Status of 6.5?

[azherdev]

Well, I am critisizing because I've seen how companies work.  I worked for 5 years at Vivendi (Parent company of Blizzard) and I've seen how games are created (no, I was not a tester but rather their tools developer). Blizzard is an exception to the rule AND heads rolled when they delayed. On the surface it seemed like Blizzard was able to just simply postpone the releases. In fact, there were many problems associated with pushing release dates, people quit or were let go because of it. The main reason Blizzard was aquired was because they were unable to financially support themselves during their huge span of development without a product.

And that is my point. You could work on something awesome all the time but you have to finish. And with something like a gfx engine, you can never trully be finished since the goal is a moving target because of DX version, video card features, etc. But, outside of us here that like to create demos (and awesome they are... skydemo?) what about the ones that would love to use this to release a product? We are stuck, because it is an incomplete system at the end of the day. Most indie projects of 1 or 2 man team take 4 - 8 months to develop. So I am personally on project 2 now without TV3D and I so much wished it would of been TV3D.

I know the situation with the devs (college/work). That is why I am not getting "angry" with them or implying that they are lazy. But simply stating that for someone who depends on a 3rd party engine to create products to earn money for a living, I can not rely on TV3D to be that "provider". For me, I tinker with it on more of a hobby basis since it can not leave my PC to retail. Heh, I love TV3D so much that I even base my own engine on TV3D interface, this way, one day, when TV3D 6.5 is released, little to no code change will be required.

[AriusMyst]

Yea, I mean hell, i've spent more than that on beer and smokes when i've been on a night out with my friends.

Thats true azher, but there is an entire class missing from beta. You seem to be assuming they just keep adding new features. This is not the case, they have a definitive design process - thats how you finish a product, by getting to the end of that process. Not by cutting development short because people who are currently of no financial value can't wait( an I don't mean you, I know you have invested in a license ).

[darqSHADOW]

Just so people know, I've been a project manager for a long time now, and I've worked on some major AAA titles from various gaming companies.  I've followed the software lifecycle here as closely as possible, and I have made it a major point to keep "feature creep" out of this product.  There have been HUNDREDS of requests for features since I posted a feature freeze notification, many of them were totally ignored, because they didn't get their requests in prior to the freeze.  Very few "new" features have been added to the list, we're just working on finishing up the final class (TVO), and knocking out all of the existing bugs.  Until that point we will not release, sorry.

DS

[Zumwalt]

Now Thats a solid answer. Granted, not a solid date, but a solid answer.

[azherdev]

Awesome DS.  Well, we are all on the same page here, I'm just a bit frustrated out of my own selfish needs. I do understand, I do sympathize, and I am waiting.

P.S. I didn't mean they have a moving target with function creep, I meant that I think moving from 8.1 to 9.0, creating new formats, adding built in shaders, etc. might have been a huge undertaking for a minor version upgrade.

P.S.S. I am NOT, in any way, advocating reducing the feature set or releasing crap just to meet a deadline.

[darqSHADOW]

Don't worry folks, things ARE getting closer, and I am getting even more inclined to set a date shortly.  We have a few new things that need to launch prior to the beta going open, so you should slowly start seeing new things pop in here and there as we prepare.  One of the biggest is the fact that we have to make sure we can handle the server load that we KNOW is going to overwhelm the systems once open beta hits.  For this we're going with a dedicated server for the webserver, with the DB existing on a dedicated DB machine.  The downloads will be served from 8 worldwide mirrors, plus our standard Tucows and Download.com mirrors.  There's a whole lot going into this release, 99% of which is to make it easier to use the product.    So, you're in for a whole new experience here!

DS

[tweakbox]

I can't believe you guys were actually running this website off of a shared server.  I kept over-running most of the shared hosts I was on, mainly with DB access being too high.  If the site has been handling the kind of traffic that it's been getting on a shared host (with what is actually fairly low downtime), I would think you will be in good shape with a dedicated web server and a separate dedicated db host.

[darqSHADOW]

With over 200GB a month in bandwidth usage we're doing rather well on this host.  We're the primary site on this server, and the others are all very small sites, but we still wanted to make sure that when 6.5 hits that we don't have overload issues.    It was time to go big, or go home.  

DS

[firebladeonline]

As for a deadline, I completely understand their reason for not giving one. Thats wise, doesn't make them unprofessional as you suggest azherdev, an fireblade lots of companies don't give deadlines

As any project manager will tell there is three major constraint factors Quality,Cost and Time. You must check one or at most two factors being primary and the rest to suffer.
In this case truevision decided that Time is the least important factor .
For people in my shoes who still didn't decided will they use truevision in their game this is really killing situation .

Well Ok this discussion sounds very promising and I could wait a little longer to make my decision, but I can't postpone making it  for very long.
I must start coding my game with or without Truevision.

bobi

[firebladeonline]

Don't worry folks, things ARE getting closer, and I am getting even more inclined to set a date shortly.  We have a few new things that need to launch prior to the beta going open, so you should slowly start seeing new things pop in here and there as we prepare.  One of the biggest is the fact that we have to make sure we can handle the server load that we KNOW is going to overwhelm the systems once open beta hits.  For this we're going with a dedicated server for the webserver, with the DB existing on a dedicated DB machine.  The downloads will be served from 8 worldwide mirrors, plus our standard Tucows and Download.com mirrors.  There's a whole lot going into this release, 99% of which is to make it easier to use the product.    So, you're in for a whole new experience here!

DS

Well I'm really counting on it it, literally , 6.2 is very cool engine  and I expect 6.5 to be really great.

BTW . darqSHADOW I wrote a wrappers and some tutorials for TV3D engine  for CommmonLisp ,can I get them  hosted on your site?

thanks
bobi

[Oxygen]

I love these threads.

Save your $$, spend the money, and be blown away. 6.5 is so much better than 6.2 it's not even funny.

[Dragoon]

One of the biggest is the fact that we have to make sure we can handle the server load that we KNOW is going to overwhelm the systems once open beta hits.  For this we're going with a dedicated server for the webserver, with the DB existing on a dedicated DB machine.  The downloads will be served from 8 worldwide mirrors, plus our standard Tucows and Download.com mirrors.

would the use of a Torrent be a good suggestion?
(i know examples where a transfer rate of 35 TB per week isn't rare, http://yhbt.mine.nu/t/ )

[darqSHADOW]

BTW . darqSHADOW I wrote a wrappers and some tutorials for TV3D engine for CommmonLisp ,can I get them hosted on your site?

Sure, send the files to my email (dashadow@truevision3d.com) and I'll get them up.    Thanks!

would the use of a Torrent be a good suggestion?

I had thought of this, but the biggest load will be during the initial release.  Unless we seed the net first and then announce it we'll still have the same initial load on the systems.  The download mirrors will be able to handle it, I'm sure, but I will definately look at getting a torrent out asap after that.

DS

[synedsylle]

If you do need some place to mirror when it ready , i have some place around 4000mb free , unmetered bandwidth . I do hope it could help you ,

keep the good work , guys

[potato]

Hehe, "unmetered" simply becomes "violation of TOS" when you reach the type of volume 6.5's release would generate.

[Bobum]

Hey look I didn't want to start a "I hate these bitching freeloaders" thread - I was asking an honest question that hadn't been adequately answered to my way of thinking.  It has now and I appreciate all the good input.  I'm waiting patiently as is everyone =- 6.2 is a great product - I am excited about what 6.5 holds - I am GLAD to hear there is progress being made - keep it up guys!

[Manjinder Singh Lamba]

Well said Bobum. As a developer we want an exact date of release. The sooner the better. So that the new version can be checked to see if it really suits our needs.

[burak136]

we want 6.5 we want 6.5 we want 6.5 we want 6.5 we want 6.5 we want 6.5 we want 6.5 we want 6.5 we want 6.5 we want 6.5

[Rynus_Rein]

ouch get the champagne ready!
I think the Showcase section will become crowded the weeks after the release.

[BYTE-Smasher]

You can prepare for some changes around tv3dfilez too. I'm currently trying to figure out how to simplify the upload process so that people feel less intimidated by it. The upload form has so much useless junk on it that it's insane, and I want to have a mini file upload dialog the main page of the site... or at least a big fat link to it that everyone can see clearly.