Hello Blockland Users!
We’ve been hard at work the last few months on a some big updates to Blockland:
(Full size versions at bottom of post.)That’s right:
shadows (and shaders).
You thought it couldn't be done... but here it is!
In order to make all this possible, though, we need to kill two old, slow features in Blockland: interiors and terrains.
These two features complicate Blockland’s code tremendously. That means we can’t add game features very quickly. They still have bugs in them (after years of work). They are slow, too - bricks are about 90% of their speed and can do a LOT more (explosions, events, in-game editing).
They also look bad:
They looked great in 1999, but it is 2012 now. It’s time to move forward.
We are going to remove interiors and terrain in an upcoming release. Every "map" will be like Slate, ie, with one big ground plane. If you want the bedroom, load The Bedroom build. If you want a city, build one out of bricks. If you want the kitchen, I bet there is a build of that knocking around, too.
That’s what this thread is about - to let you know where we are going with Blockland, and to talk about these changes. The Blockland community is a big part of what has made Blockland successful - we want your feedback. If you have a great use for interiors or terrain that blocks can’t do, please bring it up so we can see if there’s a way to help you get the same mileage with the new system. If you think shadows are cool, we’d love to hear that, too.
Here is the list of questions I DON’T want to see asked over and over:
- "But my computer can’t run shaders/is lame and slow/has broken drivers!" Get a new video card, even a $20 lame-o ATI or nVidia video card can run Blockland very well these days. BUT - you can turn shaders off, and the game will run and look as good as it ever has.
- "I am frightened by change/old bricks looked fine/interiors and terrains look better than bricks." You’re wrong. There are reasons to like the interior/terrain renderers but visual quality is not one of them. If you want to make this argument, post beautiful screenshots that look better than shaderized bricks, NOT essays.
- "But everyone can build! I won’t be special if I can’t make interiors or terrains." Tough, make cool stuff with bricks! It can be done, I see new neat stuff every time I play the game (props to awesome builders!).
- "Why don’t you keep everything like it was?" Because Blockland is developed by a small team, it is not possible for us to keep every feature in the engine working 100% AND add cool new features.
- "When is this release going to happen?" When it’s done. We will probably initially release shadows with a toggle to turn them ON, then later have them on by default.
I will be moderating this thread aggressively to keep the discussion on track. Well-written, short opinions are always welcome (even if they disagree, if you have a good point we want to hear it). Long misspelled rants are not. Re-asking questions on the list above will result in an edited/deleted post.
PRETTY PICTURES
ARE YOU STRESSED? TRY THIS BUTTON.This thread is about terrains/interiors/shaders/shadows, not random new features to add to the game. Offtopic posts are being deleted.See QA SESSIONS 1 2 and 3 for answers to more common questions: http://forum.blockland.us/index.php?topic=184263.msg4876029#msg4876029 http://forum.blockland.us/index.php?topic=184263.msg4876288#msg4876288 http://forum.blockland.us/index.php?topic=184263.msg4877694#msg4877694
Things that are OFF TOPIC in this thread (incomplete list):Grammar
Lord Tony
Feature requests unrelated to shadows.
Mirrors. -- see above
"Let's keep both interiors and terrain AND shadows and shaders." -- Check the thread title for a hint on this.
Demands for pictures -- more will come.
Unconstructive complaining.
Vehicle collision fixes - we want to fix this but this thread/update is about graphics.
"Is this a hoax?" -- No.
Lua -- is it awesome or not?
Interiors & their file formats.
Text under 10 points size.
Please don't post saves in this thread. I will open a new thread for shadow-oriented saves later.
When is this coming out? -- It will come out when it is done.
FAN ART:(click for big)
Awesome VIDEOSKompressor eats a bedroomR.I.P Terrains and InteriorsHow Kompressor deals with noobsR.I.P. Blockland (YouTube)Blockland: Before and Afterv21
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