I am retired now and..............

Posted By: sadsack

I am retired now and.............. - 05/21/15 20:48

would like to know if it is worth buying 8A? I have 7A, is their
much improvement over 7A? I am going have time now to play with it.
Thank you
renny
Posted By: 3run

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/21/15 21:49

Hi Renny, nice to see you around again!

About A8, I would strongly recommend you to do not waste your money by buying a8. You better switch to another engine (there are actually bunch of them and you'll be able to start for free), cause Acknex is completely dead now. If you just want to toy around with Acknex, A7 is still good for that, but I really see no reason for you to waste your money and your time by using it, if you are planning to create anything. Just my two cents.

I'm personally switching over to another engine too, probably unity 5. There is no reason to ride a dead horse.

Best regards!
Posted By: Anonymous

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/21/15 21:51

+1^

The claim by jcl is that the A8 compiles 50% faster and renders 50% faster over A7. I'll add a edit with some quotes when I find them. Of course my opinion is buy Unity, however you did not ask that. If you are going to use 3dgs you is probably best to have the latest version of the engine.

from online manual http://www.conitec.net/beta/newfeatures8.htm
Quote:
A7 to A8

Except for physics commands, A8 is 100% compatible to A7, so all A7 projects will nomally still run under A8 without any change. The differences of version A8.00 to A7 are listed below.

A8 Commercial uses the graphics hardware for accelerated bones rendering. This way, A8 can render bones animated actors about 3 times faster than A7 (5 times faster than A6). An example level crowd.c is included for comparing the A7 and A8 rendering speed (A7 Commercial: 14 fps; A8 Commercial: 40 fps).
Due to an improved ABT algorithm, all A8 editions render levels with many entities noticably faster than A7. A8 supports up to 200,000 entities per level (A7: 100,000; A6: 15,000). A8 Pro renders sprites with instancing, and runs the terrain demo about 30% faster with twice the vegetation density.

Due to an improved collision shape management, sprites are now loaded faster and consume less memory.
The hardware accelerated PhysX engine replaced the old ODE physics engine. There are a lot of new physics commands, but the syntax of the old commands is maintained, so it's very easy to move old physics applications to A8. In almost all cases this will result in a better frame rate and greater stability of the physics simulation.
The DirectPlay network library was replaced by the Enet library. This won't affect the network functions, so no script change is required and previous network projects still work as before. The main advantage is that a network server now doesn't use DirectX anymore, which allows a possible future development of Linux based network servers.
A8 supports user-switchable portal regions in WED. This way, rendering speed in indoor levels can be greatly increased even without using a BSP tree.
The publish process was improved. A published A8 acknex.dll now works with all executables generated with the same development system. This way, a single DLL can be used for many EXEs (A7 and before required a separate DLL for any EXE). This also overcomes the problems with some commercial wrapper systems.
An overlay channel in the window outside of the DirectX area is now supported. This way, arbitrary shaped windows are possible under Vista and Windows 7. An example can be found in the digital.c sample.

A8 supports layer particles as a 2D effect, similar to layer entities.
A8 Commercial uses the graphics hardware for bitmap processing and even general mathematics parallel processing.
For maintaining compatibility to old C-Script projects from the A6 age, A8 Extra and above still supports C-Script.

Bare in mind this is mostly opinion.
Mal
Posted By: Superku

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/21/15 22:18

Just open the following link and check if there are any new features you'd miss with A7: http://manual.3dgamestudio.net/beta.htm
For me personally A8 is worth it, esp. since I've bugged jcl a lot to implement many of said features.
Don't forget that bug fixes for A7 stopped with A8, and not all of the bugs fixed have been listed here: http://manual.3dgamestudio.net/bugs.htm

A8 pro is totally overpriced though, so you may want to try and find a used copy if you need A8 specific features or bug fixes.
Posted By: sadsack

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/21/15 23:07

Thank you all, I will look into unity 5. It is to bad, I liked 3D GS. OI was hoping that it would become a very good engine. Thanks again.
renny
Posted By: sadsack

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/21/15 23:29

I looked at unity 5, I will spend some time with it, but that looks like it use C#. I don't know C#. That is life, think I will Play with GS for a while. I not going to buy 8.
Thank you all
renny
Posted By: Anonymous

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/22/15 04:05

If you know lite-c learning C# in the Unity architecture is not so hard. Get out of the easy 3dgs/ lite-c trap, is my advice. No time like now , to get out of the dead engine trap. If jcl would even talk serious about advancing this engine I would say stay. The A7 runs well on old pc, A8 runs on low spec current pc's and surface tablet 3.
Seriously this is just a prototyping tool for people comfortable with lite-c and 3gds. It's is like, 3 directX modules behind, among so many other things.
Take 2d sprite based games, my current project, or networking, my no killed project, Unity has basic functionally out the box and expanded with many plugins and kits. 3dgs, leaves you having to be a master coder of the most simple langue out there.
Take the 3dgs polygon flag, it makes a collision based on the poly shape of the model. With highly complex models it's a frame killer. Unity lets you scale down the poly mesh collidier to a simpler shape that still fits the poly outline of the model.
Hell you if you are a highly educated computer programmer, then there is hope in 3dgs, but then learning C# and using Unity is clearly a better choice.
3dgs Fanboy's need to stop telling people this engine is ok. It's is not. It is dead and abandoned by it's deceptive developer. It is past aged it is dust.

I am
Mal
Posted By: JerahYalyn

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/22/15 05:25

I'm just going to be honest but 3DGS ain't worth buying. The engine is pretty much outdated and not much change have been introduced since the last version or never find any use of it. I switch my project to Unity after finding allot of difficulty in starting my prototype of a prototype game. Unity also support JS and Boo but C# is common for Unity users and learning C# is just like learning VB which will take you less than an hour to learn and start programming with it. And you don't have to pay a cent for the full feature with multiple platform support.
Posted By: sadsack

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/22/15 12:44

I been using Vb for many years, I will look at unity 5 again.
Thank you all
renny
Posted By: WretchedSid

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/22/15 14:11

If you are retired anyway and have the time, and your signature is correct... For your own sake, look at Unity.
Posted By: sadsack

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/23/15 16:58

I try to download unity 5 it yesterday, it was 1.2g, 22 hours to download it.
I think that is out for right now.
renny

Edit:
I did order a book on C#.
Posted By: 3run

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/23/15 21:04

Originally Posted By: sadsack
I try to download unity 5 it yesterday, it was 1.2g, 22 hours to download it.
I think that is out for right now.
renny

Edit:
I did order a book on C#.
Check out those online tutorials on the unity offical page, they are very informative too! You can also find them on youtube.

Greets!
Posted By: FBL

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/24/15 07:21

There are plenty of "Getting Started..." books for Unity. Usually they include a quick rundown of C# or "Javacript" as well.

I bought this one and it worked fine for understanding how Unity works.
http://www.amazon.de/Development-Essenti...rds=unity+packt
(it is for Unity 3.x and already a few years old though, you should try to find a newer one, at least 4.6 or if already available 5.x)

Once you got the basics running, it will be easy to learn more.

(it's a shame to advertise for another engine on this forum... frown but anything else would be similar to denying facts)
Posted By: 3run

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/24/15 08:36

Originally Posted By: Firoball
(it's a shame to advertise for another engine on this forum... frown but anything else would be similar to denying facts)
I felt exactly the same while writing all of my posts above frown
Posted By: Reconnoiter

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/24/15 10:11

maybe a new makeover image for GS3d?: advising people which other engine to use grin
Posted By: Anonymous

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/24/15 13:39

Book I'm looking into myself http://www.manning.com/hocking/
"Learn C# with Unity game development" - Tagline.
Found through a google search and pulled from a Unity forum post. It's in early access and do for full publishing soon.
NOTE- The author states the book is for experienced programmers migrating to Unity. I would say a good understanding of lite-c and 3dgs logic will be sufficient.
Posted By: sadsack

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/25/15 13:49

Well, let me say I enjoyed working with 3DGS. I have lightwave 9, but still used
3DGS med and wed a lot. I put all the 3DGS programs into my vault, if they blow life back into 3DGS I will be ready to go from their. I went down to the coffee shop where they have DSL and download Unity 5. Been looking at all the tut. I like what I see. Next week I am going dive into Unity and see how I like it. I am going buy a new computer for just Unity. I want to thank you all for your help.All the years that I been waiting where I can spend a lot of time working on games with 3DGS, now I will be using unity. Life is funny
renny

P.S. I will be looking at the books.
Posted By: DLively

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/25/15 19:54

I've barely scraped the surface of unity.. and I love it...... Sorry Guys but I think im out of here.... I'll check out the update when or if it happens and see whats new.. but I hightly doubt that it will compare to unity...

EDIT: I'll be back to help, and whatnot when I can though laugh
Posted By: Reconnoiter

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/26/15 11:04

Originally Posted By: DLively
I've barely scraped the surface of unity.. and I love it...... Sorry Guys but I think im out of here....
,



But to be serious, all the best.
Posted By: sivan

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/26/15 13:03

traitors! you should choose unreal engine 4! grin

by the way once I will also test unity5, after I missed unity4
Posted By: sadsack

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/26/15 13:06

I downloaded manning book last night. I can't today, but tomorrow I am going to start working with unity 5.
Posted By: Anonymous

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/26/15 13:38

Let us know how your experience goes and how the book is, please.
Posted By: sadsack

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/26/15 14:41

I will do that
Posted By: sadsack

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/27/15 14:02

Well has I said I would let you know what is going on. The book I download for unity 5 is ok, the coding so far is very easy, a lot like basic. The program unity5 it self going to some time to get use to. If you want to, you can download my first test of the system.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/9q858dxd6xa7d9w/Test_FPS.rar

renny
Posted By: Anonymous

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/27/15 14:44

Thanks for the update. I think it's awesome that you can now say Unity programming is easy. It appears more intimating then it actually is?
Posted By: sadsack

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/27/15 15:35

The program it self is very deference from what i am going use to. C# is very easy. Did that test run on your computer?
Posted By: JerahYalyn

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/28/15 05:16

Originally Posted By: sadsack
The program it self is very deference from what i am going use to. C# is very easy. Did that test run on your computer?

I got dizzy of the camera spinning around to fast. @_@ Multiply your vectors with deltatime maybe.
Posted By: sadsack

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/28/15 15:25

I have very old computer, it does not go that fast for me. I am only running a 128 V-card. I am glad to see that is works on a nother computer. I am working on getting the mouse to run all the axis. Then I am going to start to move around in my world. I have some newer computers coming, the should be here in a few weeks.
renny
Posted By: JerahYalyn

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/29/15 05:19

Good to hear that. You will need a better workspace when learning Game programming. You can also visit their forum if you have some questions.
Posted By: sadsack

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 05/29/15 13:28

Hi,
So far I had no need to go to there forum. I made a nice world
in 3D world studio, so now I can run around in a nice textured world. I am working on a gun and bullet. I hope to have that shooting today. I all so put 3D game studio on a nother computer. I am working on a Kite making program in 3D game studio. So I been very busy, my new computer should be here on Monday. My Lightwave 9.2 works good for unity 5, it has an exporter format the unity takes. so know middle conversion.
renny
Posted By: sadsack

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 06/09/15 23:36

I like unity 5, it has a lot going for it.
renny
Posted By: Reconnoiter

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 06/10/15 09:43

I like gamestudio even though it has alot dying of it grin (sry could not resist)
Thank you for sharing your experiences. What do you think of Unity's (code/tutorial etc.) documentation?
Posted By: sadsack

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 06/23/15 13:15

the code C# is just like what you are using now. Their is a lot tut to use plus a hand full of books. The manual is just like most manual shity. It has many
good things, you have many formats to compile. It is free with all the bells and noise maker that the one that you buy. Very nice setup, if you make over $5000, than you have to pay some, but very little.
renny

Ps I still us 3DGS for some projects.
Posted By: Reconnoiter

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 06/25/15 10:25

Originally Posted By: sadsack
The manual is just like most manual shity.
, worse or better than the gs3d one?
Posted By: sadsack

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 06/26/15 23:26

about the same
Posted By: Reconnoiter

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 06/28/15 15:22

ty
Posted By: sadsack

Re: I am retired now and.............. - 07/05/15 19:17

Hi All,
Have not had much time to work with Unity, Been making models and animations
for some people. But over the week end, I did get some time. Every thing in the level was made in Unity 5, but for the trees ,tent and grass hut. It took about a hour to make this.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kxoy0mpel2nhpzd

renny
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