crickhollow alpha on it's way

[Borrillis]

Hey all, I think I am at the point that I can release an alpha for crickhollow. And I really mean aplha. There are lots of remaining iussues to be worked through. ON the good side tho there are lots of great new features in this release. Iam asking that anyone who can download the alpha ( it will be posted on SF shortly, it's still building ) do so and work with it.

Please post any issues in this area. With any luck we will have a release candidate ready in no time!

Thank in advance for your continued support and patronage.

Borrillis
Steward of Axiom


======================================================
Global Changes:
* Some code reorgonizations ( Grouping fields and thier properties together, etc )
* Started removing Weak Type collections with Generics
* Plugins updated top reflect core engine changes
Exception to this is OpenGL, it's still under construction

Namespace : Axiom.Animating
Added AnimationStateSet
Removed AnimationStateCollection
Added Pose
* A pose is a linked set of vertex offsets applying to one set of vertex data;
* used in the Facial Animation Demo
Added AttachmentPoint
Added Animable and IAnimable
* Defines an object property which is animable, ie may be keyframed.
* Needs to be implemented using Generics
Updated Animation
* Added NumericAnimationTracks property
* Added VertexAnimationTracks property
Updated AnimationTrack
* Class is now abstract, use derived class for specific implementations
* Many properties and methods refactored into the subclasses implementations
Added NodeAnimationTrack
Added NumericAnimationTrack
Added VertexAnimationTrack
Updated AnimationState
Updated Bone
Updated KeyFrame
Updated Skeleton
Updated SkeletonInstance
* Added MasterSkeleton Property
* Added RemoveTagPointFromBone Method
Updated TagPoint
* Added FullTransform Property - Gets the transform of the node including the parent entity and skeleton.
Added VertexAnimationType Enumeration
* Types of vertex animations
Added VertexDataBindChoice Enumeration
* Identify which vertex data we should be sending to the renderer
Added VertexAnimationTargetMode Enumeration
* Do we do vertex animation in hardware or software?

** See the Demos for how to update your code for these changes

Namespace : Axiom.Core
Updated AnimationState
* Removed CopyTo; duplicate of CopyFrom
* Added Copy Constructor
* Added Parent Property
* Removed FaceDirectionOfMotion property
Updated Entity
* Updated for changes in AnimationState
* Replaced AnimationStateCollection references with AnimationStateSet
* Added support for Software and Hardware vertex blending
Added GeometryBucket
* A GeometryBucket is a the lowest level bucket where geometry with
the same vertex & index format is stored. It also acts as the
renderable for Static Geometry.
Added LODBucket
* A LODBucket is a collection of smaller buckets with the same LOD in Static Geometry.
Added MaterialBucket
* A MaterialBucket is a collection of smaller Static Geometry buckets with the same
Material (and implicitly the same LOD).
Added MeterManager and related classes
* For performance monitoring
Updated Mesh
* Added support for LOD
* Added Method GetTrackHandle
* Added Method RemoveSubMesh
* Added Method HasAnimationState
* Added Method ContainsAnimation
Updated MeshManager
* Refactored some large methods
* Added some convience indexers
Updatged MoveableObject
* added IAnimable implementation
Updated Node
* Added Updated and Destroyed Events
Added ProgressiveMesh
* Class for handling multiple levels of detail for a Mesh
Added Region
* The details of a topological region which is the highest level of partitioning for Static Geometry.
Updated ResourceManager
* Added Convience properties for protected Collections
* Added Remove Method
* Added code to manually load resource if not in cache
Updated Root
* Added FPS Smoothing
* Added CompositorManager
* Added FPS Limits
* Added rendering suspension
* Added Meters for performance monitoring
Updated SceneManager
* Added properties for most protected collections
* Added more Shadowing features
* Updated for changes in StaticGeometry, RibbonTrails, Animation
Updated SceneManagerEnumerator
* Added Indexer property
Updated SceneNode
* Added Meters for performance monitoring
Added StaticGeometry.cs
* Added OptimisedSubMeshGeometry
- Struct holding geometry optimised per SubMesh / LOD level, ready for copying to instances.
* Added SubMeshLodGeometryLink
- Saved link between SubMesh at a LOD and vertex/index data
* Added QueuedSubMesh
- Structure recording a queued submesh for the build
* Added QueuedGeometry
- Structure recording a queued geometry for low level builds
* Added StaticGeometry
- Pre-transforms and batches up meshes for efficient use as static geometry in a scene.
Updated SubEntity
* Added support for Software and Hardware vertex blending
Updated SubMesh
* Added Name property
* Added properties for most protected fields
Updated Texture
* Added MipMap properties
* Now internally uses PixelBox
* Added Set accessors for properties
Updated TextureManager
* Updated for changes in Texture
Updated ViewPort
* Refactored for RenderSystem Changes
* Reorganized the code

Namespace : Axiom.Graphics
Added AnyBuilder
* Abstract base class for classes that iterate over the triangles in a mesh
Updated AutoParamsDataSource
* Added local reference to current Viewport for width + height
* Added Fog params
* Added Time param
* Updated ProjectionMatrix to use API independant projection matrix
Added Compositor Framework
* makes it possible to apply postfilter effects, HDRI postprocessing,
and shadow effects to a Viewport
Updated EdgeData
* Added EdgeGroups property for Region
Updated EdgeListBuilder
* Now derives from AnyBuilder
Updated GPUProgram
* Added support for Morph Animation
* Added SamplerCount, but not really implemented yet. ( breaks fresnel )
Updated GPUProgramManager
* Added SupportedSytaxes property
Update GPUProgramParameters
* Minor Code Refactorings
Updated HardwareBuffer
* ???
Updated HardwareBufferManager
* Implemented ReleaseVertexBuffer
Updated HardwareCaps
* Added properties for DeviceName and DriverVersion
Added HardwarePixelBuffer
* The HardwarePixelbuffer abstracts an 1D, 2D or 3D quantity of pixels
stored by the rendering API.
Updated HardwareVertexBuffer
* Added UseCount property
Updated HighLevelGPUProgramManager
* Added support for Unified programs
Updated Material
* Added SupportedTechniques property
* Added Specular and Emissive convenience properties
Updated MaterialManager
* Added support for Material Schemes
Added IDerivedPlaneProvider
Updated MoveablePlane
* Implements IDerivedPlaneProvider
Updated Pass
* Added Color tracking
* Added Name property
* Added Program Usage for Shadow Casters/Recievers
Updated RenderPriorityGroup, RenderQueue, RenderQueueGroup
* Added parameter for shadowCasterCannotBeReceivers
Added RenderQueueInvocationSequence
* Not implemented
Updated RenderSystem
* Updated for changes due to refactoring of RenderTarget,
RenderTexture, RenderWindow and Viewport
* Other minor changes
Updated RenderTarget
* refactored of RenderTexture, RenderWindow and Viewport
Updated RenderTexture
* refactored of RenderTarget, RenderWindow and Viewport
* Uses HardwarePixelBuffer internaly instead of Texture
Updated RenderWindow
* refactored of RenderTexture, RenderTarget and Viewport
Added RibbonTrail
* Subclass of BillboardChain which automatically leaves a
trail behind one or more Node instances
Updated Technique
* Illumination Pass Compilation can now be invoked manually.
* Exposed Specular and Emissive colors of passes
Updated TempBlendedBufferInfo
* Added Tangent and Binormal buffers
* Added ExtractFrom method : extract info from the given VertexData
Updated TextureUnitState
* minor changes, some new properties
Added TriangleBuilder
* General utility class for collecting the set of all
triangles in a mesh; used for picking
Added UnifiedHighLevelGpuProgram
* Specialization of HighLevelGpuProgram which just delegates its implementation
to one other high level program, allowing a single program definition
to represent one supported program from a number of options
Added HardwareAnimationData
* Struct used to hold hardware morph / pose vertex data
Updated VertexData
* Updated to support HardwareAnimation

Namespace : Axiom.Math
Updated AxisAlignedBox
* Added Size Property
* Added Test for Intersection with AABB
* Added set accessor for Center Property
* Added Equality and Inequality Operator overloads
Updated Matrix3
* Minor change to Equals override
Updated Matrix4
* Minor change to Equals override
Updated Plane
* Minor change to Equals override
Updated Quaternion
* Added Yaw, Pitch and Roll Properties
* Added EulerAngle functions
Updated Ray
* Added Object overloads
Modified Sphere
* Added Object overloads
Modified Vector2
* Added Object overloads
Updated Vector3
* Modified Object Overloads
* Added ToNormalized function
* Added a variety of comparison functions

Namespace : Axiom.Media
Added PixelBox
* A primitive describing a volume (3D), image (2D) or line (1D) of pixels in memory.
* used to support PixelBuffers

Namespace : Axiom.ParticleSystems
Added ParticleSystemRenderer
Added ParticleSystemRendererFactory
Added BillboardParticleRenderer
Updated ParticleSystem
* Now derives from MovableObkect instead of BillboardSet
Updated ParticleSystemManager
Updated Particle
* No longer derived from Billboard


Namespace : Axiom.Serialization
Updated Serializer
* Added Write support
Updated OgreSkeletonReader
* Subclasses Serializer instead of BinaryReader
* Supports AttachmentPoints [Multiverse extension]
Updated Mesh Serialization
* Now supports v1.4 Mesh format
* Supports AttachmentPoints ]Multiverse extension]
* Supports writing Mesh files
Updated Material Serializer
* Support for Pose animation
* Support for MorphAnimation
* Support for 'texture_alias' added
* Support for 'shadow_caster_vertex_program_ref' added
* Support for 'shadow_caster_fragment_program_ref' added
* Support for 'shadow_reciever_vertex_program_ref' added
* Support for 'shadow_reciever_fragment_program_ref' added
* Support for 'tex_border_color' added
Updated MeshChunckID enumeration
* Added values to support Pose and Multiverse Extensions

Update ResourceManagers and Resources
- Wired up ResourceGroupManager to replace static ResourceManager functions
- Will now allow for more granular resource handling including manual resource loading
- much much more

- Major revision to OpenGL Renderer.
- Added Documentation building
- Started consolidation of Scripting processing into known patterns
- Removed TextManager as it's never been used.

- Known issues
- running in the debugger has some strange behaviors
1) FPS seems to be severely degraded in DX
2) Textures seem to be corrupted under OpenGL

Nice.

Attachment points, is that like for attaching clothing meshes and the like?

Any ideas on the degradation in performance? Need help doing some perf tuning?

Looking forward to playing around with it later this week.

* Added FPS Smoothing

Hey, I noticed some great improvement regarding a smooth animation! What made that do so nice?!? I'm mostly using the DX RS, so DX swap chain usage maybe?

I'm very happy to see, that in case I get some 75FPS on a 75Hz screen, the animation is really smooth without tearing and/or stalts (minors yet as the framerate varies, but it's some great improvement already!)

Checked that just shortly, also am curious how limiting the framerate will do... Anyway, yeah, smooth camera movement was kind of missing, that is really refreshing.
(where's the damn 'thumb up' smiley )

[Borrillis]

The alpha release is available for download from the SourceForge site or it's in the crickhollow branch in svn.

[Borrillis]

I've put together a wiki page for notes on crickhollow, it's still a work in progress however I do have the status of each demo laid out. For those of you that are currently testing crickhollow this may help you focus your efforts on those areas that have not been tested already. If you have a fix for a demo, post it here, on SF or email me and update the wiki.

Borrillis,

I'm having problems initializing CeGui from within Axiom. When I try to call CeGui.ImagesetManager.Instance.CreateImageset in the DLL file (to make my executable smaller) and run the app, but I'm getting the System.NullReferenceException error message all over again, and there is no method for the create function in the Axiom TextureManager class. I'm making a game menu using the Axiom Engine and CeGui.

[Borrillis]

Ok, I'll look into this.

Borrillis,

It's more than a week. Have you found any problems using CeGui from within Axiom? If so, are there any solutions available? Is there a CeGui Axiom source code available?