Prev/Next Blog
by date

TGEA Milestone 4.2 release

Name:	Brian Ramage
Date Posted:	Jan 24, 2007
Rating:	5.0 out of 5
Public:	YES
Comments:	YES
RSS Feed:	or Subscribe with .
Profile Page:	View profile page for Brian Ramage

Blog post

I wish I could say there's a ton of grand new things in the release, but really it's just been hundreds of hours of bug fixing, plugging memory leaks, etc. It's not super exciting, but it's the kind of polish and grunt work that we do so that you guys can be sure you're building on solid code and focusing on your gameplay rather than engine building.

We're close enough to release to call this a beta. There are still some issues present in this release, but they aren't major and we are fixing them at a rapid pace. We're asking licensee's to report issues they are seeing with 4.2 (that we don't report as already known) so that we can pick up anything we missed and make sure it's as tight as possible for 1.0 release.

There is a post in the private forums detailing what's in 4.2, what we're fixing, and a bunch of other things, so check that out if you are a licensee.

Since we've had it in QA for a while now, we've already fixed many of the issues that are in that release and we aren't seeing major bugs, so we're hoping to have RC1 out in a week or two if we don't get slammed with forum bugs.

Recent Blog Posts

List:	01/24/07 - TGEA Milestone 4.2 release 10/30/06 - TGEA Milestone 4 Demo 08/17/06 - TSE Milestone 4 06/07/06 - TSE optimizations 07/26/05 - Plan for Brian Ramage 06/24/05 - Plan for Brian Ramage 02/25/05 - Plan for Brian Ramage 10/25/04 - Plan for Brian Ramage

Submit your own resources!

Dave Young (Jan 24, 2007 at 00:54 GMT)

Awesome! Thanks.

Eric Preisz (Jan 24, 2007 at 02:11 GMT)

I'm excited to get the opportunity to work on the new TGEA release. Thanks for the update.

Great! Now take a breath and integrate a DX10 graphics layer!

Sorry, always looking towards the future. From watching the things that you have been working on in the past, I'd guess you are chomping at the bit to move on to DX10. Just knowing that DX10 won't require fallbacks brings a nice mix between the PCs 2 gigs of ram and the consoles fixed hardware.

Surge (Jan 24, 2007 at 03:34 GMT)

Thanks

Vashner (Jan 24, 2007 at 03:40 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Rockin'

Pisal Setthawong (Jan 24, 2007 at 06:06 GMT)

I'm going to take it out for a ride :)

Thomas "Man of Ice" Lund (Jan 24, 2007 at 06:58 GMT)

Perfect! Thanks a bunch for putting in all the hours of bugfixing.

No matter how tedious it might be, I woulde definitely rather have a solid codebase than flashy features no one will use anyways! So a big thanks Brian (and whoever is on the QA team)

Nick Zafiris (Jan 24, 2007 at 07:49 GMT)

Thanks Brian and everyone else involved! Same here, all those bug fixes were much more needed than additional features at the moment.

Nick

Vashner (Jan 24, 2007 at 08:15 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Getting DX10 fully integrated won't be that easy. Also there is the issue of DX 10 only being supported in Vista. Vista supports DX 9 but MS won't be releasing DX10 for XP. So that's an issue to consider. I think it's more of a post launch roadmap thing. Correct me if I am wrong on that.

Jonathon Stevens (Jan 24, 2007 at 15:18 GMT)

Quote:
DirectX 9.0 L is simply a renamed and refurbished DirectX 10 for Windows XP. It will make DirectX 10 games to work on Windows XP.

www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35110

Quote:
The DirectX December 2006 SDK contains the first official release of Direct3D 10, the latest graphics platform from Microsoft.

Quote:
This SDK will install on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista RC2, and Windows Vista RTM using Visual Studio .NET 2003 or 2005.

msdn.microsoft.com/directx/sdk/

One DX10 SDK now works on WinXP and Vista.

Edit: It gobbled up half my damn post because of a registered symbol (bug in the site GG?).

Edited on Jan 24, 2007 15:20 GMT

Jaimi McEntire (Jan 24, 2007 at 16:53 GMT)

You've misread it. Look at this line on the download page:

"Developers can now publish and distribute Direct3D 10 applications and games that leverage all of the software and hardware features of Direct3D 10 in Windows Vista"

It says that d3d 10 is for use on Vista. The 2006SDK can be installed and used on XP because it is mainly a DX9 release.

You're not the first to get confused though, this pops up often. Here is the standard answer from the official Direct3D forums:

Q: "We have DirectX SDK DEC2006 installed on Windows XP. Where do you acquire dxgi.dll ? Thanks"

A: "The DXGI.DLL is part of Windows Vista. Like the whole Direct3D 10 subsystem there will be no Windows XP version of this DLL"

James Thompson (Jan 24, 2007 at 17:03 GMT)

Been waiting for this :)
Great too see things rapidly moving along finally :)
RC1 in a week or 2 ! wow, dont worry i wont hold you to that but that would be amazing
TGEA is nearly finally finished! wicked
haha, you know you will now get a load of messages saying "Okay wheres constructor then?" gd luck GG :)

Michael Hense (Jan 24, 2007 at 18:49 GMT)

mucho appreciated Brian...

BIG THANKS...

--Mike

Vashner (Jan 24, 2007 at 19:16 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Ah I read that Microsoft had made a decision not to offer DX10 for XP. Thx for nfo.

Brian Ramage (Jan 24, 2007 at 20:11 GMT)

@Eric - I'm actually more concerned about OpenGL support than DX10 support. I think it will give y'all a lot more options than DX10 will. We'll get both of them working eventually, it's a lot of work either way.

You're very welcome everybody, thanks for taking the long journey from TSE->TGEA with us. I hope we can get this thing super-tight for you on release.

James Thompson (Jan 24, 2007 at 21:24 GMT)

@Brian - I think you should really think about multi platforming TGEA, just having windows is very good, you can add many more features than if you have to work for 3 platforms. I don't have any suggestions though. I know many people want TGEA multi platform, but it makes game dev so much harder which is a waste for those of us who dont have macs.
Just a thought
Am I gonna regret posting this???

EDIT: oh ye and DX10 is amazing and no it wont come out on XP, part of Microsoft's Vista domination plans ;)
Edited on Jan 24, 2007 21:25 GMT

Stephan (viKKing) Bondier (Jan 24, 2007 at 23:46 GMT)

@James: come racing in Darkwind: War On Wheels, my flamethrower awaits you! ;-)

@Brian: don't listen to James too much. keep up the good job coming and those bugs out.

Jonathon Stevens (Jan 25, 2007 at 02:45 GMT)

@Jaimi & James - Apps/Games that use DirectX10 WILL be workable on Windows XP SP2, that quote I pasted from MS's own website even states that. Yes, ALL of DX10 will never ben on Win XP, but you CAN build DX10 apps and run them in XP, so to say 'you can't do dx10 on xp' just isn't true.

James Thompson (Jan 25, 2007 at 15:31 GMT)

@Stephan - haha, come play Counter-Strike: Source sometime, my M4 awaits you ;)
Im not saying dont do multiplatforming im saying let windows dev's do all the cool things they cant do in TGE

@Jonathon - Really? Well how about this quote then:

Quote:

Microsoft Will Not Release DirectX 10 for Windows XP

Stephan (viKKing) Bondier (Jan 25, 2007 at 15:50 GMT)

@James: Nah, CS is not an indie game, and there is no Mac version...

I think Jonathon says there will be a "light" version of DX10 for XP aka DX9L, so there will be some kind of compatibility.

Trenton Shaffer (Jan 25, 2007 at 15:50 GMT)

msdn.microsoft.com/directx/sdk/

Known Issues with the December 2006 SDK
Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows ME Are Unsupported by DirectX
Starting with the December 2006 SDK, DirectX no longer supports the targeting of applications for Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, or Windows ME. D3DX9_32.DLL will not install or load on these legacy operating systems. Developers who need support for these legacy operating should use the October 2006 or older SDKs.

FYI: DirectX 10 is not in the October 2006 or older SDK's.

James Thompson (Jan 25, 2007 at 17:30 GMT)

@Stephan - true but it still rocks

Jonathon Stevens (Jan 25, 2007 at 21:02 GMT)

@James - Again, I didn't say DX10 was going to be released for XP, I said DX10 applications will run on Win XP. You really gotta read what I write and not summerize or you'll miss things. I stated quotes from MS which said that DX10 will NOT be released on XP, but DX10 apps WILL run on XP. Having said that, PART of DX10 is included in the December DXSDK which does in fact run on Win XP.

@Trenton - Everything prior to XP wont run the newest because of the DX10 stuff, so this just proves my point even more. D3D10 is in the latest SDK.

Vashner (Jan 26, 2007 at 01:01 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

I am gonna blow off Vista for a while now that I know DX10 coming to XP...

Or should build another PC just for vista testbed.

Jaimi McEntire (Jan 27, 2007 at 23:31 GMT)

@Johnathon - the quote you posted from MS said the SDK (which includes 9 & 10) would install. Not that you could run DX10 apps. The Inquirer (the "weekly world news" of computer sites) later retracted their erroneous article:

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35140

There is NO directX 10 for XP. Nor will there be a way to run DX10 apps on XP. At least not at this time - who knows what will happen in the future though?

James Laker (BurNinG) (Feb 05, 2007 at 13:07 GMT)

Dunno how I missed this... but can anyone post a link the thread? I cant find it...

FURIOUSO (Feb 16, 2007 at 02:22 GMT)

Hi guys, Does anyone now where I can download a trial of TGEA? Not the Demo that shows what it can do but the actual hands on trial so I can play with the software itself. Thanks!

Mikael Pettersson (Mar 18, 2007 at 19:27 GMT)

The Demo is the Trial... The only thing you get whit TGEA is the source code. as well as other usefull tools ...but everything you need (mission editor, HUD editor etc) is included in the demo.

You must be a member and be logged in to either append comments or rate this resource.