Moviestorm 1.5.3 nearly ready

We're currently finalizing the release of Moviestorm 1.5.3.  If all goes well, it'll be ready by the end of this week. Here are the highlights of what we're hoping it will include (note that some items may not ship if they fail final QA):

New features

• Look At now has a customizer which allows you to change the duration of the look at blend, where on the target the character is looking, and to do the look at with just the head, just the eyes, or both the head and eyes
• Switching between the Cutting Room and the Camera View or Director's View keeps the timeline position, if the Cutting Room is showing a view of the scene.
• Ceilings now cast shadows, provided Interior lighting is disabled.
• The Script Editor now has a 'clear timeline' option when right clicking on the current scene, which removes all activities in that scene.
• The prop customizer in the set workshop now has an option to stop a prop casting shadows. This will also stop it reducing shadowmap quality, which can otherwise happen for props near the edges of your scene.
• The 'Home' key now centers the view.

Bug fixes

• The 'Dead' mood now prevents any automatic look at activities, or any improvisation.
• Very long (eg over 6 min) clips now display correctly on the Cutting Room timeline.
• The say record buttons are now play/stop buttons rather than having a separate stop.
• Loading a multi-scene movie that was saved in the Cutting Room will go straight to the Cutting Room rather than asking which scene to go to then going to the Cutting Room.
• Having a broken video in your movie no longer stops it from loading.
• When changing the duration of a walk, it should move later activities along to provide space.
• When using the image browser, images over 4 megapixels now warn the user to resize them, rather than risking breaking Moviestorm.
• Remove mark now works on marks that do not have an associated walk.
• When taking screenshots in the Camera View with the snapshot button, the resulting images now include depth of field.
• The cel-shading tick box on the lighting settings no longer overrides the movie cel-shading tick box on the script settings unless you tell it to.
• Memory leak fix: Moviestorm no longer holds onto copies of videos that were used as previews, or that were used on the Cutting Room timeline, or that were deleted.
• Modders workshop: changed the 'Move to' menu so that you can scroll through the list of addons.
• Modders workshop: fixed the 'Browse' button so that it works for props that have spaces in their folder names.

Climb every mountain

The latest news on the 1.5 is that it's now in the process of final checking.  We made some fixes over the weekend, and we're just giving those a last check. Assuming all's well, we'll have it wrapped up and shipped out to you guys by the end of the week.

Among the list of new features is the terrain editor, so you're no longer constrained to flat sets.  Here's a couple of very quick examples of what you can do with it.

New packs for 1.5

A very harried Amos told me earlier today that testing on 1.5 is going well, and we're aiming for a release date "very early in December".  He wouldn't commit himself any further than that, and there's only so much threatening I can do on your behalf from 5000 miles away.

He did, however, let slip that the long awaited sword fighting pack will be released "in time for Christmas", and that before that, there will be an "Indian pack" that's been ready to go for a while, just waiting on some code that's in the new release.  That will include some interior and exterior sets, plus a few costumes - acha hai!

I'll try to get the guys to snap a couple of screenshots of the new stuff when they're not so busy, and we'll post them for you here.

Valentine's Day mayhem

We released the Valentine's pack today. Normally we don't release on Fridays, but since Valentine's Day is only ten days away, we figured we shouldn't wait till Monday.

You'll notice from the announcement on Moviestorm News that you can only get it from the Marketplace until Monday. if you fire up Moviestorm and hit Get More Content, it won't appear. This is because of the way we package the addons. We have to make two versions of each addon pack. One's a standalone version that goes into the marketplace so you can download the pack from the Web site. This was ready yesterday as planned.

Then we make a second version of the pack which is a patch update, so you can get this directly from Moviestorm without going to the Web site to purchase it. Unlike code updates, these get flagged as optional updates, so you only get them once you've got a license to the pack. The patch then has to get tested separately to make sure it shows up in the Moviestorm launcher and installs properly. We didn't manage to get to this bit yesterday, and were planning to do it today.

Unfortunately Ben, who's the mastermind for the patches, was taken ill and had to go home early before he could complete the patch creation process. Rather than have someone else take over part-way through, and risk screwing up what he'd already done, we opted to put the tested standalone version in the marketplace today, and let Ben complete the patching on Monday when he's recovered.

Sorry for the inconvenience & any confusion - however, this way at least you can get the pack now instead of waiting.

Beta testers needed for skeleton modding

At long last, we've got the skeleton data ready to ship out. Before we put it on general release, we're looking for 5 or 6 experienced modders to check it through and make sure it all works OK in a modding environment.

What we're asking of our beta crew is this:

• You'll need a copy of 3DS Max 2008 (or above) with a cal3D exporter. Earlier versions of Max will not open the files.
• You've had some experience with animating, skinning and creating meshes.
• Don't share the actual data with anyone until we give you the go-ahead. You can release mods you make with it, though - making sure other people can use them is a critical part of the testing!
• Talk to each other and try to sort out as much as you can before asking the dev team for help. We'll create a dedicated forum where you can discuss the skeletons, and we'll look in from time to time and give advice where it's most needed.
• Be prepared to assist other modders when we make the data public: either help out in the forums or make some tutorials.

To register your interest in being part of the beta crew, please email art.team@moviestorm.co.uk. Numbers will initially be very limited. We'd like initial feedback from you in the next few weeks, so if you're not going to have time to look at this any time soon, please don't take a spot that someone else could use.

Quiet before the storm

It's all been a bit quiet on the blog for a while. The office, on the other hand, has been a hive of activity, as we gear up for a big release Any Time Now. This will include Moviestorm 1.2 and major changes to the marketplace, so it's slightly more complicated than usual.

We also officially changed the company name from Short Fuze Limited to Moviestorm Limited this week, so we're in the process of going through the Web site and everything else with a fine tooth comb and updating everything to reflect the new name.

Normal blogging will be resumed shortly.

1.1.7.1 set for launch

We're currently putting the 1.1.7.1 patch through its final tests, and it's all looking good. Barring fire, tempest, flood, or Eagle-Eye Holloway spotting something horrific, we'll upload it to our servers tonight when we leave the office, and you'll be able to get it tomorrow after we've verified that it uploaded properly.

Eagle-Eye Holloway is watching YOU!

Moviestorm 1.1.7.1

• SNOW LEOPARD (MacOSX 10.6) USERS are strongly recommended to reinstall Moviestorm in order to benefit from significant performance improvements. Please note also that the NVIDIA Cg Toolkit has a different installation process under Snow Leopard.
• Please note that some modders' content will need to be republished before being used in Moviestorm.

Resolved issues

• Old movies with character "Place Here" commands outside of the floor mesh now load and playback correctly.
• Facial expressions now work correctly.
• Placing doors on the set will no longer be disabled if content packs are missing from the user's library.
• Character library stays on screen after closing the shortcut key help panel.
• The Weather special effect now works in the Camerawork & Cutting Room Views without distorting the camera view.
• Deleting a "Place Here" command now updates subsequent waypoints correctly.
• Walking on rugs works again.
• Updated preview thumbnails for various costume and heads.
• Finally added Tari Akpodiete to the credits (sorry Tari!)

Windows 7

We're wondering if any intrepid users have tried Moviestorm on Windows 7. We've recently had some preliminary results back from our hardware testing people, and they reported no problems with it, but they didn't test it by using it in the same way you do. They certainly didn't make movies with it.

We'll be testing Windows 7 as soon as we can - in the meantime, any feedback you have would be useful. If nothing else, it'll tell our QA crew where to start looking.

Thanks.

Moviestorm 1.1.7 progress

It's all going to plan. We should be ready to build the final binary tomorrow, then next week we'll be onto the fun and games of installers & uploading.

As long as nobody says "what could possibly go wrong now," we'll be good to go mid-week. Just. Don't. Say it.

Moviestorm 1.1.7 for release next week

We're down to just one last critical bug with 1.1.7, a nasty issue with sound under Windows (which has actually forced Dave, wailing and sobbing, to abandon his trusty Mac and use a PC). Once that's fixed (and right now it looks like we've cracked it), we'll be starting the final wrap-up, packaging, proof-reading, and building & testing the installers, and all the other necessary bits and pieces that go into making a release.

All being well, Moviestorm 1.1.7 will be ready for shipping some time next week.

Shiny new user interface and new help text.

Alex's first fortnight

As is traditional now, we asked Alex to write a few paragraphs about his first weeks working with us here at Moviestorm Towers. We told him to be honest, so the bits where he says we're all great are not made under duress and are therefore admissible in court.

So I’ve been at Short Fuze for two weeks now and I’m glad to say that I’m surviving. Now I’ve got over those first week jitters, I’m feeling a lot more settled as part of the group. That's mostly due to the great hospitality of the Moviestorm team, who have welcomed me with open arms (and an open dev build). I began to feel at home right away, and fell straight into the work - despite having to make an hour and a half commute morning and night. Thankfully, today's Friday so I get a well earned lie-in tomorrow.
For the second week in a row, I’ve been placed firmly in the QA department. I’ve been giving new user experience input for the latest version of Moviestorm, finding bugs, submitting feature requests and generally trying to break the software. I have to say the work can be repetitive and sometimes frustrating, but if anyone knew my circumstances beforehand they’d know how much I’m enjoying it. As this version is close to being released I found myself somewhat thrown in at the deep end, but as we all know, beggars can’t be choosers and I love a challenge. Andrew has requested that I help him design some of his sweet-looking movie gifts so I’ve definitely not run out of things to look forward to. That’s much better than writing DVDs that each take an hour and a quarter to burn, yawn.
As my placement with Short Fuze is open-ended I have no idea how long I will be working here. I would very happily work here forever, so fingers crossed that investment starts flooding in and Moviestorm becomes bigger than The Sims! I guess as long as I’m making myself useful here there'll be a place for me, so its eyes down, tea in hand and tappity tap tap on the keyboard.
For me the significance of this placement is huge. Moviestorm isn't a game, of course, but I still consider this to be my first experience working in the games industry. It's built my confidence and taught me that I can work in one of the most competitive sectors of the media and make a name for myself. On a more constructive note it's inspiring me to start kicking down game company doors (metaphorically) to get my voice heard and my face out there for all to see (no matter how unpleasant).
In conclusion, this has been an amazing experience for me so far. Despite sitting in an office all day staring at a monitor screen, I’m relishing every moment of it. Perhaps it's because I’ve began working in the industry in which I want a career, or maybe it's because I’m working with a great bunch of guys (and one gal). Either way, I’m definitely richer for the experience.
That's got to be better than playing Counter Strike: Source all day. Hmm actually...

Anime Alex joins Short Fuze

Please say hi to the newest member of the Moviestorm crew, intern Alex Gowland. (No, not Alex Garland, who wrote The Beach and Sunshine. We can't afford him.) Our Alex is a self-confessed anime freak from Hartlepool with a degree in media production. He's also an artist and designer, and has ambitions to direct a video game that will, in his own words, "dwarf Final Fantasy".

Clearly the boy has talent and ambition, which is why we put him to work in QA. That'll learn him. He'll also be helping Andrew with a super-secret Short Fuze project currently in development, but he's got to take his licks as the QA whipping boy for a while before we let him loose on the fun stuff.

Apparently Alex enjoys cooking as well. That's good. We know who to turn to when we need someone to make late-night Pot Noodles for the dev team.

Moviestorm 1.1.6.2 imminent

We're just in the process of assembling patch release 1.1.6.2. Code's all written, and we're now going through all the usual deployment procedures.

It's not a big release: in fact, it only contains one bug fix, but we decided it was worth while shipping this to you, as it's quite a nasty one.

As reported in the forums, canceling a render causes Moviestorm to crash, potentially leaving a movie unsaved. This was introduced in 1.1.6.1, released on July 10, when we changed how sound worked during rendering (to fix some other problems), and accidentally introduced this bug by failing to move all the necessary logic to the right place.

We'll get this out as soon as we can.

Dis-Tressed

Well, wouldn't ya know it? The hairstyles packs were all ready to roll, and then Ben comes back from holiday, takes one look at them, and finds three issues that need fixing. So after a some soul-searching, discussion, and banging of heads on desks, we decided to hold them for another week and do them properly. The upside to this is that we can also sneak in a few more things that we were reluctantly going to leave out, so it's not all bad.

That's what QA is for, after all.


The thing is, it'll only take a couple of days to fix the problem, but we have a pretty cast-iron rule round here. Never release on Fridays or Mondays. That's a rule born of painful experience. Friday releases almost always mean "c'mon, guys, just get it out of the door and then we can all go home," rapidly followed by "oops, there's a serious problem, and nobody's around to take a look at it for three days." Monday releases almost always mean, "let's shove this out first thing and then chalk up an instant win," rapidly followed by "we did go through the whole release checklist, didn't we? errr...."

Then we get to the corollary of that rule. Don't release on Thursdays unless you're sure it's going to work. Because then when there's a problem, you have to fix it on Friday, which leads to the Friday Release Syndrome, and a good chance you'll rush the fix and get it wrong.

So that's why we try to go for Wednesday releases. We have time to check everything properly at the start of the week, and time to fix it if we screwed something up. Which means that you'll have to wait for next week for the hairstyles.

But we'll tease you a bit in the meantime. We know you love it when we do that. All the screenshots are ready, so we'll post those on the main blog and make you drool. Just a little bit. We wouldn't want you messing up your keyboards.

Welcome Amos

This is Amos Willbond. He formerly worked for The Other Cambridge Machinima Company, assisting the art & QA departments in the creation and distribution of 3D models. He's now neatly ensconced betwixt Ben and Dave Holloway in the QA team.

Please give him a big welcome - he's already making a huge difference to the crew, and he's only been with us since Tuesday.

In his spare time, he likes to hunt dinosaurs in the Amazon jungle. Or so he says.

Johnnie's boots have never looked so clean

We're lucky enough to have found yet another deluded student who, for some unfathomable reason, wanted to do some work experience with us. Chris Heppell has been in the trenches with the QA team for the past fortnight. In what's now become a Short Fuze tradition, we asked him to write a short summary of his time with us.

‘1.1.6’, ‘Release candidate’, ‘Bug’, ‘Oh, #*%@!!!’ and ‘ARRGHH!!’ are all some of the phrases I’ve been constantly hearing at the Short Fuze office. That doesn’t come as a surprise though, as 1.1.6 is due for release very soon and everyone wants to get it out with the minimal amount of fuss and zero problems. This is where I come in … I’ve been breaking Moviestorm.

As soon as I started my Work Experience at Short Fuze, I was shoved into a chair by Johnnie who told me to "Break Moviestorm! And tell us what we did wrong!" ... Well, not really: I was shown around the establishment and introduced to the team first (who are all a bunch of great people!) and then shoved into a chair by Johnnie.

It wasn't too long until I found a bug. My first was noticing some problems with thumbnails. Johnnie was happy. But later on I found another bug which was originally marked as fixed, which meant it had to be reopened. Johnnie was no longer happy.

During the first week, I got a chance to see what was happening in the development of Moviestorm, and I have to say, it looks really good. The new Modders Workshop, Pyro Pack, Hairstyles and a couple of other things I’m not sure I’m allowed to mention are all looking fantastic.

The next week I was set on making some textures, and it wasn’t long before I got into the flow of texture creation, and made all sorts of different textures. The best thing? They’re going to be put into a free addon pack for anyone to use in Moviestorm.

These 2 weeks of work experience have been full of enjoyment and hard work. I’m going to miss it after I’ve left, but I know It's been one of the most productive things I've ever done. I now know what it's like to work in the software/computer industry, and I'm sure that this experience will definitely benefit me for my future, but most importantly of all: Unit Tests are a pain in the ____.

Moviestorm 1.1.6 reaches the final hurdle

I've just had the first release candidate (RC1) of Moviestorm 1.1.6 dropped onto my desk by Ben, which will doubtless generate a huge collective sigh of relief. If you're not a software developer, that may not make much sense to you. So let me explain, while I'm waiting for it to install.

The RC1 is the first stab at what we're going to release. It means that we've put everything into the release that we intend to put in, and the QA team think this going to be worth shipping. The code is taken out of the development environment, and is now running in a standalone fashion, exactly as you will get it. From this point on, the programmers and artists aren't allowed to touch it unless the release team find a problem they need to address. And that's not what we want to happen.

So the first job is to test the hell out of it in anger, by using it exactly as you will use it - by making test movies. All sorts of problems can show up in this stage that weren't evident when Moviestorm was running in the development environment. We could, for example, be shipping with a slightly different version of Java, or have failed to include something in the build that all the developers have on their machines, or simply failed to configure it properly. It's also a very different testing regime: instead of checking to see whether the individual features work and the specific bugs are fixed, then crossing them off when they're done, we're going back and forth between screens and modes, keeping Moviestorm up for hours at a time, and just playing with it, experimenting, and trying to achieve specific creative results. In other words, doing what you do.

We also have a huge checklist that we have to go through - checking the images on the launcher and the main menu, and making sure we've included any new ones. We don't get to see the launcher in the dev environment - Moviestorm starts a completely different way - so this is the first time we get to check that over. Then there's checking we've updated the version number and the EULA - it's so easy to forget little things like that in the last minute rush. Preparing the release notes and any copy or screenshots for the Web site, blog, etc - these can't be done until we're sure what's going to make it into the release.

Simultaneously, there's the huge business of making the patches and installers, and then testing them. It's not as simple as just building a 1.1.6 release. We need to build something which upgrades you from 1.1.5.1 (or earlier) to 1.1.6. This includes not just the main body of the code, but all the content packs as well. And then all of those have to be checked - on Mac, Vista and XP.

Finally, assuming we didn't find any major issues - and, of course, it never goes 100% smoothly - we agree that RC1 is good to go. It's like Mission Control. We all have a go / no-go vote, and sometimes this can be quite uncomfortable. There are always things we'd like to fix, or we'd like to do better, but we have to make a call between getting something out to you and getting it perfect. If we all say go, we wait expectantly for our Glorious Leader to give us the thumbs up. Or else we start over with RC2, RC3, RC4...

When we get the go, we upload everything to our servers, go out to the pub while we wait, and then come back and check that the upload's gone OK, and nothing got corrupted en route. This means downloading and installing every new patch, and making sure they run. Then - and only then - can we make it live and release it to you.

OK, RC1 is installed. Time to stop waffling and get testing!

1.1.6 update - and a little tease

Well, there's good news, and there's more good news. As we told you at the beginning of June, Moviestorm 1.1.6 went into testing at the start of the month, we've bashed away at it for 2-3 weeks, and we're looking good for a release before the end of the month, just like we planned.

Of course, all the usual disclaimers apply. We can't guarantee that Dave won't find a horrible bug somewhere in Dave's code, or that cyber-terrorist ninja gibbons won't sneak into our Moviestorm Towers over the weekend and replace every thirty-third bit in jogl.jar with a random number. These things do happen.


But the good news is that we managed to sneak an extra little feature into 1.1.6. It's neat, and you'll like it. However, you'll have to wait till next week to find out what it is, cos I can't grab a picture of it right now,* and it just doesn't look good without a picture. Suffice it to say that there's one more thing in mainstream Moviestorm that previously required modding to achieve.

*It's technical and complicated. Oh, alright, the rest of the team are too busy testing to make screenshots for me, and I'm only partway through installing the latest build on this PC, and it takes hours. Or maybe that's all a lie, and I'm just being unnecessarily mysterious in an effort to get you coming back next week. You decide.

Workin' for the Man

As Matt mentioned earlier this week, Rhys is here at the moment on work experience. That means that I don't have to make my own coffee and my shoes have never looked so polished. In between serving as my valet and personal alarm clock (I make him shout "Johnnie is the king!" on the hour, every hour), he's also been hard at work as the newest co-opted member of Moviestorm's QA department.



We asked him to write a few words about his first week working for Short Fuze.

In my first week at the Moviestorm office, I’ve worked on various things: screenshots, user testing, the dreaded unit testing, making templates for videos and tests. I even attended a design meeting.

Working for Moviestorm is very changeable. Parts of it have been fun (making shorts etc.) and parts have been so dull I wanted to gouge my eye out with a wooden spoon just to have something more interesting to do. All-in-all it’s been enjoyable, though, and a lot more interesting (at times!) than school.

On the Wednesday, and half of Thursday, my entire view on Moviestorm changed. I was switching constantly between Moviestorm and Excel, testing every single aspect of the soon-to-be-released version 1.1.6 to see if it all worked. It destroyed my brain, and made me want to, as I previously mentioned, gouge my eye out with a wooden spoon.

The Meeting was enjoyable. It was focused around proposed improvements to the Cutting Room View. I decided to add my two cents where it could apply, which included discussing what effects, if any, should be added to make it easier to work entirely in Moviestorm, without the need to export to movie maker or Vegas. It made me feel slightly more important than I actually am. Sitting among people debating whether to go with “A” or “2” (which gives some idea of the contrast), was both daunting and fun.

I will admit, I have been learning a lot about Moviestorm as a user and understanding the way its developers see it, which makes being a lackey for Johnnie, Ben and Andrew bearable. I do sometimes feel intimidated being surrounded by what seems like accomplished individuals, who have their own fortés, be it programming, developing, or whatever – whereas I am average Joe Public on work experience. On the upside, I feel that an adequate amount of responsibility and pressure is placed on me, which I think makes me work better.
I don’t know what I’ll be doing next week, and frankly, I don’t mind: work experience is shaping up to be quite enjoyable.

Bring on Week 2.

Moviestorm 1.1.5 nearly ready

Moviestorm 1.1.5 is now going through its final checks, and, assuming we find no last-minute nasties, should be released in the next couple of days.