GameGuru MAX News

Bug fixing on GameGuru MAX continues at full pace and we are pleased to report only 136 bugs now remain (was 123 a few days ago), a huge drop from over 270 reports from not long ago.  We are set to enter the double-digit count very soon, a great milestone on the way to ultimately creating a bug-free game maker for you to enjoy and rely on.

The fixes since the last update are numerous, so we will highlight a few here, but for the complete list, we have provided them below so you don't miss a thing!

Improvements are being made continually to the new weapon system and we now have support for placing custom weapons into the hands of characters with correct weapon behavior such as muzzle flashes, hand positions, and dropping the weapon when killed. The hands no longer lag behind the object animation and are now synced perfectly.  The custom hand's system has also been extended to support as many custom folders as you wish, no longer hardcoded to the stock six choices.

Hot swapping of objects has also been improved so any changes to an object's geometry or textures while the level editor is running will swap in the new model of the same name perfectly, updating the thumbnails and keeping the position of that object and its other settings; perfect for greyboxing your levels if you are making your own content.

There is an improved and faster environment probe system - so no more holes in your reflections and indirect lighting cues, ideal for enclosed environments where you want the outside sky completely excluded until you decide to let it stream in.

Storyboard now enables levels to connect to secondary loading pages so you can design your non-linear progression through your game screens and game levels, and new slider fields have been added so you can create bar sliders for weapon ammo and clip reserve.

Tree physics for all 38 stock trees has been refined so the player can no longer penetrate them via the camera clip, creating more realism and allowing better navigation through a forest or dense area. 

Great improvements to the LUA Logic system to speed up levels that have a lot of scripts running at the same time, and resolved a small memory leak related to repeated cloning of objects, the LUA performance no longer slows down for such level designs.  Plus we've added new LUA commands including a direct WinGame and LoseGame so you can create your own scripts to determine the outcome of level logic, and a new command to make characters immune to underwater environments.

The Workshop Tab in the HUB is improved to show more details including the file count and the latest date of the workshop item, ideal for checking whether you are on the latest version and helping the early and ongoing development of this excellent community sharing feature.

As promised, here is the complete list of fixes since the last update on 6th August 2023:

* Corrected GetEntityColBox command
* Fixed positioning of the FPSC readout to avoid overlapping the minimize button
* Fixed issue of muzzle flash working with new weapon system for projectiles
* Weapon successfully dropped at feet of killed characters
* Moving out of character creator no longer resets the sky settings
* Can now view current objects when the object is locked
* Any hot swapped objects when in the level editor will reset the custom materials
* Fixed the issue of video playback not stretching to the last right and bottom pixel
* Improvements made to Thumbnail Refresh so imported objects of the same name are handled
* Prevented crash when attempting to create physics debug mesh from zero polygons
* After import and preview are done, now takes the user directly to the imported object in the library
* Improved environmental probe system so more details are captured to avoid holes in geometry
* Fixed the issue of checkpoint not resuming the looping and playing sounds
* Above also works with game menu pause and resume that uses the same system
* Storyboard can now connect screens to secondary loading screens that connect to other levels, and can be added as buttons and used in test and in standalone
* Small fix to weapon ammo and weapon clip ammo commands
* Added additional notes when adding storyboard screen status bars
* Fixed the issue of new weapons not fitting into the hands of characters properly
* Weapons no longer lag behind by one frame during character animations
* Added LookAtPlayerWithOffset to LUA commands
* Fixed the issue of skybox changes not being saved in the level editor
* Added support to modify pos and rot for weapons placed into the hands of the new arms
* NOTE: Above ideal for placing static straight weapons directly into the hands
* ClipCapacity of zero no longer wipes out ammo collection
* Updated text description to warn that game projects cannot be renamed
* Improved how levels are loaded, fading in to hide any n-core thread updating of terrain and trees
* Now all 38 tree types have their own thicknesses for the cylinder physics collisions
* Thanks to Preben for the tip - LUA logic speed improvements for larger levels
* Added new weapon property for CLIP CAPACITY that caps how much clip ammo can be assigned per weapon
* Added new LUA commands to set clip capacity in the game
* Added new HUD screen field names to associate ammo and clip values to slider gadget (Ammo Remaining, Weapon Reload Quantity, Maximum Clipped Ammo)
* Fixed memory leak and collision on/off LUA slowdown that failed to delete entries into the collision shapes list
* Reverted Anim Checks to fix anim issue, no joy, need to revert to find cause
* Looking to speed up the LUA finish process (using an older system of detecting LUA commands)
* Fixed critical writable folder issue introduced when the AMDFIX file was added
* Added error trapping when trying to copy workshop content into the community folder
* Added safety code around detection and use of animation data (for some rogue imports)
* Removed old redundant code
* Can now clear an emissive field to remove texture from a material of an object
* Added AMDFIX.INI to the latest build to indicate this feature. Renaming it to NOAMDFIX.INI will skip the AMD hot fix detection, but manually requires D3D11.DLL and DXGI.DLL removed to restore to a non-AMDhotfix mode (NOTE: VR will not work with the AMD HOT FIX active)
* Fixed issue of decals missing when fired impacted etc. caused by water ripple culling
* Also, impacts now ignore the detection of bulletholes so the correct material is always registered
* Added WinGam() and LoseGame() to LUA commands
* Fixed crash due to corrupt collection item lists, and added code to prevent memory overruns for similar scenarios.
* Improved the workshop tab to show file count and latest date of workshop item, and improved the updating system for moving workshop files from Steam to the local instance of MAX
* Hands system now scans the Hands folder for new hands to add to the player start marker drop-down list
* Now recovers from levels that specify hands that do not exist locally.
* Fixed the issue of the new hand's system lagging behind weapon animations
* Added remaining legacy weapons to the new hands system
* NOTE: Requires update to MAX WICKED repo
* Added code to clean new arms on legacy weapons
* Added AK47 test asset to try out arm support for legacy weapons (ENHANCED)
* Added new AMMOPOOL commands so scripts can find pool ammo clip value
* Tweak to collection system to detect older collection tables that hold weapons
* Improved the weapon collection system to support custom weapons
* Fixed issue with vertical move mode for objects no longer skips
* New HANDS setting in PLAYER START MARKER to customize new weapon system hands
* When crouching while walking off a high place, fixed the issue of rapid acceleration
* Adding smart objects, now works with both drag/drop entity modes
* Added new LUA commands to make characters immune to underwater
* Improved system for detecting what is damaged by explosions
* Various fixes related to USE and DROP in the inventory system
* Fixed issue with ray cast check failing in some cases
* Now ignores more nonhitting geometry when doing a ray cast
* Improved smart object saving and loading
* Fixed issue with losing pointer when returning from the game menu to HUD
* Now fixes any corrupt waypoint zones and objects that hold waypoint refs when loading a level

Also, remember our end-of-month live broadcast is imminent, so if you want to join in on these extended hour-long Q&A sessions, we host them on the last Wednesday of every month at 7 PM BST on our YouTube channel.

We're very excited to announce our first collaboration with artist Melburnian.

For this, his first HUD's pack, he's turned his attention to creating some amazing 2D Cyberpunk-inspired assets, ideally for your futuristic, sci-fi, or modern-day themed games.

The Cyberpunk HUD's Asset Pack contains over 250 custom-made, original assets, designed with GameGuru MAX in mind. You'll find enough media to create in-game HUD's, inventories, stores, crafting areas, and much more.

You can find out more and grab yourself a copy: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2566410/GameGuru_MAX_Cyberpunk_Asset_Pack__HUDs/

The Cyberpunk Audio Booster Pack - Sounds of the Streets is an amazing collection of unique, custom-made sounds, from new audio artist Orpheus. This, the first of our themed audio packs, focuses on the sounds of the city, with an emphasis on Cyberpunk.



Included in the pack, you'll find 150 sounds of the city both during the daytime and at night, allowing you to change the ambiance of your game based on the time of the day. From traffic noise, street chatter, and the general hum of city life, to the darker side of Cyberpunk, with sirens, traffic noises, radio chatter, and the sounds of crimes in progress.

You can find out more, and of course, grab a copy here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2540150/GameGuru_MAX_Cyberpunk_Audio_Booster_Pack__Sounds_of_the_Streets

Since the last GameGuru MAX update in May we have remained focused on fixing as many bugs as possible to ensure your game-making experience is uninterrupted and the stability of the product increases overall.



If you are familiar with the EXP build available from Steam, you may already have enjoyed some of the fixes and small improvements over the last few months, but for those who are sticking with the official public builds, there is quite a list of items for you.  A full list of changes and fixes can be found in the history.txt file in the root of GameGuru MAX, but here are the highlights.

Given the high number of reports of incompatibility with some AMD cards, we have added a system to render through a DirectX 11 to Vulkan layer for AMD cards reported to have the black screen issue. Let us know if your AMD card still experiences this issue and we will add your model of card to the detection list.

We have improved the speed of calculating the nav mesh that uses trees, saving some users minutes of waiting between test games, and the engine does a better job of freeing up resources when leaving the test game such as cloned objects. The nav mesh blocker system used for things like opening and closing doors now has an improved system that prevents characters from freezing as they walk past doors in the act of changing state.

Explosions now respect solid walls and cannot influence objects on the other side of them, and apply correct damage and physics to line-of-sight objects and characters.  They also pre-calculate line of sight in advance to remove the stutter you often saw when lots of explosions happen close to each other.

A simple batch conversion has been added to the model importer for those users who have hundreds of models that need to import quickly. Smart objects now retain the custom collision mode set and fixes rotation issues to retain the original grouping exactly when you use them as prefabs to accelerate your level constructions. 

Weapons once again have the ability to host transparent parts such as reticules and other glass aspects and work in concert with the existing transparency system and lightray blocking.

The storyboard has new functionality to restore any stock screens, returning them to their original configurations as needed. Standalones now detect all versions of emissive texture names and include them in the final game exported, and exported games resume any paused sounds or music so as not to break audio continuity. We have also fixed the 3D sound issue so objects emitting 3D sounds are placed correctly in the audio landscape for the player.

Basic Steam Workshop support has been added to support select trusted contributors to bypass the official and EXP builds and release content updates quicker.  We will be slowly extending this to more contributors over time.

We are far from fully eliminating the bugs, with over 290 still lurking, but we chop this number down each week, and before long we will be down to edge cases and can afford to look towards your feature requests that are also hosted on the issues board. 

Thanks for your patience as we work through old and new reports alike, and we look forward to the day we match parity with GameGuru Classic which has boasted zero bug counts for a number of quarters already.



It's also worth noting, and that you may have spotted already, that many third-party artists are eager to provide official game-making content as official DLC for GameGuru MAX, and that providing they hit a quality bar, we are happy to release them. These DLC do not interfere with or delay the bug-fixing effort and, in fact, allow us to concentrate a group of common bugs under a single set of fixes when new DLC highlights those areas. 

GameGuru MAX already comes with over a thousand game assets, functionality and guides to help you import your own, and you should view all DLC as entirely optional and offered as a convenience to those who want to augment their game-making choices with high-value assets, licensed and ready for you to add them to your creations.



We are excited to see GameGuru MAX get stronger with each build and are enjoying the progress reports coming from the community on various exciting game-making projects already underway.  We are also happy with how the new monthly live broadcasts are going, and moving from weekly has given everyone more time to collect cool new things to show and share.  If you want to join in on these extended hour-long Q&A sessions, we host them on the last Wednesday of every month at 7 PM BST on our YouTube channel.

 

Once again, we're very pleased to announce a collaboration with the great 3D Artist EyeFly. With this latest Booster Pack, he is continuing his fantasy theme, and this time he's turned his attention to the dungeons and labyrinths of the fantasy underworld.

Included in the Dungeons and Labyrinths Booster Pack, you'll find multiple walls, floors, and ceilings, as well as a number of props, including potions, cages, chests, and a whole host of scenic items, perfect for your fantasy projects.

You can find out more and grab yourself a copy here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2447250/GameGuru_MAX_Fantasy_Booster_Pack__Dungeons_and_Labyrinths/