Hyping the future

Forget PQ, MBP is holding up this community more than it needs to. Very good update. I am especially curious as to MBP going HD, I simply cannot wait to check that out. Thanks guys.

Written in the News post:

the next patch of Marble Blast Platinum will be 1.60

Like I could've guessed.
By the way, where is MBP 1.30 and 1.40? You skipped from 1.14/1.20 directly to 1.50! Are they just staff versions or something?

an in-game screen recorder

Umm...isn't that the replay center? Or is it an improved one or something?

new Multiplayer game modes

Please tell me HiGuy fixed Hide and Seek!

Marble Blast Platinum becomes High Definition

This doesn't sound like PQ at all!
I'm interested to see what this will look like. I feel the need to say MBP's already HD, but that's me.

Gold/Platinum textures are re-made in higher resolution to both look much better

So...kinda like a second version of Shader Saturday? Just making the textures look much, much better?
Also, I've never known who are the graphic designers on the team are.

release during either August or September

I'd prefer sooner, please. Understood that it takes time, but that's just what everyone wants.


Well, I'm excited for everything to come! Keep working your butts off and MBP will look better than ever before!

Well, that's exciting. I can't wait!
I think it would be awesome if the songs could be re-done so they don't peak as much, but that's probably just me.

By the way, where is MBP 1.30 and 1.40? You skipped from 1.14/1.20 directly to 1.50! Are they just staff versions or something?

1.30 was the next planned path after 1.20 but due to the addition of MP and the completely rebuilt leaderboards, we felt that a larger version jump was necessary.

Umm...isn't that the replay center? Or is it an improved one or something?

This one records actual videos, rather than just .rec files (which tend to break horribly). They are exported to .ogv which can be uploaded straight to YouTube as well.

Please tell me HiGuy fixed Hide and Seek!

It's on the To-Do list

I'm interested to see what this will look like. I feel the need to say MBP's already HD, but that's me.

We tweeted a preview of this a while back:

I'd prefer sooner, please. Understood that it takes time, but that's just what everyone wants.

We're working hard to finish this; we'll try to release as soon as possible but this takes time.

Wow, this is totally exciting! I can't wait!
Also, the recorder system, would I have to get a .ogv to .mov converter or something? Or does it convert to .mov when it's uploaded to YouTube? Because .ogv doesn't really sound universal and I've never heard of it before. Sorry if that sounded picky or anything...

Ah so this is the big announcement! Nice I'm very excited. I had an idea for making the MBG textures HD awhile back, but never got around to it.

Improved level editor? How different will it be?

Hmm... In-game screen recording?
Like I suggested a while back?

Here are a few suggestions I wanted to say for a while

First, an idea for possibly making .rec's more accurate: saving the coordinates of the marble every second/tenth or a second and "reseting" it by moving it back to that position. (<- would be great for long levels) Also, save the actual finish time, so the .rec will show the correct finish time no matter what.

Second, if you are going to be adding shadows to the game, give power-ups and gems shadows too (if this is actually possible)

Make it so that you can double click on a .rec (in game) to play it, rather than selecting it then hitting a play button,

Something about the gem count. having three number places up all the time can get annoying, so I was wondering if it was possible to display only the amount of digets needed for the level. For example, in a level with 42 gems, the game would start with 00/00 gems. In a level with 7 gems, the game would start with 0/0 gems, and in a level with, say, 923 gems, the game would start with 000/000 gems.

and finally, in the level search option, say where a level is, not just a Play! button. ex: Teleclimb: Level 120, MGB Custom Levels, Folder CLA Levels M-Z

There was something else I wanted to suggest, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was...

Also! I have a few vector files of MGB tiles I was making, if you want those, they're basically vector drawings of the default MBG tiles I was making so I could re-color them. If you want them, then I can PM the .svg file to you.

Does this mean upgraded skyboxes?

Nature Freak wrote: Also, the recorder system, would I have to get a .ogv to .mov converter or something? Or does it convert to .mov when it's uploaded to YouTube?

YouTube supports uploading .ogv directly, no need for conversion. Currently there is no plans to add .mov / MPEG support due to that format being protected by software patents (and we like not having to pay money).

Cant Wait!

Well there isn't much to say apart from ERMAGERD HYPE.

But the new additions, especially the HD graphics and 1080p rescaling (finally move away from 1024x768? ) seems a great idea.
Intrigued to see the new LE and especially the new ingame recording system (replacing .recs?)

But definitely excited to see the new additions (as well as tweaks/bugfixes etc.) in action.

I'm a little disappointed, when the last news update said something about something new to come, the very last thing I was expecting to hear in the next news post was essentially just MBP but with larger image files, while continuing the streak of teasing (but not showing) anything actually new.

It will also feature some new stuff that hasn't been announced yet (besides the HD part), including some performance enhancements

With all due respect new playable content that hasn't been announced yet has been teased several times already. Unless someone is prepared to be straight with what that is, I have little to no interest in the next update.

Thanks for the kind words from all! I'll answer what people have asked us so far:

Rozi:
- 1.20 was a Mac only release, we wanted Windows but didn't pan out. We originally intended 1.30 with new leaderboards but as HiGuy mentioned we skipped directly 1.50 due to the addition of Multiplayer.
- High def is something Ive always wanted, and the shader engine is a good reason to re-do all textures ourselves in not higher quality, but also prepare them for the shader engine itself. Notice how most textures are low-quality resolution, and in jpg (for low filesize).
- HiGuy is currently scheduled to do all the texturing, but RDS.Empire should help us as well.

Threefolder:
- We don't have access to the original project files, unfortunately.

Nature Freak:
- As HiGuy said, .ogv is directly uploadable to YouTube. It is the extension for theora video files, and you'll find very few programs support it, especially to convert. The biggest recommendation is VLC Player which is capable of encoding it to other formats. My personal way of dealing with it is directly encode it to mp4 in the highest quality I can (least lossy I can do) and then convert it to AVI, which I can then handle normally. The program I used to do it is SDA's own encode program, yua, and use XQ (Extreme Quality) settings.

ACP:
This is more of Jeff's area and he can answer this better than I can.

elnathan:
- .rec is something I don't think we can redo and are a PITA. There is another way in Marble Blast to record but attempts to use it have proven to need far more work (if not impossible) than the in-game screen recorder solution we have.
- From what I understand, shadows won't be possible due to engine limitations
- Will forward to HiGuy, no guarantees
- Gem count is something I did mention in the past and it is really low on the priority list. IIRC Hunt Mode does accept up to 9999 but no more.
- Level Search: we already do. There is one that tells you which directory it is... /data/customs/somefolder/mylevels/coollevel.mis

mfpwnsall:
Unlikely as the skybox has resolution limits, and even if we did you'd see probably new skyboxes altogether

J@ckrb:
- Resolution of 800x600 will be killed, 1024x768 is the new basic. The game is now designed for 1920x1080 -> 1024x768 with the GUI modifying itself for your resolution.
- Will not replace .recs entirely, as some people may prefer those over the new method

ChaosUnown:
We did mention new gamemodes and while yes, we haven't announced which ones or shown them off, it's mainly because they are a work in progress. You will agree that it would be a big mistake to announce those if we can't get them to work properly or cancel them due to time restrictions, no? You may understand the disappointment is even greater in these cases. For example, an unannounced game-mode has the weirdest game-crashes we've seen and it require far more engine hacks than we would have liked.

The community does a lot of the discussion with us on the Leaderboards and many have suggested ideas. For examples new leaderboards with more data (you can see some form of it under Scores on the main site), and some of the planned game-modes. They also told us of critical bugs, such as challenges and super challenges crashing games, or handicaps not working properly, both of which are high on our priority list.

Once we are ready to show-case these features and go over them, we will make the proper announcements. You have already seen them in the form of the 'Under the Hood' serieses, or PQ's spotlights. Once they're ready, they'll be shown.

With Matan as president, nothing can go wrong with the Platinum Team.

It's probably an equally big mistake to be consistently hinting at them even though you're clearly not even past making the modes not crash. As a content creator, especially in game development, you can only wink and tease at something so much until your audience starts realizing you're wasting their time. You're better off not even hinting at something that you know very well is still on the fence of even being a possibility. Given this current situation, take that away and all that's really been confirmed is a supposed "HD" version of Platinum, which is just larger image sizes to compensate for bigger resolutions.

I apologize if it sounds like I'm rambling on at this point, but if this is the direction the Platinum Team is prepared to continue going then I reserve my right as a "consumer" (I put that term loosely because this is a free game) to stop supporting and paying attention to the development. You've had around 2 years to work on PQ and get it out the door in a quality efficient manner, but instead 80% of that time has been used to needlessly tweak Platinum, a mod that should have been long done with.

Actually, now that I've had a chance to re-read what I've said, it sounds like I'm already done putting up with it, so I'm just going to go ahead and retire. I'm finished. You're free to operate this game however you wish.

Will the new HD resolution impact how close the camera is to the Marble in game?

I noticed when messing around with higher resolutions in MBG through the console anything above a certain resolution would cause the in-game camera to move closer to the Marble (loosing perspective as a result). I did take it to an extreme 5120x1440 though ...

Can't wait!

Dis looks like gold. Like, not MBG, GOLD.

New Graphics cards requirements for 1.60 and above:

Windows
- Nvidia GeForce 6000 series and above
- ATI Radeon HD 2000 series and above
- Intel HD Graphics

All three graphics cards or one of them? The reason I ask that is because I only have Intel HD Graphics and it may be impossible to cram in two more graphics cards.

...more specifically, I have Intel(R) HD Graphics Family.

Although I'm not one of the Platinum team members, I think I can say with full confidence that nobody would ever be required to have three graphics cards to play Marble Blast. Especially not from three different brands.

If you have just Intel HD Graphics, you'll be fine. Trust me.

Can confirm what whirligig said. What it means is that some people who use older computers will have to upgrade, it shouldn't affect the vast majority of users at all.

The way most motherboards handle a dual GPU setup is through either SLI (nVidia) or Crossfire (AMD). When you run a dual card setup, these GPUs are placed in an SLI/Crossfire bridge which essentially links them together. This allows the motherboard to read them as "one" distinct card and distribute information/access processing power accordingly. Since these cards are (sort of) interpreted as "one" large card by the motherboard, you could never run two different cards at the same time. The motherboard is not "smart" enough to evenly distribute information across two different cards and an AMD card would never be compatible with an SLI bridge. Even different versions of the same reference could be problematic due to differing clock speeds.

In short, what everyone else above me said!