There hasn’t been a lot of LScripting as of late and I blame the new Python scripting in LightWave. Well, I blame my reluctance to get into another programming language all over again. I’d much rather spend my time in Unity and C#. Apart from Python, LightWave is getting better and better by each iteration and I love the direction it has taken under Rob Powers and Matt Gorner. The upcoming 11.5 release will rock! I promise to keep on hammering the Unity integration aspects in the LightWave beta forums.

I am still working on Galactic Fleet, my space trade and action game, which I hope will be of interest to the world once it gets released. I am only cautiously optimistic about it as there seems to be a flood of sci-fi/space games popping out of the woodwork nowadays. Galactic Fleet started as a brainchild in 2005 or so and has gone from a “one man and his space ship” type game, to more of an old school tycooning game with action events/sequences. I have gotten Facebook and Kongregate integration working by using the Player.IO API and will continue to use it for payment solutions and multiplayer aspects.

On my full time job at Proactima, I am steering towards a more full time Unity situation as well, and hope to bring another level of added value to the company by utilising Unity for both training and visualisation across the board. I have been upgrading my whole software suite this year, so my Adobe CS package is at CS6 now, LightWave at 11, preordered Unity 4.0 + full iOS & Android versions. To match the freshness of the software, Proactima approved the acquisition of a schnazzy MacBook Pro Retina to get up to speed on the hardware front, so I owe them extra hugs, perhaps not kisses, but at least hugs. Proactima FTW!

All in all, it seems like Unity will be the at the centre of attention in the foreseeable future.

Oh, and me and my wife got a baby girl in June happy diaper changing times abound.

I must say its quite entertaining to see my name on a movie production like Iron Sky Thanks to Kelly, Alex and Luke for letting me play and helping out in getting some automagic LScripts going. Now, how to get some LightWave going for the next Star Trek movie… Mr J.J. sirr, need some VFX assistance or what about you Mr Lucas, any live action TV series about to be made?

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4339735/

In any case, now I need to get on with my own space ship projects. Where do I go to order more time in a day?

Edit: It seems to be doing well at the Berlin film festival:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/feb/08/sci-fi-nazi-berlin-film-festival

Its 2012 and the local peeps are awesome. After attending Bergen Game Jam last weekend and the first international Join Game conference yesterday and today, one can not help but to be excited and inspired to get back into the game dev mode. I need to update some LScripts and I think some Unity/C# scripts should be released too. Sharing is caring.

If you so happen to be a Norwegian or a local Bergeneese, head over to spillmakerlauget.no and join in on the game dev fun. If you are in the 3D/CG realm, then also head over to cgbergen.org and join the mailing list.

Full steam ahead!

To any and all LightWave scripters out in the interwibble.

There is quite a few LScripts in circulation, some are very focused and task oriented while others are quite wide in scope. These tools can sometimes become a vital part of someone’s pipeline and if we as creators of LScripts become less invested in it, both in time and effort, people using it may end up suffering from unfixed bugs and scripts not working at all.

I would urge all developers of free LScripts to release them as uncompiled .ls sources, so that the scripts can be maintained and stay alive even after the creator of them has stopped caring or been hit by a truck.

Circlify is now free and uncompiled for all to poke at: http://mentalfish.com/uploads/lscripts/MFCirclify.zip

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=11341761&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

Here is the first doodle of my series of space ship jam sessions. 37 minutes. I think it is a fighter of sorts.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=14374354&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0

Would a space ship a day keep the doctor away? Considering doing a ship doodle each day, a one hour session of LightWave speed modeling.

Here is a doodle that took a day to finish:

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=14350233&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0

This is a free LScript for LightWave to remove keyframes, so I call it Keyfragger. Peow peow! Its pretty much the evil twin of the Motion Baker script which has been renamed Keystove, just to stay in character.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=14276932&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0

Download LScript

The Gnomon Workshop has released a training DVD by Aristomenis (Meni) Tsirbas on how to do good camera work in Layout. Based on the preview video it looks quite nice.

http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/product/887/Camera-Fundamentals-for-Layout

Rob Powers is showing off LightWave 10, speedy OpenGL and Viewport Preview Render.

http://www.youtube.com/v/JhJauu_vB2A&hl=en_US&fs=1