0.6 news

Post by **zuzuf** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 3:07 pm

So where are we with 0.6 ?

It uses SDL instead of Allegro, Allegro stuffs have been completely removed.

Currently saving and restoring game works, as well as networking (I've just fixed it).

There are still texturing bugs on several systems but yet on those same systems 0.6 didn't even run last week

.

Currently you can script units using the COB Virtual Machine and soon Lua scripts, game scripts are written in Lua and AI can be scripted with Lua too. There is also a global Lua interface to allow Lua scripts (AI, game script, units, ...) to share information.

All scripts run in a thread based model, every Lua thread (or coroutine) that is started from the engine can be run as a real thread (and all its sub threads too if it's the main Lua thread). This will allow real parallelism for AI or using different priorities for several mission objective checks in campaign mode.

So what's working currently:
_ single player skirmish mode (campaign mode is still broken because it uses generates old style scripts which are not compatible with the new system without a few changes)
_ multiplayer mode
_ saving/restoring games
_ scripting things in COB or Lua (it's possible to extend scripting engine to other languages), but since there is no COB command for anything else than units, you won't be able to script the game or AI with COB scripts

remaining main tasks:
_ create a free HD set of game resources compatible with TA mods (we'll use Lua scripts for this

)
_ replace FMOD with SDL_mixer
_ replace HawkNL with SDL_net
_ enable compression of networking traffic (not only file transfer)
_ improve networking support (optimize bandwidth usage)
_ create the mod repository system
_ create a global chat system (like battle.net)

Doors · Post by **Doors** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 7:16 pm

zuzuf wrote:So where are we with 0.6 ?

It uses SDL instead of Allegro, Allegro stuffs have been completely removed.

Quick question.

Will the SDL libraries and or sourcecode be included in the Ta3d sourcetree like the allegro Etc stuff was?

I am hoping so, it makes it easier to work on multiple projects when they don't have overlapping libraries.

The include for one include for all behavior of most compilers is one my pet peeves since it gives such a huge case of namespace pollution.

Also reduces compilation time since all that extra garbage doesn't have to dealt with.

Post by **zuzuf** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 8:09 am

well, I did thought putting SDL things into the source tree, but indeed it may help with mingw32. There is a couple of things that could be put into the source tree too: FTGL (TA3D relies on the last version which is not shipped with all Linux systems, and there is no makefile for mingw32 - there is already a binary version of FTGL for mingw32 in the source tree), SDL (with all its family: SDL_image, SDL_net, SDL_mixer), freetype ?

Post by **zuzuf** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 11:10 pm

TA3D now supports animated textures on 3DO models

.

Unit/Lua interface is on its way. I managed to use a Lua script to animate the arm solar panel, it's a good start, but there are lots of other scripts to do and many features have not been implemented yet in this interface (like animated textures control).

Balthazar · Post by **Balthazar** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 7:43 am

Does that means that not TA animated textures will be drawn correctly? Like on Metal Maker or Energy Storage?

Will the animated textures become available using 3dm format?

Post by **zuzuf** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 12:53 pm

Currently, everything seems to be rendered correctly. Animated textures are only available for 3DO models (for now).

Of course this feature will be added to 3DM format as well, but before we'll need some more powerful tool than today's 3DMEditor ... It's too much limited by its interface and its integration to TA3D code. I am thinking to recode it from scratch using Qt, that way it'll be cross-platform and OS integration will be much better (also GUI will be much more adapted to our needs). Ho, and 3DMEditor cruelly lacks model scripting support ... (it takes too much time to test Lua scripts for units

)

Post by **zuzuf** » Sat Mar 21, 2009 5:17 pm

I've been a bit sick those days, so I haven't spent lots of time on TA3D.

I have only done some basic stuffs:
_ support for user selectable mouse sensitivity
_ some fixes (HQ water renderer was broken)
_ some new console command to toggle fullscreen mode while in game on Linux (sorry but SDL doesn't support this on other platforms)

Balthazar · Post by **Balthazar** » Sat Mar 21, 2009 7:21 pm

Get healthy

Post by **zuzuf** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 8:44 pm

campaign mode is working again

hirsoft · Post by **hirsoft** » Sun Apr 19, 2009 2:51 pm

In windows lock mouse:
The ClipCursor function confines the cursor to a rectangular area on the screen. If a subsequent cursor position (set by the SetCursorPos function or the mouse) lies outside the rectangle, Windows automatically adjusts the position to keep the cursor inside the rectangular area.
BOOL ClipCursor(

CONST RECT *lpRect // pointer to structure with rectangle
);

Post by **zuzuf** » Sun Apr 19, 2009 7:53 pm

hm, what is the problem exactly ?

hirsoft · Post by **hirsoft** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 1:22 pm

I find "lock or un-lock mouse on window" in to-DO.

Post by **zuzuf** » Sat May 09, 2009 9:53 pm

done

thanks to SDL

So now, where is 0.6 ?
Several stuffs are still Work In Progress like the Internet multiplayer service or some features of the scripting engine (you still can't save the state of a Lua script in a saved game ...).
Many "small" things have been added recently:
_mouse sensitivity settings
_inputs grabbing settings
_sound & music volume settings
_COB Virtual Machine improvements
_OTA resources installer rewritten for Unix like OSes using a simple bash script instead of hard coding it in TA3D's code (an equivalent script will be made for win32 systems)

some core parts of the engine are changing:
_language support has been improved (full support for non European languages is possible, for example Chinese is supported yet thanks to xpoy)
_map renderer has been partially rewritten to support a "far sight" mode that enables rendering all the map even when not in megazoom mode
_3DMEditor 1 is being slowly removed from TA3D code and replaced with a new 3DMEditor 2 in C++/Qt (so no more 3DMEditor stuffs in TA3D code

)
_...

several bug fixes (rendering bugs like fog related bugs, ...)

There is still lots of things to do, but I think we've almost done half the planned work on 0.6 (on the code, not on resource files ...)

xpoy · Post by **xpoy** » Sun May 10, 2009 4:01 am

Downloading src,may this time make worked.
Last time make i got a yuni obj,without any ta3d bin.

$ cmake -G "MSYS Makefiles" ./
--
-- --- TA3D, Remake of the Total Annihilation engine ---
--
-- Version : v0.6.0 (Rev: )
-- System : Windows-5.1 (x86)
CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:40 (ADD_SUBDIRECTORY):
add_subdirectory given source "libs/yuni/src" which is not an existing
directory.

--
-- --- TA3D ---
--
-- Default C++ flags set to `-O2 -g -ffast-math `
-- [DEBUG] The Debug mode has been enabled
-- [OpenGL] Mesa: NO
-- [OpenGL] GLu: YES
-- [OpenGL] Include dir:
-- [OpenGL] The GL library: opengl32
-- [OpenGL] The GLU library: glu32
-- [OpenGL] Added Libraries :
. glu32
. opengl32
-- [SDL] SDL: included
-- [SDL] SDL_image: included
-- [SDL] SDL_mixer: included
-- [SDL] SDL_net: included
-- [SDL] Include dir: F:/mingw/home/Owner/trunk/src/ta3d/src/tools/win32/mingw32/include/SDL
-- [SDL] The SDL library: mingw32;F:/mingw/home/Owner/trunk/src/ta3d/src/tools/win32/mingw32/libs/libSDLmain.a;F:/mingw/home/Owner/trunk/src/ta3d/src/tools/win32/mingw32/libs/SDL.dll
-- [SDL] The SDL_image library: F:/mingw/home/Owner/trunk/src/ta3d/src/tools/win32/mingw32/libs/SDL_image.dll
-- [SDL] The SDL_mixer library: F:/mingw/home/Owner/trunk/src/ta3d/src/tools/win32/mingw32/libs/SDL_mixer.dll
-- [SDL] The SDL_net library: F:/mingw/home/Owner/trunk/src/ta3d/src/tools/win32/mingw32/libs/SDL_net.dll
cp: cannot stat `F:/mingw/home/Owner/trunk/src/ta3d/src/lua/lua51.dll': No such file or directory
-- GLEW Library : F:/mingw/home/Owner/trunk/src/ta3d/src/tools/win32/mingw32/libs/libglew32.dll.a
-- FreeType Library : F:/mingw/home/Owner/trunk/src/ta3d/src/tools/win32/mingw32/libs/libfreetype.dll.a
-- FTGL Library : F:/mingw/home/Owner/trunk/src/ta3d/src/tools/win32/mingw32/libs/libftgl.a
-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!

milipili · Post by **milipili** » Sun May 10, 2009 8:39 am

There are a lot of source quakes recently

When CMake produces an error, you should remove the CMakeCache.txt that prevent some variables from being resetting with the good value, then try again.
With the last changes you can even use a fresh checkout.

milipili · Post by **milipili** » Sun May 10, 2009 8:41 am

Since you seem to often use the trunk for working or gaming, I advise you to follow changes via the timeline or the RSS feed, and to keep somewhere the last working revision for you.

xpoy · Post by **xpoy** » Sun May 10, 2009 9:46 am

Ths for nice tip.
I had download 1796 trunk.The wrong look like path wrong or msys or linux to windows ...

Owner@TEMP ~
$ cd lua

Owner@TEMP ~/lua
$ make
cd src && make mingw
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/Owner/lua/src'
make "LUA_A=lua51.dll" "LUA_T=lua.exe" \
"AR=gcc -shared -o" "RANLIB=strip --strip-unneeded" \
"MYCFLAGS=-DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL" "MYLIBS=" "MYLDFLAGS=-s" lua.exe
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/Owner/lua/src'
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o lua.o lua.c
gcc.exe: no input files

I try to make lua only,it throw out same text.May a simpley problem,

Can i aviod lua when make?Or just change some set to fix this.

PS:
The forum time is offset 12 hours,

: time.JPG (8.76 KiB) Viewed 34179 times

Post by **zuzuf** » Sun May 10, 2009 11:19 am

you can fix time settings from your user panel

xpoy · Post by **xpoy** » Sun May 10, 2009 1:03 pm

Blabla,i fixed make wrong.
Just because forgot yuni,i put yuni trunk into libs,then all go on.

I had download a lots time zip from trac server, will servers keep those lots zip?

xpoy · Post by **xpoy** » Sun May 10, 2009 1:21 pm

Another hesitation,should AI used Unlimited income?
It will made AI devlop more eazy,and may help in Performance, all AI's resources needn't count,

The degree of difficulty can control by others.

milipili · Post by **milipili** » Sun May 10, 2009 4:03 pm

The zip files are downloaded by libyuni. Because libyuni already uses a lot of external libraries to not reinvent the wheel, it might become hard to have the good working env, especially under Windows. Those files are called `devpacks` and provide source codes most of the time, or binaries when possible. Actually the main reason was to not put the multiverse on the svn reporsitory. There are downloaded in the folder `receipts` and are not downloaded when already present. About TA3D, yuni only needs pthreads for MinGW. All devpacks are available here http://devpacks.libyuni.org for offline uses.

milipili · Post by **milipili** » Sun May 10, 2009 4:05 pm

I don't think AI should use unlimited income, which is an important part in strategy.

Post by **zuzuf** » Sun May 10, 2009 5:55 pm

I don't like cheating AI either but if some players want to play with it (it can be more challenging), then why not since you can always chose the AI you want to play with.

Balthazar · Post by **Balthazar** » Sun May 10, 2009 6:51 pm

I`d like to play agains cheating AI, since non-cheating is baby-biting.

xpoy · Post by **xpoy** » Sun May 10, 2009 6:57 pm

It really need a great Consumption for reasonable Economic development,TA' Income/expend is most detailed and Sensitive in RTS games.
There will be a odds to chose limit income AI in war.

Post by **zuzuf** » Sun May 10, 2009 7:06 pm

I would like to add the possibility to get information about an AI script from the script itself (something like a function that would return a string that would be displayed as a floating text when cursor is over the name), that way you would always have a description of the AI (so you know when it's a cheating AI or not)

Post by **zuzuf** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 6:26 pm

I've just implemented autoreclaiming and brawler/construction planes animation.
I managed to completely reclaim greenhaven with planes and/or k-bots

(just make them patrol on the whole map, and order your com to assist their factory, building a few energy-metal converter helps too, since they reclaim only when it's needed)

xpoy · Post by **xpoy** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 7:47 pm

Ya!
I had a good idea in video:
The video be faster and faster, the zoom be outer and outer, the cons units be more and more, the destroyed forest be biger and biger.
It was wonderful

And hail zuzuf!

Balthazar · Post by **Balthazar** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 8:22 pm

Glad to hear

Post by **zuzuf** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 6:36 pm

I've rewritten the Mesh code, now 3DO, 3DM and S3O (Spring models) are natively supported and their code is separated into several classes, this is a lot cleaner.

I haven't tested the S3O loader (it's just a copy/paste from 3DMEditor2 with some integration to the engine) so it may be buggy. To load a Spring model, just put it in objects3d/ and its texture files in textures/.

Balthazar · Post by **Balthazar** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 7:27 pm

But it will be in alpha 12, yeah?

Post by **zuzuf** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 7:36 pm

of course it's too late for it to be in alpha 11

xpoy · Post by **xpoy** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 2:43 am

yes, should try some spring features when alpha 12 out.
Really interesting in alpha 13....

Post by **zuzuf** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 7:46 pm

I've just replaced FTTextureFont with FTBufferFont (when available, means only with FTGL >= 2.1.3) to run a few tests. Well it requires a lot less memory.
With FTTextureFont I quickly need more than 500MB RAM to run a game while I only need 250MB to run the same game with FTBufferFont

!

So memory requirements are low again

, in a few weeks TA3D has evolved from a GB RAM eater to a small 250MB thing (on a 64bits system

!!). It is fewer than most past releases

Balthazar · Post by **Balthazar** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 6:08 am

I can`t even say how awesome it really is. Thanks, Zuzuf, now TA3D is much closer to mid-end PC gamers

xpoy · Post by **xpoy** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 7:06 am

wow half memory!
How awesome!
God job.

will it effect performance?

Post by **zuzuf** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 12:40 pm

of course, but it might not be noticeable since it'll only affect required memory bandwidth which wasn't a real bottleneck.

xpoy · Post by **xpoy** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 2:59 pm

What the bottleneck at now? /:^]
It was useful for bought new PC.

Post by **zuzuf** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 3:38 pm

I guess the 2 bottlenecks should be CPU and GPU depending on the settings you use. But mostly CPU if you want to play with thousands of units.

Post by **zuzuf** » Sun Jul 05, 2009 5:34 pm

Multiplayer was broken in 0.6, I've just fixed it.

xpoy · Post by **xpoy** » Mon Jul 06, 2009 6:01 am

Should play a 3v3 for test.
I can call some more for game.
This is test for net feature's work.

Griswoldz · Post by **Griswoldz** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 3:34 pm

3 v 3? I would go for 6 v 6 <evil laugh>.

xpoy · Post by **xpoy** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 8:25 pm

In this case, can we not limit by TA's limit, that make a 100 vs 100 players game.....
Maybe in TA3D 1.0, It was able to play in 1000*1000 maps, though, a really total turely great wars carried out in some really big States(make up by 10 or more players), it was a long wars, that when player left in some time, give the control to AI help.... /:^}=
Just some intersting thought and write them down, hehe

Post by **zuzuf** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 10:05 pm

100 vs 100 players in a standard game mode is not possible (unless you have unlimited bandwidth and unlimited memory resources since managing radars/sonars/FOW would be a real problem). But it should be possible to have up to 10 virtual players controlled by more players (several players share the control of an army).
Combined with First Person view it could bring some really interesting mods

(the interesting point for FPS would be huge maps and lots of units so that maps would not seem empty !).

xpoy · Post by **xpoy** » Wed Jul 08, 2009 4:22 am

I enjoy freecom, that create for FPS, really cool and suitable /:^]
For that huge war, yes it need a future great PC for play... But TA is a future game, TA3D1.0 maybe also this way/:^]
And that fps, remeber me DOTA, lol. Play a super tank/ kobt FPS 5v5 with lots of small units control by other players, it's fun
As we see, now stable version just 0.54, and the 0.6 doing, what will happen between this ?

Post by **zuzuf** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 6:00 pm

wow, I've been fixing a few things today, mainly related to GUI :

window titles don't go out of their windows any more, mainly noticeable on mod download progress windows
mods comment is now rendered properly (no more words split over two lines)
fixed errors when extracting some archives downloaded with the mod repository system

I am working on the multiplayer lobby code (the NetClient/NetServer part that list online games and allow you to join one), I think it should be working by the end of the week

.

Balthazar · Post by **Balthazar** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 5:44 am

Great news! The one more thing that I`m waiting for now is pathfollowing code improvement

Post by **zuzuf** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 12:19 am

ok so where are we now ?
NetClient now supports hosting/joining a game, starting a game that way works.
The TCP sockets used to sync the game now use zlib to compress the data stream, but since it's very recent code it doesn't reduce the weight of this data stream.This is because it just keeps flushing buffers which is required only for a few messages not for syncing units and it just reduce compression performance since it must send the data itself and the flush code after everything ... so we get something like 80% of poorly compressed data and 30% of flush codes

. But this is temporary

.

I've been thinking to the pathfinding/pathfollowing problem. I have an idea to make units aware of other units/obstacles before they hit them so it would prevent them from moving too close to obstacles and such. Also it should be possible to have non moving units deciding to move in order to let other units reach their goal. The pathfinder wouldn't have to take care of moveable units they would just let us pass when needed, and units moving in groups could adjust their speed to avoid collisions (kind of group behavior

). I am going to run a few tests tomorrow, it may be the last step before getting rid of pathfinding problems

Post by **zuzuf** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 11:30 am

I've optimized a bit the use of compression with TCP sockets and compression ratio is now 60%

so it's really useful now

Balthazar · Post by **Balthazar** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 4:29 pm

Waiting for new test build

Who is online