Yeah so I gave the latest public beta a try and was generally impressed:

Map Editor startup time has been seriously improved. Its very fast now
PBR assets look great and do a much better job of showing off bump / specular
Real time shadows look better with less banding and smooth edges
AI is more robust and more engaging / fun to play against

Performance seems to have taken a hit (at least for highest quality settings)
The palm trees in Big Escape now look terrible. I guess PBR isn't always the way to go
HUD images look really bad. I'm using 1920x1080 and they are blurry / low quality
Noticed a couple of minor bugs like screen shaking when shooting with iron sights

I still think there needs to be a solution for how static / dynamic lights work in GameGuru. I think the overall graphics for outdoor areas is more than acceptable now but significantly lacking for indoor areas which are equally important.

Overall I think its a good update but in my opinion if we have overhauled the graphics part of the engine, now is the right time to implement a more robust lighting solution. Hopefully now DX11 is there it would be easier to look at things like deferred rendering.

Totally agree with you.

Dave

Thanks granada

To be fair on the negative points I raised, its reasonable to expect some kind of performance hit with more expensive assets but it seemed quite a big hit for me on the Big Escape even though the level had been made smaller.

I guess the palm trees could be different models from the old ones but if they have just been updated then PBR hasn't worked out well there (look plastic). I'm sure the HUD images used to be clear at my resolution so maybe Lee hasn't got around to that yet.

The lighting solution is probably the most important thing for me (and other people). I've not checked the voting board recently but I don't think this can be divorced from a graphics overhaul otherwise we have to manage with a half baked solution.

Anyway congrats on a promising update this side of 2017. I can only hope lighting gets some love next year.

This is a massive update and Ime sure a lot of other parts of GG will need to be worked on day by day to bring it all together,but this is a great step forward .

Dave

Taking a break from looking for problems...

This update is a real advance in the gameguru adventure. In case anyone is interested, with paint.net it is possible to change the color of the PBR rocks that Lee has given us. Opens up all kinds of visual variations.