A Barrel Of Tweaks

I have managed to get to Thursday and drag with me a number of inbox emails that had not been actioned, so I decided to target them with action and responses so my plate looks cleaner for next week, and to that end I have been tackling little questions and small fixes before returning to the challenge of AO lightmapping.

The characters no longer cannot do a 'hip flick' issue as I have added code to set a maximum amount of hip turning that can be done per cycle, and the results are subtle but good with enemies swinging weapons around before bringing them to bear, and no sign of any hip flicking. Time and V1.009 test will tell if this solve this issue.

Also fixed the muzzle flash of UZI weapons so they no longer penetrate the barrel of the gun being fired which made the whole effect lose it's visual quality.

I am also downloading a 4.5GB project from a Reloaded user who wants me to see what can be done to speed up the engine and stop it occasionally crashing. When I asked for a snapshot of the files I did not expect nearly 5 GB but it's the only way to reproduce this one, so download we go.

Last night I spent a good deal of time, hours in fact, answering forum questions and suchlike, so I hope my contributions helped. Early feedback on V1.0085 are good so let's hope that continues as we plug away at V1.009 which will promise to be a very good build for all.

In other news, the importer has been getting even more TLC, as a direct result of new feedback from the alpha testers who are putting the importer through some tough times. All good, and will make the final result stronger!

I also want to blog in no uncertain terms that the Jet Pack took me three hours of coding, with the remainder contributed by a third party artist and did NOT distract the core development of Reloaded in any, shape or form. Indeed it added a new LUA command allowing the player to achieve flight, created a new HUD Layer system which can be re-used in future for more cool things like helmets, exo-skeletons and even first person vehicles (with more art and code). It also allowed us to trial a new incentive scheme which might increase pledge levels and allow even more core engine development.  It also, perish the thought, allows people who want a Jet Pack in their game to have one. For more information on how you can help us make this early beta of Reloaded more popular, visit our new incentive scheme page:

http://en.tgcstore.net/?md=invite-friends

I may also have omitted to say what improvements where added to the Hot Fix, so I will list them here if you are interested in the murky details:

Custom character control via scripts, ragdoll model repair, physics weights and friction, entity LOD shadow fixes, support for multi-texture entities, brass ejection from Colt 1911, adding Shotgun character, new LUA Jet Pack command, proximity mine and remote explosions, improved muzzle flash positioning, better behavior for Rocket Man, one stage undo, transparency issue for for glass entities, new zoom mode for RPG, accelerated IDE speed and better time slicing with external apps, improved Escape level beginning for easier demo play, BSP weapons pack fix

I extracted this direct from my 'jobs done' list so I apologize it's not pretty, but should give you some guidance on what your friendly neighborhood Reloaded coder is getting up to.