vPyro Forums: ShowSim 3D Update - vPyro Forums

This is just an update to let everyone know where things are with the game version of ShowSim 3D. The professional version has taken a little longer than I estimated to complete (as always), so this is going to push the release of the game version probably till after the summer of this year sometime. However, when the professional one releases in a few months there is going to be a demo version of that up on www.showsim.com that you can download and play with. Anyone who creates a decent show with the demo can send me their data files and I will render out a watermark-free video that you can post up on this site, as long as the show is not a real one that you are designing for commercial purposes.

The current stock effect library is currently at 1690 effects, with other libraries representing real commercial product also available by converting effect libraries that were designed in the 2D version of ShowSim. You will find that creating new effects in ShowSim is significantly easier than in RCT, with a high level interface that isolates you from having to deal with the emitter/particle tree. However, for the guru who want's to get the most out of the particle engine, the low level type particle tree is also available. Even the low level editor is considerably easier to use than the AFE in RCT. It is also possible to make elaborate wheel effects and lancework in ShowSim, which I believe were not easy to do in RCT. Lasers and timed light effects will not be in the initial release of the pro version, but they will be included in the game version.

The price of the game version is going to be around $40, so don't get scared off by the big price tags you see for the commercial display operator versions. The game version is for hobbyists who don't make money with the shows they are designing, and the license agreement on the game will specifically state that the software can not be used to design, promote or bid on commercial shows. All features related to real show production will also be removed from the game, naturally.

I don't imagine there will be much traffic in this section of vpyro until the 3D version is out and about, but I'll check in from time to time to answer any questions regarding ShowSim.

Regards,

Kyle Kepley
President, Passfire Labs Inc.

Sounding good Kyle. So it should be around £20? Not a bad price at all for such a great piece of software!

This post has been edited by tomthepyro: 03 April 2008 - 12:37 PM

Excellent news!...
especially regarding the availability of lights and lasers which weren't available yet according to my understanding.
Is this game going to be released in the UK/Europe as well?

Games have always been the greatest bargain on the computer software market relative to the amount of work and skill that goes into producing them. Games are among the most complex type of software that exists, yet they all sell in the $30 to $50 range. In the case of ShowSim you have the pro users paying for the actual development costs and the game is just a spinoff that also has some marketing value. It is going to be the people on vpyro.com that actually push the game to its creative limits. Normally I don't even get to see most shows that pro users create, so to be able to see the unconstrained creativity of what the vpyro community produces is another motivation for me to release a game version.

The game version of ShowSim will be available via download only, with no physical packaging or hard copy of the user manual. All documentation will be via a built-in html based help file. So it will be available to anyone in any country that has an internet connection. The declining value of the US dollar should make the price even cheaper for those in the UK!

-Kyle

Oh right....
The only downside of not having a game in the form of a disk is that if something happen to your computer (crashes, recovery prblems,etc...), you may lose the file, I'm saying this because it happened to me...twice.

Claudio, on Apr 3 2008, 10:46 AM, said:

You could always burn the downloaded installer file to a CD, or also just re-download the file again from the website. Ownership is verified by a remote server entry when you run the game.

-Kyle

Can't wait $40 is very reasonable and most likely will be a purchase of mine, Thanks! Something like this will really bring the forum back to life. The life the has been declining with the declining popularity of the aging RCT3 game. (but Im still playing it)

oh! I can't wait for the release of the game version! I'm sure i would buy it hehe!

Sounds really exciting - I can't wait to see shows using this engine

There's already a very cool one in the completed work section call "Red, Blue and White"

I cant wait until this comes out!! I can pay $40. Its much better then $1000


Oh and claudio, I believe the show was called Red, White and blue.

This post has been edited by RCT3pyromaster: 07 May 2008 - 07:19 PM

Yahooo, there are too much things to read over the site now! .
Its really good that ShowSim 3D is going to be $40, so its ower than those high prices that the commercial version offer. Its good that "RCTPyro" can be its "vPyro" it makes me to feel a RCT3 pyro fan and a real fireworks fan too. I hope the program become finished as soon as possible and we can enjoy all that.
I CAN'T WAIT!

This post has been edited by JPWDW: 09 May 2008 - 12:18 AM

Is there any option to add camera's ... and camera moves.. and switch on the fly?

That would be an EXCELENT addition.

Yes, there are different ways to move the cameras around the set.

Can't wait for this to be released! I'm looking forward to it.

This post has been edited by 1FoolishMortal: 26 May 2008 - 01:57 AM

Any knowing on when this masterpiece of a program would be released again?

xjaykay, on Jun 5 2008, 01:22 AM, said:

I just know, that making a program requires a lot of time and effort. Just wait, that's what we are all doing.

It's hard to say when, but I would hope sometime before the end of this year. The game version is a by-product of the pro version, and development on it can not even start until all the bugs are worked out of the pro version (the more testing RCT members do, the faster this happens). Otherwise I wind up doing dual maintenance on each bug fix, which I don't want to do. To create the game version requries more work than just stripping things out of the pro version, since it will have additional lighting effects and the method of scripting will be totally different in the game (it will be the way it currently is in RCT). I'm guessing there will be at least three months of development to convert the pro version to a game, then an additional month to get the web distribution of it put together. So four months from whatever date the development starts, which could be one or two months yet. When all the work is being done by just one person (me), the months really pile up!

-Kyle

hi pyronaught,

does the pro-version and game version of the showsim will have a different set of installers or they would be integrated into one package? i'm excited in testing the game version of showsim...and by the way will the database part of it still uses the SQL engine? thanks

They are two different programs, each with their own installer. Both are still using a SQL database however. The game and pro version can not read each others file format however, and security measures will be taken to circumvent someone from writing file converters that would allow the game to be used as a "viewer" for shows scripted in other programs such as FireOne etc.