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The Documentation Of GameGuru

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Lee Bamber edited this page May 1, 2018 · 14 revisions

Introduction

GameGuru has a basic user manual built into the software and can be found by clicking the Help menu from the IDE and selecting Read User Manual. This manual will guide you through the basics of using the software and creating a very simple game. Only after using the software for some short time will you start to ask questions that may not have immediately apparent answers, and when this happens, the GameGuru forum is a great place to get those answers. In addition to the fountain of knowledge that is the forums (https://forum.game-guru.com/) and it's amazingly helpful community, we have additional resources to help you listed in the next section. Even so, you may still have questions, and so we have created this supplementary documentation Wiki to collect and categorize information that is deemed popular and frequently sought.

Current GameGuru Help Resources

Twitch Broadcast Help

We have created a series of Twitch broadcasts which covered a wide range of topics for GameGuru, and you can find them all here at https://www.game-guru.com/live-streams. We've cherry-picked some of the more useful ones for you to try:

Doc Files Help

In addition to the video help, which becomes a little time consuming, we have some highly condensed documentation for the more advanced users who want to get very close to the engine. You will find these documents in the installation of GameGuru under the folder 'GameGuru\Docs'. Amongst them, you will find:

Building Editor Guide.pdf - A guide to using the Building Editor (Builder) that creates simple structures How To Convert An Old Isaac Newton.txt - A quick step by step on how to convert old FPSC characters to GameGuru Importing models into GameGuru.docx - A guide written by an artist on how to import models manually Scripting With LUA.pdf - A simple introduction to getting started with LUA scripting for GameGuru Terrain Palette.pdf - A guide to the texture usage of the 16 slot terrain texture painter The Music System.pdf - A simple guide to using the dynamic music system built into GameGuru

Full LUA Scripting Steam Guide

Based on the original guide by Joel Segal, this guide is hosted on the Steam Guides for GameGuru and is a pretty exhaustive tour of the scripting system and how to use it. You can find it using this link. In addition to this guide, for information on specific LUA commands and what they do, the most up to date source is the global.lua file which you can find in the GameGuru installation under the folder 'GameGuru\Files\scriptbank'. This file contains all the master globals for the GameGuru system at the top, common functions in the middle and a complete list of internal commands at the bottom.

Additional Help by Category

Minimum and Recommended System Specifications

MINIMUM: OS: 7, 8, 10 Processor: Intel Dual-Core 2GHz or AMD Dual-Core 2GHz Memory: 2 GB SYSTEM RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 400 series or AMD Radeon HD 6000 series, 2GB Video Card (Minimum Shader Model 5.0) DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 15 GB available space Sound Card: DirectX Compatible Sound Card with latest drivers

RECOMMENDED: OS: 7, 8, 10 - (64 Bit) Processor: Intel Quad-Core (i5 2300) or AMD Octo-Core (FX 8150) Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 660Ti or greater, AMD Radeon HD 7950 or greater, 2GB Video Card (Minimum Shader Model 5.0) DirectX: Version 11 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 25 GB available space Sound Card: DirectX Compatible Sound Card with latest drivers

Shaders and Lighting

Illumination Maps - When viewing your illumination maps under the PBR rendering system, they are naturally reduced in intensity given the real-world physical characteristics applied to the surface of geometry to conform to the requirements of a Physically Based Rendering system. That said, if you really do want your illumination map texture information to shine through, you can edit the settings.fx file in 'GameGuru\Files\effectbank\reloaded' and remove the comment symbols (//) from the line //#define BOOSTILLUM to give them a large boost.

More Help

Of course, having exhausted the above help, you are always welcome to contact us directly through our Support system which you can find by clicking the green question mark that floats on the main GameGuru website. We also actively respond to your questions posted via Facebook and YouTube if those are your preferred social channels, and as always we are eager to learn how we can help you more, so if you have any ideas please let us know.

Frequently Asked Questions

We sometimes get a question through our support system a few times, and on these occasions we add it to our FAQ, and have collected the more common ones here:

GameGuru Store

Q. I can't download model packs or models from the store? A. Downloads are done from within GameGuru. Once you have purchased your items from the store (or want to download items you already own), follow these instructions. Open GameGuru, click File/Download Store Items. Log in if prompted. Click Download and the items and packs will be installed automatically. You will find the models inside the Purchased folder when you go to add a new entity.

Q. I'm having problems uploading to the store, where can I find help? A. Artists can find full details of the upload requirements in the Store Seller Area.

Q. I need more characters for my games, will you be making more? A. GameGuru includes a full Character Creator. This allows easy creation of characters. Once they are made and saved you will find them in the entity library 'user\charactercreator' folder.

Q. I want to sell in the store, how do I do this? A. You can find all the details and requirements on becoming a Store artist in the Store Seller Area.

Q. I've purchased an item from the store and I'm having problems, who should I contact? A. You can contact the Asset Store Support System.

Ordering

Q. Is there a demo or free version of GameGuru? A. Not at this time, you need to buy GameGuru from the GameGuru site at https://www.game-guru.com/order.

Q. Who do I contact about multiple copies of GameGuru? A. If you are interested in multiple orders or you are a reseller, retailer or digital distributor then please contact us on resellerteam@thegamecreators.com.

Q. We are an educational body and would like to buy GameGuru? A. We offer an affordable site license solution for educational establishments. Contact us direct for full details here sitelicencing@thegamecreators.com.

Game Making

Q. Could I make a zombie survival game? A. You can make a basic one, sure! GameGuru comes with a big selection of Zombies ready to attack you in a game! We'll also be adding more packs and models to help you make the games of your dreams!

Q. I see that GameGuru comes with a set of weapons, will you be offering more in the future? A. Definitely! The initial six weapons represent the main types of projectile weapons (pistol, shotgun, uzi, rifle an RPG and an anti-player mine). We have grenades too. More weapons are available in the Asset Store and future Weapon DLCs are planned.

Q. How large an outdoor map can I make in GameGuru? A. You can create a map of about 768x768 meters in real-world measurements. In game units that would be 51200x51200 with a typical two-story building sized at 300x200, and characters standing about 80 units high. You can also build upwards to over 760 meters!

Q. I want to build many levels for my game, can I? A. Yes, multiple levels are supported inside GameGuru. You link them together via the use of Win Zone markers. The marker holds the name of the next level to load. We will expand on this in future too.

Q. How do I sell games I make in GameGuru? A. Simply use the save standalone game option found in the File menu. Select this and your game will be saved out so that it can be run by itself in EXE format. The folder the files are saved to is; Documents\GameGuru\My Games

Feature Creep

Q. I would like to suggest a feature, how can I do this? A. We are always interested in your suggestions. If there is a feature you would really like to see the best place to suggest it is on our GitHub issues tracker at https://github.com/TheGameCreators/GameGuruRepo/issues. Before posting any suggestions, please check the existing items just in case someone else has already posted.

GameGuru and Custom Media

Q. I need help with making custom media for GameGuru? A. We have a very active forum with many excellent modelers willing to help out. You can find the forum here. Please read the guidelines and check the forum before posting in case your question has already been answered.

Q. Which model formats does GameGuru support? A. Currently, GameGuru only supports .x and .dbo files. We also have basic support for importing static FBX files. For performance, all .x files are converted into the DBO format when the test game is created as these are the most compatible with the GameGuru engine. We may well add additional formats in the future and are investigating which would be of the most use to the end user.

Q. I use 3D Max and want to convert my file for use in GameGuru? A. The latest and best way to get X files out of 3D MAX is by using Bond1's adapted kW Exporter. Download Links and Instruction can be found at http://mjblosser.com/kw-x-port-for-3ds-max/

General

Q. Can I develop games for Consoles or other Platforms? A. For the moment we are focusing on being the Windows PC, version 7 and above. If you want to get into coding, we do have a cross-platform game development system called AppGameKit which you can find at https://www.appgamekit.com/.

Q. I've read all the FAQ but still can't find the answer I need? A. We try very hard to cover all questions, but as you can imagine, it is difficult to predict all of them. If you can't find the answer you're looking for we have a very friendly and active forum where users are often happy to help. You can find the forums here. If you still can't get the help you need, you can use the green question mark icon which shows on our main websites on the lower right of the screen.

Q. I think I've found a bug, where do I report it? A. The best place to report it is the issues tracker on GitHub which you can find at https://github.com/TheGameCreators/GameGuruRepo/issues. Before posting any bugs, please read the issues tracker bug entries just in case someone else has already posted.

GameGuru Editor

Q. What are the GameGuru shortcut keys? A. GameGuru has a number of shortcuts to make development easier and we will be adding more shortcuts as the product grows. You can access information on the current keys at any time during editing by pressing the F1 key in the editor.

Steam

Q. How can I locate where the game assets are installed? A. Open the Steam client, Right click on GameGuru, Click Properties, A dialogue box will open, select the LOCAL FILES tab, Click BROWSE LOCAL FILES, You are then shown the root folder where GameGuru is installed to, The Files folder holds all the assets.

Common Errors and Solutions

Runtime Error 3002 (loading_main) - This will occur if you have included an entity in your level, and then saved a standalone executable containing this level, but the entity required more files than was copied over to the standalone. If you see this bug with stock media, report the entity that causes it, and in the meantime you can manually copy ALL the files associated with this entity to the standalone in the correct relative folder and this error no longer shows.

  • Character Creator buttons not all on screen* - You could have your Windows Desktop settings configured 150% of the font size (that is recommended), by lowering it to 125% you may notice the character creator buttons will appear that were not seen before.

  • Editor or Game Stutters when move camera around* - This could be caused by your level holding too much texture data, causing the 2GB video card to thrash. As a tip, open SETUP.INI and change the 'dividetexturesize' field to 2 or 4, as this will reduce the final size of textures in memory, which could solve your stutter issue though its a good idea to make sure the textures used in your level are proportional to their use in your design.

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