Page 1 of 1

Any new info?

Posted: 2009-01-06, 05:57
by scott
Screens or news? Hows the next version coming along?

Re: Any new info?

Posted: 2009-01-06, 15:51
by Carsten
Dear Scott - good questions!

Things are progressing very well: Besides the news I posted at http://www.ca3d-engine.de/news, many things have been going on (and still are) under the hood:
  • In November and December, we've spent a lot of time with revising the CaWE class hierarchies. Especially the "map elements" and the "tools" C++ classes have been changed a lot. For example, quasi all tools have entirely been rewritten. Although there are (small) changes to the user experience, the key feature is that the underlying C++ code is now much shorter, simpler, and easier to maintain.
    This huge and important set of changes will be complete soon, freeing up more time for implementing new features again.
  • In parallel, we also enhanced the CaWE "Materials Browser" somewhat - screenshots will follow soon.
  • The main map editor component will very soon get a face lift as well.
  • As explained in the news postings, I've also spent a lot of time with getting third-party library licensing issues right. This is tedious work, but very important to get right nonetheless - licensees of the Ca3D-Engine are not to be surprised by license conditions of external libraries after all.
    So just the day before yesterday, I completed replacing the ZipArchive library by Artpol Software with the minizip code by Gilles Vollant: The latter is very short, directly based on the zlib that Ca3DE uses anyway for many purposes (e.g. loading .png images), is also under the very liberal zlib license, and thus free for use in commercial projects.
    We've also almost finished (at ca. 90%) adding the SOAR implementation for terrain rendering by Andras Balogh to the Ca3DE core code. This too comes with a license that is much more user friendly than the code that we user earlier.
  • Finally, I'm currently adding better logging for network traffic between Ca3DE clients and server, and am fixing a nasty network protocol bug. :cop:
For the first time in years, I've also taken a few days off, reading some good books, cleaning the house, meeting friends, paying bills, etc., but I'm also working from home several hours per day anyway. :cheesy:
I'll be back in office on Monday 12th, making sure that the next release is ready soon!! :up:

Re: Any new info?

Posted: 2009-01-08, 20:14
by Carsten
Brief update:

Code: Select all

D:\Dev\Projects\Ca3D-Engine> svn log -r 822:head
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r822 | Carsten | 2009-01-04 18:19:44 +0100 (So, 04. Jan 2009) | 10 lines

Replaced our use of the ziparchive library by Artpol Software with the minizip library by Gilles Vollant,
which is a contribution to the zlib library and under the zlib license as well.
[...]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
r823 | Carsten | 2009-01-06 20:00:13 +0100 (Di, 06. Jan 2009) | 3 lines

Ca3DE client: Fixed a problem with parsing incoming network packets:
the short-circuiting of the logical && operator caused some important "side-effects" to not occur...

------------------------------------------------------------------------
r824 | Carsten | 2009-01-08 19:44:56 +0100 (Do, 08. Jan 2009) | 4 lines

a) CaWE: The tool classes TIM (type info manager) has not been initialized on program start. Fixed.
b) CaBSP: Uninitialized bounding-boxes were computed for very small leaves in rare cases. Fixed.
c) ReNoElixir.cmap: Fixed some "Faces have materials with mismatching "bspPortal" clip flags." warnings from CaBSP.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also I've just found that I didn't enough testing after the recent major changes: The "func_wall" entity class is old and obsolete, but still used in many maps. Current code however doesn't create collision bodies for solid objects of such entities, so in some maps (e.g. ReNoElixir) the player can currently fall through the ground into empty (and infinite :shock: ) space. :oops:
The 8.09 demo is not affected, neither are entities of other classes. The fix is easy though, I'll finish it tomorrow. :-)

Re: Any new info?

Posted: 2009-01-10, 01:35
by Carsten

Code: Select all

D:\Dev\Projects>svn log -r 825
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r825 | Carsten | 2009-01-09 14:19:26 +0100 (Fr, 09. Jan 2009) | 9 lines

CaBSP: Fixed the special-case treatment of "func_wall" and "func_water" entities,
whose solid primitives did erroneously not enter the collision world.

Note that "func_wall" and "func_water" entities only exist for historic reasons
(we used to use them for implementing certain special-case behavior),
and are long obsoleted by the more powerful MaterialSys and ClipSys systems.
Their definitions should be removed from EntityClassDefs.lua, and for each
occurrence in the maps, their contents should be moved into the "worldspawn" entity.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
This stops the player from falling through the floors in a few places. I'm currently recompiling the affected .cw world files; updating the pre-made sample binaries for licensees soon. :up:

Re: Any new info?

Posted: 2009-01-10, 15:46
by scott
Thanks for the updates, you've been a busy man indeed

Re: Any new info?

Posted: 2009-01-12, 23:21
by Carsten

Code: Select all

D:\Dev\Projects> svn log -r 826:head
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r826 | Carsten | 2009-01-11 14:21:51 +0100 (So, 11. Jan 2009) | 3 lines

a) ClipSys: Fixed a bug with loading CollisionModelStaticT objects (actually, a bug in CollisionModelStaticT::NodeT::GetBB()).
b) EntFuncDoorT: Fixed the infrared trigger volumes to cover both sides of the door and (new) the door itself (when opened).

------------------------------------------------------------------------
r827 | Carsten | 2009-01-11 19:58:26 +0100 (So, 11. Jan 2009) | 2 lines

Removed struct Data and corresponding member BaseHeightMapData from class SOARX.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
r829 | Carsten | 2009-01-12 21:25:49 +0100 (Mo, 12. Jan 2009) | 10 lines

General/all:
Made everything compile and link under Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex).
This was quite a challenge, as the new GCC 4.3.2 is picky as hell,
especially when you have both -Wall and -Werror enabled.  ;-)
(This is always and unconditionally true for all Ca3DE code!)

As a result, good news is that the Ca3D-Engine has now been properly ported
to the latest GCC, and compiles and links without a single error or warning.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
:cheesy:

Re: Any new info?

Posted: 2009-01-15, 11:26
by Carsten

Code: Select all

D:\Dev\Projects>svn log -r 830:head
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r830 | Carsten | 2009-01-14 14:21:55 +0100 (Mi, 14. Jan 2009) | 2 lines

CaWE: Fixed bug with updating the active camera on movement in the 3D view.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
r831 | Carsten | 2009-01-14 22:27:28 +0100 (Mi, 14. Jan 2009) | 10 lines

Physics:
a) Added an entity of type "Rigid Body" to map Kidney (a simple wooden box).
b) Added method BaseEntityT::DrawInterpolated() that EntRigidBodyT entities
   override in order to let the engine know that interpolation for drawing
   is not desired for EntRigidBodyT objects and thus not to be applied to them.
c) Implemented script method EntRigidBodyT::ApplyImpulse(), great for testing.
d) Implemented EntRigidBodyT::TakeDamage() in order to make rigid bodies able
   to react to damage: Shots now actually move the box when hit,
   explosions send it flying!  :-)

------------------------------------------------------------------------