CUBIC PANORAMA PLUGIN released! (beta)

[nigec]

We used to get that problem with the GP500 game and usually turning off "hardware acceleration" in the directX setup fixed it.. but if i remember right you've tried that

[Mystery]

As I have posted earlier, I'm trying to get some testers for this plugin.

The test results that I've received so far, are very encouraging. All testers have reported a great performance without any issues.

1)
Windows Vista
processor: AMD 64 X 2 dual core processor +3000 2.00 Ghz
memory : 894 MB
video card : NVidia geforce 6150 LE

2)
Windows Vista, AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor TK-53, 1,7 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce Go 6100, Driver 7.15.10.9808 (date: 05.02.2007)

3)
Windows XP Professional SP 2
Intel Pentium D CPU 2.8 GHz, 504 MB of RAM
Graphic Card: Intel 82945 G Express Chipset Family
Driver version: 6.14.10.4299

4)
Intel(R) Pentium(R) III
Mobile CPU 933MHz
725 MHz 120MB of RAM
Driver Provider: Intel Corporation
Driver Version: 6.13.1.3006

5)
Windows Vista Home Premium
Processor: 1.83 GHz
2038 MB RAM
Graphic card: Mobile Intel 945 GM

6)
XP Home Edition
Intel Celeron 2.93 GHz
521 MB RAM
ATI RADEON 9100 PRO IGP Series (Driver 6.1410.6458)

7)
Windows XP Home Edition (2002)
AMD Sempron 3000+ processor 2.00 ghz with 192 MB ram.
Graphic card: VIA/S3G UniChrome IGP (Driver version 6.14.10.194)

8 )
Windows Vista
Processor: AMD Turion(tm) 64x2 mobile Technology TL-50 1.6 GHz
2 GB RAM
ATI Radeon Xpress 1150
Driver version: 8.331.0.0 (12/27/2006)



I hope to get some more results in the next days, which I'm going to post here, too.

[GM-Support]

Thanks a lot!

[Mystery]

I have received more test results, all testers confirm a great performance without any distortions or other issues

1)
Window XP Professional (with SP2)
AMD Sempron 3000+
2.00 GHz, 960 MB of RAM
Graphic card: VIA/S 3G UniChrome IGP (video memory 64 MB)
Version 98.d2.0019 (8/4/2003)
DirectX 9.0c


2)
Windows Vista Home Premium
Genuine Intel CPU T2080
1.73 GHz, 1014 MB
Graphic card: Intel (driver version 7.14.10.1187) memory: 8 MB
Accelarator: Mobile Intel(R) 945 GM Express Chipset Family
DirectX 10.0


3)
Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600)
Intel(R) Celeron(R) D CPU 3.20 GHz, 1022 MB RAM
Graphic Card: Radeon X1550 Series, Chip Type: ATI display adapter (0x7140); driver version: 6.14.0020.6706 (6/27/2007)
DirectX 9.0c

EDIT
Another test result: works also well:

4)
Windows XP Home Edition
Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.80 GHz
2.79 GHz, 256 MB of RAM
NVIDIA GeForce Fx 5200 (driver version 4.34.20.22.BF)

[Ron_Emad2]

Hello
i have one question
Dear GM-Support
when this plugin is publish?
I want publish my game but i wait for Ture Plugin
With thanks
EmadRahmani

[GM-Support]

Hello,

I must admit that I am pretty stuck with the GeForce problem, because I don't have many clues to fix it.

I am preparing some additional tests that may help us to better identify the causes.

I will keep you updated.

Thanks,
GM-Support
P.S. In the meantime, if you have some demos to showcase using the cubic panorama, please feel free to post them! I cannot wait to see the first games that use the new plugin. Although commercial use is not yet allowed, you are very welcome to publish non-commercial games and free demos!

[nigec]

I've got a world setup i could do a few rooms and interactions if it helps altho i'm only using the free edition

[nigec]

I've just built 4 frames and they work well, but i can't get the direction control to work as you enter another room, it always faces the starting view.. I have entered the angles in the text felds in properties

[Lyberodoggy]

oh! how can that be? You can send us a sample to recreate the problem...

[nigec]

I'll double check to make sure its not just me.. what files will you need?

[Lyberodoggy]

The project folder (to check the bitmap and the cfg of the plugin.)

[Candle]

Have a look at the hotsopt that takes then to a new frame
.

[Lorenzo Bellincampi]

Wow.. This Plug-in is just saying "Choose Adventure Maker....CHOOOOOSE IT".
I really like it.
GOOD work! (I can't wait for the final release!!!)

[GM-Support]

Wow.. This Plug-in is just saying "Choose Adventure Maker....CHOOOOOSE IT".
I really like it.
GOOD work! (I can't wait for the final release!!!)

Thanks a lot.

Just so that you know, the license to use the plugin commercially will be slightly different from the AM license. I will post more details about the license as soon as we reach a stable version.

[Ron_Emad2]

Hello
no ! i want publish for all (free)
but i like this work fine
my Projec Source is 320 mg
and i cant upload this
i can post this for you from iran and if you can upload this
i use all Techniques And Pugin and ...
I think it is good
with thanks
emad

[nigec]

Hi candle hows it going?
You don't get that view on the cubic plugin hotspots.. you get less options with angles in degrees

http://www.nigecstudios.co.uk/games/hawk2.zip

Even tho the angle is set on the return journey it'll face the original first direction

the scene is something i'm on building and still needs a lot of work so don't expect a game any time soon lol..

I would really like a way to make in pan if the left mouse button is held down, at the moment there just isn't any free range and kinda feels your spinning around hunting for hotspots

Also i keep getting random crashing.. all the windows disappear but the main exe is still running, you have to close it via task manager then when you restart the last room is still in temp files (running Vista)

[Lyberodoggy]

Wow, amazing graphics. Good job.
Anyway, I don't think you can have the camera positioned depending the frame from which you come. This one means that you can set the camera's initial angle to a value that will be the same both when you go to that frame from some place in front of and when going to that frame frome someplace behind it. The only thing that could help is Keyguard plugin's set cursor method (meaning you could use scripting to set the cursor and so the camera to the coordinates you want). If only ShadowHunter could tell us how to do that...

[Imari]

In this pano plug-in as in the older one, there are two places in which to add the orientation information. The first is in the Frame Properties panel, where you set the initial orientation for the frame. You set the "return" orientation from any other frame in the appropriate hotspot for that frame.

Nige has his set correctly. Orientation when returning to the frame from another via a hotspot is just not working in this version.... yet.

[nigec]

Wow, amazing graphics. Good job

Thanks.. there's still A LOT to do, there's loads i need to change/fix then its a juggling act between rendering times and detail.. then theres door to animate etc

good to know i got something right Imari lol

[GM-Support]

Nige has his set correctly. Orientation when returning to the frame from another via a hotspot is just not working in this version.... yet.

Thanks for the bug report. I will try to fix it asap.

[nigec]

just for the record.. i used the first version plugin link from the original post..
I'm running a NVidia on Vista, I updated to Vista SP1 last week and now i can run AM and the plugin normally without needing to use compatibilty mode.. but i did have a general kinda crash this morning

[Ron_Emad2]

hello
i have one qoustion
in coubic frame we cant save game ?
i save but when i try to load i see 4 error and game will exit
please help me

[GM-Support]

in coubic frame we cant save game ?
i save but when i try to load i see 4 error and game will exit

Yes, you can save games. There is a small additional step that you need to do. It is described in the 4th post of this thread.

[TheMagician]

Hi there. Let me give some feed-back on this plugin.

1.
I heard that there is this new cubic panorama plugin for AM. This really was a reason for me to pick up the program again! It's great.

2.
Beta 1 of the plugin works fine on my GeForce 7950 GT (driver version 163.75) on WinXP SP2. However, if I try beta 4 i get the same infinitely repeating images that 'imari' reported. So I'm using version 1 at the moment.

3.
The plugin runs very smoothly unless I add a looping avi video using the "loop video" function from the hotspot properties (so I'm not using the plugin feature "play video in panorama").
The video file is only 3 MB and 138x118 pixels. However, when I pan around the panorama while the looping video is playing the refresh rate of the screen seems to go down considerably.

4.
I tried to use the pugin's feature "play video in panorama". Whatever I type in for the x and y position I never see the video. Does this feature work in beta 1?
Also, would this feature always loop the video because I don't see a counter for the number of loops.

5.
Is it possible (perhaps via VBScript) to limit the upper and lower view angle of the panorama, so that you can't look 100% vertically at your feet but only 90%?

6.
Did I understand it correctly that the "set view direction in new frame" feature is not working yet?

This plugin has sooo much potential because - as other users pointed out - it combines Pipmaks abilities with AM's ease of coding.
Right now I'm using the free edition of AM but if this plugin reaches a stable version with nice features the I certainly consider upgrading to full.

Thanks for you work with this program.

[GM-Support]

Hi TheMagician,

Welcome to the forums.

Thanks a lot for the valuable feed-back.

4.
I tried to use the pugin's feature "play video in panorama". Whatever I type in for the x and y position I never see the video. Does this feature work in beta 1?
Also, would this feature always loop the video because I don't see a counter for the number of loops.

Yes, this feature is supposed to work in the Beta1. I have just tested it again. Do other people also experience problems with it?

As far as the number of loops is concerned, this feature is not intended to show looping videos. It only displays the video once.

If you want to play a video X times (or loop indefinitely) when a hotspot is clicked, do the following:
- create a first hotspot at the location where you want the video to play X times, choose the video in the hotspot properties, enter X in the number of loops, go to the Variables tab, create a Variable1, and make the hotspot appear only when Variable1 is equal to 1
- create a second hotspot where you want the player to click, go to the hotspot properties, go the variables tab, and make it so that Variable1 becomes equal to 1 when the player clicks on the hotspot. Furthermore, under the "Plugins" tab, be sure to check the option "Update the cubic panorama to reflect the hotspots changes".

5. Is it possible (perhaps via VBScript) to limit the upper and lower view angle of the panorama, so that you can't look 100% vertically at your feet but only 90%?

It is currently not possible. If this is an important feature for you maybe we can try to add it.

6. Did I understand it correctly that the "set view direction in new frame" feature is not working yet?

Yes, it doesn't work in the current beta, I have just verified it. However, the "choose initial angle" in the Frame Properties works fine.


Thanks again,
GM-Support

[TheMagician]

Thank you very much for your reply.

I used the plugin's hotspot feature "Play video in panorama" incorrectly. I assumed it plays a video in the background without user input. Now that I know that you have to click on the hotspot to start it, everything works as it's supposed to

Also your instructions for playing a video x number of times when clicking somewhere are very useful.

Concerning the variables of player up/down movement. Isn't that funny ... you code a plugin to increase the freedom of player movement and then somebody asks for a feature to limit it again
However, i think access to variables like these may come in handy in certain situations (especially since 360? and cubic panorama don't work in one and the same project).
So if it isn't too much work I think it would make the plugin even more versatile and complete.

Do you think the drop in screen refresh rate while playing a video file (it happens both with "loop video" and "play video in panorama") is due to my avi settings or do you also experience it while testing?

Stefan

[Candle]

Refresh rate on the video could be due to your video card, CPU or the drivers you have.
You might try getting the newest drivers and see if that helps .
I like to use the xvid drivers for my videos and make sure the user has the drivers on their system.

[TheMagician]

@ Candle:
It's not the video that is jumpy. Rather the whole screen seems to lag when I look around in a panorama while a video is playing - even if the video is out of the field of view. As soon as the video stops everything is back to normal again.
I don't think that it has something to do with my hardware or drivers because video files are not a problem for my system to handle in any game.

[0Shocker0]

TheMagician, how much memory is in your system. It could depend on that and that your below the requirements.

Also video ram could be an issue

[TheMagician]

@0Shocker0:
My system is a DualCore system with 2GB of DDR2 Ram and a GeForce 7950GT with 512MB Ram. That definitely shouldn't be the problem.
As I said I can run all recent 3D-games without problems. And what the plugin does is basically display a rotating cube and a video, so ... really there shouldn't be any slowdown.