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.

Pasquill's Vehicle Pack 1

I'll be continuing my analysis of Doom 1 level design very soon - but for now I need to get a review out - that's the point of this blog, isn't it?  To provide people with some insight on what they might spend their money on with game-guru?  So this week I'm reviewing Pasquill and a pack of his I recently purchased.

I recently purchased Pasquill's vehicle pack 1 as a reward for my five year old son doing a good job on his schoolwork.  Being he loves cars we spend a lot of hours building huge sprawling maps and just making cars in all positions.  He loves a good car wreck.  So he'll position them and I'll set the details up like smoke and lighting.

Up until recently I've used my City Pack (which has somewhat cartoon looking blue, red, green and orange cars) and some freebies I've picked up over time (like the dark city stuff by Cosmic).  It's nothing spectacular but does the job for a five year old.

The vehicle pack features 24 high quality, ~1500ish poly count models which utilize 2048x2048 textures.  In short, they look great!

Tons of shapes, colors, and variety!

The pictures don't do this pack justice.  You get 24 different vehicles, in five different styles.  Those five styles get a lot of mileage though, with drastically different textures, additional bits (such as missing windows or sirens being added) and colors.

The detail on the side panels is a nice touch.

As you can see above, the van is really nicely made.  I have several vans from other makers and they vary in quality but generally the models are a bit lackluster (it is a box on wheels, after all).  However note the subtlety of the texturing and modelling here.  There's lots of indentations, smooth and graduated edges.  What I like best are the wheels - gone are the dodecehedrons  most of the older free models had.  Here we have really beautifully round wheels that look great.

What's really impressive though are the textures on the damaged vehicles:

This little beater has seen far better days.

 This is where that 2048x2048 texture size pays dividends.  While the flat colored vehicles look nice the rusty and damaged vehicles look SPECTACULAR.  If you're doing a zombie apocalypse or warzone - or hell even a junkyard level - these vehicles are pretty much a must have.  Coloration, design, shape, damage - everything looks phenomenal.  The tires are even flat!  It's a huge amount of detail for what is a very reasonable price.  We're talking 62 and a half cents (USD) per car!

The bottom line:  For the money there's really no better vehicle-based pack on the tgcstore.  You get a big variety of high quality models that are different enough to be worth the expense.  Fifteen dollars seems like a lot when we're talking an online resource market that has things priced criminally low - but take my word for it - it's been worth it.