Delay

In case you missed the IRC dicussion, the .13 release won't have a binary release this week. There were some crash bugs found, and they have now been fixed. However during that time the 'new stuff' like subdivision ( non-smoothing ) and usability 'fixes' started going it too. If you want this release you'll have to build it out of svn yourself, or wait for the next release.

Here's a pic of a snake I made with the new subdiv and the dmap brush. I guess my modeling is getting better. I'm thinking about making the dmap paint tool a lot more usable eg. for moral beings to use.

You may have heard the 0.9.6 logo is in concept. It looks like it'll be a Miko like 'mascot' to fit with the release name kagura, and everyone likes animating dancers anyway. I think it's time to show off what you can do with freyja, and a logo character is a good first step. Also being a Miko it gives a chance to have a range of nik-naks like a yumi and o-fuda or maybe even a katana. I did say concept. The WIP will become the alpha tutorial now, and the shishi o-doshi tutorial will be able to be pushed out sooner.

On the slate for next Release:

• Finish up new keyframing.
• More modeling and animation features. TBA
  
• More usability fixes.
• Edge editing comeback? (bonus)
  
• Loop knife subdiv? (bonus)
  
• Lua macros hooked up to new QueryABI.
• LegacyABI dependency removal in UI.
  
• More refactoring.
  

freyja 0.9.5.13

Ok, claim down kids. I'm checking in the heightmap editor, lua binding, and slight UI improvement for this release soon. I'm holding back on the animation changes to avoid various issues. I didn't have but a couple of days this week to work on freyja, so today I wrote the Lua binding and that'll be a good bone. Mostly boring fixes for UI, bulid system, and minor features you'll likely not notice as features. Oh I guess you'd notice the paint tool has facet based heightmap and dmap painting. Most people would notice that anyway. It's not Perpixel since that would take more than a day. Notice the pretty new file shelf with Lua and Python script buttons/drop downs also. Yes, cameras will be brought back on line ASAP given heightmap editing is in -- tombraider level editing to comeback? You'll really have to beg me to dig that code back out for a rewrite. Onward to alpha release! ;)

freyja 0.9.5.12

New release coming this weekend. Finally back on track after the hell of reworking the cross compiler environment and porting a few libraries to Windows last release. This release has a lot of nice new stuff. As you can see I finally fixed the rig and animated that whacky model I got for free. I decided not to post a screenshot of the track with the winged spear attack, since it's too cheesy. I'm going to try and get Md5Anim support in this release too, but I'm baking up a storm in the kitchen later today -- no promises.



I'll tick off the best parts of the 0.9.5.12 ChangeLog for you:

• Skeleton transform back, binds to Model.
• Md5Model plugin updated to 0.9.5 ABI.
• Paint tool prototype for (un)weighting, (un)selecting, and material reassignment.
• MSTL and mgtk minor updates.
• Ja format export disabled, and will be removed next release.
  
• Minor rendering updates should improve your framerate and cpu usage.
• 'XML pieces' prototype renamed snippets with tons of new stuff added.
• 3d 'icons' are now mostly shaded, so report if you love/hate it.
  

Next release will get the long awaited animation backend overhaul, which will mean better data structures for me and features for you. Currently the skinning is redone every frame still in pose/animation mode, so the next update should be a huge boon for animating larger models. Freyja is still an event based renderer, so this is a big deal even if you're not using software based OpenGL. Zipped snippets! Yes, I think it's about time to implement it too. Displacement painting? No, not unless you can convince me it's more important than fixing the animator. Currently the weight paint isn't so great, since you have to touch up vertices on face bondaries or be clever with your painting. I want to fix that first, and perhaps even try texture painting before hopping into a My Little z-brush subproject. Talk to me. I love it when users bitch. ;)

Update:
Win32 binary doesn't have plugins, so you must download the -plugins zip file to go with it. Python support was removed from this build, but if you miss it email me. I'm likely going to not release anymore python enabled win32 binaries again, since Lua plugin/macro support is coming soon. I might post a HOWTO if you want to know how to build support yourself.

freyja 0.9.5.11 test release

I got a chance to load up the win32 build in vmware, and it looked 'ok'. The win32 build system and environment were completely rewritten/changed in a couple of hours this morning. (0100-0300)

Expect bugs, and before you ask the plugins are from 0.9.5.9 and that's why you see two copys of mgtk and freyja libraries in the directory. I had to work on gtkglext 1.2.0 to get it working with the 2.10 build system, so report any issues there too. I'm considering making this the last debug+symbols test release, so that means the next release will be optimized to a degree. I'm considering tossing in SSE build options in the math lib too. It's in good enough shape now to start optimizing select subsystems. The march to 0.9.6 alpha continues. The next release will focus on UI refinement.

This release was mostly getting the new cross build system fixed, since most users are still on Windows. There were a lot of major fixes and a couple features as mentioned in the last post. The Ja model format is being deprecated this release, and Freyja will remain as a state dump format. I'm looking at compressed XML as the default down the road. Report bugs. ;)

0.9.5.11?

It looks like there will finally be a new release this week. Huge fixes for FK animation, UV editor, etc. This just proves how much 'testers' use maya in tandem with this project, since bugs that horrible should have been noticed. I'll let you guess what they were. =)

Good news for Vampire fans. I'm slowly checking in partial XML serializers into the codebase this weekend. This means you can mix and match skeletons, meshes, weight maps, etc -- or backup your work while on the bumpy alpha road.

I've been looking at skinning some Bloodlines models to Redemption skeletons as an excuse to play with them in my demo engine and test the plugins. XML Metadata for keyframes should be in the next release also. This also means a nad 'cooker' might be coming out like the lineageII tool. Export XML and cook it into a nad... but I never know what I'll have time for when it comes to hobby work. Here's some pics you might enjoy. Yes, I'm finally going to fix the ugly arm 'icons' soon. No, I haven't skinned the Pisha mesh for the skeleton I'm animating there as you can see she's in rest. I'm sure you love her missing texture hair... those question marks are sexy! Once I have her horribly animatied corpse done I may share a video. Everyone can laugh at the programmer animating vampires so poorly -- people ask if they're zombies. I'm going to get some sleep. おやすみ ;)

Demos?

"Where have you been?" I took off for a week in May, which many of you know. After that started on a demo for my resume last week. It may not look impressive with my programmer art, and lack of visual features. It does do XML+Lua with full macros and some more 'hardcore' aka boring things you don't care about which are nice skills to show off for under the hood. It does however stream a version of Wagner's Faust Overture I made to loop nicely while streaming from a vorbis file.

"What the hell does this have to do with freya?!" I'll tell you, dear guests. I was so impressed with how well Lua + XML worked out in my demo that I'll soon be using a system like it in my freyja non-public branch. If it goes as well as I expect -- it'll be in the next release at the end of the week. Considering python and C# API generators took a day I can't see Lua taking long either. The real issue will be replacing the mlisp/mgtk layer, which could take a couple of days. Hopefully, I'll get some free time to knock those out while working on this demo.

If I can't get the time to finally rig that mesh properly I might just use a model from Bloodlines or Redemption as a kind of gag. I already have a pisha mesh laying around... anyway I'll add a projected textures for canopy shadows and/or light beams and shadow volumes later so you guys won't cry. Maybe a cool GLSL refraction shader... yeah, like I have time. If I don't watch out I might make a full, albeit tiny game engine again. Any comments on how to improve my programmer art would be fun. At least I didn't hand draw the fonts. ;)