Hi All,

For all GameGuru MAX pre-order users, you will now find a new Alpha Build 6 in the Product area of your TGC Account. Feel free to download it (at your own risk) and check out the additions.



In addition to numerous additions to the visual side for greater control of surfaces and lighting, we have finally moved to a proper installer arrangement with the core of the product being installed to the Program Files area, and a writable area reserved for any write activity. This ensures you do not need to run in administrator mode and conforms with Microsoft guidelines on products that create and modify files as part of its function.

We have also reactivated the ability to render 2D and render to quads for in-game graphics, which will now provide the ability for us to get the Welcome and Save Standalone systems up and running again, not to mention the multiplayer UI and in-game displays. As always, feel free to post your issues here and any questions you might have.

As a friendly reminder, I will be doing my live broadcast Wednesday 9th for anyone who is awake and around at that time, during which you can ask more questions live in the chat. You will find us (storms permitting) on our YouTube channel going live at 4PM BST.

Thanks Lee

Issues with the importer. Video attached. The EXE was run in both admin/non admin modes.


Basically, the entity does not save.
X64 bit software should be installed in program files.

Great stuff going on here Lee - looking awesome.

Few things:
64 bit software getting installed in x86 folder?

Engine wise - wow lots to play with! Colour grading, very cool!

Extract entity not working properly - can't extract and place entities inside other entities - they always want to go on top of other entities.

Classic sky boxes not compatible with max?

Looking forward to playing with this build.

OldFlak....

Can i please ask the location of this area ? nevermind i found it

if anyone else is interested it in \Documents\GameGuruApps\GameGuruMAX

and finally a controllable sun

Well Max 6 still doesn't run in demo mode very well ( it hasn't since alpha 4) , stutters and stops for several seconds and then continues . The visuals do look very good . The map editor runs smooth though .
Lance

ok so the write area seems to be C:\Users\<user name>\Documents\GameGuruApps\GameGuruMAX\Files\entitybank\user.

If I type in the name of entity in the search, it doesn't find it.

mmm my entitybank is in C:\Program Files (x86)\GameGuruMAX\Max\Files\entitybank



unfortunately that folder needs permissions so i think either it needs to be moved and referenced from code in the \Documents\GameGuruApps\GameGuruMAX\ or write permissions added to the folder, i can see issues downloading store items to the C:\Program Files (x86)\GameGuruMAX\Max\Files\ if you want to follow Microsoft's suggestion i would move the entire \files folder to the My Documents folder

A few questions:

To duplicate and entity: Is there a shortcut or do I need to use the duplicate function under the mode dropdown?
- Duplicate in place duplicates the entity at my cursor location, which is under the mode dropdown. It is a pain to keep going back to where I want the entity duplicated. Especially walls.
I miss the properties showing up like they do in GameGuru. Is it difficult to add a Right Mouse Click to display them?

Is the Terrain tool not working in this build?

Are there any shortcuts to move the camera to a top-down view rather than a 3D view at all times? I see that when you open a level it's at a top-down view

Is there any way to select more than one entity? For example, I had 3 barrels that I wanted to move up. So far it looks like I need to select one at a time. ***** I just checked and holding down Ctrl works but it takes some clicking that I need to get used to*****

Can the Middle mouse button be used for panning the area?

When building the game I can see my player marker and my entities. After I run the game the camera zooms out and I have to move the camera closer to where I was working with my player position and entities.

And lastly, in "cellar demo show 03" level a lot of the textures are missing. See images below.




Intel(R) Core(TM)i9-9980XE CPU @ 3.00GHz - Memory: 128GB -
Win10 - x2 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti - x2 Dell U-Series 38" Screen LED-Lit Monitor

Playing with shadows is cool, it would be nice to walk around my level though without getting bogged down. Another great build

Dave

I've run into to showstoppers for me: 1) using a custom folder for storing imported entities crashed MAX and 2) even when I use the default one, my entity won't come into left-side panel so it can be placed in the scene.

1) I entered my own path for storing entities when I attempted to import my own. When I clicked save, I got an error telling me it could not find the path. But the path was the default user entity path with my custom path added on to the end. So, it looked something like this:

default path\user\D:\Temp\MAX Entities\

Replace "default path\user" with whatever the actual path is (very tired right now and too lazy to look it up at the moment ).

After clicking on the error, MAX simply disappeared.

2) I decided to use the default path to store my entity. I brought it into MAX, named it, added the materials, and hit save. The entity showed up at the very bottom of the entity list when the + is clicked. However, once I clicked on the thumbnail, nothing was added to the left-side panel and, as a result, I could not place my entity into the scene.

EDIT - BTW - I did not install MAX in the default location. Not sure if that matters, but I thought I'd add it anyway.

EDIT2 - Reinstalled using default location. Still cannot use imported entities. So, ignore the first EDIT.

BTW - Can the installer be made to check for a DirectX installation and skip offering to install DirectX if detected?

i did a review of the alpha 6, we have the sames problems !

1) Is there any way to prevent game guru from outsourcing files? I would like to not use this path: C:\Users\<user name>\Documents\GameGuruApps\GameGuruMAX\Files\entitybank\user.
2) EBE laggs. Sometimes I only have 10 fps when I build a floor on a clear map.

I had the same problem as @thatandplaygames. But the problem was fix it when I tray to create a building by myself. Sudently the testures appear again

I'm glad to see that snapping is working when using the gizmo to move about. Thank you. Two things, please:

- 1) Can we get snapping in the UP direction, too? Currently, snapping only works along the two "ground" axis, but there are times when I need to snap when moving an entity along the Y axis (is MAX a Y-Up system?).

- 2) Can we get a checkbox to lock all axis for grid snapping so we don't have to adjust all axis' snapping individually if we don't want to?

Thanks.

Well, just as the sake of testing a bit:

Mesh in GG



Mesh in GGMax



Mesh imported as X file



Mesh imported as FBX
GGMax kindly closes up.

As a side note, the weather doesn't work right, it looks like particles don't being rendered yet.

Alpha 6 is a great start, but for the most to be able to test it properly DO NOT install into the default location, change the install location to a folder or drive that you as the user have FULL write permissions, only then will you be able to test Alpha6 with assets etc..

This is a first test of the installer, its is nice clean and tidy, unfortunately Windows 10 security features are a total pain for developers, to make more difficult for malware writers and 'script kiddies' to cause harm windows 10 IO structure is very tight, i think the 'FILES' folder in its entirety needs to be moved to the users My Documents folder including all user editable INI files.

The best option would be to change the installer slightly to have 2 locations
'Program Directory' - usually Program File (x86)
'Data Directory' - usually 'USER' folder My Documents, My Pictures etc...

the default data directory could be \GameGuruApps\GameGuruMAX\ but also give a custom choice for the more 'tech savvy'

Most Local 'Home' drives (C:\) are SSD nowadays prices have come down but the most popular size is 240GB simply because of pricing, systems usually sold with a small SSD come with a secondary either mechanical drive or hybrid of at least 1TB the systems are usually setup with all 'Home' folders location set to the secondary drive (if the system was setup correctly) so the My Docs, My Pictures etc.. are usually setup on the larger drive.

People with the default location of C:\ (especially if it is a small SSD) are going to run out of space very quickly once they start downloading GB's of store assets and MegaPacks.

Also on another note, those that are getting CPU spikes it is a known problem it is being worked on and there is no need to keep reporting it , the issue is caused by a lot of 'non' visible objects that have been prepared for the particles system, its a culling method that needs to be refined.

Doesn't steam\gg write to Program Files(x86) folder?

OldFlak....

Steam uses the 'SteamApps folder' hence why most users have to run Classic with admin rights, other people have steam install there apps on a different drive all steam apps can be moved to other drives

And to be totally honest steam had its own issues with Windows 10 the steam client now actually runs as admin on a PC

Yeah, I always use the default setup location for GG, and never have to set permissions for it. And I can edit files directly in the GG folder with no issues.

So perhaps they can set MAX to run with admin rights same as Steam?

Maybe there be different permissions for users setups, but steam get around it somehow.

Just wondering is all

OldFlak....

I have taken a look at Max to check out how custom image created for GG compares with same image brought in to Max.
Can't say I am overly impressed.
Hope first beta release does a better job...

Edit Son of a gun, the more I dink around the better it gets

Screenshot left = GG Screenshot right = Max

Havent been able to test properly as max crashes the AMD drivers with a blue screen.5.9 works perfectly have the latest drivers and windows updates installed.Everything else works fine definitely an issue with max.

I'm getting an issue when I attempt to edit an entity in MAX. When I click the Edit Properties button, the selected entity either disappears (only the bounding box can be seen) or partially disappears (only some faces of the entity can be seen). This makes it very difficult to make changes since you cannot see them. When adjusting things, like the amount of the Normal, the entity may appear ... or not. So, this is not working very well in this alpha.

It's great that we can copy/paste entities in the viewport. Thank you for this. Now, would it be possible to get a "duplicate" function that would work something like - hold down a key (like CTRL) and drag on a gizmo axis handle and drag off a duplicate? This would make it extremely fast to create copies of entities and place them in a level.

Copy and Paste does not respect the scale of the entity. Therefore, if you've added an entity to your scene and have scaled it up or down, when you copy/paste, the pasted entity is at the default scale. When copying/pasting an entity from within the scene, it should copy the scale and rotation of the object, too.

I tested this version 6.0 it's going to be really short !

I short therm, it doesn't work anymore !

5.9 i imported my heavy obj object door, with the pbr materials in one click !!

NOW with the version 6, IMPOSSIBLE to load the entity in the engine, i import the object inside the engine, it's visible with the textures then i try to load the object in the scene, thumbnail is not generated, object is not there !

ALSO the BUG when the player is walking is BACK i stay stuck i put a bench from gg max entity and walked in and got stuck !

ALSO the biggest problem is the software FREEZES my computer, it happens randomly, it freezes for 2-3sec then restart, i have window10 32gb ram corsair 3333 ghz, 11gb ati 1080 ti... ssd 500gb nvm2 +1tb
Nothing works, end of story !

Take a look at the answers here

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/222149

Dave

I had similar issues as @imothep85, So i un-installed then re-installed NOT in the default folder, but to My "D:/" Drive. also works on "C:/" and just let the installer create the "GameGuruMAX" folder there. All worked fine after that. I believe it the new Windows Admin and write protection system within Windows now.

MAX loaded in FPSC levels no problem using my Autowelder program. Nice one

Hello! Quick question: will the standalone MP aspect of MAX be available from launch? I want to work on my map with GG classic and then implement the networking stuff through MAX. Will that be possible?

I dont think we have not had a definitive conformation of that yet either way. ?

X64 bit software should reside in program files not program files (x86) if truly is 64 bit. Anyway I totally uninstalled and installed in my root drive. Having 2 locations with entitybank makes no sense to me. Texturing is getting messed up. Doesnt like some old 24 bit dds files , has 2 be 32 bit. So after converting seems to work ok.

Indeed

Don't muck around - make MAX True 64bit

jmo

OldFlak....

"Don't muck around - make MAX True 64bit"

Hmmm... well- yeah? What would they do? Make a faux backdoor bypass
to appear 64 bit? Have to wait and see when the premier is available.
I guess the test would be if it's launched from x86 and runs.
Best test might be to register how much memory a level can equip.

Edit: just adding another pic, this is done via PowerShell.



Another one, this time via sigcheck tool:

My understanding is that if software resides in X86 folder it must have 32BIT dependencies. If not it belongs in Program Files.

The last thing you want is to go setting up real levels, and down the track decide to put MAX in the correct System Folder, which is Program Files for true 64BIT software.

My guess is MAX will still contain 32BIT code from Classic. So is probably in the correct place
Perhaps just the graphical side of MAX is 64BIT?

OldFlak....

How to check if a binary is 32 or 64 bit on Windows?

yes, checked this already and is definitely 64bit EXE, so why program files (x86) folder? still I installed to root C: drive.