Arinthian

As far as distributions go, stick with ubuntu, particularly 12.04. before you go installing it however, do some google searches to see how well your hardware will run under linux, for instance, you'll need to do some extra work to get it running well with laptops that have switchable graphics (easiest solution is to disable one of the GPU's in the bios, if that setting is available), or wireless devices that can be fickle. Installing it to the external hard drive you mentioned would be a good idea, so you don't go messing too much with your windows install. Apart from that, the instructions should guide you well enough, just always be sure to backup your important files just in case. Good Luck

The problem was eventually figured out on another post in the bug report section. basically, the model loader uses texture names to figure out what materials are on the model, but, since I didn't apply any textures to my model (figured it would be simpler if I did it that way, since I'm new to modeling - how wrong I was) it was all loading in thinking there was only a single material for the whole model. by setting the different sections on my model in blender to different textures, everything from there went fine.

Bolt - I'm creating new materials and just setting the diffuse colour on them and applying in leadwerks, your right in that they don't come with the MDL file. I don't need to set any custom shaders for that. that explains why it didn't work until I set different textures on the model that I wanted, I wasn't trying to make a case for it to do so without, I just had no idea it worked that way. Although curiously it works without textures if no bones are present, which is why I thought it was broken when it acted differently. Anyway, thank you all for the help. I apologise if I wasted anyone's time with this report.

How do you mean MDL models only support textured materials? I've been using non-textured MDL files just fine with the default shader in Leadwerks, Of course, other shaders only work with textures, and I've had to modify some (such as the animated shader) for my needs. Or have I misconstrued your meaning?

Thanks bolt, as soon as I added textures to the model in blender, (UV coords were already there, added image references), it started working. I generally like to just add plain colour materials to my models, so I never bothered with textures. and your right YouGroove, generally they do, it's usually due to using a single texture image with different UV coords on the model for different sections, but I didn't want to fuss about creating a custom texture for a couple of different colours. So I guess in the end I guess it's only a bug if it's not supposed to drop materials without a texture reference.

In trying to import my model into leadwerks 3.1 steam edition (beta branch), I've noticed the presence of bones no longer allows me to apply different materials to different sections of my model in the model editor, but rather applies a single material to the entire model. removing said bones allows me to once again apply multiple materials. all you should need to do to reproduce this is to import the provided fbx (scattership_anim_fire.fbx) file and try to apply multiple materials to it. I've also provided scattership_nobones.fbx for comparison (has no bones), as well as the blender file. also, exporting from UU3D as a gmf file avoids this issue (thanks to shadmar's help) Models.zip

Ahh, thanks very much! I'll go ahead and make a post in the bug report section then, I usually avoid making bug reports because most of the times the problems I come across are due to my own stupidity Also, that UU3D looks handy, I'll have to buy a copy sometime.

Hello, I've been working on a simple animated model for my game in blender, and I've noticed that when I import it into leadwerks, I cannot apply multiple materials onto it, like I can with non-animated models (deleting the bones and exporting confirms it), so I'm wondering if anyone else has encountered this, and if there's any way I can work around it. I'm using the beta branch of leadwerks 3.1 steam edition. I have the fbx and blend file links of the model should you wish to poke around: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15394871/scattership_anim.blend https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15394871/scattership_anim_turn.fbx

I couldn't get it to animate with code until I added the material with the correct shader myself. I kept it a cube with a single bone to try and keep it simple, there also should be three actions there, a location, a rotation and a scaling animation, I've noticed that scaling animations don't seem to import at all, so I'll avoid that in future.

Yea, I think in this particular case it can be very confusing, imagine say an artist, or someone new to game development in general, may be unfamiliar with shaders in general and could run into serious headaches trying to figure why their animated models aren't showing the animations. Once I get a couple more things figured out, I should have a crack at making a tutorial or something...

Well. I figured it out. Seems it needs a material applied in LE with the animated model shader... something tells me I should have known that...

Hello, for a couple of days I've been trying to figure out how to import an animated cube I created from blender into Leadwerks 3.1 Steam Edition (I'm using a cube as the simplest test so I can figure it out and work from there), but unfortunately, nothing I do seems to work I've created animations using armatures, and without, fiddling with export options, looked online at blender animation tutorials, etc. and nothing I do shows the animations up in the leadwerks model editor/viewer when they do get imported. I'm very much a novice when it comes to blender and modeling in general, so it may be something obvious I missed, but I have no idea what to do or try and this point, so hopefully someone here can help me. I've attached the latest blender model/file I've been using, so if anyone can check it out and let me know what's up, I'd be very grateful. Blender File: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15394871/boxtest.blend

Wow, that looks really cool. I'd love to see/use something like this in LE 3.1 looks like I may have to read up on coroutines

Wow, I never noticed that update button. it says "This project has no template specified" when I click it though.

I figured it out. seems that because the project I created was from before the launch, the changes weren't reflected in my project. creating a new project and using the same code works fine with Instance() EDIT: just in case you were curious what the change was, it was just a simple line in the shader from mat4 entitymatrix = entity.matrix[0]; to mat4 entitymatrix = entity.matrix[gl_InstanceID]; So I'm assuming it automatically uses GPU instancing, which is awesome.

I've already got the camera looking from above, set from another script. I also tried SetBackFaceCullMode(false) on the material, to see if that helped. it didn't. I switched Instance() to Copy(), and I can see all three quads (after setting the second to a different position, of course )

Hello, I've been working on a top down shooter style game, and I've been wanting to use instancing for projectiles from the player (generally just quads right now) but I've been having trouble getting the Instance() function to work like I wanted, and I have no clue how to use the GPU instancing (which I believe is now supported in this version?) this is how I've been trying to use the Instance() function local test = Model:Create() test:SetPosition(0, 0, 0) test:SetColor(1, 1, 1) local material = Material:Create() material:SetColor(1, 1, 1) material:SetShadowMode(false) local s = 2 local ratio = 2 local surface = test:AddSurface() surface:AddVertex(-s, 0, -s*ratio, 0, 0, -1) surface:AddVertex(s, 0, -s*ratio, 0, 0, -1) surface:AddVertex(s, 0, s*ratio, 0, 0, -1) surface:AddVertex(-s, 0, s*ratio, 0, 0, -1) surface:AddTriangle(2, 1, 0) surface:AddTriangle(0, 3, 2) test:SetMaterial(material) test:UpdateAABB(Entity.LocalAABB) test:UpdateAABB(Entity.GlobalAABB) local test_two = test:Instance() test_two:SetPosition(0, 0, 0) local test_three = test:Instance() test_three:SetPosition(5, 5, 5) which seems to just move the one model around rather than drawing several in different locations. Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated, especially in the matter of the GPU instancing, since I might as well take advantage of that if possible.

I really shouldn't drag this conversation on, but I'd like to point out that EVE is run by pure targeting, which means no actual collision detection/rigid body physics is used. when it comes to moving, it's just a matter of calculating the distance between nearby objects and your ship, and deceleration/changing course if it comes to near. you can't actually collide with objects in the game from my experience, therefore you don't need any physics collision calculations at all. when it comes to firing, as long as your within the weapon's required distance, you will always hit, no collision calculations are ever done, especially since you can't dodge with your ships in the game. this makes EVE an invalid example to use for comparison. A better idea would be to look at games like battlefield, or gta, or just cause 2, and try to get an idea of how many rigid bodies are falling about on your average playthrough. unless you have a very specific reason for many thousands of rigid bodies, 100-1000 is a good amount, especially if you handle it smartly. (eg. disabling rigid bodies when at rest, only enabling them when an object is destroyed, finding the right balance of accuracy/speed, etc.)

Congratulations to tjheldna, he did an amazing job. I did try and have a crack at making a game for this one, but work had picked up so much is these last few weeks I simply couldn't find the time to finish it off and had to back out.

This looks like it's going to be fun. Are we able to think of idea's before it starts, or will we have to keep our heads clear before then?

I have submitted my game to the asset store. I tried to add sounds, but they ended up being annoying so I took them back out. that said, I hope you enjoy the game as it is

Ending? wow, that gives me another day. Maybe I can add those sounds after all.

Mine's almost done. just need to add some sounds if I can, otherwise it will have to stay mute. EDIT: it appears that my laptop has a combo microphone jack that cannot receive sounds from line in, and all the stores have closed that would have to required converter cable *sigh*. So I'm going to wrap it up now and leave the game mute. So... uh... how do I submit what I've done?

I've found my game idea pretty quickly, right now it's just a matter of finding time to work on it. that said, I've gotten quite a few "programmer art" style models done, enough so I can start coding and get the mechanics working.

Alright, thanks. Looking forward to seeing what I can come up with