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Monthly NoLimits 2 News (June/July)
Not much happened within the last two months. It is summer time and I more or less tried to enjoy the good weather, which kept me from making serious progress on NL2. I thankfully accepted Kay's (Buster) offer to write a couple of lines from his point of view of the state of development to keep the *cough* monthly *cough* news going. Thanks! [ol]
Since Ole is busy with coding
I got the chance to talk a bit about NoLimits2 and how it develops. Being a beta-tester allows me to look at the software as a normal user and not as a developer. So, here's what I can say about NL2 (as it is now):
The first thing that is very different to NL1.x is the combination of editor and Sim in one program. At first I didn't think this was a good step. It turned out that my doubts were mainly due to the experience I have with NL1. Having played around with NL2, or rather what is to become NL2, for quite some time now, I must say that Ole?????????s decision to combine Sim and Editor was brilliant. It will be a big advantage to see how everything will look the moment you build it. Will these two objects align? Will it make the tunnel test? How will this effect work out? Just check while you build. Easy. No need for repetitive switching between Sim and Editor anymore. I think that this will be one of the most useful innovations when it comes to building.
Then of course there's the graphics. Although NL1.x has been updated multiple times, it slowly fell behind in the graphics department and, while still looking good, can't really compete with modern games anymore. And as Ole already posted before, further updating an outdated engine is useless. So, although there can't be said much about actual roller coasters in the Sim right now, there's already a lot of eye candy implemented that will further improve the realism of the Sim.
One of the most important things apparently was the water. I guess Ole was sick of those simple mirrors. He already improved the water a lot in NL1.x, but NL2 takes it to a new level. The water actually looks like water now. You can see the ground below where it's shallow and you'll notice the refraction effect. Of course the water is not completely transparent, so the deeper it gets, the less likely it is that you can see the ground. Of course it also features realistic reflections and 3D-waves on the surface. All in all, it's pretty good looking. And yes, you can have dolphins and bass now, if you want to.
NL2 NL2
NL2
NoLimits2 terrain engine part 2
Next there's the terrain. As Ole already hinted at, you have multiple layers of textures now, not only one texture (two if you include the detail texture) for the entire terrain. So, now it's easy to have some sand and gravel near the water, rocks at steep locations, some snow on the hilltops and different sorts of grass everywhere else. Of course this is completely customizable and it's up to the user how he uses the possibilities. This new feature allows for very vivid landscapes. Far better than anything you saw in NL1.x.
The last thing I want to talk about is the background or skybox. Well, to make it short, NL2 doesn't really use a skybox in the same way as NL1.x does. The background you see in the few screenshots is actually 3D; nothing (except for the sky color) is painted on the 6 sided skybox. The big advantage of this technique is the perception of depth. When you move up and down in NL2, you can actually look over that small hill in the background and see what's behind it. This looks a lot more convincing than the static skyboxes used in most games (including NL1.x). In NL2, there's a real horizon, not just a simulated one.
Of course there's already a lot more to NL2, but there's also some more updates to be written...
Important notice: Please note that everything I talked about is only valid for the current version of the project and that details might change during development. [kg]
Not much happened within the last two months. It is summer time and I more or less tried to enjoy the good weather, which kept me from making serious progress on NL2. I thankfully accepted Kay's (Buster) offer to write a couple of lines from his point of view of the state of development to keep the *cough* monthly *cough* news going. Thanks! [ol]
Since Ole is busy with coding
I got the chance to talk a bit about NoLimits2 and how it develops. Being a beta-tester allows me to look at the software as a normal user and not as a developer. So, here's what I can say about NL2 (as it is now):The first thing that is very different to NL1.x is the combination of editor and Sim in one program. At first I didn't think this was a good step. It turned out that my doubts were mainly due to the experience I have with NL1. Having played around with NL2, or rather what is to become NL2, for quite some time now, I must say that Ole?????????s decision to combine Sim and Editor was brilliant. It will be a big advantage to see how everything will look the moment you build it. Will these two objects align? Will it make the tunnel test? How will this effect work out? Just check while you build. Easy. No need for repetitive switching between Sim and Editor anymore. I think that this will be one of the most useful innovations when it comes to building.
Then of course there's the graphics. Although NL1.x has been updated multiple times, it slowly fell behind in the graphics department and, while still looking good, can't really compete with modern games anymore. And as Ole already posted before, further updating an outdated engine is useless. So, although there can't be said much about actual roller coasters in the Sim right now, there's already a lot of eye candy implemented that will further improve the realism of the Sim.
One of the most important things apparently was the water. I guess Ole was sick of those simple mirrors. He already improved the water a lot in NL1.x, but NL2 takes it to a new level. The water actually looks like water now. You can see the ground below where it's shallow and you'll notice the refraction effect. Of course the water is not completely transparent, so the deeper it gets, the less likely it is that you can see the ground. Of course it also features realistic reflections and 3D-waves on the surface. All in all, it's pretty good looking. And yes, you can have dolphins and bass now, if you want to.
NL2 NL2
NL2
NoLimits2 terrain engine part 2
Next there's the terrain. As Ole already hinted at, you have multiple layers of textures now, not only one texture (two if you include the detail texture) for the entire terrain. So, now it's easy to have some sand and gravel near the water, rocks at steep locations, some snow on the hilltops and different sorts of grass everywhere else. Of course this is completely customizable and it's up to the user how he uses the possibilities. This new feature allows for very vivid landscapes. Far better than anything you saw in NL1.x.
The last thing I want to talk about is the background or skybox. Well, to make it short, NL2 doesn't really use a skybox in the same way as NL1.x does. The background you see in the few screenshots is actually 3D; nothing (except for the sky color) is painted on the 6 sided skybox. The big advantage of this technique is the perception of depth. When you move up and down in NL2, you can actually look over that small hill in the background and see what's behind it. This looks a lot more convincing than the static skyboxes used in most games (including NL1.x). In NL2, there's a real horizon, not just a simulated one.
Of course there's already a lot more to NL2, but there's also some more updates to be written...
Important notice: Please note that everything I talked about is only valid for the current version of the project and that details might change during development. [kg]
