Official Sandbox Wishlist Thread

[Mike]

As most of you probably know there is a huge graphical update that will be a part of the next version of Sandbox. If you haven't seen it yet here is a little taste:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CdguXxs3to Make sure to up the video quality to see the full difference.

With that said I'd really like to improve Sandbox in all the other areas as well and I'm looking to put together a budget to pay coders, modelers, texture artists, etc so that Sandbox will have a lot of ready made content that you can use to make your own games. The funding for this will most likely come in the form of a Kickstarter.

The real question is, what features/improvements do you think would make Sandbox better? I'm going to list my ideas and I'll add ideas to the list from your responses as well.:

This list is very WIP. As a note I am probably going to be having a big meeting on IRC in the very near future to help discuss the future of SB as well.

General:
Widgets
Prefab menu and easy to add to and use the menu
Coop Support for FPS, RPG, SSP and Racing Mode
Random Map Generator similar to Minecraft - Also possibly endless world generation like Minecraft as well
Easier ways to add content such as textures and sounds to Sandbox such as an "autofind" feature
Improved Script Support/Ease Of Use? Ruby or Python Integration?
Better Model support?
Hire dedicated tutorial writers and video tutorial creators
Facebook like social page to show off and share work and so we can easily share events such as community coop meetups and map contests
Lots of models available to use for commercial use. Replacement of all content so all of it can be used commercially.

FPS:
Coop

RPG Mode:
Coop

SSP:

Vehicle Mode:
Mario Kart like racing with power ups
Option to exit the vehicle like GTA?
Planes, Boats, Hangliders, Jetpacks, Spaceships?

[jSoftApps]

Thank god! An official wishlist. Okey, here's my (possibly impossible) list of features that I'd really like to see (from most important to least important).

#1 A good physics system. I know I've been asking this for years now, but I seriously think we need a good physics system. NVIDIA PhysX has a free SDK at https://developer.nvidia.com/physx-downloads
And if PhysX won't work, I suggest bullet physics (which was successfully implanted into Syntensity before it died) but PhysX would be a lot better.

#2 A Particle editor. Every good engine has a particle editor. Just take a look at Unity's or UDK's.

#3 More model formats allowed for import (Mainly .fbx or .blend)

#4 Render effects (sun shafts, depth of field, .etc)

#5 More shaders? (Like a skin shader maybe)

Well there you have it, everything I'd ever want or need in sandbox (I honestly don't care about what content is in it, I'm just looking for a solid core). Thanks for reading!

jSoftApps

[Mike]

Awesome list. I think it'd be great too if the physics system was actually optional because it does create a performance hit so people could choose if they want to use it or not. What did you mean exactly by a skin shader?

[jSoftApps]

Awesome list. I think it'd be great too if the physics system was actually optional because it does create a performance hit so people could choose if they want to use it or not. What did you mean exactly by a skin shader?

Well, pretty much a shader that doesn't look fake when applied to skin. Something kinda like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD4EcKEyyT0
But that isn't very high on my priorities. I was mostly looking for a physics system

jSoftApps

[Mike]

#1 and #3 are a huge deal to me. #2 and #4 are actually already in but I agree could use some improvements especially in usability. Honestly for #1 I think we'd use Bullet because I was reading that PhysX only works on nvidia cards, is that correct? Also Bullet being open source means we could make a lot of changes and improvements and also we aren't limited by much in terms of licensing. I'm still doing research, just letting you know my current thinking

[karmacomposer]

Better world editor that is very stable with wysiwyg tools. Form designer for menus, GUIs, HUDs, etc.
Voxel terrain generation and editing.
Presets for various scripts, such as a FPS game, 3rd Person game, Iso game, side scroller, etc.
AI code presets and other things that help make the programming a bit easier.
PC and Mac, IOS and Android exporting.

Mike

[GoBologna120]

I'd like to see some improvements to the SSP mode, personally. Right now it seems like running and jumping is the only thing you can do. More enemy types would be nice, as would more methods of attack, like maybe letting the character use a sword or something. Also, double jumps and dash attacks are cool. Maybe even add a few different powerups.

[Captain_Ahab]

I agree with bullet physics. I'd prefer it as an open source system to a propriety system instead of PhysX.
Even if used only for simple rigid body stuff.
Maybe allow a 'ball' to be made that can be 'kicked'/'hit' for playing multi-player soccer or other games ( modified from the Sauerbraten 'grenade'? ).

Better character controls; climbing and hanging off ledges and climbing/swinging on ropes in a manner similar to the game ICO or perhaps like the LEGO Batman game ( a material type that allows hanging by hands and movement while hanging? )

Better detailed documentation. ( I'll try to help with that on some things )

I think the model formats are fine as IQM seems to be well supported in various modelers, but forget FBX and .blends; kitchen sink formats and scene formats are best used as a way to move models within your workflow, but keep it lean and slim for in-game stuff....no changes here, imho.

Post rendering effects like god-lights and Depth of field would be welcome.

I don't think sub-surface scattering for a skin shader would be that big of a deal although it could also be used for foliage I suppose. But not if it eats frame-rates.

Would LOD help with larger maps for trees, etc.? If so, then that might be nice to include.

Hit-maps for models where each different color corresponds to a different material ( metal, rock, dirt, flesh, etc. ) for use with sound effects and particle effects. If used with a 'down' vector for moving entities, then foot-steps.....

Spreading fires if adjacent materials are flammable.

Persistent decals for creating detail-work on faces without having tons of near-identical textures

If support for other scripting languages are considered, my own preference would be FICL ( http://ficl.sourceforge.net/ )
LUA might be a nice choice too
But these really aren't needed unless they run faster than cubescript.
How about adding a function to cubescript to allow it to pass data to and from external programs? Perhaps passing dialogue through and external AIML-bot such as Grokitbot, ( http://www.suttree.com/code/GrokItBot/ )

Thats enough idea for now, I guess.

[Runescapedj]

Models that can change to less poly-versions or even 2d images when you go farther away, this way you can make dense forest in a map without having the framerate drop radically

[chocolatepie33]

Easier ways to add content such as textures and sounds to Sandbox such as an "autofind" feature
Improved Script Support/Ease Of Use? Ruby or Python Integration?
Better Model support?
Hire dedicated tutorial writers and video tutorial creators

I'm liking these, we could have a tagging feature for textures and models, possibly. As for coding, we've had multiple projects which were supposed to make coding simple, maybe templates could be possible. Model support isn't too bad, getting a model into Sandbox isn't too hard, it's more the making of a model and exporting that is. I like the idea of dedicated tutorial writers. Once this new release is out, we need to start changing nearly everything we have to reflect the changes.

I think in general we need to make it easier for possible users to understand why they should use Sandbox instead of another engine, such as Unity. However, we also need our own identity that will serve to differentiate us between the other members of the Cube Engine family; this in part means leaning away from fps mode and more towards our alternative modes, SSP, RPG and KRS.

Models that can change to less poly-versions or even 2d images when you go farther away, this way you can make dense forest in a map without having the framerate drop radically

This is what Ahab was referring to as "LOD" (or Level of Detail), I believe Hirato has said before that it's not quite possible.


Overall our focus should be mainly on having a game-creating engine that is easy to use for anyone that uses it, including children. Red Eclipse makes some things a lot easier for map-making, such as having lighting presets ("morning light", "evening light", etc) and menu buttons for things such as optimizing geometry (known to us as remipping) or calculating lights. There's even a menu for modifying textures through v-commands (e.g. vcolor, vscale, vscroll, etc). I think that things like these would help the engine a lot.