Prerelease Completion / Progress post.

[SylvainTV]

-> Done :
Camera, CameraFactory, Mesh, Scene, Light, Material, Texture, some effect, Actor (not totally finished), Shader support (FX)

-> To DO :

Main things :
* Update Landscape system with LOD and better texturing (with pixel shaders and all)
* Make the TVOctree system (big)
* Finish TVA/TVM exporters for GameSpace/TrueSpace
* Optimizations
* Write a total VS2.0 shader path that replaces FFP (ouch), will be good for later anyway.


-> Latest things done :
* Texture cycling system to be applied anywhere
* Fixed MiniMesh fading system.
* Added "AddAlphaSurface" in texfacory allowing to create a texture for alphablending from a texture and a alpha texture
* Added the cube rendersuface system and the CreateStatic, tested and works fine !

[SylvainTV]

New things added in the new dlls :

Physics using Newton.
 -> Very simple & nice to setup
 -> Box, Sphere as rigid bodies (or collection of them, but interface for that isn't good yet)
 -> Very fast and accurate static mesh collision.
 -> Good stability
 -> 3 types of joints : Ball/Socket, Slider, Hinge, more to come.
 
People in #tv3dtesters havng a lot of fun with that!

[SylvainTV]

Additions in non-yet release dll  :

-> Vsync and Antialiasing setting, that you can use after Init too.
-> Actor fixes and save TVA, now everything looks nicely, dynamic shadows too.
-> 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... nice thing.
-> Various fixes for physics engine.

[SylvainTV]

New dll/tools update : (sept 3rd 2004)

-> ModelView update
* UI design improved (toolbar etc..)
* Final animation control panel
* Custom animation ranges (can be saved in TVA)

To come in a next release
* RAD Moving of Lights
* CubeMap Light
* Animation Sharing
* Animation Export Import
* Simple integrated Material Editor for assigning materials
* Assigning fx

-> Plugins update :
* Brand new TVM/TVA exporter for Milkshape3D
* Can export skinned animation
* Can export group/texture reference/materials
* Can still be buggy, they were started today

-> Engine Dll
* Physics side : a lot of things have been consolidated for the phyics engine, and now you can do more things like : change height on a terrain, create a mesh body in one call (with optional recenter). SetBodyPosition/Rotation on a static body should behave correctly (don't use it with collision though !)
* Use CreateMeshBody please now ! Easier and failureproof
* Other sides : bugs in Actor animation fixed, lots of small things.
* MDL->TVA conversion tool almost finished.
* PS2.0 version of Water shader started (will work with a normal map only)
* TVA loading/saving improved.
* small other things i don't remember.

Thanks for testing !

[SylvainTV]

New dll update tonight :

-> Some Shaders update
  * 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. You shoudn't need to change that
  * 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)
  * Annotations are now not case sensitive anymore
  * Volume texture loading fixed.

-> Landscape engine
  * Mousepicking bug fixed ! (this one was 2 years old!!)

-> Physics engine
  * Some bugs fixed with static meshs.
  * Scaling seems to work ok now
  * Up joint added. Allows to keep a body up and can be used for character control  

-> Stream support
  * You can now load everything from memory / file part without changing a lot of code !
  * Added TVGlobals.DataSourceFromMemory / DataSourceFromFilePart that are returning a string. This string can be used as a filename for the Load functions.
  * There could be some memory leaks due to bad programming (will get fixed soon)
  * Loading from memory is very fast.
  * Please test this

-> Some TVA update
  * some minor improvements.

-> New water shader effect almost finished and can be tested. Apply a normalmap on the mesh floor and use style 3.
   * Don't expect it to be tweakable, it's just a preview
   * its ps_2_0 only (sorry)

-> Some other things i don't remember

-> TVM/TVA Exporter for Milkshape3D
   * Transparency problem fixed.
   * Animations totally improved (quaternions weren't correct in the TVA)
   * Animation name doesn't work yet.
   * Added "duplicate final key" to help

[SylvainTV]

not much today but new build :

TVA Exporter
 * Fixed Animation name text.

Engine
 * ATL Wrapper : Default name for objects were "0" before. Fixed
 * UpJoint fixed
 * Added a BOUNDING_NONE for AddMesh in physics, to be able to link a mesh to a body without actually giving a collision object for it. This way you can create your own
with the AddSphere/AddBox/etc..
 * AddSphereEx/AddBoxEx/AddMeshEx added, allows to add sphere/box collisions with a translation offset / rotation offset for each, allow for very custom collision objects.
 * AddMeshEx with BOUNDING_NONE can be used also to add a rotation/translation offset to the mesh attach
 * DataSourceFromFilePart fixed
 * Landscape terrain culling fixed (in some code)
 * SetLicenseKey added.

[SylvainTV]

Some update of the thinsg i've been working on :
(no dll release yet)

* Engine
   -> Started work on the Force Feedback engine for game controller. It's going well and it's actually not so hard to do ( except i have no device to test on )
   -> Made a custom version of CreateNormals that can use correctly the face adjacency to compute correct normals at  edges (for example if you use ComputeNormals on a sphere created with CreateSphere you will have some problems and see a huge seam. This function should remove that. However it will be optional, because it won't look great on every mesh unfortunately, it's not a general sotution
   -> Worked on the Node system and implemented the basic algorithms for universal  parent/childs system. (yey)
   -> improved security (for example by replacing the unsafe strcpy by strncpy)
   -> Nothing much else, sorry but integrating the new school has been a tiring job !

Cya soon !

Maybe Arli or Darq should post also what they did, I couldn't  talk with them so i can't know !

[SylvainTV]

New dll release tonight !

-> 3d engine
   - Fixed some annoying bugs :
      * Object not releasing (was watermark texture)
      * Force NVidia Half Precision removed (looks like some shaders don't like it.. see Regress' problem )
      * Added ComputeNormalEx, you can use it to fix "seams" in your meshs. Soon it will be added to the ComputeTangent internal function too.
      * Landscape bug when using DeleteAll
      * Fixed the stencil shadows when you use Physics engine or recentering (no more offset now)
      * GetParticleCount/GetGlobalParticleCount now works.
   - Added global funcs : GetActorFromEntityID / GetMeshFromEntityID
   - Added TVLandscape.SetBlendingMode/SetAlphaTest/SetBlendingModeEx (like for meshs)
   - Added CTVNode class to handle scene graph. The internal attachto system is almost done, but still not available


-> Wrappers :
    - Added GetIndex/Setindex for Managed wrapper (will return good values now)
    - Added new class TVNode


Happy Beta testing !

[SylvainTV]

New DLL update :

Yes, each week a new dll to explore

-> 3D Engine :
 * Node system implemented almost totally (see TVNode)
 * Allows to Attach Mesh to Actor, Actor to Mesh, Mesh To Mesh, Actor to Actor.
 * Every combinaison didn't get tested, please do it
 * ParticleSystem node system isn't working at the moment even if the functions are there.
 * The functions? AttachTo / SetParent / SetParentEx straightforward
 * Since the system is "global" and can be used for lots of different objects, this scheme has been adopted : you must set iParentObjectType, the type of the parent (mesh, actor),  iParentObjectIndex the index of the parent object, usually Mesh.GetIndex, Actor.GetIndex etc... and iParentSubIndex. The subindex is only used when the object has several well defined sub parts for example : bones for TVActor & particle emittor index for TVParticleSystem. Using -1 for an actor type will use the actor matrix, and not the bones.
 * When you link one object to another, the child object can be moved only in the parent space. This seems annoying but it's very useful in most cases.
 * TVNode class acts like an "Empty" pivot point & container and will be useful to group things later on, and to disable them quickly (will be useful for big scene with lots of distant objects for example)
 * Some small bugs fixed.
 * Improved stability a little with more checks.
 

-> Physics engine :
  * Uses a new version of Newton physics engine, should fix some bugs.
  * Buoyancy added for bodies, you must set it manually for the moment with Physics.SetBodyBuoyancy body, waterdensity, linearfriction, angularfriction, waterplane. The result is very convincing if you find the good values.  The only problem is that Sphere buoyancy doesn't work due to a Newton bug but boxes work very well.
  * Soon some vehicle constraint will be added to the engine.
  * Now AddImpulseToPoint works correctly and won't produce same result with two different impact points.
  * Several minor fixes.

[SylvainTV]

New physics release from Newton :
  - vehicle support : add a rigid body for chassis, then CreateVehicle, then AddVehicleWheel, then Balance (this function will change or be deleted in the future). Should work on everything, terrain included. However you got to tweak values, it's not very easy to start
  - Tons of new collision primitives, we included for this version : cynlider,cone and convex hull.
  - Buoyancy should work for sphere and other primitives now.
  - Soon more primitives like : capsules and "filled torus"
  - Simulate bug now fixed, you can take videos at good speed. Simulate 0.2 twice will be the same as Simulate 0.4 once.
  - Internal fixes.

### Don't talk about the new physics features of this release on the Newton Physics engine forum, it's also a BETA release there ###

Particles :
  - Added the "Particle Billboard" mode to the ParticleSystem, it was missing before.
  - It will use vertex shaders if available ( faster ) else it will compute all on CPU (fast anyway)
  - works with 2d size / color / texture etc...
  - Fixed SetAttractorEnable

New feature : PRT - Precomputed Radiance Transfert.
  - It's the new buzz word, PRT, it's a new lighting techinque allowing great effects, such as self shadowing, light bouncing, subsurface scattering. The speed of the shader is actually independant from the number of lights (!!!) since the lights are approximated via spherical harmonics.
  - Subsurface scattering can be used to simulate skins & foliage lighting, when the light can go through the matter a little.
  - It's pervertex .. if you want to have an accurate effect you must tesselate a little your model usually.
  - You need a precomputation : just like lightmaps you must precompute the coefficients, it's done per mesh via Mesh.ComputePRT
  - if you need subsurface scattering you need to setup a special material in the material factory and apply it to the mesh before calling ComputePRT (see all SetPRT*** functions in Material factory)
  - Precomputation can be long... If you have a debug console, the progress will be written there. We think we will make it multithreaded in the future (GenerateLightmap & Normalmap too normally). It will help to not block the GUI etc...
  - Don't forget to put the lighting mode to PRT to test.
  - Report bugs on any weird thing you could find
  - If you are ok with your model and its PRT lighting, save it to TVM, all the PRT computations are stored in it, so when you reload it, it's lighting with PRT instantly.
  -> limitation : it's texture less atm. It won't display the texture, this is an annoying bug that isn't easy to fix,but it will be.
  -> limitation of PRT : cant be used on actor.. only on rigid things, but it allows dynamic lighting!

Stencil shadows :
  - Stencil shadows are normally fixed in CPU mode, means it will never flicker anymore with normal lighting. It might be a little slower than the vertex shader version but thats unfortunately normal
  - Now the stencil shadows should be a little more robust than before.
  - Please test them ! especially with Physics enabled, the mix of both seems to be the source of a lot of very weird bugs.

ModelView :
   - 100% CPU bug fixed when MV wasn't actived
   - Animation ranges and speed are now good too.
   - Other minor bugs fixed.

Plugins ( all )
   - Updated for animation speed changes. Get them and reexport your models !

[SylvainTV]

Yea again a new dll update for tonight !

Mainly fixes, but also some new simple & useful features.

* Loaders/ Exporters
- TVM/X loader/exporter fixed for meshes with a lot of materials/textures.
- If you want to have correct TVMs, please update the exporters with the new TV3D65.dll (in system32 or in exporters folder)
- Useless materials are now removed.

* Stencil shadows
- WARNING :: MOVED TVEngine.SetShadowParameters AND TVGlobals.FinalizeShadows to TVScene for better consistancy.
- Removed depth offseting, it seemed wrong for some people

* PRT
- Nothing really new, just some fixes to prevent crashs.

* RenderSurface
- Some interesting functions for effects. TVRenderSurface.BltFromMainBuffer/TVRenderSurface.BltFromRenderSurface.
- These functions allow to quickly copy/stretch pictures from the main buffer (back buffer) to a rendersurface.
- This is quite handy for some postprocessing effects that use the scene as a texture for a shader.
- Before this you had either to render the scene on the rendersurface & on the mainbuffer, or render everything on a rendersurface only. This new function gives better flexibility.

* Particle system
- AttachTo finished for particles, you can now link an emittor to a bone/mesh/actor without problem.
- New feature : you can use a custom shader for the billboard particles (only billboard particles).
- This allows to make any effect you want with particles ! For example the Doom3 haze heat effect is possible with that, if you create the good shader :p (almost done with one, but it doesn't look so good atm).
- Something to know : the engine sends the vertex in this format : POSITION (vec3), cOLOR0 (vec4), TEXCOORD0 (vec2) (useful if you want to program a shder for it)
- Added frustum culling to particle system, so that it doens't render things that are not visible by the camera ! (it's still updating it for coherence purpose though)

* Physics engine
- Added SimulateFixedStep to update the Newton engine with a constant time step, it sometimes helps with stability, so try it especially if you are trying the new vehicle system.
- Added DestroyVehicleWheel (it will automatically call Balance inside, no need to do it)
- Fixed Cynlider & Cone so that they use Y as main axis, not 100% sure it works, but it should

* Misc.
- Added some math functions in the MathLib : ATan, ATan2, ASin, ACos
- Added GetEffectParamName in TVShader
- Added (not tested sorry) RegisterTexture in TVInternalObjects to add directly a Direct3DTexture9 object to the TexFactory.
- Some minor fixes as usual.

[SylvainTV]

Hey, a small text about the release of yesterday.
Nothing really big has been added, but rather several fixes.

* Memory leak detection
- an own memory manager has been added to the debug version of the engine, and it is very useful to detect memory leaks and weird memory allocations/corruption. Lots of small memory leaks have been fixed already with this thing.
- You can't use it directly, but please report if you find some memory leaks by yourself.

* Bumpmapping improvement.
- Improved the GenerateTangent algorithm to use the PointRepresentatives of the meshs. The tangent space now is smoother and can look tons better on bumpmapping models. You have nothing to do to use it, just the algorithm has been changed. If you generated a normalmap in modelview or in your code, please regenerate it again because the GenerateNormalMap function uses this new algorithm too. And both tangent spaces (for creation and render) must match.
- No more seams for bumpmapping lighting.
- However some "max angle" must still be implemented because in some conditions (cube with only 1 group for example), the smoothing will still occur, so i need to fix that too.

* Multithreading support for DirectX object
- Added  TVEngine.AllowMultithreading that you must call before TV.Init  if you want to use Threads with Directx objects (from our internal objects)

* Physics engine
- New release of Newton, you might still experiment some crashs with convex hull especially but mostly a good new release with a smoother collision system.
- Added a debug mode for Newton for colliders, you can know see interactively your collision representation for the Newton objects. (Physics.EnableDebugInfo etc..). Very practical.
- Fixed some internal bugs in the wrapper.

Bugs still present
-> Camera / Viewport interaction, some problems with projection matrices.
-> CPU shadows in some cases (looks like a NVidia problem)
-> Bounding Boxes of actors are not correct sometimes.

Not a so big release as before, but next one should be interesting

[SylvainTV]

There you go, another update !

First some expected fixes from the last time :
  - Viewport / Camera interaction, now the projection matrix is recomputed when needed, so it looks good in all cases.
  - Shadow volumes fixed for NVidia and non shaders mode. Logically you should get shadows in all situations and on all cards now (hopefully)

Some other fixes :
  - Compact mesh fixed... There was some typo.
  - ExpandTexture for landscape default arguments fixed.
  - Some things that would lock in actor animation.
  - Some minor things
  - Memory leaks removed : indeed in .NET wrapper there was a memory leak for the functions returning a vector or a matrix or any other structure... Now its fixed hopefully and the app won't crawl anymore after a while

New features :
  -> Scene.MergeMeshes/MergeMeshesList : allows to combine several meshes into a big mesh and an optional CompactMesh, this could be helpful to optimize things and reduce the number of render calls.
  -> TVMatrixLerp added if you want to interpolate between 2 Matrices, not easy to do that normally.
  -> Added 5 point lights / 5 dir lights support to the custom shader system. it should now  search for more semantics in your shaders. So you can actually use multi lights in your shader now.  The semantics are :
    LIGHTDIR(0-4)_DIR, LIGHTDIR(0-4)_COLOR
    LIGHTPOINT(0-4)_POSITION, LIGHTPOINT(0-4)_ATTENUATION, LIGHTPOINT(0-4)_RANGE, LIGHTPOINT(0-4)_COLOR
    Of course replace (0-4) by one number between 0 and 4. Start by 0, then 1 etc...
  -> Ambient for PRT (normally)
  -> RenderAllMeshes sort by alpha added (not optimized yet)
  -> Added Cloud layers to the atmosphere class. The methods must be straightforward.

[SylvainTV]

A new release again tonight!

Several things have been fixed & added as usual.

First two elements that could help you to start with the TV3D Beta :
 -> A "Getting started" page that sums up what you have to know before using the beta.
 -> A template that renders a black image as a start for each language (VB.NET, VB6, Delphi, C#, C++). Shows how to create the main TV3D objects

and how to handle the windows/forms. Pretty good when you don't know where to start.

Then some bug fixes :
 
Physics engine :
 - Fixed the terrain collider, it supports now scaling
 - A first implementation of ragdoll has been added. It's not very stable nor fast but it's fun to try : use Physics.CreateAutoRagdoll(actor) when

you want to switch to the ragdoll mode for an actor, don't be too excited though Don't use it with physics render debug though, it will crash.
 - Fixed cylinder bounding, it wasn't rotated and didn't match with TV cylinder
 - New Newton release, more stable than the previous one.

Math library :
 - Fixed TVMatrixLerp, it works now with uniform scaling (scale x,x,x) and any rotation around x,y,z axis.

Actor :
 - Finally fixed the bounding boxes / sphere for collision / culling. I think the bone boundingbox could be used for hitboxes even.
 - Added temporary bone bounding boxes drawing
 
Screen2D :
 - Fixed DrawPoint when you drew too many points in a raw.

Mesh :
 - Fixed MergeMeshes / CompactMesh to have a better optimization and to work with 1 mesh.

Atmosphere :
 - Finished Rain_Init/Render/GetParticleSystem
 - Added Cloud Get/Set color

Minimesh :
 - Disabled all items of the minimesh by default, reenable them with EnableMiniMesh/SetEnableArray
 - Takes now the scale of the mesh it is created from.

Shadow Volumes :
 - Fixed the wrong shadows for duplicate meshes.

Misc. :
 - Removed some memory leaks & weird crashes.
 - Readded Profiler, this time with a switch, TVEngine.EnableProfiler()  . Please use it and tell us what part is slow in the engine !

[SylvainTV]

New release again tonight !

Several important things :

* Managed & ATL/COM Wrapper
- The wrappers have been cleaned and changed to improve stability.
- The changes were mostly done for functions with structs as argument or return type.
- Please test these functions in Delphi/VB6/c#/VB.Net, especially functions like TVTexFactory.GetTextureInfo, LightEngine.GetLight, GetKeyBuffer

etc..
- Booleans in types have been replaced by Integer/Long, the booleans were causing lots of problems and corrupted data.
- For the Managed wrapper, most of the arguments by reference "ref" have been transformed to arguments by value, except when you pass array or when data is returned via the arguments. It's very cool for C# users because you will be able to do :  Mesh.SetMatrix( Mesh2.GetMatrix ); etc... things

that couldn't be done before because it needed a "ref".
- Removed buttons array from joystate and added GetButtonState (more compatible with wrappers)

* Physics Engine
Some new things & fixes in the physics engine :
-> New Newton Release. More stable and with the accurate vehicle Wheel collision! Should make the vehicle handling better.
-> GetHingeJointRotationSpeed/Angle,SetHingeTorque,GetSliderJointPosition (some feedback)
-> New pooling for events added (for collisions only right now) ! Means that you can now actually get feedbacks about the newton

collisions/contacts. Very nice to play sounds or enable particle effects at these places. How to use them ?

int iNumEvents = phys.PollEvents();
if(iNumEvents)
{
   for(int i = 0; i < iNumEvents; i++)
   {
      cTV_EVENT_PHYSICSCOLLISION coll = phys.GetEventCollisionDesc(i);
      // get what you want here...
   }
}

-> You enable events feedback only on material pairs. So to have events on Default/default collision use : phys.SetMaterialInteractionEvents(0,0);
-> Be careful, there is usually one collision per frame between two objects if they collide.
-> Fixed a bunch of scaling issues with Convex hulls and rotation/scale issue with static bodies (you can use duplicates with it now)


* Other engine fixes / additions :
-> Added GetKeyPressedArray in input engine like before.
-> ParticleSystem.AttachTo  not crashing anymore
-> PRT doesn't crash anymore if it's called on an empty mesh.
-> Improved a little ChaseCamera, it shouldn't shake so much now.
-> Enabled minimesh by default (not minimesh items, but the minimesh entirely)
-> Fixed Bumpmapping on TVA
-> Redirected incompatible bumpmapping methods to the tangent bumpmapping method for TVA
-> Small minor things

[SylvainTV]

We reuploaded the dll with a bumpmapping fix ! However there seems to be a bug for the wheel colliders, so if you plan to use vehicle, don't use this dll right now.

Sorry for the inconveniance

[SylvainTV]

Fixed the wheels, thanks to Julio, and added  GetWheelSpeed/SetVehicleWheelParameters (mainly for sideslip)

And  Mesh.SetMeshName should be working now (so GetMesh etc..too)

Hopes all works now !

[SylvainTV]

Again a small update tonight with the vehicle. Now the orientation is good and you can keep the values you had before last dll

[SylvainTV]

A little update again today mainly two things : exporters and physics.

- Exporters :
 Arli made a good job of making the MAX exporters more stable and better. How ?
 There is now a Max 7 exporter ! Yes already !
 And SKIN mofidiers for Max exporters (before it was limited to PHYSIQUE modifier).
 As it's a quite new thing, please test SKIN with every version of the exporter if possible.

- Physics :
 New release of the Newton engine ! A little more stable, some crashes still occur in "overloaded" physics environment.
 Added some new functions for Vehicles.
 Added Brakes (hand brakes & normal brakes)
 Added GetbodyInertia
 

- other :
 some "ref" variables were transformed to by val argument by mistakes. Fixed.
 fixed some AttachTo Problems with physics and matrices (hopefully all is fixed now)
 other small internal things.

- planned things :
working on a new lightmap generator that will be better than the old one (with auto best   packing)

[Arli]

Uploaded a small Tool that we call "Simple Fx Editor" or SFxE for short.

It could be useful to some people that cannot download the big-boys packages such as nvidia fx-composer or ati rendermonkey, which are usually up about 100Mb+.

It has HLSL syntax highlighting, open/save and create new shaders and build them.
Doesnt do 3D Previews or anything, wouldnt be "so" simple if it had that..

But be patient, it will go great together with some of the new MV features that Iv added.
Had to take a lil break from working on the MV RC so I made this little app.

It uses the MTV3D65.DLL assembly, so download that aswell and put it in the same dir as the EXE.

Enjoy!