3dfxdev.net is back!

Okay, so it took us longer than we thought, but everything's back again! You can check out our site here. Yeah, we know, nothing's been updated since 2007 and a lot of things have happened since then, but we'll get to it. Let you know when we put new stuff up. (hint: site designers welcome!)

TDGMods

Everything relating to TDGMods, Fusion or REU, anything like that, you can now follow the link to the right, or here. This is to be used strictly for 3dfx Development stuff now. Anyways, it's kinda cool right?

And, wow

Heh, to my credit, as scavenged as REU was, it has nothing on
this and
this, both of which Cheapy (leileilol, whoever the fuck he is) "created".

He totally fails.

Irafan is CheapAlert, Leileilol, leilol...etc

Yeah, they're the same. Just in case anyone happens to hop on here from the WIP (or DW if they find this place) and wants to compare the guy from WIP to the same guy who's been trashing REU fruitlessly for the last 6 years (even so, who really cares so devoutly over that than he?). You think this guy would get a life by now?
You'd know what I'm talking about, just do a quick search through my blog, or when the 3dfxdev.net site pops up, of his name. Guy's a jerk!!

Anyways, EDGE now supports security cameras, sort of. Kinda looks cool but mostly looks unfinished, it's better if you just use snapshots at this point, and sound works in Vista. Yes, it's amazing, Andy is a total God.

Well, I'll have more media of Fusion as filming continues (Graphic Novels) so stay tuned!

More Fusion Goodness

I finally created an account over at WIP, I'll give you the link as soon as it gets approved.

In the meantime, I added dynamic lighting to objects and the world, and this is the result:










I think I'm going to branch this blog off into both 3dfx Development and TDGMODS stuff, since there is work outgoing on both and this blog certainly isn't "TDGMODS" related at all. Well, give feedback always! Enjoy.

Fusion Screens!

Here's a bit of the latest build of Fusion Episode 1, with a semi-WORKABLE HUD, but no dynamic lighting. These screens are exactly the same in the Dreamcast version minus the models (I instead took screens of the same models all the way around to simulate the effect). The level was just something I made really quick to show it off. Everything you see is what you get. This doesn't reflect Fusion as a whole, not nearly as a percent, I just wanted to make something to show off.









I decided to make an account over at WIP as well. If only it let me log in...and expect some sort of release soon. Time's going to be strained here in the forthcoming weeks but I'm trying to at least log 2 hours in to the mod a day (on top of the OTHER work I have with Psykotik and real-lifeness). Sometimes more, if I feel like it ;)

Enjoy them.
-Clari

Builder is the Anti-Christ

More Doom Builder troubles...I guess the author made a thread on Doomworld about running it on Vista and it's a complete joke on how to get it to operate normally...you have to disable explorer.exe to edit any maps and you can't minimize/close, etc. the program.

Ugh, seriously. Fuck that Error 5. On the upside, I coded in more models, which brings the rank in the PC version to 10. I REALLY want to get a screenshot uploaded by tonight but every fucking single level I work on DB rapes it...so I'm totally screwed unless I load up one of my Win98 computers and edit on there, but even then it'll probably delay it a bit more...

Doom Builder is a joke

Yeah, so I've been using DB to map, problem is, it doesn't work under Vista. At least, not lately.

For some reason, the program crashes when I attempt to save a map, it was not doing this awhile ago. I loaded up the editor because I wanted to test the slew of MD2 and MDL's that I packaged in to Fusion, and the damn program now gives me the same error when I attempt to save. If I try more than once, the program fucking quits.

So I've had it with Builder. I will use it to load my maps up in 3d but I think I'll stick with WadAuthor. The creator has shitty support for it, more like "I didn't write it for Vista"...IMO, if you're having so many problems with the program shouldn't you patch it? Or at least put up a disclaimer somewhere that the program "May or May Not work under Windows Vista". I am well aware of the remake he's doing to support Vista, but don't you think you should take that extra step now to satisfy your customers, especially since the new version won't be out for awhile?

I know the creators are working hard and stuff, and it's a fantastic program, but the tech support is lame and you never know if your problem will ever be fixed. Yes, I've tried every single solution available. You know what else pisses me off...is that people blame Vista and say it's a shitty OS, but it's not! It's fantastic, and a big step up from XP. If I remember correctly everyone was saying the same thing about XP, even ME when it came out. I think the User Account Control is a great feature, something that XP lacked. Hey, if it keeps the pedos out of my PC, I'm going to use it.

All in all, I just wish they would pay more attention to Vista users. Or at least be more forthcoming with Vista owners.

And Fuck Apple and Linux users.

Birth of Iris Loader

I wrote a little extension for EDGE specifically for Fusion that allows different files other than .WAD to be loaded in. Created a new executable that comments gledge.exe, basically renames the appropriate files and when EDGE exists it renames and protects the file(s). Took less than two weeks to do, actually, and I didn't want to write too much until I actually started the app.

The cool thing is that the new executable contains data that would normally be in Doom2.wad, like the colourmap, things like that (since this project will not require the Doom 2 data). When the new exe is launched it temporarily creates a small WAD file that contains those that Fusion uses, and when the program exists it again erases it. I did this to prevent confusion and to not mess with important files within the game data. That way, the user can't launch the game with GLedge.exe (unless they use Doom2.wad and all the appropriate wads) but it'll be really scrambled if they have different content releases on their systems. Speaking of scrambled, this new utlitiy, once I get this feature working, will scramble the files to be unreadable specifically in XWE, etc., and will only be readable when the executable reads it for the game. That last bit is being helped along with a friend, though. Just out of my scope of knowledge.

For instance, the PC version will contain low-res files and high-res files. You combine all of those using GLedge.exe, shit will hit the fan. This new shell makes sure to add the right files in, even checks them against what you want to load in (to prevent confusion and reliability). And yeah, so I wrote it with VB (it'll work with any version of Windows as well). Kiss my ass, haha. And it's called Iris Loader, and I'm almost finished with the program. It should be done in time for the Fusion test release, and if we do a rewrite, could also be a launcher for any other EDGE release (which is what we're hoping for). I'll write more about it soon.

Dribbling out...

While I continue to work on Fusion, things are picking up again for Psykotik and recently, for BHF.

BHF is in itself very interesting since we restructured the team back down to 2 people, me and the other designer. In it's previous state, it was to be an espionage, post-modern game. When it was Chaos Factor, it was to be a military espionage third-person shooter...so it has been drastically changed from its previous incarnations.

I'm sorry, but to me the milaristic, espionage game is kinda lame...I mean, how many military games do we have out there now? And double that for espionage games...so we sat back for a couple of hours and rethought the whole thing.

The essential backbone of BHF will remain, but the design has had several changes in the way of character development, storyline, even gameplay. While some of the core elements, such as some espionage will retain, we have dropped most previous elements with something you would see in, say, Half-Life. Basically, we reworked the plot as you playing as an ordinary individual, living his life out in a controlled world when he witnesses his good friend getting arrested on stupid claims...so he begins to resist the machine and from there begins to plan on overthrowing the benefactors.

So, quite a design change, but one that, in our opinion, sounds much better. Let us know what you think.

Now, I'm done.

HDR Stuff

Okay, well I decided to download a HDR converter today, and for the fun of it, decided to input some of Fusion's graphics and textures into it. What came out of it was beautiful and changed a lot of the mods overall look. It doesn't look so dark anymore (like Blood did) and looks a lot brighter and more realistic. That and I'm working on a corona effect (like when you stare at the sun). Especially using HDR lighting with the skyboxes makes it so breathtaking.

So, I'm in the process of adding HDR effects into Fusion, and will also be available in the Sega version. With the Sega version, since we had to take out all models, this looks exceptionally good looking for an old engine, even though it's just all image manipulation. I haven't added HDR to any model skins in the PC release, I'm just taking it one step at a time.

I think I'm going to post a couple of screenshots in the near future so you all can see the overall progress on the mod.

Clarifications...

When we say server issues we mean problems with the main 3dfxdev.net server. The people at Yerblog are the admins and Cpanel in turn are their admins of the whole server. Yeah, kinda like chain of command. Haha.

Other than that, progress has been steady with Fusion, I implented a moving vehicle today (a train) that you can hop from car to car to kick some ass with...hopefully I'll get working on that trailer sometimes soon.