[Antares]

Okay, guys.  Let's talk.

I've been wondering for a while now about the status of a stable, "baseline" SCP build--i.e., one that has had all the most recent features and fixes committed.  The individual threads in "Recent Builds" aren't very clear on the subject; the coder in question usually states something to the effect of "I'll commit to CVS in the morning" or "when coder x adds his own fixes", and so on, and so forth.  This makes it difficult to tell which builds are 'current' and which ones aren't.

Also, where are we in regard to individual source features?  Is environment mapping now included in every build?  Is WMCoolmon's "the-name-of-your-target-appears-alongside-the-reticle" feature?  What about Bobboau's shadows, and particles, and decals, oh my?

Speaking of WMCoolmon, since he seems to have departed from the community (at least for now), who is handling the assembly of the Media VPs?  We've had a lot of new content added to the community in the last few months in terms of models and the like (Lightspeed's redone shinemaps, for example, and DaBrain's new shockwaves), so has any of this been placed in a VP somewhere?

The reason I ask all this is that I've been getting a pretty major itch to play FS2 lately, and make the most of my new hardware.  With the impending release of Silent Threat: Reborn in a few weeks (?), I'd like to have a full-featured build on hand to experience it with, as well as a few other campaigns I've recently stumbled across.  I'm not looking for any kind of major release--lest we end up with a flood of "OMG 3.7" threads--but just a relatively stable build, one that isn't bleeding memory or melting down in D3D, and one that doesn't skimp on the bells and whistles.

Questions?  Comments?  Bueller?

[Bobboau]

environment mapping should be in every build, same for decals, shadowing was hack implemented to see how to do it, if school hadn't started back up again I would probly have implemented it properly, if someone else wants to do it I'll provide source on what needs to be done. I never realy got very far on the particle system overhaul, and what I did get was in no way presentable. from what I've seen it useualy takes two weeks for a coders new ubber code to make it into FSO proper (ie is in every build) unless it's something realy unruley

[Goober5000]

Originally posted by Antares
I've been wondering for a while now about the status of a stable, "baseline" SCP build--i.e., one that has had all the most recent features and fixes committed.

That would be 3.6.  Stable, baseline builds only happen when we implement a code freeze for several weeks and sort out all the bugs we can.  Then we post the build in a sticky thread and announce it as "official".  That's the way we've always done it.

It takes much more effort than you might think to get a build into a stable condition.  That's why the only builds declared "official" are the ones we post as releases: 3.4, 3.5, 3.5.5, 3.6, and so forth.  Everything else is "unofficial", and we don't support unofficial builds.  We periodically update the Recent SCP Builds so you can see what we're doing, but we don't offer support for it.  If you want to use any of the recent builds, you're basically on your own.  We could just hide all our progress and only post new builds once a release rolls around (every six months, on average) but we do it this way so people have the option of trying the new stuff.

The individual threads in "Recent Builds" aren't very clear on the subject; the coder in question usually states something to the effect of "I'll commit to CVS in the morning" or "when coder x adds his own fixes", and so on, and so forth.  This makes it difficult to tell which builds are 'current' and which ones aren't.

That's the nature of the Recent Builds forum.  As far as the general HLP populace is concerned, the most "current" build is 3.6.  Everything else is experimental.

Speaking of WMCoolmon, since he seems to have departed from the community (at least for now), who is handling the assembly of the Media VPs?

We're currently in the process of deciding that.

The reason I ask all this is that I've been getting a pretty major itch to play FS2 lately, and make the most of my new hardware.  With the impending release of Silent Threat: Reborn in a few weeks (?)

More like a few months, depending on how long voice acting takes.

I'd like to have a full-featured build on hand to experience it with, as well as a few other campaigns I've recently stumbled across.  I'm not looking for any kind of major release--lest we end up with a flood of "OMG 3.7" threads--but just a relatively stable build, one that isn't bleeding memory or melting down in D3D, and one that doesn't skimp on the bells and whistles.

OMG!! Use 3.6!!

Seriously - use 3.6, and don't play on Very Easy.  I hate to be blunt, but that's the most stable build you'll see out of us until 3.6.1.  You can try another build if you want, but we make no guarantees on its stability or how many features it includes.  I can tell you frankly that you won't find a build that has everything, because taylor is still working on a few fixes that aren't finished yet.

In summary: If you want stability, use 3.6.  If you want bleeding edge features, use something out of the Recent Builds forum.  You can't have both.

[Deepblue]

Taylors builds work perfectly for me...

[Zarax]

Bobbau Shadow3 build is the most stable i found so far...

[BlackDove]

Any Taylor's build crashes me direct to desktop per launch

3.6 works just fine though.

[Lightspeed]

Taylors latest build.

3.6 is no fun, because it doesnt include ANY of the new features.

[redmenace]

To be specific,
There are some mission specific problems with Taylor's builds involving the memory leak fixes. HOWEVER, they are very useful and a god send.

[Lightspeed]

If someone fixed the damn corruption on load problem, i'd be happy enough.

[Blitzerland]

Corruption on load problem? What tis that?