We're excited to announce that we're developing in a new game engine. As many of you know, the Beta test ended with severe lag crippling the build to an unplayable level back in October. Two months of testing revealed that the problem was deep in the core of the engine, and would take many months for us to fix. More time than we wanted to put into it. Through December and January we evaluated two new game engines for the purpose of rebuilding Visions from the ground up. We have made our decision and we're really excited about the new build. Right out of the box, we have many features already working that were still on the to-do list for our old build. And it handles large terrains far better than any other game engine we've ever tested. It also handles more realistic foliage on the terrain better than most game engines we've ever seen. Also, in T3D we would never have been able to build a seamless terrain. The new engine is designed specifically for that! We love it. We can do so many things with this engine that were planned in the original design that T3D was forcing us to cut, so I am especially happy that we're going to be able to do a lot of the originally planned features that we wanted.
One drawback is that the art can ONLY be exported from MAX or Maya. So we are looking for artists who have a MAX or Maya license to come on board and help us get some art repaired and exported for the new engine. Please apply online if you are interested. We are looking to add up to 5 new artists to the team. Seats are limited. You must be willing to contribute up to 12 hours a week to be accepted.
The programmers are happy. The new engine uses Python, which they say is pretty easy to learn and work with. If you know python and want to help us, please apply online. Seats are limited. We are looking to add up to 5 new programmers to the team, but each must commit to a minimum of 12 hours a week. Please look at your schedule and make sure you can donate at least this much time to our project when you apply.
Development is moving along really fast. We already have an internal Alpha test server up and running. We're working on rebuilding Kourion now. And creating the terrain. And figuring out how to use our new tools. Sometimes it's frustrating, because everything is new and different and we have to start over. But there are so many features already functional in Bigworld that we never had working before, that we're really excited about using this new engine. Please keep praying for us. There are still many hurdles we have to overcome and many things that can (and probably will) go wrong. We can use all the prayers you are willing to send. Thanks for your support!
God bless you,
-Sparkling