Blitzwerks

BlitzTerrain 2.00 RC1 release shortly!

Kaedroho — Wed, 26 May 2010 16:17:01 +0000

The release date of BlitzTerrain 2.00 RC1 has now been released.

BlitzTerrain 2.00 RC1 will be released on: Friday 4th June 2010

This is the first RC of BlitzTerrain and includes a number of new features and bug fixes.

Heres a few of them:

Far plane added to Frustum Culling.

Optimised RAM useage.

Fixed scaling bug.

New download system online!

Kaedroho — Wed, 26 May 2010 16:08:48 +0000

I have just uploaded the new download system which finnished development and testing last night. The new system is alot faster than the old one and allows us to record daily download counts and store this data in the servers database.

The old download system is still there and downloads that were uploaded before today will still work. The new system will simply forward you to the old system.

Server Move

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:33:36 +0000

We are hoping to move to our own dedicated server sometime in April which will mean that you encounter a bit of downtime. After the transition you can expect the site to be a lot quicker and receive a significant amount of regular updates so you can keep up to date with all of the latest releases.

In this move we are also going to be hosting DevStorm on our server which we are hoping to integrate better into Blitzwerks. Hopefully we will be posting about some exciting upcoming competitions! Keep your eyes peeled for more info.

BlitzTerrain 2 Beta Released

admin — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:13:23 +0000

This weekend marks the release of the BlitzTerrain 2 beta to the public and a year since development was started. We are also working on getting out the GDK version of the beta for next weekend so stick around for that if you’re among the GDK crowd.

Numerous fixes and optimizations have been carried out and we are very close to finalizing the feature-set for the Lite version of BT.

In the BT 2.00b release you can expect:

Terrain Generation
LOD
Quad Rotation and Smoothing
Exclusion
Loading

It also includes the keyword highlighting file and 5 example projects for DarkBASIC Professional.

Download the beta [ZIP/RAR]

Merry Christmas!

admin — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:28:21 +0000

Everyone here at Blitzwerks wishes you a merry Chirstmas. So grab a coffee, sit back, lay off the keyboard for a bit, and relax!

If however, temptation gets the better of you, then don’t forget to come back here and check up on the release status of the BlitzTerrain SDK. We are also hoping to announce another plugin in development momentarily so don’t miss it!

Regards,

Mike Wild and Karl Hobley

Blitzwerks Founders.

BlitzTerrain SDK Around the Corner!

admin — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 16:12:04 +0000

BTSDK lead programmer Karl Hobley has been working hard away at the completion of the BlitzTerrain SDK for DarkBASIC Professional and Dark GDK. The LOD technology is now 100% complete and all that remains to be finalized are the Real-Time Modification System (RTMS) commands and a few more RAM/CPU optimizations.

You can download the latest beta version (1.05) from the DevStorm forums – note: DBPro only.

Here is the changelog as of June 2009.
[UNDATED] Fixed bug causing crash when environment maps are used. Fixed bug causing crash when 'UT SetTerrainLOD' is not used Added support for colour heightmaps Fixed bug when using UT SetTerrainSplit wrong causes crash - now silently moves the value into the split range Upgraded Compiler to Visual Studio 2008 Professional

[07 June 2009] Started commenting code (not one comment before) Removed lots of temporary code in UT Update that would certainly slow the system down Setting point heights, now sets the point height of the nearest point, instead of the bottom left of the tile. Brush commands massively improved in FPS. Reduced point checks from 500 000 to about 250. (on the heightmap in demo4 using radius of 200)

[08 June 2009] Added terrain exist checks for the following commands - UT SetTerrainScale - UT SetTerrainYScale - UT SetAdvancedPhysics - UT SetTerrainDetailTile - UT SetTerrainSplit - UT SetTerrainLODDistances Fixed security bug


[09 June 2009]

Terrain Engine is now much better on Video Memory

1 byte per point saved in RAM usage (up to 16MB saved)
[11 June 2009]

Completely removed Infinite detail mapping feature. It eats ram, slows simulation and a waste of time to develop. This will be replaced with shaders.

Rewritten Anti seam system and now fixes 4:1 seams

Added the following commands

- UT TerrainExist

- UT GetTerrainPositionX

- UT GetTerrainPositionY

- UT GetTerrainPositionZ
[19 June 2009]

Limited max terrain count to 1 to make deleting without memory leak possible. This will be removed in a later release.

Added UT DeleteTerrain to the command list

Added UT CheckForError and UT GetErrorMessage to the command list

Optimised UT SetTerrainWireframe command

LOD Seam fixing is now much faster. Removed Normals calculation everytime the LOD seam fixes. - Doubled FPS while moving.
[21 June 2009]

Fixed normals seams bug

Added Texturemode 1. This is designed to texture like Advanced Terrain so it allows better shader compatibility. It also keeps the texture detail on low detail sectors, improving the visual quality.

Duplicated all functions and gave new functions a prefix of BT

[26 June 2009] Added Quad Rotation Added command 'UT/BT SetTerrainQuadRotation' to enable Quad Rotation

Welcome to Blitzwerks!

admin — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:10:07 +0000

Welcome to the new Blitzwerks website! We have redesigned the whole website to take advantage of the latest web platforms to ensure that it is easier to navigate and access. All of our latest projects have been added and you can check out our technology as well, including the release of BlitzTerrain!

If you have any issues regarding the website then either post about them in the community forums or visit the contact page.

Regards,

Mike Wild
Team Founder