Hi All,

Here is today's broadcast:


And the questions we could not reach during our live chat:

Q> What is the stage of improvemts of the A.I?
A> Work continues on both Zombie and specially the soldier behaviors. The aim is to match typical reactions to what you see in modern games. Nothing too fancy, but basics stuff that works as expected.

Q> Please add to make the trees sway in the wind.
A> For feature requests, you can use our issues board to suggest ideas here: https://github.com/TheGameCreators/GameGuruRepo/issues

Q> I did several tests with 2 pc, with the gameguru max with the fps when they go down to 30, like 27 or 15, the game slows down along with the physics?
A> We are really interested in working with anyone who has met the minimum specs and is not getting 60 fps. We plan some lower end optimizations to ensure you can get 60 fps.

Q> Can I sell the game or earn something for that?
A> Yes you can. Any game you make with GameGuru MAX can be sold and distributed, no strings attached.

Q> Will there be a slider to adjust the slope of the auto terrain adjustments? This addition is amazing.
A> I think that is a good idea. Please post your suggestion on our issues board with an idea where you see the slider going, thanks!

Q> Why you in the terrain generator do not add a way to generate rocks? Like near the ocean.
A> We are working on biome refinement in the next few weeks. I think rocks will be needed, watch this space!

Q> My primary focus is indoor environments, what is being planned to improve, considering classic was for the most part outdoor engine
A> There are no specific plans for indoor environments for the Early Access release, aside from the ability to drop in prefab buildings and of couse, laying down floors, walls and ceilings with the grid system.

Q> Do you plan to add a cutscene editor?
A> There are no plans to add a cut scene editor in the March release of GameGuru MAX.

Q> Do you plan to add animation zones? (zones that forces NPC's play specific animations)
A> There are no plans to add animation zones at this time. We may look at this again as part of the larger design for getting good RPG logic crafted, which I dare say will include animation triggers as the character is talking, moving and acting.

Q> Is there any elevator system ?
A> There are no plans to add an elevator system for the release, but I think we will be adding moving platforms at some point, probably when we work on the Puzzle Genres.

Thanks for all your questions, more answers next Wednesday 4 PM GMT. Also, Happy New Year everyone!!

Don't know if Lee checks these threads after posting, but I have two questions I couldn't ask today because I was stuck in a meeting during today's live broadcast:

What game(s) are you using as inspiration for Game Guru Max? Initially I thought a slow-moving zombie game like Dying Light when I saw the cellar demo, then it was Far Cry because of the emphasis on FPS gameplay in a huge terrain, now a lot of effort has been spent on critters and grass tech so I'm thinking it's some kind of walking simulator? Obviously I know you're making a jack-of-all-trades game maker, so theoretically we could make any genre (of FPS game) but you must have a couple of games in mind you're looking at going "that's the level of quality we're aiming for", or "that's the feel we want the gameplay to have" etc..

As a secondary question, every episode we see you open a new map to demo a new tool or improvement. But that's not how anyone will use the software; they'll be continuing from where they left off, combining elements, making changes to their levels, honing it over weeks or months. Wouldn't it be better to set out to make a decent demo level and each week you show off how a new feature can improve a particular aspect of your game? This is supposed to be a game engine after all, but we've yet to actually see a playable game level made in the software by its own devs. Making a real, working level will bring to light challenges that need to be overcome which you wouldn't encounter just testing each tool in isolation.

AE

Well again some great questions and there must be a lot of new beginners asking questions that are somewhat baffling

All i know is there is a multitude of tasks and they need to be on it more only 2 months left
Tbh flat terrain for buildings is not what i would call essential but i am guessing its something to show rather than nothing.
However they could of put them hours to something that is actually needed.
We have a flatten terrain brush. Why spend valuable time for the lazy game press one button brigade. We could of had someone do weather update or veg or trees. Or more logic or a better blend brush for texture painting

There are so many tasks and they spend it on a level terrain for houses.

Just saying

The physics looks like a good step in the right direction and any extra time speed is welcome

Come On tgc get the world environment sorted out not just clever lazy people stuff.
Sort the
Vegetation
Trees
Texture painting
Weather
Water
24 hour clock
Ai
Etc etc

Besides that looking good. But the overall comments will be when march hits.
Looking forward to the rpg element

This is great, but first I want to say-- new, various terrain brushes... esp. roadways on hills - pretty easy according to what we see here- right?

Next-- just allow the terrain to conform exactly (not level) to whatever angle has been selected @ the bottom footprint slope and rotation of a half-crescent object;

https://www.kindpng.com/imgv/whhiJJ_transparent-half-circle-png-half-circle-banner-clipart/

So a 'Y' rotatable, 'X' rampable, scalable half-crescent will probably do fine. Why half-crescent? That's where your curves will come in. By scaling it, this allows curves to be adjusted from sharp to mild. The other brushes (ie ramp brush) should assist afterward if working in less intense terrain geometry. Throw in a quarter-crescent for good measure. But if the terrain brush just did @ above, any object you choose to grab would suffice- and then any shape would be possible.

"Why spend valuable time for the lazy game press one button brigade. "
Well, I am leaning a little on that viewpoint side just as you and a few others are. But in truth probably the reality is that we will be looking at September/ November++ 2022/3 until MAX is in [[-make that nearer-]] the state we all want to see. This terrain tool is a pretty quick and easy feature to add before March/ April and Steam+Youtuber reviews go nuts. Might as well. The map creator still has to modify/ customize and clean up the map anyhow.

I think most of those suggestions you listed are till ongoing and since they are major features, it will be long term work phase. The terrain itself took months and we all anticipated the big "P" feature. Which happened to be procedural terrain and I don't think anyone was even guessing that? I also have a few suggestions or comments about the current niggles or what additions could be had for MAX, but am not allowed to post them here- so they don't sound interested if they aren't important- so no hurries to have them be seen.

But this is an interesting development as noted; I probably have nothing to do with it, but did comment once upon a time on how this particular feature of a grass stamper-outer would be handy (ie deleting grass/ veg @ object footprint.) Now look- we have an all-in-one tool or button. Pretty awesome. Wait until you try it, and I think we might like it. So it's interesting to see them looking into 1 of 1000 community forum member suggestions. (hehe All credit to the author if that be Lee or whomever.)

Honestly, the functionality of flattening terrain by putting down a house is totally unnecessary. Lee gave us a Terrain Tool that flattens an area as large as the Brush, in 2 clicks. Why work days and days on this feature ? Where was the urgency ? Who asked you ? Pfff, it's stupid to waste time on this thing. TGC should stop believing that their users are fools, unable to flatten the grounds. There are so many missing or buggy things that should be prioritized !

Fortunately, this was not the only novelty of the week.
The improved terrain loading gives me some hope. Forgive my frankness.

However, I bought ten 3D model packs from TGC, to continue supporting.
Most will probably be incompatible with Max, but that's my way of supporting the project.

Now, I would appreciate TGC taking care of the real issues, rather than adding to them.
Again, forgive my frankness.

flattening terrain by putting down a house was in gg classic and they just refine it for max .... the executable files are near optimize but not enough and they know about this.

Alpha Blending is something I would call "essential" placement of items inside buildings, dungeons etc by easily removing the roof and using the mouse scroll wheel to move up and down with the blending was something I used every time I loaded up classic. But as yet it is not in MAX yet.

But see, that calculation, the re-evaluation of the terrain on level load, even of only a second or two, required for "terrain" should not have to happen on a truly "empty" level if I am creating an indoor level only (no terrain). One of the reasons I want to be able to start a brand new level with absolutely nothing in it at all.

Flattening terrain thinking about uneven terrain, is not that bad, after all, we will have to flat the terrain before placing a building (talking about uneven terrain), just needs some tweaks.
Anyway, it needs a tickbox in the entity setting panel.

I don't think is a matter of priorities, Lee is working in terrain till now, so, it is a good moment to add that feature, after all, as mentioned above it already exist on GG, so, the code is almost done, Lee just has to adapt it to GGMax universe; 2 hours and 4 Guinness after it is already done. lol

That is what is extremely annoying, level loading or at least a full levels should be tested.

This level I created, contains just two grass types, one tree type and 8 rock types, about 4 odd minutes worth of travel time, and crashes gameguru constantly, takes ages to load the level and upto 4 minutes to load a test games, before the ingame terrain and navigational calculations take effect.

Simply means there is no way you will be able to build a high detail level like this, let alone populate and entire 5km square area like this.Which is why i specifically asked in the broadcast what about instancing of static and dynamic objects. Reusing just 8 objects in this level causes insane performance issues, and there is still barely any detail.

So I would agree that piorities aren't where it matters, auto flattening the terrain on list of piorities is about second to last.Thier focus needs to be else where, especially with regards to perfromance and speeding up the loading of assets in test game as well, as adding instancing which should have been there from the get go.

checks blood pressure......time for lunch.

What's the frame rate in that video, wizard of id? The reason I ask is the camera movement seems jerky. I get jerky camera movement in my levels, too, and the frame rate says I am getting 100 fps!

With the introduction of quixel to ue5, and the upcoming release of the engine. Game Guru MAX loses some of its necessity every day, it wont be long before you can buy ai and gun script for $15 and get better results than this $50 engine. The features being worked on now just aren’t what’s necessary. Please get better graphics, performance, and actual gameplay. I can flatten the ground myself thanks.

You can already get your FPS and AI script over on Unreal and have been able to for some time. There are several of them available right now, actually. Megascans has been there since Unreal 4, btw. Quixel bridge just makes it easier to get your custom stuff over to Unreal via bridge. So, what you're talking about has basically been do-able (just without the live bridge) for more than a year now, though with UE4). So, if you're comfortable using Blueprints and all that, there's nothing stopping you from using Unreal. It's there for you to use right now, right? So, what's stopping you?

Decentish.

You can try out the map here, and see if you get any better result.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PoNHl6t3uJVDbyiZ6sMt6tqf9QsDs0fq/view?usp=sharing

There is nothing wrong with the gameguru graphics, there is nothing wrong with classic graphics either.People complaining about dated graphics this and that ect.....isn't fair.

Sure classic had some flaws concerning the rendering engine, and definitely had some limitations, but it entirely depends on how you use the engine.Graphics isn't every thing, sure you wow people with it, but it has to do with the assets how they are designed used and the skill of the developer.

You can even with classic get some really great game graphics going, and people have proven to be able to do so time and again if you just have a look at the wip and showcase broads.

Classic had lighting system that was extremely poor that let it down, considering the primary focus of the engine was outdoor scenery, lee him self mentioned this a couple of times, the engine was designed for outdoor use, indoor use was and afterthought and was never the intended to be the goal.

The terrain editor painting ect, was and is second to none even with the most basic of tools.

With Max and the dynamic lighting system, it supports indoor and outdoor scenery equally well, while the focus has been and will be outdoor scenery for a while, because of the lacking tools for indoor editing. Every thing in max looks 100% better, all thanks to the wicked engine, but that said lee did disable a fair amount of wicked engine in order to meet system requirements.

Sure unreal and unity has some unriviled graphics, but it isn't their target audience and they don't intend to be like other games engines. It has the easy game maker moniker for a reason.

The only major issue now it isn't any where near ready for proper development use, it lacks performance, which should be their main focus, they have made it clear certain things will not make it to the march build.

Graphics isn't every thing, game play is far more important....

@Mr.WitherStorm
If you have some suggestions that can contribute to making a better GGMax, you are better posting it on GitHub, here devs don't come.
https://github.com/TheGameCreators/GameGuruRepo/issues

personally, for me, it is not that GGMax is missing to be UE4, but that GGMax is missing to be GGMax.
GGmax will never be a UE4 easy maker.
GGMax is in the development stage, and many times the guidelines are set by the code itself; For example, if I am working with the terrain, why not take advantage of and implement the autoflatten?
Overall the code is already written and is used in GG, Lee just has to adapt it to the needs of GGMax. If we think about it, it is purely a matter of logic, not of priorities.

We should only ask ourselves if we want to be part of the problem, or part of the solution. imho.

I’m saying why would anyone buy GGM unless it has features that people want, and i think they need to reevaluate their goals and target market. There also isn’t really any reason to disable wicked engine features for performance if the basics like texture streaming, and unloading not used objects aren’t there. Overall effort is being put in the wrong places.

This ... this I can agree with.

Not to be too much of a downer but I dont think there is a hope in hell this product will be in any sort of condition for a March release so far there is so much that needs to be fixed and done just to bring it up to GGClassic level of product and things like auto-flatten isnt one of them it just introduces more glitches.

Regarding all the comments

I as i say will wait with my verdict.
Agreeed that ggm featureless is not attractive
They have little bits to make the placimg of objects easier tilts stack outlined copies and auto flatten a lot of i will say 50 percent essential
However if i was on steam and there was no decent weather efx (whT we have is dated looking) no swimming no underwater efx no night n day the vr was not in place
The fact when on a high hill you look down to very iffy poly obvious grass placement and also texture paint is not alpha. It would put me off buying it. I would wait till the features are in first. Or like many steam users they will rip it apart and demand stupid stuff which tgc will pander too as they want good reviews. My review on steam will be honest and totally non bias.
They need to sort the world amd basics out and add the features as the lazy one button guys on steam will slaughter it

From Avenging Eagle:
"Wouldn't it be better to set out to make a decent demo level and each week you show off how a new feature can improve a particular aspect of your game? This is supposed to be a game engine after all, but we've yet to actually see a playable game level made in the software by its own devs. Making a real, working level will bring to light challenges that need to be overcome which you wouldn't encounter just testing each tool in isolation. "
I am in full agreement. Hard to get in "coherent and continuous" state with what is going on, without a working model.
As another thought regarding the March release. Perhaps I missed something (not at all unlikely) , but is the March release the real thing or a Beta?
I understand that there will be bugs.
Are we expected to continue "debugging" the core of the product well beyond March, or we are assured that only minor cosmetic bugs will come into play, along with enhancements?
Cheers!
Alexis

Neither .. Still an Early Access Alpha release I believe

Already send this level I was working on to lee, Explaining the pitfalls of max being unstable, lack of instancing, slow loading times ect. It has been a long standing gripe with regards to max testing, they only check if a feature works, but don't really test it beyond that, you really do need stress test working levels, to use as a benchmark.

Randomly testing bits and pieces in no way does it justice.This level contains less polygons, trees are instanced better physics, better every thing in most regards.But it is the complete polar op from my original level which had millions of polygons and have only been able to add a 3rd of what I did in my original level, let alone over 100 AI I had originally in the level.

Personal opinion it isn't ready, performance isn't anywhere close where it needs to be, you can barely populate a level properly without encountering issues, like stability...

Well, I don't hear anything (from you all) which will instill a lot of confidence. If the March release is going to be another Alpha.........

Cheers!

The March release will be another alpha ... according to Lee and Co. I don't believe they've ever said anything otherwise. It's going to be an early access release and only include the basic tools for creating shooter games. Puzzle and RPG will not be included as they've not been worked on yet. A lot has not been worked on yet.

@ above remarks for testing the product in real world scenarios; Absolutely Obvious.

Yeah, I know why they want bugs reported on Github, but I also think discussing the state MAX is in and allowing users to report their experience using it is better off placed in these forums. That keeps Github tidy and dedicated to the primary issues related to existing code. Time I think to dedicate a separate thread folder just for "user suggestions". Many things which people ask for- even on Github could still get buried and forgotten in the avalanche of reports and never responded to. And I was wrong about the auto report system inside MAX UI which I assumed wouldn't require a special Github account -- which I have no possible way to do right now. That's one reason honestly I bought MAX- to help report issues on Github through an automatic reporting system (that doesn't exist!)

So if they allowed these discussions in the forums, that would be nicer rather than censoring them like they did my post- which was meant as a discussion focused feedback to help the developers. Oh- wait there are several posts on these forums regarding MAX issues and requests -- mine is the only one censored. I basically said nothing differently than all these other comments. Oh well- so be it. Treating your ally that way gets you where?

Even when it was fully automated you still needed an account initially.
It just turned out to be easier to make it a direct link.

I actually was curious about this myself too, as of recent. Because if they are looking towards anything open world, there is going to be a need for better optimizing, which currently, it sounds like Max is not ready for large open worlds. If Max is going to have a hard time with rendering and loading larger open maps full of content, perhaps its better to draw inspirations from more linear games (Or semi-open). Games like Bioshock, Half-Life, Metal of Honor, Dishonored, DOOM, etc.

Showing off a wide expansive map, may be misleading to new comers. I was indeed glad to see you guys putting together the cellar demo early on.

In terms of themes, I do wonder what references you guys are looking at. I do like that in FPSC, WWII had some heavy focus, as well as SCI-FI. I for sure got a vibe of early Metal of Honor games with some of the FPSC WWII assets and set pieces. With the modern stuff, i could tell Half-Life was also an inspiration with some of the functionality from that game; such as picking up and throwing objects, swimming, using lifts, explodable barrels and mix of projectile and melee weapons etc.

While I understand the importer will be consistently improved, so the dependency on stock models will be less for Max, I do hope games currently out in the market are being taken into consideration for inspiration, going forward with Max. Current topics about Ladders and Swimming are coming up again. Since Max doesn't directly support them out of the box. Though every game Today, that has visible water in their maps... have swimming functionality and controls. Sure we could probably code this ourselves later down the road, but If your looking at games like Far Cry with big open terrains and water beds... you can swim in that game.

If we are going to have zombies, I guess we should have AI for characters running away from those zombies

On topic to the terrain flatten function, great work! Looks much better than GGC.

Hello,

I don't know about you, but I find loading and saving much faster with this new version of Max. With a map containing almost 600 3D objects, I had a lot of trouble loading and saving the map in previous versions. Most of the time, Max didn't want to and he froze. Now it works every time, and load and save times are reduced by at least 80%.

Who noticed the same thing ?

if they do any optimizing we must see it in the next live broadcast.im tired to see un optimize naked terrain with ugly flowers that cover the area.(and trees that grow in the salt water.)

For trees in salt water, there is the "Tree Water Distance" feature in Developer Mode.
For better quality flowers, we still have to wait...