Synapse Gaming Site Update

Ahhh... I made a final pass on the Synapse Gaming site this week – doing a bit of needed reorganization and a few copy/bug fixes.

Along with reorganizing the menu flow, adding support for Safari, and a more consistent layout across browsers, I resolved an issue with browsers applying old cached stylesheets to the site.


The Torque Lighting Kit page was also updated with downloads to the TLK Shaman demos:



-John

Wow it's been a month

Wow it's been a month since I last posted – I can't believe how the time flies. We've been so insanely busy here it feels like GDC was only last week.

April is always a killer month (killer bad, not killer good), with taxes, both my wife's birthday and mine, and what seems like an unusual number of new products and contracts that always flood in around this time. To complicate the mix I attended GDC this year, then followed it up with a trip out to Eugene to talk shop with the GG guys, and also have a major project finishing up in a few weeks with a second hot on its heels.

So to put it mildly... my brain hurts...

Why is this time of year so busy? Every year March through May (but mainly April) seems to bring in enough projects for the year (or more) and kick off another round of explosive growth. Maybe it's the industry conferences this time of year, or project alignment for the holiday season – I don't know, but it's definitely a good time of year.


Torque Lighting Kit

Due to popular request we've added Visual Studio 2005 Express support to the Torque Lighting Kit. A new download link was added to the VC2005 TDN article outlining how to use VC2005 with Torque.

Torque Lighting Kit users need to download the TLK update instead of the TGE update, and follow the existing directions outlined in the article.

I created a feedback thread in the TLK private forums, so if you have any questions or comments pop over and let me know.



Bah, it's four in the morning, and at this point I've exceeded my ability to think – time for sleep...
or maybe a quick game of Guitar Hero... :)

-John

Synapse Gaming Site Update and GDC

Well, tomorrow morning I head off to GDC, and with only two hours before I need to wake up it looks like I'll be sleeping on the plane. I probably should have gone to bed early - I can never sleep when I know I have to get up soon, but we had a major site update that was, more or less, finished up only an hour ago. Generally I wouldn't rush this sort of thing through, but, heading off to GDC, we needed an updated site to better convey our business.

The new site layout has been used internally here for a few months now to get a feel for its flow - and frankly I like it. The first thing you'll notice is that the awesome theme create by Matt Summers is still intact - we love this look and didn't want to touch it. The changes are purely layout and copy.

At this point the site is still unfinished - the TLK page needs links to the new Shaman demo and linked to the GG product page (or even better to the cart :), but the current site is a big improvement over what we had, so I'm happy with it for now.

Anyway check out the new site layout and let us know what you think and if you have any problems (if you run into any issues with the menu, just hit refresh, the style sheet could be cached by the browser):

Synapse Gaming

-John

TLK Shaman Demo Public Soft Launch

After a week of testing and feedback from the Torque Lighting Kit community, the TLK Shaman Demo is ready for its public debut. Initially we're soft launching the demo here, and if all goes well it will be ready for a full public release shortly.



The demo, which was produced by Synapse Gaming and features TLK technology, also features artwork by Christophe Canon and music by Ajari Wilson. It shows just some of the awesome possibilities available to you when using TLK, and how to achieve them.

Torque Lighting Kit: Shaman Demo (Windows)
Torque Lighting Kit: Shaman Demo (OS X)

Don't forget that owning a TLK license gives you access to exclusive TLK resources, including the just released (and already extremely popular) Bloom/Dynamic Range Lighting (HDR without shaders) resource!

So if you're a TLK licensee check out the New Resource thread. If you're not what are you waiting for - buy it now! :)

We'd just like to say thanks to the TLK community for their feedback - its helped us to really tighten up the demo.

-John Kabus

Awesome New TLK Resources Available!

Synapse Gaming is always working with community members to help with TLK based resources. This week we released two new resources; a Dynamic Range Lighting and Bloom resource created by Jeff Raab and Alex Scarborough, and an updated GuiObjectView for TLK.

Jeff and Alex's resource supports Dynamic Range Lighting (which adjusts the screen exposure based on scene lighting), Bloom, and Tone Mapping - making it a very complete resource. Even better it's extremely easy to add to your project. Awesome work guys!


Also released is a new GuiObjectView designed specifically for TLK, which provides better lighting control and env mapping.

Definitely check out these resources and let us know what you think.

And if you have any ideas for TLK resources let us know!

-John Kabus