Quill 3D Still being developed?
Community Forums/Showcase/Quill 3D Still being developed?
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| I really liked the look of Quill 3D when it first arrived but I've already been caught before buying into user products that subsequently fizzled. The last update for the Quill 3D was May 2003 and the forums and site seem to be utterly deserted. I am actually in the market again for level editor/lightmapper/ level scripting package but don't want to dive into Quill if it's on the way out. I would also prefer one that handled Blitz terrains and offered some useful features for terrains (e.g. editing/procedural/shading) as well as having placement/object editing etc. As Quill 3D doesn't have these at present and I don't really need a lot of the features it does have (e.g. modelling) it doesn't look like a good bet particularly if production has stopped. Does anyone know if there are some good alternatives out there that are still well supported or if there are any updates to the Quill 3D coming out soon? Darkheart |
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| I would like (and expect) a few bugs fixed in Quill, but I don't expect to see any new features for it. Some people seem happy making levels in Maplet (+decorator) or Milkshape. I couldn't cope with either. This is interesting for free: http://www.gamefortress.com/delgine/ Of course all the above suggestions require a seperate lightmapper (ie. Gile[s]). If you want it all in one then take a look at CShop and BSPfactory. |
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| Worldspin 2 is bound to show up sometime! Its for terrains and placing objects. Search for MRaven and find his homesite. |
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| Worldspin is a dead duck as far as I'm concerned I've had it with that guy. I bought it when it came out and it had a lot of really obvious (find in the first few hours) bugs. About 6-8 weeks later a patch eventually came out to fix the original bugs but that was it and by then more had been reported. There were also a bunch of really much needed features that never got added or a few that were added MUCH, MUCH later after everyone lost interest. Then Worldspin Pro came out with even less support and that nose dived and nothing has been heard from the author since. The forums are a ghost town, you can tell a lot about how active a product is and how well it's doing by checking out the forums. The fact that Quill 3D's forum seem pretty empty and there's been no talk of development, bug fixes and no posts by the author says to me that the Quill is either dead or nearly dead. I don't want to buy into something again for it to wither and die. The only project I've seen which seems to have longevity is CSHOP which seems very active and Halo works really hard on it and keeps it developing but it's mostly focused on indoor FPS (which I'm not doing) and it is even less Blitz oriented and more of a general purpose mapmaker. There is Maplet, Droplet and Decorator + your modeller + skeletal animation package etc. but it's a very long pathway to go through all the steps and requires you to do and redo things particularly if you change your mind about something. So far I've spent what is now getting to be not an incosiderable amount of cash on Blitz related programs not one of which I am really satisfied with. This has rather put me off buying other packages, the other two I've got my eye on are Fontext which seems like a really good package but I don't actually need most of the functionality yet and it seems silly to buy a package when I don't even know if I'm going to get far enough on to want it. I'm also not sure how useful some of the extras are (e.g. Hud Designer/Developer, sounds great but is it very limited?). I do also really like the look of Protean but I rather balk at paying out £25 for the IDE when Blitz itself costs £65 these days. I also do keep hoping that either one of the free IDE's will get really stable and almost as functional or that Mark will fix up the Blitz IDE or release a new one for BM. However if I'd bought even one Blitz related package that I felt was really worthwhile and useful I'd probably be encouraged enough to risk it again. As far as writing my own editor is concerned I've done that on and off. Then I usually see something somebody is bringing out or developing and get convinced I'm wasting my time on the editor because there are much better offerings from people who only sought to create an editor and not a game as well. Darkheart |
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| I could be wrong but i think the author of quill3d said something about leaving the blitz community....he had a lot of personal self-image problems too. |
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| I understand your feelings DarkHeart it's been a case of many disappointments over the last few months. Cshop4 is now good enough to use as an editor, but theres no .b3d export ( although it has a .csm loader for blitz this is about 10 times slower than loadmesh command ) so I export to .x and use giles to export to b3d. QUill3D, Birdie has been back on the scene and things were looking promising when he started asking for feedback for the next update but that lead has gone cold again it seems =/ I've bought Fontext and I can only say that for the measley price you get alot for your money. I had a go at writing an editor too but tbh that is not what I bought blitz for, I want to program games not tools for making games. |
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| "I had a go at writing an editor too but tbh that is not what I bought blitz for, I want to program games not tools for making games." My thoughts exactly, I would have like to have written Unreal Tournament, not Unreal Ed. However w/o Unreal Ed, or something like it you can't get the game together. Damn I wish someone would write a really good fully intergrated level editor for Blitz, it has been missing it for so long. Darkheart |
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| I would be very sorry if Birdie would leave the scene. He's a Blitzer of the 1st hour. I also found it very promising when he asked me for the csp engine sources to make a connection from quill to the engine, including a new level editor gui. Let's hope it's only an art break, a inspiration powerup pause so to say. |
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| I'm still using Quill 3D as my primary level editor. Your right, it does need an update to fix a few problems, but on the whole it's a pretty impressive chunk of work that birdie has done. I can live with most of it's quirks. The thing that has caused me the most trouble is the simple rotations. They're not fine enough. Every transformation in the Map Builder is a snap-to-grid affair. There isn't a fine-tune option to get objects nice and flush with each other. I would like to use GTKRadiant (www.geradiant.com) and then convert with BSP Factory. However, as I've just learned, BSP Factor does not convert the Quake III Arena BSP format. GMax is another option, but again there are problems with exporting to Blitz3D. Regards, RV |
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| You shouldn't consider using GMAX at all since its not legal to use it for blitz games. |
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| I could be wrong but i think the author of quill3d said something about leaving the blitz community....he had a lot of personal self-image problems too. Erm wtf you on about ? I would like to know what information you used to base this unfounded statement on. QUill3D, Birdie has been back on the scene and things were looking promising when he started asking for feedback for the next update but that lead has gone cold again it seems =/ Ok. Put a couple of things straight here, I do have an update here for Quill3D, just because I havent released anything doesnt mean that it is DEAD. I have always kept up a good manners on these boards never jumped on threads which I could have many times. I am NOT leaving the Blitz Community and have never said that I am. In future as I dont always check these boards, any questions or queries about Quill3D please direct them to my email address and not just jump to conclusions based on hearsay/gossip. Thanks |
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| Erm wtf you on about ? I would like to know what information you used to base this unfounded statement on. He's confusing you with Halo. |
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| Or Dave. He had a link to Quill in his sig and he shares the same first name. |
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| The rumours of Birdie's death have been greatly exagerated. |
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| lol |
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| Someone mentioned WorldSpin...ahem,,, HomeSpun was created to give Blitzers all the features of WorldSpin(Notice the similarity in the name?)except for FREE! It still is and it isn't really dead just dormant,since my programming skills haven't grown so much, but the deal is, I will e-mail the source to ya Darkheart, if you want to see if maybe you could add stuff to it without having to start your own editor from line 1. Just a friendly offer. If you have never tried it, it's in my sig. Doggie |
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| Mmmkay - everything bad I ever thought about Birdie I apologise for, since for the very longest time I thought the inimitable 'Dave' was him. :o) |
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| yay ! |
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| Didn't mean to cause you any trouble David, maybe you could put a contacts section onto your website so people can e-mail you from it. I did try posting on the forum but it is pretty deserted in there. With no news or updates on the site for more than 6 months or any info on the forum, I think I can be forgiven for wondering if it Quill 3D was still being developed. Hey Doggie, thanks for posting Homespun Gold, I thought that had gone commercial or to the great recycle bin in the sky. Yeah the source code would be great, I kept hoping the guy who did Worldspin would open up the source so we could add our own functionality but he never did. Best place to send the source is darkheart#darkheartgames.co.uk (substitute # with @), thanks. If it's commented so much the better I'll see if I can add some extras to it. Darkheart |
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| Check your e-mail. HomeSpun will NEVER go commercial. Also, it needs a lot of functionality to earn the "GOLD" in its' name so if you can add to it please share and share-alike. |
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| I tohught Dave made Quill 3D. I made a comment as such in that suicide note thread he posted just before beign banned. Nobody constrdicted me. I didn't think he'd have a Quill 3D link if he didn't make it, and I'm pretty sure other thngs led me to beleive it was his. |
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| "It never came out, so don't post such a crap." I'm sorry I thought it had been released, particularly as it still features on the website. I didn't realise it never came out at all, apologies for my innaccuracy. Darkheart |
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| Quill3d is cool :) Just thought i'd add that :) |
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| Yah, I thought Dave was the guy who made Quill3d?? Thats what I meant about his personal problems...nerdy self image....suicide notes...anger against the world....etc...etc... |
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| Quill3d is probably the most underated and unappreciated Blitz product to date. The only thing that probably really needs sorting is the gui - as for features I still havent got round to using them all. The level building tools alone are worth the price of this excellent and truly useful bit of software. Its a shame that a product of this magnitude has not been better supported by the Blitz community. |
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| Yeah, I think its very good. But, support is a two way street, it needs to be supported by users, author, and publishers alike. In this case I think all are a little to blame for its current stagnation. Even so, its not an irreversable situation. |
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| Agreed ! - So all you Quill3d users get posting screen shots - upload a few pre-fabs and let's get the show back on the road - and as Birdie say's there's an update on the way ! |
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| 'Dave' from the forum didn't program Quill3D, Dave Bird did, aka 'Birdie'. Quill is great, it has numerous features and I think with a better GUI and a less intrusive copy protection system it could be a near-perfect product for the price. Birdie did say at one point he would consider rewriting the GUI part of Quill in BlitzMax, and I would certainly look forward to such a release if it happened. |
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| Yep, at least for me, it's the copy protection I just can't abide. The way I use 3d programs that cd in the drive would take a beating and be a pain in the butt to have to put in-take out-put it etc and what's more I really like when I can submit my VISA payment and download immediately. No can do with Quill3d. May seem trivial but it's put me off to it. If I saw it on the shelf at a store I'd probably buy it though. But only if the cd can be copied so I don't wear out the only copy I have. My $0.02 |
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| Yep, at least for me, it's the copy protection I just can't abide. Same here... would almost certainly have bought it by now if it didn't have that "feature" as I've taken Maplet as far as I'd like to. The way I use 3d programs that cd in the drive would take a beating and be a pain in the butt to have to put in-take out-put it etc My perspective is this: I've paid quite a bit of money for a computer and OS that can multitask, and this is an important feature to me. Then two (or more) coders go and release programs that demand the CD be in the drive while they're in use and... bam, I'm back to pre-Amiga technology, running a single app' at a time. I can't encourage that situation by giving these coders cash. |
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| You know, the real irony of it is this. I'm fairly certain that protection scheme was forced on the program by the distributor not the author(though that might not be true since I don;t know just guessing) but nonetheless the idea must've been to prevent warezing of the program which would lead to reduction of sales hence profits. But the fact is it's actually resulted in the loss of sales to customers who wouldn't dream of warezing the product. Go figure... Not an attack on Birdie or anyone, just an observation. |
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| I'd like to also add that I have recently bought Quill3D, and while I'm still learning how to use it properly, it is far superior than other 3D modler's for the same price. Cheers, Phil. |
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