A few Questions about Leadwerks Game Engine

[Hugo54x]

Hello Community,

 

I am new here an have a few Questions about the Game Engine:

 

-Can you make randomly generated Worlds?

-How big can the Worlds be? / Can I put 2 or more World Maps (4096x4096) together to get an bigger Map?

-Is the Standart Edition faster as the Indie Edition for example by loading assets or running the game?

-Are there any other Programs I must think of to buy when I use the Engine, for example to model something or make textures?

-Is there an place where I can download free sounds and pictures without copyright stuff ?

-Is there an way to make diffrent modes lik PvP , PvE, Survival...?

-Is there an way to create server software from your own game or some kind of multiplayer?

 

I hope you enjoy my bad english and anwser me =)

[Rick]

I can try to answer some.

 

- You can load anything at run-time so you can create randomly generated worlds. That's more on your ability to make such a world make sense.

 

- You can have multiple LE "Worlds" at the same time. If you are talking about LE terrain though I believe you can only have 1 of those. There are a lot of obstacles to overcome with such an idea. There is no loading assets on another thread, but loading already loaded assets are basically instant so you can perload your models and then over multiple frames make instances of those models and place them where you want.

 

- Standard edition allows C++ which will be faster but I don't think we are talking massive speed increases that most of us indie people will hit up against. The nice thing is that the C++ version gives you more freedom to add other C++ libraries, which there are many.

 

- I believe there is a Blender exporter for models so if you have used that before then no other software really needed.

 

- No clue on sounds

 

- You can make any mode of game you want, but that's on you to code that.

 

- No magic bullet here. If you are a C++ programmer I recommend RakNet as it's 100% free and open source now and I personally like working with it. You would use that to make your own server app (console most likely as including LE for the server app requires your server to have a gfx card that is compatible and most servers don't and really shouldn't require this). Include it in your LE client app and make them talk. Multiplayer is a huge deal though. It can and often gets very complex.

[Josh]

Hello Community,

 

I am new here an have a few Questions about the Game Engine:

 

-Can you make randomly generated Worlds?

-How big can the Worlds be? / Can I put 2 or more World Maps (4096x4096) together to get an bigger Map?

-Is the Standart Edition faster as the Indie Edition for example by loading assets or running the game?

-Are there any other Programs I must think of to buy when I use the Engine, for example to model something or make textures?

-Is there an place where I can download free sounds and pictures without copyright stuff ?

-Is there an way to make diffrent modes lik PvP , PvE, Survival...?

-Is there an way to create server software from your own game or some kind of multiplayer?

 

I hope you enjoy my bad english and anwser me =)

The Leadwerks Workshop has a lot of free content to use in your games:

http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse/?appid=251810&browsesort=trend&section=readytouseitems

[gamedeviancy]

- No magic bullet here. If you are a C++ programmer I recommend RakNet as it's 100% free and open source now and I personally like working with it. You would use that to make your own server app (console most likely as including LE for the server app requires your server to have a gfx card that is compatible and most servers don't and really shouldn't require this). Include it in your LE client app and make them talk. Multiplayer is a huge deal though. It can and often gets very complex.

 

That isn't '100%' free, by the way, although its close.... Not close enough for me to appreciate though. Since Leadwerks is tied into Steam though, why not use the Steam API for networking solutions? The server services from Valve are pretty awesome.

https://partner.steamgames.com/documentation/api

[gamecreator]

I'm always happy to brag about my small contribution to the Steam networking cause.

http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/topic/9663-introduction-to-steam-code-in-leadwerks/

 

Regarding sounds, there are various sites online but I've yet to find a single good one with everything. However, this one is pretty neat for individual sounds (and music and art), with good licenses:

http://opengameart.org/art-search-advanced?keys=&field_art_type_tid%5B%5D=13

 

Finally, I'm not sure how much experience you have creating games already but if you're starting out, I think it's important to emphasize to start small. You can't create an MMO on your first day. In fact, most single-player games are extremely difficult and time-consuming to create.

[Rick]

RakNet was bought out by Oculus VR. I'm pretty sure it's free now.

[Ma-Shell]

Since Leadwerks is tied into Steam though, why not use the Steam API for networking solutions? The server services from Valve are pretty awesome.

https://partner.steamgames.com/documentation/api

 

While Leadwerks itself is tied to Steam, that doesn't mean, your creation has to be tied to Steam as well. So, if you don't want to tie your game to Steam, that would be a reason to not use the Steam API.

[Josh]

At this point I am not seeing any killer feature in Steam networking that would want me to tie networking to Steam. We'll probably set up our own server for matchmaking, as well as provide the tools to create your own, if you wish.

[AnthonyPython]

here is a great place to get sound/music as well, http://soundimage.org

it's free to use even commercially, just make sure you credit them correctly and that is it

[gamecreator]

At this point I am not seeing any killer feature in Steam networking that would want me to tie networking to Steam. We'll probably set up our own server for matchmaking, as well as provide the tools to create your own, if you wish.

It's great to hear that networking will be independent of Steam, for several reasons. That said, I do love being able to invite a Steam friend to a lobby or game.

[Genebris]

At this point I am not seeing any killer feature in Steam networking that would want me to tie networking to Steam. We'll probably set up our own server for matchmaking, as well as provide the tools to create your own, if you wish.

Does this mean you can make a multiplayer game entierly on Steamworks and it will work without even enabling Steam client (and ofc without getting game greenlit)? Doesn't steam need to recognise your game at least as Spacewar?

[AnthonyPython]

Does this mean you can make a multiplayer game entierly on Steamworks and it will work without even enabling Steam client (and ofc without getting game greenlit)? Doesn't steam need to recognise your game at least as Spacewar?

 

you need a real appid on steam to be able to use multiplayer with steamworks and to use other steamwork features

[Genebris]

you need a real appid on steam to be able to use multiplayer with steamworks and to use other steamwork features

Ok, what does default ID allow you to do then?

[AnthonyPython]

It's great to hear that networking will be independent of Steam, for several reasons. That said, I do love being able to invite a Steam friend to a lobby or game.

 

Agree having it Independent is a wonderful thing to have, but also allowing the usage of joining a player on to the server within steam is a great feature to have as well.

 

Ok, what does default ID allow you to do then?

 

just be able to use the steam overlay, i love watching and reading all the steamwork documentation, any one else love to do this (Inventory system released seems awesome btw)

[Genebris]

http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/topic/9663-introduction-to-steam-code-in-leadwerks/

It seems like in this thread gamecreator showed how to transfer coordinates between players via steamworks and he used default AppID. Am I missing something or does this mean you can make fully working multiplayer with Spacewar ID?

[AnthonyPython]

http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/topic/9663-introduction-to-steam-code-in-leadwerks/

It seems like in this thread gamecreator showed how to transfer coordinates between players via steamworks and he used default AppID. Am I missing something or does this mean you can make fully working multiplayer with Spacewar ID?

 

I am sure you may be able to but I don't own the c++ DLC right now, just working with Lua only

[shadmar]

Music :

 

http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/collections.php CC3.0 (great stuff, free if attributed for any usage)

http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/topic/10481-free-music-resource/page__hl__music (Eric)

[Genebris]

-Can you make randomly generated Worlds?

-How big can the Worlds be? / Can I put 2 or more World Maps (4096x4096) together to get an bigger Map?

You can make randomly generated levels, but you can't involve terrain into this as there are currently no methods to edit terrain at runtime (correct me if i'm wrong please). But you can also create a terrain in the editor and dynamically put objects onto it at runtime.

The world size isn't limited, but terrain size is limited by 4000x4000 and you can't have more than 1 terrain.

I wouldn't try making huge open worlds like Skyrim on Leadwerks. At least not with Lua only.

 

-Are there any other Programs I must think of to buy when I use the Engine, for example to model something or make textures?

For modelling you can use Blender which is free and has everything you could ever need. But you will need image editor such as Photoshop to work with textures.

For exporting from blender use blender exporter. It's more convenient than exporting FBX.

[Guppy]

Gimp and krita are free alternatives to Photoshop for the work you would need to do for textures

[YouGroove]

I like a lot and use Krita, a really good one, and i prefer it's window interface than Gimp windows.

[AnthonyPython]

I like a lot and use Krita, a really good one, and i prefer it's window interface than Gimp windows.

 

oh I so prefer krita over Gimp any day not only the photoshop stylish interface but it has a seamless texture option which is awesome, and more

[Guppy]

oh I so prefer krita over Gimp any day not only the photoshop stylish interface but it has a seamless texture option which is awesome, and more

 

Both are fine editors but I find the reason you chose one over the other a bit whimsical - your prerogative of course

 

But in gimp Window -> single window mode

And depending on what you mean with the seamless texture gimp has auto seamless ( only really work with textures with no real pattern to them ) and offset x,y for manually making your textures seamless

[AnthonyPython]

Both are fine editors but I find the reason you chose one over the other a bit whimsical - your prerogative of course

 

But in gimp Window -> single window mode

And depending on what you mean with the seamless texture gimp has auto seamless ( only really work with textures with no real pattern to them ) and offset x,y for manually making your textures seamless

 

this is why krita has the upperhand since it can use textures with a real pattern and does just fine, it wraps the texture around and if you go outside of it, it wraps it around with the rest of texture to be seamless, it's much like

Genetica , and photoshop together.