Firstly, I decided to post this on the forum by myself and on behalf of many people who agree with me and have even made some comments on the YouTube channel @GameGuru but never got concrete answers from the software team led by @Lee Bamber!
Second, to say that this is not an attack on @GameGuru products, quite the contrary, if I am here today writing all this and wasting time, it is because I believe or want to believe that I (as a buyer of some @GameGuru products) and these people (even if they haven't bought anything from GameGuru) also have the right to have a voice and to speak in the community, that's what I call democracy and freedom of expression. However, unfortunately, this is not what is currently happening.
As George Orwell wisely said, "some pigs more alike than others" seem to exist in the community. Leaving me these comparisons, which below will understand why I use them, I will be extremely direct and sincere about what I think and what I have seen so far from GameGuru Max.
About the engine I have seen very little implemented that has remained in my memory. Of all the broadcasts that I practically saw all of or at least took a look at, the one that I thought they implemented was beneficial, in my opinion, was the Character Creator and the Game Project Storyboard.
Seriously? That's all they have to offer to people who want to buy the product for 40 or 50 dollars (just for your information, despite living in a European country, there are people here who don't earn that amount per day!) I happen to be I'm suspicious of talking because I bought the classic version of the engine and at the time I bought it, I found the same thing I'm thinking about GameGuru Max's development, a lot of potential and a unique and genuine idea in my opinion (creating games without the need for code) .
I don't think it's for lack of work by @Lee and his team, but maybe no one has ever asked him and/or his team if it's to create real games or is it to play and sell an unfinished product like the classic version of engine.
From what I'm seeing and honestly, the Max version of the Engine manages to be more limited in almost everything than the classic, it's like the 2.0 of the classic version of the engine. It may even have a few extra things but the structural problems that were seen in the classic version are in the Max version!
For example, and to prove what I'm saying, the intelligence of the AI is the same or worse compared to the classic version, this is because in the classic version they could climb stairs and descend, so what I've seen in videos, they can't even do that in this one.
On the page that says what Max has to offer in this regard it simply states "The player and AI bots can walk, run, duck and navigate around any environment you design."
It may even have a few extra things but the structural problems that were seen in the classic version are in the Max version! For example, and to prove what I'm saying, the intelligence of the AI is the same or worse compared to the classic version, this is because in the classic version they could climb stairs and descend, so what I've seen in videos, they can't even do that in this one.
On the page that says what Max has to offer in this regard it simply states "The player and AI bots can walk, run, duck and navigate around any environment you design." It may even have a few extra things but the structural problems that were seen in the classic version are in the Max version!
For example, and to prove what I'm saying, the intelligence of the AI is the same or worse compared to the classic version, this is because in the classic version they could climb stairs and descend, so what I've seen in videos, they can't even do that in this one.
On the page that says what Max has to offer in this regard it simply states "The player and AI bots can walk, run, duck and navigate around any environment you design." from what I've seen in videos, they can't even do this on this one.
In reality the AI can't do practically anything and what it does is not done well, for example, it walks without considering objects passing over them or getting stuck in them or it can't even chase the player! In other words, the AI can't even do the basics that are on your site or other things like swimming, jumping, climbing stairs, walking, running, etc (to be correct neither the player can).
In short, what Max has to offer in AI so far: nothing!!!, not again, not even the smallest things can mostly ensure and do correctly! But let's see so is it on the ground that the Max version has improved? The only thing I see positive is that the size of the terrain has increased to 5km x 5km, although I think it's still very small at least it should be 8km x 8km, although the recommended is 10km x 10km for large projects.
I still remember someone from @GameGuru at the beginning saying and promising that the size of the terrain maps would be unlimited, depending on the maximum computer size of each one, but promises anyway... For the rest as for the terrain, from what I saw in the from afar it looks perfect but up close the textures are horrible, there is no way to import heigthmaps for the terrain.
There is neither a demo nor the possibility to create a map in winter with snow/ice. Regarding the water, does it seem that everywhere is an ocean? Seriously, there is no way to create rivers, lakes, waterfalls, ground caves with water or regular caves! but finally promises...
For the rest as for the terrain, from what I've seen from a distance it looks perfect but up close the textures are horrible, there's no way to import heigthmaps for the terrain.
There is neither a demo nor the possibility to create a map in winter with snow/ice. Regarding the water, does it seem that everywhere is an ocean? Seriously, there is no way to create rivers, lakes, waterfalls, ground caves with water or regular caves! but finally promises...
For the rest as for the terrain, from what I've seen from a distance it looks perfect but up close the textures are horrible, there's no way to import heigthmaps for the terrain.
There is neither a demo nor the possibility to create a map in winter with snow/ice. Regarding the water, does it seem that everywhere is an ocean?
Seriously, there is no way to create rivers, lakes, waterfalls, ground caves with water or regular caves! But then if the Max version doesn't have essential tools like AI Intelligence, and the terrain minimally capable of making a modern game, does it have any tools to make a game without necessarily needing code, such as Lua code? To be honest, it seems to be the most positive thing I see in all of this and with a significant evolution from the classic version of the engine! The biggest examples of this are Character Creator and Game Project Storyboard.
Despite that I think the @GameGuru team could listen more to people who don't have a voice like me and go further in implementing other things that so many people ask for, which I'll mention and suggest!
And is this all worth 40 or 50 bucks? Not! What's the point of having tools that help you not necessarily need to use code, without having minimally functional, complete and effective terrain/water/atmosphere tools or AI? It's not worth anything, the idea is authentic and there it is "creating games without code" but you can't just rely on that, a real software/engine to create games isn't just that! Basically, your job was just that for 1 year.
Attention, I'm not saying that @Lee and his team don't work, nothing like that and on the contrary, I'm just not satisfied with the way things are going with the Max version and I don't think they hear enough from the community, especially of comments from new people even on the @GameGuru YouTube channel.
Someone also tell me why this is everything on the forum, it would not be easier for everyone, for example, there is disagreement, secahar even exists but only for some, that is, for the older members of the community who, in my opinion, dictate what will be done with the Max version.
People like me don't care, as much as they are on the brink of developing the Max engine, they continue in favor of the minority, the so-called "pigs more equal than others" sincerely, I start to suspect everything even if there aren't two versions of the engine, because, in broadcasts, the version that @Lee has almost never bugs or has problems, but anyway.
My suggestions for improving the engine are and with a degree of importance to improve or add to the engine in my opinion:
1. Intelligence/AI and Player Movements: Very Important
2. Animations: Skeletal animation, Parametric Skeletal Animation - Very Important
3. Flow graphs: Cutscene creator (Very Important), Weapons creator (Very Important), Vehicle creator (Important), Particle Editor (Very Important)
4. Terrain/Vegetation: Seasons Field Simulator (Spring, Summer, Winter, Autumn)/ (Thunderstorm, Rain, Snow, Sandstorms)/ Interactive and destructible environments - nuclear explosion, earthquakes, hurricanes (Important), Dynamic environment mapping/Dynamic vegetation (Very Important), Eye Adaptation & High Dynamic Range (HDR) (Very Important), Ground Tessellation (Very Important), Being able to create caves on the ground (terrain) and a way to import heigthmaps (Very Important), Larger terrain map size between 8km x 8km (minimum), 10km x 10km (recommended) (Slightly important, however in my opinion and thinking for me if it was bigger 8km x 8km/10km x 10km or more it would be better for the project I intend to do. ,despite what I said about this engine probably on November 30th which is when it's supposedly and in principle pre-ordered on steam I'm going to buy it, even to see if there's any progress and you've listened to my advice), Road tools (Important)
5. Sounds and audio: Dynamic sounds and interactive music/Environmental audio (Slightly Important) 6. Water: Interactive Water, Ocean simulation (FFT), Rivers/Lakes/Waterfalls Tools (Very Important)
7. Clouds Tools (Important)
8. Real time planar reflections, Lighting HDR rendering, Translucent colored shadows, Volumetric light scattering/Volumetric ligthting, Global Illumination (Very Important)
9. Multithreaded rendering/Multicore Support (Very Important)
10. Improved Physics (Very Important).
I hope you take into consideration some of the suggestions I present to you, as most are in Wicked Engine, others in CryEngine 2 released with the game Crysis dating back to 2007!!!, or CryEngine 3 later on. I honestly don't understand why they don't implement some of these suggestions that greatly improved the Max engine, they promise an engine for modern games, but they don't implement many things in it that "old"/not older engines already have for a long time and that still haven't implemented - many of them such basic things!!!
I hope that on November 30th or when it's pre-order there's a pleasant surprise!
I end with two quotes from some comments I read about someone's GameGuru Max engine:
“I've been saying this for a long time. But they don't seem to hear certain suggestions coming from certain people. They continue to make the same mistakes of the past and prefer to sell an unfinished product, without having the basic and essential tools to create a modern game, creating illusions in potential buyers or buyers of the product. However, we have to be realistic they cannot do everything, because they are a small team and with many limitations as far as I know, but they should, in my opinion, define their priorities better and not only follow the suggestions/advice of the community more " long time (the summit) and forget the opinion of others who later
heard about this software. I don't understand even more, because in this software they use the Wicked Engine, and they don't implement most of its features such as Volumetric lighting, Global illumination, Dynamic vegetation, Basic water Sims, interactive ground tessalation in addition to what I already mentioned at the beginning. Thanks @GameGuru
Attention, so there's no doubt, I love this engine, especially the basic idea, but I think that what Lee and his team aren't necessarily going the right way because by reducing the decisions of what to do and implement in the engine for a restricted group of people forgetting all the others, and when that is so, the essential problems are not solved or mitigated, so much so that they forget to implement the most basic as I was talking about. And I also don't think it's simply ignoring or deleting more negative or constructive comments like mine that the engine will improve.”
“@GameGuru if you have to put a higher price to your product do it but, at least make a complete engine please, because i think people like me deserve that because that people see what i see: since classic you have a great potencial but you need to work hard on it, more and more that the rigth now effort, i know you can do it, if you need more time to do it take it, because the people that love the gameguru will wait, we will wait, i will wait if necessary,but please do not let your hopes fall and sell us an unfinished product. I think we deserve more than that!!!”.
Edited text:
For me your answers demonstrate and confirm what I feared, a lot of talk, very little improvement!
First, as they don't want to know my opinion or many others who is the forum administrator, they added the "solved" ticket, and more serious, they deleted a link to a video I posted to see what the Zaxtor99 engine really was like, but I'll post the link again.
What are you going to do next to kick me out of the community? Is that what the active communication with the community is all about in steam?
I simply gave my opinion and gave suggestions to improve the product and simply the answers I got ignore me or make excuses like someone who doesn't want to talk about it without wanting to openly debate the state of things.
Facts are first video posted on @GameGuru's YouTube channel was this one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD28Cm9kFfo) on 02/11/2020. On 01/10/2021 the state of affairs was this (https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=cIujfhdqATA&t=450s).
My question is but are they all blind or nobody sees or doesn't want to see this.
The second option of not wanting to see the status of the product, if that's what it's all about, is really bad, and I won't say anything else. I'm now watching today's Live Stream and the AI looks really bad, but here come the "boys" saying it's still in development.
For me I've heard and I know enough with people like that running the community the Software will always be an illusion!
For me the point is, today is 03/11/2021 the expected launch date on the pre-order steam is as far as I know (and if you don't postpone it again) 30/11/2021 as far as I know the status of the AI is what you see on today's livestream!!! A sadness...
Only the fanatics think it's going to be fantastic but even if I'm also one of those for GameGuru Software I have brains to think rationally and eyes to see the state of things!
