Hi!

Engine update 8952 is up.

This is the 1st released version with:

• New OpenGL  renderer backend! (speeeed) :)
• Speedy particles (100.000 should not be a problem now…)
• New models in new format (some animation still need tweaking/fixes)
• Network protocol updates, errors with out of sync moves are prevented now.

I am still working out some kinks, so it is not 100% ready yet, more updates to follow!

Known issues:

• Some video cards (pre-2010 computers…) may require a driver update to keep working… no new hardware needs to be bought though! :)
• A lot of the new promised speed seems lost for the windows version: reason: something weird is happening in the GUI code. (Working on it!)
• Not all models have been converted, the engine is complaining about that on the console.
• Some animations have been incorrectly converted/named: will fix!
• You may get “Division by zero” crashes. this is due to some LGS script dividing by zero!

The 13 MB update is a preparation for what is coming… but it is not yet the new update i am working on!

Just in case you were wondering what is taking so long: converting 83 models takes time… Why convert? Check out these screenshots:

• The 1st screenie… the engine is rendering @ 200 FPS… stable too… judging from the graph… this is new models… thought up in 2004. Implemented by myself in 2015
• The 2nd screenie… the engine is rendering @ 120 FPS… also pretty stable… but every onscreen model takes a couple of milliseconds to render…. This is the old model format… thought up in 1998…

For 4 player games.. the difference is even bigger!

So… be patient… speed is coming! :D

Hi folks!

All these sleepless nights caring for my little boy bring a lot of ideas.

I have been working on the next update of the game engine:

These are things i have done so far:

• The renderer is now completely OpenGL “Core profile”, no more deprecated (old) functionality! (And perhaps in future: android support?)
• Fixed a lot of stutters in the rendering, game feels a lot smoother now.
• Many more frames per second…
• Lower cost to do particles…. 2000 particles were a lot for the previous version…. tested to 100.000 particles with the next! :D
• New network protocol features to make network play smoother.

This is what i am still working on:

• discovered that the old models (MDL) render very very slow… more then 50% of CPU is wasted on this: so i am converting old models to new models.
• Tuning and testing of all the new code… it’s a big update… so a lot of testing!

Greetz,

Menne

Coming to your nearest LBZ build soon :)

mini update :)

Greezzallz

For the very special fans a very special special: AF is Real on LBZ. Just start the game and have fun!