This Week in GameGuru - 09/23/2019

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 public preview of the beta changes arrived and the changes are about what was expected:

per https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221133
A bevvy of performance-related fixes were done including the draw-call batcher.
* F11 in Standalone no longer causes PBR debug layers to be rendered
* New DOCDOC system added to code allowing a new 'Docs\SETUP INI Description.txt' doc to be auto-created
* Improved MIXAMO FBX Importing (2-chain-finger in T-POSE), simply select 'Uber' in 'Is Character Field'
* Added Convex Hull collision shape to the physics system, use by setting COLLISIONMODE in FPE to 9
* Fixed EXPORTASSETS flag in SETUP.INI to correctly export unencrypted full entities with standalone  

Overall the results are positive but users are still reporting some errors - it's important to recall that a public preview is essentially the same as an open beta.  It is widely accessible but not an official 'stable' version.  Report your bugs!

What's Good in the Store

Erart made a somewhat bizarre but kind of cool 'magical hand' weapon.  You have to see it to understand what I mean here:

https://youtu.be/Cg8_jFwhSOc

You can get yours from: https://www.tgcstore.net/product/33493

Tools and Tutorials

This week the GameGuru youtube official channel posted more tutorials.  Some of these are better than others but I think for most advanced users the useful ones would be the ones on blender and fbx imports.

Free Stuff

Smallg's transition from coder to modeller is still going strong - get your free models here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221130

Fumar built a beautiful house you can download to add to your collection:

Get your copy here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221118?page=1#msg2621303  

He also built a bench: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221118?page=1#msg2621110

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

This week we've got a lot of works in progress.  Let's start with this one by C4ever08, a project titled called "Dietara" that we've covered before with lots of updates on it:

I admire the scope and personal touch of the landscape.

Full details are available here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220994#msg2621235

Cybernessence updated/refreshed his art for the hero characters in his Cogwheel Chronicles epic:

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/213870?page=7#msg2621264

He also has additional updates on his work on modifying the drawcall optimizer for his own purposes: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/213870?page=7#msg2621068

Solar has lots of updates on his Resist: Revolution game here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/218343?page=3

Lastly, one of my favorite store authors, OldFlak, started work on a new project in the Sci-Fi vein that looks fantastic by my estimation:

Get the full scoop (and plenty of great looking screenshots) here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221152

In My Own Works

I'm really happy to see the response my book on GameGuru has gotten.  I haven't gotten any kind of official figures but I can honestly say that this thing was a labor of love.  I'll never break even on the time I invested or the money outlaid for things.  I'm *STILL* dealing with some minor cleanup of items before they go on the store, though I don't see any reason why they shouldn't be up this week.

In the meantime if you have purchased my book I'd really personally appreciate it if you'd stop by the listing on Amazon and write up a quick review of it.  You can do that here: https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-GameGuru-Michael-Matthew-Messina/dp/1138612634

I guess we'll see!

This Week in GameGuru - 09/04/2019

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.

I wish I could describe the absolute chaos of my life right now.  It is impressive, in a biblical sense.  This unfortunately has impacted my ability to do these updates.  I will continue to attempt to get these out in a reasonably timely fashion.

As such, this week the work almost didn't get done.  I have a lot of ground to cover and a limited amount of time to dedicate to this so let's get to it.

GameGuru News

Let's just say some interesting things are going on behind the scenes.  I am not at liberty yet to discuss but I think many of you will be pleased with the end result of it.

Cybernessence has continued his excellent modifications to the engine which I still eagerly anticipate seeing added to the main engine branch.  Some of the changes he's made are monumental in effect.  One big update is a draw call optimizer that he's used by Preben that seems to make enormous impact on the engine's ability to batch draw calls and improve speed.

Currently a great number of big items are in the pipeline or implemented:

1. Draw Call Optimizer
2. Convex hull shapes
3. FBX importer
4. Makehuman pipelining
5. Trial version of GG
6. Other known/discernable updates (If you check github it's clear there's a VR/Multiplayer angle being worked in the background just by gleaning little bits and pieces). 

There's also more beyond that I'm aware of but not at liberty to discuss.

What's Good in the Store

Unfortunately can't do this this week.  This is far and away the most time consuming part of my weekly updates and as such I cannot afford the time for it at the moment.  I hope to get back on the train for this next week. This week it was 'do this and delay until monday or don't do this and get it out this week late'.  I chose the latter.

Free Stuff

Belidos posted some free medieval characters (always nice to get characters!): https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221044

A track I accidentally  overlooked was added for free by tarkus1971: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/213190?page=5#msg2619604

Third Party Tips and Tutorials

TGC keeps posting more tutorials, now in a second more detailed series:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oHsxCMoD9g

Random Acts Of Creativity (WIPs)

In by far the largest component of this, I have a huge amount of updates to cover.

Bonesy is continuing work on his Cyberfi game, now including some of the assets available to purchasers of my book.  Nice to see this stuff finally filtering down.  I'm still working on getting it on the store but if you have purchased it and want the assets early, please let me know.

Teabone posted a beautiful forest screenshot in which he's tuned and optimized his forest using many of the techniques I outline in my book to get a smooth 58-60 FPS with many trees:

Synchromesh has evolved his Protascope game to include Dagored's excellent drone entity from his sci-fi set (I own it myself and love it).

Also newcomer Maverick put together an awesome looking airship out of what looks to be a mishmash of EBE and free assets. Nice work!

Maverick also made this great looking waterfall and used a clever solution to do it - an inverted smoke decal! 

Peri32 made a fantastic video literally as I was typing this of his walkcycle for a Taxi-Driver inspired game based I assume on the movie from the 70's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A22mDKiP5DE

The environment is top notch and it's a great use of GG's abilities near as I can tell.

In My Own Works

Well, the publisher posted the files online... then removed them.  So now I have to get them to add them back in.  *shakes head*.  Like I said, my life is pretty chaotic right now.  I have final touches being done to the art for the 'Cyber Noir' pack that is free for book purchasers.

A teaser of what to expect for assets:

And some weapons too:

So keep your eyes peeled and make sure you keep some info on your purchase so I can validate it to give you a code :)

Lastly, I'm working out the final details with TGC on my book giveaway contest.  There will be some minor stipulations but three copies will be up for grabs.  I should have this finalized for next weeks report!

Thanks again to everyone who purchased a copy of my book.  I deeply appreciate your support on this labor of love. I've recently started getting pictures from purchasers:

This to me is the coolest part of this whole process - seeing an actual copy in hand for purchasers!

This Week in GameGuru - 08/21/2019

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.

Apologies for the late update.  Life has been ... crazy, to say the least.

For those who attempted to purchase copies of the book and use the promo code from last week, my publisher advised you must use this site to purchase it for the code to work:

https://www.routledge.com/An-Introduction-to-GameGuru/Messina/p/book/9781138612631

More details about the book and secondary materials will be found at the bottom of this posting so read it all the way through!

GameGuru News

Teabone has sent over his list of fixes to Lee and we're waiting for inclusion in the main release: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220853#msg2619317

Github has seen more work on convex hulls by Preben as well as a major merge into 'PO60' by Lee from the master.

This commit includes a lot of interesting updates you can find here:

https://github.com/TheGameCreators/GameGuruRepo/commit/59aff06cb3ec442997a5582f64e6cab636b982fb

So I'd say expect another sizeable update at this rate in the next month or so.  Don't hold me to it though as I haven't heard anything yea or nay - it's purely speculative.

What's Good in The Store

TeaBone put together some great clutter objects for the store in large quantity:

The quality is fairly good as usual so check out his store here: https://www.tgcstore.net/artist/45855

SounDesign also has a pack of clutter objects in the store that could see some use depending on what you are looking for in your projects: https://www.tgcstore.net/pack/11146

Free Stuff

Unfortunately nothing new in the free sector.  Better luck next week!

Third Party Tools and Tutorials.

https://forum.game-guru.com/board/2 also has a ton of great info this week, lots of details on many Lua related functions for the coders among us.

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

This week bod made one of his cars driveable: https://youtu.be/FEiXEwu09Rc

Schneeky put together a goofy spaceship video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ta78EP6aNE

KitaKazi's project 'Screos' has some new screenshots.  He says his first two levels are complete:

More info here - https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220691?page=1#msg2619169

Scienceboy's epic "Twin Worlds" has a new tantalizing screenshot with a beholder in it.  I'm still curious if he's using a heightmapping shader or not!

DJPulson's survival game has a screenshot as well as some updates here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220691?page=1#msg2619169

DenZelik came back after nearly a year to talk about his game 'Neir'  and post some screenshots which showed some excellent control of the Lua system for a fantasy-style game.

I'm particularly impressed by the above inventory picture, which looks exceptionally well crafted.

Relative newcomer Trollbae posted this beautiful work using the EBE on discord recently.  It uses several EBE boxes close together to create an excellent indoor environment.

 

 

Honkeyboy's project 'A tall tale' has some excellent updates with new models he's been building.

A project called Dietara popped up with lots of in-progress shots as well as some interesting details on a rather detailed post.

It's nice to see someone trying their hand with pushing the built in lighting system.

In My Own Works

So even though the book is out I've been very busy.  I've gotten numerous questions and the book has created a lot of interest though my publishers have been admittedly not moving as fast as I'd like on certain elements.

I'm fine-tuning one of my artists work before releasing it.  It will be reasonably priced on the store but for purchasers of the book you will receive it for free - simply send me an email, text, discord message is probably best honestly, or private message on the forums.  As soon as I see it and we can verify your purchase I'll send you voucher codes for the products so you can receive them for free.

There are also a number of 'included' free materials such as maps and the like for the book that the publisher hasn't posted on the site yet (despite me having submitted them over a week ago).  As soon as that is available I'll make sure that info is clearly listed and known.

LASTLY - I WILL BE ANNOUNCING A CONTEST FOR MY BOOK THROUGH SEVERAL CHANNELS BUT EXPECT IT TO BE ANNOUNCED NEXT WEEK ON THE REPORT.  THIS WILL BE DONE DIRECTLY THROUGH THE GAMEGURU FORUM CONTEST SECTION (Special thanks to Deb @ TGC for arranging this).


Thanks again to everyone for your well wishes, support, and purchases!

This Week in GameGuru - 03/11/2019

Official GameGuru News

Nothing big at the moment, just a new PP version for testing from the upstream beta build.  This does however mean that we can expect a live version very shortly.  Looking forward to testing it, myself.  Anyone interested in how to use the PP version can find details here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220548?page=1#msg2612465

What's Good in The Store

Moving on - there's a lot of great stuff this week.  We've got a fantastic 'Space Derelict' pack by Kasseyus,

a full 18-piece foundry kit from Lafette,

a functional stationary gun emplacement by GraphiX,

a 'porta-cabin' kit by Graphix,

and a really interesting 'imp' monster by lotgd.

Not bad for a single week!

Free Stuff

A bit of sad news this week.  Bod has finally pulled the plug on his free works.  He's no longer offering any of it for free.  Pardon my interjection here but it seems like a phenomenal waste of effort in this case.  Bod, if you are reading this my recommendation is to offer the works on the store for a price you feel would be acceptable.  I'm sure there'd be a surplus of people (myself included) who'd pony up the appropriate amount for it.

Beyond that we have:

Lafette put out a perfect complement to the sci-fi pack here!

Third Party Tools and Tutorials

A rigging tutorial here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220592

A good thread on how to fix the cel shader for GameGuru: https://steamcommunity.com/app/266310/discussions/0/1837937637895481938/

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

Bonesy keeps on cracking, good job man.  Just keep chipping away at it it.  I like the inclusion of objectives to help keep your players on task (see below screenshot).

I'm also very happy to announce that Wolf posted some work in progress pics.  Damn fine stuff sir!

Also I thought I'd drop a screenshot of some of my own stuff.  I'm working with some new tools on my first new skies set in years.  Here's one of my favorites:

Believe it or not, there's more impressive ones than that.  I'm really excited to bring these out for everyone.

In My Own Works

As mentioned previously, I'm working on a pack of new space skies for consumption.  Expect the older skies to get price reduced and the newer skies to come out shortly as a pack. I'll then give it a few months then add the new skies to the 'All skies and weather' a few months after that.  I have plans for the weather system as well including a minor overhaul to include some better use of commands as well as to improve it's function.

Now for the big news:

The book is officially in the hands of my publisher!  I'm very happy to finally get to this point after nearly a year of solid work.  For those interested this will be published under CRC Press via Taylor and Francis publishing.  It *WILL* be available for international distribution.  It's designed as a start to finish guide with GameGuru through a game's whole lifecycle.  It will have over 450 pages of printed text, 130+ pictures, a full seventeen thousand word appendix (Lua, Error codes, Gunspec, FPE, etc), and a whole host of custom models and media you will only be able to get with the book!

My acknowledgements section was pretty long and rightfully so! Thanks again to everyone who helped get me this far.

This Week in GameGuru - 12/10/2018

Welcome back to another busy week in the GameGuru community.  Let's dive right in!

Official GameGuru News

This week saw another model kit update - specifically PBR getting added to some of the collectibles and minor doodads of  the Sci-Fi kit. I did notice, however, they are still using the Red Cross on the collectible for the heathkit.  This is considered a no-no in the GameDev community since it violates the Geneva Convention for using the international symbol of the Red Cross.  I brought this to TGC's attention and while no comment has been given thus far on it I'm certain they will take quick and decisive action to remedy this.

As we enter the traditional holiday cycle, don't be surprised to not see any major code releases or updates done for a while.  I've noticed we tend to get 3-4 major releases a year and the most recent one will probably hold us for a while, likely until March or so. In the interim, it appears they are content to continue pushing Add On content and updates.  It can be frustrating for users who want to see steady and complete refinement of the core product.  Well hey, at least it's consistent, right?

What's New in the Store

Recently a TGCStore seller's discord was added.  If you need access, contact 'TheNext' on the regular GameGuru discord.

Not a lot of brand new stuff, though it seems the cartoon-style assets are really taking off.  I like how they look though I worry it's going to saturate the market a bit.  Still, Reliquia and Belidos both are providing really quality stuff you can find right off the main store page.

There's also a creepy Nun and an 'abomination' by Gtox.  
 

Free Stuff

In 2016 , there was a great bit of 'Christmas Giving' done at Wolf's signalling.  I have to say, it was a nice sentiment and I would love to see more of that.

In the meantime, enjoy this 'free little alien'.

If you're looking for Wolf's Christmas Advent Calendar of free stuff from 2016, check it out at this link here! 

Third Party Tools and Tutorials

Well foremost it appears that Epic games is positioning themselves as an indie gamedev marketplace.  This is huge news and deserves some praise.  Steam is a great platform in a lot of respects but the 30% right off the top is pretty brutal for many involved.  Epic is offering a digital platform with 12% costs, but get this - if you use the Unreal engine then the traditional 5% for using that engine will be deducted from the 12% they take.  So you in reality are saving money by using their engine on their platform.  Pretty brilliant marketing though they'll need more than that to defeat a monster as big as Steam.

Also it appears that SegmentAutoWelder (an FPSC conversion tool for GG) is repaired.  You can get your updated copy here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220102

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs) 

Well, interestingly enough as work slows down on the engine, work picks up on people's projects!  Lots of interesting screenies for this week for you.  I hope I caught them all!

Mstockton's in development PBR Assets

Bonesy continues work on his Sci-Fi Shooter

DuchenKuke is putting out some fantastic Metro:2033 style screenshots

Len the man continues to show us how simple methods produce great results for cutscenes

VincentHendricks made this great scene using some dynamic lights set at the right coloration!

Friskon - Lotgd made this bizarre gif which sort of boggles and fascinates simultaneously!

As you can see, there's a lot going in in the community. I'm still waiting for a serious game to show up, something that can really knock the socks off other communities out there.  I think if guys like Duchenkuke can keep working at it, they'll eventually release something incredible.  It just takes perseverance, some tolerance for GameGuru's nuances, and a steady hand.

Beyond that we're seeing some amazing work by the other devs who contribute code wise.  Check out some of the latest works of Graphix and Amenmoses - their particle system now has physics effects!

T-bone is working on stealth mechanics similar to what you find in the old Thief games: Video Here

Amenmoses has made some huge advances to his 'pickuppable' scripts.  Notably now you can actually use them to throw and injure enemies.  Check out the video of it here: https://vimeo.com/305258044

In My Own Works

This week I didn't get as much done as I'd like. The last mile here is proving somewhat difficult as I saved all the more dangerous or difficult tasks to cover for last.  This means particles, physics, advanced engine tricks like camera control - all of that is a bit daunting to write and a lot to research and test.  It'll get there though.  The trick is to just keep plodding inexorably forward.

This Week In Game-Guru - 11/5/2018

Official Game-Guru News

While there's not a lot of information floating out there from an official standpoint, it appears that TGC worked with the user 'Wizard of Id' to make a cold war pack that's prepping for release.  Some preview elements were released and it's up to his usual snuff and then some.

You can find a full 24 minute (!!!) demo video of the product in it's pre-release form here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9N5A8JlQw0

I have to say I really appreciate the grungy look of the tiles on the wall.

What's Good in the Store

Looks like M2Design is getting busy with some new shacks.  True story - one of my very first purchased models was one of his original shacks some four or five years ago.  The guy makes good work and you should absolutely take a look at the newest offerings.  You get 17 shacks for $6.50, a steal by any right.

MStockton also been working on updating his textures for his terrain sets and the newest updates look pretty impressive:

Honestly he's the only other terrain creator I trust from the store beyond myself, so if that's not high enough praise for his products I don't know what is.  They were worth buying before - they are in the 'must buy' category for terrains now.

Free Stuff

Maiacombra rehashed a 'modified' flashlight that looks pretty decent: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220189

Amenmoses put up a new script for Bod's buttons: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220055#msg2607706

JPH put up some really beautiful advertising boards for free here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219734?page=1#msg2607741
You can see the picture below:

 

Third Party Tutorials and Tools

Nothing doing here.  Maybe next week!

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

Bonesy continues his work on his sci-fi shooter.  I admire the dedication to a single project and the constant improvement.  So while I think it still needs a lot of polish, as a pre-alpha it's in a good state and could will easily be improved by his constant hard work:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCzcFFv7tr4

PirateMyke put up a very interesting video of a level he's making for another game that I have to say has some really impressive architecture.  The sheer scope of it is pretty awesome.  I did tell him to work on the lighting but that's neither here nor there.  Check out a video of it here: https://youtu.be/5_gK4X7TCaY

The above is a screenshot of VincentHendrik's newest medieval castle work.  I like the design and use of color for lighting.  Seems like he's dialing it in pretty nicely.

And of particular interest it was revealed T-Bone(Aka Teabone) is working on a weapon wheel script that looks like a pretty nice piece of code!

I'd change the graphics but I'd reckon the actual code itself is pretty sweet!  I'm super interested in diving into it myself when it goes up for sale.

In My Own Works

This week I got a metric ton of writing done. I mean it was substantial, probably 13-15k words written last week. You can thank the chapter on optimization which was both enlightening and totally consuming.  It's such a big issue it almost deserves a book unto itself!  That said I was super pleased to hit a major milestone: 100,000 words!  This is officially 20k larger than anything else I've ever written before and I still have 20k more words to go.  That said I'm on track and on time and that is just a great place to be!

I also had fun digging into the actual code on GitHub to answer some of my own questions with respect to Game-Guru's more secretive functions so look for some really great answers to some long standing questions when I hit publication!

This Week in Game-Guru - 10/22/2018

So I'm back from my business trip and there's a lot of catching up to do.  Let's get started!

Official Game-Guru News:

Every once in a while TheGameCreators, makers of Game-Guru, release two press releases inside of a week. Makes it a little difficult for me as a weekly updater but in case you missed them there are two new updates to cover:

https://www.thegamecreators.com/post/gameguru-buildings-pack-update-released Finally, with all the PBR retexturing done they got to the buildings and... they look... ok-ish?  I guess?  I don't know.  They seem to lack the really high quality finish some of the other PBR redos have.  I use these models regularly as stand-ins or as actual elements and it's just a little disappointing to see that the textures seem marginally better as a result of the PBR treatment.  I'll have to play with it to see if I can improve it, but judge for yourself:

In better news, however, there's a new pack out - the "Medical Pack".  This pack is really ripe with tons of goodies like really well textured models of x-ray machines, gurneys, doors, desks, curtains, etc.  I'd put this in a 'must buy' category.  It's currently on sale for 20% off.

These materials can find a home in a great many different projects so definitely consider picking it up!

Free Stuff:

Animated Wooden Crate by Lafette II: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220151
This crate is unusual in that it performs the function of being "a wooden box that opens when you approach it and let all the objects you can pick up in the two rooms float first and then slide into the box after a short while. It can be used excellently in fantasy games, but it also looks great in modern shooter games." ... will need to try this one out myself later.

Third Party Tutorials and Tools

Information on how to make an animated TV monitor: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220149

Random Acts of Creativity

Now in this particular area I have a lot of updates to go over so bear with me as  I cover them all.

New assets are on the way!

First and foremost there are a significant amount of new assets in the pipeline for store users.  If you're interested in purchasing these and want to see what's coming soon - check this subforum and just look at all the big names in there - Lafette, Graphix, Wizard of Id, etc.  Tons of really good stuff is on the way! 

Bellidos meanwhile has been hard at work on something he calls 'mastaba':

It's an interesting recessed temple model.  Not much more to go on but it showed up in the discord while I was out of town and I like the way it looks.  Expect it on the store soon!

A lot of work was done on particles...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLebdDTJgis Preben's at it again with some GG Loader particles that produce excellent weather effects.

https://youtu.be/Tm_u6HsI7Lg  Graphix and Amenmoses have been working on some interesting particle stuff in this video link given as well.

Game-Guru users have been hard at work as well...

Len the man has been hard at work at his cowboy shooter and while I think some may complain about the graphics what he HAS shown limit on talent with are his creation and use of cutscenes.  Check out this gif and just try to figure for yourself how it was accomplished, because I can't manage it shy of frame-by-frame video editing:

Yeah, I wish I could do that.  I've asked him for info on how, so I can maybe write it up in my book but dang.  Good work Len!

New user 'Bonesy' has continued his work on 'cyberfi' and it's starting to look more and more like a real game.  Admittedly it's a bit too spartan and the colors are very polarizing by my standards but it's always good to see people steadily improving their product.  He's even added some mech with custom AI to it, so it's definitely going places though it still needs a LOT of polish.

I'm looking forward to see where it goes from here.

A frequent favorite on here, Duchenkuke won the most recent contest (I was not a participant this time, due to work - though I don't think I'd have beaten this entry) on a ghost town theme with this beauty:

However little did you know he also makes music as well - check out some of his most recent stuff here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHbM5ph8VeU

Oh and lastly, in case you're interested in how NOT to act as a Game-Guru user you can check out some juicy controversy here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220157

In My Own Works

I have my work cut out for me, I knew this already but this last week really set me back a LOT.  I now have an additional 5k words I need to write this week meaning I'll be lucky if I can make it to 8k words.  That means long days and longer nights as I try to get caught up.

I have some really great ideas for projects and products for Game-Guru but can't get the time to work on them.  Such is life.  Once the book is clear I have to do the sidecar game to go with it so I'm probably going to be running 100% until next June.  Lovely!

This Week in Game-Guru - 09/10/2018

This week, I've really been through quite a lot of components to help put this weeks report together.
Thankfully there's a surplus of really great stuff that I can't wait to show you.

Official Game-Guru News

As Game-Guru continues it's march towards modernization, there's a continual series of updates that address two separate facets of Game-Guru production.  First, there's the constant GitHub updates, which resulted in things such as the 'monster update' of 7/30/2018.  Secondly there are the asset updates, which are numerous and significant.

Most recently, the 'Death Valley Pack', which many of us old-timers received for free with Game-Guru's release as a thank you, had a significant number of assets updated to PBR.

Now these PBR updates are welcome and interesting, but seem to be a mixed bag, in my experience.  As you may not be aware, the DLCs are generally the work of an artist commissioned by TGC for a product they then resell.  I don't know the specific terms of the arrangement.

As such, artistic skills vary.  Personally I found a few were of 'mediocre' quality with the PBR update.  Yes, the additional detail brought an improvement in some but not enough to measure.  For what it's worth - the Death Valley Pack is one of the better ones.  Still not the best, I'll reserve that for the updates done to the Sci-Fi pack, but very good nonetheless - especially for people who already own it.

Third Party Utilities and Tutorials

This week we have several updates, mostly from my own personal backlog of getting the past month caught up.  Of note, Flatlander has generously picked up where my original project left off and added all the new functions to the Notepad++ Lua API I originally built.  This is a very welcome weight off my shoulders and I just wanted to really thank him for that.  You can get the update here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219215#msg2605239

Also there was a fairly lively discussion on discord the other day regarding the creation of local cube mapping for mirror effects.  This is primarily because cube mapping won't take into account a specific room so we discussed a way of dealing with this.  Graphix came up with a solid method of that worth looking at including a custom tool on his site. 

There's also more here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220031

Next we have a very interesting update to Game-Guru loader which *MAY* make it's way into Game-Guru (this is Preben's work, after all).  It is essentially a dynamic light setup with castable shadows! This would be an enormous change to Game-Guru.  Just check it out:

This kind of lighting effect would really modernize the engine!

That's impressive quality for dynamic lights, especially out of Game-Guru using stock assets.

There's also a few other interesting things I found.  It appears Cybernescence (The creator of the Cogwheel Chronicles) has been doing some really crazy things with shaders.  Notably this:

That's... really good looking.  It still doesn't modify the existing water, but it does a huge amount of work towards getting the ocean to be a living, interesting creature.  His ocean shader isn't for sale yet but should be soon, from the sound of it.

There's also this gem, also by Cybernescence, a PBR heightmap shader.  All I can say is WOW.  I mean this is an enormously powerful shader that will totally destroy lesser CPUs, but yeah.  If you are trying to make something that is on peer with modern high end engines, this is a hell of a start!

There's more info at the link, but this will be a huge boost to certain scenes!

This shader was released for free and obviously is far from complete but is definitely worth tooling around with!  You can find the info on the original link above, along with installation instructions.

What's Good in the Store

Not a lot of new things in the store lately.  Things ebb and flow there.  Right now we're definitely in an 'ebbing' phase.

That said, Gtox's new creation - a creepy mutant - did catch my eye.  His animations are getting a lot better, that used to be my only real complaint about his products.  I obviously own a few, in spite of my minor complaints because they're generally pretty good and often downright creepy, like this new guy:

I imagine this reminds people of their mothers-in-law!

The animation was real good on it too.  You can pick it up here: https://www.tgcstore.net/product/31908

Random Acts of Creativity

Some really good stuff this week.  Dvader/Retrogamebloke (on youtube) created a spy-hunter style minigame in Game-Guru.  I'm currently trying to get the juicy details but on the face it's got a randomizer for terrain and vehicles and a scrolling isometric view that infinitely loops.  Really cool stuff. I should mention Spy Hunter was legitimately my favorite game when I was 8 years old so this was pretty cool to see!

Spy hunter Game-Guru- spy hunter


Next, Slaur3n used a pretty awesome 'retro style' shader to give his current project a very unique look.  This one is another YT video you can find here:  https://youtu.be/JyWnDqMoIx0

One more major update was DuchenKuke's 'post apocalyptic game' is out for testing.  Definitely check it out and see if you can't learn a few things in the process!

He says he's going for a Metro: Last light look - I'd say he found it!

Check out the really professional quality here.  There's mirroring in the wet terrain below, superb use of lighting and clutter.. I mean this is excellent work worth learning from.

In My Own Works

Writing is a disciplined activity.  If you don't discipline yourself, you stop writing.  It's why I write this blog, to help assist in that.  It's also important to take time, every day, to write.  I really can't stress this enough.  Even a paragraph of work on a book you're working on keeps the mind active and prevents you from falling into stasis.  In my case, I'm focusing on getting 5000 words a week out.  That's a hefty amount of work, thankfully there's plenty to do so I can always find something to write about.

Personally I work in a very structured way.  I'm an 'outline writer'.  This makes things easier than I think for others, but it also comes with it's own set of complications - like seeing that outline can be rather overwhelming.  For now though, work on chapter 18 is coming along nicely.  That's my 'how to add detail' chapter, broken out piece by piece and starting with vegetation.