Upcoming July 2007 release - RCs available!

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Upcoming July 2007 release - RCs available!

Post by Carsten » 2007-06-16, 20:25

Hi all,

I'm happy to announce that the first release candidate (RC1) of the upcomding July 2007 release is now available at http://carsten.ca3de-community.de/Ca3DE ... 16-RC1.zip (roughly 260 MB). :cheesy:
[EDIT: RC1 is no longer available as it has been replaced by a more current release. See the newer posts below for the latest link.]

The release candidates will be updated until July 1st, and unless severe errors are found until then, the last release candidate will be turned into the final release on the same day, and be renamed to "July 2007 release".

The release will be an "intermediary" release, which means that it contains many interesting fixes and minor enhancements. It also contains bigger changes and feature additions, but these are not yet entirely finished. Another major release will follow in August or September as soon as the essential milestones are fully implemented, too.

Please test, and let me know what you think!

Very important notes about the RC1:
  • This is a Release Candidate, not the final demo.
  • Minimum System Requirements: 1 GB main RAM, 256 MB video (GPU) RAM.
  • This will be the first official "combined" release, i.e. both the user demo as well as the SDK files are contained, both for Windows and Linux.
  • The above link will only work as long as the RC1 is current, which however is to be expected short-lived and to be updated/replaced soon. If you find the link not working, check for more recent RCs or the final release of the Ca3D-Engine demo.
Have fun! :up:
Last edited by Carsten on 2007-06-26, 19:47, edited 1 time in total.
Best regards,
Carsten
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Post by Carsten » 2007-06-17, 12:20

Oh, I should of course have provided a list of the changes and new features since the last official (February 2007) release.
Here is the list off the top of my head. (I'll refine the list on Monday with the details from the Subversion log.)
  • The release will be a "combined" release. That is, a single download package will contain all the user demo plus all SDK files (no artificial separation into independent Demo and SDK packages any more). Moreover, the package contains the binaries for all supported OS's (i386 Windows and Linux).
  • The (DeathMatch example) game code has been greatly revised and expanded, with the most significant enhancement being the introduction of Map/Entity scripting support, based on the Lua programming language.
    The scripting support code is not yet entirely finished, presenting a finished and full-featured version is planned for the subsequent August or September 2007 release, but programmers might already want to have a look at the new files in Games/DeathMatch/Code/, especially TypeSys.*, ScriptState.*, GameImpl.*, etc.
    Implementing the scripting system also involved (and still involves) many related enhancements and changes to the Ca3D-Engine core.
  • The Ca3DE virtual File System is not also employed not only in the Ca3D-Engine itself, but also in all other programs: The map compilers, CaWE, the material and model viewers, etc.
  • Many smaller fixes and enhancements to CaWE, the Ca3DE World Editor:
    • The window size can now be reduced to 960*720 pixels without corrupting the display of the VisGroups and status bar (important for creating CaWE Flash tutorials).
    • The overlay texture for the "CaWE/Overlay" material (used for rendering selected map primitives) is now properly loaded again.
    • Terrain heightmaps are now loaded properly from image files again (the last two issues were a result of the improper introduction of the Ca3DE Virtual File System into CaWE, which has been revised).
    • The Material Browser now excludes materials whose meta_editorImage property is set to "noEditor" from being displayed (this is very useful to not clutter the Material Browser with all the materials from sprites, models and other non-mapping materials).
  • A new PointLightSource entity type has been added that allows to freely place dynamic point light sources.
  • Support for many new model file formats has been added:
    A native implementation adds support for .lwo (LightWave Object) model files.
    With the help of the mesh loaders from the Irrlicht graphics library, support for all these file formats has been added, too:
    • 3D Studio meshes (.3ds)
    • B3D files (.b3d)
    • Alias Wavefront Maya (.obj)
    • Cartography shop 4 (.csm)
    • COLLADA (.xml, .dae)
    • DeleD (.dmf)
    • FSRad oct (.oct)
    • Irrlicht scenes (.irr)
    • Microsoft DirectX (.x) (binary & text)
    • Milkshape (.ms3d)
    • My3DTools 3 (.my3D)
    • OGRE meshes (.mesh)
    • Pulsar LMTools (.lmts)
    • Quake 3 levels (.bsp)
    • Quake 2 models (.md2)
Best regards,
Carsten
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Post by n321 » 2007-06-19, 20:58

So whats the lua scripting mean for scripted AI possibilities?
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Post by Carsten » 2007-06-19, 23:05

Hi n321,
n321 wrote:So whats the lua scripting mean for scripted AI possibilities?
Well, right now, it does not yet mean much: The July 2007 release is an "intermediate" release; I mainly did it in order to get some features like model file format support, the latest CaWE and bug fixes out. Scripting support is only partially complete (motivated programmers may use it already though), and the second major half of the scripting code that sits on top of the current first half will only make it into the release after the July 2007 release.
AI is then another major component that in turn sits on top of the second half. Good news is that once the second half of the scripting support is complete, adding AI becomes much simpler than it is today, because scripting helps a lot with making relatively simple AI code become a lot more clever. That is, even such very simple AI entities like the current Trinity bot can become formidable opponents with only a little more C++ code and the help of some scripts.
Best regards,
Carsten
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Post by Carsten » 2007-06-26, 19:51

Release Update:
I've just uploaded the second release candidate (RC2) to http://carsten.ca3de-community.de/Ca3DE ... 26-RC2.zip :up:

Especially the LWO file format support has been greatly enhanced/fixed since RC1, plus a multitude of smaller improvements.
Again, please test and let me know what you think! :kewl:
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Carsten
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Post by Carsten » 2007-07-09, 17:17

Release!

Hi all,
I just turned the RC2 into the final "Ca3DE 7.07" release! :chef: :demo:
Therefore, all above links cease to work, but you can download the file now from the "normal" place at http://www.ca3d-engine.de/download.php

A news update is posted later today at http://www.ca3d-engine.de/news.php
Also, now that the release is "official", I'll close this thread. Please post any feed-back, questions or suggestions into new threads in the appropriate (sub-)forums.

Many thanks to all who have tested the release candidates and filed reports and comments! :thanks:
Best regards,
Carsten
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