PaulWeston

Good to hear it is working better now...

I find Torque in general to just be a bit slow, hard to pinpoint exactly where the problem could be. Any suggestions are welcome as always :)

Maybe it's something to do with AFX - I know it does some constant raycasting for the mouse-clickable stuff, maybe that is hitting the performance. Not sure what I would do if that's the case, we really like AFX and use it for several things - the mouse clicking, various particle effects, the transporter beam, etc.

Also wondering if AFX is causing my compatibility mode issue in 64-bit. Maybe there are still a few things to do in the engine code to make it play nicely in 64-bit. I know a lot of work was done on pointers in the rest of the engine, maybe the AFX code needs some attention in that way too?

FYI - I just posted a new version (same download URL, same filename, just newer RAR file)...

Includes some fixes:

- Put a Readme file in root game folder with more info

- Editable default bind file in scripts/client/afx

- Removed controls tab from Options menu

- F1 popup Help updated to include all relevant control info

- New title / splash screens

- Fixed some bugs with controls (ESC key was not always working to quit)

Thanks for the continued interest - please feel free to download the latest build and keep testing. Any feedback is good feedback.

Cheers

Thanks for the details, good to know!

Point taken about the lack of color variety - in a way that is by design, that's kind of how the original show was, that's a look we are kind of going for. But I agree there is room to improve.

Yes I realized I had not updated the F1 help menu with all the controls - d'oh!

That has been done now, I posted an updated release at the same URL, same filename, it has the new help as well as fixes to the items I listed in a post just above.

If you hit F1 now, it will tell you how everything works.

The hold-right-mouse setup is because our game is AFX and uses that so you have mouse cursor control to click on things. We want it this way by default. The way you're suggesting works too, but we did not design it that way.

You can always hit V to toggle freelook and then you would get what you want.

As for the options stuff - I really never cared about that, in fact I'm going to just remove the controls menu from the options screen. People always seem to want to fuss around in there, mess things up, then complain it doesn't work lol. So, I'm going to just remove it. I will leave the Default Bind file editable for people who really need to remap their controls. I'd rather they just played the game and not worry about messing around with options :)

You are correct about falling through stairway openings and such, we have not bothered to cover up those openings in this version... Takes too long to find them all and they are different in each mission because different decks are loaded for different missions. If people stick to the mission instructions, they won't see any of that. If they go out of their way to find those places, well, then fun for them :) If you play the Explore All Decks mission, every stairway should be there and the rest of the decks should load in as you move down.

The F7 and F8, yes I will be taking them out of course - they are there now for just such situations as you required them. Same with the FPS counter. This is a Beta release for you guys to play with, I kind of left those things in there on purpose, they are not bugs lol

ESC key should work fine, like I said don't try to use the menus to remap controls, it probably messed everything up... Has that feature ever worked properly anyways in other Torque games? Seems to me it was always buggy. Better to just give people the default bind file to edit as they please I think.

I do appreciate the constructive feedback on the space cubemap - I never really gave it a serious look but you are correct in that it could be smoother. I will have our art guy take a look.

Baking light maps I have heard from a few people, but I don't think that is easy - our artist knows all about that and says for the way this is setup it is either really really difficult to do, or just is not possible. Something about how the ship model is broken up. I don't know, we'll discuss it again as it is something we do hear a lot. We would love to do anything that would make it look nicer, of course.

He really only works in Milkshape though, finds its the best tool for getting things into Torque smoothly...

So, I don't know what we can do with Milkshape models in terms of light maps, etc? Anyone have specific advice on how to go about that?

Thanks again for the feedback.

Some known gameplay issues found so far, apologies for any problems:

command officer final exam: hangar turbolift is missing (to fix use F8 to engage fly mode, fly to hangar and hit f7 to spawn character at camera)

operations warp engine repair: it tells you to go to bridge to test when you should go to deck 18 engineering

operations final exam: there is no collision on port nacelle floor, you will fall through (to fix use J to engage weightless mode and you can then fly into the nacelle to repair the leaks)

science officer final exam: there may not be enough AI that spawn in medical to finish mission (to fix hit ALT-A for AI editor, go to Actions then delete and respawn group 1)

Turbolift map GUI: deck 7 has a turbolift destination just right of center that should not be there, there is no lift there anymore, I forgot to delete the option)

I'm sure there are more, feel free to post any that you find.

Cheers

Hehe, yes I know it is silly...

I wish I knew how to solve that problem.

It's weird - it only happens in the 64-bit build, and I can actually get it to stop if I remove a bunch of my startup client and server scripts... So you'd think by using process of elimination I could easily find the one that it does not like, but for some reason it is not always the same file that crashes it.

It's like some sort of memory leak issue or corruption, it's random enough that it cannot be pinpointed easily. Debug build just dumps out in a general memory handling function so no help there.

Strange indeed.

But the compatibility mode solves it perfectly, so I just do that and call it a day for now.

We hired Stefan (the guy who wrote the Awesomium Integration Kit) to code us up a 64-bit wrapper...

So we can now run Awesomium stuff in 64-bit Torque.

It's "awesome" lol

You read right :)

If anyone has any ideas how to get rid of the annoying compatibility mode issue, that would be great :)

It only happens with the 64-bit .EXE. If I compile to 32-bit, it does not crash like that on load. However, the game is unplayable in 32-bit as you quickly run out of memory while exploring the ship.

So, need to figure out 64-bit issue.

Thanks

Did you read the instructions on the download page?

I put them in huge letters, explaining how the game needs compatibility mode. It was also in my post above :)

People need to read more lol

If that doesn't solve it, let me know.

P

This is interesting... I ran into this problem with the last game I worked on, which was a really cool concept but failed when I scaled it up.

Basically I was making a minecraft-like game, where the player can place blocks to build things like castles or houses, etc. They are all TSStatic objects to start, so should be really low overhead, and they are all simple simple cubes with only one low-res material on them...

What happened was the FPS would drop significantly when I added more than a few hundred blocks. This is a problem, as any decent size castle will have 1000+ blocks in it.

I have never heard of this instancing variable either - is there any more information on how to use it effectively? Because I really loved that game, I had all kinds of neat concept in there that I was working on, but had to put it on hold because it just didn't scale to the point I needed it to.

It would seem to me that the engine should be able to handle thousands of small cubes without issue, I was quite surprised and disappointed when it started to crawl to a halt before I even really got a lot in the scene.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

P

As promised, here is a link to the Beta download page:

http://gambitrealm.com/INSTALLER/download_release45_vr.php

Feedback is welcome, happy 50th anniversary!

Cheers

Paul

I'm putting together a BETA release right now, going to upload to my web server later this evening (EST), anyone want to try?

:)

Just unplugged after a half hour in the Rift, hunting Klingons deck to deck.

Wow, so much fun!

I wish I had a DK2, the DK1 is pretty low res and the ship doesn't look nearly as good as it should, but it's still totally immersive and a complete riot to be running around the Enterprise in virtual reality.

We had this working all before on our previous 2014 release, but that was our older ship model (we have completely rebuilt everything since) and I didn't have all these missions to play... Also we didn't have controller support so Rifting with keyboard and mouse was a bit meh.

Now I can play standing up in my living room with the Rift on and controller in-hand, so cool :)

Thanks again, this trick works great!

Hi all,

OK, in case any of you were NOT sick of hearing about our Star Trek project (which we've been chatting about here and at the old GG site going on 6 or 7 years now), we have some exciting news!

We are getting ready to release the latest version, just in time for the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek, and we have really tried to take things to the next level this time.

EDITED TO ADD: Beta download now available!

(UPDATED FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2016 @ 15:00 EST - All new TOS-inspired menus!)

Download Link: http://gambitrealm.com/INSTALLER/download_release45_vr.php

Also updated screen caps below

This build is based on our custom port of Torque 3D 3.7 - the binary is now 64-bit and includes AFX, Advanced Character Kit, and Awesomium Integration Kit (among other additions). Yes, we got Awesomium working in 64-bit :)

Some of the exciting new features now in the game:

- COMPLETE WORKING TURBOLIFT SYSTEM WITH MOVING LIFTS!

- 15 training missions (Gold/Red/Blue shirts each get 5 skill tiers)

- 5 interactive episodes (watch clips and then take control of the action)

- All Decks exploration mission (entire ship accessible)

- Turbolift Shafts exploration mission (go from top to bottom of ship within the shafts)

- Deck 6 movie theater mission (watch movie trailers in the theater)

- Full Oculus Rift support (DK1 tested - don't own a DK2 so can't vouch for that)

- Full game controller support (I even got my PS3 controller to work on my PC, thinks it's an Xbox controller)

- Each mission completed unlocks a new character to play

- Unlocked characters can access specific things in the All Decks mission

- Each skill tier of missions completed unlocks an interactive episode

- We can now fly the actual Enterprise just like we fly a shuttle

- We can beam to and from planets and space stations

- Ship can warp to other locations, and you see the planets approaching

Single player only for now, but we also have a whole multiplayer angle in mind should we ever get the energy to go there... We'll see.

This will be a completely free download, meant as a tribute giveaway to Star Trek fans of all ages. We will also be including the Torque tools and some editable scripts, to allow anyone to mod this anyway they like... It's our gift to the Trek community in celebration of the 50th anniversary.

CBS/Paramount never made a game anything like this, so we did it :)

Anyhow, here are some pics to tide you over until release day... These are the mission preview images, taken from in-game screenshots.

We are aiming for a March/April release - stay tuned!

Live Long and Prosper

Cheers

Paul

(That's me in the Captain's Chair)

http://indelta.ca/ncc1701-50th/01-CaptainsChair.jpg

COMMAND OFFICER MISSIONS:

Shuttle Training

http://indelta.ca/INSTALLER/Command-01-ShuttleFlight_preview.jpg

Ensign Training

http://indelta.ca/INSTALLER/Command-02-EnsignTraining_preview.jpg

Tactical Training

http://indelta.ca/INSTALLER/Command-03-TacticalTraining_preview.jpg

Diplomacy

http://indelta.ca/INSTALLER/Command-04-Diplomacy_preview.jpg

Bridge Command Officer

http://indelta.ca/INSTALLER/Command-05-BridgeCommandOfficer_preview.jpg

OPERATIONS OFFICER MISSIONS:

Klingon Hunt

http://indelta.ca/INSTALLER/Operations-01-KlingonHunt_preview.jpg

Exterior Repair

http://indelta.ca/INSTALLER/Operations-02-ExteriorRepair_preview.jpg

Warp Engine Repair

http://indelta.ca/INSTALLER/Operations-03-WarpEngineRepair_preview.jpg

Security Detail

http://indelta.ca/INSTALLER/Operations-04-SecurityDetail_preview.jpg

Bridge Operations Officer

http://indelta.ca/INSTALLER/Operations-05-BridgeOperationsOfficer_preview.jpg

SCIENCE OFFICER MISSIONS:

Medical Training

http://indelta.ca/INSTALLER/Science-01-MedicalTraining_preview.jpg

Satellite Drop

http://indelta.ca/INSTALLER/Science-02-SatelliteDrop_preview.jpg

Probe Launch

http://indelta.ca/INSTALLER/Science-03-ProbeLaunch_preview.jpg

Science Expedition

http://indelta.ca/INSTALLER/Science-04-ScienceExpedition_preview.jpg

Bridge Science Officer

http://indelta.ca/INSTALLER/Science-05-BridgeScienceOfficer_preview.jpg

INTERACTIVE EPISODES:

http://indelta.ca/INSTALLER/Episode-01-TroubleWithTribbles_preview.jpg

http://indelta.ca/INSTALLER/Episode-02-Galileo7_preview.jpg

http://indelta.ca/INSTALLER/Episode-03-DoomsdayMachine_preview.jpg

http://indelta.ca/INSTALLER/Episode-04-Arena_preview.jpg

http://indelta.ca/INSTALLER/Episode-05-BalanceOfTerror_preview.jpg

OTHER MISSIONS:

Explore All Decks

http://indelta.ca/INSTALLER/AllDecksNew_preview.jpg

Turbolift Shafts

http://indelta.ca/INSTALLER/Deck00Turbo_preview.png

Movie Theater

http://indelta.ca/ncc1701-50th/18-TheatreScreen.jpg

That may be why it has not been noticed - most people run better computers than I do I guess, I'm only using a dual-core and it doesn't like anything other than everything set to Low for the video options.

Anyhow, am eager to try this out tonight when I get home from work, thanks again!

OMG wow, you're a saint... that's awesome :)

So, with this fix and a recompile, any size video I make will correctly pop on to the object and fit?

OK, I'm not crazy!

:)

So, why only on some quality pref settings, and why does the only sample video I can find of it in use show it working fine on a cube object?

Anyhow, glad somebody else is finally seeing what I was. Because we triple-checked the model and even started over with a fresh clean plane object and still get the same issue.

Experimented with every possible resolution and aspect ratio when coverting the videos too - 4:3, 16:9, standard 320X240 up to VCD settings, nothing works.

Can't understand why nobody would have caught this when adding this support to the engine - did nobody test it or something?

So, nobody out there is using the Theora on Object stuff?

It's a neat feature, used to be a resource way back when until it was added to stock T3D. So, I figured it should just work, the tutorial video I watched shows the video properly proportioned on the object.

What do you mean by UV wrap in place? Something specific that needs to be done to the DAE model? I thought all that was needed was any basic shape. I just used Blender to make a simple cube with one named material. Didn't know of any specific steps to making an object that will properly display Theora video, there is nothing about that in the tutorials.

I have tried many methods of converting video as well - original video is MP4, convert to MPEG2, then to AVI, then to OGV. Along the way I processed it into standard 320 X 240 size. So, it's not like it's a 16 X 9 aspect ratio widescreen video or anything, it's basic 320 X 240, so why does it no just fill the shape properly?

I'm just using the straight theora video on texture, using materials:

singleton TheoraTextureObject(WebStarTrek1_Movie)

{

texTargetName = "MyWebStarTrek1TextureName";

theoraFile = "scripts/web/video/startrek1.ogv";

};

singleton Material(WebStarTrek1_WebStarTrek1)

{

mapTo = "WebStarTrek1";

diffuseMap[0] = "#MyWebStarTrek1TextureName";

emissive[0] = "1";

};

I have a .dae object that has the material WebStarTrek1, the TheoraTextureObject calls the video file.

The settings you gave:

matchVideoSize = "0";

position = "0 0";

horizSizing = "width";

vertSizing = "height";

... would be for the Theora Gui controls, no? Can I use them in the TheoraTextureObject as well?

Thanks

Sure...

Taking this video clip:

http://indelta.com/files/uploads/st-uncropped.jpg

And putting it onto a Theora video object, will result in this:

http://indelta.com/files/uploads/st-cropped.jpg

Thanks all...

That's odd then, must be our custom codebase or something. We have so many things added in that I don't know where to start looking.

Our engine code is based on the one on GitHub that had AFX merged in with 3.6.3, I think it was Azezel's or maybe someone else's can't remember. Anyhow we need AFX for various effects and we also have the MACK mixed in along with many other resources.

I guess one of these resources / add-ons is causing some incompatibility or something? Or is it maybe my development environment?

I use VC 2010 Exprpess, with all latest SDKs etc. Any more ideas? It works with compatibility mode set, but seems like it should run without needing that.

Thanks

Bumping this thread...

Anyone else have success mapping Theora videos onto objects?

As noted above, everything works mechanically, however the video is not scaling properly to the object.

For example, when using a movie screen (rectangular shape), and trying to stick a video on it, the object only shows a cropped portion of the video. Even if I make the source video wide screen format, it still seems to want to texture on as a square, which doesn't fit the movie screen shape, and we lose the top and bottom of the video as well as a bit on the sides.

Is there some secret I don't know about, that lets me force the video to scale exactly to the size of the object we stick it to?

Thanks

Bumping this thread, because I can't believe I am the only one who has seen this?

Is anybody out there building 64-bit executables?

No matter how I set up my Visual Studio, the resulting 64-bit exe will always crash on startup - unless I enable Windows 7 compatibility mode on it.

And this happens with all my computers in the house, it's not restricted to a specific PC.

We all run Windows 7 home premium. Also different video cards, some are Nvidia and some are Radeon. Tried on Quad-core machines with 8 gigs of ram and dual-cores with 4 gigs of ram, both need this compatibility mode on or the game will crash.

Not ideal for distribution - is nobody else having this problem?!?