Multi-Core Lightmapping Is Back In

Took all day but I found and fixed the issue with the 'mega nasty freeze crash issue' when the lightmapper ran via threading, which in turn was 'really' due to intercepting the process with Sync calls, and so by changing the order in which the render-able parts where updated, I could make the freeze go away.  This then freed me to move the new progress bar over to the threading version of the lightmapper and now we have a super fast light mapping bake process back.

The Escape level used to take 'quite a while' with the old single thread approach but now it takes less than a minute, and rest assured there is a LOT to lightmap in there.

In other news, App Game Kit 2 continues to do well and yesterday evening we even got on the front page of Steam, which was a bit of a shock.  It might have had something to do with the Steam system accidently promoting our launch offer to 66% off which was not the plan, but it was quickly corrected and it's back down to our 33% off price.

Not before a few lucky AGK2 users snagged themselves a great price at 66% :) I dare say such discounts will happen again so I think the moral of the story is to tune into Steam every day in case bargains are abound.  We even did nicely on the mobile version of the Steam site too:

If you are interested in AGK2, you can find it on Steam here:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/325180/

Or you can find it on a new Bundle Stars promotion here:

http://www.bundlestars.com/store/app-game-kit-2/

Back to Reloaded news, we continue to have a barrel of laughs testing the multiplayer part of the product, and here is the latest in crazy landings. I can only imagine how bad his nose hurts:

I still have some small data alignment issues and then I can move on 'finally' to a new chunk of task to sort.  Best we get the lightmapper rock solid before I move on as it's a pretty deep and complex code base and while it's fresh in my mind I want to do as much as time allows.  Until Friday when I hope to have a new screen shot to show that is nothing to do with light maps :)

More Light More Progress

More work continued on the lightmapper today.  Multi-materials finally dealt with, and working across all the samples I threw at it.

I also tried out lots of buildings from the City Pack available from the game creator store and that worked a treat too.

The major bulk of today's work however was slicing up the lightmap process so it could update the rest of the app while it was working. This allowed me to create a nice progress bar to show what is going on when large scenes are being lit and a long waiting time is expected.

It took all day, but I am glad it's in now as this feature has been requested by pretty much all the alpha testers and having figured a way around the difficulties it's done and dusted now :)  Next on my list are a sequence of smaller issues but high priority, and then I can look at a new internal build for the alpha testers this week. Looking stronger every day!

Meeting Day And Material Success

Had our ritual meeting today which starts early at 8AM and ends sometime around 4PM in the pub :)  Covered many topics, mainly progress and strategy, and had a good chat about the next steps for our AGK2 and Reloaded projects. Went very well and was able to get back and have something to eat and a cat nap before waking up and writing this blog.

Had a dream about some weird contraption where about eight people connect to a large ring hovering above them, which resembled a massive quad copter but with the propeller in the middle.  We started it up, and after a while we could pull our knees back and we remained air-born. It was then up to the individuals to decide whether to go up, down or in which direction. I am not sure how it was controlled, but I was given the conch and was able to move the beast by simply leaning in the direction intended. After about a minute, and gaining a good 30 feet over some grassy field, one of the passengers started getting woozy and wanted to get off, so the craft was subsequently landed, and the person ran off to throw up.  I then awoke to the tune of the cat throwing up hairballs.  I would provide a screenshot, but it was just a dream :)

What I can show however was the antics from last night. I finally finished work at about 2AM, clocking over ten hours on a single task:

This is what I had at 9PM with the off shadow issue and something not quite right, and totally too many polygons and draw calls.

And this is what I had at 2AM. As you can see, all those meshes have been welded up and even though each building has six textures (materials) each, the system was able to identify their close proximity and common attributes and weld them together to create the whole scene in just 4 draw calls. As you can see it's also lightmapped. This is a model from the City Pack in the store, but as Rick pointed out today the upper building texture is wrong as there are two texture types used in the original model. Looks like I have a little more grind stone to spin before this multi-material thorn in my side is extracted!

On a non-Reloaded subject, I stumbled across a movie production last night called Bedrooms to Billions, which is a great film to watch if you are an aging 40 something Brit who dabbed in computers back in the day, and charts the rise and fall of the UK games industry. Yes folks, that's fall.  I've only watched half of it, then I had to sleep, but I think it has a happy ending with the news that after dropping from #1 to about #5 in the global economy of making games, a new breed of mobile adepts are emerging who may very well help our small island regain some of it's former glory, and with the recent introduction of programming lessons in our curriculum (teaching kids algorithms as young as 5), we're set to have a generation of Brits who eat, sleep and think binary ;) A powerful resource to have in the techno-magical era ahead.

Time to fix the last remaining multi-material lightmap grumble, test everything around it, make sure nothing is broken, then test the rest of the City Pack to confirm it all works well together and put a temporary lid on the issue so I can move onto the next thing. We've agreed a tentative deadline for the final V1.009 (secret) so we're now focused to get something solid out to you soon. I can say a build will 99% get out to you before the Christmas season, and that build will be a good one.

In Support Of Multi Materials

Multi-material models from the store have been the real subject of todays grafting, with the entire city pack built on these foundations. Not necessarily loading them in, which works fine, but light mapping them. The currently lightmapper was strictly designed handle one light map object per one entity, but the MM models could have any number of objects for a single entity, each with their own texture.

The current build as of Friday could take a single material from the model and lightmap it, discarding the rest. Monday was about allowing the lightmapper to discover the rest and include them in the process. As the old system was a one-object based system, everything needed updating, the data structures, the load and save, the consolidator, the lot. 

This is my progress by 9PM, with all six materials separated, submitted and lightmapped (to some degree).  I have an all day meeting on Tuesday so cannot stay up too long, but I think I am over the hump now and it's just a case of calming down the shadow objects, restoring the floor plane, e.t.c.  Slowly slowly, catchy monkey!

App Game Kit 2 continues to do great on Steam, and is providing useful information and statistics to help us plan our Reloaded launch early next year. For more info on AGK2, here is the Steam page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/325180/

Going to put another hour into finishing the lightmapping of MM models, and then make a build for the meeting show tomorrow.  The agenda is quite full so need plenty Z's so I don't fall asleep half way through, but rest assured on Wednesday the fixing continues as I make my way though the list of items fed back from the weekend alpha testing.

'Tis the season for mobile shopping

It used to be that heading out to stores on Black Friday -- one of the biggest holiday shopping days of the season -- was the best way to find great deals. Now, we may be carrying the best tool for finding deals in our pockets.

This coming weekend, expect to see many of your fellow shoppers checking for deals on their smartphones while braving the lines and crowds at the mall. Nearly 50% of 25-34 year-olds use their phone to shop online while standing in line at a store. And because we want to help you research products more easily this holiday weekend, we’re rolling out new mobile features to Google Shopping.

Starting this week, when you search for a specific product on your smartphone or tablet you’ll see more detailed information about the product and where to buy it, like which stores have it available and product reviews from customers. You’ll also be able to rotate selected products on Google Shopping in 360 degrees to see them in more detail.





Getting a head start on Black Friday
Shoppers are already prepping for Black Friday shopping by researching purchases and deals online. We found that 27% of shoppers have already begun hunting for Black Friday deals online. Here are the top questions people are asking about Black Friday on Google Search. For more trends, visit our Shopping blog.

• what time do stores open on black friday
• what time does black friday start
• when does black friday end
• what to buy on black friday

Let Google Shopping and your smartphone help you check off what’s on that shopping list of yours and go enjoy everything else about the “most wonderful time of the year.”


Posted by Jennifer Liu, Product Manager, Google Shopping

AGK2 : 24 HOURS AFTER OUR STEAM LAUNCH

Well what a trip that was, our first ever Steam title launched into the world and what a smooth birth it was too.  Admittedly I only stepped in to bask in the limelight of the release, having left the muddy murky world of having to develop it, but it seems my absence from the project probably improved the product overall :)  As any expectant father would, I set up the revenue page on my browser and refreshed it every hour for a whole day (with a few hours to sleep) and it was a real buzz to watch the number increase every time I pressed the refresh key.  Alas I am not permitted to reveal the figures by order of Steam HQ, and I suggest you do what Steam developers before us advised, which is come and see for yourself. If that's not an invite to finish your game projects and get it onto Steam I don't know what is :)

We started off modestly in our very own 'Game Development' category, but listed in the New Releases chart very briefly on the day of launch. The cynic in me said to take a picture because we would not be here long, remembering the sting of all those iOS and Android apps we developed over the last few years.

We then stumbled into the Top Sellers spot for the 'Game Development' category, probably due to the huge discount on offer for our launch week.  It was still nice to be there and gave me a nice warm feeling, and a delusion of what it might be like to stay there a little while longer.

We then surfaced and achieved top spot in all three tabs, New releases, Top Sellers AND specials, AND a first banner slot when I visited the site (for the hundredth time).  Seemed like the whole world was App Game Kit 2, and life felt good.  Admittedly a big puffed up fish in a very little pond, and probably only for today, but it still felt good.  What made me feel a little better was what happened next.

Our little game maker had escaped the confines of the 'Game Development' category and was now dancing about in the GENERAL News feed for the WHOLE OF STEAM, and in the number one slot too!  Don't ask me how it got there, or why, or whether it lasted more than a minute, but it was great to see.

I don't know what the future holds now. We have a great marketing tag team behind the product, a driven and seriously overworked lead programmer spearheading the development of this game changing tool and a company which has spent a considerable number of decades catering for the needs of budding game designers everywhere.  Combine that with the biggest distribution platform for the PC and we have everything to play for, and opportunities abound. I am big fan of competitions though, so expect a BIG Steam based competition off the back of our launch in the very near future with great prizes to get people excited (if the bank manager lets me).

If it was a choice between a 'state of the art PC gaming rig' or 'a device for every platform we support', which top prize would you prefer?  Nothing says 'look at me' than a huge sexy prize!

It you are interested in taking advantage of the launch discount of 33% on the regular price, you can visit the Steam store right now with this link:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/325180/?snr=1_4_4__tab-Upcoming

I recently watched a YouTube documentary short called 'Becoming YouTube' which had a great mix of humor, introspection and information that propelled me through all 12 episodes. Still infected by the inspiring insights of this intrepid investigation, I got to thinking that perhaps a short YouTube documentary entitled 'Becoming Steam' might be a suitable continuation of this invaluable public service.  Unfortunately, I am not an actor, nor attractive, have no production facilities, no time to record, let alone edit the footage, no Steam developers to interview and no journalistic skills whatsoever. Given these minor disadvantages one might conclude that a series of episodes on becoming Steam might do nothing but damage and distort what is a truly amazing experience that every developer should feel before the world moves on again, not to mention invite a lawsuit for the use of the adjective 'becoming' in this particular context.  I was also thinking of dying my hair bright green (as it rhymes with steam) but it's easy to take these flights of imaginational fancy too far.

As you know, my own active involvement in the launch of App Game Kit 2 on Steam was a dress rehearsal for the product that I am pretty sure is set to sweep aside all previous records for sales of a game creator on Steam.  I cannot think of a better vehicle to gauge what the Steam community want from a game creator than by giving them another game creator and listening to what they have to say.

I have been promising myself a nice distracting game for weeks now, and this very second I feel like returning to my gamer roots, so I'll leave you with this rare weekend blog post, invite you to check out the AGK2 Steam page and see you again on Monday when I resume my blog on the trials and tribulations of an overworked under-appreciated insanely happy game engine coder.

Through the Google lens: search trends November 14-20

Devastating snowstorms, bizarre interviews and addictive podcasts? It was an unusual week on the search charts this time around.

A frosty reception
If you looked on Maps for Buffalo, you wouldn’t find it. OK, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but the city is buried underneath six feet of snow… literally. While people across the country are just getting ready for Turkey Day, Buffalonians are dealing with a snowstorm that’s set to break several records and may keep them trapped in their houses for a while–white Thanksgiving, anyone?

In the court of public opinion
People were searching for more information about famed comedian Bill Cosby this week after sexual abuse allegations made headlines.

And in the political world, Democrats in the Senate blocked the Keystone XL proposal, a hotly contested initiative to build an oil pipeline from Canada to Nebraska. While searchers were wondering how this bill would affect gas prices, the door is closed on the issue at the moment.

Teens aren't what they used to be
A toymaker with a mission decided it was makeover time for Barbie, the doll everyone loves to hate. Nickolay Lamm created “normal Barbie,” a doll that everyone could relate to -- less “material girl” and more “girl next door”—non-size zero waist included. Reflecting the body of the average 19-year old woman, both parents and kids have taken a liking to the fact that toy actually...looks like a real person (she looks like my sister!) Complete with freckles and acne sticker expansion packs, we think Lamm’s got the awkward teenage years down pat.

Speaking of teenagers: 16-year-old and 14-year-old celebrity siblings Jaden and Willow Smith, heirs to The Fresh Prince of Bel Air’s throne, were in the spotlight this week after giving what some might describe as a pretty spacey interview to the New York Times’ T Magazine. The wide-ranging piece covered their thoughts on topics like Prana energy (what?), the duality of the mind (how??) and goals of imprinting yourself on everything (why???) — and baffled social media and searchers alike. Time Magazine got in on the fun and released a poem generator made from the interview’s most interesting quotes. Here’s our Jaden and Willow Smith haiku (spoiler: it doesn’t make any sense).

             Babies remember

             The most craziest person of all time
             Driver’s ed? What’s up?

Colonel Mustard in the library
There’s always time for a tale of murder and mystery. This week the Internet played the role of detective as people were curious to learn more about NPR’s new serial Podcast which explores a 15-year-old real life homicide case. The series is insanely popular, hitting the 5 million downloads and streams mark more quickly than any other podcast before it, but not without its fair share of controversy. The victim’s family members have expressed concern about the sensationalization of the case.

Tip of the week
Bored on the bus or subway? Just say “OK Google, flip a coin.” What do yo have to lose?

Posted by Jenise Araujo, Communications Associate, who searched for [the opposite of apple] and [cellulite stickers].