Spring 99.0 released!

[abma]

We are proud to announce the release of Spring 99.0! Spring is a versatile 3D RTS game engine.

Thanks to all of them who helped making this release possible! So many people helped in fixing bugs, testing, giving feedback and sent patches! Thanks a lot! This makes this project really fun!

This release features increased performance in comparinson to Spring 98.0 and the possibilty to create a custom menu which allows game devs to easily customize Spring with a in-game menu, settings, lobby, etc.

Please test spring 99.0 as it will be set as default version on lobbyserver on Thursday, 2. July ~20:00 gmt+1 if no blocking bug is found.

As we found several bugs, we'll create some test versions and then release spring 100.0 (at an atm unknown date).

performance increased

(some numbers)

Add flag to draw exploded pieces recursively


new f2/los shader


The changelog contains more details.


Most users won't need a download link, as lobbies can download them automatic. for the completeness:

Download Links

• Windows installer
• Windows portable
• Linux32 static
• Linux64 static
• Source (tar.lzma)
• Source (tar.gz)
• Inofficial spring + springlobby OSX build

Note: Please report bugs to our bug-tracker, thanks!

[jamerlan]

AWESOME!! GOOD JOB!!!

[Jonny5isalivetm]

Cool Beans Thanks for the efforts :)

[smoth]

Was there a fix for explode pieces not getting shaders yet? It is still an issue for my shader code

[Orfelius]

EXCITMENT!!!

*Crowds cheer and wave at brave developers*

[albator]

Great !

I tried it.

However I could not find the way to enable the real radar that is actaully useful for games.

How do you know if the area you are in is covered by radar or not ?

I enabled "L" key radar mod exepcting to find the old mod. If I cannot see the blue border, then I have two choices. Either there is radar coverage in the zone, either there are not at all. There is no way to know except if I zoom out completly looking for the blu line. If I do so, I still need to figure out which side is in and which way is out (of course that is easy when there are only a couple of circle: typically when you test the engine). That still means that you need to spend time zooming in and out since that is not indicated on the minimap anymore...

Even more confusing is the cases when you have areas superinposing on radar coverage. Here is an exemple when you have not any clue which one is convered and which one it not:

[img=http://s27.postimg.org/vl8va3sfj/image.jpg]


But I guess I just miss the command cause I cannot imagine the most basic way to know LOS have been remove.
Anyone can tell me how to enable old way, or a way so that I can have a clue which side is which ? Thanks.





EDIT:

Another thing:

The bug of the cons moving to build at the location it was ordered to and then stopping is still there. (the cons move from its location where it is ordered to, then when it would be able to build, it just stops)

It actaully happens every single time with the coms. Like, it NEVER NOT happens (last BA amr com building veh factory)

[Silentwings]

Nice

The bug of the cons moving to build at the location it was ordered to and then stopping is still there.

Mantis it with a short demo + infolog, then. It has never happened to me.

[albator]

https://springrts.com/mantis/view.php?id=4843

[gajop]

Add flag to draw exploded pieces recursively

I've seen the commits, but maybe this should be rewritten so it's clear to players what it means?

[abma]

I've seen the commits, but maybe this should be rewritten so it's clear to players what it means?

suggestions welcome isn't the screenshot clear?

[raaar]

Good job!

but

ceg problems : viewtopic.php?f=69&t=23275&p=570898#p570897

and it seems after I create and exit a game, on subsequent games It becomes stuck in an unplayable overview camera until I use ctrl+F[1-5] to change the camera. Had to google the shortcuts...

[Google_Frog]

Nice work with responding and fixing bugs for the past few weeks. Without that sort of focus the engine is perpetually kept in a state of almost-usable due to new features introducing bugs about as quickly as they are fixed. My test indicated that performance is much better so I am looking forwards to seeing how it responds to real games. It would also be great to be free of the endgame hang from 98.0.1-451.

Releases are a bit worrying because devs may go back to adding bugs before all the bugs of the release are fixed. The engine would almost reach usability but then fly away again into new feature land. So I hope bugs continue to be fixed. I have found two bugs with 99.0.1-17 but they are minor enough for me to want to continue testing with that version. Although if I knew I was going to be stuck with the bugs for a few months I would go back to 98.0.1-451.

On the release screenshots.. Spring is TA? And bugged out tanks? The bugged out tanks feature is not clear as I expect players to have trouble with "exploded", "pieces" and "recursively" because they are fairly technical terms in this context. They might also not know "flag" and "draw".


albator, on the LOS you should write a simple widget to make LOS what you want. You could also complain to your game developer. This radar display system used to look like this
http://i.imgur.com/q0JIKmJ.jpg
which helped to show which side of the blue line is in radar. If you look closely at the image you will see that one side of the line has a yellow colour and seems to end more sharply than the other. This was quite an effective way to show radar and it would be great if the better looking LOS view could do something like this.

[Silentwings]

The engine would almost reach usability but then fly away again into new feature land.

I have this worry too - I think its always going to happen when the same branch is used for adding new features and for releasing, at the same time. Afaics a solution is having a release branch and keeping it around after the release, to make a second release from, maybe a few weeks later, with bugfixes.

From past experience, I don't think game devs are ever going to be able test everything well enough from the release/dev candidates (but we can get close), and engine devs won't be able to add new features without often introducing bugs. Atm we rely on both these things, but they are simply both too difficult afaics.

[Floris]

On the release screenshots.. Spring is TA? And bugged out tanks?

I 'll just refer to your suggested zero-k screenshot and my response to it:
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=33587&sid=bbf4f5e2 ... 7f#p570729


Oh and Hokomoko... your screenshots miss any AA. (but turned our gr8 anyway)

[hokomoko]

Oh and Hokomoko... your screenshots miss any AA. (but turned our gr8 anyway)

I don't know anything about graphics, editing, etc so if you have suggestions I'd love to hear. (btw, I've hackishly edited the DOF widget to lock on units if it's of any interest)
I do know little about photography, so I apply similar principles in taking the screenshots.

[Floris]

I don't know anything about graphics

AA stands for Anti Aliasing... (for smooth non jagged edges)
You can adjust this setting via your graphics card config panel or with springsettings.

Basicly what you need to do is turn your gfx settings all the way up when you want the best looking results.

Current DoF widget already has sufficient focus for me, it focussus where you point your cursor at.

[Google_Frog]

On the release screenshots.. Spring is TA? And bugged out tanks?

I 'll just refer to your suggested zero-k screenshot and my response to it:
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=33587&sid=bbf4f5e2 ... 7f#p570729


Oh and Hokomoko... your screenshots miss any AA. (but turned our gr8 anyway)

I know, I attached some better ones though. I did not know a speed propaganda screenshot was necessarily going to end up in the release page. Then I would have recreated mine with that feedback in mind.

[hokomoko]

I don't know anything about graphics

AA stands for Anti Aliasing... (for smooth non jagged edges)
You can adjust this setting via your graphics card config panel or with springsettings.

Basicly what you need to do is turn your gfx settings all the way up when you want the best looking results.

Current DoF widget already has sufficient focus for me, it focussus where you point your cursor at.

Not exactly, it focuses on the distance of the cursor, but I think the shader does something that has it fixed on middle of the screen. (I couldn't focus on anything close to the screen's edge)

[raaar]

btw I also think that the exploding tanks picture is weird, especially for non-devs. They look at it and then..."wat"

And I wonder if new features are really the cause of most bugs, or if they are mostly caused by refactoring and previous bugfixes. We all need to test these things more. But time.....time.. :/

[hokomoko]

Who's the audience for engine release if not devs?