Must have tool for editing pictures in paint.net

Just a neat find for today - an 'alpha blur'.  Basically blurs the picture from the edges inward from color to alpha.
https://forums.getpaint.net/topic/11619-tanels-photo-and-color-plugins-2012-03-05/

This week in Game-Guru 11/28/2017

So I've decided to start updating *MORE REGULARLY* than I did previously.  There's a lot of things coming for Game-Guru and it's worth reviewing in one place.  So I'm going to begin to try to encapsulate that as often as I can in digest format.

ENGINE UPDATE PROGRESS REPORT:

First of all, progress on the Game-Guru update to PBR/DX11 & bugfixes are coming along nicely.  Recent updates can be found here:

Most recent engine update progress

Lee has basically indicated he's in the bugfixing phase and he's squashing them in pretty rapid fashion.  I'd list them all here but he's put in over 40 items in the changelog this week alone.

He's also giving us a test level to work with that will take an older demo map and show off the fully upgraded engine's capabilities.

NEW PRODUCTS IN THE STORE:

There's a whole host of new products on the store.  Notably very capable artists such as Wolf, Mad Lobster's Workshop, Bugsy and others are adding some really great things.

BSP's newest rifle looks phenomenal!

Don't forget to grab your free 'thank you sky' from my store here: https://www.tgcstore.net/product/30955 

Just one picture of one of my best skies ever, free for you all :)

One thing of note is that Ken "AKA Grobyken"  has made some pretty stunning progress in his work.  He attributes it to using some new tools for development.  I personally can't say I'd have the same success if I had better tools.

I'm definitely going to be keeping an eye or three on his upcoming works.

FREE STUFF

Of note this week is Bod (of Bod's Mods fame) has made a very impressive free train set.  It includes Three steamers, a rail model, a coal car, a dining car with functioning doors, and a caboose.  The art is his signature style with clean and simple graphics.

It's something I'm surprised isn't selling on the store for a few dollars, but honestly I'm happy for the free stuff, as usual.

THIRD PARTY TOOLS

Obviously my Light Kit is now available on the store, which does in a sense count as third party tools, however the big news here is that it appears that BOTR's  'terrain heightmap importer', 'autowelder', and 'entity welder' are all getting updates.

The one of primary interest to me will be the terrain heightmap importer, which has fit a crucial slot in Game-Guru development by providing us a simple and clean way to import heightmaps directly into the engine.


"for version 1.2, I quickly added a progress bar and will get a fully functional GUI implemented so you don't have to keep editing/saving the .INI file. added .tga format also."

For those who are using it, my personal recommendation is to use terrainxscale = 1, terrainyscale = 6.5 or 7.5 (10-32 if you want especially dramatic elevation changes), and a water level of about 450.  This should give you the best results.

RANDOM ACTS OF CREATIVITY

This is where I plan to put anything in the realm of game demos or videos which are of special consideration for any reason I deem fit :)

First off, we have a really impressive demo of the now updated Cogwheel Chronicles.  It features airship to airship combat done in Game-Guru and is striking to me as a Lua coder at the sheer volume of work that went into making this work.

And lastly there's this great Holiday video done by often quiet forum member shn33ky.  He's done a really good job of recreating a beer commercial from years gone by.

Oh.. and somehow I got user of the month for the first time in four years.  What the heck?  Well, ok then :)  Glad someone's appreciating the work I put into this stuff.

Latest tidbits

So lately I've been exceptionally busy preparing for my house to be sold.
That said I've found time to complete my lightkit, place it on the store and begin selling it.
I also made a tutorial video.

Warning: I'm a terrible video editor.

The item on the store is located here:  https://www.tgcstore.net/product/30936

Also I've gone through the trouble of collating important information on Game-Guru (as I've found it) into a reference list.  I used to keep this as a sort of 'private page' but now I'm opening it up to everyone else.  It can be found on the sidebar but here's a direct link in case you can't find it:
http://gamegurureport.blogspot.com/p/reference-list-for-gameguru.html

I've also added 'sparckman.com' as a site in my sidebar list as well.  He's been around a while and has some good scripts as well as tutorial videos on youtube.  Definitely check him out!

Beyond that there's some interesting stuff coming but we are all waiting with baited breath for the latest GG update.

New project in the works

With respect to projects, I don't know why I choose to do more hard work when I am already busting my buns trying to prep my house for sale.  However, I have some really great stuff in the pipeline.  Primarily I'm working on a toolkit (in the prototyping phase) which will allow pretty heavy duty control of dynamic lights in Game Guru.

We're talking script-based controls of lights which will allow very functional utility for the average game-maker.  It will also be competitively priced, by that I mean very affordable :)  Right now I'm looking at putting it up for around 3.50 or so.

That's what's going on.  I'll post a video here once I finish a few more lighting systems for demoing.

So far I have about half of the following:

• A steady strobing effect
• A random strobing effect
• A 'campfire' effect
• A light up on trigger zone
• Several  lights simultaneously
• Several lights sequentially
• A single light moving in a pattern
• Several strobes at once
• Several strobes in sequence

This should provide some really excellent controls for new and existing users to work with dynamic lights.  As the updates come I'll add further functionality too, for free, to purchasers.

Keep your eyes peeled!

Something's wonky with blogger.

I'm getting 3x the pageviews with unlabelled posts vs ones that have meta tags for easy searching.

Weird.

Repricing a few items on the store

I noticed a few of my terrain items were way overpriced for what they were.  I've lowered them by 30-50% depending on the item.

Primary offenders - 1024px HQ Roads, 1024px HQ SCIFI terrain.

The terrain pack was also slightly reduced to reflect these changes.