchup model, then DBPro can still have problems loading it, so as long as you can keep the models file size down, dont use too high textures, it is possable.

however i've not yet been able to export a Sketchup photo texture, but there mush be some way around this, The map above has 6 Sketchup models loaded.

Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 28th Nov 2010 18:08 Edited at: 28th Nov 2010 18:58
Link
NEW DOWNLOAD AVAILABLE, (V0.05)

http://www.mediafire.com/?hbxxfn6271n73o7

Download Link has been updated on first post, load and save is now fully working, it also does a backup every time you save your project, (just in case)


...ZONES...
Zones are used to set music, heal, kill zones, Ect, There not working in the version above yet, but here is what they look like in the editor...


Attachments

Login to view attachments
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 1st Dec 2010 23:59 Edited at: 2nd Dec 2010 00:18
Link
Im adding a few items to the object menu, but im a little worried that its getting a little too big.


Also if anyone want to help a little, then heres a list of bugs and things to do



Attachments

Login to view attachments
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 5th Dec 2010 00:28 Edited at: 5th Dec 2010 00:36
Link
Hi Again

If anyone is keeping track, i've removed one of the include files, its the "MiniWin.dba" file as i redid "Dock.dba" and integrated them together so i could remove both of the typed dims and all the globals which where associated with both, aswell as the "Dock.ini" setting file, everything to do with these are now stored in the registry.

This bit is now much less code running every loop, so hopefully it should give an extra FPS or two.



Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Indicium
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 26th May 2008
Location:
Posted: 5th Dec 2010 01:17
Link
Whats the advantage of using the registry? All I know about registries are that they can be nasty when they break...

Back to top
Profile PM
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 5th Dec 2010 01:40 Edited at: 5th Dec 2010 02:15
Link
Reading and Writing to the registry is much faster than using files, so im transferring most of my settings to the registry, its also easier to scroll threw all your settings (See Attached Pic)

Attachments

Login to view attachments
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
MSon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2004
Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 5th Dec 2010 02:31 Edited at: 5th Dec 2010 02:39
Link
Maybe its a lot to store in the registry, but this is everything which i've transfered there so far...



Its much easier to get a single value, or to change it aswell rather than having to sif your way threw files for a specific line

Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Back to top

Login to post a reply

Server time is: 2024-11-22 23:26:45
Your offset time is: 2024-11-22 23:26:45