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3 registered members (AndrewAMD, wandaluciaia, 1 invisible),
798
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Key:
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MapBuilder 2
#418028
02/20/13 13:31
02/20/13 13:31
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Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,150
Budapest
OP
Expert
MapBuilder 2
MapBuilder Editor has arrived to a new stage. Beside keeping it a lightweight editor, a lot of new features are packed into it, extending the old system with support of 3D Game Studio A8 Commercial/pro edition (object shaders, decals, pssm shadows, shade-c 0.91 water shader and shadowmapping, post processing shaders). This way Free and Extra users can experience with the possibilities of Commercial edition, or can choose to limit options to the basic engine functionalities, to utilize only compatible features during level design time. MapBuilder now offers static lightmapping for all the engine editions, and a completely new, vegetation and texture package, to achieve both quality and performance, optimized for 3D Game Studio A8. Level testing also features some weather effects now, to see at design time how performance changes in case of many snow or rain particles. At the download page you can find the version history mentioning all the important improvements done on each update, just shortly: - From version 2.2 MapBuilder is open source, and features improved pssm shadows, shade-c based shadowmapping and water shaders, new shadow and water editors. - Update 2.21 provided some wmb saving/loading improvements. - In version 2.3 the source code is completely reorganized, the terrain editor is reworked, entity modification is more flexible, it has much better entity seeding options, offers two camera modes. - Update 2.32 includes two example projects using the editor source directly covering various ways of level loading, and a 4 level mini shooter game with our favourite wizards. - Version 2.4 features improved shadowmapping, rewritten shader package, improved water, more flexible lightmap usage, fixed nexus and memory handling. To download the latest version visit MapBuilder homepage. Or: MB 2.40 (160 MB) https://www.dropbox.com/s/rlnuxz5k7opj97j/MapBuilder240.zip?dl=0MB 2.41 patch (1 MB) https://www.dropbox.com/s/rge9fmoddmbhngs/MapBuilder241_patch.zip?dl=0
Last edited by sivan; 01/08/15 15:55.
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Re: MapBuilder 2
[Re: sivan]
#441527
05/26/14 10:04
05/26/14 10:04
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Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,150
Budapest
sivan
OP
Expert
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OP
Expert
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,150
Budapest
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2.41 update patch is available at: http://mapbuilder.zxq.net/download.html (1MB) just extract and copy its content to your existing MapBuilder 2.4 folder and let files overwrite. It fixes some file menu and level loading issues by a new keyboard input approach and by an additional file validity protection respectively. The water shaders are also tweaked a bit, thus new water settings .scw files are included. More details in version history.
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Re: MapBuilder 2
[Re: sivan]
#445017
08/26/14 08:07
08/26/14 08:07
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Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,150
Budapest
sivan
OP
Expert
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OP
Expert
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,150
Budapest
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Hi,
I just checked, and quite satisfied with the download quantity. Thank you! Now a 2nd mirror on DropBox is also available for easier access.
No hundreds of new features are here, in the last months I only reorganized/rewrote the whole source because of my new game project that will use MapBuilder as a basis. The much more cleaner code results in smoother level loading/initializations/closing, and allows easy understanding of the source that might be required for customization purposes.
Of course, there are a few things to be added to next update:
- auto terrain multitexturing shader (height and slope dependent textures: underwater, shore, grass, snow, cliff, and 2 hand painted texture), it will get a little editor panel.
- modified default LOD and clipping distances for better performance.
- new water shader options, to limit features to get more performance.
- corrected scrolling in file menu.
- exit from editor file menu now returns to startup menu for easier settings modification without editor restart.
I have no exact plans for a future update, and it will be difficult if I add my strategy game specific stuff to MapBuilder, but the above mentioned things will be out this year.
Last edited by sivan; 08/29/14 09:44.
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Re: MapBuilder 2
[Re: sivan]
#445074
08/27/14 13:19
08/27/14 13:19
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Joined: Jun 2014
Posts: 121
FEL
Member
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Member
Joined: Jun 2014
Posts: 121
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the website is down  is it?
FEL - Lead Game Designer & Core Developer
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Re: MapBuilder 2
[Re: sivan]
#445082
08/27/14 15:55
08/27/14 15:55
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Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 5,210
Ä°stanbul, Turkey
Quad
Senior Expert
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Senior Expert
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 5,210
Ä°stanbul, Turkey
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get a virtual machine from digitalocean $5/month, best (performance+service)/price rate i have ever seen. Though they give you a virtual machine you have to install your stuff yourself.(but as far as i can remember there are preinstalled server images.)
they have datacenters in amsterdam
3333333333
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Re: MapBuilder 2
[Re: Quad]
#445132
08/28/14 06:59
08/28/14 06:59
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Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,150
Budapest
sivan
OP
Expert
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OP
Expert
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,150
Budapest
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thanks, but I do not really want to spend on the site upkeep, and I don't have an own domain name, only a sub-domain, so probably I will make a trial with another free provider... I found a local company whose free service is too limited (advertisements plus a daily 30 visitor limit), but for a monthly 0.83 USD fee they give 1GB without php.
until I solve it, I added direct links to the 1st post.
Last edited by sivan; 08/28/14 07:12.
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Re: MapBuilder 2
[Re: sivan]
#446436
10/15/14 11:53
10/15/14 11:53
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Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,150
Budapest
sivan
OP
Expert
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OP
Expert
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,150
Budapest
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Hi, finally I found and fixed a very disturbing bug, but you have to wait until the next update, so if you experience the following, it is not an engine bug, only my fault: In fullscreen mode after pressing Alt-TAB multiple times results in DX error messages E2005: Can't create DirectX Texture unnamed (more ones), and E-2113929204: 3D Hardware reset failure, and MapBuilder stops, when water shader is used. Rarely it happens in windowed mode too. It can be eliminated by stopping/restarting scwater shader loop on loosing/retaking window focus similarly to shadowmapping. Unfortunately the update frequency is switched to "Conitec time", because of my game project (a historic strategy game), but since it is developed within MapBuilder, new things could come in future...
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Re: MapBuilder 2
[Re: sivan]
#447836
01/08/15 15:58
01/08/15 15:58
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Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,150
Budapest
sivan
OP
Expert
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OP
Expert
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,150
Budapest
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I just made a copy of the home page at http://mapbuilder.uw.hu/ because of the unavailability of the original one, which is also kept. It seems to be more stable.
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Re: MapBuilder 2
[Re: Tempelbauer]
#447852
01/09/15 08:52
01/09/15 08:52
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Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,150
Budapest
sivan
OP
Expert
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OP
Expert
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,150
Budapest
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...and because it is not practical to disturb users with minor updates  The project is really alive, I made a whole script rework as mentioned above, resulting in many bug-fixes (no more on my list), that also enables users to more easily customize the editor, and recently added some other little cool functionalities that makes object placement much faster/better/safer/flexible/easier/smoother... It means there are no huge steps, my main focus is on my hobby i.e. game development, and dealt with RTS game AI mainly. Behind the published version, MapBuilder is slowly extended to be a RTS game editor with an advanced RTS pathfinding system, but I don't know whether it would be published or not, because I can't see it could become a successful commercial product in the current engine development situation (without a Pro licence it is not possible to get enough quality and performance, and it is too expensive). Long term game development also seems to be risky because of it. And I'm also testing UE4 which offers more future potential than 3DGS for a little money... So there will be one more update definitely, and then I will decide whether stay or not.
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