SoftPixel Engine Changelog

What's new in SoftPixel Engine 3.1

Mar 21, 2013

Completion of a new NetworkSystem (v.3.0):
Finally there is a complete working network system. The first time that in this system clients can send packets to clients. Currently only TCP/IP is supported.
Android support:
Now the Engine runs on the Android mobile platform, too. To develop for Android the "Android NDK" is required.
You also have to use "eclipse" and the "Android SDK" but you don't need to write any line of code in Java.
New renderer: OpenGL|ES 1.1:
This new renderer has been added for mobile platforms.
Updated File system:
Completed "FileRAM" class and added "FileAsset" class for reading Android resource files.
New sound system: OpenSL|ES 1.0.1
This new sound system has been added for the mobile platform Android.
iOS support:
Now the Engine runs on the iOS mobile platform, too. To develop for iOS at least "Xcode 3" and
"Mac OS X" (with "Intel" processor) are required. The Xcode project files are at 'sources/Platform/iOS'.
Redesigned internal RenderSystem architecture:
Particular OpenGL has been redesigned internally to have a good base for porting to OpenGL|ES.
New renderer: OpenGL|ES 2.0:
This new renderer has been added for mobile platforms.
Support for vertex weights in skeletal animations:
Finally the engine can handle skeletal animations where several bones can deform one vertex using the vertex weights factor.
Changed "Log", "CollisionLibrary", "Randomizer" and "MemoryManager" classes into namespace because of only static functions.
No change in syntax for the user but more C++ features available. Now you can use "using namespace" for these names
that you don't need to write always the same name infront of the functions.
MorphTargetAnimation update:
Now vertex normals are also animated for correct lighting
New camera classes:
There are three new camera classes: FirstPersonCamera, TrackingCamera and BlenderCamera.
The base Camera class has been redesigned to be derivable.
Integrated NVIDIA Cg toolkit for renderer independent shader programming.
MD3 mesh loader added:
Now also MD3 (Quake III Arena models) can be loaded and animated using morph-target animation
Seperated render context into own class (in progress):
Now you need to flip the back buffer with the new class "RenderContext". Use 'SoftPixelDevice::getRenderContext' to get the main object.
Integrating boost (1.47.0):
Now the SoftPixel Engine gets boosted! The high-level C++ extension library "boost" has been integrated in some parts.
The integration will continue step by step. First of all every callback has been replaced by a "boost::function"
and some for loops has been replaced by a BOOST_FOREACH loop.
From now you'll need to download the boost library to use the "SoftPixel Engine" further.
You can get boost from here: http://www.boost.org/.
Currently only boost templates are used. Thus you don't need to build the boost library.
ANSI C FILE replaced by C++ filestream:
Now std::fstream is used for reading and writing HDD files and no longer ANSI C FILE pointers.
MultiSample RenderTarget support:
Support for multi sampled render targets has been added for the OpenGL render system (FrameBufferObjects).
Added hardware instancing for OpenGL and Direct3D 11.
Added "SoftPixel Sandbox Scene" loader:
Create 3D scenes with the "SoftPixel Sandbox" and load them easily with the "SoftPixel Engine".
Recreated OBJ mesh loader

New in SoftPixel Engine 3.0 (Jul 28, 2011)

GUI reincarnation
A completely new GUI has been created: "BoxGUI - v.2.0 alpha" including the following features:
Window system
Lots of gadgets (Buttons, Lists etc.)
Expansive menu
Hardware texture format can be choosen
Finally the hardware texture format can be choosen between UByte (8-bit) and Float (16- and 32 bit).
Float buffers for textures can be very useful when working with shaders (e.g. for real-time shadow mapping).
Multi-render-targets support has been added
Using "Texture::addMultiRenderTarget" several textures can be bounded to one render-target.
Several bugfixes:
TGA images were sometimes fliped false.
GLSL constants were indexed wrong and can be set now correclty. GLSL constant arrays as well.
Cube map generation completed
Using "VideoDriver::updateCubeMap" you can create dynamic cube maps for simple cube mapping, environmental bump mapping etc.
XML parser created
Now XML files can be parsed easily. This tool (sp::tool::XMLParser) can be used to read HTML files or others
written in a mark up language.
Small updates on the NetworkSystem
Now differentiates between local and online servers to also get online content from web servers.
OpenGL tessellation shader added (incomplete)
The "GL_ARB_tessellation_shader" extension for hardware tessellation since OpenGL 4.0 has been added.
The tessellation control shader is called hull shader and the tessellation evaluation shader is called domain shader (based on Direct3D 11.0);
Material setup optimization
If several objects with equal material states are rendered one after the other material setups will be optimized.
This only works for OpenGL and Direct3D9 because of its render states. Direct3D11 has an internal optimization for this case.
Scene graph architecture has been recreated completely
The scene graph has been redesigned for more flexibility again. Take a look inside the API docu to see the changes.
Now it's quite easy to define an own "Mesh" class. Just extend it and write your own "render" function.
All about nodes has been extended. Now there are the following classes about nodes: Node, SceneNode, RenderNode, MaterialNode, TreeNode.
Mesh buffer architecture has been recreated completely
The "MeshBuffer" class is now an essential class for rendering 3d geometry. It's further more called
a "surface" in the Mesh class but manipulating it is now more controlled by this class itself.
Mesh buffer vertex- and index format is now choosable
Finally the vertex format and also the index format is chooseable. By default the vertex format
requires less memory which makes the render process faster, too. You can now also create your own
vertex format to have support for vertex shader attributes.
PathFinder tool has been added
Using the tool::PathGraph class path finding can be achieved easily with the "A* Algorithm".
Integrated "NewtonGameDynamics" PhysicsEngine
The first time that this engine got an external library. The "NewtonGameDynamics" physics engine
(zlib/libpng Copyright (c) Julio Jerez and Alain Suero) has been added for easy physics simulation with the "SoftPixel Engine".
Use the "physics::PhysicsSystem" class for adding rigid bodys, ragdolls and vehicles.

New in SoftPixel Engine 2.1 (Jul 28, 2011)

Shader structure has changed
The shader has divided into several Shader objects and one ShaderTable for a mesh.
Now you can use shaders with only a vertex or pixel- and vertex shader together.
Geometry Shader for OpenGL added
Since several shader types can be created and configured with more control also geometry shaders
for OpenGL has been added.
More compilation options
Now you can configure your own "SoftPixel Engine" version when compiling with more control.
You can disable a lot of features if you only need a few of them to speed up the performance
and make the engine more memory friendly. Look at the "spStandard.hpp" file.
Dummy video driver added
The Dummy video driver for debugging and other none graphical purposes has been created.
Direct3D11 video driver added
The Direct3D11 video driver has been implemented with full shader support:
Vertex-, Pixel-, Geometry-, Hull-, Domain- and Compute Shader.
This driver possess a default basic shader because there is no longer a fixed-function-pipeline.
Perpixel lighting and other new features are available using this video driver.
Is backwards compatible until Direct3D 9.0a when required feature levels are not supported.
More bugfixes in loading textures
BMP image loading bugfix for "None Power Of Two" (NPOT) images.
TGA image loading several bugfixes.
OpenGL texture creation with NPOT textures bugfixed
(when an OpenGL NPOT texture is loaded the format is by default always RGBA).
Network system updated
Some bugs has been fixed and new features has been addded.
The network system was tested and integrated in a small video game which is now network ready.
Mesh vertices got tangent and binormal vectors
More over the corresponding functions "set/getVertexTangent" and "set/getVertexBinormal"
have been added to the "Mesh" class. The function "Mesh::updateTangentSpace" has been added, too.
SceneManager can be choosen
Now the engine has several scene managers for different scene situations. By default the "SimpleSceneManager"
is used. For extremely large scenes the "ExpansiveSceneManager" can be used - but this scene manager is
currently only planed. You can also create your own scene managers.
ScriptLoader has been recreated
The "ConstructiveScriptLoader" is now in version "3.0 beta" and has become a loader for a
flexible, comfortable and easy script syntax. The "ConstructiveScript" is now also used
for the "SoftPixelScene" format.
3DS mesh loader recreated
Finally the 3DS mesh loader creates the surfaces correctly and the loader is stable.
Also the rotation is now correct so you will need to change the rotations for each 3DS mesh
you loaded with a previous version.
X mesh loader recreated
The X (DirectX) mesh loader has been recreated completely. Now it is much more stable and crash safe.
3x3 matrix added
B3D mesh loader bugfixes
VisualStudio 2010 project files added
DirectDrawSurface (DDS) image loader added
The new image loader supports uncompressed and compressed DDS files.
Currently DXT1, DXT2 and DXT3 compressions are supported.
Surface reference function added
Now also surfaces can be replaced by others to save video memory but to render instances with
different texture lists. In addition creating new surfaces was also optimized.

New in SoftPixel Engine 2.0 (Jul 28, 2011)

Sprites got different wireframe modes.
New collision detection feature and bugfix
Collision objects can be configured for only collision detection but no colliding.
Terrain class has been updated
First functions for texturing Terrains have been added.
Frustum culling for Terrain's quad-tree-nodes has been added.
File class updated
The "File" class has been splitted into two classes:
FileHDD (physical files) and FileRAM (virtual files - for interchange).
Bitmap (BMP) texture loader updated
Bugs has been fixed, 1 bit and 4 bits image compatibility has been added.
Object copying has been completed
Now copying objects (Meshes with animations etc.) works perfectly.
Individual primitive list drawing
There is a new function for drawing primitive lists called "VideoDriver::drawPrimitiveList".
It allows you to render to following kind of primitives:
Points, Line list, Line strip, Line loop, Triangle list, Triangle strip, Triangle fan, Quad list, Quad strip, Polygon.
Also supported for 2D drawing with "VideoDriver::draw2DPolygon" or "draw2DPolygonImage".
OpenGL 1.1 support
Now the engine is able to reduce its features down to OpenGL 1.1 if the version is lower then 2.0 or 1.5.
Mesh buffer structure redesigned
SMeshVertex3D structure has been redesigned and SMeshIndexedVertex3D has been removed.
Finally Direct3D9 and OpenGL can use the same vertex arrays. i.e. Direct3D9 video driver became faster again.
2x2 matrix added
Texture classes redesigned
The texture and image buffer management have been redesigned and more structured.
Now the textures needs only half the memory! There are a lots of new functions like "saveBackup",
"setFilter", "setMipMapFilter" etc. Old things like "ClampEdges" has been removed but new functions
like "setWrapMode" has been added to replace old features. To clamp the texture coordinates change the wrap mode
to "setWrapMode(video::TEXWRAP_CLAMP)". Now you also can set the texture coordinates to mirror mode (TEXWRAP_MIRROR).
Depth texture support
Finally depth textures can be created. Mostly used for shader effects like shadow-mapping.
Direct3D9 fonts bugfix
Finally different fonts can be loaded correctly with Direct3D9.
Entity and Sprite class name changed
To clean up more the code base the Entity and Sprite class has changed in declaration.
"Entity" has been changed in "Mesh" and "Sprite" has been changed in "Billboard".
Also functions like "createPivot" (now "createMesh") has changed. For a detailed overview take a look at the
forum (http://www.hlc-games.de/forum).
Coordinate system balance for OpenGL finished
Finally the difference between the coordinate Y-axis in OpenGL (which is fliped in comparision to DirectX)
has been balanced. Now the engine can convert the Y-axis internally but for the user it seams
to be like in Direct3D9. This feature is used for RenderTargets which replaced more and more
the feature of making screenshots. Render-to-texture looks now equal with OpenGL and Direct3D9.
Completely new tutorials has been added to the SDK
The new tutorials are more comprehensive and better documented.
VisualC++ support
Finally the SoftPixel Engine is supported for VisualC++ and its VisualStudio (version 9.0, 2008).
Now there are project files for Code::Blocks (SoftPixelEngine.cbp) and for VisualStudio (SoftPixelEngine.vcproj).

New in SoftPixel Engine 1.9 (Jul 28, 2011)

ModelCombiner tool created
A 'GameEngine like' tool to combine two models has been added.
LightmapGenerator tool created
A 'GameEngine like' tool to generate lightmaps for the whole scene has been added.
ParticleAnimator tool created
A 'GameEngine like' tool to animate a lot of particles/ sprites.
Entity class was more cleaned up
Surface management has been redesigned.
Each vertex/ texture/ surface modification functions are now crash safe.
Level of detail meshes added
LOD (Level of detail) feature has been added in the Entity class. Use the "addLODMesh" function.
Surface optimization optimized
Sounds funny but it's true, the process of surface optimization has been speeded up.
Volumetric sounds correction
3D sound effect has been repaired and works very good now. Listener position
and orientation is setable by the sound device
Goodbye for the GUI
The in-house GUI (GraphicsUserInterface) has been removed from the project completely
because of incompleteness and uselessness.
The source code of this part is furthermore available in the "media" folder as a
detached project.
Spline translations for node animations
The node animations now support spline translations for smooth movements.
Better light manangement
You can only see 8 light sources with OpenGL and Direct3D9 but the SoftPixel Engine
sorts the lights in dependent of the distance to camera.
Mesh buffers in Direct3D9 driver completed
Finally the vertex- and index buffer creation in the Direct3D9 driver works fine.
Now the rendering is much faster! Like the VertexBufferObjects (VBOs) with OpenGL.
Mesh reference function added
The Entity's "setMeshReference" function can be used to reduce costs of memory.
This function allows you to link the entity to an other entity's mesh buffer list
when drawing multiple equal 3d models.
Frustum culling
Now each object can get a bounding box to be blended out when it is out of active camera's view frustum.
New standard primitive "Icosphere" (ENTITY_ICOSPHERE) and rebuild "Dodecahedron"
Segments/subdevision is the same like in Blender and is in the range of 1 and 8.
ModelCreator supports Bezier patches now
The standard primitive "Teapot" is now also created by Bezier patches.
RenderTargets created
Using RenderTargets in Direct3D9 and FrameBufferObjects (FBO) in OpenGL.
Use the function "Texture::makeRenderTarget".
Complete new SPM format architecture (v.2.0)
Now the SoftPixelModel format saves much more memory and has a better structure.
Immediate mesh buffer update
Now the engine is able to update the mesh buffers immediate, i.e. when changed a vertex coordinate
the mesh buffer is updated for this single vertex. Can be enabled with "Entity::setUpdateImmediate"
OpenGL Index buffer support
Finally the mesh buffers with OpenGL also have an index buffer.
The time before the engine only used OpenGL vertex buffers.
Further more there is now more control for the hardware mesh buffers. The following functions are now
available in the Entity class:
updateMeshBuffer, updateVertexBuffer, updateIndexBuffer, updateMeshBufferVertex, updateMeshBufferTriangle
ToxyVision Model (TMF) loading support discontinued.
There is no longer a support for the unimportant TMF 3d file format.

New in SoftPixel Engine 1.8 Beta (Jul 28, 2011)

GNU/Linux support
This is the first version of the SoftPixel Engine which is running on Linux.
The engine needs running an X server to work.
Naturally there are some parts incomplete of the Linux support but these are going
to be made up.
Complete new sound system (v.3.0)
Now the sound "SensitiveSoundSystem" is structured like the video drivers
so you can choose between different sound APIs.
The following APIs are planed: OpenAL, DirectSound8, XAudio2, WinMM, Dummy.
Currently only WinMM and Dummy are supported but the others are going to be added.
Now Direct3D9 works with hardware-buffer-objects
Using vertex- and index buffers for 3d models makes rendering much faster.
Milkshape3D model (MS3D) animation support
Now the engine is able to load and animate Milkshape3D models too. (but still in progress)
Animation class has been redesigned for skeletal animation
Now the bone structure is a more extensive class with more detailed controll.
It is also faster because the transformations are just processed one times.
This has been achieved by using children instead of parents.
Also the "Animator" class has been deleted and the functions has been added to the "SceneManager".
The "anim" namespace does no longer exist.
Network system recreated (v.2.0)
Finally the network system works realy good. It has been recreated and works
now with UDP protocol for more performace. Only one thread is used for receiving
incomming messages.
Script loader recreated (v.2.0)
Complete new syntax with more flexibility.
You can extend the class by writing your own script loader as a child class.
Gouraud shading works correct and is with immediate effect
the default shading type of the entities
( Thanks to the "spieleprogrammierer.de" community :-) )
Better lighting for "Ray" SoftwareRenderer (v.2.1):
Normal/ volumetric, directional/ point/ spot lights are available (max. 4 lights)
Redesigned the file system
Now read-/ write operations are done with the "File" class (e.g. "MyFile->readString()").
New standard primitive "Torus knot" (ENTITY_TORUSKNOT)
Completly configurable with the count of slices, stacks, radius ...
(Thanks to "Paul's Projects": www.paulsprojects.net)
New tree-node types has been added:
Quad-trees and BSP-trees and also Oct-trees has been redesigned.
Terrain class has been redesigned:
Finally the terrain class is using quad-trees and GeoMIPMapping.
The heightmap can be created with high-quality images using floating point data container.
Collision detection has been redesigned:
The collision detection system has a new design and other functions.
The "MiniMatrix" tutorial gives an introduction to the sub-system.
Finally correct object transformation system
New functions are "set/ getPositionMatrix" and the same with "Rotation" and "Scale".
Now 'global' location works perfect.

New in SoftPixel Engine 1.7 (Jul 28, 2011)

Direct3D9 video driver was developed further:
DirectX "High Level Shading Language" (HLSL) support.
Lights can be located in 3d space, volumetric lights too
2D text drawing has been added
Completely revised the "Ray" SoftwareRenderer (v.2.0):
External library functions (such as in OpenGL, "rayEnable", "rayTexImage2D" etc.)
which are written in absolute ANSI C for more performance (also the same thing as in OpenGL)
Added texture-mapping, sphere-mapping and eye-linear
Perspective-Texture-Mapping & Perspective-Depth-Buffering
The problem, when triangles are hidden because one or more vertices
are to far outside the viewport, has been fixed
MIP-mapping cares for better graphics and more performace
Correct vertex projection for perspective and orthogonal matrices
Updated the OpenGL and Direct3D9 shader and real-time shadow
Now old assembler shader can be loaded (vertex- and pixel programs)
Now the real-time stencil shadow looks correct
Updated the skelatal-animation for smoothly over-change-sequences.
Updated the node-animation
Now the node-animations runs with quaternions too, for smooth and free rotatable movements.
Finally alpha- and depth functions are integrated
Now the very big problem of alpha-testing is solved.
Code base was more cleaned up:
Finally the creation of the mipmaps with OpenGL works correct.
All dimension classes (vector3d, point2d, matrix4 etc.) have henceforth only 'inline' functions.
Many bugs has been found, e.g. in 3ds loading (no longer noticed at the website)
Wavefront Object (OBJ) saving support.
Extendet the "Bezier curve" and the "splines" for using in 1, 2, and 3 dimensions
Use "getBezierValue" or "getBezierValue" and "Spline2D" or "Spline3D".
New texture filter: anisotropic
The count of samples can be set (normally 2, 4, 8 or 16 such as with anti-aliasing).
Standard textures can changed into a 1, 2 and new: 3 dimensional texture
Use the "make1Dimension", "make2Dimensional" or "make3Dimension" function.
Cubic Environment Maps
Use the "makeCubeMap" function to generate a cube map texture
and update it with "VideoDriver::updateCubeMap" for cubic environmental reflections
Redesigned the matrix transformation techniques
The engine makes now use of the projection, world, view, texture and color matrices
Directional lights has been added (now directional-, point-, and spot lights are available)
More controll of model texturing and blending modes
Texture environment settings (modulate, add, addsigned etc.)
Bugs in adding textures to models has been fixed
More texture-coordinates-generation modes: object- and eye linear, sphere-, normal- and reflection mapping
Full blending controll by setting the blend-source and blend-target

SoftPixel Engine Changelog

What's new in SoftPixel Engine 3.1

New in SoftPixel Engine 3.0 (Jul 28, 2011)

New in SoftPixel Engine 2.1 (Jul 28, 2011)

New in SoftPixel Engine 2.0 (Jul 28, 2011)

New in SoftPixel Engine 1.9 (Jul 28, 2011)

New in SoftPixel Engine 1.8 Beta (Jul 28, 2011)

New in SoftPixel Engine 1.7 (Jul 28, 2011)

New in SoftPixel Engine 1.6 (Jul 28, 2011)

New in SoftPixel Engine 1.5 Beta (Jul 28, 2011)

New in SoftPixel Engine 1.4 (Jul 28, 2011)

New in SoftPixel Engine 1.3 (Jul 28, 2011)