One was a massive vertex buffer memory overrun which explains a few other issues we have been seeing, even for NVIDIA and INTEL users, plus some issues with texture locks during lightmapping and DarkAI using pointers that did not exist. I also have it in my head to spend the evening doing a full audit on the memory handling of the software.
Back in the day I used to use something called NuMega Bounds Checker which was a little magic box that told you when memory block A stepped on memory block B's toes. Very useful. I priced it up earlier today and they want the princely sum of $700 - ouch! I thus decided to hunt for something a little more in my price range and came up with one from SoftwareVerify called Memory Validator. I have downloaded the trial and will be spending a quiet evening with a glass of red wine, the trail demo of a much more reasonable $299 and the latest build to see if any more hidden memory leaks and overruns are creating havoc on systems I do not have direct access to.
As the entire day was like this, you can imagine there are no screenshots of cool progress, but I can sneak you a shot of a new character we are developing which will allow you to have more generic people in your future levels:
We're going to drop the mohecan for now, but it might make a re-appearance when you are least expecting it. Don't worry about the shiny mat finish to the guy, he does not have a texture yet and we've decided to reduce his brain size as well ;)
Other cool screenshot that came in today, but I cannot show it, so you will just have to hold your breath for that one, but it IS good (Escape 2 anyone?).
aah I see you made it through the mountain of progress reports. !!!! :D
ReplyDeleteNice one Lee,and the rest of the team.I always new it would be a long development road,but worth the wait.
ReplyDeleteGreat work.
ReplyDeleteis anyone working on the character creator and if so will we be
able to make NPC'S and interactive character at random with
the click of a button like gender/hair style and colour/ height/ weight
I sapose a bit like elder scrolls but not as intense..
I have been playing with fuse for a bit "from steam" and its pretty good
and worth a look for some ideas. (only problem with fuse is that it only makes models for there own software)
cheers anyway. :)
great news
ReplyDeleteGood news on all fronts by the sounds. At last some custom civilians! The main thing stopping me from getting started on a game (beyond bugs or lack of features) is the lack of characters on offer, soldiers are a little limiting, as indeed are Zombies unless you want to make a zombie game ;) I was thinking of doing one myself, but so many people will be making one it almost seems a pointless exercise. Still, with no other models mentioned till now you can understand everyone thinking of zombie ideas.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the next release!
They could always make it possible to use our own characters save us waiting and allowing games to look different.
ReplyDelete