Ok, its been awhile since we've updated the public on how 6.5 has been going, so I put together a list of most of the major items added to the core since the last dev diary. So, here it is, enjoy!
3D Engine-> Vsync and Antialiasing setting, that you can enable/disable after Init
-> Per Pixel collision on actor using the actual triangles instead of bounding boxes. Quite fast and only done when needed. Returns correct impact, normal, tu, tv, etc...
-> CubeMap Light
-> Simple integrated Material Editor for assigning materials
-> Texture cycling system to be applied anywhere
-> PS2.0 version of Water shader complete for use with a Normalmap
-> Force Feedback engine for game controllers
-> Seams on meshes with lighting eliminated
-> Every object can be attached to every other object now (mesh->mesh, mesh->actor, actor->mesh, mesh->particle system, etc)
-> Code complies to Orange Book standards for Gov't usage
-> Added CTVNode class to handle scene graph
-> Particle system including point sprite, billboard, and mini-mesh particles and can have shaders on each particle
-> Each Particle system can include multiple emittors, attractors, and deflectors
-> Particle system saving completed (TVP)
-> Particles are properly frustrum culled, now
-> Particle emittor keyframes added
-> Particle keyframes added (yes this is different than emittor keyframes!)
-> New feature : PRT - Precomputed Radiance Transfer, includes self shadowing, light bouncing, sub-surface scattering
-> Subsurface scattering can be used to simulate skins & foliage lighting, when the light can go through the matter slightly
-> PRT saves into the TVM data, ModelView can now precompute the PRT data
-> Stencil Shadows completed with CPU computation, no more flickering of shadows
-> Some interesting functions for rendersurface effects allowing you to get the backbuffer directly to a surface, allowing for full-scene shaders
-> Added some math functions in the MathLib : ATan, ATan2, ASin, ACos
-> Added RegisterTexture in TVInternalObjects to add directly a Direct3DTexture9 object to the TexFactory
-> Internal memory manager has been added to the engine
-> Ability to generate a NormalMap from your mesh in code
-> Multithreading support for DirectX objects, allowing you to thread loading portions of your code for speed
-> Ability to combine several meshes into a one big mesh (including Compact Mesh function to optimize the final mesh)
-> Ability to render a "mesh list", an array of mesh indexes, so you only have to make one Render call.
-> TVMatrixLerp added if you want to interpolate between 2 Matrices
-> RenderAllMeshes sort by alpha added
-> Added Cloud layers to the atmosphere class
-> Added atmosphere rain using new advanced particle system
-> Added internal profiler. Displays debug information on where the engine is spending its time
-> Improved Chase Camera
-> Brand-spanking-new lightmap generation routine, faster and much better results
Complete Physics using Newton Game Dynamics-> Very simple & easy to setup
-> Collision primitives Box, Sphere, Cynlinder, Cone, Capsule, "Filled Torus", and Convex Hull (which is generated automatically)
-> Very fast and accurate static mesh collision.
-> Good stability
-> Joints added : Ball/Socket, Slider, Hinge, Up-Joint.
-> Buoyancy added for bodies, allows for boats and floating objects
-> Built-in vehicle support
-> Implementation of ragdoll has been added
-> Added debug mode, which renders all physics body bounds on screen
-> New polling for events added (for collisions, etc)
-> Added Continuous collision. Allows small bodies with high velocity to have correct collisions
-> Added Coriolis Forces, in case you want realistic gyroscopic forces
ModelView-> UI design improved (toolbar etc..)
-> Final animation control panel
-> Custom animation ranges (can be saved in TVA)
-> Animation Sharing
-> Animation Export/Import
-> RAD Moving of Lights
sFXe editor-> Allows you to edit shader scripts with context highlighting
-> Displays errors in your script, and acts like a build environment
-> Does not display the shader in action, this is a simple FX editor
Screenshot:
http://www.truevision3d.com/images/sfxe.jpgParticle Editor-> Allows real-time viewing and editing of complex particle systems
-> Add Emittor (Point Sprite, Billboard, Mini-Mesh), Attractor (Attractor/Deflector) complete
-> Add Keyframes complete
-> Export to TVP or TVPJ (Particle System Project XML file, can be hand-edited, as well)
Screenshots:
http://www.truevision3d.com/ds/pe/pe1.jpghttp://www.truevision3d.com/ds/pe/pe2.jpghttp://www.truevision3d.com/ds/pe/pe3.jpghttp://www.truevision3d.com/ds/pe/pe4.jpghttp://www.truevision3d.com/ds/pe/pe5.jpghttp://www.truevision3d.com/ds/pe/pe6.jpghttp://www.truevision3d.com/ds/pe/pe7.jpghttp://www.truevision3d.com/ds/pe/pe8.jpghttp://www.truevision3d.com/ds/pe/pe9.jpgSimple Snow Movie: (Took about 10 seconds to create)
http://www.truevision3d.com/ds/pe/pe1.mpgPlugins-> Exporter for Max6/7 completed
-> Brand new TVM/TVA exporter for Milkshape3D
-> Can export skinned animation
-> Can export group/texture reference/materials
-> Models using Physique now export properly
Command Line Converter-> 3DS to TVM conversion complete
-> MDL to TVA conversion complete
Shader Support-> Added some more compability with NVidia FX composer files.
-> Added RenderSurface creation support with the RENDERCOLORTARGET semantic
-> Added GetEffectParamTexture (to get created rendersurfaces for example)
-> Improved shader precision (especially pixel shaders) if you use Time variable in it
-> Added SetTimePeriod to control the looping of time in the shader
-> More scene shaders are compatible now using Draw_FullscreenQuadWithShader function
-> SetPassEnable added to restrict the shader to one or some passes (useful for pass/pass rendering for scene shaders)
-> Added 5 point lights / 5 dir lights support to the custom shader system
Stream Support-> You can now load everything from memory / file part
-> Added TVGlobals.DataSourceFromMemory / DataSourceFromFilePart that are returning a string. This string can be used as a filename for the Load functions.
-> Loading from memory is FAST.
Getting Started-> A template for each major language that renders a blank window with all engine objects created (VB.NET, VB6, Delphi, C#, C++)
DS
