23th of November 2015
Ryzom on Steam (dev part)
Kervala: First, I'll explain what is Steam for the ones who don't know. It's a software and a website which allows to buy and install a great amount of games. Although most of the games run on Windows, Linux and OS X are also supported. So, getting Ryzom on Steam may bring us much visibility for little work needed. And, above all, Ryzom has been greenlighted on Steam : it has been approved by the Steam community.
For now, all clients are ready for Steam : Linux 32 & 64, Windows 32 & 64 and OS X 64. We corrected most importants bugs (still 1 left) and make better visual quality, so the game will be liked already with firts launch. We are in test phase and bugs correction, we have also to finish the store page.
Q: You said you corrected most important bugs. Is there a list available somewhere?
A: Yep the list of fixes is public: https://bitbucket.org/ryzom/ryzomcore/commits/ For Steam, we'll be only using public code for Ryzom clients, unlike current Windows client that is partially closed source. All the clients are regularly updated with new patches from Ryzom Core.
Q: I am not so good with computers so not understand the client thing.
A: When you launch Ryzom, you're launching the Ryzom client in fact. MMORPG have two parts: client and server.
Q: Will the Teleport while music on bug ever be fixed for Mac?
A: New OS X client is already more stable than previous ones.
Tgwaste: But does it fix the bug?
Kervala: The last bug we didn't fixed is the one you have. I succeeded to reproduce it.
Q: How can I get these new clients if I don't have a Steam account (and don't want to have one)?
A: As client are compiled from the open-source code, I'll create a page where the same clients as ones on Steam can be downloaded. There is no DRM at all with Steam clients and they can be launched without Steam, but patch is disabled because we're using Steam updates.
Q: What are the visual improvements?
A: 128 MB VRAM being the new default and detecting monitor current resolution for fullscreen, and some fixes/improvements we did some months/years ago.
Q: Did you think to modify the restrictions of free accounts, temporarily for Steam launching, or more definitly?
A: We are volunteers, we can't decide that.
----------------------------------------------------------
Kaetemi: I have been working on the Ryzom Core code since way back, and I am very happy that all the changes we've been doing since then are finally moving into the published client. I was part of open beta, closed focus beta, Ryzom Ring alpha, etc... and also worked on the NeL engine before the Ryzom code became available. So. Shiny new stuff. On the audio side we have worked to get rid of the proprietary and deprecated Fmod driver, and for all platforms there is OpenAL support, and for Windows there is additionally a completely new XAudio2 based audio engine. What this means concretely: The EAX button in the config now actually does something. Graphics. Lots of optimization on the OpenGL backend, the most important being: Vertex buffer streaming (technical term) is now a lot faster - which means that getting bombarded with spells won't lag the client as much anymore as it used to. And for new features the post-processing and gpu program pipeline has been cleaned up to allow for... Amazingly beautiful FXAA anti-aliasing, which makes for really smooth looking visuals (no more ugly pixels). Maybe a bit exagerated but it does look good. It also allows VR render outputs to be implemented... one day. (I have played on the Oculus, it works).
And finally, and this is maybe the most interesting part for some of you, is that I am now working on new tools related to content creation. There is now an exporter which can export your Blender files directly into Ryzom compatible NeL format. On the Ryzom Core repository. (It actually supports a very large number of file formats as input). This will be further improved by additional tools for modifying and previewing NeL 3D model material effects in realtime (along with specifying various other export settings). And the direction this eventually should be going is to get rid of reliance on proprietary tools for creating new zones, and provide a streamlined way of preparing new 3D content for the game.
Q: We start to become old, would it be possible to bigger the size of the font?
A: All the fonts? It's possible to change the font size in the UI xml files manually, but there exists no global scaling parameter in the code YET as far as I know. I think it will break some of the UI sizes though, text will flow out of the interface... Alternatively, it is now
technically possible to render the UI separately to a separate render target and scale it entirely, but it's not the cleanest result...
Q: The chat, at least?
A: Changing font size of the chat : U / Interface / Chat / Fontsize (bottom of window).
Q: Given the current hourly and random PW's, is there any expectation of all this new content and influx of Steam players not cause more server lag or glitches?
A: The changes here are client-side. I am not involved with the running of the Atys shard, so I don't know what their server hardware is. But I do have my own shard running, and I can tell you it is very easy to scale the shard up to multiple physical boxes if necessary. Back in 2004 a single shard was running on around a dozen physical dual core servers, if I remember correctly. That is, a box per continent, two frontends, two backups, logging, etc, all separated. I think Atys shard is running one 1 server, but I don't know.
Cyndalia: Yes, when the merge happened we started seeing more pw's but it's been somewhat better.
Q: Did I understand well... the new 3D content is not only for apartments this time? New buildings, for example?
A: I am not working on any content myself, I am working on the tools to bring the 3D content ingame, but yes, it will eventually allow importing buildings into the game, if someone makes them. Importing buildings into game requires addition of new landscape tiles to the data and rebaking the shadow maps. Also, we want lots of 3D content to test the new export tools.
Aileya: Sure, it will be possible to add buildings, clothings, weapons or whatever with a working tool we can use to export from 3D programs like blender into the games NeL engine. But we from graphics team are very low numbered by now. So everyone who is able and want to help us with any 3D or 2D elements are more than welcome to help us including new stuff.
Q: Where's Winch Gate (WG) in all of this? Shouldn't it be the responsible and that gives the big lines and decides the strategies? Are you supported by anyway?
A: The new export utilities is specifically done at WG's request.
Kervala: That's WG that asked to publish Ryzom on Steam. And WG created the Greenlight page. And I think that's a good decision. Steam wasn't adapted for MMORPG at first, but now there are more and more MMORPG available on Steam.
Yenno: Speaking about the content, do WG have a dedicated Team for that?
Kervala: That's Ryzom Forge goal.
Yenno: What I was hoping for... Is that WG has special 'local' where Teams work with salary and fixed hours... Counting on JUST volunteers wouldn't do much...
Tamarea: Winch Gate decides of strategics (eg : get Ryzom on Steam) and validates the intregrations in the game (eg: Ryzom Core modifications, additions of content by Ryzom Forge). 2015 allows the creation of the tools needed for content creation. Winch Gate helps Ryzom Forge as it can, for example by asking for a tool which alllow graphists to create content with free tools as to avoid the use of proprietary (and expansive) tools. As these bases are now established, 2016 will focus on the creation of content visible in game. The more Ryzom will have premium players, the more Winch Gate will be able to invest for new employees (devs especially).
Q: Is the exporter ready? What environment and OS does it need? Or is it server-side? If it is ready, can we have a direct link from which download it?
A: The exporter works. It should be able to compile cross-platform. You have to compile yourself at the moment.. and the exporter needs actual 3d model test cases for validation: https://bitbucket.org/ryzom/ryzomcore/commits/all.
Q: You spoke about new clothes, will they be craftable?
A: Someone needs to 3D model them first.
Kiwalie: But is it in the project, with new items to craft?
Aileya: Yes, some of them will be also craftable. But for now it will still take its time to be really seen ingame.
Kaetemi: Seriously, learn some 3d modeling tools, and help out. it's easy!
Q: Is there a due date for Steam?
A: Not now, we work hard to improve the game before, update of the clients, bug fixes, but also text fixing. We also need to make the Steam page of Ryzom, find text, translate in DE, EN, FR, ES, RU, screenshots and videos. We are in hurry to publish Ryzon on Steam, but going too quick would be a mistake, better if all is ready before!
Q: I don't really see the link between Steam and the tools Kaetemi talks about... Is there hope to see some new devs, graphists or content creators to come?
A: Yes: Steam is a very large platform. It will help us to attract more players, and therefore more subscribers, and more resources to add content.
Kaetemi: One of the roadblocks to getting content out has been all the steps involved in getting the new goodies from the artist's computer onto yours. So one part is getting the data from the artist into the right format, the second part is practical distribution to players - someone needs to be responsable for taking that final step of testing and distribution,
otherwise it never happens. So for the first part, NeL used to require 3DS Max which costs 5000€ or something, which is not affordable by most people who want to help -- so by enabling free tools like blender being used that clears one blocking issue. For the second part, there were problems with distribution of patches and apple's app store back in the day, and the original Ryzom patching system was abandoned at one point, and they hacked in the patchlet system... But the patchlet system cannot be used to patch in new landscape. Because it's very inefficient. So steam allows for a more standardized approach to getting the latest version of the game out there.
Ryzom on Steam (dev part)
Kervala: First, I'll explain what is Steam for the ones who don't know. It's a software and a website which allows to buy and install a great amount of games. Although most of the games run on Windows, Linux and OS X are also supported. So, getting Ryzom on Steam may bring us much visibility for little work needed. And, above all, Ryzom has been greenlighted on Steam : it has been approved by the Steam community.
For now, all clients are ready for Steam : Linux 32 & 64, Windows 32 & 64 and OS X 64. We corrected most importants bugs (still 1 left) and make better visual quality, so the game will be liked already with firts launch. We are in test phase and bugs correction, we have also to finish the store page.
Q: You said you corrected most important bugs. Is there a list available somewhere?
A: Yep the list of fixes is public: https://bitbucket.org/ryzom/ryzomcore/commits/ For Steam, we'll be only using public code for Ryzom clients, unlike current Windows client that is partially closed source. All the clients are regularly updated with new patches from Ryzom Core.
Q: I am not so good with computers so not understand the client thing.
A: When you launch Ryzom, you're launching the Ryzom client in fact. MMORPG have two parts: client and server.
Q: Will the Teleport while music on bug ever be fixed for Mac?
A: New OS X client is already more stable than previous ones.
Tgwaste: But does it fix the bug?
Kervala: The last bug we didn't fixed is the one you have. I succeeded to reproduce it.
Q: How can I get these new clients if I don't have a Steam account (and don't want to have one)?
A: As client are compiled from the open-source code, I'll create a page where the same clients as ones on Steam can be downloaded. There is no DRM at all with Steam clients and they can be launched without Steam, but patch is disabled because we're using Steam updates.
Q: What are the visual improvements?
A: 128 MB VRAM being the new default and detecting monitor current resolution for fullscreen, and some fixes/improvements we did some months/years ago.
Q: Did you think to modify the restrictions of free accounts, temporarily for Steam launching, or more definitly?
A: We are volunteers, we can't decide that.
----------------------------------------------------------
Kaetemi: I have been working on the Ryzom Core code since way back, and I am very happy that all the changes we've been doing since then are finally moving into the published client. I was part of open beta, closed focus beta, Ryzom Ring alpha, etc... and also worked on the NeL engine before the Ryzom code became available. So. Shiny new stuff. On the audio side we have worked to get rid of the proprietary and deprecated Fmod driver, and for all platforms there is OpenAL support, and for Windows there is additionally a completely new XAudio2 based audio engine. What this means concretely: The EAX button in the config now actually does something. Graphics. Lots of optimization on the OpenGL backend, the most important being: Vertex buffer streaming (technical term) is now a lot faster - which means that getting bombarded with spells won't lag the client as much anymore as it used to. And for new features the post-processing and gpu program pipeline has been cleaned up to allow for... Amazingly beautiful FXAA anti-aliasing, which makes for really smooth looking visuals (no more ugly pixels). Maybe a bit exagerated but it does look good. It also allows VR render outputs to be implemented... one day. (I have played on the Oculus, it works).
And finally, and this is maybe the most interesting part for some of you, is that I am now working on new tools related to content creation. There is now an exporter which can export your Blender files directly into Ryzom compatible NeL format. On the Ryzom Core repository. (It actually supports a very large number of file formats as input). This will be further improved by additional tools for modifying and previewing NeL 3D model material effects in realtime (along with specifying various other export settings). And the direction this eventually should be going is to get rid of reliance on proprietary tools for creating new zones, and provide a streamlined way of preparing new 3D content for the game.
Q: We start to become old, would it be possible to bigger the size of the font?
A: All the fonts? It's possible to change the font size in the UI xml files manually, but there exists no global scaling parameter in the code YET as far as I know. I think it will break some of the UI sizes though, text will flow out of the interface... Alternatively, it is now
technically possible to render the UI separately to a separate render target and scale it entirely, but it's not the cleanest result...
Q: The chat, at least?
A: Changing font size of the chat : U / Interface / Chat / Fontsize (bottom of window).
Q: Given the current hourly and random PW's, is there any expectation of all this new content and influx of Steam players not cause more server lag or glitches?
A: The changes here are client-side. I am not involved with the running of the Atys shard, so I don't know what their server hardware is. But I do have my own shard running, and I can tell you it is very easy to scale the shard up to multiple physical boxes if necessary. Back in 2004 a single shard was running on around a dozen physical dual core servers, if I remember correctly. That is, a box per continent, two frontends, two backups, logging, etc, all separated. I think Atys shard is running one 1 server, but I don't know.
Cyndalia: Yes, when the merge happened we started seeing more pw's but it's been somewhat better.
Q: Did I understand well... the new 3D content is not only for apartments this time? New buildings, for example?
A: I am not working on any content myself, I am working on the tools to bring the 3D content ingame, but yes, it will eventually allow importing buildings into the game, if someone makes them. Importing buildings into game requires addition of new landscape tiles to the data and rebaking the shadow maps. Also, we want lots of 3D content to test the new export tools.
Aileya: Sure, it will be possible to add buildings, clothings, weapons or whatever with a working tool we can use to export from 3D programs like blender into the games NeL engine. But we from graphics team are very low numbered by now. So everyone who is able and want to help us with any 3D or 2D elements are more than welcome to help us including new stuff.
Q: Where's Winch Gate (WG) in all of this? Shouldn't it be the responsible and that gives the big lines and decides the strategies? Are you supported by anyway?
A: The new export utilities is specifically done at WG's request.
Kervala: That's WG that asked to publish Ryzom on Steam. And WG created the Greenlight page. And I think that's a good decision. Steam wasn't adapted for MMORPG at first, but now there are more and more MMORPG available on Steam.
Yenno: Speaking about the content, do WG have a dedicated Team for that?
Kervala: That's Ryzom Forge goal.
Yenno: What I was hoping for... Is that WG has special 'local' where Teams work with salary and fixed hours... Counting on JUST volunteers wouldn't do much...
Tamarea: Winch Gate decides of strategics (eg : get Ryzom on Steam) and validates the intregrations in the game (eg: Ryzom Core modifications, additions of content by Ryzom Forge). 2015 allows the creation of the tools needed for content creation. Winch Gate helps Ryzom Forge as it can, for example by asking for a tool which alllow graphists to create content with free tools as to avoid the use of proprietary (and expansive) tools. As these bases are now established, 2016 will focus on the creation of content visible in game. The more Ryzom will have premium players, the more Winch Gate will be able to invest for new employees (devs especially).
Q: Is the exporter ready? What environment and OS does it need? Or is it server-side? If it is ready, can we have a direct link from which download it?
A: The exporter works. It should be able to compile cross-platform. You have to compile yourself at the moment.. and the exporter needs actual 3d model test cases for validation: https://bitbucket.org/ryzom/ryzomcore/commits/all.
Q: You spoke about new clothes, will they be craftable?
A: Someone needs to 3D model them first.
Kiwalie: But is it in the project, with new items to craft?
Aileya: Yes, some of them will be also craftable. But for now it will still take its time to be really seen ingame.
Kaetemi: Seriously, learn some 3d modeling tools, and help out. it's easy!
Q: Is there a due date for Steam?
A: Not now, we work hard to improve the game before, update of the clients, bug fixes, but also text fixing. We also need to make the Steam page of Ryzom, find text, translate in DE, EN, FR, ES, RU, screenshots and videos. We are in hurry to publish Ryzon on Steam, but going too quick would be a mistake, better if all is ready before!
Q: I don't really see the link between Steam and the tools Kaetemi talks about... Is there hope to see some new devs, graphists or content creators to come?
A: Yes: Steam is a very large platform. It will help us to attract more players, and therefore more subscribers, and more resources to add content.
Kaetemi: One of the roadblocks to getting content out has been all the steps involved in getting the new goodies from the artist's computer onto yours. So one part is getting the data from the artist into the right format, the second part is practical distribution to players - someone needs to be responsable for taking that final step of testing and distribution,
otherwise it never happens. So for the first part, NeL used to require 3DS Max which costs 5000€ or something, which is not affordable by most people who want to help -- so by enabling free tools like blender being used that clears one blocking issue. For the second part, there were problems with distribution of patches and apple's app store back in the day, and the original Ryzom patching system was abandoned at one point, and they hacked in the patchlet system... But the patchlet system cannot be used to patch in new landscape. Because it's very inefficient. So steam allows for a more standardized approach to getting the latest version of the game out there.
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Gaueko
Communications Manager Assistant - Translation Team Manager, Lore Team Member - ES/EN
gaueko@ryzom.com