http://galaxyempire.com Conquer The Universe In 3D Galaxy Empire Galaxy Empire Evo RSS Parser 60 http://galaxyempire.com/images/evo/minilogo.gif http://galaxyempire.com 94 15 Galaxy Empire Homepage en-us gaming@digitalbrilliance.com 2012-05-19T13:33:00-04:00 hourly 1 2012-05-19T13:33:00-04:00 http://galaxyempire.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=178#1058 A few updates are in the works

* AABB - axis-aligned bounding boxes, this has been fully added as a regular frame rate update and is now used for frustum culling and collision detection. This also affects several other parts of the game since the AABB will replace the positioning of several attachment type events (ex. fuse spawn position).
* Groups - models can now be a group. This means you can now export a model from a 3D program in parts and group it as a single object and whatever you script for it will act on the the entire group (ex. set to ground height). The reason for this feature is to facilitate frustum culling, IE faster rendering.
* Skin animations - a large increase in support for skin animations has been added. Every animation supported for a regular character has been added for crouching and holding a weapon.
]]> 1058@http://galaxyempire.com Dev Blog #2 2012-05-16T05:56:51-04:00 http://galaxyempire.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=177#1057 This is going to be the beginning of the developer's blog on what is happening in the game. Since the release of 1.011 I have been getting various feedback from here and also on Facebook. One thing you may have noticed today is the layout change on the website. I have been doing a bit of work trying to get some interest in the game. First off is that you can now 'like' this game from the left side bar for Facebook. Another is that there is a new donation link that will hopefully help pay for this website and my time working on the game engine. So if you would like to help get the game to completion please donate.

Back to the game, since the release of 1.011, there has been a lot of additions and fixes to the code base. One of the changes has been additional features in the built-in map editor. This includes...
* Snap to object edge - this aligns one object to another object's axis aligned bounding box edge, this will make object fit snugly against another without having to tweak it into position
* Snap to object center - this will make an object center on the nearest side of the nearest object within the scene
* The 'Load', 'Save' and 'Save As' features are fully functional in the map editor now. This means you can edit any map already in the game and then resave it anywhere you want. If you create a new scene you will still need to manually add it to the scene list since that isn't handled yet.

Also, several new models have been added courtesy of Fur Ball, this includes an entire new set of corridors and rooms for building base interiors. He has also made a new console for the furniture additions. The first set I textured to match the new basic city model, more to come later.

Another new feature just completed yesterday is the support for animated textures. The way it is handled is that it uses texture atlases (aka sprite sheets). A single texture is used that has multiple animation frames in it. To control the animation you simply create an INI file with the same name as the texture name. This pushes the texture support up to 17 different types as well. Next will probably be support for ambient occlusion textures (which the STALKER textures already support).

Character meshes now support a glow, specular and bump map. This adds an additional level of realism to the player's model. Hair now shines like it should and you can see the individual bumps in the skin.

The basic city model has been fully retextured. The original model was lost in a HD crash over a year ago so it had to be rebuilt from the ground up. All I had left to work with was the .x model so it got reconverted, split apart, leveled out between sections and retextured. This will make it a lot easier to use in the editor for custom maps since the different parts are now evenly placed and scaled. It is also now nearly five times larger than the original. I left the old version in for those who wish to use it.

Lighting got a change as well, it now flashes from a random direction instead of from the main light's source position. It is still the main light but it simply moves it to a new position while the flash is in progress.

The original model and scene object code has been converted over to use dynamic memory allocation. This will allow the use of a massive number of models in the game while conserving memory for only what it needs. Also some core file I/O routines have been switched to dynamic memory layout (some code was 11+ years old), by the time I had completed the change over I had shaved off over 400 megs of memory usage.

I am also working on dropping the need for storing names and descriptions in a DLL. Soon you will be able to have that in the INI file which will make it trivial to edit them, plus it will make it real easy for me to write scripters for such things as equipment without having to add a DLL entry for them. The script parser has already been upgraded to import text as is if it is surrounded by double quotes (")

Speaking of scripted equipment, many new pieces where added. I decided to go with 100 levels of equipment. This may change in a future update but that is how it is at the moment.
]]> 1057@http://galaxyempire.com Dev Blog #1 2012-04-28T19:56:13-04:00 http://galaxyempire.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=176#1056 1056@http://galaxyempire.com New to GE 2012-04-28T09:32:39-04:00 http://galaxyempire.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=146#1053 1053@http://galaxyempire.com Wanting to join the team, post here... 2012-04-27T13:09:02-04:00 http://galaxyempire.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=175#1051 1051@http://galaxyempire.com Reporting bugs 2012-04-26T11:15:45-04:00 http://galaxyempire.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=173#1050 1050@http://galaxyempire.com Galaxy Empire 1.011 Alpha Version Released 2012-04-24T20:32:48-04:00 http://galaxyempire.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=167#1047 1047@http://galaxyempire.com Galaxy Empire - Version 1.010 Public Alpha Release 2012-04-11T16:57:21-04:00 http://galaxyempire.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=172#1044
Many new additions have been put into the game since the last release in November. Hopefully it will be in a stable enough state to put out a new version soon. The auto-updater needs a bit of an upgrade so it won't happen until then.

So if you want to help, there are many areas that could use it...

Writing - need someone who is decent at making a coherent story
Modders - somebody who knows how to script INI files, mainly for adding scene content
Modelers - for in-game models, mostly interiors and furniture
Bug testers - always need someone to run through the game and list out flaws and things that need improvement

Also if your want, you are free to join us on Teamspeak at 69.65.29.30:14534]]> 1044@http://galaxyempire.com Lack of forum activity 2012-03-18T15:14:42-04:00 http://galaxyempire.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=148#1026 * Character animation system using programmable animations, this was the last major piece of the FPS part of the game
* More remapped normal maps for various ships and solar objects
* Random music player added to audio system
* Detail bump mapping support added, now detail maps look alot more realistic, added to single and triple maps
* Attenuation added to clone shader
* New bump mapping applied to clone shader
* Normal with adjacency added to clone code, default is on (smooths model shading), regular models it defaults to off
* All shaders rewriten to use proper attenuation
* Multiple bug fixes throughout the program]]> 1026@http://galaxyempire.com LS's current development 2011-12-12T07:05:51-04:00 http://galaxyempire.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=170#1025 Storyline writers

Rigged chars must have a minimum of these anims in the DirectX .x format
* idle
* walk
* run
* strafe left
* strafe right
* crouch idle
* crouch walk
* jump

Storyline writers are needed for making the SP storyline from the timeline of the game. The timeline is flexible but must stay coherent. The current timeline has been checked to make sure cause = effect but I'm willing to expand it to include new items. See the following link for the timeline...

http://wiki.galaxyempire.com/index.php?title=History_Of_Galaxy_Empire_III]]> 1025@http://galaxyempire.com Looking for... 2011-12-12T06:32:43-04:00