Rick

I'm pretty sure this is impossible...oh wait did you say URBAN environments? Then yes, LE can do that.

I can see macklebee point in the examples he gives, but I can't in good conscious bring myself to go any deeper than 1, maybe 2 "folders" deep with the way it's setup. (which means things don't get as organized as they could/should) I mean to have to prefix the assets for visual organizing in the editor, it's just to strange of a solution for me. To have to physically affect the asset filename for the sake of the editor just doesn't seem right. There must be another way that takes into account macklebee's points but still holding true to a folder system. Maybe make it so subfolders that begin with _ are ignored by the editor. That way you could have Boxes/_Box1, Boxes/_Box2, etc. but the editor will lump all the files under the _dir into just Boxes in the editor. Or a better symbol would be ~ to start with for a folder name that won't be displayed in the editor. Nobody uses ~ in folder names anyway.

I agree. This is a nuisance atm.

I'm glad that didn't get wasted I searched my directories and just wanted to see what a really long path would look like on a real file. Wouldn't that be crazy though? I mean that's essentially how it works today in LE. If I was looking through a game directory and saw something like that I would just scratch my head. Would that even work on Win95 I'm sure not everyone thinks that

Which is why nothing ever gets done. Yep, that's it. I think all designers are idiots. It's amazing how you figured me out like that. The points have been made. Not much we can add now. We're just poking shots at each other now. As usual we don't see eye to eye. I guess that's what makes the world such a wonderful place.

I wasn't really referring to the art pipeline. I don't consider the editor part of the art pipeline. The editor is for level designers to create levels. Level designers generally aren't artists per se, but designers. They are good at putting together and working with assets but not necessarily good at making those assets. Given that the editor is for designers I feel it should be structured for designers and not for artists.

lol Ubu, I see your post. I just didn't download it yet. What is it an editor example? Could you post a screenshot of it instead?

The same could be said about putting files in a folder. But since you ask, I actually do find it a pain to have such long filenames. Once a game gets to any size you could be prefixing a file with 4-5 nested folder names just so you can have it "organized" in the editor. That doesn't seem odd to you at all? It also doesn't follow the whole filesystem standard that everyone is familiar with. I think that's why most people find it odd and strange to work with. I've given it about a year and I still find it odd to work with. You know exactly why it's misleading, but like you stated because of it looking misleading there is a method to right click and go to that directory to make it easier. That still doesn't make it less visually misleading. Anyway, we could go back and forth on this. I'll stop here and let you get the last word. Agree to disagree I guess. Because that's exactly what it is. Josh puts artists first. He thinks artists create games. That's his view on it. I don't think that can be changed. I just think it would be nice to have it configurable is all.

The other body method works pretty well. The problem with using the Curve method is that you would still be setting the position which would kill the physics.

It does if you want organization and don't want to change your filenames to get that organization. ?? So you don't find it organized to put like things in a folder that describes what those things are? That's the whole point of a file system. I find that misleading. When looking at the editor and then looking for the files on the disk, they could be anywhere. I think when working with a team it could lead to some confusion. It's pointless to argue about it anyway, Josh isn't going to change it.

That makes perfect sense. It means you could just have called it box01 and place it in the Props/Boxes directory. Instead you are putting what should be a path (the hidden meaning because it means something to the editor ONLY) into the filename itself. If this system used directories instead no one would name their file Props_Boxes_box01.gmf. They would just name it box01 and place it in the correct directory.

I actually find that far from nice and neat. You are bastardizing your file names so they show up neat in the editor. I think that's crazy. Your file names should be whatever you want them to be and not have some hidden meaning in them that relate ONLY to your editor you are using to make the game. Man, imagine if this is how everything worked. ProgramFiles_Adobe_Reader_HowTo_ENU_iamges_tip.gif

LE is more based on C than C++. I normally just do PositionEntity(pivot, EntityPosition(player));

I see you are using the property mesh.material. Did you try the functions instead of the properties? GetMaterial() or even GetEntityMaterial() to see if those work?

Well, I guess I'm curious as to why EntityColor() does affect a mesh in color, but the transparency value seems to be ignored, which is the part I was looking for. To get around this I just used materials for solid colors and separate materials with semi-transparent textures. It's not as clean because I would need to double the textures as semi-transparent and I can't fade in/out transparency, but I can make it work. It's amazing at all the compromises and "hacks" one has to use to get a game working.

So is what you are saying is that I can't get it to look consistent (I honestly don't care which look) with using just LE commands like this? I'm not concerned about shadows. I set castshadows=0 in the mat file and that fixed the shadow issue I was seeing. Now it's just this inconsistent look from different camera angles.

I have a mesh that I paint a semi-transparent texture on. Depending on the camera angle sometimes I can see another semi-transparent image under it's "feet" and sometimes I can't. I was wondering why this would be? Also, is there a way to make it consistant? Make it so it doesn't matter where the camera is. These 2 pictures show what I mean. This is what I get based on 2 different camera angles. I would prefer the above. Even though it's more unrealistic I feel seeing through to the yellow ground effect drowns out the mesh to much.

Try making your directional light the parent to your corona. It should just follow it then.

You should only put in 1 directional light because having more causes known bugs.

I generally just use LoadMesh() instead of LoadModel() since the character controller is acting as your physics body.

After reading http://forum.leadwerks.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=235&hilit=entitycolor+transparent they said EntityColor doesn't change the color or alpha of a mesh, but from what I can see it does change the color, but not the alpha. Was it changed to work for the color since then? If so, is there any chance it can work on for the alpha in the future? Am I forced to use a mat file and separate world for this? If so, am I able modify it the transparency level via code? Also if I have to push my character mesh in another world doesn't that screw things like picking up? I suppose a shader is another solution huh? It would be very cool if someone could write up a small tutorial on how shaders work. Or maybe point me in the direction of a good tutorial on how LE shaders work. I'm not sure if there is anything specific to LE with these shaders or if they are just general OpenGL shaders and any OpenGL shader tutorial would work.

lol yeah my bad. Had the kid on my lap and was just trying to type fast before she hit some keys.

Since the game is turn based and moving is an ability that costs energy and is part of the strategy in using energy wisely each turn, the movement will stay point and click. You are right though, in a real-time game where you control just 1 character, I am not a fan of WASD. However, when you have control of multiple characters, almost like an RTS, I think it's the easiest way to handle movement. Next on my ability lists is the assassin Stealth! I have the basic structure already in place but the Stealth ability will apply the Stealth buff, and I need to get the entire buff system in place. I'm about 80% finished with that. When the Assassin goes into stealth mode, it increases it's movement energy cost, but enemies cannot see them or click on them (by pure luck). The only way Stealth is broken is if an AoE ability hits the Assassin or the Assassin does an attack. The Stealth visual will be drawing the character at 50% transparency for your teams Assassin, and 100% for your opponents.

Thought I'd make a thread here displaying my progress on Warlords. Here is an Aoe (Area of Effect) ability that I'm working on. Big thanks go Gandi for helping with a shader for this. The Protector class will smash his fist on the ground and the effect that you see will happen. It's not 100% complete but the idea/functionality is done. Just need to work on the visual side more on it.

I think you need more variety in trees. They all look the same which kills the realism. The rocks and ground & cover looks great though.