Print Page - Release: 3.8.0-RC1

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => FS2 Open Coding - The Source Code Project (SCP) => Topic started by: SirKnightly on April 03, 2017, 01:54:12 pm

Title: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: SirKnightly on April 03, 2017, 01:54:12 pm

Major changes in this version: (chronologically ordered)

Support for APNG animations: APNG (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APNG) is a variant of the established PNG format which allows to store animations instead of single frames in a PNG file. This change allows to use these animation files in FSO which significantly improves usability for modders since they no longer have to store all individual frames as separate images.
Physically-Based Rendering (PBR): This upgrade of our rendering engine allows to use PBR (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physically_based_rendering) assets to make models look more realistic and allow more artistic freedom for modders since they have more control over how a model looks. This also added support for HDR lighting which should improve the overall graphics experience.
SDL2 usage on all platforms: SDL is a library for abstracting away the differences between different platforms. We now use SDL2 for all platforms which reduces the amount of platform-specific code tremendously and should result in better usability on all platforms. This was a major change that has been in development for several years. Here are a few key features that were added:
- Pilot and configuration data is now stored in the correct location across all platforms (this allows to run FSO on Windows from the Program Files directory without administrator rights)
- All platforms now use the ini files for storing settings. This fixes a lot of issues with the registry on Windows.
- Better support for input devices. Since SDL handles keyboard, mouse and joystick input we now have better support on newer OS versions. Note: This does not mean that we support multiple joysticks (yet). There is ongoing development effort to support this but this release does not have that yet.
CMake build system generation: This isn't relevant for players but we are now using CMake (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMake) for handling compiling our builds. This improves cross-platform support and allows to implement advanced compilation features across multiple platforms. Modders will like the new "FastDebug" builds which are like the previous "Debug" builds but are compiled with all the optimizations of normal Release builds. That should make modding a lot easier since you can now debug your mod with almost the same performance as a Release build.
Improved shield effects: Rendering of the shields is now handled by special shaders which improves the overall quality of the effects and allows more freedom for future effects.
Native particle systems: Particles have always been supported by FSO but the effects that could be created by them were very limited. There were some attempts to fix this by using Lua scripting for more advanced features but that suffered from performance issues. With these new particle systems that feature has been integrated directly into the engine which should improve performance and allow for better effects in the future.
TrueType Font support: TrueType (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TrueType) fonts improve the text rendering capabilities of FSO by allowing to use freely scaleable font faces instead of the previous bitmap fonts.
Use OpenGL Core Profile for rendering: This is another major graphical upgrade which adds support for the OpenGL Core profile across all platforms (this was also made possible by the SDL2 integration). This upgrade allows us to use more modern rendering techniques and is especially useful for our Linux users who use the open-source Mesa drivers since our shaders failed to compile with those drivers. Now everyone will be able to enjoy the new graphical features added in this and previous releases. This also made some internal changes to how we handle rendering which improves the usability of our rendering engine within our code.
Use FFmpeg for video & audio decoding: FFmpeg (https://www.ffmpeg.org/) is a multi-media library which exposes functionality for decoding video and audio files to their raw form so that we can use that data. Thanks to this library we can now play 1080p cutscenes without any stuttering or frame-timing issues. It also allows to use more advanced audio and video codecs such as H.264 for video or Opus for audio.

This list is taken from our GitHub wiki (https://github.com/scp-fs2open/fs2open.github.com/wiki/History-and-Release-Timeline).

Important!!
As always, you need OpenAL installed. Linux and OS X come with it but Windows users will need to get Creative's OpenAL installer (http://scp.indiegames.us/builds/oalinst.zip). Alternatively, if Creative's OpenAL doesn't work with your hardware, you can use OpenAL Soft (http://kcat.strangesoft.net/openal.html#download).

Hidden Text: TrackIR Users • Show

Launchers, if you don't have one already:
All platforms: wxLauncher (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=67950.0) (ongoing project for a unified launcher)

Hidden Text: Alternative Launchers • Show

Known issues:

Github issues (https://github.com/scp-fs2open/fs2open.github.com/issues) and pending pull requests (https://github.com/scp-fs2open/fs2open.github.com/pulls)
See the list of Fix for next release (http://scp.indiegames.us/mantis/search.php?project_id=1&status_id%5B%5D=10&status_id%5B%5D=20&status_id%5B%5D=30&status_id%5B%5D=40&status_id%5B%5D=50&priority_id%5B%5D=40&priority_id%5B%5D=50&priority_id%5B%5D=60&sticky_issues=on&sortby=last_updated&dir=DESC&per_page=200&hide_status_id=-2) bugs - mark a bug as an elevated priority (high, urgent, immediate) to get it included in that filter.

(http://scp.indiegames.us/img/windows-icon.png) Windows (32/64-bit)
Compiled by Appveyor (http://www.appveyor.com/) on Windows Server 2012 R2 64-bit, Visual Studio Community 2015 with Update 3

32-bit: fs2_open_3_8_0_RC1-builds-Win32.zip (https://github.com/scp-fs2open/fs2open.github.com/releases/download/release_3_8_0_RC1/fs2_open_3_8_0_RC1-builds-Win32.zip)
This one is based on the SSE2 Optimizations from the MSVC Compiler.

64-bit: fs2_open_3_8_0_RC1-builds-Win64.zip (https://github.com/scp-fs2open/fs2open.github.com/releases/download/release_3_8_0_RC1/fs2_open_3_8_0_RC1-builds-Win64.zip)
WARNING: 64-bit builds are still experimental. These builds have been tested but there may still be issues that are not present in the 32-bit builds. Make sure you read the installation instructions below.
Installation: If you use the 64-bit executables you have to make sure that you install all files from the zip file and that there are no remaining 32-bit DLLs left in your FSO directory. Some users have installed the 32-bit OpenAL DLLs directly into your FSO directory which is a common cause for errors. If the launcher fails to use the 64-bit executable this is the first thing you should check.

Hidden Text: Alternative builds • Show

(http://scp.indiegames.us/img/mac-icon.png) OS X Universal (32/64-bit Intel)
Compiled on OS X 10.11.4, Xcode 7.3 (Apple LLVM version cross-reference (https://gist.github.com/yamaya/2924292))

fs2_open_3_8_0_RC1-builds-MacOSX.tar.gz (https://github.com/scp-fs2open/fs2open.github.com/releases/download/release_3_8_0_RC1/fs2_open_3_8_0_RC1-builds-MacOSX.tar.gz)

(http://scp.indiegames.us/img/linux-icon.png) Linux 64-bit
Compiled on Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS 64-bit, GCC 5
fs2_open_3_8_0_RC1-builds-Linux.tar.gz (https://github.com/scp-fs2open/fs2open.github.com/releases/download/release_3_8_0_RC1/fs2_open_3_8_0_RC1-builds-Linux.tar.gz)

These builds use a mechanism called AppImage (http://appimage.org/) which should allow these builds to run on most Linux distributions. However, we recommend that you compile your own builds which will result in less issues.
Alternatively, if there is a package in your software repository then you should use that. If you are the maintainer of such a package for a distribution then let us know and we will include that here.

Hidden Text: Other Platforms, Source Code • Show

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: niffiwan on April 03, 2017, 05:13:53 pm

woohoo!

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: HLD_Prophecy on April 03, 2017, 07:21:54 pm

Awesome, you guys put a ton of work into this! :nod:

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: Luis Dias on April 04, 2017, 06:46:23 am

That list is impressive. I congratulate everyone on the team for having achieved this release, it's an admirable feat! :yes:

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: Mongoose on April 04, 2017, 02:18:37 pm

Gonna assume we want this bad boy stickied. :yes:

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: tomimaki on April 09, 2017, 12:42:44 pm

Shouldn't wxlauncher links to 0.12.0 version? :nervous:

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: IronBeer on April 10, 2017, 08:54:34 am

Props to the SCP team. Modders should be pretty excited to sink their teeth into these new features- APNG and the particle system sound especially exciting!

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: chief1983 on April 10, 2017, 02:39:04 pm

Quote from: tomimaki on April 09, 2017, 12:42:44 pm

Shouldn't wxlauncher links to 0.12.0 version? :nervous:

There is no 0.12.0 version release thread yet, probably because 0.12.0 still hasn't been past the RC phase. I agree it'd be nice if we could get that stabilized and a full set of builds released.

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: Androgeos Exeunt on April 25, 2017, 08:00:16 am

And this is...what, 15 years since FS2's source code was released? Good job getting this far. :D

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: Captain toot toot on April 26, 2017, 06:39:13 am

Hey guys. Amazing job on this project. When will 3.8 be released with the .sln files for vis studio? The last I could find was 3.7.3 with solution files. I don't know anything about cmake and the version on github can only be built using cmake right?

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: niffiwan on April 26, 2017, 06:48:05 am

Since we moved to cmake I don't think we'll be providing .sln files directly any more. You'll need to create them with cmake which shouldn't be too hard.... although I must admit our doco for building on Windows is a bit... missing (https://github.com/scp-fs2open/fs2open.github.com/wiki/Building) :nervous:

I guess the main readme.md is pretty up to date: https://github.com/scp-fs2open/fs2open.github.com

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: Captain toot toot on April 26, 2017, 09:39:24 am

cmake, bah! I just mod games for fun as a hobby and was looking into an old favorite freespace. But it's a lot of headache trying to figure something new out like cmake. Last time I looked into cmake it took hours of reading, installing junk, more forum reading, and still fail. Error after error, problem after problem. If it's ready to go in vis studio I can rock and roll and I know I'm not alone. When releasing a major version doesn't it make sense for one person to compile and include the solution files with cmake so dozens of other people don't have to anyway? Some Spock-like needs of the many stuff yes?

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: m!m on April 26, 2017, 11:25:55 am

You simply need to download and install CMake, point it at the FSO source directory and hit generate. That will give you the Visual Studio solution for building. The generated solution files are specific to the machine they were generated on so it doesn't make any sense to include them in the source code since they would be broken for pretty much anyone.

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: AdmiralRalwood on April 26, 2017, 01:20:15 pm

Quote from: Captain toot toot on April 26, 2017, 09:39:24 am

Last time I looked into cmake it took hours of reading, installing junk, more forum reading, and still fail. Error after error, problem after problem.

That sounds like a problem with the project you were trying to build; m!m (and others, but mostly m!m) put a lot of effort into our cmake files so that they'll automatically fetch build dependencies and whatnot; it's very much a simple, straightforward process (especially on Windows and especially if you use cmake-gui to make it even simpler to pick any extra options you may want, which you shouldn't need to just to get a working solution file). If you do run into any problems, there's usually someone on either IRC or Discord (or both) who can help you out.

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: Captain toot toot on April 26, 2017, 05:06:42 pm

1.) I Installed Cmake 3.8
2.) Downloaded latest source from github and have it in c:\freespace 2\source3.8\
3.) Ran cmake with these settings (see attached screenshot)
4.) got the below error:

^{The C compiler identification is unknown
The CXX compiler identification is unknown
CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:41 (PROJECT):
No CMAKE_C_COMPILER could be found.

CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:41 (PROJECT):
No CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER could be found.

Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!
See also "C:/Freespace 2/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeOutput.log".
See also "C:/Freespace 2/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeError.log".}

I think the problem has something to do with the "PROJECT(FS2_Open)" in the CMakeLists.txt yes? It's something to do with not being able to find the CMAKE_C_COMPILER or the CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER. I just need the solution file, not to actually compile, is there a way to bypass that to just generate it?

[attachment stolen by Russian hackers]

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: krevett62 on April 26, 2017, 09:06:16 pm

It seems you're missing the compiler to build the project, do you have visual studio installed with the correct language options?
By default it's located here C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0/VC/bin/cl.exe assuming you're using windows of course!

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: chief1983 on April 26, 2017, 09:12:46 pm

Actually his would be looking for 15.0, since that's the generator that looks selected in the screenshot.

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: krevett62 on April 26, 2017, 11:12:50 pm

Yes sorry I did not see it!

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: AdmiralRalwood on April 27, 2017, 01:09:17 pm

So, Captain toot toot, do you have Visual Studio 2017 installed? If not, you probably shouldn't have selected it as the generator for your project files. If so, where is it installed?

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: Captain toot toot on April 28, 2017, 12:17:20 pm

AdmiralRalwood was onto something I didn't notice the version/year stuff either. Yeah I'm using 2015 which is version 14. and version 15 is 2017. So annoying. I changed it to the correct version then got this error with these settings (see attachment):

[attachment stolen by Russian hackers]

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: The E on April 28, 2017, 12:20:15 pm

Quote from: m!m on July 27, 2016, 08:36:29 am

Before you do anything, make sure you have updated your git submodules, either by running git submodule update --init --recursive or by cloning the repository with the --recursive flag.

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: Captain toot toot on April 28, 2017, 01:01:59 pm

The E: I'm not sure what you're talking about. Everything is up to date I believe. I just downloaded the latest version from github. I also just downloaded and installed git and am now trying to figure out how to work this app too. What do I type in git to get this updated?

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: The E on April 28, 2017, 01:17:47 pm

Hang on. Did you just simply get the zip'ed version of the github repository?

If so, you'll be needing this (https://www.dropbox.com/s/adbddef6kd4fu8k/external.7z?dl=0). Download it, and unpack the contents of this archive into the cmake folder in your FS2 source directory (so you should have a folder called "external" in the cmake folder).

Our instructions and procedures are written based on the assumption that anyone who wishes to compile their own builds will also (eventually, hopefully) contribute to the development of FSO, and as such use git to get a copy of the source repo.

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: Captain toot toot on April 28, 2017, 01:56:32 pm

The E: That did the trick. I'm amazed. Unlike most things out there, this is a solid project. Everything just... works. :D I do understand the reasoning about using github to allow lots of people to contribute to the engine. I just think at major releases it would be cool to release the solution files for major versions of vis studio for less experienced people like me who do know how to program and just want to fiddle with it as a hobby on our days off, instead of having to troubleshoot, install apps, get a headache, etc.

I noticed that the version it compiled was 3.7.5, probably because that was the zipped version on the github repository. How would I going about pulling the latest version, which is 3.8 right now yes?

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: The E on April 28, 2017, 02:00:17 pm

Quote from: Captain toot toot on April 28, 2017, 01:56:32 pm

The E: That did the trick. I'm amazed. Unlike most things out there, this is a solid project. Everything just... works. :D I do understand the reasoning about using github to allow lots of people to contribute to the engine. I just think at major releases it would be cool to release the solution files for major versions of vis studio for less experienced people like me who do know how to program and just want to fiddle with it as a hobby on our days off, instead of having to troubleshoot, install apps, get a headache, etc.

This is something we will not do. CMAKE is a perfect solution for our particular needs, and the built-in CMAKE support in VS2017 means that you don't need solution files anymore.

Quote

I noticed that the version it compiled was 3.7.5, probably because that was the zipped version on the github repository. How would I going about pulling the latest version, which is 3.8 right now yes?

We have not yet created a special 3.8 branch yet (we will likely do this when we release 3.8), so this is entirely correct.

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: chief1983 on April 28, 2017, 03:37:09 pm

Actually I think the release process should have created a 3.8 RC1 tag with the correct versioning committed, should be able to check that out or download the archive of that specific hash I think.

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: m!m on May 01, 2017, 03:32:37 pm

It looks like the GitHub source code export does not include git submodules which is a problem for us since we need them. I'll see if I can add a source code export feature to the release script which would include the submodules.

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: Nightstorm on May 05, 2017, 10:32:58 am

So for clarification the Nightly builds after 3.8 RC1 contain new commits and changes not present in the 3.8 RC1 release. And if I want to do testing the most current code I should use the most recent nightly.

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: chief1983 on May 05, 2017, 10:38:58 am

Yes, although RC2 should probably be right around the corner.

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: Nightstorm on May 05, 2017, 01:16:38 pm

Cool! Looking forward to the official 3.8 release :)

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: Durandal7 on June 12, 2017, 09:26:00 am

Hello all, I downloaded the Win32 version and extracted it in my FreeSpace 2 root folder like I did with every other FS2 Open executables, but when I select it and click "Play", a Windows error pops-up saying that wxLauncher has stopped working. My Windows version is 6.2.9200 and OpenAL is installed in a different folder. Am I doing something wrong?

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: LaineyBugsDaddy on June 12, 2017, 10:42:12 am

You probably need the current 0.12 version of wxLauncher. Anyone have a direct link to the Windows installer for him?

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: Durandal7 on June 12, 2017, 11:11:15 am

Thank you for the help. I downloaded and installed wxlauncher-0.12.0-rc.2.exe from here (https://github.com/scp-fs2open/wxLauncher/releases (https://github.com/scp-fs2open/wxLauncher/releases)), but when I run it says something along the lines of "Impossible to run the program because api-ms-win-crt-heap|1-1-0.dll is missing in your computer".

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: AdmiralRalwood on June 12, 2017, 02:15:49 pm

Quote from: Durandal7 on June 12, 2017, 09:26:00 am

when I select it and click "Play", a Windows error pops-up saying that wxLauncher has stopped working.

That wxLauncher has stopped working? That's not a typical result from trying to run 3.8 RC1 on wxLauncher 0.10.1.

Quote from: Durandal7 on June 12, 2017, 11:11:15 am

"Impossible to run the program because api-ms-win-crt-heap|1-1-0.dll is missing in your computer".

:wtf: Could you get a screenshot of that error message?

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: Firesteel on June 12, 2017, 02:47:34 pm

I was actually getting that error a while ago on wxLauncher 0.10.1 when running 3.8 RC1. I assumed it was because of some of the SDL 0.10.1 doesn't know how to handle. wxLauncher 0.12.0 has been working happily with 3.8 RC1 (unfortunately I don't have documentation of 0.10.1's issues as of now though I can reinstall it if documenting the problem would be helpful in the long run).

Title: Re: Release: 3.8.0-RC1
Post by: Durandal7 on June 12, 2017, 02:58:14 pm

Quote from: AdmiralRalwood on June 12, 2017, 02:15:49 pm

Could you get a screenshot of that error message?

Sure, here it is (showing my FreeSpace root folder too in case I'm missing some files). The error reads:

wxlauncher.exe - System error

Impossible to run the program because api-ms-win-crt-heap-|1-1-0.dll is missing in your computer. Try reinstalling the program to solve the problem.

_____

Actually I just found the problem: your work is too awesome for my pc ^^

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-windows_install/api-ms-win-crt-string-1-1-0dll-and-others-missing/85a91890-ed8a-4e6e-8f94-b53639c39970

Thanks all for the help anyway :)

[attachment stolen by Russian hackers]

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Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => FS2 Open Coding - The Source Code Project (SCP) => Topic started by: SirKnightly on April 03, 2017, 01:54:12 pm