Starfire back in development

[StarFire]

Hi friends,

Great news, Skyline has made a small move forwards, well realy small, about 5 feet to my dev station.
Its now at as point where we can both finaly get on with development. "Yay"
Past that awkward stage of integrating the updated libraries such as Physx3, the new render pipeline etc where so much code was changed that sections of Skyline looked more like a car that was left on the wrong side of town now sat on a pile of bricks. Well she now has her wheels back on and ready to roll forwards to the much anticipated beta version. Going to be a lot of "are we there yet?" from the back seat but the journey has begun....

I have been looking over the new Lua system which will superceed the existing code which will now be seen as Legacy code for existing projects. The new tougher, cleaner Lua has much more in common with C# and gives you direct access to the C++ core classes, meaning cleaner, clear code with loads more power.

I will be working on getting all the new commands created and tested including the new API. This will continue well into release as we find and require new commands. Along with setting up the new scripts we will be looking for stability, hunting down the current show stoppers so we can get Skyline to the point where you guys can get your paws on a beta. No eta but as mentioned earlier we are now on that journey.

There should be a lot more now to post about to keep you all informed of development. Watch this space

[monkeyfrogstudio]

Awesome! Small moves are good! And I like hearing about that, so thanks for sharing them!

[T4r4ntul4]

I like it when devs take the time to tell the community about the progress. Some devs dont do that, and you dont know what they are working on, or even working on that project.

Thank you to bring us along with you with your dev journey!

[SolarPortal]

No problem, thank you guys for sticking with us even though things are taking longer than expected..

[monkeyfrogstudio]

Sure. As you know, I'm excited about the possibilities this engine offers.

Having said that, even simple posts from time to time (even something like, "We're still alive and working on Skyline") goes a long way toward helping people who bother to come to see that the engine has not died.

[StarFire]

We are certalny back in development. Sp has been fixing bugs and currently adding a find in folder feature to the script editor.
I can testify that the script editor is working great and communication with Skyline. Its as fast as notepad++ but with kick ass features such as the workspace which is invaluable for scripting.

I am already testing the new lua system and getting used to the new way of working. In the past you would have to keep track of the entity ID and pass it into every command that needed to identify that entity. Now you create a variable as an object container and pass it the entity. Once you have it you than do any maniputation directky to it as close as we can get Lua to OOP.

Heres an example:

Code: Select all

-- Load the Library for scene entity
LoadLibrary(Lib.SceneEntity);    
      
-- create our container for the darlek entity
darlek = nil;

-- create our position var and set it to zero.
pos = vec3(0,0,0);

function onInit(objID)
   lprint("LUA: Script Active!");

         -- Grab and store the entity in darlek    
   darlek = getEntity(objID);

        -- get the position from the darlek.
   pos = darlek:getPosition();   
end

function onKeyDown( key )
   if (key == "w") then
      pos.z = pos.z + 1;

                -- Set the new position to our darlek
      darlek:setPosition(pos)
   end
end



Also while I am running throught the new Lua I am also setting up the documents and the new work shop features.

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Loads of coffee keeping us going. lol

[monkeyfrogstudio]

Looks awesome! Coffee is awesome, too!

[StarFire]

I thought you may like to see some comparison script.

This is to move an entity towards a position, in my demo I am using point and click to get a position.
The code is in the update loop, so updated every frame. Also there is no destination check as its only for comparison.

-- Legacy
--yawDeg = entity.getHeadingV3(obj,pos.x,pos.y,pos.z);
--entity.yaw(obj, yawDeg , 0);
--dx,dy,dz = entity.getDirectionOfEntity(obj,pos.x,pos.y,pos.z);
--entity.move(obj, speed * dx, dy , speed * dz);

-- method 1
--direction = darlek:getForwardVector();
--p = darlek:getPosition();
--p = vec3(p.x + direction * speed, p.y, p.z + direction * speed)
--darlek:setPosition(p);

-- method 2
--yDeg = darlek:getHeading(pos);
--darlek:yaw(yDeg);
--direction = darlek:getForwardVector();
--darlek:move(speed * direction);

-- method 3
--yDeg = darlek:getHeading(pos);
--darlek:yaw(yDeg);
--darlek:moveForwards(speed);

[StarFire]

Just completed the first scripting workshop which covers topics from beginner to understanding How to script in Skyline. The focus of the many tasks is on character development. This comes with scene files so you can concentrate on the workshop at hand.

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[StarFire]

More proof we still have a renderer he is my test file.

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[monkeyfrogstudio]

Awesome! Workshops, docs ... it's all great to see. Too many game engines these days have no docs, few docs, or incomplete/outdated docs. It's nice to see you guys working on docs while the next version of Skyline is being developed.

Good to see the screen shot of the renderer, too.

[StarFire]

Added a few extra assets and tweeked the lighting. Look at the lovely shadows, finally awesome shadows that dont flicker yay!
not that you would see that from the image lol

SkylineScreenShot_2020-12-08_14-59-29.jpg (249.83 KiB) Viewed 96416 times

[StarFire]

The new lua commands are working out great. I have another workshop completed on how to use a physics character controler complete with setting up a sprung third person camera. The scripts all use the manager class method for ease of switching controller type or expanding on the character further. All will be explained in the workshop.

got bord with the test scene, how it looks now:

SkylineScreenShot_2020-12-18_16-28-53.jpg (160.72 KiB) Viewed 96307 times

[monkeyfrogstudio]

The screen shot looks great! Glad to see more frequent posts, too.

[T4r4ntul4]

Images looking great. But i have a question:
will there be anti-aliasing options? Because in the image: Shadows and tree leafs look really sharp on the edges.

[SolarPortal]

we already have SMAA but will be looking at MSAA options and if possible some form of temporal anti aliasing.
i just dont think starfire had it enabled on this image

[StarFire]

Yes SMAA does work but its not an all out solution.
Here is a comparrison in SGE. 2 images one with out and one with.

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[StarFire]

Just tried to get a quixel asset looking good in skyline, what do you think?

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[T4r4ntul4]

Seems very nice!

(but something seems off, cant really tell what it is)

I have a request tho, can you make a short movie, if the sun changes position, how it will look with the shadows?
(Some eye candy for the impatient )

[StarFire]

i am in the process of making a video but would like to show the comparrison of the cliff in Quixel Bridge compared to the SGE render. There seems to be a small tonal difference.

note: the small image is bridge and the large image is sge.

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[StarFire]

@T4r4ntul4 request acknowleged, processed and completed

I moved the light around with the game object lighting sliders so the light movement looks a little jumpy at times

[monkeyfrogstudio]

Personally, I think it looks great. Having said that, does Skyline (the version you're working on) have an ambient setting for the entire level? If so, you could adjust the colors there to get a tone closer to what mixer shows, if you want that.

[StarFire]

Thanks
yes there are a few settings. For abience, this would be the env map scale. This is the map that is used in the GI at a 1:1 ratio and no light entity the scene will take all its light info from the hdri env map but this doesnt produce any shadows (atm). The scale is the intensity so turn it to 0 then you have a black scene as now there would be zero light. When using the light ontop of GI then we get the shadows and the GI becomes a secondary light and the entire levels ambience.

Colour toning is available with the post effects, we are going to pass some scene wide controls to the render panel for personal visual colour adjustments. Contrast, exposure, saturation, brightness, lumins. I would say we could get the colour on the cliff to match, if its the epic shader then there will be grading do on the post.

[EDIT] I forgot to mention, even with all of the mentions of GI. GI could hold a baring to the tone difference as we will be using different hdri images for the GI.

[T4r4ntul4]

Shadows look amazing! Thank you for your time to make a movie for this, really appreciated.

[StarFire]

Thanks, np on the movie good to show them off