When will Visual3D Game Engine v1.0 be released?

We expect to release v1.0  in Q1 2010 (likely late January or early Februrary). 

Can I Start Publishing my Game Now?

Everyone who has purchased license(s) for their developers can begin publishing their games for PC now.
In this FAQ, I have described different options for publishing (deploying) your Visual3D-powered game, as well as the how deployment is being vastly simplified with 1-click Web Publishing (built into Visual3D Architect), as is under development now, and expected to have first cut of it released very soon.

When will Xbox 360 be supported by Visual3D?

We do plan on providing Xbox 360 support a few minor releases after our v1.0 release.  

We are targeting just digital distribution (not DVD or CD) distribution at this time, for both the Xbox Live Arcade and Xbox Live Indie Games marketplaces, via the Xbox Live Creators Club.  These are generally easiest and quickest routes of getting a game published, and are subject to some of the lowest royalties available for Xbox publishing, and can publishing, based on taking one of smallest royalty-cuts available for a top-tier publisher, and they also are not subject to high upfront publishing fees (and need to obtain an Xbox Dev Kit) as is the case for Xbox retail (DVD-based) publishing.

However, we do plan on supporting DVD retail distribution if/when Microsoft allows XNA-based games to be distributed in that fashion.

How can I launch my game without using the "World Selector" dialog? 

You don't need to use World Selector dialog for them.  This can be seen in recent releases for the new Lost Isle Game and Lost Isle Editor .exe's and installed shortcuts, as well as the Launcher project now created when creating a New World.

We are working on One-Click Web Publishing, and trying to get a 1st cut of this out with next release (or shortly thereafter, if that would allow us to get new terrain tools/features and Behavior Tree/State Machine editors released sooner).

A good idea is to use AKAF's tutorial on building a launcher, found here.

What Are the Prerequisites (Dependencies) that need to be installed to run a game built on Visual3D?

The following prerequisites (dependenceis) are auto-installed with Visual3D Game Engine (SDK), and will be as well for end-users, for games published using Visual3D's web publishing support coming very soon). They are:
"XNA Framework 3.1", ".NET Framework 3.5 SP1" "Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redist"
You can check off packages with these (or similar) names in the Prerequisites dialog in Visual Studio (found under Project Settings page > Publish tab), after you have installed latest version of Visual3D Game Engine to ensure you have them.

What Files Are Needed for My Game to Run?

If users have prerequisites installed, you can simply zip up your game files to distribute them, or upload to a FTP, or include them in an installer package.

You will want to include the project folder for your game, as well as your custom launcher exe (eg. My World.exe) found in the Visual3D Installer folder (not in your world project folder).  For worlds created with Visual3D v0.9.6.x and up, this custom launcher .exe may have been creating automatically, or else you can compile the automatically generated solution (<My World>.sln file) using Visual Studio to create one for you.
You will also want to include project folders for the projects that are referenced by your game "World Project", which are defined in your <World Name>/<World Name>.v3d under <ContentPackages>.  You can remove packages from this list, or try deleting (or just not copying them over) to ensure you don't use anything from them.

You will also want to include the "Visual3D" project folder and "Standard Assets" folder, which includes the .dlls and other core runtime files for the Visual3D Game Engine, as well as for the toolset.   You can distribute all files in this Visual3D folder, except for Visual3D.Architect.cache, which must always be excluded, as it is specific to the user and PC.   Reduced minimum-requirement-only versions of these will be provided in the future for case where you are digitally distributing a game and want to remove as much as possible not required for toolset support.

For project folders, you will usually want to distribute at least the #Assets folder (if it exists) under your world project (and imported content project, if any) folders.  Also, you will want to distribute the texture and .model.v3d files currently (though these will be moved under #Assets as well in an upcoming release.  And you should generally exclude the .cache folder, and also source code files (eg. Program.cs, .csproj), if desired.

Can the Visual3D toolset be included with my game?

We plan on allowing distribution of the Visual3D all-in-one development toolset as a modding toolset, as well as for using it for in-game, real-time editing (eg. like in SecondLife), so you can include those dlls.  This will be simplified after the first cut of Web Publishing support.  Currently, modders using the redistributed toolset will be using the same kind of limited-time trial as with Visual3D toolset distributed via our SDK, and will require an extended trial or license beyond that.  However, we plan on adding option for limited, single world modding mode for our toolset at some point after Web Publishing.  If you are interested in earlier custom support for this, you can contact sales@visual3d.net, otherwise, feel free to  discuss further on the forums.

use after which we will enable non-users to have limited editing without need for a license.
You can contact sales@visual3d.net to discuss the details, as well as post on our forums about it.  

How can I publish (deploy or distribute) my game built on Visual3D?  Does Visual3D Support Web Publishing? 

We are currently working on building 1-Click Web Publishing support into Visual3D Architect, for easily deploying your Visual3D-powered games to a website, a webpage (via our upcoming Web Player) or otherwise providing an install package for it (CD/DVD, etc.).

We expect to have a first cut of this with the v0.9.7 (Beta 7) release, or an update following it, expected sometime in December '09.

What are other ways to publish (or deploy) my game?

If you don't want to wait for the upcoming release to publish your game using the new Web Publishing features being built into Visual3D (see above), or if you just want to deploy/distribute your game in a different manner, then there are a couple different options we would suggest, which are listed below:

• Publishing via ClickOnce Using Visual Studio 
• Using WyBuild(currently for $49) to quickly and easily create and deploy an installer and auto-updater for your game (similar to what is being developed with Visual3D for web publishing, though without the launching from browser and without it being as automated and built-into Visual3D Architect).
• Creating a .msi Deployment project using Visual Studio, by selecting the Setup Wizard or Setup Project template.
  
• Using Advanced Installer (free or Professional edition).
• Using free WixEdit or NVin Installer

Again, a good idea is to use AKAF's tutorial on building a launcher, found here.

Can Visual3D Be Used for Browser-based Games?

We have succesfully published our Tech Demos game to a webpage for Internet Explorer. However, we are updating this, and working on updating this, providing Firefox support, and integrating this into the 1-click Web Publishing support we are building into Visual3D Architect.  We expect to provide a first cut of a Web Player prior to our v1.0 release, after the first cut of 1-click Web Publishing is completed.  However, when games may find it more attractive to have the benefits of web deployment - launching and downloading/updating (if needed) - their game, simply by clicking on a link in a webpage.  We are providing this functionality with our 1-Click Web Publishing, built on Microsoft's tried-and-true ClickOnce deployment model.  So this will be available sooner, and those still interested in embedding the game into a browser can do so once the Visual3D Web Player is released.