Bt Builder

[Methuselas]

Doors for the Dungeon Kit.

[dulsi]

I know 1280x800 isn't supported, but we can still brute force 960x600, using the display settings, correct?

There is no limitation built into btbuilder. If you modify the display.xml to have an expanded section for 960x600 or 1280x800 or 3200x2000, it should work. SDL2 has functions to scale down images. I can't switch to it yet due to lack of cross-compiled library for Windows. I've wondered if I could reduce the size of the btbuilder package by storing only 640x400 images and scaling them down as needed. (Don't expect this in the near future, I was just thinking about it.)

About the problem adjusting monster frequency I recently noticed that too it is fixed.

About .bat files, no they can't be used in linux. Linux uses .sh for shell scripts.

About a blank map, how about I just add the ability to make a new map to the editor. Go to the edit screen and <New map> will be the last thing on the list. It defaults to dungeon, 0 light, and 22x22 grid. Just remember to either name it .xml or .MAP as it doesn't add those automatically yet.

With that I'll announce the release of btbuilder 0.5.7. It includes the fix to monster frequency, some new animations, and new map creation. Not a very big release but I wanted to get it out.

[Methuselas]

There is no limitation built into btbuilder. If you modify the display.xml to have an expanded section for 960x600 or 1280x800 or 3200x2000, it should work. SDL2 has functions to scale down images. I can't switch to it yet due to lack of cross-compiled library for Windows. I've wondered if I could reduce the size of the btbuilder package by storing only 640x400 images and scaling them down as needed. (Don't expect this in the near future, I was just thinking about it.)

Do it, if you want. Leave the Windows files as a separate download - we can always link them to my google drive, to save on your bandwidth. I have a rig built for humanoids, so we'll be getting full IK animations now and judging from my test renders, each animation at 640 is going to be 2-4 megs a piece, so you're looking at, minimum, a 200-300 mb file increase for both 320 and 640 resolution animations. Aren't you using a Github repository or something similar? If you are, I can just update the animations there, instead of putting them on my google drive and have you download them.

Oh, what compiler are you using to compile the Windows version? Maybe I could fumble my way through a VS build. Obviously you'll have to bug fix and maintain the code, to keep it clean, since I'd make a mess of things, I'm sure, but I know VS supports SDL2. We used SDL quite a bit at my old job.

All that coding was above my paygrade, though.

About .bat files, no they can't be used in linux. Linux uses .sh for shell scripts.

Okay. I'll take a look at writing the default scrips to change the names, so it won't have to be done manually (it's a bit of a PITA, which is why I wrote the bat files in the first place.) We'll need one for each wall/door set, plus the horizon (which is set to do 4 renders for your eventual changes to light range.)

In the event I can't make them (you'd have to test them anyway), I may have to ask you to write them, so people using linux won't be stuck having to hand edit each file.

About a blank map, how about I just add the ability to make a new map to the editor. Go to the edit screen and <New map> will be the last thing on the list. It defaults to dungeon, 0 light, and 22x22 grid. Just remember to either name it .xml or .MAP as it doesn't add those automatically yet.

This makes me happy. All of my old maps were bungled. I found a back up I had of them, but I still had the issues with tileset types not showing in the editor and I could never figure out why.

With that I'll announce the release of btbuilder 0.5.7. It includes the fix to monster frequency, some new animations, and new map creation. Not a very big release but I wanted to get it out.

Doh! I do have some new animations. Most of the ones you probably released, I scrapped, since I spent the first two days of this week building a rig off the Genesis Model, so I could build bvh files. I'll probably reuse animations, obviously, but at least we'll have some good animations. BTW, we'll be having animated Wyverns and Gryphons. I know how to rig wings properly now. I'm also currently learning a new way to rig quads, so I should be able to have some animated animals.......

and Dragons.



^ Proof of concept. Don't release it.

As for the Tileset Kit. It's about 90% completed. I'm just finishing up the light presets and still have to rename a lot of the brick sculpts I did in ZBrush. I'll do an expansion for the castle add-ons, as the Kit's file size is about 100 mbs right now and that doesn't include all render scenes, just all the textures and the ma files (which will be replaced with FBX files). When I get it done, I'll write up the instruction manual and post it to my google drive. If you want to link it on your home page, let me know.

[dulsi]

Aren't you using a Github repository or something similar? If you are, I can just update the animations there, instead of putting them on my google drive and have you download them.

Yes I am using Github. If you want to put things there directly, that would be great.

Oh, what compiler are you using to compile the Windows version? Maybe I could fumble my way through a VS build. Obviously you'll have to bug fix and maintain the code, to keep it clean, since I'd make a mess of things, I'm sure, but I know VS supports SDL2. We used SDL quite a bit at my old job.

Fedora has a gcc cross-compiler for windows. So I compile everything on my linux box and the resulting executable runs on windows. Right now they only package SDL for the windows cross-compiler. I suspect they will make SDL2 available at some point.

[Methuselas]

Yes I am using Github. If you want to put things there directly, that would be great.

https://github.com/dulsi/btbuilder

This is the link, correct? I'm assuming it is. The only images you'll want, though, are 320 and 640, correct?

Fedora has a gcc cross-compiler for windows. So I compile everything on my linux box and the resulting executable runs on windows. Right now they only package SDL for the windows cross-compiler. I suspect they will make SDL2 available at some point.

Ah, I gotcha. That's good, then.



Here's all the models for the Tileset Kit. 2 sets of blocks: 1 smooth, 1 rough. Various Columns and stands, smooth and rough. A simple dungeon window, 7 doors (6 modeled, 1 template) 6 or so piles of rocks, 2 piles of rubble, several piles of bones (the uvs are broken on these, but they still render. I didn't want to make the piles again.) All the light presets (a total of 10, I believe) are done, as well as the horizon render scene. Both walls and doors have render scenes for 320, 640, 960 and 1280 - You just drop the wall or door in a group and click render. I just need the clean up the naming schemes on some of the blocks and write the instruction manual.


It's 200 megs, unzipped. -_-

[Methuselas]

I found some rotation problems in my shoulders, for my rig, so I'm going to have to rebuild the joint hierarchy. Add in the fact I was informed last night, that I'm moving to a new store, to replace the GM, animations and the Dungeon Tileset Kit will probably be delayed a couple of weeks. :/


Dulsi, if you have any under the hood stuff you want to do, now would probably be the time.

Sorry for the delay, Guys.

[Methuselas]

Quadruped rig is done.

Dulsi, concerning images. I know you weren't keen on adding extensions to the slots, so how do you want me to add the new images? For example, I have the Orc Warrior, plus a Shaman, Warlord, Boss and Hero model. Do you want to just scrap the old image list and I'll make a new one, adding in the images, as I see fit? It will mess up all the images we have already, that you got from Open Game Art and the ones that were GPL. The new images will be fully GPL compliant, so there won't be any licensing issues.

[dulsi]

Nice cat.

I'm inclined to leave the list as is and add new ones later in the numbering. It may mean we have a bunch of images that are perhaps never replaced. Yes it means finding an image is annoying right now but frankly even if we had images for everything finding one is annoying. Each image should have tags on it. That way the user can search. The user doesn't care if the image is 1 or 77 or 10000. He just wants the picture of an elf. Blank slots would be skipped unless the user chose otherwise.

Do any people using Bt Builder have an opinion?

[Methuselas]

Nice cat.

I'm inclined to leave the list as is and add new ones later in the numbering. It may mean we have a bunch of images that are perhaps never replaced. Yes it means finding an image is annoying right now but frankly even if we had images for everything finding one is annoying. Each image should have tags on it. That way the user can search. The user doesn't care if the image is 1 or 77 or 10000. He just wants the picture of an elf. Blank slots would be skipped unless the user chose otherwise.

Do any people using Bt Builder have an opinion?

Oh, I think you misunderstood. I want to leave all the slots from 0-48 the same, leave the blank "user defined" ones, blank so they conform with BTCS, but with all the ones I've added, throughout the years, I wish to completely reset and start over. I'd like to organize them a little better.

A tag function for pictures, however, would be extremely nice.

BTW, Slot0 is updated with an Animated Orc on my google drive. I tried to add it to your GitHub, but I forgot how to do a pull request. When I was using Github, it was set up so I could basically drag and drop art files.

[dulsi]

Oh, I think you misunderstood. I want to leave all the slots from 0-48 the same, leave the blank "user defined" ones, blank so they conform with BTCS, but with all the ones I've added, throughout the years, I wish to completely reset and start over. I'd like to organize them a little better.

I understand what you want. The problem is people started developing games with the previous numbering. Some may continue to use the non-GPL images. I don't want to force people to redo there image numbers even it if is a small number of people using it right now. When I introduced the multiple effects for spells, I could have said the file format changed and everyone has to redo their spell.xml files. Instead I added in code to detect the old format and convert them.

I'll see if I can make a new UI with a tag and searching capability. I think that is a better solution.

BTW, Slot0 is updated with an Animated Orc on my google drive. I tried to add it to your GitHub, but I forgot how to do a pull request. When I was using Github, it was set up so I could basically drag and drop art files.

You could do that if you are granted permission to a project. What I'd prefer is for you to fork the project. Then you can update files in your fork by drag and drop. After you do that you can create a pull request. If you have any problems with that let me know.

[Methuselas]

I understand what you want. The problem is people started developing games with the previous numbering. Some may continue to use the non-GPL images. I don't want to force people to redo there image numbers even it if is a small number of people using it right now. When I introduced the multiple effects for spells, I could have said the file format changed and everyone has to redo their spell.xml files. Instead I added in code to detect the old format and convert them.

I'll see if I can make a new UI with a tag and searching capability. I think that is a better solution.

Okay, I see what you're doing and what you meant. Are there modules I don't know about? So, there might be animations beyond the 44 range, then.

You could do that if you are granted permission to a project. What I'd prefer is for you to fork the project. Then you can update files in your fork by drag and drop. After you do that you can create a pull request. If you have any problems with that let me know.

Okay, so I installed GH. Made the Fork (I think - it shows, but there's nothing there.) I synced your master code to my fork. Now what do I do? I apologize about this. Before, all of this was set up for the art team, so we'd just log in and drag and drop our art dumps.

I got all the blends done, so we'll have facial expressions, visemes and movement. In case you were wondering, yes, this is the same model I used for the Nomad, just with blend shapes added.




Oh, Dulsi, Git Hub uses it's own servers for code storage, right? I'm not taking space on your servers, am I? I ask, 'cos I'm in the process of setting up BTBuilder to support 960 and 1280 again. I figure if they want the higher resolution files, they can grab them off the Git Hub.

[dulsi]

Okay, I see what you're doing and what you meant. Are there modules I don't know about? So, there might be animations beyond the 44 range, then.

I don't know what modules have been created. But I don't sombunall or some else to decide not make a module because they think the next release might break it. Granted losing the images we had was a blow but at least people can still load those files if they want. If we reorder the images then anyone using the old files will have really odd images with the new files.

Okay, so I installed GH. Made the Fork (I think - it shows, but there's nothing there.) I synced your master code to my fork. Now what do I do? I apologize about this. Before, all of this was set up for the art team, so we'd just log in and drag and drop our art dumps.

On your github fork go to the directory where the image should go and click on the upload file button. I haven't actually used that functionality as I need to grab the whole tree to make changes. You will probably need to have all lowercase file names or you might end up with Slot0.ng and slot0.ng in the directory.Give it try with your animated orc.

Oh, Dulsi, Git Hub uses it's own servers for code storage, right? I'm not taking space on your servers, am I? I ask, 'cos I'm in the process of setting up BTBuilder to support 960 and 1280 again. I figure if they want the higher resolution files, they can grab them off the Git Hub.

Yeah they are not my servers. I'm not sure what the best way to do that is. I'm not sure if you would want a separate branch or separate fork so that I don't pull in those files. I'll take a look when I get a chance to see if there is any documentation on the best way to do that. I've never pulled from another fork before and only requested a pull once.

I have a prototype of the new picture select. It searches image name and artist name. Not sure if searching by artist name should be a default or an option to turn on (or not included at all).

[Methuselas]

Okay. Got the fork setup properly. I should have synced the new orc animation to my fork. Check the Slot0 file for an animated Orc (I accidentally did more than one push.....). If it works, great and you should have a replacement for both 320 and 640. If not, I did something wrong again.


Oh, one more thing. GitHub doesn't seem to like dragging and dropping .ng files. Always errors out, so I had to use the Desktop client, which is why I don't know if it worked or not.

[Methuselas]

No, I'm not dead.


So, I finally took the plunge and ditched Mental Ray, in favor of using physical based lighting for my renders. I'm getting the hang of VRay and so far, I'm extremely happy with my results. I get to use actual shaders now, instead of textures, so I'm getting REALLY nice light results. Dulsi, what is the turn per second ratio for BTBuilder? I basically need to know how many seconds pass per hour. I'm pretty sure that I can make ming files for tilesets and their horizon planes, change based on the time of day, if you want to support it.

Compare the ogre image below, with the one I posted a few up and you'll see the difference. I wish I had switched to VRay a while ago. I can't wait until I start playing with the tilesets. 8D




Caars, this one is for you.



Hope everyone is well.

[caars]

Looking very good Methuselahs! I especially like the cube

I've been playtesting the module I'm working on, both looking for whatever bugs I can find in bt builder, and also to just evaluate difficulty and gameplay flow. Here are the bugs that I've encountered:

1. "Regenerate Skill" doesn't seem to actually do anything. At least as far as bard songs go. I've got an item ("Wineskin") that is set up to regen 1d2+1 bard songs when used (one use), and I've tried every iteration I can think of (range 0 or 1, effective range 0 or 1, single target, caster only, one turn, permanent, regen 1d2+1 songs, just regen 1 - to take any die rolls out, set unlimited to 'true'), and nothing seems to make it regenerate a bard song. At most I can get it to go from being something I can successfully use outside of combat to something that I can only use while in combat (not sure what exactly is controlling that, though), but otherwise I can't get it to work at all.

Note that "regenerate bard songs" in the special editor works just fine - so I can restore them at a tavern I've programmed into the module, but not with a spell.

2. Aging will crash the program if cast on a monster that is level 0. Maybe set it up to be an instant kill on the monster instead? Related to that...

3. My monsters are only casting spells on themselves ... even if they are harmful spells. That's actually how I learned about the 'Wither Strike' thing ... my magicians spent the fight trying to wither each other, and crashing the program when they succeeded. Also...

4. Oddly, monsters casting buffing spells on themselves also crashes the game, but not immediately. After the wither strike thing, I set my Magicians (who are still level 0 monsters) to cast Mage Gauntlets (at that point it was giving a +4 to hit bonus, although now it does give a 4d4 point boost to damage - wonderful addition dulsi!!). They would buff each other normally (good so far), and the fight would play out normally, but the moment the fight ended the game would crash before actually awarding XP and treasure.

That's it so far. Everything else is more related to game balance stuff that is under my control in the editor. I'll post more as I run across it.

Cheers guys!