FPS Creator

Infobox VG
title=FPS Creator


developer=The Game Creators
release=December 2005
latest stable version=1.09
latest beta build=1.11
genre=First Person Shooter Creation Software
platforms=Windows

FPS Creator is a commercial application developed by The Game Creators that allows rapid and easy creation of first-person shooter video games for the PC without any programming. Users can create a game with up to 50 levels and build it as a standalone executable.

FPS Creator uses a drag-and-drop system in which the user can select entities such as walls, floors, ceilings, doors and windows to create a level. This level can then be populated by entities such as furniture, desk objects, enemies, weapons and pick-ups. Light-markers can be used to place lights of which the colour and range can be defined, and true lightmapping has recently become available with a newly integrated tool created by the same developers. Zones can be defined that act to activate an event when a player enters them, such as damaging the player or winning the level. Multiplayer is also supported, although the same game cannot have a single-player mode.

FPI Script

FPS Creator uses a simple trigger-based artificial intelligence language known as "FPI Script", which was created exclusively for FPS Creator. Entities use Finite state machines - that is, they use a predetermined set of actions reacting to a predetermined set of states. The language consists of a simple if/then syntax, and a pre-defined list of conditional statements and commands.

Changes In Nationality

In Germany the blood color in FPS Creator was changed to green to allow them to have classification to release it to Germany. The reference of "Nazi" and the swastika had to be removed to comply with Anti-Nazi and Insignia laws governing the country. Fact|date=February 2007.

Criticisms

FPS Creator has been the subject of a volume of criticism ever since its release; most point out FPS Creator's underpowered engine, the very limited FPI scripting, below average AI, low frame rates and lack of stability. The creators have since issued many patches, but many of the bugs still exist in FPS Creator's code structure. Users of FPS Creator have also found that many features have been broken by these updates, including FPS Creators pixel shader support.

The most current update 1.13 addresses many of the problems above.

Updates & Open Source

FPS Creator has produced regular updates to try and combat any bugs and on the 17th January 2008 The Game Creators announced the next three updates. The updates are said to include things many users wanted including features that were only included in FPS Creator X10 and long awaited hitboxes. 1.12 is currently the latest update and fixes many of the problems with FPSC.

The game engine - written in DarkBASIC Professional - is open source and may be compiled with the support of a few additional plugins. There are a number of programmers who have written [http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=116411&b=24 mods] for the engine, enhancing multiplayer support and graphical capabilities.

FPS Creator X10

A new version of FPS Creator, entitled X10 was released in late 2007. This version introduced a number of features including realistic water with refractive and reflective effects, as well as improved AI and physics.Many of their new scripts have been adapted by their other game creation engine called Dark Basic Pro. This version is only compatible with Windows Vista and a limited number of DirectX 10 graphics cards (generally from NVidia). A GeForce 8800 series card is the recommended requirement. Several other graphics cards have been tested but only the NVidia 8800GT was the most successful.

Many features have been integrated such as reflective & refractive water, bloom effects, window refraction, advanced AI allowing allies and enemies, as well as additional shaders.

There have been many criticisms of the software but they have improved its performance to its predecessor (FPS Creator). FPS Creator X10 may have more features but this program has lost much of its open source nature.

Their official website has a trailer video and more information regarding this topic. [http://www.fpscreatorx10.com/ official website] .

Model Packs

After the release of FPS Creator, The Game Creators have since released eighteen model packs for FPS Creator. These packs vary in new entities, characters, sprites, segments and weapons. It is not known if these packs can be used in the upcoming FPS Creator X10, however The Game Creators are working on it, and model pack 16 has x10 support.

Game Creator Store

In the new updates, there's a new Game Creator Store which holds this cycle: money for points, and points to spend on The Game Creators' made entities from model packs, or others that haven't been released yet! Some examples include a grey wizard entity that hasn't even said to be included in model pack 18, or a butcher knife. Some examples for model pack entities are the cyclops, satyrs, elves, and mummies that are all available in the store.

See also

* DarkBASIC
* DarkBASIC Professional
* The Game Creators
* Beyond Life

External links

* [http://www.fpscreator.com/ FPS Creator] Official site
* [http://www.fpscreatorx10.com/ FPS Creator X10] Official FPS Creator X10 site
* [http://www.fpscreator.de/ FPS Creator] Official German site
* [http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=82333&b=24/ Free & paid content for FPS Creator] A list of content for FPS Creator
* [http://www.fpsfree.com/ fpsfree.com] Free FPS Creator content, information and resources
* [http://www.fpscgames.com fpscgames.com] Directory of games written in FPS Creator
* [http://www.fps-files.com fps-files.com]