Over 4 months ago, Catbert first contacted me through e-mail
wanting to help us at the Temple
of Intelligence to improve our site using the .NET framework
that Microsoft had just published. I didn't like the sound of
it since we had just gone under a re-design with a new webmaster.
Anyway, a few days after we first made contact I asked him if
he could program. He returned an e-mail saying that he could.
Then, the saga began, and the project was started, first under
the codename MFCDx (hehe Catbert ;)), and then under
the TOI editor. As our little project continued we kept
the team small, always working under the conditions that real
life comes first. For about 2 weeks, we received programming
help from Kalach, and since about 1 month we have officially
added a new member to the BWSurveyor team - Ryuujin (if
he doesn't lose his head, that is).
For about 2 months it has been known as BWSurveyor (as
it was named by Iov Pater, after I threatened to take
away his blanky if he didn't tell me). And it has grown from
something which was first based on the source code of sculpt
ed, to an alone standing project, which runs completely
different than sculpt ed does.
It has been a great pleasure working on the editor/viewer for
the past four months, and even though I didn't do any programming
there was a lot of brainstorming and organising involved within
the project, which took up lots of time. I would like to thank
the following: my toilet, computer, fridge, and shower for keeping
me clean and supplied throught the development. I really hope
that this will be a fantastic program and that you all take
the oppertunity to test the editor thoroughly to support us,
and help us to get rid of bugs
Requirements
Well, deciding what the system requirements are for an editor
is very difficult. Throughout the development we have tried
to keep down the system specs, whilst keeping as many features
as possible. On my Pentium 3 450Mhz, 128MB Ram and TNT2 32MB,
I get a frame rate of about 40 fps. We have been unable to test
it on slower machines and therefore we have set the minimum
specs on the speed of my machine (but the program will still
probably run on your PC). If you find that your machine can
run it, please e-mail us at bwsurveyor@hotmail.com.
- Pentium 450mhz
- 128 MB Ram
- TNT2 or a newer generation 3d card, such as ATI Radeon and
GeForce3
- Approximately 3MB free Hard Drive space for the install. 100MB or more space for the automatic exportation of components of LND files.
- Windows 98, 2000, Me (untested up till now), XP Home, XP Professional.
- Direct
X 8.1
- Internet
Explorer 6.0 or Microsoft's
XML plugin
- DLLs are accompanied with the program
Features
Features are what makes a program. Without features, you wouldn't
have a program. Here is a list of features that we have included
to tell you what technology we are using or what things we have
incorporated into the program.
- Technological features
- Level of Detail System
- Low resolution textures are recalculated everytime
you go over a block
- Ability to show frame rate
- The same controlling system as in Black and White
(although it is missing the zooming)
- Uses advanced Direct X 8.1 features
- X models are incorporated
- Wire frame model
- Extremely fast loading of landscapes
- Automatic recalculation of low res textures
- Importing custom countries
- Customisablity
- Customising pointer model and texture
- Customising controls
- Customising the size of the models
- Customising the level of detail system used
- Controls
- Similar controls to the ones in Black and White
- Customising the keyboard controls
Well, installing is a pretty simple thing, and if you have
already reached this document, then you would probably already
have installed it. If you are finding it difficult to install
the editor, just follow the instructions that are on screen
and everything should go well. However, I recommend reading
through the editor's liscense file. We can't be blamed for anything
that happens with your PC. If you have any questions about installing
it, e-mail us.
If you don't want to write us an e-mail, you can also visit
the TOI
forums and post a message on the Installation
Problems forum.
E-mail Addresses
To e-mail us (please only e-mail us using these addresses for
asking us questions not related to the editor), use these addresses:
Catbert - catbert@planetblackandwhite.com
PlonkerFish - plonkerfish@planetblackandwhite.com
If you want to contact us about BWSurveyor, please e-mail
us at bwsurveyor@hotmail.com.
Bug Feedback
All feedback should be sent here.To
keep the feedback process as easy as possible for us about the
bugs, please use the following format when sending in your bug
report so that we can keep the processing of the e-mails to
a minimum.
- Subject ---- bug report
- Processor Speed
- Graphic Card
- Version of DirectX
- Windows Version
- What type of error you get (if any)
- Description of what you did (if you remember)
- Other comments you want to add
Please don't report fake bugs and please make your bug reports
as detailed as possible so we can find the source of the error
very quickly.
If you don't want to write us an e-mail, you can also visit
the TOI
forums and post a message on the bug
reporting forum.
Please remember that we do need the feedback from you, and
that we will try our best to solve the problems you are having.
Other Feedback (controls, features, etc)
All feedback should be sent here.To
keep the feedback process as easily as possible for us about
the bugs, please use the following format when sending in your
feedback so that we can keep the processing of the files to
a minimum.
- Subject ---- other feedback
- Type of feedback (controls, visual, etc...)
- Description of what you would like to be done
- Other comments you want to add (how much you love Catbert
and want to marry him, how much you want to bake Plonky in a
frying pan, etc)
Please remember that we are only a two man team and that we
cannot do everything you want (we ain't some deity, so keep
the suggestions reasonable please ^_^.
If you don't want to write us an e-mail, you can also visit
the TOI
forums and post a message on the suggestions
forum.
Please remember that we do need the feedback from you, and
that we will try our best to solve the problems you are having.
Team? We don't really have a big team. Its just a couple of
people. Here is what they do and what their tasks are:
- Catbert - Programmer, beta tester, ideas, and many more
- PlonkerFish - help file writer, communications man, website
maintainer, beta testing, ideas, and lots of other odd jobs
- Catachan - help file template creator
- Beta Testing:
- Catbert
- PlonkerFish
- Alchemist32-1
- Lenny
- Catachan
- BattleF08
- DamoSun
- Nocture
- NVShacker
- Steve-O
- Exodor
As you have probably noticed from the Team category, we are
a little low one people. We are looking for many different people
to help us. These include:
- Programmer - well, he does the programming with Catbert
- Knows C++
- Knows MFC
- Has experience with Direct X programming, or is willing to
learn.
- Beta testers - well this person does the testing of new versions
of the editor
- 3d Artists - We might need some more modellers later in the
project, and they will make models!
If you are interested in helping us out, please e-mail us at
bwsurveyor@hotmail.com.
If you have any questions (which have not been answered here
or else where in the help file), please send them to bwsurveyor@hotmail.com.
Are you planning to make a visual script editor?
In the long run yes. But we haven't started working on it yet,
and we need more people to help with the programming, testing
etc... so that we can get it out as fast, but also as perfect
(ie without bugs, good user interface etc...) as it can get.
Has Lionhead helped you?
Lionhead has been a great help with the project. We have been
able to get into direct contact with some of the programmers
and the lnd specs they release over a year ago were invaluable
to creating the editor.
Will you be able to make
landscapes from scratch?
Simply, the answer is yes. However, we don't know yet in which
release to put it (the first or the second). The adding of blocks
are programming intensive businesses, and also requires lots of testing to make
sure the function work and the saving doesn't corrupt the landscapes.
What are you programming BWSurveyor in?
Visual C++, MFC and DirectX 8.1, with a touch of coffee and
cheese of course.
Why doesn't my custom landscape work in BWSurveyor Viewing
Beta 1.0?
Some custom landscapes that were saved with SculptEd and Eden
Project work in BWSurveyor, and some don't. If they don't, we
can't fix them, sorry :(. The problem is that Sculpt Ed and
Eden Project don't save the blocks correctly, and thus BWSurveyor
can't read them (this is also the reason why some custom landscapes
don't work in Black and White).
Will your saving work?
Yes. Before we release the viewer the saving will go through
rigorous testing to make sure that the saving works so that
your landscapes aren't messed up at all.
There are many different people who we owe a lot of thanks
to. Well, here they are, in no particular order of course:
- Lionhead Studios - for making such a fantastic game and BWStudios
for making a great expansion pack and the lnd information
- Matthew Wiggins and the people at Lionhead - for helping us
when we needed them
- Catachan - for testing and webspace of course
- Cat Atomic - for the great BWSurveyor logo you see at the top of this page
- Alchemist32-1 - beta testing
- Lenny - beta testing and other additions to the project
- Catachan - beta testing
- BattleF08 - beta testing
- DamoSun - beta testing
- Nocture - beta testing
- NVShacker - beta testing
- Steve-O - beta testing
- Exodor - beta testing
- Iov Pater - for the name of the editor
- Lady Godiva - for testing the installer
- Kalach - for help with programming, and him being a team member
for a while.
- SteveO - for identifying a couple of bugs
- Ryuujin - for the pointer
- Lizard from BWGame - for testing
- Shadow Code - for testing
- DragonBLK - for the ideas that we "took" from Eden
Project
- Peter Nordstrom - for Sculpt Ed and its source
- Dark Yoda - for his lnd viewer and source, and help with other
bits.
- Alchemist 32-1 - for testing and his great
site
- Nick and Paul from BWCenter - Datael for a couple of questions,
when Plonky was out of ideas - Azz for some help with HTML code
- All of Planet Black and White (including the forums, *PLONK*)
- All the people at BWGame for posting in "The
Perfect Landscape Editor" thread and giving us suggestions
- The people at YABB
SE for their great messageboard system.
- http://www.mvps.org/directx/
and especially Robert Dunlop for lot of very good examples on
how to use DirectX technologies
If you feel that you have been left out for some reason (yes,
Plonky is pretty forgetful), please drop
us a note.
This is where we will keep a log of the releases we have had
throughout the production of the viewer.
First Public Release - BWSurveyor Viewing Beta 1.0
- Saturday 20th April 2002
- no viewing bugs known
Second Public Release - BWSurveyor Viewing Beta 1.1
- Sunday 28th April 2002
- some really odd grey spaces being shown when changing the screensize - Thanks to SteveO
- no bugs discovered yet
First Public Editing Release - BWSurveyor Candidate Release 1.0
- Wednesday 5th June
- some flags might be set incorrectly when saving
- if you switch between BW and BWSurveyor, BWSurveyor will crash.
- the coasts will be odd
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