Roadmap 2011

[binstream]

http://unigine.com/products/unigine/roadmap-2011/

 

New Platforms:

 

* Xbox 360

* Handhelds (to be announced)

* Mac OS X

 

High-Level Game Systems:

 

* Flow graph

* Sequencer

* Pathfinding

* Improved character system

 

Networking:

 

* Steam integration

* Multiplayer shooter sample

 

Tools:

 

* Cut-scene editor

* Animation editor

* Multi-monitor support in UnigineEditor

* Improved brushes in UnigineEditor

* Live edit on target platforms

* Improved batch export from 3D editors

 

Documentation:

 

* Video tutorials

* Online access to daily updated documentation

 

 

 

Please post your feedback on that.

[steve3d]

is it possible to make physics and particles use gpu to calculate?

 

and make directx10 and 11 use multi-thread to render

[ulf.schroeter]

Please post your feedback on that.

 

High-Level Game System and Tools are for sure of high importance. Missing from our point of view

 

Large World Management

 

• zone-based runtime background node file streaming for unlimited worlds
  
• large coordinate handling
  

 

Rendering

 

• SpeedTree-like ObjectForrest for optimized large-forrest rendering
  

 

Leadwerks Engine GDC2010 presentation shows very powerfull forest rendering. They support automatic 6-side-billboard texture atlas creation for 3D tree geometry and 3D geometry to billboard transition at user-specified distances. Would be great to see something similar in UNIGINE as a next-step extension to the very nice vegetation smooth LOD fade / wind animation features.

 

[cory.sharplin]

• 
   
  
• An asset management system for Multi user/editor support for the Unigine editor eg: multi user level design with versioning, syncing, check in/out etc. – Start with – Unigine Editor, then move into - Adobe, Maya, Max for game models textures and art assets.
   
  
• High-level behavior modeling like xait a rule-based system that lets you achieve realism in artificial intelligence and build it up like OOP.
   
  
• Character/AI behavior modeling including a graphical, realtime debugger.
   
  
• More sophisticated UNIGINE script debugger GUI as per ulf.schroeter feedback request, could also link into asset management system for code control and realtime updates.
  

 

FYI, videos are a great addition to your product can’t wait till your advanced ones to learn your tips!

 

A useful tutorial for learners is using Vue to create a real-time procedural terrain then rendering it in Vue to .PSD for the mask layers to map the high resolution texture mapping to the RGBA channels. This is making the most realistic terrain environments I can for you engine and needed for you terrain tutorial.

[danni.coy]

 

[*]An asset management system for Multi user/editor support for the Unigine editor eg: multi user level design with versioning, syncing, check in/out etc. – Start with – Unigine Editor, then move into - Adobe, Maya, Max for game models textures and art assets.

 

 

Out of curiousity why not use one of the existing version control systems. We use subversion here, there is also git, bizaar, mercurial or if you have the money and want something artist friendly alien brain. To my mind using a dedicated tool would be faster more reliable than Unigine would be able to come up with in a short time frame of course some kind of front end to one of these systems inside the editor would be welcome that or something like verse. current version

 

We have pretty much the same requirements as Ulf here, large streaming worlds and forests are important to us too and the new tools will be very welcome.

[alex.dovgodko]

We also miss:

- Support of the big worlds, like Ulf described.

- Visual debugger.

- Fast access to encoded ZIP-archive contents. Engine file system works with textures/meshes stored in encoded ZIP-archives very slow, and the whole game performance suffers in such case. We got around 10K files (including 3K of terrain files) in our project, which we can't hide because of the mentioned problem (only scripts and engine core are stored in encoded archives).

[binstream]

Since now there is a flexible C++ plugin system available in Unigine, we plan to add integration plugins for libraries like SpeedTree and Scaleform to be available out-of-the box.

It's still under consideration, but a possible arrival date for that is the middle of the year.

[ivan.cuevas]

Multi-monitor support is very promising. It's an excellent fearure for non-game applications and for developing content creation tools...

Can you explain a little bit more what do you want to do?

When do you plan to release it?

[binstream]

Large coordinate handling is also a priority feature for serious games applications, so we plan to add it in 2011 as well.

[danni.coy]

Large coordinate handling is also a priority feature for serious games applications, so we plan to add it in 2011 as well.

You rock

[ulf.schroeter]

Large coordinate handling is also a priority feature for serious games applications, so we plan to add it in 2011 as well.

 

Really great !

[ulf.schroeter]

we plan to add integration plugins for libraries like SpeedTree to be available out-of-the box.

 

We already made some experiences with SpeedTree wrapper integration of another game engine and this is really an ugly solution with lots of defects, non-functional intersection testing, etc.

 

My plea: simple UNIGINE import/conversion functions for SpeedTree model files would be great, but please provide your own, highly integrated and conceptual consistent rendering solution - e.g. ObjectForest as described above - based on your native new vegetation system ! All required pieces are already in place and Leadwerks sample shows, that this is perfectly possible without SpeedTree runtime code.

 

Besides technical aspects it would also avoid a customer SpeedTree licence requirement.

[binstream]

We already made some experiences with SpeedTree wrapper integration of another game engine and this is really an ugly solution with lots of defects, non-functional intersection testing, etc.

 

My plea: simple UNIGINE import/conversion functions for SpeedTree model files would be great, but please provide your own, highly integrated and conceptual consistent rendering solution - e.g. ObjectForest as described above - based on your native new vegetation system ! All required pieces are already in place and Leadwerks sample shows, that this is perfectly possible without SpeedTree runtime code.

 

Besides technical aspects it would also avoid a customer SpeedTree licence requirement.

 

Yes, we are intended to avoid SpeeTree rendering code because it doesn't fit into our rendering system.

[ulf.schroeter]

Yes, we are intended to avoid SpeeTree rendering code because it doesn't fit into our rendering system.

 

thank god !

[ulf.schroeter]

Large coordinate handling is also a priority feature for serious games applications, so we plan to add it in 2011 as well.

 

Would it be possible to get a short overview of planned large coordinate/database features ? I think some pre-design customer feedback based on real-world requirements would be very helpful both for UNIGINE and its customers.

[binstream]

Would it be possible to get a short overview of planned large coordinate/database features ? I think some pre-design customer feedback based on real-world requirements would be very helpful both for UNIGINE and its customers.

 

We discussed it internally and decided that there will be two different builds (with float coords and with more precision) because the feature has severe performance penalty so it will be disabled for game applications.

[binstream]

Pathfinding is ready in 2010, OpenGL ES support is added also.

[ulf.schroeter]

We discussed it internally and decided that there will be two different builds (with float coords and with more precision) because the feature has severe performance penalty so it will be disabled for game applications.

 

Hi Denis, would it be possible to get a consolidated 2011 planed feature list including a rough time table Q1/2/3/4 ?

[binstream]

Hi Denis, would it be possible to get a consolidated 2011 planed feature list including a rough time table Q1/2/3/4 ?

I guess we will make one after releasing the last SDK update for this year.

[binstream]

Support of tablet devices is on the way, more details will be announced soon.

[steve3d]

how about making mesh_terrain_base a general material and make mask paint tool available to this material, so that this material can work like mesh painting in udk

[binstream]

Updated version:

 

New Platforms:

 

* Android

* iPad

* Xbox 360

* Mac OS X

 

High-Level Game Systems:

 

* Flow graph

* Sequencer

* Pathfinding

* Improved character system

* Improved animation tree

 

World Management:

 

* Zone-based runtime background node file streaming for unlimited worlds

* Increased coordinate precision

 

Networking:

 

* Steam integration

* PSN integration

 

Tools:

 

* Asset manager

* Cut-scene editor

* Animation editor

* Multi-monitor support in UnigineEditor

* Improved brushes in UnigineEditor

* Live edit on target platforms

* Improved batch export from 3D editors

 

Documentation:

 

* Video tutorials

* Online access to daily updated documentation

[ulf.schroeter]

World Management:

 

* Zone-based runtime background node file streaming for unlimited worlds

* Increased coordinate precision

 

Great, hopefully quite soon available :blink:

[manuel.gysin]

* Improved character system

 

Is there any ETA for this and what I can understand under improved?

(Re)write the character system is one of our next milestones, so it would be nice to know if we better wait or start now with it.

[binstream]

Is there any ETA for this and what I can understand under improved?

(Re)write the character system is one of our next milestones, so it would be nice to know if we better wait or start now with it.

Q2/Q3