Page 1 of 1

[RVGL Release] 19.1230a

Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 7:39 pm
by Huki
RVGL has been updated to 19.1230a!

Update:
Download Win32 [ setup | 7z ]
Download Win64 [ setup | 7z ]
Download Linux [ setup | 7z ]
Download Android [ apk ]

Visit the topics for the Android version and the Shader edition for more information.

Goodies:
Download the Dreamcast Pack: rvgl_dcpack.zip
Download the Community Soundtrack: soundtrack.zip
Download the Controller Map Android app: rvgl_controller_map.apk (updated)
More about the update and RVGL: changelog | docs

Full game downloads are available at distribute.re-volt.io.

Image The network version has been updated!


Custom Animations:
This release adds support for custom object animations, which allows track makers to script their own animated objects. It's brought to you by Floke, yet another addition to our dev team.

We released a couple of teasers on Discord:
https://streamable.com/56nis
https://streamable.com/jtmwn

Basic documentation follows:
  • Custom animation objects are added through a new object type in Objects edit mode.
  • Each object can consist of multiple models (*.m with optional *.ncp collision) that act as "bones". Each bone is animated either freely or relative to a "parent".
  • Animation data and keyframes are defined in a text file named custom_animations.txt.
  • A new trigger type is available with options to trigger the animation at a specific lap, the first or last lap.
  • A visibility flag lets you show / hide body parts per keyframe. This also affects the collision.
  • There is no support for sound effects, sparks or lights yet, but these are planned.
A sample custom_animations.txt file can be found here, and it's self documented.
custom_animations.txt

Each custom animation object added in Objects edit mode accepts the following flags:
  • Animation ID (the animation slot defined in custom_animations.txt)
  • Trigger ID (optional, if the object uses a trigger)
  • Start time (delay in steps of 0.1 seconds)
  • Whether to show or hide in time trial
Triggers let you decide when to start the animation. The Custom Animation trigger type is configured like this:
  • Flag low: Object ID (same as Trigger ID above)
  • Flag high: Trigger in lap (0 = any lap, -1 = last lap, n = nth lap).

Get the complete sample track, demonstrating a few custom animation techniques, by clicking on the picture below:

Image
Custom Animation Examples


More Level Properties:
For track makers, properties.txt has got some new options.

There is a new GRAVITY section to modify the behavior of the global gravity field (magnitude, direction, dampening and rockiness). The ROCK and ROCKTYPE level *.inf keys are now deprecated - new tracks should set these properties in the properties.txt GRAVITY section instead.

There is a new PICKUPS section to change level-wide pickup properties. You can control the number of pickups that spawn during gameplay: there are 2 values to define the base number of pickups and more pickups for each additional player. For example, "SpawnCount 5 2" means an 8 player race will spawn 5 + 8 * 2 = 21 pickups in all. Other options include shininess color and light color (both RGB values from 0 to 255).

The properties_default.txt sample file has been updated to include these sections and their default values.
properties_default.txt

Android Improvements:

There is a new rvgl.ini key called Orientation to manually set the device orientation. Supported values are: Auto (-1), Landscape (0), Portrait (1), Sensor Landscape (2), Sensor Portrait (3), Reverse Landscape (4), Reverse Portrait (5).

The Controller Map app has been updated. Configuring a device with the Controller Map app automatically adds or updates the mapping in "profiles/gamecontrollerdb.txt". Manually copying mappings from the app is no longer required.

For Power Users:
  • -savereplays and -sessionlog are now supported for offline modes. (#1001)
  • For auto-splitters: the beginning and end of level load are marked in the log file along with the elapsed time.
  • Hide HUD functionality is improved: "Shift + F5" toggles HUD. "Shift + Ctrl + F5" toggles menu.
  • Visiboxes edit mode has a new Ctrl + P shortcut to refresh / preview visiboxes without having to save the file.
  • Shortcut to toggle ping display in Multi-Player is now Ctrl + P.
For Creators:
  • Several limits were increased: you can now have more animated waterboxes, more pickups and more objects.
  • Non-world, non-instance object collision (*.ncp) now supports corrugation and conveyor effects.
Bug Fixes:
  • Crash in Time Trial mode and in Best Times menu has been fixed.
  • Times are now properly reloaded when using track search in Best Times menu.
  • Fixed crash in random tracks mode when stock levels are removed. (#1148)
  • Fixed broken moving surfaces (conveyor belt) customization in properties.txt. (#1123)
  • Show the correct player skin in Championship podium. (#1136)
  • Online: When a level has multiple stars, the star captured is now properly identified. (#1135)
  • Editor: Fixed visiboxes reloading glitch with shader renderer. (#1145)
Merry Christmas to those who celebrate, and a happy new year 2020!
► Show changelog of this version

Re: [RVGL Release] 19.1230a

Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2019 10:22 am
by 607
Super cool new possibilities for track makers!

Re: [RVGL Release] 19.1230a

Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2019 5:03 pm
by Gotolei
Did some testing on nhood2. It seems like certain objects don't want to use their correct texture sheet if an animation exists in the world?
(On stock nhood2, the same objects also use incorrect texture sheets in makeitgood, but are fine in normal play)
nhood2_doors.zip
Image

Re: [RVGL Release] 19.1230a

Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2019 5:35 pm
by kiwi
Awesome release. So many new possibilities...my head nearly explodes because I have so many ideas now.

Will a proper documentation in the official RVGL documentation be added later? (I know there is the basic documentation, and a self-documented properties.txt - but for convenience a own section in the RVGL documentation would be nice)

Re: [RVGL Release] 19.1230a

Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2019 6:27 pm
by Huki
Kiwi wrote: Tue Dec 31, 2019 5:35 pm Will a proper documentation in the official RVGL documentation be added later? (I know there is the basic documentation, and a self-documented properties.txt - but for convenience a own section in the RVGL documentation would be nice)
Yep. As far as all the previous releases are concerned - only the Modern Editor documentation is missing. This, and features in the present release must be added.

Re: [RVGL Release] 19.1230a

Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2019 11:57 pm
by Floxit
Happy New Year huki, Floke & all involved devs in the team, and Thank You for your Amazing Work on our beloved game! <3

Re: [RVGL Release] 19.1230a

Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2020 11:40 am
by Pyves
Happy New Year everyone, thanks for the update!

Re: [RVGL Release] 19.1230a

Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2020 8:09 pm
by kiwi
Huki wrote: Mon Dec 30, 2019 7:39 pm - Updated various limits: 1024 meshfx slots (eg, animated waterboxes), 256
effect polys (for piano keys), 256 unique level models (for objects), and
256 pickups (192 normal + 64 clones). The maximum number of collisions that
can be processed per frame is increased to 1024.
I just found out, that the 256 possible pickups does not include stars. Can you confirm this Huki? And if yes: Would it be possible to increase the limit of stars also? I just tried to add some more stars to my Battle Arena Map (increasing from 64 to 100, as my initial plan was), but the maximum still seems to be 64.

Re: [RVGL Release] 19.1230a

Posted: Thu Jan 02, 2020 6:43 am
by Huki
Stars aren't included in the pickups limit: you could have up to 256 pickups and any number of stars. However, Stunt Arena is limited to 64 stars. The limit cannot be increased for now, because it would break the save file format.

Perhaps we could allow additional stars and only save progress of the first 64?

Re: [RVGL Release] 19.1230a

Posted: Thu Jan 02, 2020 10:43 am
by kiwi
Huki wrote: Thu Jan 02, 2020 6:43 am Perhaps we could allow additional stars and only save progress of the first 64?
I think this would be pretty confusing. Better leave it as it is now then. But I'm really looking forward that this limit will also be increased some day. Have big plans with Stunt Arena maps, and the 64 stars at Beehive Valley Adventures was already pretty limiting. As an addition I want to mention, that also stars thrown by Object throwers should be included in the Stunt Arena's star count (if possible).

Re: [RVGL Release] 19.1230a

Posted: Thu Jan 02, 2020 1:50 pm
by Huki
The online documentation should now be up to date.

Re: [RVGL Release] 19.1230a

Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2020 8:27 am
by Huki
Gotolei wrote: Tue Dec 31, 2019 5:03 pm Did some testing on nhood2. It seems like certain objects don't want to use their correct texture sheet if an animation exists in the world?
(On stock nhood2, the same objects also use incorrect texture sheets in makeitgood, but are fine in normal play)
Apparently there is some hardcoding for the traffic cone object:
  • On nhood2 (precisely this level), it loads "n2trafficcone.m".
  • On all other levels it loads "trafficcone.m".
  • In objects edit mode it always loads "trafficcone.m".
So the behavior you get is not caused by animations. You can workaround this issue by renaming n2trafficcone.m/hul to trafficcone.m/hul and placing them in your custom folder.

Re: [RVGL Release] 19.1230a

Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2020 9:39 am
by 607
Why does the gravity turn out to be customisable per level, anyway? All of the stock tracks have the same gravity, right? So you'd expect it to be constant for the whole game, and not set per level.

Re: [RVGL Release] 19.1230a

Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2020 1:18 pm
by Huki
607 wrote: Sat Jan 04, 2020 9:39 am Why does the gravity turn out to be customisable per level, anyway? All of the stock tracks have the same gravity, right? So you'd expect it to be constant for the whole game, and not set per level.
The gravity was indeed constant for the whole game and we made it customizable.

Re: [RVGL Release] 19.1230a

Posted: Thu Jan 16, 2020 3:30 am
by Gotolei
I'm curious about the scope of what animations and animation triggers could eventually be capable of. On discord, it was mentioned that sound effects, lights and sparks are all planned. It was also considered that triggers could activate specific keyframes of an animation. Are any other things planned?

The main thing that I've been running into when planning things out is that it's now possible to change the geometry of the raceline, but the ai nodes remain static. If you add an obstacle the ai cars will just plow into it, or if you add a shortcut and/or obvious faster route the ai will keep going the original way. Any thoughts on changing the properties of node pair X (or the N-th node pair of property X) from within a keyframe (such as "enabling" a new route by changing its fork from wilderness/longcut to racingline/shortcut, or vice versa to keep AI from driving into obstacles)?

I'm also curious about any potential for adding/removing objects, such as lasers, race stars and (probably adding only) movebody interactables like cones and basketballs. In a hypothetical world, would keyframes have the same limitations as object throwers regarding flags (only init to 0)?

One more thing, are user-defined movebody/movebodyclever objects on the roadmap? As it stands, it looks like there are only two or three of them that use .huls which are enabled in multiplayer (bucket, cone, maybe lilo).