CJO Games

Another set of images from what I think will be the first map available. I intend this one to have a working "ship control" script which I'm currently working on. Currently working are the orbital dynamics and star rotation - I'm also quite pleased with the way the moon looks in this although it depends on a darkened ambient lighting set up to get the dark-side of the planets to look right. The images seen here were taken without moving the camera/ship at all - you should be able to see that both the moon and asteroid have changed both position and angle and that the 'star' has also moved independently.

Another way - and one I am hoping to use in my maps - is as you've suggested, with the use of pivots and - in my case at least a sky-dome - although it can be done without. I find the sky dome quite effective. My set up uses a pivot with a script attached to make rotation and then the directional light is a child of that pivot - the movement of light and shadows looks great - although it appears to have an impact on FPS. I'll upload a video of it in a working state when I can get around to it...

One More map with a slightly different flavour - again there are orbital dynamics in this one...

I thought it would be a useful addition to the maps to have a simple day/night system. It's still early days but below are screenshots of this in action. The set up works well and also includes (in the case of the below screenshots at least) independently moving and rotating planets. You'll notice that the shadow on the planets actually moves frame to frame and the shadows in the images slowly changes. In the daylight images there is a shadow 'bug' visible but this will be fixed. The last image shows a different sky colour this uses the excellent shaders by havenphillip (see NOOB_shaders collection for details) In this image I've put the sky-colour shader from volumetric clouds shader and added to it fresnel I quite like this effect, particularly the crepuscular rays effect visible as the star comes above the horizon. Let me know what you think!

One of the most enjoyable parts I have found in game development is the creation of maps by hand. Much of this work is, these days, handed off to the game engine in the form of procedural generation. Look at most other engines available and you will find that they have that as an option. For me though they never quite live up to the chaotically 'natural' look I want to see. Perhaps this is a personal choice... h I It came upon me to ask for the community's thoughts with regard to the purchasability (not sure that's a word :-)) of game ready maps - by which I mean fully 'painted', 'planted' and 'built' maps in a variety of sizes with a variety of assets which I have sourced from a a variety of places. I have a few ideas and attached to this are a couple of my most recent screenshots of WIP(s). I have pricing in mind and would like to make these available for Leadwerks and Ultra; so, any takers?

Ok its solved but in the oddest of ways... the problem was that the model viewer was opening off screen. I figured that out by adding a second monitor and 'hey presto' there it was. I'm still not sure what the issue with lightmap/global illumination or navmesh is but that can wait for now.... weird behaviour but still, at least I can carry on with developing my game again... now, where was I?

Just to add to this; other things that now no longer work are build global illumination this fails to set lightmap/shadow map and then closes the program - also build navigation which fails also.

Not sure if this is the correct place for this but I'm wondering if there is a known bug with the model editor/viewer pop-up working with Windows 11 for any reason? Leadwerks was working fine on Windows 10 since an upgrade of hardware and OS I have the weird problem that every other pop-up window opens without an issue except the model viewer/editor window. I've tried to reinstall etc. but to no avail. Ideas would be great please.

This week's work included a detailed castle exterior and interior with market place as an extension to the town - there are also town walls which serve as a barrier to the edge of the map (just about visible in the first screenshot).

WIP The planting of the island is now almost complete and so too are the pathways. I have also now added one of the largest settlements in and have started work on the principal settlement which, I have inventively called Laketown. I've removed the initial 'standard' grass layer in favour of a more luscious and updated version which I think gives more of an interesting palette to the scenes. I've also included Haven Phillip's excellent volumetric cloud layer which really adds to the 'living world' approach that I'm aiming for.

Very early stages but I think I have a map I'm happy with! This is a lot of hours of work to get to this stage: