Hello Fellow Game Makers,

Next week I will be releasing the next major update, aptly named the Monster Update. In advance of this, I want to ensure we catch as many showstoppers and critical issues as possible, and I now hand the latest build from our internal beta testers to you, the brave community members who have the Public Preview build as their version of choice.



It's been almost exactly a month since the last Public Preview and your feedback through the Issues Tracker has been great. Since then, it feels like we have accelerated our addition of new features and fixes, so if you are reading this and want to help test the final update before we go live to everyone in the GameGuru community, go check out the Public Preview available from your Steam product page properties under beta tab and PublicPreview in the dropdown list.

As a guide to what has changed, here is the undoctored changelog for you to shy away from. Fear not, for those not interested in such detail, we have a friendlier description of the changes to announce when the final update goes out. As usual if you find any issues, you can post them in our Issues Tracker linked above:

* Fixed DX11 depth buffer problems causing z-fighting.
* Added Dynamic lights can now reflect real PBR reflections on objects.
* Standalone executables now retain settings from realshadow setup
* Fixed problems of near camea clipping, and no longer a need to reduce camera distance
* Standalone games now have the window title set to the executable filename (removing - and _ symbols)
* When you save a level, it will now make a backup of the destination .FPM file before overwriting it
* Weapon artists can now omit the GUN_D reference in GUNSPEC file to use models own PBR texture refs
* Added support for runto, empty runto, runfrom, empty runfrom for move to run to move anim transitions
* Increased maximum permitted lines within a GUNSPEC file to 1000 lines
* Melee attack when in zoom mode now zooms out properly
* Can no longer zoom in during a melee attack
* Added brass delay functionality using new GUNSPEC fields BRASSDELAY and ZOOM BRASSDELAY
* Replaced Reload sound when no ammo with NOAMMO.WAV sound effect stored in player voices folder
* When firing in automatic mode, the last bullet fired now triggers LAST END FIRE animation
* Added SMOKESIZE to GUNSPEC to allow control of the size of smoke decal displayed
* Reintroduced DRY FIRE animations when the weapon is moving, but not running
* When building standalone executables, weapons specified inside ammo entities are no longer included
* When fixing weapon jam and in zoom mode, weapon zooms out before making the fix
* When using 'shareloadedammo' mode, both jamming and unjamming apply to both weapon modes
* Moved triggering of brass ejection to END of START FIRE animation (for weapon realism)
* When using the real physics flag for projectiles, particles now follow projectile objects
* You can omit the TEXTURED in projectile settings and it will use built-in PBR texture set from model
* Can now switch weapon modes, even when currently zoomed in
* Added 'explosionSize,explosionSmokeSize,explosionSparksSize' to projectile explosion settings (100 is default)
* Added 'doesnotuseammo and alt doesnotuseammo' to flag when a weapon mode does not use any ammo (fuel)
* Prevented player start capsule from initially offsetting by its collision center (already centered)
* NOTE: Above fix prevents player from sticking in single layer EBE building
* Repaired system which generates tangent and binormal vectors for lightmapped objects
* When in PBR mode, lightmapper now uses PBR shader and overrides AO texture channel for lightmap textures
* Fixed issue of smoothing groups (normals) being destroyed by lightmapping process
* Fixed issue of sprites eating TAB TAB sprites when using importer
* Fixed legacy OLD BRIDGE in CITYSCAPE to add forceobstaclepolysize value to improve obstacle generation
* Improved obstacle generation code so sunken entities generate obstacle shape at terrain height level
* Changed the AI_FANTASYCHARACTER.LUA script to use newer AI movement and avoidance technique
* NOTE: Above fix also prevents characters from flying high into the air (bad old movement system fail)
* Added new 'apbr_animwithtran.fx' shader to allow animating PBR models that use semi-transparency modes
* Added new FPE fields for "appendanimmax, appendanimX, appendanimframeX" to append animation files to model
* Improved FPE model loading to allow animations to be appended to the final in-game model (see Dragon)
* Added new DRAGON model which will be used to showcase the new FBX Importer improvements
* Added new 'appendanimfinal' field to FPE so appended animations can be saved for future faster model loading
* Added new Water Settings Slider to allow control of water level and water attributes
* Added new Water Settings LUA Commands to control the water and its attributes (22 new commands)
* Added 'water_change_lua.lua' script to demonstrate how to control water via LUA script
* Improved access to internal weapon settings (from command SetGamePlayerStateIsMelee through to GetFireModeSettingsActionBlockStart)
* NOTE: The above additions allow optional GunID and FireMode indices to access any weapon value stored internally
* Added support for COLLISIONMODE = 2 (physics sphere) and COLLISIONMODE = 3 (physics cylinder)
* Updated all barrels in default stock assets to use cylinder physics shape
* Added new mode 2 to 'forceloadtestgameshaders' to force COMPLETE recompile of all BLOB shaders
* Fixed issue of EBE structures not lightmapping correctly and corrupting the geometry
* Fixed issue in some scenarios where entity illumination map is not used in model
* Fixed issue of zoomout animation not working when switch firemode
* Fixed issue of zoomout using simplezoom mode of alternate during firemode switch
* Fixed issue of missing illumination map on multi-textured gun models
* Fixed issue of holding down SHIFT then press W to instantly run, now graduates from walk anim
* Fixed issue of letting go of W just as transition to run, now no longer glitches animation
* Reloading while running now transitions back to move animation before reload animation begins
* When switching firemodes while running, weapon transitions back to move anim, then back again
* After melee attack while running, animation transitions back to run animation smoothly
* When guns are switched, any brass still using physics is reset (fixes missing brass issue)
* Prevented old fire or melee random selector to mess animations right after switching firemode
* Ensured editing of weapon entity properties panel do not erase firemode one settings
* The Sun Factor Slider now only affects lightmapped objects (the intended target for this value)
* All per pixel lights now use PBR light reflections
* Setup.ini (maxtotalmeshlights) allow you to define the max number of lights a single mesh can have lit at any time
* Setup.ini (maxpixelmeshlights) allow you to set how many per pixel lights a single mesh can have lit at any time
* NOTE: If above number is exceeded everything will switch to way faster per vertex light
* Setup.ini (terrainoldlight) allow you to switch terrain to use the old fading light system, can be faster in some cases
* Setup.ini (terrainusevertexlights) set the terrain only use the way faster per vertex light system
* Setup.ini (maxterrainlights) allow you to set how many lights the terrain can have lit at the same time
* Setup.ini (terrainlightfadedistance) set the fade distance for terrain lights
* NOTE: Terrain light fade is only active if you use more then the total, if use less all light is always on
* Setup.ini (showstaticlightinrealtime) enable static light to always light unless in pre-bake mode, see the static light while editing
* Range and intentity is decreased by 30% to try to match light mapper
* Spot light added to all shaders
* Added Spot light selection box to GUI
* Support for "gun flash light","fireball dynamic light","explosion light". Now use the new light system
* Fixed pbroverride=0 so all shaders get support for the new light system
* Dynamic lights now remove shadows
* Toned down dynamic spot flash for traditional intensity
* Fixed issue of dryfire loop clicks when running with shotguns
* Fixed issue of idle frame glitch when transitioning between firemodes
* Fixed issue causing memory to be corrected due to new appendanim feature
* Corrected mesh issue with sandstone structure (17) entity
* Corrected mesh issues with the Galaxy Seed path entities
* No longer crashes if limb name uses LOD_0 thru LOD_2 but has no mesh
* Fixed GARBAGE entity so it no longer flickers or casts a shadows
* Added new 'usespotlighting' to FPE to allow light markers defaulting to spot
* Updated light markers so they have spot light forward if switch to spotlight
* CRITICAL : SCIFI DRONE level, crash when second drone fires at player
* Added new markers, including ones for images, text, ambient music and spot lights
* Fixed long standing light mapper issue causing rotated entities to use incorrect normals
* Removes left over dynamic lights from terrain when select New Level from FILE menu

Additionally, you will also find a new dynamic lighting system in operation which has quite a lot happening under the hood. To help understand it, here is a short description of the additions, courtesy of the pioneer to created it, the mighty Preben:

New Dynamic Lights System Explained

A new dynamic light that run using a mesh based system, what this means is that lights is now always lit no matter how many dynamic lights you have, each mesh on a level can have up to 40 light calculations. It work by ignoring lights that do not reach a mesh , so on a per pixel basic it know how many lights the pixel have and ONLY process those, so if you have a screenshot of you level , only the pixel that are actually lit by dynamic lights will do the calculation the rest dont make any calculations, so you can have one mesh sampling lights from 40 sources and many that have zero light sources , so overall this will be faster and everything will always be lit.

The terrain could get lights coming in from all lights placed on a level, so the terrain ligth is by default set to use a way faster vertex light, but also have a fading system running where it will fade out the lights on the terrain at a distace you can define , this is by default set to the same range as the shadows, but ALL lights within this range will always be lit on the terrain. Also added the possibelity for you to enable the old fading system on the terrain , and also a option to set the terrain to use per pixel lights if you prefer this.

Everything is real-time so all lights on a level can be moved around with no fps drops, if you have moving lights you might consider to use per pixel terrain lights terrainusevertexlights=0 for a more smooth movement. A new spot light type has been added to the GUI so you can set a dynamic light to a spot light, use "rotate" on the light object to set where the spot points. The system is made so you can define how you like it to work Speed vs. Visuals. with no shader changes needed.

Default settings:
maxtotalmeshlights=38
maxpixelmeshlights=12
terrainoldlight=0
terrainusevertexlights=1
maxterrainlights=20
terrainlightfadedistance=4500
showstaticlightinrealtime=1

I am very impatient, thank you to the team and to you. .

Intel Pentium CPU G3220 3.000 GHz , 8 GB Ram , NVIDIA GeForce GTX 745 2GB , Windows 10 64-bit.
GameGuru , S2Engine HD , Shoot EM Up , CopperCube 5 , Clicteam Fusion 2.5 , Platfinity .

That’s one massive update Lee,well done the team

Dave

i am very sad am i the only one ???

yeah great update explecialyty in the water thing , but explain me why all my guns in the all different game/ levels i created since this update just go black and the frame rate drops from 15 to 6 pfs

the major updates in GG era like my ex wife - we never know what comes from that

well can any one tell me how to put ligth in the weapons again and i trayout all the light game control sliders

or how can i put the game in the older / anterior version

It looks like IntersectAll and UnFreezePlayer were fixed. I'm so happy right now.

i do not get it what the fuzz some weapons of the same creator works verty well and others don't

nevertheless i must congratulate the GO team the upgrade seems to be a good things

There was another PP update. It is now version 2018-07-19

Fixes for this one:

* Amended screens to remove 'the easy game maker' from test game and multiplayer
* Fixed issue of enemies spawning 30 units above terrain if placed on terrain
* Save standalone now includes any appended models and final appended model
* Added simple Dragon Script to eventually teach basic animation of imported models

i do not get it what the fuzz some weapons of the same creator works verty well and others don't

and know i can not change the background textures anymore

nevertheless i must congratulate the GO team the upgrade seems to be a good things

well can any one explain to me why the heck some guns from the same provider work and others do not work

i went to see the fpe file, the textures in D, N and S and there is now logical reason to this happens

Need some help here

Thanks in advanced

If they are from the store then you need to contact the seller ( possibly BSP )
Its up to the creators to update their models.

I have BSP QuasarGun, which worked fine in the previous PP, but is also not displaying correctly in the Monster Update.

It seams to me that - at least in the case of the QuasarGun - that the _I map is not getting used. Anyway I logged the issue over on git hub and Lee marked it as a bug.

Reliquia....

Thanks Folks

Forgive me for posting it here and not on github, i'll have to retrieve my password because i forgot what it is. I've not be very active lately due to five little kittens running and playing around.

After loading the Death valley canyon map, everything near and that which i approach goes dark, i think this has to do with the bug we have seen earlier, that is, when nearing an dx9 entity it goes dark or in buildings the corners go dark when near a corner inside.

Thanks for the Updates Lee.

Issues no: 313
Dyanamic objects do not move after explosion other objects!
And like static objects are immobile.
They were thrown before the update.
Even the characters are fixed and can not be thrown.

I hope to be fixed in the new release.

Issues no: 310
Oh my god - - - again stopped my project ...
If the animation speed changes to the third person character.
The animation speed of all enemy characters also changes at the same time!!!
And vice versa.
This happens to all objects.

Explosion bug is fixed btw, I've pushed the fix so just up to Lee when you get it.

Thank you AmenMoses
Can you fix Issues no: 310?

I'm not Superman you know!

sounds like something superman would say!

Yup, I can confirm that, changing and applying the anim speed on any object also changes all other objects anim speed on the map.

. . . Amen Moses sig is "Been there, done that, got all the T-Shirts" I understand he has a t-shirt with a big red S on it.

CC is still not working correctly. Run it once okay, but run it a second time and all the options vanish. Pretty sure this has been a long standing bug now.

This is most likely because it is not a separate speed for animated models.
Also this should be frame rate independent. I posted the problem about
elapsed time not being handled correctly which causes a framerate slow down
here...
https://github.com/TheGameCreators/GameGuruRepo/issues/272

Lee commented that it affects animation. In my opinion this is a major bug.

No, Lee 'fixed' the code so that explosions the other side of a wall, for example, don't travel through the wall but the fix was a little too simple and had the side effect of knocking out the effect from exploding entities.

My 'fix' works in a very simple manner to semi correct the issue but in reality a much more complex fix is required, I may get around to doing that fix at some point but for now my simple 'fix' should correct most problems.

For those nerds that care the 'proper' fix is to check the status of the interfering entity (i.e. the wall) and only stop the explosive effect if it is a 'static' entity, which in the case of a wall it should be, any dynamic entity in the way should not effect the explosion. The problem is that you may have a dynamic entity sitting against a static one so the check needs to be recursive but I'm not sure yet whether that would hurt performance too much.

I don't know if Lee is going to explain what is new in the current PP. FYI: there is a new PP 2018.07.23 Monster Update

Just two more fixes in this one:

* Fixes for explosions, now damages surrounding entities again
* Added LUA commands to rotate spotlights dynamically

The full list is here:

* Amended screens to remove 'the easy game maker' from test game and multiplayer
* Fixed issue of enemies spawning 30 units above terrain if placed on terrain
* Save standalone now includes any appended models and final appended model
* Added simple Dragon Script to eventually teach basic animation of imported models
* Fixed DX11 depth buffer problems causing z-fighting.
* Added Dynamic lights can now reflect real PBR reflections on objects.
* Standalone executables now retain settings from realshadow setup
* Fixed problems of near camea clipping, and no longer a need to reduce camera distance
* Standalone games now have the window title set to the executable filename (removing - and _ symbols)
* When you save a level, it will now make a backup of the destination .FPM file before overwriting it
* Weapon artists can now omit the GUN_D reference in GUNSPEC file to use models own PBR texture refs
* Added support for runto, empty runto, runfrom, empty runfrom for move to run to move anim transitions
* Increased maximum permitted lines within a GUNSPEC file to 1000 lines
* Melee attack when in zoom mode now zooms out properly
* Can no longer zoom in during a melee attack
* Added brass delay functionality using new GUNSPEC fields BRASSDELAY and ZOOM BRASSDELAY
* Replaced Reload sound when no ammo with NOAMMO.WAV sound effect stored in player voices folder
* When firing in automatic mode, the last bullet fired now triggers LAST END FIRE animation
* Added SMOKESIZE to GUNSPEC to allow control of the size of smoke decal displayed
* Reintroduced DRY FIRE animations when the weapon is moving, but not running
* When building standalone executables, weapons specified inside ammo entities are no longer included
* When fixing weapon jam and in zoom mode, weapon zooms out before making the fix
* When using 'shareloadedammo' mode, both jamming and unjamming apply to both weapon modes
* Moved triggering of brass ejection to END of START FIRE animation (for weapon realism)
* When using the real physics flag for projectiles, particles now follow projectile objects
* You can omit the TEXTURED in projectile settings and it will use built-in PBR texture set from model
* Can now switch weapon modes, even when currently zoomed in
* Added 'explosionSize,explosionSmokeSize,explosionSparksSize' to projectile explosion settings (100 is default)
* Added 'doesnotuseammo and alt doesnotuseammo' to flag when a weapon mode does not use any ammo (fuel)
* Prevented player start capsule from initially offsetting by its collision center (already centered)
* NOTE: Above fix prevents player from sticking in single layer EBE building
* Repaired system which generates tangent and binormal vectors for lightmapped objects
* When in PBR mode, lightmapper now uses PBR shader and overrides AO texture channel for lightmap textures
* Fixed issue of smoothing groups (normals) being destroyed by lightmapping process
* Fixed issue of sprites eating TAB TAB sprites when using importer
* Fixed legacy OLD BRIDGE in CITYSCAPE to add forceobstaclepolysize value to improve obstacle generation
* Improved obstacle generation code so sunken entities generate obstacle shape at terrain height level
* Changed the AI_FANTASYCHARACTER.LUA script to use newer AI movement and avoidance technique
* NOTE: Above fix also prevents characters from flying high into the air (bad old movement system fail)
* Added new 'apbr_animwithtran.fx' shader to allow animating PBR models that use semi-transparency modes
* Added new FPE fields for "appendanimmax, appendanimX, appendanimframeX" to append animation files to model
* Improved FPE model loading to allow animations to be appended to the final in-game model (see Dragon)
* Added new DRAGON model which will be used to showcase the new FBX Importer improvements
* Added new 'appendanimfinal' field to FPE so appended animations can be saved for future faster model loading
* Added new Water Settings Slider to allow control of water level and water attributes
* Added new Water Settings LUA Commands to control the water and its attributes (22 new commands)
* Added 'water_change_lua.lua' script to demonstrate how to control water via LUA script
* Improved access to internal weapon settings (from command SetGamePlayerStateIsMelee through to GetFireModeSettingsActionBlockStart)
* NOTE: The above additions allow optional GunID and FireMode indices to access any weapon value stored internally
* Added support for COLLISIONMODE = 2 (physics sphere) and COLLISIONMODE = 3 (physics cylinder)
* Updated all barrels in default stock assets to use cylinder physics shape
* Added new mode 2 to 'forceloadtestgameshaders' to force COMPLETE recompile of all BLOB shaders
* Fixed issue of EBE structures not lightmapping correctly and corrupting the geometry
* Fixed issue in some scenarios where entity illumination map is not used in model
* Fixed issue of zoomout animation not working when switch firemode
* Fixed issue of zoomout using simplezoom mode of alternate during firemode switch
* Fixed issue of missing illumination map on multi-textured gun models
* Fixed issue of holding down SHIFT then press W to instantly run, now graduates from walk anim
* Fixed issue of letting go of W just as transition to run, now no longer glitches animation
* Reloading while running now transitions back to move animation before reload animation begins
* When switching firemodes while running, weapon transitions back to move anim, then back again
* After melee attack while running, animation transitions back to run animation smoothly
* When guns are switched, any brass still using physics is reset (fixes missing brass issue)
* Prevented old fire or melee random selector to mess animations right after switching firemode
* Ensured editing of weapon entity properties panel do not erase firemode one settings
* The Sun Factor Slider now only affects lightmapped objects (the intended target for this value)
* All per pixel lights now use PBR light reflections
* Setup.ini (maxtotalmeshlights) allow you to define the max number of lights a single mesh can have lit at any time
* Setup.ini (maxpixelmeshlights) allow you to set how many per pixel lights a single mesh can have lit at any time
* NOTE: If above number is exceeded everything will switch to way faster per vertex light
* Setup.ini (terrainoldlight) allow you to switch terrain to use the old fading light system, can be faster in some cases
* Setup.ini (terrainusevertexlights) set the terrain only use the way faster per vertex light system
* Setup.ini (maxterrainlights) allow you to set how many lights the terrain can have lit at the same time
* Setup.ini (terrainlightfadedistance) set the fade distance for terrain lights
* NOTE: Terrain light fade is only active if you use more then the total, if use less all light is always on
* Setup.ini (showstaticlightinrealtime) enable static light to always light unless in pre-bake mode, see the static light while editing
* Range and intentity is decreased by 30% to try to match light mapper
* Spot light added to all shaders
* Added Spot light selection box to GUI
* Support for "gun flash light","fireball dynamic light","explosion light". Now use the new light system
* Fixed pbroverride=0 so all shaders get support for the new light system
* Dynamic lights now remove shadows
* Toned down dynamic spot flash for traditional intensity
* Fixed issue of dryfire loop clicks when running with shotguns
* Fixed issue of idle frame glitch when transitioning between firemodes
* Fixed issue causing memory to be corrected due to new appendanim feature
* Corrected mesh issue with sandstone structure (17) entity
* Corrected mesh issues with the Galaxy Seed path entities
* No longer crashes if limb name uses LOD_0 thru LOD_2 but has no mesh
* Fixed GARBAGE entity so it no longer flickers or casts a shadows
* Added new 'usespotlighting' to FPE to allow light markers defaulting to spot
* Updated light markers so they have spot light forward if switch to spotlight
* CRITICAL : SCIFI DRONE level, crash when second drone fires at player
* Added new markers, including ones for images, text, ambient music and spot lights
* Fixed long standing light mapper issue causing rotated entities to use incorrect normals
* Removes left over dynamic lights from terrain when select New Level from FILE menu

A neater overview will be in the official announcement post too

Mr. Lee
You did a great work.
Thank you so much
good luck

nice work mr Lee congrats

most likely will be a boolean 1 or 0

It must be hard-coded as it's not in "Global" or "gameplayercontrol" lua commands. So I don't think changing the value would be a good idea anyway until we know exactly how it works.