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TGEA 1.8.1 in Development

by Alex Scarborough · 01/26/2009 (11:51 am) · 41 comments

68.233.5.139/~transfer/brett/polish-smaller-rounded.pngHey everyone! It's been a while since I posted a blog...hopefully some of you remember me. Busy as I've been on the R&D side of the Torque equation, I've paid close attention to the new OS X compatible TGEA 1.8 as you all have begun to use it. Adding something this big is never perfect the first time, but you *really* need to know what you're doing with OS X / OpenGL to start making improvements.

I've notice some concern that TGEA 1.8 might not get any attention now that all the internal focus here is on Torque 3D. This is unwarranted though. There are actually a number of improvements on Torque 3D that can be applied immediately to TGEA.

So, I'm in the midst of doing a polish and performance pass on TGEA 1.8 This will be more than just window treatments of course. I'm looking directly at your feedback from the beta that didn't make it into 1.8, and the post-launch feedback we've prioritized high in the overall stack.

I'll be looking first and foremost at:
More from Jan, 26
  • Mac: Fix sound volume issues post mission start
  • Fix issue where cursor is offset after drag operations
  • Fix billboard meshes
  • Reimplement/fix BillboardZ meshes
  • Dedicated server should not open window
  • Mac: Key events processed by action map while GuiTextEditCtrl is active
  • Mac: Modifier keys incorrect

More from Jan, 27

This is an incomplete list though. What's missing are your bug reports. Have you found a bug in TGEA 1.8? Post a thread in the TGEA forums. We'll be keeping an eye out for bug reports and will post a reply if we think we'll try to address it in TGEA 1.8.1. Already posted a thread that isn't listed here? Post a link in the comments, and we'll take a look at it. I'll keep the list here up to date, and I'll be back later this week with an update on how work is progressing. In the meantime, go find bugs and stay tuned for updates!
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Torque Owner Redacted
#21
01/26/2009 (8:54 pm)
@Steve:
Sorry, I didn't get what you were saying earlier regarding the billboards in TGEA 1.8.0 :-) They are, as you said, completely broken (thought you were talking about the camera rotation issue) :-)

Torque 3D Owner Nicolas Buquet
#22
01/27/2009 (12:51 am)
Hi Alex,

do you still need an example of the sound problem I described ?

My mission shows different other problems noted here :
  • billboard problem (on Mac but not on Windows) : some billboards seems to not be lightened
  • modifier keys problem (SHIFT not detected)
  • gui bitmap filtering problem when scaled

Nicolas Buquet
www.buquet-net.com/cv/

PS : I think it would be a good idea to reopen a "BUG" section in the forums.

Associate Alex Scarborough
#23
01/27/2009 (1:00 am)
@Nicolas: No, I can definitely reproduce it in Stronghold.

And the other issues you mention are already in the list. Well, except for billboard lighting, but seeing as billboards aren't working in 1.8.0 anyways...

Torque 3D Owner Michael K.
#24
01/27/2009 (1:58 am)
This issue is driving me nuts: Mega Terrain match up problem

Associate Alex Scarborough
#25
01/27/2009 (2:01 am)
@Michael: Posted in your thread. I'm trying to keep the discussions with the original threads, it makes tracking easier.

Associate Alex Scarborough
#26
01/27/2009 (2:02 am)
@Matthew: Whoops, sorry, I seem to have missed you earlier. Antialiasing should work out of the box, what issues are you running into?

Torque 3D Owner Caylo Gypsyblood
#27
01/27/2009 (3:05 am)
http://www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/74471/
http://www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/82027
http://www.garagegames.com/community/blogs/view/15871
http://www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/82425
http://www.garagegames.com/community/blogs/view/15494
http://www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/83555
http://www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/83659
http://www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/82857
http://www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/81742
http://www.garagegames.com/community/resources/view/15871
http://www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/82721
http://www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/83617

Here is a list of community forum post bugs and a few code improvements. I only post the ones that had no official reply to them.

Torque Owner Erik Madison
#28
01/27/2009 (3:46 am)
IFL textures...

Torque Owner Montgomery
#29
01/27/2009 (8:28 am)
i am currently using the same code base on both Windows and Mac. when i switch from Win to Mac there are two settings in client/prefs.cs that are automagically updated for me and the program runs fine. when i switch back to Win, the program crashes. i have to manually change the first setting before it runs correctly.

shouldn't the magic happen both ways? :)


Mac:
$pref::Video::displayDevice = "OpenGL";
$pref::Video::mode = "1024 768 false 24 60 0";

Windows:
$pref::Video::displayDevice = "D3D9";
$pref::Video::mode = "1024 768 false 32 60 0";

Associate Alex Scarborough
#30
01/27/2009 (9:20 am)
Quote:http://www.garagegames.com/community/resources/view/15871
http://www.garagegames.com/community/blogs/view/15494
http://www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/83659
These are all new code and thus are not in the scope of 1.8.1

Quote:http://www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/82425
http://www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/74471/
These are not an issue in TGEA, unless you can clearly demonstrate otherwise.

Quote:http://www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/82857
This is already in the list.

Quote:http://www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/83555
http://www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/81742
http://www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/82721
http://www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/83617
These will be investigated.

Associate James Ford
Sickhead Games
#31
01/27/2009 (12:09 pm)
Quote:and fix the weird gui problem were pink lines appear.

@Alex
We have fixed at least one issue that can cause this in our sickhead repo. Contact me for details.

Actually, it was pretty simple once I tracked it down so I'll just outline it for you here.

All ColorI fields in GuiControlProfile default to that fuscia/pink color and GuiDefaultProfile had a few color fields there were never changed from those initial values.

I believe it was bevelColor and bevelColorHL, which are used with some but not all of the border types.

Associate Alex Scarborough
#32
01/27/2009 (12:10 pm)
@James: Got better defaults? We're clearly fans of hot pink here, but maybe a more professional color would be in order.

Associate James Ford
Sickhead Games
#33
01/27/2009 (12:15 pm)
I am currently using white for the highlights and black for the lowlights.

I seem to recall finding more than just these two colors that were uninitialized so I'll paste my whole GuiDefaultProfile. Note that 'singleton' and 'fillColorSEL' do not exist in 1.8.

singleton GuiControlProfile (GuiDefaultProfile)
{
   tab = false;
   canKeyFocus = false;
   hasBitmapArray = false;
   mouseOverSelected = false;

   // fill color
   opaque = false;
   fillColor = "127 136 153";
   fillColorHL = "197 202 211";
   fillColorNA = "144 154 171";
   fillColorSEL = "197 202 211";

   // border color
   border = 0;
   borderColor   = "0 0 0"; 
   borderColorHL = "197 202 211";
   borderColorNA = "91 101 119";
   [b]bevelColorHL = "255 255 255";
   bevelColorLL = "0 0 0";[/b]

   // font
   fontType = "Arial";
   fontSize = 14;
   fontCharset = ANSI;

   fontColor = "0 0 0";
   fontColorHL = "23 32 47";
   fontColorNA = "0 0 0";
   fontColorSEL= "126 137 155";

   // bitmap information
   bitmap = "";
   bitmapBase = "";
   textOffset = "0 0";

   // used by guiTextControl
   modal = true;
   justify = "left";
   autoSizeWidth = false;
   autoSizeHeight = false;
   returnTab = false;
   numbersOnly = false;
   cursorColor = "0 0 0 255";

   // sounds
   soundButtonDown = "";
   soundButtonOver = "";
};

Associate Steve Acaster
[YorkshireRifles.com]
#34
01/27/2009 (12:49 pm)
Quote:We're clearly fans of hot pink here

Ha! Isn't hot pink a shader colour or soemthing? I notice it in split-second flashes between loads in-game (I'm thinking COD4) if I've got my PC plugged into (my folks') big old flatscreen digital TV.

Torque Owner Robert Geiman
#35
01/27/2009 (1:02 pm)
Please fix the broken GetScheduleDuration and GetTimeSinceStart functions: http://www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/72096

Associate James Ford
Sickhead Games
#36
01/27/2009 (1:08 pm)
In my experience when you render an uninitialized texture or nothing at all you either get garbage or overdraw.

That color in torque is explicitly drawn as a debug color. Notice this line in GuiCanvas::renderFrame...
GFX->clear( GFXClearZBuffer | GFXClearStencil | GFXClearTarget, gCanvasClearColor, 1.0f, 0 );
Where...
ColorI gCanvasClearColor( 255, 0, 255 );

This color is also used as a frame divider in gui skin bitmaps. And I have seen cases where the bitmap frames get offset and these lines become visible.

Associate Alex Scarborough
#37
01/27/2009 (1:33 pm)
@Robert: Already fixed actually. I only update the list at the end of the day, which is why it's not listed.

Associate Alex Scarborough
#38
01/27/2009 (6:34 pm)
List updated again.

Torque 3D Owner Caylo Gypsyblood
#39
01/27/2009 (10:00 pm)
http://www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/83659

might not be exactly a bug; but a oversight. TGEA waterblocks right now are nothing more then a pretty graphic FX; they dont place a physics zone of any type. Water in a game that acts like water is quite standard now days.

Torque 3D Owner Gareth Fouche
#40
01/30/2009 (12:41 am)
Hmmm, I need to test TGEA 1.8 to see if this is already fixed, but if not, please look into this :

http://www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/75367

Basically, I'd have 2 polysoup objects overlapping, simple boxy shapes with the planes fairly aligned so you walk from one flat surface to the other. However, trying to walk from one surface to the next resulted in me falling through the second object like it had no collision.
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