Hi All,

Here is the recording of today's broadcast:


And here are the answers to the questions I did not have time to answer:

Q> ​Screen shake/flinch when taking damage would also be greatly appreciated?
A> Good suggestion, that one is going in

Q> Can we NOT have the heartbeat and blood screen this time .. Or at least be able to disable it.
A> Heartbeat is being replaced, and I will add a tick box to switch off the screen blood effect when hurt.

Q> ​Will we be able to customize the HUD?
A> We are planning to have a HUD editor which allows you to place down and use your own images, text and values for your game screen.

Q> Can you tell me about the export option of this software. thanks
A> When you have completed your game, you will be able to export as a standalone executable that you can share with your friends, or sell, as you see fit. We only support Windows 10 and above.

Q> ​Is the visual logic just for AI or everything else too?
A> You can use the visual logic system for any object, and the behavior editor for any dynamic object too.

Q> ​Are you planning to add custom interfaces creator?
A> Yes, we have what is called a Screen Editor which you will use to create your title and game menus.

Q> ​Will game guru MAX have basic shapes like box, sphere, cylinder e.t.c... well, basic standard shapes basically, because it would be a good way to make something in engine aside from structure editor
A> There are no plans to include basic shaped objects, only objects from the real world. We have a decent importer now so you can easily create shapes in a 3D modeller and import them as MAX objects.

Q> ​Will GG Max support IK rigging?
A> There are no plans to support Inverse Kinematics at this time.

Q> ​Can i do only shooters?
A> For the Early Access release you will only be able to do shooters, but we are engineering with RPG and Puzzle games in mind, which will be worked on in 2022.

Q> Is there are plans for RPG and other themes like Puzzles?
A> Yes indeed, watch that space in 2022.

Q> So will you be making the procedural terrain larger as it would be a shame not to extend it all?
A> The current terrain system already stretches to near infinity, and the editable area is 5km. Plenty of space to make your levels

Q> Also, any plans to include bullet tracers or other such effects that enhance the visual aspect of gunfights? Shame to see the "random" feeling GG classic combat return.
A> There are no plans for adding tracers to the new weapons shown today. The combat AI is far from complete at this stage, so expect much better soldier behavior in the weeks to come.

Q> How smooth would the character animation switching speeds be? like someone running and then attacking for example?
A> This is currently a fixed transition of 10 frames, but I plan to amend the animation system to allow this to be controlled on a per animation basis within the behavior editor commands so you can do quick transitions, and in other cases very slow transitions.

Q> ​AI ragdoll physics?
A> We are going to reinstate ragdoll, but there will not be much AI involved for the first release.

Q> Will they make a normal animation of the player's death?
A> As this is a first-person perspective, there is no player to animate a death for. Right now we simply cock the player's head then restart at the last spawn point when the player runs out of health.

Q> ​Will opening levels on trigger have more control, like will it be possible to see the level-triggered and opened in the engine lauched game mode, instead of only seeing it fully open in standalone?
A> You would do this in the Game Storyboard section, and intercept the transition from one level to another with a screen of your own design (if you wish).

Q> ​How much will gameGuru Max Cost?
A> The planned release price is $49.99.

Q> ​Can we PLEASE get Female Arms too?
A> I think that is a fair request. I was hoping the current arms would appear genderless but looks like we need to do a little more work there.

Q> Where can I sign up for testing?
A> Pre-orders have now closed, so there will no longer be access for new testers until we release the software into early access at the end of November.

Q> Finally, I've heard it talked about I think, but what's the stance on projected decals for blood/bulletholes again?
A> The Wicked Engine method of projecting decals is quite costly (it appears), so the system we will be looking to use will involve instanced quads in the scene, that decay over time.

Q> Will there be a transition system between levels with data retention?
A> All the player statistics and progress data will be retained for the lifespan of the game, and not limited to the scope of the level. So a weapon collected in level 1 will still be available to you in level 2.

Q> Is it planned to make weather affect surroundings, for example, rain making scenery wet?
A> There are no plans for weather to have a secondary effect on other game elements for the first release, it will simply be a visual effect to create drama in your levels. Down the road, we would like to see the wind affect trees and snow/rain affect surfaces but not for release.

Thanks for all your questions, more answers next Wednesday at 4 PM BST

Thanks Lee .. Always was a bit awkward to disable in classic and could be a little annoying

Some great additions in the weapons, I like the decals for water splashes and ground hits. Looking forward to the next terrain update too. Great work Lee & co.

That's an unclear answer, so does that mean bullet tracers will be supported by the engine but just not enabled for the stock weapons? Or that there's no plans for tracers at all? I'm really, really, really hoping it's the former, GGC's combat feels so "floaty" and "random" because there's barely any visual indication for where bullets are coming from or going. It's a hard feeling to describe, but it all relates to that elusive "gamefeel". (And to clarify, I don't mean tracers using actual projectiles, because that has a whole heap of other issues. I meant that bullet raycasts would have a "fake" bullet projectile to visualize where that raycast is coming from and going, look at nearly any shooter game made in the last 10 years as an example!)

EDIT: Gah! No matter what I do I can't get this video to embed properly, so here's just the link. It's a compilation of bullet tracer effects in a few games to demonstrate how they look and function. You can see how they register hits instantly, despite the "fake" bullet taking a brief split-second to reach it's mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVt2E6eu3ng



Hmm, how will those quads work on non-flat surfaces (such as terrain)? It would be very strange to shoot a character indoors and see blood splatter everywhere, but then shoot another character outside and everything stays perfectly clean. Perhaps a hybrid approach could work? Quads are used the vast majority of the time on flat surfaces when available, but when a decal needs to be applied to a non-flat surface such as terrain, it uses a projected decal, with a certain maximum amount of decals based on user graphic setting. (For example, on "High" it could be set to a max of 10 decals. When 10 decals exist and a new one needs to spawn, the oldest decal will be "destroyed" to make room for the new one. I think this would be far better than simply not having any blood/bulletholes/scorch marks on terrain or uneven surfaces whatsoever, or having a quad that obviously clips or "floats" above the surface.)

Sorry for being so wordy, I just really want clarification on some things, so I'm being very precise with my questions and explanations!

Been quite some time since I saw bullet holes vanishing from surfaces in games (although to be fair I don't play many these days). The Source Engine is pretty old these days yet is still fairly nice looking and bullet holes, as far as I can tell stay there forever or at least a long time, regardless of how I keep shooting. You can draw a picture on a wall if you want. There may be a limit but not seen one as such.

Ideally bullet holes would be added to the object texture (a temporary one in memory of course, not the original) That way you get as many as you want as long as the process of adding them does not slow things. Not sure how the (Source) Half Life engine does this of course, but it definitely works well and as said old, older than GG in fact. It could be as you say a projected decal, I don't really keep up with the naming conventions, I would call it a pasted sprite on a texture

Now, I'm being realistic. I don't think Max will get close to Sources speed in any way, but it is a slight concern considering we are in 2021 now, and we are comparing a (mostly) modern engine with a pretty old one. I'm down to 30 fps now terrain is in to start with and that for me is already enough to say I won't be doing a lot with it. 30 fps is not gonna cut it. I mean monitors go to insane refresh rates now 244hz? For certain 144hz. So to be hitting 30 or less with just a terrain is disappointing to say the least. Sure it looks nice, but so does the Unreal Western example and that has a bit of a town included as well and that keeps to 60 easily enough.

I'd like to be more positive about Max, but the closer we get to a finished product, the more I think it's going to be GG with a lick of paint It's all well and good to say the new improved graphics engine is more hoggy on GPU's than GG, but every other engine I see out there isn't and they hold up pretty well in the main. For me it's the entire package that's slower (can't blame the wicked engine folks). Because we are still using the original GG (and therefore some FPSC/DB Pro stuff) we are always gonna be stuck with some of it's faults. They should have started anew imo. Were getting all the bad points of GG holding back the new stuff in Max.

I could be jumping the gun. It could be that things will be vastly improved yet. But somehow I doubt it A pity because I don't think I have the patience to learn my way around another engine at this point and in honesty the rest are mainly meant for teams not one person.

I'm hoping I am wrong and it's teething issues with getting the new stuff added in, we will see. But that terrain is not gonna get much faster I would imagine. The infinity distance thing is also for me wasteful. Looks fancy, but if you can't traverse it, it may as well be a skybox and get some speed back from the bloaty terrain!

I really hope in the next few weeks or so I will be able to say something positive about Max!

At least a few soldiers make no odds to the severely reduced FPS, but they are just idling of course.

"30 fps, now that terrain is in."
While a few of us might additionally want some TREES, grass, bushes, rocks, buildings, etc in the scene... ? :-| Let's hope for MAX isn't minimum specs: 2070? Recommended: 3080. I have a 1650 with NO CHANCE for an upgrade. I have to install new wheel bearings on the family car @ a pop of $450 per wheel! (Priorities!) before buying this (FPSC v. 4)...?

There's quite a few things originally mentioned that is missing in MAX right now, and still won't be there upon 'release' date. I for one imagined (whether deluded or not) that a great, exciting new Character Creator would be available with the opportunity to plonk together potentially 100+ different Characters, and maybe even 1 or 2 Civilian Characters!?
There's a list of other things, but to not demotivate someone but instead keep it a little positive side, couldn't the directional flavor of MAX right now be if PUBG and DOOM had a baby? -- Minus the MMOG feature, ++ Add DOOM style creatures and monsters!! (serious marketing suggestion @TGC BTW). So maybe now we wait for Q4 2022...

This is the early days of max remember plenty of streamline to do and they gave minimum specs. This was to be the all bells and whistles gg. There are going to be pointing out t new bits to the cc max next week so lets not all jump loke i was a few months ago. You all had patience then so i will suggest the same. Im sure there will be opportunities to switch off unwanted parts. Im re skinning trees of old and getting good efx at moment. So i suggest to not worry too much yet. There will be chances to load your previous terrain etc. Etc. As someone pointed out to me can always go back to classic or go to unity etc.
But without any cheap shots that often get thrown at me. I suggest wait and see what unfolds. I think there should be no holding back on max but with the option to switch off terrain and maybe a 5km skybox for them who want this. Too lond have i waited for a none laptop drainer x9 users compromises engine. Sure give the options to switch off with no compromise for the top end

To be honest the terrain did not seem to touch my FPS and still holds on the 60 fps which is set so no idea without vsync what it was. I can knock it down to around 40 though with 100 characters.

@syncromesh. Yes, but you have a faster system at a guess. Pretty sure I remember you mentioning it on Discord. Unless I'm thinking of someone else. But can't expect people to have super fast systems, especially these days. Many will be running on rigs similar to mine. Also, can't see the fps because your logo is above it ;p

I'm hoping there will be some speed improvements, but I can't see miracles happening, unless something silly is actually slowing it down. It is what it is, but we are defo seeming to be getting less than was eluded to. As GubbyBlips says, the character creator needs more work. That was the start of max being made technically, it WAS meant for GG then they decided to make an entirely new product. All soldiers again, same as GG, very annoying. I know it's an FPS maker, but most of the best FPS games do not JUST have soldiers as their only protagonists!

The terrain for me is also a little disingenuous. We were promised near infinite terrains with them generating as you walk around. As it is we have a set terrain we can't get to the end of with an annoying end of map message that would be very off putting in an actual game. I don't know something seems off kilter with it, certainly nothing like I expected anyway. Yes early days, but doesn't stop us discussing it and perhaps suggesting improvements or changes. Definitely would like an option to have a flat plain for the floor again rather than the flat terrain as I'm guessing it is a lot more demanding than a single plain will ever be. An option for no floor would be useful as well for us more adventurous types.

Edit - oh perhaps DLSS support would be useful as I hear there's an sdk available now for devs to add in way more easily Or FSR possibly. Not that that either would help my spec card, but defo would help with higher end ones.

Thank you!
From all of us Girls with Arms.

Im using an RX580 with a passmark of 8869 whereas my older GTX 960 and minimum recommended was 6037.
That ran pretty well but that was before the new terrain. I have no idea what many others are running ?

Im running a gtx970
At present 60 terrain and basic objects
Butnfrom a few trees and other objects it starts to drop quickly. Im happy as im saving up for an rtx3060 well gonna buy one next year can buy now but dont believe in rewarding greed
So i think evwm a gtx 970 is a bit low for whats needed at present. Glad i have the terrain to have an idea what i can and cant do. And very looking forward to the achievement of the terrain and no advamces.
I do thimk however that they can change so many thimgs and i think one the biggest is the physics And other things. If they sort the amount of objects etc without too much drop in fps then they have a winner. As i say we may need them to look at the way the physics etc work they spent time looking at ai and terrain and lights etc so maybe find a good waycto have the entire progranne work like the terrain. Load unload distances to enabale and disable physics ai etc etc. Surely they can look to follow procedural all tto get as streamline as possible. However i will get a 3060 by the time i have a game im sure 3060 will be old skool.

My spec is on my signature, odd I'm getting 30 fps out the box if you are getting 60 fine with a 970 and 580 also. Perhaps its not quite right on my system But yeah, I expect a 970 to handle a terrain with nothing else at 60 no problems these days. Really to get a game going, you need a lot more spare fps at the start than 60 if not synced. I have even set antialiasing as low as possible to help keep speed up but not making any odds since the terrain update.

Ye i dont think that is your card though. Many of the trees have issues.
I think Lee has it in mind to replace them. There not right for sure.

DVADER
The difference is i have a ryzen 5 3600
To your is it a ryzen 7?

I have been ignoring the new trees tbh
And gone to the older trees amd bsp trees
Re skin and on a few added extra leaves etc. They look good and less frame heavy.
I tbh have a bit of faith and expect a huge change in how iit works and so i expect less issues and better fps and less drain. In future release only hope not T the expense of shaders terrain etc.
They need to at some point start to streamlimimg but fhey have so much to do at present so i think its a waiting game

The new trees given as dlc have ridiculous poly count so i expect nothing less
However the re skins i have done have worked a treat and look lush however still camt place 100 yet

@science boy. Yeah, a Ryzen 1700 first gen, 8 core. Seems to be getting on a bit these days, although it is only 4 or 5 years old. My old Q6600 lasted 10 years before finally biting the bullet. I could have upgraded to an I7 at 5 gig recently, but chose not to as in general it was not as responsive as the AMD. It murdered GG speeds though. I was torn

Perhaps of interest is a list of the top card$? I could never understand this bitcoin stuff, which just seems like fantasy insanity, but maybe some else sees things differently? If I could make money on it, yeah, I'd probably be just like all them. But I seen a lot more losses from people I actually know than gains.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/gpu-pricing-index

Hi! When is the next stream? Cheers Fredrik

Wednesdays 4pm uk time - and Discord channel usually gives a heads up as well.

OldFlak....

@DVader : The 30 fps on a 970GTX sounds pretty wrong Can you send me a screeshot of an empty terrain with the TAB screen showing the stats on the left side. Your post above had it squashed so I could not read the values, thanks. This should point to which part of the rendering system is hitting you the hardest, and we can work from there. I also expect 970 to give you 60fps (and that's with lots of trees and objects (and a game))!

Well at present i get 59 to 60 fps on empty terrain
With 4 trees it drops to approx 30fps to 24 fps
When i added a door to my inn it drops to 4 fps but i think that is a physics issue as it judders and a jump last 15 seconds. When i remove the door its back to its 30 fps plus i am guessing physics as the main killer. poly count i agree will destroy fps like your trees. I like the idea of convex hull and the load in/out physics and objects

Yeah, I wouldn't get that with my system either, even with no trees.
This is the default terrain map with just a Start Marker:


Wouldn't perform to well with a half dozen trees added to it.
Specs in sig...

OldFlak....

Did anyone read the Newsletter

" The terrain team has been working on a new tree and vegetation rendering system that allows us to populate the terrains with thousands of trees with hardly any affect to the frame rate. We’ll be showing you this in a broadcast soon! "

Sounds good, but not gonna get my hopes up till I see 60 again with an empty terrain. Even re-installing from scratch made zero difference

Sounds like something is going on in there that needs looking at
Which I'm guessing mr lee is onto...
Jus a few trees and it kinda freaks out like a lot. I am pretty sure this is something that will be sorted out tbh they have a 60fps on my pc blank basic terrain. screen and im sure that it will get better and they will have it done by xmas. It will just neex adjustments. And i look forward to the tree and grass maker but cant wait to get sculping removong replacing parts on screen i have soo much to design yet to keep up with the software engine

Lee confirmed over a year ago when asked in a stream, that convex hull will NOT be making a return it isn't needed.Secondly much like classic everything needed for the map is loaded into the memory at the start of a map.Loading and unloading takes even more resources and cycles to do, it is far cheaper to load every thing at the start. Tree/rock system will most likely have distance rendering slider build right into it. So you will be rendering only visible polygons anyways.

physics is another system entirely, don't know how the system is implemented or works in max so can't comment on that

Well he informed on the video 63 he will be onto the physics and looking to remove poly shapes altogether and will be looking into how to get the best out of the loaded areas etc. Did you listen to the video? I'm sure you have built an engine i wouldn't have a clue but i do listen to what the engine programmer says in his video. Unless im on LSD or have a UTI or perhaps psychotic episodes and have imagined the conversation..... I will watch it again to make sure i heard things correctly. Suggest the same for you

Happy hallucination days lol

Umm, no, convex hull *is* physics!

Mixing the Beauty of Mathematics and Chocolate:
The Newton Apple Wrapper algorithm for 3D convex hulls.

http://www.newtonapples.net/NewtonAppleWrapper.html

Yes. All good, tis not a complaint, MAX has plenty to come yet


Was just a reply to Lee's request - he wanted a screen shot showing the stats

OldFlak....

While it might be used for calculations for physics it isn't ''physics''. The actual application convex hull has nothing to do with physics, while application and use in game engines sure it is used to calculate physics, but isn't actual physics, it is ''geometry''.

Convex hull is not physics, but rather the envelope closure with finite point set it creates around a object can be used in calculation of physics.
Convex hull is geometry

Physics geometry, it isn't used for anything else!

FYI


You will actually notice nowhere does it say physics. As it isn't a physics calculation, it geometric calculation, the sum of the mathematical calculation is used to interact with the physics system.Physics system uses the created convex hull, for the physics calculations.In other words, geometrical calculation is done, after which physics takes over.

You might not be aware but mathematics and physics is two closely related fields. However geometry is a branch of mathematics and physics forms part of natural sciences. Ironically game physics, tries to mimic and follow that natural laws of physics by means of simulating those laws.Calling convex hull physics is incorrect as convex hull is a mathematical calculation and physics natural sciences that uses the field of mathematics to calculate the simulated natural laws of physics in the game.Whether in economics or in a game engine the definition remains the same between the two.

Geometric physics has nothing to do with geometrical mathematics, Geometric physics is the model of optics and describes light propagation of the rays produced and calculating how rays move about under certain conditions.

In GG it is only used for physics!

I edited my post