Bitgap: Plans for the near future + CCK / DTSViewer bundle
by Konrad Kiss · 07/28/2010 (9:58 pm) · 41 comments
The Cliff Construction Kit - July Bundle!
The Cliff Construction Kit is a lightweight solution to create realistic cliffs and overhangs in your terrain.
It includes 15 base cliff shapes and 55 materials resulting in over 800 different cliff bases. Top this with the possibility to pour any kind of material over your cliff - a feature we call material accumulation - and your scene will look very very pretty. Really.
Check out the CCK video about what it can do:
If you get the Cliff Construction Kit now you receive a copy of the DTSViewer.
What else is cooking?
Once Torque 3D's 1.1 release is out, Bitgap Games will be launching a new product called SAHARA. Sahara is a tool that is built right into Torque 3D's material system and lets you use material accumulation on anything. Why would you still want to get the Cliff Construction Kit? Because Sahara will cost around $60 or more. Existing Cliff Construction Kit licensees will get it as a free upgrade, however.
We are working on other neat features that are still waiting for the 1.1 release. One such example is an inventory system entitled STAX that you can use for both MMOs (it doesn't trust the client) or single player games. It is a very versatile system that lets you mimic the behavior of most RPG inventories. This inventory system will be seeing many small addons, such as icon packs, item generator toolsets, and similar features. There's no ETA for these, however.
Finally, probably the best news about what's cooking is that we're finishing up a new kind of master server that will not only manage your server instances, but it will be able to control Amazon EC2 cloud instances - and launch new servers on demand. Right now, we call it THE OVERSEER, but that might change later on. It is a very complex self-balancing system that still needs a lot of testing - but this is something we want to push out as a Torque module in the coming months.
Again, here's where you can get the Cliff Construction Kit & DTSViewer Bundle.
Thanks for reading. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!
All comments are very much appreciated! ;)
-- Konrad
@konradkiss
KonradKiss @ GitHub
konradkiss.com
About the author
http://about.me/konrad.kiss
#22
Do you have a sporty alter-ego? I just saw a Hungarian guy called Daniel Kiss get bronze in the Hurdles at the European Athletics. :P
07/30/2010 (6:34 pm)
@KonradDo you have a sporty alter-ego? I just saw a Hungarian guy called Daniel Kiss get bronze in the Hurdles at the European Athletics. :P
#23
The Kiss family name is not uncommon in Hungary. It's the Konrads that are scarce. :) At least it's easy to pronounce (It's pronounced Kish though, but it gets tiring to let everyone know each time.). Some family names can cause more headaches. Like Preisz. :) If you remember the latest TorquePowered podcast.
@Everyone:
EB's models are now also available from under your My Account page in the CCK or CCK Bundle section.
@EB:
Many thanks again! :)
07/30/2010 (7:24 pm)
@Steve:The Kiss family name is not uncommon in Hungary. It's the Konrads that are scarce. :) At least it's easy to pronounce (It's pronounced Kish though, but it gets tiring to let everyone know each time.). Some family names can cause more headaches. Like Preisz. :) If you remember the latest TorquePowered podcast.
@Everyone:
EB's models are now also available from under your My Account page in the CCK or CCK Bundle section.
@EB:
Many thanks again! :)
#24
07/30/2010 (8:50 pm)
NP Konrad. - I have some other shapes in mind, so you may have another set coming your way.
#25
07/30/2010 (8:57 pm)
I've put your links up there a few places. Hope it gets you some additional traffic in return. (Not that Bitgap has heavy traffic :) but at least I wanted my customers to know where that awesome stuff came from.)
#26
Anyway, very nice work, Konrad. The material accumulation system has really blown my simple artist mind since the start, and expanding it to all areas of the engine with SAHARA is just over the top! =)
07/31/2010 (4:37 am)
Ok, so I'm really glad I've only typed your name...I'd wondered if there was a particular pronunciation. And yeah, I didn't hear/see the TorquePowered podcast, but embarrassingly I'm not even sure where to begin with Preisz. (what actually comes to my mouth is a Toyota hybrid pronunciation...) Anyway, very nice work, Konrad. The material accumulation system has really blown my simple artist mind since the start, and expanding it to all areas of the engine with SAHARA is just over the top! =)
#27
The DTS Viewer definitely makes viewing a library of .dts shapes easier than the tediousness of ShowTool -- which does have it uses/advantages. Even though you mentioned that it would be some time before you pursued any updates for it, could I offer a feature request (or two) for when you do:
(1) DDS support, and (2) a play/pause/stop button for animating shapes
My thanks to eb for the additional content!
07/31/2010 (6:28 pm)
Glad I purchased the Kit, Konrad. Soon as I started exploring the material accumulation tech in detail the more ideas I had for it's usage. I think you're really going to have something in Sahara once you release it. The DTS Viewer definitely makes viewing a library of .dts shapes easier than the tediousness of ShowTool -- which does have it uses/advantages. Even though you mentioned that it would be some time before you pursued any updates for it, could I offer a feature request (or two) for when you do:
(1) DDS support, and (2) a play/pause/stop button for animating shapes
My thanks to eb for the additional content!
#28
@Michael: I am very glad that you find it useful! The DTSViewer can't and doesn't want to compete with either ShowTool or Torque 3D's Object Editor - both of which are awesome tools. But for this reason, I don't want to add features such as animation controls. Both of the tools I mentioned could be made into a stand alone Torque 3D based product afaik, and I want to leave these doors open to our fellow associates who worked hard on these apps. Not that I know anything about whether they would ever want to do something like that - it's just where I'd like to stop with this. Unless both David Wyand and Chris Robertson & the Torque team beat me up to convince me otherwise, I'll rather stop right here to not hurt interests. Though DDS support - that is fair enough, will get this into the next version.
07/31/2010 (6:46 pm)
@Alan: Thank you very much! I can't wait to show off what Sahara can do. It actually works in Beta 1, but there are constant changes in the material system. I might take some time to push out a version for Beta 2 now that there's going to be a Beta 3 (which might delay 1.1 final a bit more). It looks like many people are interested in it!@Michael: I am very glad that you find it useful! The DTSViewer can't and doesn't want to compete with either ShowTool or Torque 3D's Object Editor - both of which are awesome tools. But for this reason, I don't want to add features such as animation controls. Both of the tools I mentioned could be made into a stand alone Torque 3D based product afaik, and I want to leave these doors open to our fellow associates who worked hard on these apps. Not that I know anything about whether they would ever want to do something like that - it's just where I'd like to stop with this. Unless both David Wyand and Chris Robertson & the Torque team beat me up to convince me otherwise, I'll rather stop right here to not hurt interests. Though DDS support - that is fair enough, will get this into the next version.
#29
07/31/2010 (7:00 pm)
Hey, that's understandable - I can't blame you there. I made the play/pause animation request out of annoyance when taking a screenshot of a weapon that was stuck in it's fire sequence... grrr! ;) Having DDS support though is more than enough to make me happy.
#30
Keen to see Sahara in all it;s glory but even keener to learn more about Overseer.
I have been considering Cloud as an option for our final hosting solution but as we still only run a small team of testers for Alba I've stuck with the box under the desk approach until we need more resources.
That time is approaching quicker than I thought though so a good server management system will be a godsend!
08/03/2010 (6:31 am)
@Konrad,Keen to see Sahara in all it;s glory but even keener to learn more about Overseer.
I have been considering Cloud as an option for our final hosting solution but as we still only run a small team of testers for Alba I've stuck with the box under the desk approach until we need more resources.
That time is approaching quicker than I thought though so a good server management system will be a godsend!
#31
08/03/2010 (7:54 pm)
Konrad: Finally got back around to retrying the Bitgap Games registration, and it worked just fine.
#32
08/03/2010 (7:57 pm)
Great news! Thanks for letting me know, Caylo.
#33
08/03/2010 (7:58 pm)
I've taken the bundle off - I'll be putting it back on for another day in case anyone had registration problems.
#34
EDIT: My CC works on newegg.com just not for paypall; crazy odd and irritating...
08/03/2010 (8:33 pm)
UGH. Now it will not take any from my collection of CreditCards! EDIT: My CC works on newegg.com just not for paypall; crazy odd and irritating...
#35
The current download times out after a couple minutes, and never allows the download to complete. This has been happening for a couple weeks at least now. Some settings on your server are also dis-allowing a continuation of the download, when it times out, I must start the download from scratch... the orig download is invalidated, but I haven't dug to find out why. Should be an easy fix.
I found the code clean and easy to follow (and quite easy to extend)... I hope the Sahara product is just as well built. I appreciate the free upgrade!
08/05/2010 (4:49 pm)
I had little problems purchasing your pack earlier this year/late last, but have been unable to download it from your website recently (I lost the orig download I used to evaluate after a HDD bit the dust). The current download times out after a couple minutes, and never allows the download to complete. This has been happening for a couple weeks at least now. Some settings on your server are also dis-allowing a continuation of the download, when it times out, I must start the download from scratch... the orig download is invalidated, but I haven't dug to find out why. Should be an easy fix.
I found the code clean and easy to follow (and quite easy to extend)... I hope the Sahara product is just as well built. I appreciate the free upgrade!
#36
Eventually I'll be pushing it under Amazon's EC2 so it won't be hard to fire up regional instances of our website(s) for the Americas, Europe and Asia, but that will probably have to wait a little.
08/05/2010 (5:07 pm)
@Jameson: Thanks for reporting that. I've received 2-3 similar reports like that previously, but it always turned out to be a problem with a remote ISP, name resolution or a box in the middle. I'll do some tests later this week and see if I can reproduce the problem or just find something out to optimize the service. Hmm.. The server is a dedicated machine with it's own 100Mbit line directly connected to a backbone so I'd expect better performance from it regardless where it's hosted.Eventually I'll be pushing it under Amazon's EC2 so it won't be hard to fire up regional instances of our website(s) for the Americas, Europe and Asia, but that will probably have to wait a little.
#38
08/12/2010 (10:52 pm)
Great stuff konrad, was talking to Jon recently asking if the cck's material accumulation would/could work on terrains, cant wait for sahara :P need any testers ? lol ;) 
#39
Tnx,
especially for the free SAHARA license to the CCK owners :-)
Giorgio.
08/23/2010 (4:22 pm)
Hi Konrad just wanna ask... CCK 1.3beta is not usable yet with T3D 1.1 beta2, but only with T3D 1.0.1, is this right?Tnx,
especially for the free SAHARA license to the CCK owners :-)
Giorgio.
#40
The CCK will probably not be available for 1.1 beta 2, but I think Sahara will more than make up for it. There will be tutorials and updates coming out for Sahara too.
08/23/2010 (4:46 pm)
Hi Giorgio,The CCK will probably not be available for 1.1 beta 2, but I think Sahara will more than make up for it. There will be tutorials and updates coming out for Sahara too.
Associate Konrad Kiss
Bitgap Games
@Michael Hall: Thanks for the purchase, and thanks for the comment. :) I hope you'll like the bundle!
@EB: Those look awesome! I'll add these right away. Thank you so much! I'll add these as assets by GameArtStore.Com if that's ok with you.