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Geek Culture / General Product Opinions Please

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Lost in Thought
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Location: U.S.A. : Douglas, Georgia
Posted: 22nd Jan 2007 17:39 Edited at: 2nd Feb 2007 11:09
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I have just compiled my yearly software wishlist from TGC. Does anyone have anything they think may be of interest to me that I may have looked over. Or anyone have any problems with anything on the list I should know about. It will be about 2 weeks before I order. All input is welcome and appreciated. Thank you.

Ric's GUI Studio $80 appx (2 copies)
Wolf's Enhanced Animations (unknown cost & date)
Dark Shader $34.99
DarkGDK .NET (Freeware License) $54
Dark Lights $25.00
Dark AI $44.99
DarkMATTER 3 $39.95
SkyMATTER 1-5 Pack $34.99
Animated Sprite Pack (DBPro) $19.99
Play Basic $34.95
TextureMax DBPro DLL $20.00
Extends Expansion Pack $31.99
Styx $30.00
Upgrade to 3DWS Builder $40
Plant Life, All 4 Plant Life packs, Tree Magik G3, Tree Magik Pack $106.23

Total (excluding shipping or Tax) $625 appx

This will more than likely be my last year making a large purchase from TGC as I will own about everything they have.

I have already (and most of the free plugins around I love plugins):
Dark Physics (thx to batvink)
LUA (Unity)
3D World Studio Standard (thx to x1b)
FPS Creator V1
FPS Creator EA
DarkMATTER 1 Electronic
ExGen
Cloth and Particles Pack
DarkBASIC Professional Enhancements Expansion Pack
EZrotate Enhanced
DarkBASIC Electronic w/ enhancements
SoundMATTER Pack 1
SoundMATTER Pack 2
SoundMATTER Pack 3
SoundMATTER Pack 4
Sound Essentials Volume 1
Synergy IDE (Thx to x1b and mega)
Action3D
CSM Importer
Cartography Shop
Texture Maker
DarkMATTER 1
DarkMATTER 2
Blue GUI 2
NGC 4.02
3D Canvas Pro
DarkBASIC Professional

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Miguel Melo
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Posted: 22nd Jan 2007 18:09
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Quote: "The whole basis for this is to port the open source engine over to the DGDK.net and possibly the DGDK itself"


This is a cool idea LiT - nice one!

In any case... why do you buy things in batch anyway? It's not like you save on combined postage for download items.

I have vague plans for World Domination
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Ron Erickson
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Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Posted: 22nd Jan 2007 18:26
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I will be releasing "Enhanced Animations" through TGC soon. It allows limb based assignment of animations and blended trasitions from one action to another. It also has the ability to rotate limbs globaly, which should help with ragdoll systems.
Here is the WIP thread:
http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=90459&b=8

I was hoping to have it realeased this month. Now it looks like it will happen in February.

EZrotate! TextureMax! Enhanced Animations! (coming soon....) 3D Character Maker! (coming soon....)
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Lost in Thought
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Posted: 22nd Jan 2007 18:34 Edited at: 22nd Jan 2007 18:35
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Quote: "why do you buy things in batch anyway?"
I only buy computer software once a year. I allocate so much money for different things at different times of year. 1st to mid Feb is my software money.

Quote: "I will be releasing "Enhanced Animations" through TGC soon."
Awesome. If I can buy it or pre-order it in the next couple of weeks then I will get it. If not then it will be next Feb. I had forgotten you were working on it. Thats one of the reasons I made this thread. Added to my list. Thx man

Any idea on the cost of the animations plugin?

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Ron Erickson
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Posted: 22nd Jan 2007 18:50
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Quote: "Any idea on the cost of the animations plugin?"


I am guessing $25 to $30.
I doubt there will be any kind of pre-order for it. Hopefully it will be done it time for you!

EZrotate! TextureMax! Enhanced Animations! (coming soon....) 3D Character Maker! (coming soon....)
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Lost in Thought
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Posted: 23rd Jan 2007 02:26
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Just removed Character shop from the list after reading your thread Wolf. The animation plugin will do what I need better I think.

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Chily Dog
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Posted: 23rd Jan 2007 04:59
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Looks like some good buys, I have heard good things especially about Dark A.I.

Now that we are on topic to something I have been meaning to ask:
I am considering one the modeling and animation programs from TGC; what do you guys thing of 3D canvas vs. Game Space? Is Game Space worth the extra money in your opinion?
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Lost in Thought
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Posted: 23rd Jan 2007 06:05 Edited at: 23rd Jan 2007 06:08
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I have purchased 3D Canvas Pro and it is pretty useful for adding simple animations to objects and making simple objects. I haven't used it for more than that though as I am not a modeller. All I do is create placeholder media to show the modellers the functionality setup.

I have heard that Game Space is awesome though. And truth be know I would have probably opted for Game Space over 3D Canvas Pro if I was going to be a modeller.

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Chily Dog
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Posted: 23rd Jan 2007 07:54 Edited at: 23rd Jan 2007 09:24
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Thanks for the advice Lost in Thought.
Also, can you tell me about Action3D? I understand you only do placeholders in your games, but how effective is it at getting a higher average FSP? I'm getting into some 3D modeling, just wanted to know a bit about what tools are out there...
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Lost in Thought
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Posted: 23rd Jan 2007 11:12
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I use Action 3d reducer alot for making collision meshs where the actual looks of the model aren't that important or they will be hidden/ very far away. I have boosted my FPS 10 fold with very large terrains by breaking it up into smaller and lower poly collision and visual zones using action3d. It is most usefull if you are making outdoor type levels. I didn't get to use it much at all with my indoor levels as they are made of basic brushes so far. I may later though.

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Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 23rd Jan 2007 13:05 Edited at: 23rd Jan 2007 13:07
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Gamespace is pretty awesome, and I'm just barely scratching the surface. I've wanted it for a long time, but didn't get it until I got the $100 free voucher from the Agiea compo + December's 30% off special. Pretty nice deal.

I did buy two video courses for $44 extra, which I highly recommend to anyone just starting out. I've done tons of CSG modeling, but using subdivided geometry was new to me. I was lost without the videos.

I've never seriously considered Action 3D, but I just might now LiT. Thanks

Good idea dropping Character Shop. It does what it says, but produces the hugest most inefficient models in the entire world. I never use it. I'm going to get Character FX, because that's what Psionic uses and he's the best indie modeler I've ever encountered.


Come see the WIP!
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Lost in Thought
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Posted: 23rd Jan 2007 13:49
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Yeah Action3D accepts objects made from the DBP save mesh command, so it's easy for me to make a wicked low poly version of the advanced terrain by making a mesh and saving it from each limb. Note however that the speed increase was only about 2x with NGC v4 instead of 10x with NGC v2. The octree building time was drastically improved in NGC v4 however with the lower poly meshs. If you ever want to test the speed increase for your self before buying, just give me a holler and I'll help you test it. I broke down and bought it after trying my own vertex averaging, reduction attempts, which drove me almost mad and was wicked slow.

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Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 23rd Jan 2007 14:18 Edited at: 23rd Jan 2007 14:22
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That's awesome. There are so many possibilities with a low poly mesh version of an AT.

I totally ditched NGC for Sparky's, though. Sparky's is way faster. Plus, you can't have rotated collision bodies with NGC and you can with Sparky's. You can have box collisions with Sparky's, and they are wickedly fast compared with ellipsoid collisions. In the end the collisions are just as good.

Since I made my Aftershock FPS engine with Dark Physics, I've turned into a physics nut, so there's no turning back for me. Sparky's + Dark Physics is much faster than NGC alone in my Geisha House engine, and so much nicer.


Come see the WIP!
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Lost in Thought
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Posted: 23rd Jan 2007 23:35
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Yeah I will be adding Dark Physics support to the open source engine (the DBP version). I haven't made a Sparky's version because it is slower than NGC here trying to emulate the Ellip sliding collision when the y size is double the x and z size. And a wierd jittering on my machine when using ray casting sometimes. It doesn't seem to do it on other's machines with my same code 0_o

I also won't run a physics and collision system seperately. It's just too much a waste of memory. I plan making some customizable routines for DP to make it's feedback act like NGC's. I love NGC's feedback system. Probably because I have been using it so long.

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Chily Dog
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Posted: 24th Jan 2007 01:22
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Thanks for the advice Crash, @Lost in Thought: Action 3D seems like a really good buy right now, a 2 to 10 fold increase is pretty sweet!
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Lost in Thought
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Posted: 24th Jan 2007 08:58
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Just remember if you are going to use it with NGC, you can get a little extra increase by recombining it into 1 object instead of loading all the individual parts (assuming you exported the advanced terrain limbs for reduction). The lower the object number, the faster NGC runs.

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Lost in Thought
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Posted: 2nd Feb 2007 11:10 Edited at: 6th Feb 2007 12:37
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This is my list as orders will be placed at the very end of this week or the very first of next week. Any more input is appreciated.

[edit] Everything ordered. Thx Rick V, Josh, and Ric

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