Elxx.net Labs

Well, almost four weeks have passed since the epic Sandbox 1.0 release. People have sent me some great feedback and many of the servers currently running are rivaling the popularity of the BF1943 booth at E3. Glad to see you guys are enjoying it. Also, a big big thanks to DICE for the shoutout on Battlefield.com! I hope it has introduced some new people to the magic and confusion of Sandbox.

Ever since groups were introduced in Sandbox 0.5, many people have complained that they’ve forgotten what groups they’ve saved. Forget no more! The Sandbox Network website is now up and available for all players. After you go through the short registration process, you’ll be able to see all the groups you’ve saved through the ages and even rename them and add descriptions. As usual, it’s still a work in progress - soon, you’ll be able to send groups to your friends and delete old ones you no longer need.

On the Sandbox Twitter, I promised that developer tools for Sandbox 1.0 would be released shortly after the mod’s release. It took me a bit longer than I hoped (mostly because I forgot to put them on my external drive before leaving for Europe), but they’re all here now and ready for your experimentation.

Sandbox-Tools 1.0.0 (20.3 MB)

You’ll see four folders in there:

• AtlasGenerator - All the Sandbox in-game UI textures (object spawn buttons, kit selection, command roses) are stored in atlases. The original PSDs and TGAs are included here along with the script to generate your own atlases so you can add new objects or modify parts of the UI. Requires Python 2.3 or higher
• gui_log - This is a great tool for debugging BF2 Python code. Requires Python 2.3 or higher
• MenuGenerator - This is the script I used to line up all the object spawn buttons nicely on the scoreboard without having to manually adjust them whenever I added new objects. Requires Python 2.3 or higher
• SandboxFlashMenu - The source files & images for the Sandbox frontend menu and loading screen. Requires Flash 7.0 or higher

No, I will not hold your hand and teach you how to use these tools. If you contact me on MSN about it, I’ll likely spout off an undecipherable series of song lyrics and Dr. Seuss stories and sign off.

Enjoy your summer! I’m definitely enjoying mine.

If you haven’t noticed, Sandbox 1.0 has been released. Check out the release announcement and download it over at SirCommunity.com.

I’m off to Europe now. Have fun.

We’d like to thank our fans for waiting so patiently. Sandbox 1.0 will be released in a week. No more teasers, no more beta nonsense…it’s final now. While we put the finishing touches on this release, here’s a chance to get yourself up to speed on what’s new.

Sandbox 1.0 brings lots of improvements and new features to the table. The first thing you’ll notice is the totally revamped interface. We’ve added a simplified server browser that lets you hop into a game quickly without having to worry about messing with the server filters. Once you start playing, you’ll notice the new spawn buttons that feature pictures of each of the 195 spawnable objects and vehicles. Of course, Sandbox 1.0 includes an even greater variety of vehicles from the world of Battlefield 2, as well as some custom vehicles from great BF2 modders like SatNav.

The kit selection screen has been streamlined with the ability to spawn with any of the core BF2 kits from all three teams, in addition to the usual Construction and Zombie kits you know so well. To help those with aspirations of reconstructing Burj Dubai, we’ve added a jetpack to the construction kit that lets you quickly fly around without worrying about taking damage crashing into things.

The previous release of Sandbox brought you the ability to “group” your creations and save them online, making it so much easier to trap your friends in boxes when they weren’t looking. With this release, we’re introducing the ability to animate your objects and groups. You can build a garage with a door that opens, a house with a functioning elevator, or a death box that crushes your friend to death after you’ve trapped him inside. Sandbox is truly fun for all ages!

Over the years, Sandbox has had an awesome community of fans that have modified our code to add their own features. We can say with confidence that Sandbox would not still be going without these adventorous coders. To help you guys out, we’ve completely rebuilt the gameplay logic from the ground up, allowing for addons to be created that easily plug in and add new features to Sandbox. It is now much easier to customize Sandbox to your liking and make sure your server is the most popular one of all. The guide to creating addons is already accessible on the Sandbox Wiki so you can get a head start.

And now, from the mind of Sir. XaliaS, the man who brought us Sandbox Jet Powered and Xailing, another trailer showcasing yet another cool thing that’s only possible in Sandbox. Check it out:

You can see the original news post on the slightly redesigned Sandbox website. Stay tuned for the release next week!

They say microblogging is the future. Are they right? I don’t know. It sure seems to be the cool new way to share info though when it comes to the Battlefield community. We found out first about the impending BF2 1.50 beta patch release on @BattlefieldHQ. You can get the latest updates from Bad Company 2, Battlefield 1943, Battlefield Heroes, Felicia Day, and so many others. It’s great for people like me who are far too lazy to write long-winded blog posts all the time. Of course, Twitter has received quite the stereotype of people tweeting about inconsequential crap, but I’ve found that those people are few and far between.

I hit 100 followers recently on my account. It’s good to know that so many people care! Aww. In the venture to make my development efforts cool and trendy like DICE, I’ve created a Twitter account for Sandbox. I’ll post some screenshots and exciting development updates in the coming days. (No, Sandbox isn’t dead!) So check out @sandboxmod and follow it if you’re a Twitter-er. If you’re not, it’s okay, we can’t all be cool and trendy.