Lots of AGK
Not only my usual run of AGK project work, but a long conference call with the core AGK engine team to plot out a roadmap for the rest of 2013. It was a good call with lots of cool ideas, and we eventually arrived at some good solid decisions. If this was the forum, I would probably not mention them as I will be beaten over the head with my words 12 months from now. This is my blog however so I feel like I have enough freedom to reveal some hints.
AGK Roadmap Hints
Our top priority is the conclusion of the V108 update which is 'almost' done. We keep adding a command every now and again which resets the whole testing and build work, plus there are numerous little 'niggles' which we want to eradicate before making the update official. There are also a few Game Centre commands going in too.
When we make an update official, we have to upload all the AGK Players out there, and so we want to make sure the version everyone permanently updates to is rock solid.
Once V108 is out the door, we will either sit on the command set and go for more testing, or what is looking more likely, adding a few much needed 3D Animation commands and then testing for stability and consistency across platforms. When we stood back from our current 3D command set, we realised that there was some holes in what you could do, and having a 3D game with no animating models was a little cruel. These are going in, along with some extra file format work so you can import your creations into AGK more easily. Beyond that, many things, but I will touch on those when we get closer to them. In the meantime, watch the AGK forum for news on new betas.
FPSC Beta 15
Also got a report that the latest FPSC beta is going down well, with just a single issue relating to the spawning of characters not finding the floor quickly. It's not a show stopper, so will leave the beta for a while longer in case anything else crops up.
Signing Off
I still have three hours on the clock, and I suspect most of them will be eaten up with AGK project work, but if I escape the tractor beam my plan is to break out FPSC Source Code and have a quick hour chopping away at it, to see if I can trigger the build game from within the map editor executable. This will be the first step to eliminating the build step altogether as the ultimate aim is always to have a single executable running, instead of spawning off a new one each time you click Test Level.
Hurray for 3D animations! :) I've been holding off getting into the 3D aspect of AGK for this lone reason, so I am looking forward to that and all other AGK additions.
ReplyDeleteAs an aside, I spent a couple of weeks porting a simplified version of an app I originally developed in Objective C to AGK Tier 1, but got hung up on the last bit. There is currently no way to save photos to the public photo library on Android/iOS. Using the PrintImage() command will only save it to the root of the SD card (at least on Android) and always uses the name "PrintedImage.png" meaning only one such image can be saved. I would greatly appreciate either a separate public library saving command or additional parameters for this command to specify the filename and to make sure it is saved to the user's actual photo storage dir (not just root). I think there is some lost potential in AGK without being able to save images directly the camera roll.
Yes that is a deficiency. The initial run of commands where designed to be sandbox safe and storageless, but as we move forward we do see the need to create dynamic content and store it on the local device. The print feature is the start of this move, and we will be adding more export style commands so you can get your content out of the app.
ReplyDeleteWell good news folks, we needed to fix this for our app Hide It Find It, so it will be part of V1.08 AGK. Photos are now saved in the Pictures folder and are each named differently.
ReplyDeleteGreat, thanks guys!
ReplyDelete