Armory 3d engine has recently gone free and open source with the permissive zlib license. It's very much in development and has a small team behind it, but it also has some features that may be interesting: for example, close integration with Blender and deployment to multiple target platforms. The latter is possible because it's based on the Haxe programming language.

https://armory3d.org/

I came across it recently in connection with Blender. Someone suggested it as an alternative to Blender Game Engine which is now officially discontinued in Blender 2.8. I have never used BGE, but Armory looked interesting enough to share with you folks on its own merits.

If you use Blender, it might already do something useful for you, maybe as a rapid prototyping tool using modern real-time rendering techniques. If you'd just like to have a peek at what it can do, they have demo videos on their Youtube channel, linked from the above site.

(Blender 2.8 is in early alpha ATM. Armory is not going to be a core part of it.) 

Funny that I should learn on here about Blender losing the game engine. I suppose it makes sense though....I guess....but but Eevee is like a new....whatever. 

Luckily the Blender org is really good with keeping old stable versions around, so as long as your OS doesn't make it too hard to run them, you can use any Blender version you like. It will be possible to work on more projects using BGE or the old internal renderer for long time to come.

Now, as I understand it, Eevee is and will be only concerned with rendering at real-time or near real-time speeds. It's also the major reason they're upping the minimum OpenGL version requirements to 3.3 in the new branch.

They haven't forgotten about interactivity though. A recent message from a mailing list outlined plans for the future. They are giving a grant to someone to work on particular features part time.

Summing it up, they want to implement an interactive mode that makes working with simulations and baking them into animations "pleasant & usable." They are also inviting game engine developers to work with them on Blender compability and integration. (This is something that open source engine creators might particularly like. It's not like they have the resource to create their own equivalent of Unreal Editor.)

Source: https://lists.blender.org/pipermail/bf-committers/2018-May/049438.html

I'd say that's enough Blender talk for now. I find that checking the recent Youtube videos on Blender now and then is enough for me to keep up to date on the latest developments. 

This site has a smallish selection of textures that could be useful for a variety of projects. The license is not overly restrictive.

https://textures.pixel-furnace.com

(According to my Google search, this hasn't been posted before.) 

What are you up to? 

tter.com/onetruepurple/status/1018992393704628224

i called you a thousand things, and maybe you deserved half of them, and you know it even, but i also named the hardest keys in my maps named after you, calm down please. I did not write #345. 

 

Posts with like #345 ought to be removed routinely.

Leaving it up just serves to encourage more of the same.

Posts like #345 can be done in another part of the internet (chat, Twitter, ..) and don't need to be here. 

 

I flagged that post it since it's too personal IMO. Which, FYI, us moderators have been selectively doing for a little while now. I know it exists in the "beef thread" which was intended to get people to air their grievances, but I wonder if there's value in encouraging people to call each other names. Maybe it should be "keep your grievances to yourself." Either way, this specific post got flagged. 

Known users disagreeing is sincerity.

Anons sniping is vandalism.

The difference is that the anon sniping doesn't care about the site, the moderators or members of the community.

Or they haven't thought it through to realize the above. Don't make the mistake of thinking they will -- either they are 12 and don't know better or they aren't 12 and have a long-life behavioral issue.

Protip: This ain't Minecraft, Runescape or Roblox. It's not a 12 year old. It's always #2 here.

In a smaller community, there are only 1-2 bad apples. There are other places on the internet where abnormals can find other abnormals to call names and the other uncivilized things they like to do.

Set them free!

Establish they need to go elsewhere to engage their abnormal behaviors!

They'll be happier amongst their peers -- calling each other names, using all the bad words to their hearts content. It'll be bliss for them.

Everyone wins! They just need to find their home! 

That's the way I tend to do it. Known users with consistent names are accountable to their beefing etc and it can be put in the context - or just make up - a bigger picture. Anon stuff can't. 

The overwhelming majority of anon posts are flame bait. The argument for anon posting always was to have a low entry barrier. But it appears to me that new people almost always create an account on their first post anyway.

Plus we should take a look at fixing accounts (https for security, working email password reset). 

https://check.torproject.org/cgi-bin/TorBulkExitList.py

They were used en masse when IPs were still visible, it's possible the anons have stopped using it when the addresses were taken out but there's a good chance they didn't.

(There's the counterargument that legitimate users are using it and it's not a "troll tool". Sure. In the same way everybody in the 2000's used BitTorrent for legal downloads.) 

Maybe either of these measures is already enough to deter these posters. 

Thanks for doing this btw. 

nothing is decided, this is all up to metlslime 

My first few entries were posted without an account. (I did sign all of them, though.) I might have started posting here without anon posting, regardless, but it probably helped me to take the step to create an account. 

When it's not blatant trolling, there is often some worthy posting from various anons. Be a shame to just shut the door on even a few decent people. I admit I have done some trolling myself, though I don't feel guilty since it was hardly malicious. 

Well, I have nothing against stuff like the anon trolls attacking me in the prefabs thread. I see it as people wanting to be emotionally sincere without risking their reputation, and to some extent it can be fun.

What I draw the line at is when people's feelings get hurt, and when the trolling is systematically carried on to put people down. Heated discussions can be interesting, but only when communication is preserved. Anger can be dealt with, but sadness can easily result in irreversible damages — like people leaving the community. Angry people only leaves when they're also saddened.

So far the case-by-case judgment of the moderators seems fair. 

The discourse here has gotten worse lately. If people have a beef they have a thread for it. Why give the mods more to do just because someone wants to be an asshole? 

Worthy posting from anon posters? I'd like to see examples.

We have one anon poster with Trinca-levels of grammar who tries to be offensive and mock people here but instead is obviously an idiot with the IQ of a clam.
We have one or two anon posters who are highly likely to be registered members here who don't post with their accounts anymore so they can flame a few select people with impunity.
And then we have tons of worthless anon posts.

These worthy anons can register if they want. So can the few anon assholes, so we know who they are before they're banned. 

dumptruck: Good point about the beef thread. Maybe it would be a good idea to limit anon posting to the Site Help & Beef threads only. Maybe also to General Abuse. 

There are worthy posts from anons in higher profile releases: Arcane Dimensions, TrenchBroom, etc.

I personally would strongly prefer anon posting to be allowed .. when I need beta testing on something like QuakeDroid or Mark V ...

... the ease of getting feedback from anons that don't have to jump through hoops really helps.

Why not ask for a few extra moderators to hide crap like new post #349?

I think you could get 6-7 moderators easy to hide/delete pure garbage posts. otp, spud, shamblernaut? probably plenty of others 

Needing an account is hardly a barrier on func_. The account system is so basic that not only would it be trivially easy for interested new users to make one and start posting, but it would also be just as easy for the anon trolls to make junk accounts and flame using those until they get banned.
The best solution is more moderation, sadly. If trolls don't get a chance to be seen, they'll get bored and stop eventually.