Hi All,

I am very pleased to announce the release of Alpha Build 4, which is now available from your TGC Account Product page. Be aware that this is an alpha build only which means it is function incomplete, may (will) crash, and does not represent the final software of the product. If you are not comfortable with alpha builds, we recommend you wait until you see announcements of the first beta build.



This version cautiously activates a number of extra features that you can try out, such as the Import Model button from the toolbar which you can test with some of your own OBJ or GLTF models. Best to avoid the FBX format for now as it's playing naughty. In addition, you will notice you now have some sample entities to select and add to your level and a basic widget system for positioning the entities. You also get a simple but functional Test Game so you can run around the level you have created.

Again, for those of a mind to post outrage at the fact Alpha Build 1 had lots of functionality and Alpha Build 4 has almost none, best you avoid alpha build news until we start to release beta builds which by their nature are 'function complete' builds of dev progress.

Things To Do:

1. First, you can check out the IMPORT MODEL feature and find some OBJ or GLTF models you want to get into GameGuru MAX. Select the model file from the Importer file requester, give the new entity a name, then click SAVE. You can then find the entity in your users folder, copy in the textures the model requires, and then open the FPE and specify the "_color.xxx" texture to instruct the entity which texture to use. We are improving the importer so all this becomes automated.

2. Second, you can now add new entities to the scene and then press the Test Game button to wander around your creation. We have even dropped in some early Cellar Demo entities so you can try those out too, see if you can make your own cellar scene. Watch out you do not get stuck in the physics as most imported objects are set to polygon which makes them very inefficient for collision.

3. Thirdly, try using the Widget Gadget for repositioning the entity. It uses the Wicked raycaster for faster entity discovery and also for surface placement when you add a new one from the library. There is no rotation or scale, or properties yet, we want to get the position right before proceeding.

Downloading now...

I'm on https://www.thegamecreators.com/account/dashboard and don't see it. I don't even see where it showed my purchase of GGMax

It should be in the products tab.

I'm on https://www.thegamecreators.com/account/dashboard and don't see it. I don't even see where it shows my purchase of GGMax.

I got it on april 20th. The site says "Orders placed before April 2010 when we started using a new order system are not currently available, they will return soon."

A few things on my first tests:

I downloaded, unzipped, and it ran fine. Alpha 4b was reporting I was getting almost 400 fps, even after I started adding elements to the scene. However I noticed these two things:

- When I add my first model to the scene (i.e. dragged a stock barrel onto the floor) the right-side editor panel disappears. Is this on purpose to keep us from using it during the alpha?

- When I run the simple Test Game, elements are floating in the air even though they are not in the editor (non-test game - see images below):

Entities in the editor:


Entities when using Test Game:


As you can see, it's only the barrels that are floating. Everything else is staying grounded.

Products tab says "No products are available for download yet."

Hate to be that guy, but this thread is for testing and reporting on GameGuru MAX alpha 4b. If there's an issue with you not being able to access MAX since you've purchased it, then it would make sense to contact them directly with your problem via their method of contact (there's a CONTACT button right at the top of the forum, too). I would think you'd get a quicker response that way then posting in a forum thread where the TGC guys might not check for a bit.

@thatandplaygames
Did you order using the same email address as your TGC login.
Thats how they know which account to put it in ?
If not then contact Support as stated

Did a test and imported an OBJ file of a old plank of wood model I had. When I use the importer, the model shows up completely textured:



But after I name it and add it to my library, if I drag it into the scene, it is not textured:



Is this because the importer is not moving the materials over to where it saves the model?

Side note - I'm a bit concerned that the model is touching the ground, but the shadow begins a distance away from the model instead of at its base. I've noticed this a few times with demos you've done and here.

Side note 2 - If I select the model I've imported (so that the gizmo shows up) and then press DELETE, MAX crashes. This happens with any entity. If you attempt to delete something, it instantly crashes MAX for me.

First AVG gives me this:



Then I get this error.

@MadLad Designs - Not that you should have to do this, but did you attempt to run the EXE as Administrator?

As far as AVG - Doesn't that find just about everything to be dangerous?

@ MadLad Designs
I guess it happens because an exe file, by default these kinds of files are taken as dangerous.
Try disabling AntiVir and running alpha4.

I'm going to download/testing, and so on, back when done.

@MadLad Designs

AVG, AVAST are now the same company and for some reason they do not like Visual Studio compiled EXE files especially VS2019

I have avast and it was fine ..
However Windows 10 actually prompted me and i had to select " Run Anyway "

So going by what we see here can i assume what you see in the editor will be how it looks in game ?
No need for Lightmapping either ?

Well , this alpha(4) doesn't like me . Alpha build 1 and the cellar demo both work but alpha 4 doesn't like the test level mode. I can move around in the editor , place objects , rotate them but in test level the controls either stop working or they freeze up for several seconds before they work again and then again freeze up . Even without adding anything in the editor I have no control to move around in test mode . I have to control alt delete to end the editor .

Lance
Acer Predator Laptop Intel I7 64bit 16gb ram NVIDIA GTX 1060

That should be the case. The Wicked Engine uses real-time lighting and everything can cast a shadow. Since Wicked is driving the editor, too (the part where you place entities, etc.) then what you see in the editor should be exactly what you see when you export/run the game or run it in test mode. In the current alpha, Test Game runs directly in the editor itself.

Importing mesh as obj, alpha4b crash.



Not time yet to test the rest.

Now that was a surprise, less than a second from clicking the exe to it being loaded, that is quick!

1. Trying to delete an entity while it is on the cursor randomly causes Max to close without any message, trying to delete a placed entity does nothing.
2. Placing an entity randomly disabled WASD movement, minimizing to desktop (by clicking the minimize button on the top right corner of the window) and tabbing back fixes this.
3. The translation widget's a bit iffy, it doesn't seem to constrain to an axis all the time and uses the camera for it's orientation, so if you are lower than the widget and drag the red handle towards you it moves in that axis but gets its height from the angle of the camera and the horizon meaning it raises it as it drags towards you.
4. The entity library still doesn't recognise folders inside the user folder, we need to be able to sort our entities within the user folder, otherwise it will end up in a mess.
5. When entering test game entities placed on the ground are raised above the ground.
6. Tabbing out of GasmeGuru in test mode randomly causes a runtime error (3010 i think it was) and closes back to the editor, at which point your entities are missing.
8. When an entity is on the cursor and you bring it close to the camera, if your cursor is near the bottom left of the screen the entity will raise and lower instead of moving back and forward when pushing the mouse back and forward.
9. This is just a comment as i know FBX is a little iffy right now, but i thought i would add it for information to help you troubleshoot, Some FBX models don't appear to be lining the textures up with the UV's so the texture is out of line on the models. Plus they're not repeating, so if the UV is off the edge of the texture then that part of the mesh will be invisible, it should repeat when UV's are off the texture so that we can use trim sheets and cube maps which is common in game entities.

On the plus side, my models are looking awesome in Max

On quick download/ run , upon exiting, the prompt box appears, but selecting no doesnt quit the program. No time to fully test yet, but will tomorrow at some point .

I have managed to import the object as OBJ by pasting the path into the text box.
And this is what it shows me:

In GG



In GGMax alpha1



In GGMax alpha4b



I have placed various cellar's items , and it works fine.

As for the position, the object moves and is positioned quite well.

Happened to me also (finally got MAX to load).

Just tried it out and had this issue as soon as I clicked the rocket.

Then in editor the npc had also lost textures.

So defo something is happening with textures even when using built in stuff.

Edit - Yepp can confirm it crashes when you hit the del key to delete an object. The character in this case.

Yes, it does.

I also tried to change/comment some settings in the fpe file after importing my mesh, and alpha4b crashed.

I wouldnt worry about del keys crashing or what side effect other keys have etc.
Non of that has been integrated yet. Keys looking for things that are just not there.

Most likely. Even so, this is an alpha and since we are not told all of what is and isn't "connected", then it is best to report it. It does no harm.

Played around with it a little copied over some entities I have been working on, found a bug, max doesn't like dbo files directly exported from fragmontion, copied over the obj file edited the fpe and it worked.

Overall I am pretty happy with the new rendering engine, just some thing a little odd models have a blue-ish color.

Finally !

Alpha 4 works with my PC, all previous versions wouldn't even open.
Note: When I first ran alpha 4, it opened immediately but the screen was frozen with three empty windows open - but these were un-closable.
To partially solve this, I renamed the cellar demo folder to 'cellardemoxxxxx' ie effectively removing it. Alpha 4 then ran and allowed me to import a simple .obj model any of the included models and character. By changing the name of the folder, I have no proper lighting other than a dim level of ambient illumination that just enabled me to see the level working. I have a FPS of just under 200 with a few entities included.
Strange but some progress

I have a feeling that is because Lee has left some lights in from the cellar demo so that we have some light source to text by.

Anyone tried the good old Snap feature " B" Works really well and a good solid SNAP !!
Much better than GG.

findings so far during a quickish test:

static model DBO's only seem to import in ok (tested on old FPSC Cylinder (PBS-Physically Based Shading). OBJ's come out strange or bombs out. Not tried FBX, probably no point at this pont. To texture , I had to do what Lee stated in 1st post i.e. save entity and copy over the texture and edit the FPE. Texture had to be named <texture name>_color.<texture suffix>. Widget only attaches to model once saved and had to exit and rerun alpha to see textured.



Not tried the snapping function, maybe later. back to work

I hope so, not that it is bad by any means, even if it has that color it would be cool. One thing that is cool, is how much better the textures pop compare to classic.My only concern is how lee is going to manage to release this in September, according to steam the release is the second.

All I can say is good Luck !!!, I will play around with the demo later tonight especially want to test out the surface textures.

What I did before importing the obj model was create the folder with the textures, thumbnail (64x64), and then point the import file to there, and it works fine.

So far so good, snap works really well, crashed out when I imported a .x file but that might be me, otherwise all seems fine so far, and a greatly improved FPS too, even on my intel i3 intel 4 core 2.20Ghz CPU (lowest setting before boost is applied) with intel UHD 620HD GPU, seems to run extremely well. Great work Lee & Co.

tried a few GLTF models from github download glTF-Sample-Models-master. It's a bit hit and miss, most are not showing in editor. The ones that do are half-sunken into the terrain. Others cause a runtime error 7002() causing Max to bomb out..



The above 2CylinderEngine GLTF model imported in ok, but post saving entity to user area and bringing back into engine casued Max to bomb out also.

Attached are my PC specs and screenshots.

At full screen, it was a little slow. Monitors are 34". The red can floated. The character had no texture map.

Attached are my PC specs and screenshots.

At full screen, it was a little slow. Monitors are 34". The red can floated. The character had no texture map.

Thanks for your feedback so far, nothing I have not seen myself, so we can safely say this is very much an alpha Model importing will take some smoothing over many months I feel as there are so many out there, but we will certainly be better off with the power of AssImp behind us! I hope the next alpha will restore a lot more functionality for you, and a lot fewer opportunities to crash out.

That's a great sign then if we haven't found anything you were not aware of.
Really looking forward to the next one

Same here, when trying to import gltf file.
It looks like gltf file has a lot of stuff, then will require some learning, at least for me.
And, in order to help in the process 3ds max 2015 does not have gltf exporter built-in. There are some tools out there but giving support to 3ds max 2018+.
I even found many others like this one from KhronosGroup, but all of them imply deal with code and mate 36 deg here in Catalonia, my head might explode coding now. (TODO, in wintertime) LOL.

I think Blender has support for gltf files, but ignore how straightforward the import process is.

GLTF 2.0 is relatively new (only a few years old) so it makes sense that 3ds Max 2015 would not support it natively. Have you looked to see if anyone has developed a plugin that does, though?



The latest versions of Blender have GLTF 2.0 export and there was an add-on for v2.79 (and earlier?). The thing is, you can treat GLTF like OBJ and FBX and just export standard models, materials, and animations (FBX), but GLTF goes beyond this and allows you to export PBR materials, too. But you have to learn the workflow required by each 3D software to get it to export properly. There is a difference between, for example, MODO's Shader Tree and how you set up materials in Blender's Cycles. So, you have to learn how to set up everything for export from your 3D program of choice to ensure what you export out will work properly where you import it.

I'm going to get some sort of 3ds max plugin thru BabylonJS for 3ds max 2015, I'm going to download and install it.


I know I have a learning curve to get it working properly, as I stated above.

I'm not sure if GLTF is having a future.
You can import it in Unity only with 3rd prty plugins.
The unity developers stated that they integrated GLTF and made deep tests. Then they decided it's a format with good ideas but not stable enogh. It needs much more development - wich not seems to happen - to use it.

Unity is not the only engine in town, last I checked. Unreal has GLTF import. So does Godot. Assimp already supports GLTF and, as a result, several engines can easily import GLTF. Most 3D modeling applications now have GLTF export either natively or via a plugin/add-on. So, I'd say that GLTF has a future. From some of what I was reading, it seems more like Unity is the problem (i.e. the developers) more so than GLTF. From some of the developers of other 3D engines that I've talked to, GLTF was pretty simple to implement, quite stable, and very feature rich.

In any case, the "new" kid on the block seems to be USD by Pixar for a universal 3D file format exchange.

@Argent_Arts I think the floating barrel issue may be the included script. Pretty sure it had a floating/bobbing script attached in the original demo. So it's probably still running it.

Might need to slow the movement down a tad in overhead mode (pressing g).

For static ..Obj ,every program uses it. As for animated you can only guess ,new ones popping up all the time. All claiming to be the best

Dave

GLTF is just an option ,
You can still use good old DNSI, PBR even .png's so far from what i have tested. Its not like its a showstopper either way but good to be an option as well

@synchromesh:



I'm not following (even coffee is not waking me up today ). I'll be frank, I'm not sure what DNSI is. PBR and PNGs? These are for materials/textures. GLTF is a file exchange format for 3D models, which includes materials/textures, but a ton more, too. It supports 3D geometry, of course, but also materials (PBR and otherwise), animations, lights, and more. It can export/import both individual 3D objects (static or otherwise), but also complete scenes.

@granada:



Sure, every program supports OBJ, but OBJ also has some limitations. For example, OBJ only supports a single UV map. Thus, if you have a static object with multiple UV maps, you can't use OBJ and expect a proper export.

As far as animations, not sure where you see new ones popping up all the time. FBX has been around for a long, long time. The problem many developers have is that you have to pay a license fee to Autodesk to implement it and they keep updating it (requiring changes if you want to support the latest and greatest). Other than that, there is Collada (DAE), GLTF, and now USD (which is designed to be an exchange format for huge data exchange between studios, primarily). Each 3D modeling program has it's own file format (.max, .lwo, etc.), but these need not be considered. There may be others (.X, .3DS, etc.), but these are older and outdated formats. So, no, they really aren't popping up all the time. The only real main ones to consider for 3D and animation seem to be FBX and GLTF (and possibly USD) for modern file format import. Other than that, .X for legacy and possibly .dae (Collada).

@Argent_Arts .your right about Obj, I have always thought about one combined texture .rather than multiple textures . Probably not that important these days

Dave