Roadmap 2012

[alexander.zubov]

I looked over the list of features for 2012 and I assume we all agree that it's an impressive one. However I see nothing about networking improvement. I am a bit surprised how far behind the curve Unigine team is :(

 

We (not just Kot in Action) need dedicated server that doesn't eat up 100% of CPU time when running without renderer and idling, DLC support, accessible modding support (for user generated content), master server, built-in server browser (it's not 1999 outside the window anymore, manually typing in IP is in the past or last resort type of thing), built-in SHA256 hashing, support for HTTP / HTTPS protocols, automatic downloading for extra content via CURL library (if supported by the game server), etc.

 

Online gaming features and high performance multiplayer is one of the keys to success in the nowadays market. Unigine is more than capable delivering outstanding single-player experience. However, single player games are simply get shelved too quick nowadays.

[binstream]

PS Vita support is also planned for this year.

[demostenes]

We will provide a tool to grab a tree into the impostor atlas (diffuse and normal). New shader for ObjectGrass will select most appropriate tree image from atlas and render it.

 

Is this tool already available? I noticed in valley demo, that there are such atlases for trees, but I was not able to find way to generate them.

 

When I was searching documentation for this, I noticed this sentence "Use impostors (the Impostor flag in node settings). In effect, the impostors are automatically generated sprites that replace original meshes at a specified distance" from https://developer.unigine.com/en/docs/1.0/content/level_design It is probably not valid anymore since 2012/6/14: "Impostors were completely removed." Btw, why did you remove this feature?

[ulf.schroeter]

No, the tool is not yet available. Most probably it will be published together with the pending valley demo. According to binstream the demo will be published in some weeks/months. Right now it is at the compatibility test stage with GPU vendors.

 

Automatic impostors were removed due to heavy resource usage for impostor textures and just limited usefullness in real world scenarios. In practice more application specific impostor techniques (like the upcomming tree impostors) will provide much better results and performance.

[manguste]

To clear the situation, textures in Valley were created by hand. Our artists made screenshots of a tree from different angles, placed them into an atlas and mapped polygons to corresponding UV coordinates using the 2nd channel.

 

But the plan is still in effect - the tool is on the roadmap.

[demostenes]

I have one question regarding this:

• New multi-window UnigineEditor.
  
• New assets management system.
  

Current editor is missing comfortable asset browser with preview and drag and capability to drag objects to scene. We are now transfering our object library to Unigine (2500+ meshes, 7000+ textures, etc...) and without such asset (node/object) browser work of level designers will be very frustrating, bacause you cant have in head names and locations of thousands of assets and before placing object to scene, you must know what are you placing. Are you planning to implement something like this in mentioned updates, or we shouldnt wait and develop such tool by ourselves?

[travis.trigg]

I would still LOVE to see a log buffer!!

[manguste]

New multi-window UnigineEditor.

You can use our Interface plugin. It opens editor panels in separate which makes editing on 2-3 monitors really convenient.

 

New assets management system.

Current editor is missing comfortable asset browser with preview and drag and capability to drag objects to scene. ... Are you planning to implement something like this in mentioned updates, or we shouldnt wait and develop such tool by ourselves?

Yes, we agree that an asset browser is missing. And we definitely plan to include it in a new editor. As for ETA, not this year, I'm afraid.

[demostenes]

To clear the situation, textures in Valley were created by hand. Our artists made screenshots of a tree from different angles, placed them into an atlas and mapped polygons to corresponding UV coordinates using the 2nd channel.

 

But the plan is still in effect - the tool is on the roadmap.

 

Can you tell us approximatelly when? We will need to migrate 100+ trees, so It would be nice to have some atlasing tool.