As some of you know, work continues in the basements of GameGuru HQ to reform the entire graphics engine to use DirectX 11 and PBR rendering to bring the graphics capability to modern gaming standards and at the same time take advance of performance improvements along the way. We have also taken the opportunity to improve AI, loading speed and other issues reported to us from the community.
Aside from the more radical engineering underway, we can report some additional work that you can look forward to when we release the next major update, such as a new UI graphical style which creates a more consistent visual experience when editing, which includes a new welcome system to replace the video and game menus you currently see.
Calculating AI obstacle data, which could be a significant factor when loading your level for testing can now retain previously generated data so subsequent test sessions are loaded much quicker for an improved experience. We have also tackled some major AI issues reported so you can now have a large number of characters in your level, all processing their AI logic as you would expect. It is always recommended you design your AI so they can be activated in waves during the level, but there is no longer a penalty if you choose not to do so.
More settings have been added to the light mapper so you can now eliminate the effect of direct sunlight from your scenes, ideal for games that are interior only levels and we have increased the shadow cascade system to use 8 cascades instead of 4 which gives greater shadow quality, especially for shadows up close to the player. You can also up the maximum shadow resolution per cascade for even higher levels of quality.
Finally, we have a small army of beta testers thrashing the internal builds to make sure legacy functionality is retained, so any game projects you are working on won't behave or look different. When we converted the shaders from DX9 to DX11, the same rendering style was used so your projects won't break and created a new set of shaders specifically for the PBR renderer, which we can cover in more detail in a future announcement.
For now, happy game making and look out for another news update soon. For those who have yet to take the plunge into making your own 3D games, you might be happy to learn GameGuru is currently on a promotion at the moment and you can get a great deal here:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/266310/GameGuru/