Monday Progro

Good Editor Work

A good day of coding done and more of the map editor is now working nicely.  Multiple textured segments being drawn, modified and removed. Scrolled out of the visual area then scrolled back, and also LOD working when you pull out to view the whole scene or from first person view, in the distance.

In testing my new code creations, new issues did surface such as not being able to 'delete' in the low LOD regions which was deliberate. I assumed that editing would be done up close in high LOD areas, but I quickly saw myself zooming right out and then painting a monster huge room, which added fine but I could not delete it with the same art tool.  Something for Tuesday's list.

The Long Road

I would probably have done much more code today where it not for a curious detail of everyday development. The actual code changes to fix the above could be done in a few minutes given a super-human brain, but regular humans take a little longer. The issue was not fixing the code, but finding which code was responsible for erroneous data. When that erroneous data is buried deep deep inside a data structure system that needs five minutes of software usage before the issue emerges you find it almost impossible to even remember what you where originally looking for.

To help me on this quest, I used my handy notebook to sketch out a map of all the data as it was being created, so that I could stay oriented as I mined through nests upon nests of indirect data.  Fortunately, persistence and a pen paid off and I was able to enjoy a hassle from map editing experience as the clock tolled 6PM.

Hopefully segment art will appear in the next two weeks which means you will start to see some nice videos of all this boring Technic stuff ;)  Rick is positively leaping up and down for the visual side of things to mature so for those waiting for the eye candy, you have a champion on the inside working for you.

Signing Off

I clocked another two hours this evening to bash down the emails, write this blog, and sort out my wish list for Tuesday.  I did a little work on the shader for the current SAND segment which is the ONLY Reloaded asset for map editing right now. This is in preparation for dropping in a better shader from the new prototype which will eventually furnish the goodies.  Not only will I be exploring deferred rendering in this prototype, but working with Mark to conjure a shader that gives us a great universal set of visual attributes that the whole scene, both static and dynamic can utilise.  Unlike FPSC Classic, we want Reloaded to feel like every pixel belongs in the same scene.