Huge Terrain Creator (HTC) for TSE

#181 None of the links to the forums work...
I know development can get you busy but to have broken links that tell people to come back in September when its past and we are now in October.

Good luck and I hope things get fixed soon.

#182 Hello Vincent, please answer our questions about the progress of this software. I don't believe you can't spare thirty seconds to tell us what is happening, nobody is that busy. I know you told my French buddy you didn't sell many copies, but you *did* sell some, and you promised your customers an upgrade if they bought HTC. You should at least fulfill your commitment to those of us who did buy. Then you can abandon it for all I care. But I don't like being sold a promise and then ripped-off.

Dave.

#183 Vincent, at the very least you could release your scripts so we could update them ourselves (and improve some things, like being able to click and drag to put down hexes, or do fills etc.).

#184 Heloooo Vincent. Please stop being so ignorant and tell us what is happening.

#185 Out of curiosity, did anyone not get HTC when they paid for it?

There seems to be a lot of hostility for a product that most people seem to have received and feel entitled to updates. Perhaps it's a dead product now, with no updates forthcoming. If that's the case, then an e-mail that says that should satiate most customers. Though that rarely happens. I have a number of tools that have been dead-ended by their developers, but I rarely hear about the end-of-life of the tool. Usually the only time I hear about it is if they have a new tool they are advertising.

I'm just trying to understand the ire in this topic.

#186 @David, I think the main problem is he didn't ever really release a full version. It was always very "beta", and then he dropped off the face of the planet, so to speak. For me, I just wish we had some of the scripts so we could fix some issues that make it difficult to use (like not being able to click and drag across a bunch of hexes to paint down a certain terrain type, or fill the entire hex grid with a certain type). Either that or a new version. I've no problem with not having a "new" version, but it kind of sucks that we never really got a complete version to begin with.

I think part of it is also that it was ~$50, so it'd be nice to have something that's usable for that price :p

Plus, it's a pretty cool tool, so I'd definitely like to be able to use it.

#187 Yeah, I think my main problem is that it was on the edge of being a very useful tool, particularly being able to tile different terrain together on one map. With most affordable tools you get one "climate" on a map and that's it. But with HTC+ we would have been able to build varying sizes and climates of terrain blocks and import and blend them. So you could create (say) desert, snow and swamp in L3DT and place them where you like in HTC+ and blend them all into one big map. That's really the main feature I was waiting for and it was 3/4 built in HTC v1. Vincent added lots of other nice features to HTC+ which he gave us screen shots of (like vegetation etc.) but I wasn't really that interested in those, although they would have been very nice to have.

I guess my ire is from frustration that he was so close to keeping his promise of a free update and then just abandoned the whole thing with no word to anyone. I really couldn't care less about the money, it's being ripped off on a promised delivery that gets up my nose. If he sent us a stripped down version that just imported and blended tiled terrain squares from L3DT or something I'd be happy.

Like Ross, I mailed him and asked him to release it to the community if he was just going to dump it, but I got no response. To be honest I'd even pay him a few quid and release it to the community myself if it was cheap enough.

Dave.

#188 Vincent,

What is happening? It's another year again and no news.

Dave.

#189 Sad that an application with that much potential died down like that :-(

#190 What should I do ?

HTC was basically a terrain generator. I planned to make it an editor like Aurora (form NeverWinterNights 1). This project became very fast (in my mind) Azura, an amazing editor in which you could build great worlds. I have done a lot of work on it....
* Many more fractals to paint terrains
* Landscape importers
* 43 GUIs for placing objects on maps (Statics, Sounds, Lights, particles, and so on...)
* An awesome shapeReplicator (in my opinion) including Animated replicated objects, One Shot drawIndexedPrimitve selected from a database.
* TileSet Management for dungeon and city painting (see my post about Blender Map exporter)
* Shader Editor.
* In Game Editing (client/server mode).
* "Materialized" Atlas Terrain (theorically up to approx 480 Materials on the same terrain)

BUT......
* I was really disapointed with Atlas 2 file Size which are, in my opinion, really too bigs
* I was really disapointed by code recession (things such GUIObjectView, GUIPlayerView) which don't work in TGE Advanced and worked with TGE.
* I was unable to find help in the community to solve these problems.
* I have a new job which takes a great part of my time.

SO....
* I though to make this project a free project. But I though also to people who paid HTC.
* I though to make this project less ambitious and keeping it paying. But helping my custommers will take me too much time.
* I though to make a forum to build a small community in which users could help each others. But nobody came on this forum...

Finally....
I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH THIS PROJECT. So Now I ask your opinion : What Should I Do ?

PS : Stop phone me : earing english is very difficult for me. (I can read/Write, but earing is very difficult : You speak really too fast for me.)

#191 @Vincent, I don't know about anyone else, but I would be perfectly happy to have a free version for those that bought HTC. The main reason I'd like that is I could easily add the features I *really* need to use HTC viably for making terrains (the major lacking one right now, and the reason I don't use HTC regardless of the old version is that you can't click and drag to fill up hexes...it simply takes too long to click for each one when making a large terrain)).

Even an unfinished version of whatever is the latest would be nice (i.e., with no support needed).

#192 Saaad. Seeing this ideas and the potential would really make me love to see it even in half finished state with "up to a community" to finish it.

We use TGEA so its not like we are unused to that right? But at least it would be an "advertised hurdle" with yours :)

If you make it free, I would also be willing agree to a license that forbids the build of "descendant" tools that are in any way sold so your property is protected.

#193 Well you can release the Huge Terrain Creator (HTC) for TGEA for free to all TGEA licensees.

You can put the Huge Terrain Creator (HTC) for TGEA into the Torque Developer Network.

#194 I bought a licence and I vote you put it up free. As long as we can use and improve what we paid for, then thats fine. Thats probably your best option.

#195 I will vote for anything that gets this project it's life back.

No matter in what shape or style Vincent ;)

#196 Vincent, I think based on this thread alone, there is interst in people taking the load off your shoulders. If you are too busy to continue, then throw the source up to all TGEA licensees and let the community build it into a better free tool for everyone to benefit from.

#197

Quote:If you are too busy to continue, then throw the source up to all TGEA licensees and let the community build it into a better free tool for everyone to benefit from.

Agreed :)

#198 Yep, agreed. I honestly would love to see this tool take off. Even the base version was good. Could GG be interested in taking it off your hands? Although I guess they have so many irons in the fire that they may not have the resources. Anyway, as a licensee I would be happy to see it go to everyone who has TGEA, I don't mind that I paid for it. Just to see it back in development would be good enough for me.

Dave.

#199 Good Idea, and i own a licence too:)

#200 @Vincent, any thoughts on the suggestion(s) posted thus far?