Game-Guru v1.1

The 'FPS Creator Reloaded' engine is now called "Game Guru".   I rather liked reloaded in the title, but Game-Guru probably has wider appeal, so I can't fault them on that.  Actually it's been called Game-Guru for quite some time; it's only recently that it I came back to playing around with it.

And that's literally all it is, playing around.

I have plans to make an FPS based around a combination of some of my favorite games from the 90's.  I don't plan to go over the top with it, just simply to make something functional that in my thought process doesn't suck.

So I've had a little time to mess around with the Guru v1.1 update.  I'm impressed.  Speeds are up significantly vs previous builds (and speed was always an issue).  I'm running a Radeon 5870 and never saw my FPS dip below 30-40ish on a heavily populated scene.  This is contrasted to regular dips in the 13-20 range previously.  On top of that (and more importantly, I believe) the user interface is VASTLY more consistent.

I mean... it's night and day.  On scenes when I was unable to click on lights, or internal items in rooms I can now click them with ease.  Scaling and sizing is significantly easier as it's less 'extreme' than it was before.  Previously you'd  pull the bar and potentially get a MONSTROUSLY large item or impossibly small.  Now you have a much more intelligent and granular level of control.

Also, the grouping of objects is a godsend.  Click and drag, how I missed you.

Now all we need is copy and paste and it's a real party.  A unity-style 'object group container' would be fantastic.

That said, as a development tool this has come a LONG way since the first few iterations of FPS creator reloaded.  I was an early, early backer after being a longtime user of Acknex A8/7/6 and Lite-C (which I still desperately love but unfortunately it's just way too outdated).  The early iterations were something interesting, something of a blend of older FPS creator X9/10 engines.  Then Lee got the great idea to work on a terrain engine and while initially it really limited the possibilities it's come so far.

And really that's what has kept me going.  The small community of game-guru devs is tight knit but awesome.  The developers are constantly making improvements and always listening to feedback and that means a lot.  I half expected with the 'steam release' that it'd just be a situation of 'ok guys, have fun' but it seems like they just keep improving.  I'm cool with that.

On top of that they have their light mapper which does some pretty impressive things.  A few more little pieces come together and this thing will really be in business.  And yes, it's no unreal engine but the reality is the cost of assets for this (often time, high quality) are so absurdly low it's hard to pass up as at least a means to do mockups if nothing more.

Kudos to the guys at game-guru.com for their continued quality of work, for such a small team it's very impressive.