DF-21 Forums

[lucius]

I missed the deadline to release the build last week. I got wrapped up in other things but the build is my main focus for this week. Sorry about the delay but it's getting there.

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DarkXL....http://darkxl.wordpress.com

[lucius]

An update:

I will be working on hammering out the remaining issues tonight and expect the new release any day now. Once this release occurs I will also be putting up a "Project Status" area on the blog, like on the DaggerXL blog, so you guys can see what I'm working on and that status of the project at a glance.

In addition I've added an official Roadmap to the blog so you can see what my plans are for DarkXL. Note that these are "milestones", after this build I'll be releasing smaller builds after each bulleted item is completed (and probably builds more frequent then that).

Thanks for hanging in there.

I'd thought I'd add that even though there is a "release" milestone, that does not mean I'd stop working on and maintaining DarkXL - but that the original goals are complete (at that point, not now) and that people can reasonably expect to play Dark Forces or mods and expect it to work correctly. After this point I'd probably spend time fixing bugs, adding more extended features, polishing, extending multi-player and so on.

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DarkXL....http://darkxl.wordpress.com

[Barry Brien]

Yay! Looking forward to seeing it.

[Burning Gundam]

You've come a long way, Lucius. And though the project isn't done yet, I must congratulate you on your current efforts.

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I don't think outside the box... I customize it.

[Nottheking]

Wow, it's a little exciting to see how far along this is getting.

[lucius]

[lucius]

Sorry for the extended delay but I was sick over the weekend (and still a little now) and didn't get a chance to work on anything - once my head clears I'll get back to finally getting the build out.

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DarkXL....http://darkxl.wordpress.com

[sheepandshepherd]

H1N1?

[lucius]

[Burning Gundam]

[sheepandshepherd]

AHA! That's what those cows were doing in my yard yesterday! (A-H1N2 is actually the bird flu though, so it must have been those cowbird co-conspirators sitting on the cows )
Heh, I know how that feels though. I've written about two and a half sentences of the essay that I got assigned on Friday. Can barely think, and when I do, it's pretty jumbled gibberish. Anyway, hope you got (or get) rid of those microbial bastards. I'm ready to do some testing of my formerly HOM-filled level in DarkXL

[Burning Gundam]

[sheepandshepherd]

Huh, weird. Typing it in Wikipedia redirects you to H5N1, but both of them are called "bird flu or avian influenza". Maybe they're all bird flu variations.
EDIT: Nevermind, I found it: Influenza A is the broad group of all "bird flus", which means they're adapted to birds. It doesn't mean they're only in birds - swine flu is a type of "bird flu".

[Burning Gundam]

So the real issue here is... there are flying pigs?

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I don't think outside the box... I customize it.

[lucius]

Good progress has been made towards the release. I plan on making a release of both DarkXL and DaggerXL as soon as possible - end of this week hopefully or the beginning of the next. It'd be sooner but I've still be busy, in fact I really need to get to bed now.

I'm going to release both simultaneously to make sure they are both getting appropriate amounts of time.

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DarkXL....http://darkxl.wordpress.com

[tnoyce]

This is excellent news!

I look forward to checking them out!

Keep up the good work!

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Tim Noyce

[lucius]

As I'm working on getting this build out, I realized that I should mention some things about the upcoming build that some of you may not have known about. So you know what to expect.

* The sector/flat renderer has been completely rewritten between the last build (version 8.05) and the upcoming build (version 9.00). Not only is the portal system different - it now produces near zero overdraw but the way walls/floors/sprites are rendered has been modified as well. For example, when the final geometry is built it is now sorted differently by type. The final geometry for all the walls, floors and ceilings (excluding adjoins with transparent textures) are sorted by texture to minimize texture changes. Sprites and transparent wall pieces are then rendered, sorted by distance from the camera and then sorted by texture. This ensures the correct order (there will no longer be dark edges around sprites due to incorrect sorting for example) while still minimizing texture changes as much as possible. There are more changes such as better geometry/GPU memory management. In addition in dynamic lights are rendered after the walls and floors have been rendered once - sorted by texture again - thus allowing fast z-culling of hidden pixels to accelerate the lighting. This fast z-culling also accelerates the rendering of alpha blending pixels with sprites and adjoin walls as well. The result is a much more efficient and accurate renderer. I expect this to be the final renderer for this project, although I expect there to be bugs to fix and further optimizations that may be possible in the future.

* Dynamic lighting has been added as an option, as I'm sure you've all seen in topics on these forums and in the blog. Logic scripts create lights but they can also be disabled completely in the UI.

* Bloom. If you've played the latest versions of DaggerXL then you know what this looks like - it's the same effect. This allows full-bright pixels to glow, giving the lights a real feeling of brightness.

* Reticles. All the reticles that people made quite a while ago will finally be put to use. There are 18 designs to choose from, all made by people on these forums. In addition you can adjust the opacity and color of the reticle. Of course you can choose to have no reticle, if you want a more classic look.

* Automap fixes. This automap was kind of annoying before because you had to look at a wall such that it was in the center of the view before it was added to the automap. Now, due to the improved portal system, any wall that is rendered can be marked as seen, since occluded walls will no longer be rendered.

* Textured ground automap. An optional version of the automap (which will probably default to off), where sectors you've seen already show up textured in the automap view, like Duke Nukem 3D. This will default to off, but I thought I'd include it because it looks cool and is already available due to work on the editor.

* All the levels available, including mods. They should render correctly (no more bad sectors that can't be tessellated) but will be missing logics and INF functions - these will be dealt with in the next 2 major versions.

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DarkXL....http://darkxl.wordpress.com

[waxonator]

Great!

[Tsophika]

Very exciting! Thanks for the update. It's getting close...

[Barry Brien]

Will my old keys be included this time ?

[lucius]

I haven't been online much the last couple of days because I've been sick (home from work and everything). Honestly I spent most of the time sleeping. Anyway I'm hoping to still get the builds out this week, just not early in the week due to work and sickness. Sorry for the delay, fortunately I'm feeling better now.

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DarkXL....http://darkxl.wordpress.com

[Marley]

*collects some fire wood, lights the fire and starts a DarkXL vigil*

"oh wise and nobel spirits of the web, please grant us our wish, hear our cries and allow us to travel to that place so long ago, in a galaxy far far away..."

*pokes fire*

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*ZaP*

[waxonator]

You can't be still sick, can you? Don't die off before the project is finished, now.

[Taton]

I learned a great trick for healing on massassi. All we have to do is use "good vibes" on Lucius.

*starts vibrating viciously*

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"A fight should be clean and elegant, without waste"
-Asuka Langley Sohryu, Evangelion

[Burning Gundam]

It sure has been a while since we've heard from him though. I hope nothing bad happened to him.

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I don't think outside the box... I customize it.

[The MAZZTer]

*Dun dun DUUUUUUUUUUUUN*

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http://www.mzzt.net/ | I am a respectable admin with a respectable sig.

[Burning Gundam]

Almost a month now since his last post and still no word? I'm starting to get a little worried now.

Has anyone heard from him at all outside the forums?

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I don't think outside the box... I customize it.

[Gez]

Yeah.

[Ren Fraggle]

He's posted a few times in his other project forums at DaggerXL, he's still alive.

[Burning Gundam]

Good to hear. I don't care much for Daggerfall so I didn't think about trying his other project page.

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I don't think outside the box... I customize it.