Hi,



To help us solve issues and address your concerns, every month I'll be creating and monitoring a 'special' thread where you can let us know what you want to see changed. I'm afraid this one is a little rushed as it's nearly the end of the month, but we already have a 'heathly' list for Lee to work on on his return.



The aim is to create a top 10 list of bugs and a top 10 list of concerns so we can address them. I'll get the bugs from the bug forum or from reports sent to me, so please keep posting those on the bugs forum. In addition please keep this thread free from feature requests, there's a forum for that too. However what I would like to hear about are concerns and improvements you have with current features.



As we see it, these are the current concerns.





Concerns



1) Performance is too slow on majority of machines.

2) Memory cap is too easily hit.

3) AI just isn't that smart.

4) It's very hard to pick up small objects in the editor, especially those that overlap larger objects.

5) Characters can shoot through hills.

6) Characters should be able to use any of the available weapons.

7) New maps aren't reset correct and contain lights, grass and the last used skybox.

8) Player drops into world.



We need your feedback to help develop the product you all want to see and use.



SC

Great idea



Could you change 1) to 'Performance is too slow on low & high end machines.



If everyone agrees of course.

I believe the Memory cap is up there if not the most important as it would allow users to still design and test levels while lee chips away at the performance.

For me at least if the mem cap wasn't so bad we could just get on with it and designing some cool maps.

1. The ability to edit and pick small hidden object under larger objects in the map editor.



It seem like any larger object over a smaller object is near impossible to re pick to change any setting or nudge into the proper place.



Even the marker objects like lights are just as difficult to pick and change after you have a populated level.



Even in the terrain edit mode when placing entities from there, once you set it there is no sure way to edit it.



2. Light control scripts, seems like the lights are either on or off. They all seem to flicker on and off as you walk threw a level getting into the perceived range of the light.



3. The import asset tool for setting collision bounds to an entity, so it act proper when shot or falling.



4. getting NPC to be able to walk on custom assets like bridges and second story floors with out falling thru to the ground.

I agree about the picking up objects, that is very hit and miss, and is actually on an internal to do list.



The others I'm afraid seem like new features and while important, would distract from the current focus. Point 4 in particular is a little early, as a lot of legacy media still won't function yet. I actually believe that as legacy support is improved, we'll will, by default see an improvement in support of custom media.



Don't worry, I'll still note the other suggestions, and if you've not already done so, you might want to add them to the feature creep forum.



SC

Most immediate thing for me, appears to be addressed in the next alpha...according to Lee's Blog. Which is that we no longer have to dig in and remove old bin files, so that we can actually run the program properly.



I'd like to see more emphasis on the art pipeline myself, especially via some actual documentation. While we're at it; what is TGC doing to create some real documentation this time around, instead of relying on the Community to do it? Unity, Torque, UDK, etc. all have REAL documentation and tutorials to support users of their engines. If TGC wants this to be THE go-to engine for smaller Indies; they need to get on that right now, and not wait until it's an after-thought.

Hi Keith,



Yes, Lee has fixed the dbo and bin issues.



I'll raise the documentation issue with Rick.



SC

Can we have a simple Reset button added to the ingame Tab menu ?



It seems silly maybe....But you make adjustments...don't like them and even if you load a new random or flat level all your ingame alterations, Colours Sky etc stay as you last had them.....



Sometimes its just nice to start again fresh rather than rectify it all....The Default is a nice place to start again



Or is this just me ?

Ensuring the map is reset correctly is actually already on an internal list, but I'll add it as a reminder.



SC

Hi,



The team's focus will be on the core and we'll not stop until it's sweet! As you know we also have the construction kit in production + the game creator store for Reloaded. So lots still to do and we know the key issues to focus on. Once these are handled things will get easier for everyone (as the main hurdles will have been hurdled? )



Documentation and tutorials are very important and I'll raise this in our next strategy meeting in early March.



Thanks guys for all your great feedback and patience.



Rick

Good to know.

I'd agree with all points mentioned here.



Another one I'd raised in another post was about the 'scale bug' (entities scaled down/up in the .fpe reverting back to 100% scale when the level has been saved and then opened again) - I believe this may already have been adressed by Lee but thought I'd mention it again in case it slipped through the net



Looking forward to the next build!



Slainte!



SW

I agree with most of what is said above, Pirate Myke brings up an excellent point with the lighting, the flickering on/off of lights though is a dx9 limitation not a fault with Reloaded. Due to the nature of dynamic lighting and shaders currently used in Reloaded, I am just wondering if a static lightmapping set up will be put in in future? I know this may sound like a feature request but wanted to point out that flickering dynamic lights are not a bug but it is a concern.



It's not a 100% necessity right now but when you release the construction kit it would need this, as it is just now I notice some enter-able entity's such as buildings don't have strong enough shadows from the 'sunlight' and some lack of shadows on walls where they should be,you have no real control over lighting as it is right now.



I believe all the issues with 1.005 that I had, have been, are being dealt with.

That's a good one but couldn't TGC take it one stage further...

For example....Load in the model no matter how big and use keys like " < > " to resize the scale of the model within the editor just like the light ranges etc ?



That would save a lot of messing with the . fpe

Lee has confirmed the scale bug has been fixed, so shouldn't be an issue with the next release. The main issue for me is speed, followed by memory limits. Hopefully both these will be seriously improved next release, but we will have to wait and see.

im hoping the speed and stuff is fixed or improved beyond previously seen results for my machine, getting fps up and memory usage down would make the world of difference. the running and jumping bugs seen on my machine would also be nice to have fixed aswell. I don't really have what would be called a gaming gpu tbh maybe I should just get lee's gpu in my machine at some point in the future when lee is around to ask what it is exactly lol.

Thanks everyone.. I'll now be unsticking this and starting a new one for March 2014.



SC