22/09/07

23/07/06

09/04/06

This release is only available as a full engine download. Links to previous downloads have been removed, since they are now becoming redundant. A full list of improvements can be found in the updated RELEASE NOTES...

Previous releases V0.07 and V0.08 (only announced via the midnight forums) have also been added to the website, but for reference purposes only. You should always take the latest version available, since it includes all up to date bug fixes etc

Some broken links have been fixed.

09/05/05

21/12/04

28/10/04

After some time out due to work commitments, development has picked up again on the army integration. A fair amount of progress has already been made to put all the building blocks of the army unit representation together, including idle poses, animated movement, animated camp fires (with some dynamic lighting effects), animated tents, and some further objects still to come. Pop along to the gallery for a rare update !

The next release date (V0.05) is the winter solstice, 21^st December. This will be a full release of the engine bringing it right up to date (including all frontends 3D, TME and CLASSIC). Game play is expected to be the same as in V0.04.

Some dead links were also removed from the links section, and some existing links were moved to their new homes.

21/08/04

29/05/04

06/05/04

- Link to HOME page is now working

- DDR Home Frame can now be scrolled

- LOM Contents re-ordered for display in smaller windows

- Email address changed to graphic, not text

- Fix to some hyperlinks in the Gallery

- Updated the Downloads page to show those downloads currently available

- Some filenames corrected

29/04/04

Well after many troubles with not being able to download large files from the website via the old host, I decided to ditch them in favour of a new host recommended by Chris. Have to say that the new host provides _LOTS_ of new interesting features that I can play around with, and it’s cheaper to boot ! Thanks for the tip Chris !
  

Also, whilst working away recently, I took the opportunity to kill some time in the evenings by re-designing the whole site !

06/03/04

This release is another standalone release, containing only the CLASSIC and TME frontends.
  

The main features of this release are an improved rendering method, using full primitive sorting, and the ability to select from one of three movement modes, including "Glide-to-Step", which makes it easier to move around and avoids problems with having to determine where map cell boundaries are in relation to one another !
  

Please look at the updated RELEASE NOTES for a full list of new features as well as notes on installation if you didn't download and try V0.03

23/08/03

26/07/03

This release is a standalone release, containing only the CLASSIC and TME frontends.

All of the gameplay is however complete, and so it is in a state where it can be playtested to victory or defeat. I would really welcome peoples comments as to their successes or failures with this version, and please feel free to drop me a line with any bugs that you spot on your journey through Midnight.

PS. Make sure you look at the RELEASE NOTES prior to running this new version !!!

23/02/03

17/12/02

15/12/02

09/12/02

08/12/02

08/12/02

10/10/02

Well I didn't quite make my promise of updating the site once a week, but hopefully it hasn't been too much of a wait since the last update... The free army billboards have now been added to the engine. Have a look at the latest screenshots in the gallery ! The engine itself has had some optimisation done on it in the past couple of weeks, to remove some nasty routines which are not good practice in a 3D application !!! The ability to configure models requiring an orthographic projection to screen space has also been added, in addition to the normal perspective projection for the majority of models. This will be useful for the icon handling which will have to be done in the near future, in order to make the game playable.

Well progress continues on the Fey Lords and some smaller details which have been bugging us...
  

BTW: The shockwave demos appear to have been broken during my web-site revamp. I'm on the case, and will get them running again as soon as I can...

23/09/02

It's been quite a while since the last update to the site.
I've been concentrating on the coding itself, rather than the website ! However, I have promised myself that in order to keep everyone informed of the progress, I will update this info section at least once a week, even if there is no progress...
  

Since the last update, there have been considerable advances in development:

- Completion of all main terrain models !!
- The start of the integration of the characters and regiments
- Integration with The Midnight Engine (TME), and transfer of data sourcing to TME (many thanks to Chris Wild for his help in achieving this)
  

Wayne came up with a great idea to use the real faces of the midnight boarders as the faces for the Lords in the game. The idea was met with some scepticism initially, but after completion of Lord Brith recently (aka Simon Goodwin), photos have been coming in thick and thin. The remaining Lords for whom we don't have any volunteers will be painted by Wayne. See what you think to Lord Brith...

I couldn't have hoped for a better result, as I placed some tight constraints on Wayne's 3D character models. First class job once again Wayne !
  

The engine has some further features to cope with the character/regiment side of things:

- Ability to define multiple objects to represent each character/regiment
- Predefined object positions for each terrain cell, where character/regiment objects will stand
- The objects belonging to a character are dynamically placed around the current terrain cell
- Dynamic texture transformations per mesh
- More mesh flags added e.g. ZWrite ON/OFF, ZTest ON/OFF etc
- The map is now read in from TME, and not from a .html file
- The Free characters and Doomdark's regiments are now read in from TME
  

There are some new screenshots in the gallery, to bring the site up to date with all recently completed terrain models, and also new shots of Lord Brith in the game. If you're a midnight boarder, then you'll have seen these already...
  

Work is currently focusing on completing all of the Free Lords, together with their shields. We will then be focusing on the army unit representation within the game.

28/05/02

The engine has some further features:-

- Collision maps for terrain locations (prevents walking through mountains !!!)
- Real time shadowing !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New comparisons between old and new game imagery, and interactive shockwave demos:-

- Mountain, Tower, Keep, Snowhall, Lith

  
Once again, thanks to Wayne/David for the content.

07/05/02

The snowhall has been integrated into the engine. This puts the current completed feature list as:
- Mountain, Forest, Tower, Village, Downs, Keep, Snowhall, Lake, Lith, Plains (tough one that !!)
  

The engine has some new features:

- High/Medium/Low Polygon model selection based on distance from the camera (to help keep the scene poly count down !!)
- Detail maps for terrain locations (allows detail to be superimposed on the basic terrain texture)
- All object referencing is now by name, rather than by index (makes object definition easier to restructure later on)
  

Other additions:

- New tree type added to forest
- Stars re-instated (but still need to be turned off in the daytime !!)
  

Additional links added to the LINKS page:

- The Moonring
- The Mailing List
  

New page added to show comparisons between old and new game imagery

- Village comparison added, together with Shockwave interactive demo of the model !!! Thanks to Wayne/David for the content.

07/05/02