Pro Version 2.40 Features
A list of Upcoming Features for 2.40

Here is a list of the new features that will be released with the upcoming 2.40 Realm Crafter Professional release:

Dynamic Trees and Tree Editor – A new library built for managing and drawing trees faster than regular scenery objects. At a distance, trees are swapped for billboard representations to reduce the number of triangles drawn. The new editor will allow you to import custom trunk meshes and place leaf billboards; after this you just need to apply diffuse, normal and mask maps to build a package ready to be placed in a zone.

LOD Meshes – Import less detailed meshes into groups alongside your existing high detail geometry. You can also import a mesh used specifically for collision data to add clipping areas and ramps above stairs. Meshes are automatically swapped out at a distance, as defined in the media manager.

Shadows – Variance Shadow Maps are cast from the sun to the scene with soft edges. The existing detail selection options will take effect allowing your players to use basic shadowing to full scene shadowing (including trees).

Reflective Water – Existing water planes will be made more detailed with the ability to reflect the surrounding environment.

Sky Improvements – A new sky shaders and camera effects which will vastly improve the current environment.

Cave Editor - Special objects added so that the New Cave Editor can be used with RCP and once that is done it will be released to current owners and sold on the website.

3DSMAX To B3D Converter - A converter has been added to allow users to export MAX files (animated and static) into RCP. The Onigirl "B3d Pipeline" will no longer be needed as this converter will work with all recent MAX versions.



Pro Version Server & Scripting Announced
New Server & Scripting Language  for 2.50
  We are currently working on a new server for RCP to replace the old server that is being used now while we are in Beta. So far the results are very promising. The new server will contain all of the features that the current server contains, but will use a new programming language, scripting language and will also be compatible with the Linux operating system. The new language will offer speed increases as well as significant design improvements. We intend to use C# as the scripting language of the server due to its speed and design; scripts are JIT compiled so that they run at the same speed as the application and the C# language design allows for very well structured object-oriented code. In addition to these improvements, C# also features a large array of default libraries (including runtime services, collections/arrays/lists, real strings, etc.) with a huge amount of information available on the internet.

The new server will also allow us to address network performance as we plan to revamp data translation to significantly reduce the amount of bandwidth used for each client. In addition to this, we plan to split the server into a clustered format to distribute zones (and their players) over multiple physical machines to further reduce the system requirements.

Faster Frame Rates!
Realm Crafter Professional

We've been running all sorts of performance tests and applying fixes/optimizations to as many areas as possible. We have identified where the slower parts of the code are; fortunately these aren't GPU side so mid-range graphics cards should run RCP in medium-high settings with a great framerate! In testing we have had massive FPS increases over five times on some machines.

New Included Content Models Released
New Actors Textures and Equipment

Pro Version Graphical Effects Added
New Post Processing Editor for 2.30

• Terrains up to 2048x2048 (Approx. 1kmx1km).
• Texture splatting with five texture layers.
• Autotexture tool and paint helpers to speed up development time.
• Editing and painting from within the GE zone editor.
• Ability to cut holes to place cave/tunnel entrances.
• Grass painting tool to cover any terrain with foliage.
• Importers to convert heightmap images; RAW data and L3DT maps to RCT files.
• Plugin API to create custom importers for other software.

RCT has been designed to give a great FPS for terrains of any size. It will stream data to
the GPU using LOD algorithms to reduce the number of triangles drawn and the amount of
video memory consumed. It can also stream data into PhysX in a separate thread to prevent
lag spikes when moving around.

Improved Standard Version
New Features for 1.30

New input handling for Realm Crafter Standard has been implemented in 1.30. Version 1.30 is now in developer testing and will be released soon.
Features added in this release are:

•    A refined click movement control method
•    An alternative control style which works similar to different popular MMOs (WoW, Everquest, ...)
•    Reworked Character interaction handling
•    A screen aspect ratio independent interface
•    Tabbed multi-channel chat support
•    Addition of auto move key. After it has been pressed, the character moves forward until you press it again. Especially nice in WoW style movement where you can use the mouse to orient the character while walking.
•    Addition of "double mouse button" movement to the WoW control style. That means if Select and MoveTo key (the two keys controlling camera and actor rotation in WoW style movement) are pressed, your character will move forward
•    Expansion of auto run to cover these two new movement methods
•    Further work on the input handling. Unmount now is done intuitively by "jumping off the mount". This allows camera temporal camera orbiting to work nicely while being mounted.
•   Flatfile Account & Character handling has been drastically restructured. Accounts is now a folder. each account has an own subfolder. Account Data and character data are all stored in distinct files. This drastically reduces the startup time and considerably reduces the chance for destruction of the account database.
•   Enabled AddAccount script command to create accounts from within scripting (to add accounts from a website for example if mysql is being used)
•   Enabled MySQL in Flat File Server. The server needs to be configured like a mysql server too but StartMySQL and StopMySQL decide if mysql is active

Video: New Pro Player Camera
Smooth controls for better game play!

Standard Version Update: 1.26 Release Scheduled

With 1.2.6, we had four major points on our todo list:

Improved Toolbox experience

The strongest focus has been on the toolbox editors, which come bundled with Realm Crafter Standard and support the user in creating Realm Crafter ready 3D content.

The toolbox editors have not only received bug fixes and expanded the control handling to work smoother for both fast and slow systems, but we have also expanded the saving capabilities to include the possibility to store unencrypted B3D files on all editors. The RC Terrain Editor has additionally received the possibility to exclude layers from autotexturing (by setting the min height higher than the max height or the min slope higher than the max slope). RC Architect, which has not received such capabilities with 1.2.6, is at the top our tools To Do list for the next RC Standard release.

Expanded Default Project

Also of importance were the addition of an attack script which replicates the default hardcoded combat. This implementation gives new users an even better start when designing their combat than past releases of RC Standard already did. Related to the attack script is the death script which has received a small but powerfull expansion in 1.2.6, which allows a much smoother death handling by using a special faction. This faction handling has additional benefits for other aspects of "death", as actor changes and interaction possibilities can simply be tested against the homefaction instead of doing complicated tests against combined actorglobals and other things.

New Features, Feature Refinements and Fixes

The third point, but not less important, have been bugfixes and feature refinements to the core technology. This includes things like: Fix for the crashbug if the inventory was visible and a given amount of items were picked Fix for the automatic actor slot handling that disables slot where the corresponding bone is not found on the actor [REFINE] Allow the Character Interaction window to update the health bar [NEW] Make actors fade out as they get further away from the camera [NEW] Allow the the server to create the core function module (RC_Core.rcm) if it is not present or broken [NEW] Adding support for scripts on potion, food or image item types

New Player Character Animations and Improvements

Finally, The animations for the existing character models that are included with Realm Crafter Standard Version have had their animations remade or new ones added. This applies to all eight of the player characters except for the Lizard Folk character.

Pro Version Adds NVIDA PhysX

New Collision Library Incorporated

We have recently begun the incorporation of the NVIDIA PhysX Physics library into Realm Crafter Professional. It will replace the current collision engine to provide faster and more reliable collision detection.

Integrating PhysX opens many new doors for the future of Realm Crafter; such as the use of full rigid body dynamics; cloth and ragdolls.

Update: Pro Version 2.22 Environment Update

In the next update we will include an updated environment system. You will be able to choose custom sky shaders for each zone as well modify the color through a selectable gradient texture*. The directional lights will also fade in and out during sunrise and sunset, so the transition between day and night is a smooth one.


*

A new gradient texture is provided (See below). By default the sky will transition from black to light blue and the suns corona effect will transition from black to orange at sunrise, then to yellow mid-morning before being a sky blue at midday.

Sky Gradient Texture