Introducing TPGI FE
TPGI has (obviously) been on hiatus for awhile, TPGI FE already soft released but it was never fully announced. I figured now would be the perfect time to do so.
Complete Restructure
TPGI FE is built with parts of incomplete parts of an unreleased TPGI RE4+ build and an RE5 build, It was released alongside the (temporary) github repo containing official open source builds. Its primary draw is the complete restructure, while hacky, it provides a perfect foundation for those looking to tinker with TPGI’s workings, Being more modular than previous versions.
Performance improvements
Naturally TPGI FE inherits any performance improvements from the mentioned RE4+ Build and some experiments ive worked on, Specifically it has a slightly more optimized version of TPGI Resim (previously ambx) which can approximate robloxes base lighting with enough precision to get fast decent data for GI, paired with the admittedly slightly janky overlap “voxel” raycaster/raytracer library, you get a slightly muddy but fast and consistent GI.
Misc improvements
The main non-simulation related improvements are related to how probes are handled. Like previously mentioned TPGI has always been focused on the individual components it uses (tracer library, lighting resim library, etc) rather than the actual system, Because of this all versions prior to RE4+ literally just stored a model containing pre-spaced probes within the assets folder, FE fixes this by finally adding the most basic feature of generating probes in code. Along with this, FE’s new architecture allows you to get data from the internal resim instance, meaning you can get what TPGI is seeing - through the wrapper.
What is the OpenGI Initiative?
Basically, I want to make it easier for people interested in GI to get started, so Ive open sourced all existing versions of TPGI under the CC-BY-SA 4.0 license with some modifications (more detail below). Along with this, a new discord community will be started where developers can share resources and help eachother.
TPGI OpenGI License specifics
All of TPGI’s open source stuff (as previously mentioned) is licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0, However the license adds a few extra stipulations that boil down to “You may not release TPGI-Derived GI/Lighting systems as paid products, Free products are 100% ok” , However as part of the OpenGI initiative, Exemptions to this license can be made for active community members, especially those helping others or contributing quality resources.
Foot notes
OpenGI initiative is not explicitly for TPGI, I encourage anyone else who has made a GI-System to join the initiative and release source code, Even if its outdated.
Links
- OpenGI Discord Community
- (TEMPORARY) TPGI Github Repo
- Official TPGI itch store