I've made a copy of Scorched3D version 42 available as a beta.
This should give you a hands on feeling for how things are progressing, and us a feel for how stable this new release is.

You can download the beta here:
Windows
Linux
I've also started a test server for people to play around on if they want.

New features include:
o Optimized graphics rendering to take better advantage of hardware
o Scripting language support for weapons and server scripts
o Much larger landscapes supported
o Added multi-lingual support for chatting and player names
o Added localization support for dialogs and messages
o Some gameplay adjustments
o Better LAN/Internet communications for less timeouts

Thanks for this update. Tried it, had no errors so far, even updated the mod I'm developing (for real this time). Nice addition that I can include different game options for maps now, if I'm correct, it's already giving me ideas. Wonder what other new stuff are included for modders. Nice work!

This is going to be very good release.

One small thing i noticed. If you have chutes on, and then got diged, the chutes are deactivated after first use. Is this a bug or a feature?

Yes you can change the options for each level now.
Other moding options are; scripting support, larger level sizes, arena areas (choosing smaller areas in maps to play in), boids can be created on the fly...

Hmm, sounds like a bug I'll check it out.

Yeah found it, fixed it.

ah jeeze. and thrax hasn't even converted best of s3d yet

This time, I'll convert them all. The step from current to beta is smaller
than the previous changes.
Most of the reason Doom, is that I've been employed lately. A relatively
new thing.. as I hadn't been for the 4+ previous years. Less time for
toys, more time passed out on the couch..

I don't know if this is new but I didn't notice earlier, or maybe it was different. Now every time there's an explosion the texture is applied to the ground but the deform is delayed for about a second. Even after restarting the game.

About LUA, I learned some of it's basics after searching for a couple of tutorials, but I'm not sure am I supposed to be able to get the variable and function names from the game or will the wiki be updated with those things?

Thats just the graphics recalculating the level of detail for the ground, the ground has actualy been deformed when the explosion fires. I guess I could tweek this to be a little faster, the slower it is the better the performance though.



Yup I'll put a tutorial on the wiki in a couple of days along with the other new stuff.

The graphics re-calc for deformation is rather annoying, but other than that, a VERY nice improvement Gavin.

The responsiveness is FAR better than before and I like the newer textures on the maps.

Ran it on Windows 7 Build 7000 with windows Nvidia driver.

these two new options could change everything. the potential is huge.

imagine sprawling landscapes, stretching right to the horizon. this could lead to the biggest change to the way scorched looks of any release so far.

mr c, id like to help out. im gonna pm you.

Doesn't bother me at all, I barely even notice anything...
I do notice the performance change tho...not that much on my PC, but it works slightly better.

I'd have to say this is the best freeware game of the TB Tank-shooting genre.

If laptops is right, we'd better brace ourselves for the attack of the colossal heightmaps

The capablity is there, but there are still limits to the players processing
power.. I've done the same tests and found that even in the new code
method, an over-large landscape is going to slow things down again.

Having dirt all the way to the horizon is likely something only a very
powerfull pc could handle. However, setting it 2-4x larger than the
play-field is reasonable. With the right landform, it would look
about the same as gavin's earlier randomized surround while being
seamless with the play-field.

the level in the screenshot there uses 1024x1024 level size with a 2048x2048 heightmap and a 384x384 playable area. by horizon, i meant the point at which the landscape is obscured by fog. i increased the fog a bit on that one so as not to push the level size too far...

it should be clear from the screenshots, this is more than a little change, certainly in terms of landscape potential.

could someone start a new thread elsewhere for beta version bugs? i dont like posting in the news section.