Messages

586

Add-Ons / Re: ☐⇄☐ Item Storage

« on: August 05, 2015, 04:34:49 PM »

Sorry, didn't see your post before. You have to use slash commands in chat to move items around and to view it. The .PDF manual included with the add-on will have more information on how to use it.

587

Modification Help / Re: Procedural Terrain Generator v3 (GUI Video Tutorial! Pg.11)

« on: August 05, 2015, 04:29:51 PM »

Oh I'll definitely be trying this, I'm hyped as all heck for it.

Awesome :)


Btw, I found a slight problem when adjusting noise scale values for setting up mini-empires landscapes. The generator snaps all XY-axis values to be multiples of 16, and prevents float values for the Z-axis, which can complicate creating small-scaled terrain. For the next update, I'll adjust the clamp ranges so you can set XY-axis values for ItrC to snap to the terrain brick size instead, and allow float values for the Z-axis. Here's a preview of what will be possible with the fixes:



You'll also be able to setup clouds, caves, biomes, details, mountains and floating islands to generate for them.

588

Modification Help / Re: Procedural Terrain Generator v3 (GUI Video Tutorial! Pg.11)

« on: August 05, 2015, 01:48:12 PM »

No need to apologize, you'll be able to try the add-on yourself very soon - within a few weeks if all goes well.

589

Modification Help / Re: Procedural Terrain Generator v3 (GUI Video Tutorial! Pg.11)

« on: August 05, 2015, 01:31:05 PM »

Here's a thought: Could you make a .DLL injection that just adds a function to Blockland? Most of them override something, but what would stop you from adding? Then you could have it written in C++ and be in the same program, that is if you ever want to do that.

I'm open, but it wouldn't be included anytime soon; maybe for the next version. I don't see it being necessary at this point to include .DLL injections, executable files etc. for various reasons - it would delay the release of the add-on indefinitely and I'm sure would turn most people off from using the add-on. The most efficient way to make a generator would be to create meshes dynamically using OpenGL, instead of handling chunks as individual brick objects. But, all that seems rather complex and unnecessary.

For the mean time however, if you would like to speed up the generator, using larger bricks (like the 16x sizes) or reducing the chunk size, and reducing the Function and Sub-Function Delays (instead of setting them both to be 0) should help. I'm also going to try to make the noise functions slightly more efficient (for one of the future updates) by reducing how often it has to grab random values, which should make the generator in general slightly faster - especially for using the smaller bricks for terrain.

Tested the new update.

(Click for full res)
- pic -

Absolutely astounding.

Nice!

Tested out Mod-Ter generation, got some funky results. I generated a brick-equivalent too, to give some contrast.

http://imgur.com/a/RsKAO

As I understand, the modular terrain generation isn't actually done yet.

Yeah, Modular Terrain is only working to a nominal degree; it will hopefully be fully implemented for the Beta update.

Not too long. Especially since I sped it up using infinite player location based generation and switched off clearing chunks too far to generate the scene. But the takeaway is that the generation is surprisingly fast.

How long? Are we looking at something that freezes the server?

Usually, only using the smaller bricks like 1x1f causes some server lag. The generator breaks up calculation and brick-placement between frames, so it should put less strain on the server.

590

Modification Help / Re: Procedural Terrain Generator v3 (GUI Video Tutorial! Pg.11)

« on: August 03, 2015, 08:30:58 PM »

Alright, the update is going out now! I've reached my limit on PMs per hour, so I'll be messaging the new testers shortly. Here's a preview of the new default landscape, which demonstrates the fixes and new additions included:



Edit: Also, certain players asked to used the generator to help in setting up their server. Since it's a rare case, I decided to let them use it. Just wanted to mention that so the testers are aware.

Hey it's 1:32 AM can you release it please :^)

You have to be a tester to get the update lol.

Awesome. I forgot about the AuxGen test you asked me to do. Is it still required?

It wasn't really required, I just wanted to make sure the landscapes generated for you is the same for everyone else. Otherwise, loading presets might cause some confusion. If you send me a pic of the default landscape though, that would help.

591

Modification Help / Re: Procedural Terrain Generator v3 (GUI Video Tutorial! Pg.11)

« on: August 02, 2015, 11:19:59 PM »

Bump, the revised alpha update will be released tomorrow! The update will include the following:

Features
     Mountains
          - Added options for toggling a snow layer for mountains and setting the snow start height (details in the snow layer change to the snow color)
          - Fixed issues and adjusted Mountains Z-Snap Mult. and Z-Multiplier.
          - Fixed setting colors and prints for mountains, so they are no longer red and have the default print.
     Terrain
          - Removed duplicate settings for default terrain.
          - Fixed random terrain displacement issue (was caused by an issue with biome terrain height modifying)
     New Additions
          - Added support for Sylvanor's Tree Bricks (choosing a leaf / top brick will also randomly choose a tree base to be planted within it)
          - Added plate-capping
          - Added option for setting the shore color, print and detail bricks to be the same as the custom biome it's in (doesn't apply for default biome)
     Biomes
          - Fixed endless biomes issue
          - Increased max details for biomes to 18 (6 for common, uncommon and rare) and adjusted placement ratios (uncommon generates 1/4 as often and rare 1/8 as often)
     Water and Fill Bricks
          - Fixed fill bricks and water bricks not switching to print bricks when ModTer is enabled
          - Fixed water brick generation so that it only generates where necessary (helps reduce the brick count as well)
          - Fixed issues with water brick bounds and collision sizes
          - Fixed water types functionality (they now add particle emitters to water bricks when used, and add certain affects to the bricks: lava uses undulo waves animation and injures players when entered, ice stops the waves animation and adds collision)
          - Added "QuickSand" as a new water type
     Routines
          - Fixed issues with pausing / resuming when exceeding brick, chunk or ping max buffer limits
          - Fixed loading static values for chunks from save files
          - Fixed autosaving taking too long to complete a cycle
          - Improved chunk culling so that it now only updates the chunk count to search through after each completed search cycle (should making removing chunks MUCH faster and prevent terrain generation from slowing down)
          - Fixed issues using "NoTerrain" as a terrain type, and renamed it to "Load Chunk Saves Only"
          - Fixed issue with accessing chunk filepaths / checking limits when saving a new chunk
     Other
          - Fixed seams in terrain (was caused by caves, even if they didn't generate; issues with gaps for caves and when terrain is near caves still needs to be fixed)
          - Fixed detail selection for Skylands (still needs to be finalized and still need to fix seams with Skyland terrain and caves(?))
          - Fixed cave bottom color and print for Skylands
         - Limited ModTer functionality (?) - (still need to finish) (Modular terrain support is working to a certain extent, but still needs A LOT of work, especially with caves and details)

GUI Improvements
     New Additions
          - Add options for deselecting detail bricks and prints
          - Added script to prevent disconnecting from a non-dedicated server while a routine or secondary routine is running
          - Added option to toggle permissions for Admins to use Server Commands and Events
          - Included option to only update Routine settings, without having to start another or halt the current routine
          - Added toggle options for autosaving (autosaving can now be enable for finite terrain, and disable for infinite terrain)
          - Added toggle option for removing distant chunks (meant for generating locals for RPGs simply by exploring the landscape)
          - Made changes to default settings and included presetup default prints (also added a script that notifies you if you choose a ModTer brick, but don't set up prints for it) (The default settings show mountains with snow, caves, all custom biomes, custom water types and Sylvanor's Tree support within the generated landscape for demonstration. Also, old presets will no longer work with this version.)
          - Added support for listing and reading presets from .zip files (you can have multiple saves and screenshots per .zip file)
          - Taking preview screenshots when saving presets now hides all HUD GUIs in advance
          - Made section cut values under Advanced easier to understand by adding dynamic max ranges to the right as a reference (they auto-update when certain settings are updated or when new presets are loaded) (also added ">" and "<" symbols for reference)
          - Added new error checks for noise scales when uploading settings
     Fixes
          - Fixed command for clearing all chunk saves for the current seed or in general
          - Made small changes to the GUI layouts to be easier to understand (such as replacing text boxes with sliders for Routines)
          - Made small adjustments to various slider ranges
          - Set default max ping buffer limit to 400 (same as default for the game) so the generator won't detect lag when taking screenshots

Autonomous Dedicated Server Support
          - Fixed console spam due to the lag check function on dedicated servers (for dedicated servers, the generator uses an auxiliary method for checking lag)
          - Added support for vacant servers (once you upload your settings and start a routine, you can leave and rejoin your server whenever and the generator will adapt)
          - Added a PTGrmt (PTG Remote) function to easily execute server commands through the external console window (type PTGRmt("Help"); in the console for more info and PTGRmt("List"); for all available functions you can use)

Other
          - Fixed issue with client Disconnect package
          - Improved eval security
          - Clamped seed value to 8 digits or less and adjusted chunk generation radii for players / superadmins to now allow a value of 0 (only generates the chunk under the player)
          - Clamped XY axis Noise Scale values to be <= 8192 and the Z axis values to be <= 8.
          - Fixed Dannu's issue in which terrain was always flat (due to how the engine handles scientific notation differently on Macs) (terrain will now generate differently for previously used seeds!)
          - Added data string limit checks to prevent data from being cutoff when uploaded over the network

592

Modification Help / Re: Procedural Terrain Generator v3 (GUI Video Tutorial! Pg.11)

« on: August 01, 2015, 02:16:23 AM »

Fixed for the update, thanks.

593

Modification Help / Re: Procedural Terrain Generator v3 (GUI Video Tutorial! Pg.11)

« on: August 01, 2015, 01:45:00 AM »

Setting these values to 0 creates a lot of lag and fps drops.
Perhaps using a different language and externally generating things could be an option?

It is an option, but it would be a major hassle to have to learn a new language (even if it's relatively similar to TorqueScript), change the syntax, define the variable types, etc., and would indefinitely delay the release. C++ would be much more efficient and I'm sure much faster, but working with the game's brick system is the main disadvantage.


Btw, just added support for Sylvanor's tree bricks! Choosing one of the tree top bricks as biome details will cause the generator to randomly choose one of the three tree base bricks to plant inside:


Besides tons of fixes and improvements, the revised alpha will also have new features as well, such as the ability to toggle auto saving for both finite and infinite terrain, and the option to disable distant chunk culling for infinite terrain (encase you want to generate terrain by exploring, without removing previously explored terrain). Details for biomes has also been expanded to 18 (6 for common, uncommon and rare), and detail placement ratios have been adjusted as well.

594

Modification Help / Re: Procedural Terrain Generator v3 (GUI Video Tutorial! Pg.11)

« on: July 31, 2015, 02:58:01 PM »

Tried it out, phenomenal job! Haven't seen a major bug yet.

EDIT: Tried Skylands on Infinite, got this:
- pic -

Great, and I'll look into that thanks.

So far the only real issue I'm having is that infinite terrain generates very slowly. You'll keep walking and eventually reach an area without any terrain.

torque script doesn't seem to be the best for generating terrain.

One reason terrain generates so slow is because the default setting for Sub Function Delay is set to 1 millisecond, which causes the generator to wait 1ms everytime it generates a column of bricks. That might not seem like much, but it does slow it down - setting the value to 0 should cause it to be much faster.

Also, there was an issue with the culling / chunk removal routine in which it would constantly add newly created chunks to the amount it had to search through to remove. This would cause the routine to struggle to catch up, since it would hardly ever complete a culling cycle. However, for the revised alpha, it'll gradually update the chunk count only after each cycle. The default setting for the Sub Function Delay will also be lowered slightly, so terrain should update much faster.

The person knows :/

The person deleted it. The person understood.

Oh okay, awesome. I think I may have an idea of who it was because I got a PM the other day from someone asking how to use it; it didn't seem like they had the old version lol. Anyway, I'm glad that's resolved.

595

Modification Help / Re: Procedural Terrain Generator v3 (GUI Video Tutorial! Pg.11)

« on: July 30, 2015, 04:19:43 PM »

Do you know the name of the person who has it? As long as it's an isolated incident that's alright.

596

Modification Help / Re: Procedural Terrain Generator v3 (GUI Video Tutorial! Pg.11)

« on: July 30, 2015, 03:43:02 PM »

Good catch :/ I included the link for version 2, which accidentally got replaced by version 3. It's removed thanks

597

Modification Help / Re: Procedural Terrain Generator v3 (GUI Video Tutorial! Pg.11)

« on: July 30, 2015, 11:43:08 AM »

- pic -

Some terrain connecting problems.

That's probably due to caves, even if they don't actually generate. I'll work on addressing that for the revised alpha release though, thanks.

maybe do something with getRealTime()?

That could work; I believe ping checks how long it takes to relay a command or information from the master server to a host's server. I'm not sure if the master server checks ping for dedicated servers, but maybe I could use getRealTime or getSimTime to check the delay between functions instead.


Btw, I realized that a client needs to be present at all times on dedicated servers for the generator to work, so I'm going to try to add support so that a client can start the generator and then leave the server, and still have it run normally.

598

Modification Help / Re: Procedural Terrain Generator v3 (GUI Video Tutorial! Pg.11)

« on: July 29, 2015, 11:16:12 PM »

I'm still working on the next version I'll be sending to all the testers. The revised alpha release will include tons of fixes, new additions and GUI improvements. Should be out within the next few days!

599

Modification Help / Re: Procedural Terrain Generator v3 (GUI Video Tutorial! Pg.11)

« on: July 27, 2015, 02:15:45 PM »

Okay, yeah that's the lag check the generator runs by accessing the server's current ping. It seems that the "ServerConnection" object isn't created for dedicated servers, so I have to look for another way to check for lag on them. In the mean time, it should still run just fine except for not pausing during lag spikes and console spam, but I'll work on fixing that.

600

Modification Help / Re: Procedural Terrain Generator v3 (GUI Video Tutorial! Pg.11)

« on: July 27, 2015, 12:09:49 PM »

-pic -
Fill all the detail slots with one or two versions of a brick, basically max it out, this is what you get.

Very cool

Reminds me of some mini-empires landscapes I tried generating:

They're not normal messages, they're errors, constantly spamming the console even so that lag occurs.
and for the biomes, I mean like minecraft, in some areas there's a snow biome, keep going and there's a normal biome, I want that sort of feature in the add-on

Oh okay, would you mind posting your console log with the errors you're getting? Also, that's they way biomes were supposed to generate, but there was an small issue with them that I actually fixed yesterday. The next alpha will include the fix; I tested them to make sure they will generate properly: