Hello everyone,

My first thread here - I am currently evaluating a few engines including Esenthel which, btw and up to now, hasn't stopped to throw at me pretty awesome possibilities.
Still there are a few blurry areas and some unknown entities which I haven't been able to clarify by myself and your help/views or pointers (links) would be very much appreciated:

1- I was surprised to see that Undo in the Editor is CTRL U when most apps standard today use CTRL Z - can command shortcuts be changed via file settings?

2- In the Model editor, moving vertices do not affect the geometry until the mouse is released. Is this a design decision inside the Editor or purely a constraint imposed by the engine?

3- Can any type of entities, terrain, meshes, ocean, water (lake-river), lights, particles etc... be created or imported dynamically (without the use of the editor)?

4- Can videos or textures be added to light entities and projected on a mesh (to simulate video or slide projection)?

5- Can particles be constrained to a specific volume?

6- Is/will the engine be able to run inside a web browser?

7- Some of the competition offers generic profiling tools to help fine tune performance. Does Esenthel provide such tools or will I have to implement them myself?

8- Esenthel scripts seems to be one of the focus as of late for the engine, does this mean that, in the long run, we might see real C++ been pushed out (removed) entirely in favour of scripts?

9- Are payed licenses for the life time of a specific project and this without any upgrade fees along the way when a new version of the engine is released?

Well that is it for the moment - I am sure many more questions will crop up but in the meantime thanks to everyone in advance for taking the time to read my long blurb and cast some light on my queries.

eLeMenCy

Hi there, I'll answer as many as can.

1. Unfortunately, this is hard-coded. Can't be changed.

2. I would guess that's to save some performance while moving.

3. Yep, see the various tutorials and examples.

4. Apart from an animated texture, I don't think EE can do this natively. However, you can implement something like Berkilium in combination with a shader to project webpages on a surface.

6. No, and doesn't look like it will in the near future.

7. Esenthel does not provide such tools.

9. That's correct, a single license (which you can use for your entire team) for a single project and you'll get all of the future updates.

Thanks Tottel for the prompt reply

Quote:1. Unfortunately, this is hard-coded. Can't be changed.

Not critical but the lack of standard command shortcuts gives a non pro feeling to the toolset - Esenthel, any chance this will be added/improved in the near future?

Quote:2. I would guess that's to save some performance while moving.

Lol this is what I suspected too - Esenthel any thoughts on this?

Bump!! Questions 1, 2, 5 & 8 are still awaiting some tender love and care

@ Esenthel
1- Are there any chances that command shortcuts in the Editor will be changeable (i.e. via file settings) or at least put inline with current standard in the near Future (could it be the surprise (or part of it) mentioned in the roadmap?)

2- In the Model editor, moving vertices do not affect the geometry until the mouse is released. Does this means that updating geometry RT has a big impact on performance?

8- EEscripts seems to be one of the focus as of late for the engine, should we fear to see C++ gradually removed in favour of scripts?

@Anyone
5- Can particles be constrained to a specific volume? If not, can this be plugged-in without having access to the full source of the engine?

Thanks

1. please don't count on changeable shortcuts any time soon, I may make undo as ctrl+z in the thing I am working on, but it will take time
2. performance is relative to size of the mesh, you'd need to manually do some tests if you're interested in the subject.
next SDK will have vtxLock for MeshRender where you can manually change vertexes of the hardware mesh (position, color, texture coordinates, changing other components for the moment is not recommended)
8. Code Editor is C++ too. I am not removing any c++ functionality
5. please look into particles header, and particles c++ tutorials, you can manually adjust the source shape which is used for new particles being generated

Thank you Esenthel, your answer are very much appreciated

Quote:1. please don't count on changeable shortcuts any time soon, I may make undo as ctrl+z in the thing I am working on, but it will take time

Although not a show stopper this is definitively great news as indeed these (CTR+Z and other habits) die hard. This is also true for all camera/model movements combination shortcuts.

Quote:2. performance is relative to size of the mesh, you'd need to manually do some tests if you're interested in the subject.
next SDK will have vtxLock for MeshRender where you can manually change vertexes of the hardware mesh (position, color, texture coordinates, changing other components for the moment is not recommended)

I had indeed plans to also do some tests asap as although this is not crucial for my project short term, it is very crucial long term. Very great news that something is already in the pipeline for the next SDK - excellent

Quote:8. Code Editor is C++ too. I am not removing any c++ functionality

That is indeed a relief. EE remains on top of my list - don't want my project to be tied up to some exotic languages (however close they are to the real thing)

Quote:5. please look into particles header, and particles c++ tutorials, you can manually adjust the source shape which is used for new particles being generated

Huuuh I am sorry indeed, I will... thanks for the pointer - I must admit that I have been thru all the tutorials but very quickly and have yet to enter the deep test phase - loads of homework ahead - can't wait -

Thanks again!!