Search Unity

  1. Megacity Metro Demo now available. Download now.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Unity support for visionOS is now available. Learn more in our blog post.
    Dismiss Notice

Terrain Engine - Simply efficient and detailed voxel world generator

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by disturbingon3, Aug 29, 2016.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. disturbingon3

    disturbingon3

    Joined:
    Jul 6, 2012
    Posts:
    26
    Hello World!

    Junglee Games is excited to announce that we are opening a new community and have purchased the rights to officially sell the massive toolset known as the Terrain Engine. All the info about it can be found at www.terrainengine.io



    The terrain engine’s development has been led by “Dyox” who has spent several years developing a highly efficient terrain engine system, which can generate massively detailed worlds and soon to come universes!

    First and foremost – the current state of the Terrain Engine is not as user friendly as we’d like it to be. The engine itself takes time to learn with the current limited documentation. When we started using the Terrain Engine, we saw this as an opportunity to improve the product not only with building more epic features, but with more usability and flexibility so that anyone from an artist or beginner developer can enjoy the power of this amazing tool.

    Secondly – we want to make this tool easier to buy! We are providing paypal and credit card options to purchase the Terrain Engine for the first time! This will provide access to our secure downloads section where you can get the terrain engine instantly!

    Today – we are creating thorough documentation and building a support system via Github to build a community of developers to work with each other on this amazing tool. Pull requests will be welcomed and you can show off your progress in slack.

    We hope you all are excited about the above as I am, but the major question lies about pricing and when can you get this bad boy?

    RELEASE DATE
    Source Access: October 1st, 2016
    Closed Source: November 1st, 2016

    If you want access to the undocumented Source Access version today – you can contact us we’ll provide it to you TODAY once you preorder here.

    PRICING SCHEDULE
    September 2016

    Source Access – Preorder Special Package (Receive Source Code October 1st 2016)

    Revenue Capacity: Unlimited (Pre-order special!)
    Support+Updates: Lifetime (Pre-order special!)
    Source Code + Github Access: YES
    Price: $3,999.99 (60% off Pre-order special!)

    Closed Source – Preorder Special Package (Receive Source Code October 1st 2016)

    Revenue Capacity: Unlimited (Pre-order special!)
    Support+Updates: Lifetime (Pre-order special!)
    Source Code + Github Access: NO
    Price: $99.99 (80% off Pre-order special!)

    October 2016
    Indie Pricing
    Revenue Capacity: Company maximum 200K USD gross revenue per year
    Support & Updates: 1 year
    Source Code + Github Access: YES
    All Features: YES
    Price: $4,999.99 USD

    Enterprise Pricing
    Revenue Capacity: Unlimited
    Support & Updates: 1 year
    Source Code + Github Access: YES
    All Features: YES
    Price: $9,999.99 USD

    Support+Updates Annual Renewal
    $999.99

    Lifetime Support+Updates Package
    $2999.99

    November 2016 (In addition to October 2016 pricing)
    Indie Closed Source Pricing (Available on Asset Store and Website)
    Revenue Capacity: Company maximum 200K USD gross revenue per year
    Support & Updates: Unlimited
    Source Code + Github Access: NO
    All Features: NO
    Price: $199.99

    Enterprise Closed Source Pricing (Available on Asset Store and Website)
    Revenue Capacity: Unlimited
    Support & Updates: Unlimited
    Source Code + Github Access: NO
    All Features: NO
    Price: $499.99

    Feature Addons (Range from $25-$200 each)
    Liquid Physics
    Multiplayer Server
    Universe Generator
    AI Manager
    Construction Kit (Build Houses!)
    And More

    Minimum System Requirements for your games
    Mac with OpenGL 4.1 or higher – Nvidia GTX 500 series or higher
    Windows 7 with DirectX 10 or higher – Nvidia GTX 500 series or higher
    4GB Ram or higher
    Intel i3 processor or higher

    Features

    View the history of development here.

    Showcase videos can be found here.
    • Various Terrain Generation Algorithms
      • Marching Cubes
      • Terrain Octree based LOD
      • Hexagonal
      • Cubic (Like Minecraft)
      • 2D Tiles (Like Terraria)
      • Surface Nets
    • Multithreaded
    • Terrain Configuration System
      • Grass custom LOD with multithreaded batching
      • Trees custom LOD with multithreaded batching
      • Ground Objects - Configurable environments (ground, cave ceiling, underwater, and much more!)
      • Game Objects
      • Details - Rocks, plants, roots, etc
    • Unity Terrain Converter
      • Easy to auto generate terrain and then paint on top of it!
    • Compressed Zlib saved terrain files
    • Automatically generate terrain via seed
    • Dynamic Terrain Optimization
    • Custom Libnoise Framework
      • Create biomes for different types of generated configurations based on the terrain
      • Generate Caves
      • Volcanoes
      • Islands
      • Rivers and Waterfalls
      • Canyons
    • Shaders
      • Custom DX11 Shaders for Windows machine performance
      • Custom Tri Plainer shaders
      • Works with Mac Open GL 4.1!
    • Demo Scenes
      • 10 Demo scenes with examples of how to build amazing dynamically generated terrain
    Closed Source Add-ons

    Addons are features that are not terrain engine infinite world generation specific. Due to how large the terrain engine feature set is and how many years have been put into the tool - we've broken down the features into parts so that people can buy multiple add-ons to buy what they need to build their game.

    The closed source version of the game will include all features related to 2D and 3D voxel infinite world biome generation as described under the features section above.

    If you purchase Source Access, you will have access to all add-ons by default! As long as your support package is still active.

    Add-ons List:
    • Construction Kit ($50)
      • Build houses from scratch!
    • Voxel Physics ($25)
      • Destroy and cut off a voxel object, it falls instantly!
    • Pathfinding ($25)
      • Create robust AI that works with terrain
    • Fluids ($25)
      • Real time fluids that react to voxel changes in the ground
    • Multiplayer server ($25)
      • Synchronize players and host your own server!
    • Universe Generator ($200)
      • Generate solar systems, planets, astroid belts and more - just like No Man's Sky - but much more level of detail and runs well on GTX 500 series or higher machines.
    Support

    We are setting up an automated way for people who purchase both closed source and source access to automatically get access to the github repositories of the projects. This will allow you to (1) Submit bugs and suggestions (2) Access the documentation wiki and (3) Have access to stable/beta/alpha tracks of all tools/addons/engines we create. This will be done through our website by applying your Unity Receipt to get access to the private github repro!

    If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us on the Contact Us page or in Slack.

    We're sincerely looking forward to working with you all on building this amazing tool!
     
    Last edited: Sep 1, 2016
  2. SecretStudio

    SecretStudio

    Joined:
    Feb 5, 2014
    Posts:
    50
    At last ! This has been such a long time coming I had just about given up on TerrainEngine. Looking forward to seeing how this works out.
     
  3. Zoey_O

    Zoey_O

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2013
    Posts:
    28
    As someone who's owned Dyox's TerrainEngine since about August of 2013, and request the latest code every so often, I assume this doesn't impact me in any way?
     
  4. kenlem

    kenlem

    Joined:
    Oct 16, 2008
    Posts:
    1,630
    I also own Dyox's TerrainEngine and would like to know how this impacts me.
     
  5. disturbingon3

    disturbingon3

    Joined:
    Jul 6, 2012
    Posts:
    26
    @Tsinn + @kenlem - This will not effect your current contracts with Dyox. Support directly from Dyox will continue as always.

    You guys are welcome to join the community we are building around the tool. We'd love to hear your suggestions and feedback as we are working along side with Dyox in improving the Terrain Engine in the many fun years to come.
     
  6. Frpmta

    Frpmta

    Joined:
    Nov 30, 2013
    Posts:
    479
    1. You must get dyox to post in this thread.
    2. Even if you are distributing it and making it more user friendly, you will still be incorporating dyox updates, right?
    3. Change 'Open Source' to 'Source Code Access' and maybe 'Closed Source' to 'No Source Code Access'. They are two different things.

    This is exciting :D
     
  7. Zoey_O

    Zoey_O

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2013
    Posts:
    28
    With regards to the About Us part of the website:

    "We’re proud to announce that we’ve officially bought the intellectual property of the Terrain Engine from “Dyox” also known as “MrMarchingCubes” which gives us the rights to sell the terrain engine as we continue to enhance it with him."

    I'm just curious if I will continue to be able to request the latest version of the code, or if there is going to be a final version that I get the source code to and have to buy a new license from Junglee Games.

    Thanks!
     
  8. kenlem

    kenlem

    Joined:
    Oct 16, 2008
    Posts:
    1,630
    Does that mean we get source code access?
     
  9. dyox

    dyox

    Joined:
    Aug 19, 2011
    Posts:
    619
    Hello.
    I continue to work on terrainengine and all current TE users will continue to receive updates and support. Current contracts doesn't change.

    Now Junglee games can sell terrainengine source code, manage the community and support.

    This will allow me to be focused only on the code and provide new systems faster.
    Junglee games team will manage all new contracts, support,website,forum, community and updates to their customers

    I'm in relation with the team, I understood the unity community about TE lack of community and price/paiement options.
    This new system will be better for everyone.

    I will keep updated my main post, and Junglee games TerrainEngine.io
     
    Last edited: Aug 29, 2016
  10. Tethys

    Tethys

    Joined:
    Jul 2, 2012
    Posts:
    672
    We are also Terrain Engine customers with a live game on Steam that uses Terrain Engine.

    Welcome! It's exciting to see a company take over the product who might be able to take it to new places. Dyox has been a great developer but in the past didn't have much experience in regards to business and customer service and how they should be run. Letting him just focus on development should be great for the Dev schedule, and having you guys help with the business and support side should really improve things as well. We certainly would like to join the community since we have been using the engine for over 2 years and had to learn much of it the hard way (I and my devs are still trying to figure stuff out on a regular basis as well heh). Regardless, welcome and good luck with the new project!
     
    Last edited: Aug 29, 2016
  11. disturbingon3

    disturbingon3

    Joined:
    Jul 6, 2012
    Posts:
    26
    1. Done
    2. Yes - definitely!
    3. Thanks and correct! We'll update this soon, much appreciated. :).

    Right now we're still deciding how we will handle old client with "unlimited updates". As we've purchased the IP, not the company itself, we did not get any revenue from previous purchases. Right now the current idea is to setup a special support plan for old customers who'd like support from our website. The benefits of this would be:

    1) Any custom modules we make on top of the engine which will be accessible (New UI/UX for generating the world, Full docs, etc.)
    2) Access to Alpha/Beta/Stable branches via private github repro
    3) Access to submit support tickets for bugs + suggestions via private github issue system.
    4) We'll accept pull requests from the community we build around TE.

    Would love your thoughts on the above? We're looking at pricing conversion for lifetime support for old customers for $200 (Which new users will be paying an additional 3K USD for lifetime support on our platform)

    You will always get the latest version of the code via Dyox. Although all custom modules / docs / issue ticket system / community pull requests as mentioned above will be private on our repro will not be available from Dyox. In the next few weeks we'll have 2 dedicated engineers working on improving the engine in general on top of what Dyox provides to his current client base. This will cost us - which is why we're thinking of some kind of discounted support from Junglee for $200 versus the $3K lifetime support we will providing for new contracts.

    Welcome to the thread! Agreed and agreed - took a look at your game a couple years ago, definitely some awesome progress! We're determined to excel as support/marketing/biz on top of providing dedicated support engineers to help make this tool greater! Looking forward to your feedback and continued support.
     
  12. nosyrbllewe

    nosyrbllewe

    Joined:
    Oct 18, 2012
    Posts:
    182
    Great news, but I am a little confused how the add-ons work. If I buy the September 2016 Closed Source edition, does it come with add-ons since it says it has Lifetime updates?
     
  13. disturbingon3

    disturbingon3

    Joined:
    Jul 6, 2012
    Posts:
    26
    Thanks for your question.

    The closed source addition will give you all the features listed in this thread and shared on the original terrain engine post excluding the features listed in add-ons:

    • Construction Kit
      • Build houses from scratch!
    • Voxel Physics
      • Destroy and cut off a voxel object, it falls instantly!
    • Pathfinding
      • Create robust AI that works with terrain
    • Fluids
      • Real time fluids that react to voxel changes in the ground
    • Multiplayer server
      • Synchronize players and host your own server!
    • Universe Generator
      • Generate solar systems, planets, astroid belts and more - just like No Man's Sky - but much more level of detail and runs well on GTX 500 series or higher machines.
    So anything and everything standard to infinite world biome generation for 2D and 3D will be included in the closed source version. For example, we're continuously improving the engine to be more faster ( such as the most recent update allows up to 600k trees on the screen at the same time). We're also working on a new drag and drop UI/UX system to easily create biomes and biome templates which would be included in the updates.

    Any features that are not core to infinite 2D+3D world generation - we'll sell as add-ons on top of the closed source version price from $25-$200 dollars per add-on which also come with lifetime of updates.

    If you purchase the Source Access version, you will get updates access to all add-ons.

    I hope this answers your question!

    Update:
    I've updated the first post to be more clear about addons. Thanks again for the question
     
    Last edited: Aug 31, 2016
    ElroyUnity likes this.
  14. Acissathar

    Acissathar

    Joined:
    Jun 24, 2011
    Posts:
    677
    Are these objects / details supplied specifically for TE, or will the features work with our own provided items?

    Also, will static worlds be possible using the closed source? Say I don't necessarily want the voxel deformation or infinite / random runtime generation for a specific game, am I able to use TE to create / tweak my world in editor and then continue to use that same generated world for game play?
     
  15. Tethys

    Tethys

    Joined:
    Jul 2, 2012
    Posts:
    672
    As some of the first users of TE, and active developers using the newest and greatest and knowing what it does, the first image on your website on the slider might be a bit misleading. Terrain Engine does not generate worlds that big with that much detail procedurally. The largest world we have ever been able to make and remain stable is about half the size of that tile, with a LOT less detail, not nearly that many trees or fine details(which is still impressive for sure just not like that image). Is this the company trying to say this is where they plan on taking TE, to be able to do that? I think its important to use images for marketing that represent what the product can currently do. Maybe you guys can be a littler clearer on that point and what images like that represent. If these are static terrains that were converted, which is also awesome, maybe they can be labeled as such, which helps convey the idea of how that part of the tech works anyway.
     
    Last edited: Aug 31, 2016
    dyox likes this.
  16. nosyrbllewe

    nosyrbllewe

    Joined:
    Oct 18, 2012
    Posts:
    182
    I like the updated pricing on the add-ons. When you previously said that the price ranges from $25 - 200, I was expecting to see most of them nearing $100, glad to see that is not the case.
    Also, I was checking out the showcases and wondering if the fauna and such are included in package. Looking back at the pricing, I noticed that some say Lifetime updates, while others say Unlimited updates. Is there any difference between these? Lastly, like @Acissathar said, is it possible to use TE in the editor?

    For those that have used TE previously, how extensible is it without having to access the code? I want to use a separate multiplayer networking system (TNet to be exact), could this be used without having access to the source code? In addition, does the system allow you to script extensions to generate terrain? For example, I would like to generate randomized underground dungeons, thus requiring me to dig out the ground when the terrain is generated. Is this possible without accessing the source code?

    Thanks in advance to everyone that responds.
     
  17. Razmot

    Razmot

    Joined:
    Apr 27, 2013
    Posts:
    346
    @nosyrbllewe us who have the source can't really tell you how it will work without it :)
    It's more the new dev that has to tell us about their API plans (seems they are developing it, as they will release the closed version after the open version) .

    What I can tell is that dyox's code is highly modular and very well thought, and to pinpoint to your use case, the processor in the construction kit (to place cubes and slopes blocks) is able to propagate modifications to the smooth terrain via a simple API, digging / removing terrain volumes.
     
  18. nosyrbllewe

    nosyrbllewe

    Joined:
    Oct 18, 2012
    Posts:
    182
    What I meant was if anybody had to directly modify their source code in order achieve their goals, but your response makes sense, you can't really judge a closed source edition from an edition that has source access.
     
  19. disturbingon3

    disturbingon3

    Joined:
    Jul 6, 2012
    Posts:
    26
    Yes, you can use your own assets and not ours to get the same benefits of the processors that we are creating.

    And yes - you can transform the terrain to Unity Terrain then modify it as you please or spawn custom objects on the generated terrain and have both custom+generation work together to create a static scene. Whichever you prefer.

    The closed source version will be similar to the source access version we provide in terms of how you interact with it UI/UX wise. The benefits will be github access / alpha / beta / experimental channels and the ability to modify the engine as you see fit aside from the tools we provide. For instance, if you want to hook up to all the processors of the engine and customize them a bit or listen to custom events, etc - it would be hard without source access. If you plan on making an MMO with the terrain engine, you would need the source access to make a proper scaleable backend.

    Glad you're happy with the price points.

    All of the art in the showcases are not usable in your LIVE products. They are included though. As per the End User License Agreements, you will need to purchase the art from the 3rd party asset holders that created them. We'll be making it very clear and thanks for bringing this up as I'll be sure to add this to the 1st page and checkout page.

    We're planning on working with artists to use their assets to build demo scenes and sell them on the asset store with the TE which will work with both open and closed source. We'll make it easy for you guys to get ownership for the art via unity asset store in the near future.

    I will standardize Unlimited updates to Lifetime Support and updates across all pages + site soon. Thanks for the question. They are both the same. Pay once and get updates and email support forever.

    Right now the Terrain Engine can not be used in Editor Mode. My team is planning on building tools on top of this to allow real time customizations in editor or in play mode. Still TBD in the next 1-2 weeks. We'll make a blog post on our decision and share the reasons why.

    No - Using Tnet for your networking system won't be possible without having source access. You require to move the entire terrain engine outside of unity onto a dedicated Tnet server which is possible. With the source version, you can take the multiplayer server we have setup and modify the connection management to work with Tnet on client+server to accomplish what you desire. Still a fair amount of work, but if you swap our networking implementation with Tnet, you'd have real time voxel physics, modifications, the whole works of features since the protocol is already in place for you.

    Also to note - it's on our backlog, but we'll create a cloud based service in the future once we get enough support for this plugin. If we get close to getting 50 purchases of source access, it will unlock our budget to port Junglee Games' cloud technology to create an eve-online scale for the Terrain Engine and sell it as a service. Lots of big plans to come.

    Yes it is possible to dig into the ground and save your level changes. It is also possible to spawn custom assets and save them so they always generate in the same position. So combined with world generation + saving voxel changes + custom object placement processor - you should be able to accomplish what you desire.

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. We'll remove that image and share it as a goal versus the first thing people see on the page. We'll ensure that every marketing image will be clear of what is capable or not. Unfortunately we had limited marketing materials setting the website up till date, but with our new engineers on board playing with the engine daily, we should be able to come up with a lot of cool content to post on the site generated from the engine.
     
    Last edited: Sep 1, 2016
  20. nosyrbllewe

    nosyrbllewe

    Joined:
    Oct 18, 2012
    Posts:
    182
    @disturbingon3 Thanks for your response. Unfortunately, due to restrictions based on closed source code, I will have to pass on getting TerrainEngine (I can't afford the source access version as a poor high school student, unless you offer student discounts ;)). I wish you the best of luck in the future with TerrainEngine as it looks to be a phenomenal product.
     
  21. recon0303

    recon0303

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2014
    Posts:
    1,634
    Glad to see this happening, I posted about this not long ago.. Smart move.. I will buy it day 1/
     
  22. disturbingon3

    disturbingon3

    Joined:
    Jul 6, 2012
    Posts:
    26
    Feel free to pickup a discounted copy on our website now - www.terrainengine.io

    @nosyrbllewe - We'll keep in mind the feature request of multiple protocol / network IO a capabilities. Once we get a feature request board up, I'll loop you in.
     
  23. tequyla

    tequyla

    Joined:
    Jul 22, 2012
    Posts:
    335
    Hi,

    could you describe this option and servers/network design (n-tiers) ?

    • Multiplayer server
      • Synchronize players and host your own server!

    ex: if i destroy a tree or kill monsters, the others players see the tree falling on the floor ?

    ++
     
  24. recon0303

    recon0303

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2014
    Posts:
    1,634

    ya not liking the whole closed source....To many assets developers have disappeared or give no to very little support and we are at the mercy of the developer to fix the issue and if the developer disappears, then that is money wasted...That closed source is not going to work for alot of people...I learned my lesson with other software before, since we have alot of wasted money on closed source. 3k, is a bit high for 90% of the indies and people on this site...So I will have to pass for now. Maybe in the future. When we make the big bucks.. Best of luck though.
     
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2016
    elias_t and Tethys like this.
  25. SecretStudio

    SecretStudio

    Joined:
    Feb 5, 2014
    Posts:
    50
    FYI - I just pre-purchased TerrainEngine using PayPal and the 'Return To Merchant' button on PayPal Checkout screen gave a 404 Page not found error.

    Looking forward to receiving TerrainEngine as soon as it is available.
     
  26. dyox

    dyox

    Joined:
    Aug 19, 2011
    Posts:
    619
    Hi, yes understand and it's true, but TerrainEngine exist since 4 years, and i will continue to work on it for many more years.
    I have a lot of ideas/projects in dev for it. (space,planets and so much more)
    You can check my youtube channel, first video was 4 years ago :
    https://www.youtube.com/user/MrMarchingCubes/videos
    I have no intention of abandoning, unity becomes more and more efficient and also TerrainEngine.

    @SecretStudio : Junglee Games team is still working on website and systems, don't worry, they are professionals.

    TerrainEngine provide a simple TCP Server as example, no player/monster/ia sync, only a generic system to send/receive data between clients/server. You can use any type of network system you want to sync the world.
    I provide multiple Interface to override that manage how data are sent/received from network.

    On TerrainEngine, you can have multiple players running around the world and deforming the terrain, everything is sync, but nothing related to a game mechanic like spells,IA,Animations,Players,etc.
    I Provide a complete solution for PathFinding, Raycasting (Client/Server side) etc.
    0 game mechanics, it's up to you to create your systems based on provided examples. (I can not create an example for all possibles type of games : RPG,MMO, TopDown,FPS,Strategy,etc.

    I provide 3 Types of network systems :
    -Client + Host a game : you play with your friends, your computer is the server and you're on the same world (Terraria like)
    -Dedicated server : Host a dedicated server that sync all connected players and manage terrains, can be used on an external C# Project. You can use voxel raycasting and pathfinding server side to manage your game mechanics without using any unity systems. (usefull for MMO, a clustering is possible with multiple instances, like current mmo servers)
    -Dedicated server with unity colliders : Host a server on a machine, the server will generate terrain chunks and colliders so you can have full authoritative server with unity colliders (for gameobjects and terrain) useful for FPS or Action RPG
     
    recon0303 likes this.
  27. recon0303

    recon0303

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2014
    Posts:
    1,634

    Ya I been watching it for years, and seen it in Tethy's game on Steam.. I have no issues there, my concern is we are a company, and we have bought so many tools and we have been delayed due to being at the mercy of a developer which causes people to lose money . Which is a huge problem..I want to buy this tool.. But the whole closed source is really something I just won't do. Far as the 3k, I have no issue there, but right now, its a bit much for our company. We will have to wait for our release of our new games to get some more income, we are maxed out right now. I have bought most terrain tools on the asset store and I'm happy with some of them, but I do not have any voxel based ones that are any good, so this would be nice for a future game..

    My company uses Unreal as well for PC and Console games, do you have any plans for it to work with other engines, or is the plan just for Unity??
     
    disturbingon3 and dyox like this.
  28. dyox

    dyox

    Joined:
    Aug 19, 2011
    Posts:
    619
    I've planned to work on UnrealEngine, but i'm alone, and managing 2 different source code/project is too big for me.
    For the moment i'm focused on Unity.

    It was a bet that I made to stay on unity, since version 3, I have great confidence in the team of unity and I am convinced that the engine will become more efficient and increasingly used.

    I received many proposals to stop TerrainEngine on Unity and work for teams using other engines. I always refuse because I have confidence in unity.
     
    elias_t and recon0303 like this.
  29. recon0303

    recon0303

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2014
    Posts:
    1,634
    No problem, ya I Freelance alot this is why I won't sell my assets trying to make games, freelance then sell assets and support them all ..There is not enough time in the day... Far as Unity, we moved away from Unity for PC and Console. Also I tend to get more work now a days for Unreal, and other engines..

    Now a days we mainly use Unity for mobile..Soon that may come to an end, as well.


    Sad to say more and more developers are actually leaving Unity from what I hear and see. I still like Unity, but they worry me, with there development choices ...
     
    disturbingon3 and dyox like this.
  30. disturbingon3

    disturbingon3

    Joined:
    Jul 6, 2012
    Posts:
    26
    Hey Recon,

    You bring up a great point in the industry trends. My .02c is that the best mobile game engine is Unity at the moment and still is. When it comes to PC/VR anything with high fidelity, Unreal is the way.

    The investments for mobile have gone down due to the high competition on the market and the high churn rates. It's really tough to make a successful game on mobile - I've been doing it for years and have a 30% success rate on creating an ROI product on mobile with 8 games under my belt. Without the money, companies are dying out there - and right now money is going towards VR/AR experiences as of Q3/Q4 last year.

    But honestly, if you can make an amazing game that's fun and true to it's core - graphics can be set aside. I like to tell people to do what they love and in a startup - do what you know. Learning the best tech / graphics when you've got 5 years experience on something else will only burn your savings.

    I wish you the best of success with your current work! Hopefully we'll have an opportunity to work together sometime.

    Did you buy the closed source version? If you did, you won't get access to it until November once it's done.

    We'll get a fix for return to merchant today. But you should have gotten an email about your order. Please reachout to hello@terrainengine.io for more support.
     
    recon0303 likes this.
  31. recon0303

    recon0303

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2014
    Posts:
    1,634

    Thanks, I been a developer for over a decade. in the gaming industry 30 years, I have worked for some AAA companies in my life and some indies.. I been a freelancer for AAA and indies for a long time.. I have made plenty of mobile games, and yes it can be tough, but it takes smart marketing, and business practices to be successful, some thing I been into for most of my 41 years of my life. So that helps alot . My wife and I made a delivery company that had a 10% success rate , we been doing it for about 14 years . Which is also a tough market and very competitive .

    The issue with mobile games to many people make these tiny little games, which is hard to make money . We tend to make larger mobile games. But yes 30% success is about right. There is a main way to be successful with mobile games..

    We also do work for investors, which helps our income. and keeps us going. Most of us left our jobs to form our own company, and now we are building it up , I plan to drop all freelance work soon since we are doing fairly well. I own all my own software for modeling, texturing etc, which is half the battle.

    Anyways I better keep this on topic. ! I have pointed this thread to some developer friends, that I know in the industry that do this for a living. We will buy it but we are waiting to get the open source. I may change my mind and grap the closed one for now since I see you can upgrade later. Going to debate for a few weeks, looks like I have until Oct 1 anyways.

    Ya I see the whole Nov, release, that is fine, we already have a tool we are using for our current game anyways. By the way I design UX/UI, if you ever need help let me know I tend to beta test other assets for the community and give them pointers on better UX/UI since sadly to many assets have poor UI's. UX/UI is my main speciality for web and Game development, I heard Terrain Engines UI is really in need of an overhaul.


    FYI, you guys may want to have a spot to register to the site, the site just had a log in, which is very confusing...The login just loops for me, I tried other browsers , and same issue.

    Says Register, but there is not real link to register, only to log in. I tried to make a account and was unable to. So you may want to add a link to register some where on your site, or a Join Now, or something. So its easy to find.
     
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2016
    Tethys likes this.
  32. tequyla

    tequyla

    Joined:
    Jul 22, 2012
    Posts:
    335
    Hello,

    thanks.

    UDP protocol need to be up too.

    ++
     
  33. disturbingon3

    disturbingon3

    Joined:
    Jul 6, 2012
    Posts:
    26
    We'll add this to the backlog. Overall what it seems is that we need a flexible networking system where people can swap out the Socket implementation easily as per their desire. TNET, UNET, UDP - all flavors should be easily supported with the TE protocol. We'll take prio on this.

    @recon0303 - Thanks for sharing, very diverse operation you've got. Thanks for also sharing the word out on the thread.

    As per registration, you can create an account while checking out. I'll add a registration page to make it more user friendly in general so people can at least get on the list for updates and announcements.
     
    recon0303 likes this.
  34. Tethys

    Tethys

    Joined:
    Jul 2, 2012
    Posts:
    672
    Haha saying terrain engine UI is in need of an overhaul is an understatement. IMO, the process of making the engine do stuff has always been the major turnoff and challenge for developers who want to use it (how to make/edit terrains is still somewhat a mystery, we have only been able to make it work by using existing biomes and tweaking them and changing the material - too many parameters with technical names rather than a simple user interface like Gaia). That and no learning materials have always been the biggest challenge. Looking forward to seeing anything done by Junglee games, other than sell it, as so far their screenies are all old and from Dyox.
     
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2016
  35. recon0303

    recon0303

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2014
    Posts:
    1,634
    thanks
     
  36. recon0303

    recon0303

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2014
    Posts:
    1,634
    ya sadly I see this with many assets and software...Since we design UX/UI and program, we end up redoing the assets we like, to make it easier on our developers. I tend to help some other developers some listen some don't. I pushed for terrain composer to have a new UI... since TC1 had a horrible UI as well. With TC2 its a lot better.
     
    Tethys likes this.
  37. dyox

    dyox

    Joined:
    Aug 19, 2011
    Posts:
    619
    Hi. I don't agree with tethys, I provide a very simple and complete ui system to create a terrain with fluids,grass,details,gameobjects. A lot better than unity terrain with multiple selection, filter and assets preview. A complete debug gui system and everything is drag and drop based.
    I agree with the lack of documentation, but code is commented and there are a lot of example scenes.
     
  38. recon0303

    recon0303

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2014
    Posts:
    1,634

    Do you have any screenshots of the UI?
     
  39. dyox

    dyox

    Joined:
    Aug 19, 2011
    Posts:
    619
  40. recon0303

    recon0303

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2014
    Posts:
    1,634

    I will support you guys, I will toss in for the closed source, and upgrade later. The UI could use some work, but I need to actually use it, to give better feedback,,. The Height Map aspect with the nodes look like a good start. The others aspects are using Unity Inspector which is full of sliders and everything lumped in together don't feel bad UX/UI design is NOT easy I would say in my opinion of working with UX/UI design a good % of websites, games, software I have used have poor UI's.. Not saying yours is, I have not used it yet. So I can't fully comment. But I love Zbrush, but it has one of the worse UI's ever made.. But the program itself is amazing so its hard NOT to use.

    But to get the full power out of any software its important to have a proper UI. So a good UX/UI will sell any tool and people can get the full power from it.

    I'm buying your tool now, and will support it, if we like it, we will invest the other 3 grand . and yes I know I have to wait to get in, in a few months, that is fine.
     
    disturbingon3 likes this.
  41. Tethys

    Tethys

    Joined:
    Jul 2, 2012
    Posts:
    672
    I should have been a little bit more specific. The drag and drop details, grass and object processors are convenient and easy to hook up and get items on the biomes. What is confusing is trying to fine tune item placement due to so many parameters and ambiguous controls. We are on 10.5 and the older height-map editor, which I should have mentioned as being the item that needed overhauled, IMO. I still think it would benefit from something similar to the award winning Gaia system, where terrain types, their materials and way to control them were easy to read, manipulate and deploy through a central, easy to read user UI panel. Thats just my own and some of our teams experience with that system. Looking through the panel on the GO in the hierarchy to try and find an item that will tweak a certain terrain the way you need can be a daunting task. It's a complex system so a control center that is simplified and translated to common terms, IMO, will allow users to get the most out of it. Don't get me wrong, love Terrain Engine, just wish some things were easier to use. :)
     
    recon0303 and disturbingon3 like this.
  42. disturbingon3

    disturbingon3

    Joined:
    Jul 6, 2012
    Posts:
    26
    Great to hear recon!

    As per the UI/UX, that's the first thing we are starting on next week with the team we are hiring to work alongside Dyox.

    We'll be sharing our plans on the Slack channel as we develop them to get your feedbacks.

    @Tethys - Looking forward to working with you as well in Slack to make things easier! You may be the most experience TE guy the world has yet to know at the moment with invaluable feedback.
     
    recon0303 and Tethys like this.
  43. Tethys

    Tethys

    Joined:
    Jul 2, 2012
    Posts:
    672
    Our town biome has been a real challenge. Still can't get item processor to not stack houses together. It works well with trees, but can't get the spacing right so that the houses don't run into each other and can't find a control to fine tune it. :p We have also been experimenting with Instant OC as TE needs a culling system for trees/GO processor. Pretty nice little plugin but some code in TE LOD processor needs to be extended in order to make the best use of the culling plugin. Maybe something similar is already coming, not sure.
     
    disturbingon3 likes this.
  44. disturbingon3

    disturbingon3

    Joined:
    Jul 6, 2012
    Posts:
    26
    Yeah we've got a lot of on-top-of-the-hood code for the TE optimizing world generation, placement, GO, etc. Of course loading GO / prefabs need proper pooling etc to do well based on what you're trying to do, but the system use to take about 13 seconds to get into a fully detailed forest with the screenshot below now takes 1.7 seconds on a Core i7.

     
    Tethys likes this.
  45. Tethys

    Tethys

    Joined:
    Jul 2, 2012
    Posts:
    672
    Just starting to get into the some of the new stuff on V11. We made the jump and upgraded our project but our current world generation is broken. Trying to figure out how to get a few items fixed - would be nice to have some learning materials for the new systems as again, with the update some TE stuff was removed that past clients are using and there is no mention in a log nor a read me to show how to potential fix the things the changes broke.

    I will say that I have noticed a big jump in render time, 70 seconds to generate the terrain for our world on the old build, only 21 on the new but that's without trees or anything. I'm also getting 190 FPS and better with 2 complex biomes running with a simple town biome between them, and 3 types of trees on the forest, so it looks like v11 comes with a big performance boost as well. :)

    ^^Very interested to see a see that dense of a biome render in 2 seconds (and how to achieve it). ;)
     
    Last edited: Sep 19, 2016
  46. ikemen_blueD

    ikemen_blueD

    Joined:
    Jan 19, 2013
    Posts:
    341
    I just love the whole idea of TE community. I wish you post this 5 months ago. 60% off for Lifetime Support & Updates, plus Source is pretty sweet deal!!!
     
    Tethys and disturbingon3 like this.
  47. disturbingon3

    disturbingon3

    Joined:
    Jul 6, 2012
    Posts:
    26
    Yeah - Tried to get this on earlier, but just had no bandwidth. Hopefully the community itself will benefit everyone in terms of development and working with this bad boy.
     
    ikemen_blueD and Tethys like this.
  48. ikemen_blueD

    ikemen_blueD

    Joined:
    Jan 19, 2013
    Posts:
    341
    I bought TE from Dyox. Can I join your TE community? The registration is restricted for members only.
     
  49. disturbingon3

    disturbingon3

    Joined:
    Jul 6, 2012
    Posts:
    26
    You can join our slack community with no registration required.

    We're still figuring out ways on how we will merge communities on the source version. Stay tuned.

    --

    As per the rest of you Unity Devs out there! The sale ends in 10 days! Don't miss out the crazy discount on the terrain engine as we don't plan on doing another sale this big ever again.

    For some more background info on what this sale is also determining is how many people we should hire to work full time on the terrain engine. We're about 2/3rd way there to hire a second full time dev for the year to focus on building this tech alongside Dyox - would love your support to help us meet this milestone!
     
    ikemen_blueD likes this.
  50. Tethys

    Tethys

    Joined:
    Jul 2, 2012
    Posts:
    672
    The problem with breaking up support is with Dyox there is no immediate, reactive support (there is support in the form of being able to ask questions but it can sometimes take awhile to get an answer), nor any learning materials, but you guys do support and will have a community.

    Unfortunately your coming into a product where the existing customer base (us and a couple others we talk to) could make or break your sales via our issues being public. You can see where this could be a problem - if a customer comes along and has issues and is slamming the product, aren't getting support, and haven't paid you guys, you have a liability out there out of your control. It would be in your best interest to bring all TE users on board with access to whatever support system you are working on without worrying about charging us. We will be contributing to it, and really there isn't a better alternative. Having us out here, without support and airing our TE issues in the public while waiting for a possible response from Dyox certainly isn't going to help your case in regards to sales. We already have been providing support to the existing terrain engine customer base as Dyox is often very difficult to reach. I get questions in private all the time about how to do this that or the other, because they can't find documentation and we have the only public mentioned game that is on the market and using the tech and is functioning. This is one of those things that as an entrepreneur with 20 years experience in this field, is a no brainer. Bring us on, make sure we aren't having issues, help us sort them if you really understand the tech, and it will keep the existing customer base happy while giving you some knowledge and support along the way, while also allowing you to learn from working with the existing customer base. Plus, nothing sells your product better than customer testimonials on top of the pretty pictures. Win win for everyone.
     
    Last edited: Sep 20, 2016
    elias_t, Razmot and tequyla like this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.