This Week in GameGuru - 02/10/2020

This article represents solely the opinion of the author and does not reflect the opinions or views of r The Game Creators, it's employees, or subordinates.  It likewise does not reflect the views or opinions of www.tgcstore.net and it's staff.  The author receives no compensation for this work and it is done solely as a service for the GameGuru community at large.

GameGuru News

The huge news this week was the announcement of GameGuru MAX, which is coming along at a preorder price of $25, with an announced 'release price' of $50.
There's an excellent Q&A thread here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221517?page=1#msg2625799

Lee & TGC have gone above and beyond trying to be ahead of this in a very forthcoming way with their communication going as far as releasing teaser videos, doing 2 hour Q&A's on discord and this forum thread.  It's a really positive improvement that I'm hoping to see continue as a trend.

There's a pretty big featureset being added here aside from already in-progress work.  Announcement of a new renderer being investigated, possible 64-bit upgrades, etc really wet the palette for users like me and I can honestly say $25 is an extremely accessible price for what looks like a more advanced iteration of GameGuru.

What's Good in the Store

This week I'm really limited in how far I can deep dive. Near as I can tell there's some interesting packs getting added but honestly I'm going to withhold judgement until a later time due to limited time resources on my part. 

Free Stuff

Mav3r1ck put out a free 'pulley crane'.  Get your copy here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221550

Lafette put together a HUGE medieval pack you absolutely should grab:  https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220474?page=3#msg2626215

Make sure you thank the guy for all his hard work!

OldPMan put out a beautiful Sci-Fi computer/set piece model:

Get your copy here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221548#msg2626328

JPH-Games has been busy producing lots of free models of pretty reasonably good quality for quite a while now:
An electrical panel with buttons: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219734?page=2#msg2625729

Some nice looking old boxes: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219734?page=2#msg2625984

Definitely check out his work.

Third Party Tools and Tutorials

BOTR has announced he'll continue work on his heightmapper for GameGuru Classic.  No word yet on whether it'll be ported to GG MAX.

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

Lots of excellent projects are blossoming out of the woodwork.  Take a gander:

Mav3r1ck's project posted some tantalizing screenshots:

He's also finally posted a title ("Heathen: The Paganacht")  and some information in a thread on the forums for those interested in more: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221486

Trollbae continues his impressive work with the EBE:

Amenmoses made a dart tossing game:

I know someone made the models for him, but I forgot to write their name down.  Whoever you were - thanks!

Teabone has been working on a really excellent water-system graphics refresh which uses water droplets, color matching, and DOF to simulate underwater distortion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75yrK0lybv8&feature=youtu.be

There's plenty more too!  Check out wolf's latest work here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/209529?page=3#msg2625148

Honestly there's too much to cover in one go. I highly recommend you peruse the forums yourself!  There's a lot of really exciting work being done right now.  I'm happy to see the community running with the latest updates to GG.

In My Own Works

In my own works, I'm actually due for my first royalty check from the publisher in Feb.  So.. that's sort of exciting, though honestly I will *NEVER* earn the money worth the time I spent in the book.  It's mostly done as a service to you all at this point, with the little bit of money from the publisher as a means to continue funding my hobby.

Speaking of funding my hobby, last week I got a large enough store payout to upgrade some of my tools and have been diligently working on new space skies (4k of course).  Here's some teasers:

This was a test to see if I could simulate an asteroid surface.

This is a 'white hole' in the middle of a globular cluster.

This is a planetary surface with an aurora, star prominently figured with a nebula behind it.

I *DID* run into some issues with shearing on my skyboxes so I'm trying to sort that out.  In the meantime, expect a new run of 4k skies on the store within a few weeks here.

I may also do a low res version for those who are more economically minded.

This Week in GameGuru - 10/14/2019

My apologies for the late updates.  It's been an absolute nightmare dealing with some of my recent work changes so this has unfortunately dropped massively in priority.

GameGuru News

The Monthly newsletter discussed my book being available. Thanks TGC - I appreciate it greatly.
There's also a free version of GG now, though it's a test version with a limited time of access.  Should help entice new users.
There were some minor fixes to the PP edition, which is essentially using the latest, most up to date version. Notably there was a load/save Game Stats fix which should help games that make it into production.

What's Good in The Store

Lots of new things are available!  One of which is of course some of the Cyberpunk Noir assets from my book materials!

If you are NOT a purchaser of the book but want some of the static assets (weapons are on the way, once I untangle a few things with free time I don't have currently) then feel free to puchase these! If you do own the book - hit me up on discord for a free code to download it.
 

Valentin321 put together this great looking motorboat:

 

There were also some scripts by corrosion, check his store page here: https://www.tgcstore.net/artist/221852

Teabone made some really well priced scripts as well: https://www.tgcstore.net/artist/45855
Sula made some great looking PBR trucks - https://www.tgcstore.net/artist/157895
Fredgames77 has put up some excellent cemetery models: https://www.tgcstore.net/pack/11153
Pasquill put up a really superb armored vehicle - https://www.tgcstore.net/product/33517
AlexGCC put a number of great models up but I really like his apocalypse truck: https://www.tgcstore.net/product/33532
Northern put out a very nice VIP model with a decent array of scripts and animations making it a good value: https://www.tgcstore.net/product/33528

And for 'most interesting/innovative' item on the store in the past month or so, we have Erart's impressively weird ghost mirror. You have to watch the video to see what I mean:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFqdz1ZKZtQ

How cool is that?  Anyways, you can get your copy here: https://www.tgcstore.net/product/33521

Free Stuff

Granada made this fantastic free shotgun!

 https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221213  - get your copy at that link.
Tarkus 1971 made some pretty excellent music available for free:  https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/213190/last
Some great scripts found their way onto the net as well such as
smallg's 'racing script' https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/207801?page=25#msg2622028
And Amenmoses's 'cold breath' script: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221215#msg2622148

Notably for me though is the Airplane script he posted to discord.  There's a video in the 'random acts of creativity' section of it.  It's really good stuff!

Third Party Tools and Tutorials

This week there's some interesting Russian Language videos (I love auto-translate) on youtube for GameGuru: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3QE9rGxKVw

And also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErNFM-AoKhE

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

Amenmoses is working with Bod on making GG into a flight sim.  This has to be seen to be believed at this link:  https://vimeo.com/366328897
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zgarg-algM - Bonesy's Cyberfi updates look good but the colors are still painful to me.  I realize it's the style, of course, it's just hard for me to watch. That said, it has potential so hopefully he'll keep refining it
I'm happy to see Honkeyboy has revived his galaxy-hopping game. While it lacks polish the core components look really great and I'm looking forward to seeing his future work on this! 

 https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221222

Dietara got some video updates.  This blog post is already really saturated though so I can't post much more safely - so here's a link to where you can find some more:     https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220994?page=1#msg2621936

In My Own Works

I want nothing more than to work on GameGuru projects I have outstanding but between the end stages of a basement remodel, a new baby, work woes, and the myriad other things clutching me I simply can't spare the time.  On my list of things I want to get done by the end of the year:
   - Some new script releases for the store
   - Get those @#$% weapons posted to the store
   - Make some new space skies
   - Work on my own game project

Lastly, thanks to everyone who has supported me by purchasing my book.  I'm going through some hard times right now and it's good to know that the year  of time it took me to make that is seeing some use by more people than I expected.

This Week in GameGuru - 05/05/2019

GameGuru News

This week in GameGuru we have several 'info drops' of interest.  Firstly, if you missed it, on youtube was a recent video by Lee with respect to using GG Loader with GameGuru.  This could, perhaps, signal a shift towards a more formal cross platform pipeline between AGK and GG.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcMrV7OqfeQ

Also recently a DLC pack deal was posted with this snippet of information:


"It's been a slow start to the year for official updates, but rest assured a lot of activity is happening in the background which we'll be able to reveal to you in the near future. What we can say for now is that we are working on aspects of the file management system for better compatibility with Windows 10, some multiplayer technology additions, a little code refactoring and upgrading the internal source code to Visual Studio 2017.
May will also see us tackle a few of the points you have posted to our issues tracker, so if you have something you would like to report and it's not yet recorded on GitHub, you can do so here:
https://github.com/TheGameCreators/GameGuruRepo/issues"

This lines up from what I've heard unofficially. If you take a look at the 'AlphaSite' code base, you'll notice a lot of recent moves towards adding Photon Multiplayer code and VR support.  While this is all very interesting and potentially game-changing it also is somewhat worrisome as an outside observer as there are nearly 265 outstanding issues on the issues tracker and I truly hope we see more than a 'few' bugfixes.  This engine's incredible potential is being hampered by a backlog of bugs and quality of life improvements for critical features such as a meta-searchable entitybank, better UI controls and improved terrain functionality.

I am, however, extremely hopeful that the new update will include at least a good chunk of fixes for outstanding issues such as the math error for the widget (where it slides exponentially if you are on the 'backside' of it.). Time will tell, but historically it's proven that every major update typically brings back a large number of old users to 'give it a whirl'. 

What's Good in The Store

This week it looks like Valentin321 has continued adding to his repository of Soviet themed assets.

Sula put in some last minute cars, old european cars that are oddly remniscient of the old American Chevy Nova (from the 80's). 

A few packs were added, notables are Graphix's beautiful picket fence kit and BSP's very impressive 2k skies pack volume 2. 

Also my Time of day and Weather kit + Skies pack is on sale this week for 12.95 until the 10th.  Make sure you get your copy if you haven't already gotten one! I will be adding the new 4k Space Skies to this kit shortly and increasing the price to reflect it, so if you want to get those skies for a bargain, this is the best time to do it!

Third Party Tools and Tutorials

BOTR continues to grind out work on his heightmap importation tool for GG.  He's now getting a split-loading system in where you can load multiple terrain types.  It's an interesting experiment, get more details here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219806?page=3#msg2615271

AmenMoses posted a video of his highly impressive physics-based gear library that is a work in progress but will likely see release soon for those who don't mind getting their hands dirty with Lua code: https://vimeo.com/334314785

Wolf did a great write-up on '10 easy tips to make working with GG easier' which has some pretty high quality info in it, like how to make any plant into functional vegetation. Many of the these are covered in my book as well but it's nice to see the information making it's way through the public sphere!

Dvader has been breaking into the map file and digging around.  Interesting stuff, I remember trying the same thing about a year ago and eventually giving up after running out of time. 

Free Stuff

HarryWever(Dagored) put up a free windmill for those interested: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/210761?page=6#msg2615188 - They look great with the dynamically cast shadows from the built-in sun. 

Amenmoses posted a script for Graphix's free piping that allows functional gauges: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/217932?page=14#msg2615070

Amenmoses also put together a variation on his vehicle script to make a very cool little boat: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220055?page=1#msg2615182

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

Recently Belidos showed a very interesting video of his recent work on an isometric RPG kit which included an inventory system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FslhDHYSwHM

And because I inadvertently missed it, there was a fantastic piece of work demonstrated by Bod and Amenmoses showing multiple vehicles which can be driven via video.  I would recommend this highly as a must-watch: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220598?page=2#msg2614858

Teabone's recent work on his D&D inspired gelatinous cube has come a long way - I'm definitely liking the progress:

He's put a lot of time into trying to size it properly and get the 'jiggle' correct.

Ignite has some new interesting details on it's design philosophy and recent updates: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220722#msg2614998
Notably he's added:
Three light sources, each with different behaviours (actual weapons shown are placeholders atm).

•   Movement penalties based on light choice.
•   Death, respawning, and resetting of light source attributes.
•   Safezones.

Good stuff. I always like to see people thinking outside of the box.

Solar's project, 'Resist: Revolution' is apparently still being worked on and some good screenshots were recently posted:

Not bad at all!  Keep up the good work guys.

In My Own Works

Recently I posted some teasers to Facebook and various areas of Discord of the weapons work I'm having done by an artist via Commission.  It's come along well.  We're about halfway through the list of proposed items and so far I'm really pleased with the results. I've also been working heavily with GameGuru's gunspec file and projectile files to help create some impressive effects for these guns ranging from flamethrowers to plasma launchers. I'd say I feel as if I have full mastery on this and will likely do a write-up on it in the near future or try to get a last-minute inclusion to the book.

In the meantime, enjoy the screenshots of some of the guns that are still works in progress but are nearing completion:

Once we're all done I'll release these for purchase on the TGCstore ahead of the book for those who don't intend to buy the book (which will include free versions with it).

Again, for those who are interested, the book's publication date is AUGUST 19th, 2019.  I hope to see you all soon with details about additional features I will be including with the book!

This Week in GameGuru - 04/29/2019

Apologies are in order for being out last week. My day job has us do an out-of-town Biannual disaster recovery event which requires me to travel and work throughout the week.

That said there's a lot to cover, let's get to it!

GameGuru News

I've been told that things are in the pipeline, though no specifics have been given.  Expect news probably in the next few weeks with respect to that.

Rumblings from the community seem to indicate a fairly large shift centering around Multiplayer but I really hope that we also see a major spate of bugfixes given that there's a fairly heavy amount of open issues on GitHub. Once again, time will tell.

For now, your best choice is to look at what Cybernessence (see below) is doing.

What's Good In the Store

This week's totally subjective analysis of store items is.. fairly extensive.  Significant amounts of creativity went into the new items on the store!

There's a superb AFV from relative newcomer Zubil0:

You can get your copy here, it's well priced at a meager $2.50!

Campana productions put out a torture pack, if you're needing something more gruesome for your project.

Graphix has been prolific in his recent PBR additions, with everything from shipping containers to fencing packs.


Sula has put together a city and road pack that is fully PBR enabled.

Full kit includes 31 fully PBR modeled entities for building roads and cities!

This is one of my few 'must buy' kits for this year, in my opinion.  For the price, it's a great deal that will help you put together some really convincing cityscapes.

Dagored has been working diligently on his exploding bridges set and I have to say...

It's more than satisfying.  It also allows for some interesting game dynamics so definitely take a look and see if it's your speed. For me, it definitely fits in well with other destructible entities such as rolfy's old exploding city set.  Get your copy here: https://www.tgcstore.net/pack/11100

The music scene on the store has been exploding as well. I unfortunately haven't had time to review them all but there's some really excellent stuff that's been posted in the past few days such as:
PDKMusic's 'Wasteland Blues' music pack: https://www.tgcstore.net/product/32353

Tarkus's several recent works, all horror related and recently put into the 'decay' pack: https://www.tgcstore.net/pack/11098


There's a lot more on the store as well.  Some of the recent changes to the store, by the way, include a direct link to the GCSS discord on the seller's page and some more orientation towards providing support for other engines.

Third Party Tools and Tutorials

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO05fYSVoNQ Maiacombra made a great tutorial on how to update your models to use the illumination shader.

Apparently Vishnu Studio has finished their 'Vishnu Packer' program.  This fully featured program provides significant installation support for GameGuru standalones.  You can get your free copy here:

https://vishnupacker.webs.com/vishnustudio.htm

In an update near and dear to my heart, BOTR has is working on updating his Heightmap 2 GG tool.

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219806?page=3#msg2614988 

Free Stuff

AmenMoses has been hard at work on several new scripts - the most recent of which is a 'freeze player' script that works for pausing the player's movement to allow specific events to play out: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220055?page=1#msg2614939

He is apparently also working on a 'gear library' which allows mechanical gears to function in GG.  Very cool stuff.

There's a free 'Sci-Fi Music' library on the TGCStore.  Pick up your copy here: https://www.tgcstore.net/product/32337

Graphix dropped some pipes and gauges, all PBR enabled here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/217932?page=14#msg2614784

Lafette put out an easter pack:

and also a beautiful fantasy loot and chest set

Thanks to all the content creators who are willing to provide freebies to the community.

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

Foremost, the most recent work by Synchromesh on Protascope 'Phase 2' is looking really solid.  I'd say this is a great contender for a high end demo of what kind of work GameGuru is capable of.

https://youtu.be/Vih47nE8QGY

Phase 2 Test Description youtu.be

The project Screos by Insane6 is coming along.  New screenshots were posted here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220691#msg2615012

Cybernessence continues dropping huge amounts of information about his changes to the engine in his custom variation that will purportedly be merged into the main branch.  In this case, he's pretty much made it clear he's heavy on trying to fix the lighting system.  A great deal of new info can be found here and while technical in nature, it's quite inspiring and I truly wish him the best on his work! https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/213870?page=5#msg2614959 

An interesting concept called 'Ignite' is on the forums where a player doesn't fight enemies but uses a torch to stay 'alive' that must remain lit.  Interesting concept, I'm hoping to see some more fleshing out on this.   

Wolf has gone on to Unity, which is a shame but is rather predictable.  Many of the older hats have lost interest in waiting for updates, but often return when a major patch is released.  So we'll see you again soon!

 Lastly is an interesting project called 'Die Zombie Sausage, Die!' ... it has to be seen to be believed.

In My Own Works

This month has been mostly about building the sidecar content for the book, stabilizing deals and the like with people who are creating content to come with the book. My weapons developer has been making great strides towards some high quality weapons for purchasers of the book.  I'm really looking forward to releasing the content as soon as possible!

This Week in Game-Guru - 05/21/2018

Official Game-Guru News:

So there's a lot of traffic at this point on Game-Guru.  Lots of bugs being squashed.  Looks like lighting is getting looked at, specifically an SDK called 'enlighten' as a possible solution.  In the meantime there's a host of new functions on the github iteration of Game-Guru that are lighting related.  Looks like I might need to go make an Advanced lighting kit :)  ...


Also in official news there apparently progress being made on an underwater state for the player, which should really open up the gates as to how water is handled.  Lastly it appears that mega pack 3 has gotten more PBR assets - the roofs really pop with the shine they have now!

Check it out here:
https://www.thegamecreators.com/post/gameguru-mega-pack-3-dlc-update-2

New Products On The Store: 

So a few new things available.  I'm really digging these complex and ornately textured lamps by Mad Lobster.  Reliquia has made some absolutely amazing skies which you should absolutely take a look at.  I've noticed that the quality on campana production's models has gone up, check out this cow skull!  And lastly Shadow Man appears to continue to be on his building-making rampage.

Free Stuff:

Good lord, there's a crateload.
https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219680 - A must have ... Reliquia has put 16 free zombies up!

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219692 - Lafette II has put up two zombie kids and some desert props.  Be aware that having shootable children may violate local laws (Notably in Germany).  Caveat Emptor.
https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219523 - Here's a good AI script for the soldier, a wandering type script. 

So from here, I'm going to stop and just sort of separate things so you can really get a sense of how important these next two are.

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/215012?page=16#msg2600572 - This has been a Long, LONG time coming.  Amenmoses and Bod have teamed up to make a really awesome vehicle script for a truck - this looks and feels awesome. 





https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219628 - Honkeyboy has added his own flavor to the drivable vehicle scene with this racing bike script!

Those two should keep you busy for a while.  Amazing stuff, truly.  Looks like I owe someone a prize from my bounty board!
 

Third Party Tools:

I'm working on the notepad++ update.  It's a lot of work because they keep making updates over at github!  But it's coming along.  There's a LOT of XML to pour through and verify/cross check.

Random Acts of Creativity:

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219296?page=1#msg2600665  - DK's latest update in his wasteland saga.  Looks good though personally I gave him the following input on discord:
"So observations @Duchenkuke for your test #3 - 1) I don't like the new coloring. There's not enough contrast. It looks too black, white, grey, and drab. Sorry! 2) The inventory looks easy to use but I'd really work on cleaning up the interface elements. Maybe use a color other than white (maybe a white-orange?), some asymmetrically sized boxes, etc. 3) The vehicle was awesome. What kidney do I have to give you so I can build a truck driving game for my son? Overall though your level design looks fantastic. Your use of clutter is second to none and honestly aside from the coloration issues I'd say you're coming along really well."

In my own works:

I'm continuing to procure more items and art for the book's sidecar modules.
It's a lot of headache but at the same time there's a big payoff for those who will purchase by getting a combination of high quality free, store, and exclusive assets.

This week in Game-Guru 12/18/2017

Notice: Next week's issue will be delayed a day or so due to the holidays.

ENGINE UPDATE PROGRESS REPORT

No new updates for us normies.  We're still in beta-test limbo; apparently a beta update was released to the closed beta testers which was labelled as a public preview update.  This accidental update might cause you some confusion if you find yours hasn't updated.  That said given Lee's recent flurry of responses on the forums we can see that there's definitely some renewed emphasis on bugfixes and system stability (specifically with memory).

Also worth mentioning is my own find that you can reduce CPU usage by a drastic amount on most maps by updating the AI scripts to include some changes.  Specifically it appears that 'always active=off' does not actually appear to be functioning.  So you need to manually configure this via a player distance check in the script.  By doing this, you kill the overhead required for the rather intensive AI system.  Details can be found here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219078

For now though, we're all waiting for what looks like what will be a new-years update to improve stability and performance.   I'm really hoping Lee grinds this one out over holiday though I can understand if we have to wait until February for it.

NEW PRODUCTS IN THE STORE

 

Some small, but interesting updates.

This week on the store we have a new artist (Thorus) making a solid go of some residential models and a decently good looking tractor.  These models are well priced, most going in the sub-one dollar range per model.   Moshroom has written a new script which degrades weapon quality and makes them unusable after a point.  Acid has added a ... moving target?  I couldn't really discern this one's purpose but I'm sure someone will find it useful.  Lastly mstockton, who does a solid job on his modelling, added a nice padlock and key set for a very good price on the store.
 
Lastly added to the store was an actual game:

This particular game, Savior V1, has been around a while.  It however, represents a certain threshold for quality that most 'steam game releases' I've seen fail to measure up to.  While it's well priced at .99 cents (on sale at this time for a meager .50 cents), it is worth playing from the standpoint of seeing quality game design and development in Game-Guru.  One can learn a significant amount from osmosis and this situation is no different.

That aside though what's really important about this is it highlights the store as an additional distribution channel.  While we could potentially suffer the same problems as other channels (such as the hot, shoveled garbage games that find their way to steam) it could prove a really interesting way to market your own products to a smaller, more receptive audience.  Definitely worth considering fotr the future.

FREE STUFF

 This week's update in 'Free Stuff' has brought some absolutely incredible scripts.  I mean three really big hitters that all solve a lot of major issues for Game-Guru game devs.  First up is Solar's objective script found here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219081

Check out the above picture.  You can see clearly marked objectives which float under the object; this is going to be massively useful for the average FPS game.  The best part is this one is actually very straightforward to use and adapt so it will bring a lot of value to a lot of people.
 
Next up is AmenMoses, who has once again provided a crazy amount of utility those of us who want to really push the envelope in Game-Guru.  He's created a utility library that allows object rotation, connecting decals to objects, and much more.  It has to be seen to be believed, check out the videos and the downloads here at the forum link:  https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219096

HonkeyBoy has been working tirelessly in Game-Guru on several projects for a few years now.  These projects are pushing forward and his toolkit has really grown a lot over the past few months.  Recently he's added a survival and crafting script for people to use and abuse:

The script, along with some secondary scripts (fire making, shelter making, etc) can be found here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219061
It's also worth mentioning he's added some new models for download that are free for use as well here:  https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219082

Graphix has added a few impressive glass panels to the forum which I will personally be using extensively.

My previous 'glass panels' were some really old ones I'd hackneyed together from some pretty old assets.  While they worked ok, they didn't do a spectacular job and looked cheap.  These look exceptionally high quality and use alpha channels well.  Get them here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/217932?page=6#msg2592415

 THIRD PARTY TOOLS

BOTR has updated the Heightmapping to MDAT tool again with a new GUI and a fix for the Windows 10 machines that were crashing.  It's really coming into it's own.  This brings it up to a current version of 2.1a; it can be found at this location:  https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/218876?page=3#msg2592417

I personally have used the older versions to some good effect though it takes some tinkering to find the right settings for the scaling and what not.  Overall though this is a must-have item for your toolbox if you plan on using any kind of pre-made terrain or imports from terrain building software.

RANDOM ACTS OF CREATIVITY

This week I play-tested Bugsy's Multiplayer Simulator which was fun and interesting.  It ran well, played well, and reminded me a good bit of Quake 3 Arena.  I'd love to see him push this project further and as always it's got some of Bugsy's hallmark humor added in as a dry touch:

More games need a 'middle finger' model, IMO.

Also after long last we have an update on Wolf's epic flagship game - Shavra.   If you aren't familiar, Wolf is one of the top tier developers for Game-Guru.   He's in a very small group of other talented developers and this is his baby.  The screenshots alone from 4 years ago show the Game-Guru engine stretched to it's limits.  The latest screenshots are jaw-droppingly gorgeous, as you'd expect:

There simply aren't enough Game-Guru games meeting this level of quality.  I find it really impressive and have to say I wish I could meet this level on my own work.  It looks like it should be out of Unreal or Unity.  Not something as 'plebeian' as Game-Guru.


That wraps it up for this week.   As mentioned next week will have a delay before I post any new content, I may even skip it entirely.

Keep an eye out for some interesting new work from me too, I've been hard at work developing some new tools for Game-Guru users as well as a secret project that only a few select people know about.  It'll take a good 6 months before it's ready, minimum, but once it's released it should really open a few eyes.  That's about the most I can safely say on it.  That and that it's about 8-10% complete as of this moment.  So I have a long road ahead of me.  Thanks again and see you next week!

This week in Game-Guru 12/4/2017

Welcome back to my second update.  We've seen some HUGE updates this week.

ENGINE UPDATE PROGRESS REPORT

First and foremost, the public preview was released this week.  The 'beta' is now a public beta.   Get in there and test!  I ran into a problem installing mine that required me to update certain elements of my Windows 7 OS to fix a D3DDIRECT_47.dll not found error.   Other than that though, it works great.  I've had a few assets with problems and am yet to test my own products but as soon as I can verify their function I'll note that here.

More info is available here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219024

PBR Assets look great!

Beware though; this is a test version.  It's not all there yet and so it's best to make a backup before you continue.  I personally copied my 50+GB of assets and GG to a backup folder.  If you can't afford that kind of space, then I'd recommend either getting another drive or putting a copy on drive.google.com (you get like 15GB free there).

NEW PRODUCTS IN THE STORE

The store this week has some interesting December sales which are worth looking at.  Artists range from "The Wizard of Id", "that model guy" and "grobyken" all having several models or packs up to individual packs like Teabone's new warning sign set.

These high quality clutter objects cost only 70 cents.. TOTAL!  For the whole pack!

Teabone's done a fantastic job of creating high quality assets that are extremely affordable but possibly more importantly - they are very useful!  I have several signs from older packs that just don't measure up.  They look chunky and out of date.  These signs are clear, easy to read, are well lit but yet still have just the right amount of grunge to keep them from looking out of place.

Also on the store I noticed this gem from an artist I've only seen the occasional piece from: AlexGCC.  I took a look and noticed two separate products which appear relatively new that are of pretty excellent quality:

The Arcade will go well with EAI's set and the playground will go well with dagored's Carnival.

They're both reasonably priced so definitely give these and his other interesting products a look!

FREE STUFF

As always, there's a veritable bevy of free stuff available on the Game-Guru forums.  This week we have a nice freebie from Wolf, a set electrical boxes which he's also put up on the store as well.  I have several of his 'junction box' sets and I've noticed a clear trend upwards in terms of quality and technical skill.  Of note are the illuminated lights on the boxes.

The perfect touch for all your cyberpunk set dressing needs.

Also on the forums it appears Bod's been at it again.  Now if you don't know Bod, you should.  He's made a titanic mass of free stuff over the past few years.  While his art style and approach might limit other assets you can use with it, it does definitely fill a role and niche.  Very often he's got things you simply can't find anywhere else.  Or things that you'd pay a fair penny for on the store.

In this case he's been working on a ton of railroad assets.  This week he's added a switching booth which looks great.  It's probably one of his best physical models for buildings that I've seen so far.

His texturing is really going places.

At some point I'm going to take all my free assets and open up a google drive with them so people can access them freely in the future.  It'd be a shame if this stuff just fell off into oblivion from lack of upkeep or if the forums went away.

The interior on this building is top notch.  I love the way it turned out.

One final one to look at is this thread: https://forum.game-guru.com/board/25 which has a repository of all of "tarkus1971"s hard work.  He's got some interesting things there but most notably he has been adding lots of great music for free use in your games.

THIRD PARTY TOOLS

In the world of third party tools, it looks like BOTR's 'HeightMap to Game-Guru' tool is getting a new user interface which will really help with it's function.  On top of that he's added a preview mode which should REALLY shave time off pulling maps from http://terrain.party and importing them into Game-Guru. Granted I'm really thankful for a free tool like this but I have to admit it's always nice when it becomes truly functional.

This is going to massively help level development for Game-Guru!

Also of note is that OldPMan's "normalizator" tool has apparently reached a new stage of development and will be offered shortly on the store.  Per OldPMan himself:

"Hello everybody!
I'm happy to report that I finally recovered the lost source code "NORMALIZATOR". So I added a height channel and several auxiliary functions, this is copying the image from layer to layer, cropping the image and copying / pasting the selected part of the image. Fixed several bugs.
Now I will have all my time in touch and any questions will not be left without attention.
Concerning people who donated to the development of the application, I sent everyone emails with the keys for NORMALIZATOR in the tgcstore store. I noticed that not all of the keys I sent were activated, if for some reason you did not receive a letter with a key from me, write me a PM and I will give you instructions for obtaining a key in the tgcstore store.
The new version will soon be available at the tgcstore store, now in the status of approval.
For those who expect STEAM version, now you can get access to the closed beta test of the application, just write me a PM and I'll send you the key for access via STEAM client."

RANDOM ACTS OF CREATIVITY

So there's a lot of activity going into the holidays with projects.  I have a lot to cover here.

Let's start from the top!

First up we have MrEaKing(YT)'s 'Santa's Workshop(1 week challenge)'.  What can I say?  He's retextured assets and modified some of the soldiers to provide a shall we say a truly 'unique' experience.

Beyond that we have Dark Harbour; Honkeyboy's newest attempt at making a Skyrim Style game which will undoubtedly push the boundaries of how many assets Game-Guru can run without crashing.  He's got some interesting crafting scripts in there that he's working on and it's definitely got some work behind it.

Of particular note here is AmenMoses's 'asteroids-ish thingy'.  AmenMoses is the maker of the quaternion library for Game Guru and he uses it for rotation in very impressive fashion.

I'll have to play with it later but should run great, knowing AmenMoses.

Beyond that we have some updates to the Cogwheel Chronicles 1 and LenTheMan's Cowboy shooter.  Lots of good stuff in the pipeline.

Personally I have my own projects as well that are stalled out but will revive after the new year.  Lots of things to work on and do.  I'd like to get some stuff done for Christmas but it's really going to be tight at this rate.