Pixel Perfect

I went back and looked at mine and I in fact used spotlights (which are also cheaper to render) but I have a full reflector fitting around my florescent tubes which prevents any light from being cast upwards and reflecting off the ceiling; even if I were using point lights. Mac's suggestion sounds the most plausible given your situation.

Very nice Dave. The music was excellent too! Always great to see new takes on the Stalker theme and also just what the Leadwerks engine is capable of.

That's exactly how I did it in this scene:

Sorry but I have no idea what's going on then. If your texture and mat file are ok then either framework is broken or something else in your code is interfering with this for some reason. I believe alpha test (only full on transparency) works in the main world but alpha blend (graduated transparency) requires the transparent world to render correctly. I think you need to talk to someone who is using framework rather than framewerk to confirm transparent emitters are working correctly for them. Then maybe they could try your mat and texture files.

Sounds like a great course

Well although I've never used framework that code looks ok. However, the pic you've attached shows transparency working! Its a strange banded type of transparency which is not ideally suited for smoke but its transparency none the less. You might want to look at the alpha channel in your underlying texture. Does it display the same banded transparency?

Having looked at the Wiki page on Framework your previous code looks correct: SetWorld(GetLayerWorld(GetFrameworkLayer(1))); So assuming this is not bugged is there an issue with your mat file or the texture itself? What exactly are you seeing when the emitter runs ? Transparent areas being rendered non transparently ? Do you have a graduated transparency or are the transparent areas 100% transparent in the texture?

Good luck with this RVL, hope it sells well for you!

This is taken from my engine's fire object class and the smoke emitter is using a transparent material for the particles. This definitely works for me. I'm using framewerk rather than framework (and a modified version to allow direct buffer access) but this should work just as well with framework. Hope this helps: void fire::createEmitters(void) { float intensity; float lifetime; // Set transparent world m_pFramewerk->GetTransparency().SetWorld(); // Create the smoke emitter intensity = 25+(m_fSmokeWidth*50); lifetime = (m_fSmokeHeight/m_fSmokeSpeed)*1000; TEmitter smoke = CreateEmitter(50,lifetime,Vec3(0,m_fSmokeSpeed, 0)); EntityColor(smoke,Vec4(1,1,1,0.25)); PaintEntity(smoke,LoadMaterial("abstract::softdust.mat")); SetEmitterRadius(smoke,0.3,0.3); // 0.5,0.5 SetEmitterWaver(smoke,0.4); SetEmitterRotationSpeed(smoke,0.5); SetEmitterArea(smoke,Vec3(m_fSmokeWidth)); // 0.5 PositionEntity(smoke,Vec3(getObjectPosition().X,getObjectPosition().Y + (m_fFireHeight*0.5),getObjectPosition().Z),1); // Create the fire emitter intensity = 100+(m_fFireWidth*100); lifetime = (m_fFireHeight/m_fFireSpeed)*1000; TEmitter fire = CreateEmitter(intensity,lifetime,Vec3(0,m_fFireSpeed,0)); EntityColor(fire,Vec4(1,0.5,0,0.3)); PaintEntity(fire,LoadMaterial("abstract::fire.mat")); SetEmitterRadius(fire,0.25,0.15); SetEmitterWaver(fire,0.25); SetEmitterRotationSpeed(fire,0.5); SetEmitterArea(fire,Vec3(m_fFireWidth)); // 0.4 PositionEntity(fire,getObjectPosition(),1); // Create the heat haze emitter TEmitter heat = CreateEmitter(20,1000,Vec3(0,m_fFireSpeed,0)); TMaterial material=LoadMaterial("abstract::heathaze.mat"); m_pFramewerk->GetRenderer().SetHeatHazeTexture(material); PaintEntity(heat,material); SetEmitterRadius(heat,0.50,0.50); SetEmitterWaver(heat,0.5); SetEmitterRotationSpeed(heat,0.1); SetEmitterArea(heat,Vec3(0.25)); PositionEntity(heat,getObjectPosition(),1); // Set main world m_pFramewerk->GetMain().SetWorld(); } You also need to ensure you have the line: blend=alpha in your material file or you won't get the transparency.

Looks great Steve, reminds me a lot of Oblivion. Really nice work!

Yes it does, but it doesn't sound anything like a neural net but more like a close feedback system with some damping built in. Are you sure you were meaning a Neural Net in the first place (i.e. a simulation of the firing patterns of neurons in the brain which normally involves lots of teaching in order for it to learn to function in a desired manner) or more of a analogy to the physical arrangement of neurons?

I don't have any experience with Neural Net techniques for AI although I'm fully aware that various people have experimented with these. The thing is, I don't see any evidence of them being used widely in commercial games which leads me to believe there must be some fundamental issues with the Neural Net approach. Would certainly be interested in seeing what progress you make if you attempt this!

On my system the winmm.lib is in the Platform SDK folder. The latest download (iso image) that I could find is here: Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4 (ISO) I have been using the QueryPerformanceCounter() function in my code for some years and have not experienced any issues but as you suggest there are certainly indications around that there can be problems on multi processor systems with this call.

I accept what your saying, its not that I have anything against Blender because I have never really used it. What I'm having trouble getting my head round is if its 500% more efficient than Leadwerks, has a great workflow and is so ahead of its time then why arn't you using it?

So inspire us all by showing us what you're doing with Blender

Is it a standard set of skeletons used throughout? If so then this is pretty awesome, if not then probably of limited use as they will not be compatable with each other.

This is looking great Gimpy. Coming along nicely!

Welcome aboard tiridor, glad you could join us and thanks for the introduction. It's a great engine and a great forum and community. I'm sure you'll be made very welcome. Good luck with the degree in the meantime and maybe we'll see more of you as time goes on.

I'm still working on my game engine design and tools for my game STRANDED which will be a FPS with some Role Playing elements. Progress has been slower than I'd have hoped recently due to other commitments but it is still moving with AI now being the main focus. The intention is to finish a working game engine based on Leadwerks Engine 2 and complete a valuable learning curve. This will then be used to demo the initial level of the game with about 1 hours worth of game play. Decisions will then be made as to the viability of continuing with the game and or engine.

Yeah, I use raycasting to create the entire graph (excluding dynamic objects which are handled in real time); so static meshes and terrain. This is done once and the data stored for loading with the level.

I use raycasting to determine geometry within my A* solution and it works pretty well. I have used and demoed up to 40 simultaneous character controllers in action and Leadwerks seems to handle this without issue.

Only because that's the way LUA has been implemented in Leadwerks. But that's at odds with the way it is done in most of the gaming industry where scripting is very much used to control the AI and game logic! My aim is to expose all my C++ functionality to LUA so this can be scripted but accept I need to implement that myself.

Beautifully put together and looking very professional. Love the atmosphere and subtle use of music. The mist is very well done as is the level design and the menu system. Top class! Will look forward to seeing more of this.

This is shaping up nicely. Very happy with this and yes ... nothing wrong with pointers. I thought Rick's example was a good one: // Entity being the base class, Mesh deriving from Entity, //and Box deriving from Mesh Entity* box = new Box(); Mesh* box1 = new Box(); Box* box2 = new Box(); // GetPosition is shared by all Entity types so they all have access to it Vec3 v = box->GetPosition(); v = box1->GetPosition(); v = box2->GetPosition(); Entity* mat = new Material(); Material* mat1 = new Material();

So you can reference the color and depth buffers in a material file ... interesting