@Lee

Hi Lee welcome back

I have just read your March update and the terrain update sounds awesome, I have one tiny issue though, you say you are going to re use EBE code for the UI and texture atlas, does this mean the texture issues in the EBE have been fixed? the current version 2017.3.10 still has EBE issues with random black textures and the Atlas randomly swapping textures, I'm just raising this point because I have hammered the EBE and I am sure you don't want to inherit any problems from it, I don't mean any disrespect and I am no coder.

I am sure someone else in the community has the texture swap issue with the EBE when reloading a level after a lightmap I have read it somewhere I think it was Honkeyboy, not many seem to be using the EBE at the moment but everyone uses the terrain.

I cannot wait to see this new terrain option thank you for your hard work

@GraPhiX : I have been unable to reproduce the 'black texture' issue with the Building Editor using stock assets from the core product, and don't have a perfect step by step which I can follow from a fresh start of GameGuru to see it. If you can create this list of what might be a lot of steps which will result in a black texture in the editor or game, I can fix it nice and quickly. Right now it's pretty elusive.

It can be really annoying when there is a bug that you just can't reproduce, hopefully GraPhiX will be able to provide the information you need to find it. I haven't had the issue myself, but from what i've seen of what people are saying about it, it looks like it may be something to do with multiple EBE projects overlapping in the editor, that seems to be the most common factor that i can see so far.

As to the new terrain system, i am eagerly awaiting this, it's one of the areas of the editor that really needs improving.

One of my biggest issues with the current terrain system is they way it blends the layers, quite a few terrain sets i have are ruined by this layering system because you don't always want to paint them in the order that it's set up in, so you end up with a line, or ring of a third texture sitting between the two textures you are using, which looks really bad. If while you design this new system you could lose that layering issue and make each texture actually blend with the one next to it, that would be awesome.

Another of my biggest issues with painting terrain is the grass, at the moment it seems to be acting as a 5th terrain texture rather than placing grass, what i mean is when you paint grass it returns the terrain texture below it to the default texture, i know i mentioned getting rid of the layering system for terrain textures, but would it be possible to add a layering system to grass painting so that it sits on top of terrain textures instead of removing them?

Something else that is really needed for terrain painting, but is probably beyond the scope of what you are prepared to do at this time, is the brushes, what we really need is a way to change the shape of the brush, a couple of basic brush shapes; lines, squares, and so on would be awesome, especially if we could also ge some hard edge brushes so we can paint straight lines in the terrain (would also be good if we got those brushes, if they could be used for terrain sculpting too).

I have random black textures on entities sometimes BUT ONLY if I load a different map, after I have previously saved a map.

A restart of GameGuru cures this. Basically if working on a different map, always restart GameGuru first.

Don't know if that helps.

Hi guys
@Lee you have all my assets and a complete version of this level it is quite easy for you to replicate with those.

I have attached my custom EBE textures for anyone to try just put them in gameguru\files\ebebank\texturesource

This is my 8th version of the same level, I have removed one of the ebe structures.
As you can see from the rather long video (sorry) I open my level change the textures to what I want them to be on the billboard, next I change the wooden beams on one of my part built houses as soon as it reloads the texture atlas bam the last 2 ebe houses lose all textures, I click on them the textures come back, I then run the level and F3 lightmap, once the light map completes I walk around the level all ebe textures are in place but random entitys disappear dependening on the angle you look at them yesterday it was foliage and the fences today its the bulldozer, also most of the scaffolding will not cast shadows on the ebe houses.
The last part of the video shows the black texture glitch on my complete ebe house roof (thanks again Belidos ), I then save the level close GG, I re open GG and have to do it all over again, like I said I have built this level from scratch 8 times now with little or big variations the end result is always the same.

I am no modler I am trying to learn and have picked up a lot from the community but the EBE was my saving grace it as allowed me to be more creative in GG I am noit doing anything special except build a few houses which I think this is what the EBE is for ok maybe the billboard was silly but I just wanted to see what could be done I'm sorry I have broken it but I'm afraid it is broken.

Best get a coffee or something before watching this LOL

I just want to point out I am not complaining I was just trying to make you aware their is a possible issue with the EBE code and I did not want you to put it in the new terrain code without realising.

I think the dozer disapearing and reappearing like that is an occlusion issue due to the transparency in the texture of the fence.

Set both the fence and the dozer to occludee no and occluder no in their properties.

Hi Belidos thanks I will try that (I have not done an F4 yet so occlusion map does not exist does this matter?)

I have also edited above post to include my custom EBE textures if anyone wants to give it a try

PS is there a quick way to select all fence panels I have nearly 80 of them do I have to do them all individually?

@Belidos - to be able to import heightmaps would solve the brush issue (at least temporarily), as there are plenty of terrain creation tools (including Unity) that could be used. Preben has achieved this with his AGK app, so hopefully this isn't too far away for GameGuru.

@Belidos I have changed the setting on bulldozer and 1 full row of the fence it still does it in fact its worse, I went inside the compound and took snapshots through the fence, please see attached

OK so we've ruled that one out. Try turning off the occlusion slider, does it still do it?

Occlusion was on 100 turned it to zero and it was ok turned it back up to 2 and it did it again, so yes its occlusion

would have attached pictures but F10 don't work when sliders are up

OK, so it's definitely an occlusion issue when it comes to the disappearing entities, good to know, and good to pass on to Lee.

press Print Screen and paste into paint, then save if you want to take screenshots with tabs up

Ok here ya go, it doesn't matter if prebake or realtime btw thanks for the tip.

Opened GG clean level added EBE buildings I made sure they did not overlap changed textures, run level saved level textures swap out on there own.
not sure where those orange slabs came from either lol.

attached EBE buildings and textures for someone to try.

Hi GraPhiX

looking at your video...
1. No place in the video do I see you ever save the edited house or billboard..
2. You save the new created texture pallete.. but that is only a new texture..
3. I think you have to then exit edit mode and save the edited structure...

worth a check...

Hi J_C

Yes you are quite right I did not save, the thing is I have been posting about this issue for weeks now, I have done it countless times, I suppose I am getting a bit lazy LOL, anyhow you are right so here is another video doing as you suggested

Oh Boo!
I thought I had spotted your problem...

Lets think outloud...

I notice that you save the billboard as billboard3 ( it was billboard2 )
I wonder could the map level still think it has billboard2 ( has lee forgot to tell the map the new EBE name)
As a test if you load in the new billboard3 to your map has it still got the wrong texture.. ?

Yes it still happens, this afternoon I have created the billboard in sketchup, so now I have it has an entity it was the last one I loaded in the video,

I could of done this a while ago but thought it was important not to because clearly there is an issue and as far as I know the only limit with the EBE is your imagination

Now I can see why you are so frustrated...

1. Loading in billboard3 - and it does have the correct texture..
2. Then Saving the map corrupts billboard3 texture..
3. All the billboards seem to go back to the original wrong texture.

Hopefully your videos will help Lee track down the problem..

not so much frustrated as disappointed, it is getting to be a bind spending hours on a level only to have to start it again 8 times over, it as been a learning experience though, first time took me 2 weeks to create the level I can now do it in 2 hours lol, I should be working on level 3 by now, ive not even started gameplay.

not sure why it only affects me it is very strange, I will continue the level with the new billboard, the black texture thingy is also a pain, I just hope nothing creeps into the new terrain thingy Lee is working on, that would affect more people than me

Thank you for trying to help

Could it possibly be a permissions issue not saving some data? Are you running GameGuru as administrator?

Hi Belidos, yes I always have.

When I rebuilt my PC I took an SSD out of stock just in case it was my raid setup causing issues the new drive is D: I have installed GG on that drive my steam library is also on that drive.

I have access to unlimited computers (we build and sell them) I took a PC out of stock this morning installed GG same issue, I also have a 27" Mac running Sierra I setup windows 10 on bootcamp that also does the same.

in the PC's I had Nvidia graphics in the mac is ATI/AMD graphics all with latest drivers

Hmn, so your primary drive is designated as D: ?

Not sure if it's related or not, but there are known issues with some Steam installations really not liking it when you change the path from the default C:\\program files\steam\steamapps\common , and i'm sure there was someone on here that had a lot of issues with GameGuru because of it until he reinstalled and used the default steam path, could that be it? (kind of clutching at straws here lol)

No sorry you misunderstood, my Boot/System drive is C:/ (4 SSD's stripped) the D:/ drive is setup as AHCI a 480GB SSD.

my previous setup was everything on C: I wiped my system and set it all backup again. the PC I messed around with earlier was a vanilla setup standard SATA drive the mac was also a standard setup albeit I have upgraded it to a 1TB SSD the Apple hard drives are very poor only run at 5400rpm the Mac is the 5k retina version I did have issues with GG but that was the resolution being very high 5120x2880 GG didn't like it.

Steam gives you an option on install of where to have your steam library I chose D: I am certain you can change it within settings without re installing suppose I could give that a whirl.

UPDATE: yes you can move your steam library in fact you can move individual items, I moved my complete library to C: drive (the default location) and I still get the same results

@GraPhiX : Thanks for the extra information (and persistence and patience), I have enough now to reproduce some strange things so will have a new beta up soon so you can check if my fixes work (let me know at lee@thegamecreators.com) if you are not on the beta testing team and I will sort that out.

@Lee: thank you I'm not on the Beta team, email sent

Well, there you go GraPhiX, a little perseverance, and a whole lot of faith, and Lee comes through, i knew Lee would get to the root of it in the end

@Belidos: thank you for your help too hopefully the beta cures the issue

After experiencing some problems i've reinstalled GG and set the steam path on D.
It runs fine, this might of course be because steam now allows us to choose the installation path

Just saw this and yeah can confirm GraPhix's issues i had the same when baking, to the point i have stopped doing it , in fact im trying not to use lights even atm as the blending and often bleeding kind of messes the whole look of the level (yes this could be me) but i'll keep my eyes peeled in the beta forum to see if it gets resolved and glad Lee has maybe spotted the problem, sometimes as we have all said before its hard to reproduce some issues as they are random but if we keep plugging them they'll get seen @ GraPhix we'll get there m8