Worklog for AntMan - Banned in the line of duty.

MiniB3D XE

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Whatever happened to Tracer anyway?(Posted 2006-12-02)
Raytracer prototype has been posted to the minib3d xe thread.

It's not exactly thrilling..well I Guess it is if you've never wrote a raytracer before, but it's a solid start.

I don't think i'll even be attempting to make it real time. Bmax just isn't fast enough or my coding skills just aren't good enough. I prefer the former though suspect it's the latter :)

So it'll mostly be for a really cool screenshot system...

I.e Rasterized pixel shaded 3d for in game. when the player hits "Take a screenshot" it renders a glorious 1024x1024 hi-def render of your game with immaculate per pixel lighting, ray traced shadows, ray traced texturing, and i'm even toying with the idea of writing a little pixel shader language using what i've learnt doing code-monkey.

So minib3d xe could very well end up with a renderman like quality to it...

All big ifs, I'm still not entirely sure I want to continue developing the blitzmax version. or any version. I just don't see the potential for earning anything(With the C++ version) and I'm not allowed to sell anything on the blitz boards..

Maybe if I were and could afford a fulltime hobby(which cfoding a 3d engine is trust me)...

but who knows..everytime i play half life 2 that feeling that only writing a 3d engine can invoke tingles down my spine and i'm back trying some new fx or something...

So never say never. Either way, people are already porting my additions to the google version, so I guess I've made a contributation even i I do call it quits here.


Wow an whole post without one silly joke...what the hell is going on!!


Video Pleasent(Posted 2006-12-01)




and a 3 minute video i captured of it running on my killer new laptop :)

(13mb - Requires DivX Codec to play)
http://www.amonuk.com/antony/Demo1-TheVideo.avi


Gaberial Number One(Posted 2006-12-01)
Support is mounting. But we've become so powerful that now we are toying with the idea of using our power to make him do it regardless of his free will.

We've found a skilfful lawyer who has been able to classify this action as liberation of his code to the clearly superior shader langauge.

So everyone, get ready for the push..we begin the assul...liberation at noon!


We Want Gaberial Petition(Posted 2006-11-30)
I'm officially starting a petition to get Gaberial to port his HLSL Shaders and support code to MiniB3d XE.

Anyone who would like to see his excellent shaders ported, post on the main minib3d thread.

Together, we can railroad..I mean suggest, to him , we want his shaders now!

Don't do it for me, don't do it for yourself, do it for your country. :)


It begins.(Posted 2006-11-30)
I've just released version 1.0 and 1.1 is being uploaded as I type. (Why do people say as we speak when A) they're not talking to anyone and B) they're not bloody speaking?)

Basically it's minib3d rewrote nearly from the ground up in places and added with a sprinke of next gen fairy dust.

The effect i'm most proud of is the depth of field. in just TWO lines of code you get solid 3d depth of field.
The only thing i dislike about is the lack of fine grane control over it. Like being able to set to blur a specific region of 3d space.
But that can always be added in a future revision


The thing I want to stress MOST about this engine is, it should be viewed as a community engine. Now I know thats only going to happen if the community actually use it, but it doesn't hurt to dream big.

So give it a try, try a few of the fx out, write a few shaders, and if you do anything cool you'd like to share, e-mail me the updated code(Please comment where and what you've changed so i can integrate it. ) at AntonyCoder@...

Also,

MiniB3D XLARGE EDITION will go on sale at 10pm tomorrow, yours for 250 pounds.


I kid...i kid...

:)