Duffer:
"1) is this flexible enough to design a 3d rpg of sorts? if yes, how much so?"
Yes, it certainly will be within a few months once I've put in more features that I want to. You can assign many stats to characters etc so once I improve my scripting language support and probably add some built it scripts it should be able to make pretty decent 3d rpgs.
"2) what about an ATI Radeon 9600?"
Haven't tested all effects with a 9600 but it should more than be up for the job as far as framerates will go
"3) eta?"
Pardon? lol
"4) need beta testers?"
Essentially I'll be releaseing a demo soon and everytime I update the prog I'll also update the demos, so beta testing eill be done by people trying the demo. Essentially I would say try the demos, and when the product gets to a point where its usable for what you want, then consider buying it. Don't expect it to be perfect and full of features by the 10th, its a EA release for having fun with and testing out
"pushy aint I" - Not al all
"as others have said, looks impressive and will put in my mailback... would certainly pay for it if it lives up to the pitch."
Thanks
It will certainly do everything it says in the pitch, trouble is I don't want people's imaginations running wild and them imagining features I haven't implemented yet lol I am especially worried about people seeing the lack of initial character models and saying "it has rubbish graphics" when essentially if you were an amazing modeller this engine could have stunning graphics! This is more of an engine, and as I said will NOT come with the wealth of styles and models fpsc does for example. Or not initially anyway. That wasn't aimed at you by the way, just seemed to fit my train of thought!
Lynx
"Kangaroo said it can export to DBP code, so if there's something the program doesn't do you can just do it yourself in DBP."
Yes, I hope people will
BUT I also want to add as many features down the line to prevent people having to do this if they don't want to. This product will grow and grow with features - as I said, updates will be released at least once a month guaranteed
"I'm going to have a look at the demo myself and see what it can do, I may even buy a copy"
Thanks
See if you like the demo before you buy, as I said no pressure on anyone as they can always buy in the future when more featres are added
*sends out subliminal messages* But it will be fun everybody BUY BUY BUY *evil cackle...*
Seppuku Geijutsu
"@Kangaroo cheers dudes," np
"uh the chipset model is nVidia MX400, so I guess that'll be alright, I'll just play around in DBP to see if all the features work"
Yes the MX400 was the card I used to own. The frame rates should be quite solid but most of the built in effects won't work, but the faked ones will. To get an idea as to which effects work on your card you could try the 3d demo with the asteroid that comes with dbpro, these use very similar shadow, refelection, bump mapping etc techniques...
"@Lynx, great minds think a like, demo until next months pay(this months is spending money for my holiday) and then if its as good as its sounds (or better) then well I'll end up buying it
at least I'll be able to make Ronin quicker by using code made from it"
Cool I hope you find it useful
MikeS
"Hey Kangaroo, glad to see you around!" Hi you too! Long time no speak
"Was just helping a few people with lighting a little bit ago based on the information you gave me on Deathbed a long while back."
Wow, thats nice to hear
Glad I helped
"This looks really cool, and I myself have attempted many projects like this."
Yes me too
lol. This originally started off as a car simulator with a built in level editor, which then progressed to Kangaroo2 studio, which I restarted 4 times cos I kept coming up with better ideas, then It became Quikly Gaem Studio, nearly got a publisher then hit some snags, and now I've started again from the ground up with the idea of being completely physics based, rather than faking it all as it used to. This way finished games will be more akin to half-life 2 (although obviously my modelaing and texturing skills aren't as good lol) and recent PC games rather than playing like old ps1 games, should make it more viable and futureproof - I hope! lol
"I'm very interested to see what lighting you have."
Similar to before to be honest, although I can't remember how far it got with deathbed, pretty sure there wasn't real time ligting in that... I have written a very simple lightmapper (which I may not include with the first demo as it needs tweaking) Which is no where near as sophisticated as fpsc or Gile's, but many times quicker. The real time lighting and shadowing are nothing you can't already do in DBPro quite easily, the main difference being the physics loops and handling routines for the game seriosuly speed up frame rates. As I said I've yet to see any slowdown in game with a 9700pro (which to be honest nowadays is no where near top of the range, I've seen them on ebay buy it now as 40 quid...!
"Already having physics built in is also very exciting too me."
Yes, the potential of it is amazing. Its using Newton physics so you already know essentially what it can do, which is very VERY cool - but many people seem to have trouble grasping it, so this should help new-comers or non programmers to use, or even learn game physics. I'm quite new to it too tbh but I have learnt a lot from the excellent eaxmples from Walaber and the new guy (sorry can't remember the name but will certainly look it up and credit him with a thank you lol)
"I'm definitly going to keep an eye on this, and we may have to slap some glue on this post soon as well."
Thanks
Once its actually released and in the Program Announcements, that would be absolutely stunning mate
A Note About Expoerting to DBPro Code
Everytime I add a new scripting feature this function breaks and needs to be fixed, as I'm sure you can guess! This means that the release on the 10th may not have this function completely in place, although if not it will be definitely in the 2nd release a few weeks later.
This feature is easily the most difficult to get right, and one which is always going to be a bit sketchy and I can guarantee that the code outputted may not be perfectly neat or even the most optimised way of doing things, plus it may well run slightly slower thank games running from my exe and script. However with time it will work well and is there for people who want to add, change and learn from code
I would like to re-iterate that the demo versions will NOT export to DBPro, simply as this would practically negate the reason for a full version, as any limitations could be easily removed by even the most basic of code. Unfortunately I have to earn money from thsi as I am a freelance worker with 2 kids to support
Also I will NOT be happy if people start exporting the code for a game, claiming they wrote it entirely themselves and posting an entire game under the codebase as their own
lol
Don't mean to sound heavy but that should be pointed out before people start thinking they don't need to learn to program before they are "masterz of da codez" with this program hehe
Thanks for the interest everybody really nice to have such support to spur me along
Back with a progress report later
Quikly 3d Game Studio EA release date: Wednesday 10th August 2005!
