New Builder, Excited Options

[Annihilatorza]

Hey Max, Flayra

After watching the video and been gobbed smacked I can’t wait to get my hands on your builder, it looks simple to use but very powerful.

A proper WYSIWYG editor would be awesome, unlike some of the other editors out there.
If anyone here has used the radiant will know what I mean, it’s the most cumbersome editor I have ever used.
It's like it was designed to be slow and unwieldy.

Once of the things I hated doing was compiling a map for the lighting and 95 % through and it stop's due to a leak.
How will you guys handle leaks and the like ?
If it’s possible could you give us a guess on when we can see the NSTR ?
I think the editor should be called Infestation.

I think NS2 is going to scare the crap out us with its proper lighting effects cant wait to play skulk hiding in the shadows preying on some hapless Marine
We still play NS 1 at our lans here
Keep the great work guys.


Annihilator

[Flayra]

I'm glad you're pumped for the game and tools.

Just fyi though, when Max talks about the "builder", he's not talking about our level editor. He's referring to a system tray application that watches when source files change and automatically converts them to the proper game formats. For instance, if you are painting a wall texture in Photoshop and save it, it would then automatically convert it to our in-game texture format and put it in the proper place in the NS2 directory. If NS2 was running at the time, it would then hot-load the texture so you saw your changes in-game immediately.

To further confuse things, when Cory and I talk about the "builder bot", we're talking about a little AI robot that the marine commander controls to build and repair structures.

[TychoCelchuuu]

To further confuse things, when Flayra says "Cory," he's talking about SquealLikeAPig, and when he says "Photoshop" he really means "whatever 2d program you use," and when he says "proper game formats" he actually means "silly file formats that nobody has ever heard of."

[marks]

system tray application that watches when source files change and automatically converts them to the proper game formats. For instance, if you are painting a wall texture in Photoshop and save it, it would then automatically convert it to our in-game texture format and put it in the proper place in the NS2 directory. If NS2 was running at the time, it would then hot-load the texture so you saw your changes in-game immediately.

That is just freaking hot. Why can't more developers do things the smart way?!

[Annihilatorza]

Wow the hot loading sounds awesome, that must make life a lot eaiser, than making the texture, then exporting it, copying to the right location, load it into the game only to find it sucks

The builder bot sounds like a real plan, sometimes while comanding I find I have to jump out of the chair to fix things since my whole team is unable\unwilling to build the stuff I need in base, so an AI bot while be very usefull.

Now I really cant wait for the NS2TR

[Drown]

This is pretty fantastic news; as a novice level designer I am greatly anticipating playing around with the new engine and tools.

Also, the 'cute' factor on the little marine bot sounds great.. maybe not tooo cute, but somewhere between the portal turret and a gorge.

[Annihilatorza]

Just a quick question the lighting is fully dynamic ?
Like if a fan is spinning and I broke it or turned it off it will the lighting change with the state of the fan ?

[rsd]

Yep, it's demonstrated in the engine video recently released, with the shutters opening and closing.

Automatically building art assets is going to make life so easy for your artists. That coupled with hot-loading is awesome. Really cool stuff. I'm a software developer and big into automated building and testing, so I totally understand the benefits. Working on stuff is a pleasure when the mundane, time-consuming tasks are taken care of in the background.

Instant preview in-game without any action required is brilliant.

[Triggerman]

God the hot-loading and automatic conversion sounds so good.
Awesome catering for the mappers/modders, that's for sure!

[Annihilatorza]

Its jsut getting better and better

Cannot wait to get my hands on the tools

[Reeke]

That sounds great, will make life so much more streamlined for us modellers and texture artists

[Annihilatorza]

Hi Flayra/Max

I was wondering what kind of building limits we are looking at in the engine itself when it comes to rounded pipes and the like, also are you using an unreal style system with premade meshes or are you going the other of building everything out of polygons ?

I cannot wait to get my hands on it, im truly excited about it !!!