If you happened to miss my latest blog post over at GarageGames.com, check it out here. It presents a number of new images showing the new night mission and some advanced effect lighting that takes advantage of the integrated TLK lighting in TGE 1.5.

Also there is a new night mission movie in the movie section of the gallery.

OK, now that GarageGames has made some announcements regarding TGE 1.5, I can share a bit more detail about how the Arcane-FX release is unfolding.

The published version of AFX is going to be built on TGE 1.5, so the release of 1.5 is an important milestone we’ve been waiting for. As soon as we obtain 1.5, we’ll adapt AFX to the new release, go through a final round of testing, and if there are no surprises, we’ll provide GarageGames with a gold version to be published according to their timetable. We have already done a preliminary adaptation to a fairly recent version of the 1.5 release and that went very smoothly, however, we have not yet seen the final TLK enhancements, but I expect those won’t cause much difficulty.

We’ve known for a while that TGE 1.5 was going to include TLK, so much of our last series of AFX modifications have focused on improving how AFX works with TLK. The first thing we did was go through all of the AFX example effects and improved their appearance under the starker lighting of TLK. Then we added new AFX features that utilized TLK. This includes the ability to use both sgUniversalStaticLights, and VolumeLights as AFX component effects. One of the nice parts of this is that you can mount dynamic TLK lights using AFX’s powerful constraint system. The final thing we did was add “Advanced Lighting” effects to many of the AFX example spells to demonstrate the new TLK-specific capabilities.

So now we begin our final stage of preparation for the official release of Arcane-FX. We’ll be working hard to get everything put together and released as soon as possible. We are as anxious as everyone else to get this product out and we’re looking forward to seeing all the great things everyone does with it!

OK, it’s time to jump start these Annals and get back to documenting the AFX development. Right after GDC, I got a bit hypnotized waiting to get past two important milestones. One milestone was the completion of all the AFX example spell effects, and the other milestone was finalization of a publishing agreement for the product. Both are past now, so I can snap out of my reverie and get back to logging.

A long time ago I decided, somewhat arbitrarily, that AFX should offer a filled World of Warcraft style spellbank of example spells. That’s one dozen spells. Back then it seemed like a reasonable number, but back then I also thought that many of the spells would be rather utilitarian and simple. I didn’t know that Matthew Durante, our spell effects designer, would end up creating a series of over-the-top showcase spells complete with cross-spell themes and implied mini-narratives. Of course, once the quality standard of the visual effects was set much higher, it became clear that neither Matt or I was going to be able to fake our way through designing the sound effects for these spells. So we contracted Dave Schroeder of Pilotvibe to do sound design and the results have been excellent. In the end, we stuck to the original goal of 12 spells, and with the exception of a little polish and tweak here and there, they’re done. I hope everyone will find it worth the wait.

Also a long time ago, I decided that the best place for AFX to be published would be right inside the GarageGames.com Developer Store. Probably a no-brainer decision, but at times, the self-publishing route seemed like a viable alternative. Well, just a couple of weeks ago, we inked an agreement with GarageGames making them the exclusive publisher of AFX. Exactly what we had hoped for. We really want the core AFX package to be the anchor technology for an open-ended series of special effects packs. I think having AFX published at GarageGames will help considerably with this ambition.

Now let me see… Completed example spell effects – check! Signed publishing deal – check! There’s still plenty if work to do, so don’t start camping out in front of the Dev Store just yet. But getting past these milestones really greases the skids. The official inaugural release of AFX is just around the corner!

Welcome to Arcane-FX.com and the Arcane-FX Annals!

This is the official website for Arcane-FX, a special effects software add-on under development for the Torque Game Engine. The AFX product has yet to be published, but as we move through the final phases of development, this site will be the best source for learning about AFX capabilities, keeping track of its ongoing development progress, and participating in a community of future users.

A quick tour of the Arcane-FX.com website:

The info area provides a quick overview of AFX and if you don’t know much about it, this is a good place to start.

Then again, a quick visit to the gallery pages will show you what AFX adds to the Torque Game Engine in the form of screenshots, and movies. You won’t be disappointed.

These annals (where you are now), record the ongoing progress of AFX development. Visit this area for regular status reports, announcements, and other ramblings. Be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed if you like getting updates this way.

The forums area, of course, is the place for the AFX community. Just launched, the area is quite empty, but I’m optimistic that many of you will participate and help give shape to the community and the software.

Finally, the codex is currently under construction, but it is intended as the final destination for detailed product documentation, release notes, and other knowledge base type information.

Once again, welcome to the website. May you find it engaging, informative, and useful. Thanks for stopping by.

- Faust