Landscape Rendering Sunday, September 19, 2004
A new update of Cipher is now available in the downloads section. It includes many new features that have been contributed by developers since the last release. The highlights of the new features are...
- Shadow volumes are much improved. Ciphertool now generates a separate model specifically for shadow rendering (ending in _s). All the previous shadow errors that people have been seeing are fixed by this update. It is recommended that you rebuild all models using the updated ciphertool if you use shadows. Cipher will automatically load the shadow version of the model if it is available and use it. If there is no shadow version of the model, it will use the regular model, which may still cause errors in the shadows.
- Ogg Vorbis support for streaming music and sound effects has been added. This can optionally be compiled into the engine using a #define. There is no additional API's for using this - just load a .ogg file instead of a .wav file and everything else will work.
- Ciphertool now uses NVTriStrip from NVidia to produce its triangle strips, as this is much faster than the system Ciphertool was using before.
- Cipher now has support for rendering landscapes. This uses a continuous level of detail system that always produces the optimal mesh for the landscape given a target quality. The system allows you design your landscapes from many material layers and has good control over lighting.
More screenshots of the landscape system can be seen here.
As usual, Licensed Developers can go and get the new update for free. If you haven't already licensed Cipher, now might be a good time...
User Contributed Comments
philk 20th September, 2004 00:06
regarding the Ogg/Vorbis support: I see the version included in the source code is the version that does NOT support .ogg files loaded or streamed from resource files (*.pak) since it uses this call to
fs_GetFileIO(wavedata->hfile)
I have updated the whole system to "native" cipher filesystem support (only changes in snd_wave.c too) but the code did not make it into this update unfortunatly. If anyone is interested in the alternative, *.pak file compatible and product proven version (Camgoo), please contact me by email at philk(at)dude-development.com
Otherwise thumbs up for the update!
Edited 20th September, 2004 00:06Mattxl 20th September, 2004 01:52
Rik you rock!
Matt
seryu 20th September, 2004 03:52
terrain looks awesome.
What about FMV feature? its freezed?
mmelo 20th September, 2004 08:30
It's good to see that "ye olde shadowe bugue" is gone. whe hey! Hope my humble suggestions helped in some way... :-)
rikh 20th September, 2004 12:26
mmelo,
It sure did help. Thanks.
afecelis 23rd September, 2004 02:42
Hi Rikh!
It's good to see a new release. Unfortunately I found out by dropping by the site.
Would it be possible for us licensees to get a newsletter with announcements, patches, addons, etc?
thnx, and congrats for the new release. I'm going to retake my Cipher studies!!! ;)
Mattxl 23rd September, 2004 05:22
Great idea afecelis! Hey Rik if you need help doing something like that I would be willing to lend a hand. I know your busy so I could do whatever you'd need, wether to write the newsletter or whatever.
Matt
afecelis 24th September, 2004 02:54
thnx Matt!
That's probably the main reason that makes me get away from the community; the lack of news.
It doesn't have to be very often. Communities like Darkbasic use a monthly newsletter in which they tell regged users what's new, projects in development, new tools, patches & updates, code snippets, etc.
They even got an E-zine.
But a simple line will do! =)
thnx again!
ruzark 24th September, 2004 16:44
I would like to see this idea implemented :D
Mattxl 24th September, 2004 20:21
I totally agree! Rik what do you say? I'll help with it if you want.
Matt
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