Is that true?

[Einherjar11]

I heard Mega Glest and GAE is going to fusion into one? like Glest 2 or something like that?

[ElimiNator]

They were but it did not work out, MG is being developed still so eventually MG will have most/all of GAE's features. Since GAE is not really being developed any more.

[John.d.h]

MG is definitely progressing much faster since it seems to be much more actively developed lately, but GAE still has a lot of exclusive features like attack effects, transports, water travel, and others, and also has a great new interface. Once MG implements all of those things, I would call it "caught up", and GAE would be basically obsolete. Hopefully that would more a matter of adapting GAE code to work with MG rather than reinventing the wheel, so to speak. I've been a fan of GAE for years, but I would gladly switch if that happened.

[tomreyn]

I think that implementing transports and, more importantly, water travel, make little sense unless you can also make the AI and pathfinder understand how to use them properly. As long as this is not the case adding these features has rather limited use in my opinion. You could possibly (assuming it doesn't break the pathfinder) still play these player vs player but if adding such functions makes the game less stable then it's also a good reason not to do it.
I agree a better user interface would be nice to have.

[Coldfusionstorm]

Hmm, While i not agree that AI should be above features, i agree that the current AI is.....sad to play against tbh.

[Omega]

A comparison of features between GAE and MG: https://docs.megaglest.org/Engine

[Omega]

I've seen that, but is it up to date?

Reasonably so. May be missing several changes in the SVN, but should reflect the latest stable release more or less.

[Ishmaru]

Are there any megaglest features currently in development that are game changing?

Save Games
Multiplayer Scenarios
More Customizable Ai options

[John.d.h]

I think that implementing transports and, more importantly, water travel, make little sense unless you can also make the AI and pathfinder understand how to use them properly. As long as this is not the case adding these features has rather limited use in my opinion.

Agreed.  Perhaps I should have specified "implements in a useful and stable way".

[ElimiNator]

Are there any megaglest features currently in development that are game changing?

Save Games
Multiplayer Scenarios
More Customizable Ai options

I have saves.
Multiplayer scenarios sound cool.
What kind of customizable AI?

Customizable AI, where you can specify what buildings you want them to build first, what army to produce, how much, ect.

[helldiver]

If MG gets Emanations, I will definately move over to MG instead of GAE.

Reasons I chose GAE:
-Emanations (or Effects). One of the units in my project has a healing aura.
-Normal Maps and specular. Which currently doesn't work, and who knows when it will.

Things I like about MG:
-Random animations for things like Idle or attack. This would allow me to vary the attack and idle animations, very important to me.

Not much else.

But if things like effects, emanations, and leveling up is ported over to MG, then I would switch over in a heartbeat.

[Omega]

-Normal Maps and specular. Which currently doesn't work, and who knows when it will.

Normal maps work fine. Note you have to be using the beta (version 0.3.93).

[helldiver]

Normal maps work fine. Note you have to be using the beta (version 0.3.93).

Oh ok, thanks!

Yeah I'm using 0.3.2.

Will you guys also be putting normals and/or specular on terrain? Or for that matter using a shader that does something other besides vertex based shading?

[Omega]

Will you guys also be putting normals and/or specular on terrain? Or for that matter using a shader that does something other besides vertex based shading?

There was some plans to add luminosity and custom shaders, but I don't know if there's any progress on that front nor their current status.

[helldiver]

There was some plans to add luminosity and custom shaders, but I don't know if there's any progress on that front nor their current status.

Well here's what "Ethos" looks like so far:

Code: [Select]

[img]http://home.comcast.net/~acknar/screen2.jpg[/img]
and

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[img]http://home.comcast.net/~acknar/screen1.jpg[/img]
I'm faking the luminosity by baking ao's into my models as needed. Units have full hi res models for AO, Normal, Specular, and possibly Parallax baking.

Code: [Select]

[img]http://home.comcast.net/~acknar/screen5.jpg[/img]
Here is one of the same units shown above but with normal and color specular in Max. I'm using a custom viewport shader (directX 9 I think). The shoulder pads and such are grey since that is the Team color channel (later copied into the Alpha).

Code: [Select]

[img]http://home.comcast.net/~acknar/screen6.jpg[/img]
The hi-res mesh. I did it really quick since I just wanted ambient occlusion and lighting data and I figured players won't be zooming in that close.

Originally I was going to go with a more realistic look, similar to Dawn of War. But based on what I've learned of GAE's render as well as the way it handled Team colors, I decided to go with a semi-realistic stylized artful look.

[ElimiNator]

Your models look really cool, but make sure not to have too high poly because glest can't handle 50 super high poly guys running around.

[victorj]

Your models look really cool, but make sure not to have too high poly because glest can't handle 50 super high poly guys running around.

Glest can not be too high poly, then we will never have a high level of graphics?

[helldiver]

but make sure not to have too high poly because glest can't handle 50 super high poly guys running around.

Funny you say that. In the shots I show above, the terrain peices have as many and sometimes less than the default Glest models.

For Ethos I'm shooting for a sizeable art budget, about on par with most current RTS's. Normal, Specular, and AOs are used to "trick" you into thinking it has more polys than it really has.

Also, don't confuse the high poly used for baking lighting data with a final in game model. Most of the units will have between 700-1200 polys in game, where as their hi-res conterpart could be 1 million +. 

[Omega]

Your artwork is fantastic. I suggest you make a new thread about your mod, outlining your plans for it, as well as allowing a proper place to discuss it (as the topic has gone pretty far from the original intent of asking if there was going to be a merge).

[lazyanttu]

Off-topic too, but I must say that the infantryman looks really good !

[helldiver]

Your artwork is fantastic. I suggest you make a new thread about your mod, outlining your plans for it, as well as allowing a proper place to discuss it (as the topic has gone pretty far from the original intent of asking if there was going to be a merge).

Yes getting OT.

In the future once it comes along further I'll start up a thread. I wanted to highlight how if I put normal maps on units, they would standout against a non-shaded terrain.

And thanks everyone for the compliments!

[tomreyn]

I'll help you start a new topic by locking this one.