Sphere Demo v1.0
The demo of Sphere Engine v1.0 dll plugin for A6 is now available.
Commercial version will be available very soon (maybe today)
Get the Demo Features:
*Real-time dynamic shadow mapping
*Advanced water renderer (includes underwater effects)
*Full screen 'bloom' effect (works even without the other Sphere features)
*reatime shadow mapping cast by sun on terrain! (new feature)
*shader library
*grass script
Looks really nice, but I have one question : What are the minimum system requirements to be able to play this demo?
Darkmirroronline
Posted By: oliver2s
Re: Sphere Demo v1.0 - 08/30/05 16:46
I can't get it work. It says: "Sp_devicereset not found in DLL". But the Screens looks really good. Great work.
Posted By: FRAJO
Re: Sphere Demo v1.0 - 08/30/05 16:55
Could you please publish the Demo?
Posted By: Towelie
Re: Sphere Demo v1.0 - 08/30/05 17:01
Oliver is having the same problem as I am (I thought I posted it too
)
Posted By: PHeMoX
Re: Sphere Demo v1.0 - 08/30/05 17:07
It's those missing DLL files again I think... Looks pretty good, though I wish to know what's the specs too. I have a ATI radeon 9600 256mb and 3 Ghz, which will be more than my targetspec's for my current game, so ...
Cheers
Posted By: Digifuse
Re: Sphere Demo v1.0 - 08/30/05 17:43
The demo works fine for me. Runs very smooth. No issues on either my ATI or Nvidia 6800GT machine. Few things:
1) The shadows seemed a bit too soft. Especially the shadow the creature was casting in the indoor level. Will we be able to adjust the softness of the shadows? If so, is it possible to adjust the softness of the shadow casted based on each object or is it applied globally?
2) In the choice of lighting techniques is it possible, and could you implement an option, to replace the normal mapping with bump mapping?
Great job, 3D GameStudio has just become the game engine I always wanted it to be!
For all who asked, pasted right from the Sphere doc:
Code:
System Requirements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sphere require you to own a legal copy of Conitec Gamestudio(tm) A6 Commercial or Pro
( it will not work with Standard or Extra).
Sphere Engine will not run without a 3D Video accelerator card that supports
Vertex/Pixel Shader model 2.0. Also requires support for floating point textures.
****IMPORTANT*****
you MUST have installed the latest DirectX dll called 'd3d9x_26.dll'. Sphere wil fail without this.
If you have downloaded and installed the very latest DirectX update it should be installed already.
Some cards that are proven to work with Sphere are ATI Radeon 9700 or better , Geforce 6800 class, and some Geforce FX cards.
Some cards may not work, even though they may meet the requirements.. this is due to driver issues.
Posted By: Migueljb01
Re: Sphere Demo v1.0 - 08/30/05 18:02
Having the same problems as Towelie and Oliver2gs. Even after I installed the zipped d3dxdll. The sphere beta ran just fine for me just this one I am getting the same errors as above.
-Miguel
D*mn I cant use it
.
Darkmirroronline
Posted By: Nadester
Re: Sphere Demo v1.0 - 08/30/05 19:13
Getting better and better. Looks great, but the shadows are a bit too blurry. Any way to sharpen them a bit?
Posted By: DCorwin
Re: Sphere Demo v1.0 - 08/30/05 20:01
The two main questions I have are:
Did you implement a check for card compatibility? So if the user doesn't have a shader2 card it can fault back to standard A6? Is there a global variable for this? So in our scripts for instance, we can say 'if no sphere support do this, otherwise do this routine'? On that same idea, will this even work or are the way the levels need to be put together so different that you can't realistically use the same material with both rendering pipelines?
And what about documentation? What's a basic sphereEngine authoring session like? What can/can't we do with it? Special considerations? etc.
Thanks!
There is documentation included. There is a way to check for ps 2.0 support, its in there now, and it will pop up an error.
You could run the levels without the Sphere effects, but they would be just like normal models then.. not very good looking.. this could be done however.
To do this, just dont init the Sphere Engine and change the materials setting around. Sphere is really meant tfor the latest cvards to run, so it is not much use on oldert cards. Also, Geforce FX cards wont run at all yet. Hopefully this will fixed, but i have no idea why they dont work, so i cant put a check in there. if i can get ahold of one i can try to fix this.
Bascially, just develop maps in max or maya or whatever...then place them in wed. Inside maps should be made out a few large models for the shell of your level, and then some more models for other details..the fewer models the better making up your level. PLace Sphere lights like you would place dynmaic lights in WED, you attach an entity to the Sp_Light action, and place them, not more than 6 can be visible at once.
Outdoor levels are even simpler to make, nothign special is needed.. just that water must be at 0,0,0 and there must be an object attached to the sunposmodel action.. this will give the correct cast shadows for your WED sunlight.
Posted By: XNASorcerer
Re: Sphere Demo v1.0 - 08/30/05 20:27
One question... About the Bloom effect, can I have it only over one entity and not over other ones?
Another think... Under the water, the shadow is very strong and it is not getting distorced. Maybe you could do somethink about it.
But I am going to wait for the second release with road path texture option implemented in your DLL. I hope that it will come out soon.
Adding the road feature will be easy, and I wont need to change the DLL, i can just post the new effect file here.. Just buy it now and that will be ready soon if you want it.
Bloom effect for now is only on all objects.
Shadow looks stronger undewater yes, this is ajust an artifact of the blending ops.. i can tweak it a bit.
Posted By: XNASorcerer
Re: Sphere Demo v1.0 - 08/30/05 21:13
Yes!! Thank you! I will buy it! I realy need the road feature.
Posted By: Nadester
Re: Sphere Demo v1.0 - 08/31/05 00:59
You didn't answer my question about the shadows being too blurry. I fumbled with the .fx files (shadowblur.fx and gaussianblur.fx), and it didn't affect it at all. I'll buy it if I can make the shadows a little more hard, right now they don't really fit the style of my game.
I also want to buy it for sure. But I have a modelling question before that I would like to solve:
I tried to create the right textures. I had a color map with an alpha channel (TGA-file). The alpha channel is black on some spots and white on other because I do not want specularity / glossy ont he head of the model. I created a normal map with a GIMP-Plugin and created an alpha channel and saved it also as TGA.
Then I attached both textures to the model. In WED I attached the action sp_model.
But the indoor level gave me just a very glossy model. I tried several flags (e.g. 8 for animated models) and changed the skill 7 to 1 or 2 later but it always looked the same.
What could be my problem? I want some normal or parallax mapping with specularity on only a few spots.
Frank
To all that have the "sp_device reset not found". I also had that because I forgot to replace the plugin in the 3dgs plugins folder. The old version did not support the sp_device reset.
Frank
Posted By: Anonymous
Re: Sphere Demo v1.0 - 08/31/05 11:48
I'm getting "Error E1513 Crash in sp_render_water"
--Tom
Posted By: XNASorcerer
Re: Sphere Demo v1.0 - 09/01/05 20:53
Matt_Aufderheide, I will only have credit on my credit card on day 22 of this month. So, don't rush the development os the road feature, but please don't forget it. But you can be sure that I will buy it.
sure.. i will release the road map shader in a special bonus pack which you can download from my site (when i put the site up that is..
I am looking forward to that bonus pack.
kann mir das mal jemand "publishen" da ich A6 noch nicht habe, es mir aber dennoch malgerne ansehen möchte
danke im vorraus
Posted By: Gnometech
Re: Sphere Demo v1.0 - 09/08/05 18:05
Quote:
To all that have the "sp_device reset not found". I also had that because I forgot to replace the plugin in the 3dgs plugins folder. The old version did not support the sp_device reset.
Frank
I also had the problem at first, but then I read the file more carefully and installed the newest DirectX Version. Then it worked.
Gnometech
Posted By: KoH
Re: Sphere Demo v1.0 - 10/30/05 17:59
I can't see. Just getting dead links.
I had this problem. Used imageshack to solve it.
Posted By: Cg123
Re: Sphere Demo v1.0 - 11/02/05 03:00
I've tried everything here, and still getting the sp_devicereset thing. I'd consider buying your product, but I have no idea what it looks like.
What video card do you have?
Did you install the DX dlls included in the zip file?
Posted By: Cg123
Re: Sphere Demo v1.0 - 11/03/05 02:28
Quote:
What video card do you have?
Did you install the DX dlls included in the zip file?
1.) ATI Mobility Radeon X300
2.) Yes.
Did you copy the latest plugin dll in the plugins folder? May be there is already an older one. That can cause the same problems
Posted By: Ithicus
Re: Sphere Demo v1.0 - 11/04/05 00:01
Would it be possible to publish the demo? I only have 3DGS Standard, and I just bought a GeForce 6800. I want to see it in action, and if I like it, then I will buy Com as quickly as possible and your Shpere Engine.
A potential customer here.
McLaren
Posted By: DCorwin
Re: Sphere Demo v1.0 - 11/04/05 00:07
Better yet, this sounds like a good challenge for someone who's bought it already. How about putting up a simple test level so we can see it in action via some customer works?
Posted By: Cg123
Re: Sphere Demo v1.0 - 11/04/05 01:47
Yeah, I did that too.
Can people from non-USA domains try the sphere websit now.. I think i have fixed the problems. Thanks
Posted By: Matt_Coles
Re: Sphere Demo v1.0 - 11/04/05 06:51
It always worked for me and I'm in Australia
Posted By: Pappenheimer
Re: Sphere Demo v1.0 - 11/04/05 07:18
Doesn't work for Germany!
Posted By: Tester
Re: Sphere Demo v1.0 - 11/05/05 12:06
Quote:
I tried to create the right textures. I had a color map with an alpha channel (TGA-file). The alpha channel is black on some spots and white on other because I do not want specularity / glossy ont he head of the model. I created a normal map with a GIMP-Plugin and created an alpha channel and saved it also as TGA.
Then I attached both textures to the model. In WED I attached the action sp_model.
But the indoor level gave me just a very glossy model. I tried several flags (e.g. 8 for animated models) and changed the skill 7 to 1 or 2 later but it always looked the same.
I have the same problem, but as I can see nobody was answering this questions.
I havn't put a normal map but I have a strong bump effect, how ???
How do you get the specular/gloss map into the alpha channel ?
What do you think is the best program to make these huge mdl's for an indoor
level ??