Hi All,

For those who missed the live broadcast and chat, here is a recording of the video, and below I have provided answers to all the questions asked during the live chat:


And here are your answers, it looked like we could answer them all in the chat but they kept on coming, so enjoy the belated revelations below:

Q> Will it be possible in the future for Max (or as well as Classic) to have more than 1 type of sound for walking on terrain?
A> Yes we are aiming to bake material ID data into the virtual terrain map so we can then trigger footfalls based on the type of surface being walked on.

Q> Iis that some raycasted lighting going on there?
A> No raycasting, it's still too slow on older graphics cards. The Cellar Demo shot is Wicked Engine doing its thing with a great artist - watch this space for more!

Q> Will we get another “Beta” version before release?
A> Yes, we are planning another alpha so you can help test the functionality as it all comes back online, and then a beta is planned which we are marking as function complete. Stay tuned for news about that!

Q> Does Max use Wicked's forward rendering, deferred rendering or can we choose?
A> It uses the Forward Rendering approach so we get more anti-aliasing choices. We 'may' expose more Wicked features in MAX in the future depending on the priority of other tasks. Our goal this time is to avoid adding new features and making sure the existing ones are 100% and as far from half-baked as it's possible to get (MAX Goal = Fully Baked).

Q> Can you confirm whether the max particle system will be based on wickeds current one? or similar to the current classic version? Also will particles be available on release?
A> We are planning to use the exports from the Particle Editor (available currently from the AppGameKit universe) to create our MAX particles, as it will enable you to create and craft your particles in a cool editor before importing them into your MAX games. We are planning particles to be part of the release, yes.

Q> When is game guru max actually coming out?
A> We plan to release it in September 2020.

Q> ​What are the new VR developments?
A> We have just finished the controller abstractions and making sure they work with the various manufacturers. Alas it looks like our OpenXR development will be slowed by some platforms delaying the release of a near-finished runtime which OpenXR needs to support specific hardware. It works great on Oculus and Windows Mixed Reality runtimes, however, which is nice!

Q> Will trigger zones check for heights, so it will only work on one floor of a building for example?
A> The new scripts that come with the release will only trigger for players who are over the zone, not under it or miles above it.

Q> ​Will this have Lua as the scripting language still or AGK?
A> GameGuru MAX will continue to use the LUA scripting language as the method of creating logic for your games. It's a great programming language, easy to use, pretty flexible and we have LOTS of scripts and scripters in GameGuru land now

Q> Will enemies in max have the same animations like in classic?
A> Yes, enemy characters will have the same scripts and behavior as before. The new characters from the character creator will have different behaviors designed more for storytelling and non-violent experiences, but we will be expanding that logic as we move forward.

Q> Will gameguru have a demo?
A> Yes we plan to release a free trial version of GameGuru MAX on or very shortly after release so you can try before you buy.

Q> What properties for lights will be available on the right? Turning shadows on and off, etc?
A> You will be able to select of the light can cast a shadow as that will be important for performance tweaking, but for a good list of light attributes you can change look at Classic as we plan to support all of those. Additional lighting attributes in the Wicked Engine may be supported in the future.

Q> ​How do i pre-order?
A> You can visit the main GameGuru website (www.game-guru.com) and click the PRE-ORDER button.

A> Will we be able to use our Dlc assets from old game guru?
A> Yes you will be able to copy your asset folders and mapbank folder over to MAX and then load the level into the new engine. There will be some issues with certain things such as the old Character Creator creations, and perhaps some small changes to the terrain, but generally you will be able to pick up from where you left off.

Q> When do you think the next alpha or beta will be available?
A> The next alpha will be very soon, hopefully within a week of typing this

Q> What will be the price of gameguru max on steam for Brazilians?
A> We cannot confirm Steam prices right now, best you check it out when we launch on Steam before deciding to buy.

Q> Will you make new guns for max?
A> We are making one new pistol for MAX which shows how to make weapons for non-VR and VR modes. Naturally, all the old weapons once copied over will work for backward compatibility.

Q> ​What does a simple prop 3D Entity file structure look like? Is the mesh still a .X format? .fpe? Textures in .DDS? Will normal, spec, diffuse still work?
A> It will look similar to GameGuru Classic except you will notice a new _surface.dds texture for best wicked engine rendering, and the built-in AssImp importer will create DBO files for all models for quick loading and predictable model data within the engine.

Q> ​Can you make hybrid traditional gameplay/VR gameplay, as in one level is VR and some others are traditionally played?
A> There non-VR and VR gameplay will be different, so at the outset the user decides if they want to play the game in VR or non-VR. The VR option will only be available in the game has the correct assets chosen (i.e. if the weapon used is an old non-VR weapon the VR mode experience may suffer).

Q> ​How does character collision work with buildings and structures? Can they go up stairs and walk around 3d meshes?
A> Character collision works much the same as the way it works in Classic, a capsule in physics against whatever shape the scene physics has, and character can go upstairs and back downstairs if they have waypoint nodes and floor zones connecting them. There are no plans to allow characters to walk inside 3D meshes.

Q> Will we have new controls over how we handle text in Max ? Paragraphs/text boxes?
A> You can use LUA scripting to create lots of text on the screen in whatever layout you chose. In MAX, we are replacing bitmap fonts with TrueType fonts for the text. You can create script which can cut up text into several lines, and this will be demonstrated in a new Question Answer object and script that is provided with MAX on release.

Q> Will you make new guns for max?
A> There are no plans to make new weapons for MAX beyond the metal pipe and pistol that will ship with the product. We are creating a guide and template files so you or your artist can create new weapons for your games. If you want to see Weapon DLC for MAX, please let us know so we know there is a demand for this.

Q> Will collision detection be available out of the box for VR mode? So people can't walk through walls?
A> The collision system will work the same for non-VR and VR modes, but the idea of the head pushing through a wall using the HMD positional tracking is something we have not solved yet. Some players like the freedom to get 'real close' to surfaces.

Q> ​We need area and directional lights on top of what we have, at a bare minimum!
A> There are no plans for area or directional lights on release.

Q> We should have a directional light instead of the sun so we can easily choose the light direction!
A> There are no plans to allow the sun directional light to be removed and is tied to the settings of the sky chosen (for release).

As a final note, the subject of lighting and the control of how lighting is employed is an exciting area, and the wicked engine exposes lots of cool ways to play with lighting. Our aim for release is to complete functionality, and only when all existing functionality is in place and working will entertain adding new features and options to GameGuru MAX. The community has voted for a fully-baked product, and to help achieve that aim, new features will be pushed away in favor of improving what exists in the first release (which may indeed include the minimum level of control over the sun and other key aspects).

Looking forward to it as always

I vote YES for Weapons DLC, I would buy for sure.
It's all Looking Great!
Thanks for the update!

Frankly, I don't see the need to offer the end-user a variety of colored point lights to add to a level. Why clutter up this area with a bunch of colored lights? Instead, offer a single point light set to a default color and then let the end-user adjust that color via the right-side property panel. It would unclutter that section of the marker panel, too.

Yes, echo that, maybe a colour picker (circular).

You could also do this with zones. Just have 1 'Zone' marker and have a drop-down from the properties panel once placed to choose the type. This drop-down could be added to to create more zones as time goes by.

@Lee - a question - Will there be sprite support in GG Max, I haven't seen anything about sprites as yet, hope you can add collision between sprites too.

Can't see yet if wp will work just a terrain height, or it will work let's say in building stairs?
Does de CC come with templates plus some guides to create attachments?
Does the _surface.dds texture will be done by the engine itself ? , if so, can engine packing some textures within _surface.dds?

I haven't yet seen a Copy and Paste groups of Entities selected...
We surely must have this if not dynamic entity spawning via Lua-
and preferably both!

99 bottles of milk in the stall, 99 bottles of milk. Take one down-
pass it around- 98 bottles of milk in the stall.

@3com It would be nice to know if waypoints are improved or identical to GG. I must admit I rarely use them these days as they tend to cause more trouble than good. With npc's often getting stuck in anim-less patrols etc. Floor zones were the method around height issues but many including me, possibly felt they were a bit cumbersome to say the least. Even with it working 100% you still have the issue of having loads of zones all over the place preventing you from changing entities underneath easily. You can lock them of course but even that is generally a pain to use. Re-load the level and they are unlocked (good in one way, bad in another).

I recommend a different system so zones can be effectively turned off when in entity mode etc. That way they shouldn't interfere with fine tweaking of the entities nearby.

What I would like to ask, as it's a little bugbear of mine when working on several projects at the same time is this; When we save a map, will all settings, lighting shader effects and such save along with the game?
At the moment I change the bloom for example in one game and it is ruined in all the others! This is something anyone who works on several maps or games will have noticed at some point. In fact this would be a good fix for GG as surely that is not supposed to be the case? I'm not talking about altering the shader fx files here just the settings in GG.

I'm so used to it, I rarely touch the settings sliders at all now. Which is a bit of a shame as that's mainly where you get the look of your game more "fancy".
3 projects that I consider current and still ongoing.
A beat em up side-scroller written in lua from the ground up. Sunny bright levels (so far).
A side scroller re-make of an old 2600 game. In the snow, bright, but more foggy (have to disable the fog so it doesn't ruin the other 2).
An overhead TPP shooter. Not decided on settings yet, as changing them messes both the above ones up.
In fact this may well be a bug that has either been missed or is still awaiting fixing. I can't remember having the same issue in the past.

@ DVader
I would like NPC climbing stairs and chasing me if they can do it even without wp, why not with wp?
https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/217686

You are right about GG/GGMax saving your game settings and applying them when you load the game level.

+1 to saving level settings per project.

I would rather be able to create, modify and add my own weapons/pickups into MAX, and drop them straight into an animated pair of hands, so providing the documentation is comprehensive including either pics or videos along with the .pdf I'm not fussed about a weapons DLC. If its relatively straight forward I would always prefer to be able to utilise custom content and I imagine if this will be the case, there will be an exciting and buoyant section of the TGX store as well

Understandable for release, since development time for Max has been quite short. However, I sincerely hope that the Max team seriously considers other lights than simple point lights. Area lights and directional lights are important as lighting/shadows are probably one of the most important aspects of making a visually appealing and immersive experience in a game. Point lights can get you a long way, but area lights and directional lights can really bring it home.



Can't the sun be turned off? If the end-user wants a totally interior level/scene, then why have a sun at all? If my game takes place on a spaceship deep in space, I may not be interested in having the sun cast any shadows or affect lighting at all. So, why can't the sun be an option?

What's the difference between spot lights and directional lights?
Can't they both be rotated? If you mean that the focus should
be adjustable, then that is understood.

Directional lights effect the whole scene in the direction you point them, spotlights project a circle of light in the direction you point them, area lights effect the light in an area around their position.

Here here
I'm particularly enjoying Wicked Engine's tube lights and rectangular/area lights, we could definitely do with those in the near future. Also we shouldn't overlook lightmapping as a way to save resources. No matter the engine, dynamic shadow-casting lights are always going to be expensive from a resource perspective, so rather than bin lightmapping altogether, we should look to use a mixture of pre-baked and dynamic lights within a scene for maximum performance. Here's a scene I made in Wicked that relies on Wicked's own lightmapping capabilities, supplemented with a sparse use of (non shadow casting) dynamic lights to add ambience.


Another, more moody example:


Good broadcast over all. The position UI on the right probably doesn't need the XYZ written out twice as it is now, but other than that, it's looking promising. Agree with other comments re. a colour picker for lights.

AE

Weapons DLC for MAX...
+1 for sure! Plus the fact that you can import all of your old weapons like the Enhanced Weapons Pack series or BSP’s weapons, it gives us a lot of choices for for classic, traditional gameplay.

-Rhett R., Outlaw Software

+1 fir me too but better to have a generic easilty moddable hands rigs to can EASILY add our weapons to them and matching animations according...
this should solve all possible weapons lack due everyone could add generic purchased weapons and integrate them in his project

Not sure I'd like VR if you have floating hands only. I would imagine the opportunity to look down and see an actual body following you round would be way better and more effective. Even without VR it looks better but is rarely done
Loads of people liked the body script I wrote back in Reloaded days I would have though VR perfect for a similar idea!

Its not quite what you think. You do have arms as well in many cases but you really do not notice the fact there is no body.
In fact in the very few cases you do it looks and feels kind of silly.

it's because there's not really any tracking (included) for the body or legs in VR kits so trying to make it accurate to real life is very tough.
leaning forward in real life could be seen as moving forwards in game or how does it know if you're bending down vs lying down vs sitting down etc..
though yes a basic full body rig is cool it's not really needed and having your VR body do stuff that isn't what you're actually doing in real life generally makes it a worse experience than not having it at all

HL Alyx is probably the most immersive title I currently have and that is just a pair of hands and after a few minutes of playing it feels really natural.

Unless perhaps you're expecting your own body to cast a shadow?