I’ve attached a compiled version of the XLE tools to the Github repo.
This is still an early build – and hasn’t be extensively tested on different hardware. So some features may not work on configurations. If you run in problems, or if you find it interesting, I recommended downloading the source and compiling for yourself.
Download XLE v0.04.1: XLE v0.04.1 Windows x64You will need Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2013.
Along with the tools improvements, I’ve added a few features to make the “Environment” sample a little easier to use.
Exporting to the Environment sample Start a new world Find the “palette” window and drag these objects into the main viewport: CharacterSpawn AmbientSettings DirLight You may want to position the character spawn and directional light using the move manipulator Save your world to some location (with “File/Save As”).
Here’s a rundown of some of the latest improvements to the tools. These are just a few additions and improvements made over about a week’s time.
Search and Replace for placements Find placements using complex queries: Once found, they can be selected from the results menu (or run a replace operation).
Sometimes it’s useful to search for placements that use a specific model: Grouping support for placements Group together objects to make them easier to use.
I’ve been playing with the transmitted specular implementation for IBL, and working on getting the right balance and visual impression for glass. Background textures from http://www.hdrlabs.com/sibl/archive.html It’s curious to think about how terms have changed over the last few years. “Specular transmission” is the term I’ve been using to talk about what we might have previously called “refraction mapping”, and “specular IBL” is the new term for “reflection mapping.” The
I’ve been working on improving the accuracy of the Imaged Based Lighting (IBL) solution for XLE. This is the technology that allows us to load in a background panorama map and use it for both diffuse and specular lighting.
The best way to do this is by comparing our real-time result to other renderers. So, for example, I’ve been experimenting with Substance Designer (more on that later). It has nVidia’s “IRay” raytracer built-in – so we can compare the non-real-time results from IRay with real-time XLE.
Just a quick update… I’ve been making some great progress with transmitted specular for IBL!
These screenshots will look a little strange (I mean that black borders & grainyness), because it’s a debugging rendering mode.
I’ve got the split-term stuff going; and it looks like it should be practical. I’d prefer to avoid having yet another cubemap, so maybe there’s some way to just reuse the reflection filtered cubemap.
I’ve included a few Gradle scripts in the XLE distribution. This is mostly just a simple set of tools I use for my own testing. But you may find it useful for your own needs.
Of course this system isn’t designed to be 100% robust and fool proof. Actually, it’s just a few simple scripts. But it is scalable and flexible.
Gradle At heart, an “asset path” is some system that can identify changed assets, recognize processing working that needs to be performed with those assets, and schedule that work.