license, insurance, functions

[tvsori]

Hello,

 

I would like to ask several questions:

- What kind of license will I receive ? For Leadwerks 2 I saw 1 license = 1 game. How about Leadwerks 3 ?

 

- Can I create world/objects/shaders and so at runtime (not by editor!) ?

 

- In my project I have to output dynamic text onto 3d surfaces and operate with it in 3d space. Is it possible with Leadwerks 3 and how (for example how to find position of 1 letter on sphere and change it) ?

 

- I have experience with Shiva - perfect cross platform, perfect forum, so-so renderer, but so sad final. I don't want to get into similar. How Leadwerks could protect me from this ? Publish source code in emergency ?

[Josh]

Hello,

 

I would like to ask several questions:

- What kind of license will I receive ? For Leadwerks 2 I saw 1 license = 1 game. How about Leadwerks 3 ?

Both licenses are single-user licenses, meaning you can create as many games as you want, and you don't owe us royalties or anything.

 

- Can I create world/objects/shaders and so at runtime (not by editor!) ?

I'm not sure what you are asking about specifically, but the command set is pretty flexible. Brushes are not documented because creating those in code would be pretty tedious.

 

- In my project I have to output dynamic text onto 3d surfaces and operate with it in 3d space. Is it possible with Leadwerks 3 and how (for example how to find position of 1 letter on sphere and change it) ?

There's built-in functionality for something called a buffer, which is a set of textures you can render to, and draw text to. These are going to be officially documented and exposed soon.

 

- I have experience with Shiva - perfect cross platform, perfect forum, so-so renderer, but so sad final. I don't want to get into similar. How Leadwerks could protect me from this ? Publish source code in emergency ?

The situation with Shiva is unfortunate. Supporting a lot of different platforms is difficult if they aren't pulling in money, and I think that hurt them a lot. We just try to focus on what we think are the most important platforms.

 

Leadwerks has been around for a long time, and our sales today are doing better than at any time in the company's history. Plus, anyone on the forum can tell you I am extremely stubborn.

[tvsori]

What I mean for runtime creation is:

I need to construct vertexes, textures, lights & shaders by myself at runtime and get it rendered.

 

As for dynamic text - I suspected you should have buffer functionality. But how to calculate texture coordinate from mouse coordinates ?

 

Actually I downloaded engine & load Darkness awaits. But somehow right (tree?) toolbox disappeared and I can't get it back - no menu item. How to display right panel ?

 

Probably last question I should post to Programming forum...

[Josh]

What I mean for runtime creation is:

I need to construct vertexes, textures, lights & shaders by myself at runtime and get it rendered.

That doesn't sound like it would be a problem.

 

As for dynamic text - I suspected you should have buffer functionality. But how to calculate texture coordinate from mouse coordinates ?

You can do a pick on the surface using Camera::Pick with the mouse coordinates. From there, you'll have to do the math to calculate texture coordinates from the mouse position. If you are doing something like a flat panel you can probably simplify that quite a bit. This sounds like a general 3D math problem. You can get the picked triangle, and the positions and texcoords of the attached vertices with the Surface command set, so it is possible.

 

Actually I downloaded engine & load Darkness awaits. But somehow right (tree?) toolbox disappeared and I can't get it back - no menu item. How to display right panel ?

Not sure what you mean here. The right-hand panel can be clicked on to hide or show it, along the edge by the viewports. Can you post a screenshot?

[tvsori]

Thank you, show/hide works, but a little bit strange (I use iMac with OSX 10.8.3):

Border has several pixels width and when I click border closer to viewport (approximately 1/3 of full width) it hides panel, but 2/3 doesn't make sense. Also to open panel again it works only on veeery small range (when cursor looks like <-> for window resizing). So it's quite complicated to find point to click...

 

I will evaluate engine and all other questions of probably bugs will post to appropriate forums.

 

Thank you

[Josh]

Sure, just let us know if you have any other questions.

[Pancakes]

 

Leadwerks has been around for a long time, and our sales today are doing better than at any time in the company's history. Plus, anyone on the forum can tell you I am extremely stubborn.

 

oh. gosh. yes.

 

Look tvsori I was a refugee from Blade3d a few years back. I was in the same boat as you. Blade3d had a genius level editor, with at the time they went out of business, a pretty meh renderer.I don't regret coming to Leadwerks. The editor and workflow feel refreshingly light compared to some others and at the same time, once the renderer has regained it's deferrered proweess it will also have a incredibly powerful rendering capability.

 

Leadwerks isn't perfect either as no game engine is perfect not even CryEngine or UDK. But what I would argue about Leadwerks is, is that it is on the most effectual trajectory of any game engine available right now from a design, usability, and technological standpoint. Something marvelous is brewing up at the nexus of flowgraphs, deferred rendering, CSG editing, artist friendly importing, mobile, and all that other programmer stuff =)

 

The community is pretty helpful to. We have some pretty hardcore tutorial wizards always teaching us new things as well as the mysterious user known only as "shadmar". If you stick around you'll learn to love him right away for all his shader contributions as well as other quality of life enhancements he has regularly donated to us all.

 

Anyway, hope that helps.