|
You have asked the questions - these are JCL's answers regarding the next Acknex generation:
Q: Will the templates be expanded / revised to include more than just a 3D fps (like car physics, spaceship physics and simplified AI)?
A: Yes. Doug is planning special templates for all sorts of games. Future A6 versions will allow you to create many different games, not just shooters, without scripting. Users can also develop templates for games and sell them to other users.
Q: Will A6 support DirectX 9 and, if so, what features of DirectX 9 are you planning to support?
A: Yes, A6 will support DX9, however rather in an update than in the first release. It's not determined yet which particular DX9 features will be supported. This will appear on the "forecast" page as soon as we'll know
more about A6.
Q: Will there ever be support for cell shading?
A: Yes. Cell shading can be realized with DirectX8 or DirectX9 pixel shaders. There will be a language that can be used for describing the look of each single pixel of a texture, depending on it's location, color, surface angle and environment light.
Q: Will there be a way to write plug-ins for Wed, so someone can build an arch tool or another tool that can add features to Wed?
A: Yes. There will be a tool plugin interface for WED and MED. In fact we're using a plugin already for an experimental feature (customizable scripts) of the internal beta versions.
Q: Will Med and Wed finally be incorporated one into the other?
A: Probably not. We've planned this once, but it turned out that two different programs are better suited for their special tasks. However, WED and MED will share some features, like the DirectX preview window.
Q: JCL was talking about a demo record / replay feature. Are there still plans to implement such a feature in A6?
A: Not at the moment. It was planned for the Arena Contest Replay, but we've abandoned this idea as we realized that this replay can be easily done by locking the time factor (time_lock).
Q: Will A6 feature realtime light from static level lights and realtime shadows from dynamic lights?
A: Realtime light from static level lights: probably not, but maybe a solution for placing dynamic lights into the level instead of scripting them. Realtime shadows from dynamic lights: probably yes.
Q: Will the A6 c-script have more object oriented features like simple classes or structs (without complicated things like inheritance)?
A: We plan to add some improvements to C-Script, like for-loops or if - else statements, but probably not classes. It is a beginner's language, after all. The concept of entity functions and local variables allows you to
encapsulate functions without using classes. The SDK can be used for advanced features. We will probably add support for free C++ compilers to the SDK.
Q: Any chance of getting some type of true polygon based collision detection?
A: The current version has already true polygon based collision detection. However, the new physics engine will support a more flexible and advanced collision system.
Q: Does Conitec see any possible changes to their deployment of A6 (i.e. Extra, Standard, Commercial, Professional) in terms of options?
A: This is not fully determined yet. Rather than making such decisions a year in advance, we'll determine deployment of features and prices when the release is near. Some things are safe to say: It's likely that there will be also 4 basic editions, with similar differences than the current ones. Features like Bones and Physics won't be available in all editions. Upgrades A5 -> A6 within the same edition will be cheap, cross-upgrades like Extra->Commercial will probably be more expensive.
Thank you a lot, JCL.
|