Development Log

What's new:

• Native support of NVIDIA 3D Vision technology.
• Wireframe and GUI are rendered for both eyes in stereo mode.
• Simplified work with stereo 3D: include core/scripts/stereo.h and set one of the following defines: STEREO_SEPARATE, STEREO_3D_VISION, STEREO_IZ3D, STEREO_ANAGLYPH.
• Added 'color' base property type.
• Fixed rendering time can be set using engine.game.setFTime() function (be aware that game.setIFps() and game.setFTime don't have approriate get*() functions since game.getIFps() and game.getFTime() return the current frame values scaled by game.getScale()).
• Performance boost of scene management.
• Default far clipping plane distance for players is changed to 10000.0.
• Added surface map generation in NormalMapper.
• Added 'clear'/'reload' buttons for all tools in ResourceEditor.
• Fixed missing tessellation textures in UnigineEditor.
• Added two more tutorials (see "Tutorials" section in the reference manual):
  • Adding Scripts to the Project.
  • Adding Sun, Sky and Clouds.
• Included the full content of Heaven benchmark into all SDK versions.
• Introduced 'Tools Pack' installer (it contains only tools, plugins and documentation).
• New NSIS-based installers for both binary and source SDKs (Windows versions only).

Tools pack is intended to be used by artists who don't need the full SDK access. New SDK installers are still in the experimental stage, please contact technical support service if you'll experience any problems with them.

PlayStation 3 port changes:

• No more CPU/GPU sync, GPU is always loaded with processing command buffer from the previous frame.
• SPU jobs management system.
• Reduced memory consumption.
• Speedup of dynamic mesh rendering.
• More Altivec optimizations.
• No more RGBA16F textures.
• SPU-based optimization of particle systems.

What's new:

• Fixed property libraries loading bug.
• Moving of disabled nodes doesn't affect performance.
• Mouse pointer can be controlled via engine.gui.* namespace now.
• Fixed object.setBody() and body.setObject() functions in UnigineScripts.
• Distance-based fading of volumetric objects.
• More detailed info on functions in EngineAnalyzer (input arguments are also printed now).
• Changed decals storage format, please re-generate them (simply load world, select "Tools" -> "Batch" -> "Generate Decals" in the editor and re-save the world).
• No more memory allocations in ObjectMeshDynamic during tangent space calculation.
• All mesh-related things were migrated to two-vector tangent space basis.
• Removed artifacts caused by transition from underwater to above-water modes and vice versa (take a look at updated Tropics demo in the SDK).
• Added new fog for light scattering emulation in underwater mode.
• Optional two-sided reflection for water.
• ObjectMeshSkinned performance improvement.
• Fixed bug with wrong destruction of multiple GUI.
• Stack size can be defined for Thread.
• Severe video memory optimizations.
• Performance optimization of WorldLight.
• Added plugins for Maya 8.5 64-bit.
• Coordinate system is relative to the current coordinates of a NodeReference in NodeReference editing mode of UnigineEditor.
• Completed non-interactive network viewer sample.
• Added basic tutorials (see "Tutorials" section in the reference manual):
  • Adding Object into a New World.
  • Adding Animated Object into the Loaded World.
  • Setup Sky and Water.
• New NSIS-based installer for evaluation kit (fixed a lot of issues, including plugins installation).

PlayStation 3 port progress:

• Direct PPU/GPU port of Unigine is completed, everything works very well (as it was expected).
• All benchmarks (Sanctuary, Tropics and Heaven) works well on PS3, as well as SDK samples.
• Major things left to do:
  • Add PS3 gamepad support.
  • Utilize SPUs for performance optimizations.
  • RSX-specific optimizations of shaders.
  • Prepare Unigine PS3 SDK and evaluation kit.

\Heaven 2.0 running on PlayStation 3 (it looks the same as on PC w/o tessellation):

Recent changes:

• Detection of CrosssFireX and QuadFireX modes.
• Synchronization of random seeds for particles and clouds.
• Added 'rigidity' parameter into ragdolls.
• Added 'data' field for widgets in UI files syntax.
• Added emission into mesh_paint_base material.
• Added deferred rendering of lights (can be used per-light).
• Added material/property handling via C++ API.
• Optional 2D density map for volume_cloud_base material.
• Changed splash screen API (splash screens now can be shown at any time): engine.splash.setEnabled(1); while(true) engine.splash.renderSplash(progress); engine.splash.setEnabled(0);
• Editing of WorldTransform splines in UnigineEditor.
• Export of splines from Softimage.
• Added support of detail textures mesh_paint_base.
• Added different blending modes for detail textures for mesh_base and mesh_paint_base (multiply, overlay).
• Added local align option into Softimage export plugin.
• Updated "Rendering Sequence" article in the manual.
• Fixed bugs caused by video mode change in DX10/DX11.
• Full support of OpenGL 4.0 hardware tessellation API.

We have good news regarding PlayStation 3 version of Unigine: since we finally got devkits, development is moving very fast, at the moment we have working controls, file system, memory management and can draw meshes.

Unfortunately current drivers from ATI doesn't handle hardware tessellation in OpenGL 4.0 yet so we can't updated Heaven benchmark right now to provide this feature in OpenGL mode.

What's new:

• Heavy refactoring of base materials.
• Tessellation state is switched on/off automatically depending on distance to the object.
• Updated DirectX SDK headers to February 2010 version.
• Verbose list of textures used by the render.
• Added validation of duplicate surface names and incorrect bone weights for skinned meshes into 3dsMax plugins.
• Fixed a wrong animation frame number being displayed in ResourceEditor.
• Support of uniform_buffer_object in OpenGL.
• Global scaling settings for tessellation parameters and reflection color.
• Added GL_ARB_sample_shading OpenGL extension support for supersample alpha-testing.
• Fixed inheritance of properties by BodyFracture pieces.
• ImageDDS tool now supports OpenCL for faster image compression (-opencl command line option).
• More efficient mesh optimizator.
• Spark emitter generates particles oriented along the normal of collided surface.
• Added 'auto' pseudo-type of variables in UnigineScript.
• Fixed the order of objects destruction by exiting UnigineScript.
• Node ID is now displayed in UnigineEditor now.
• Simplification of HDR cross shader.
• Added a full set of 32/64 bit plugins for Maya 2008, 2009 and 2010.
• Increased speed of grass and foliage rendering.
• Optimized supersampled alpha-testing for 8x AA mode.
• Bunch of minor fixes.

This month was also filled with a lot of important events, for example we met with AMD and NVIDIA engineers and marketing people.

There will be no updates for the next 2 weeks since we are heading to GDC in San Francisco. By the way, you're welcome to visit our booth #1344 (there will be our CEO, CTO and sales manager are going to show a lot of new amazing stuff). Feel free to contact us for an appointment via info@unigine.com

Recent changes:

• Added destructible body type: BodyFracture (it supports three destruction patterns).
• Performance boost in spatial subdivision.
• Removed intersection mask from BodyWater, it intersects with parent node now (like grass).
• Support of cylinder collision shape.
• Joints with softness set must be re-adjusted.
• Added full CCD for spheres and capsules.
• 'reflection' parameter of BodyWater is renamed to 'absorption'.
• Fixed assert in GUI on video mode change.
• Fixed sectors/triggers infinite recursion.
• Saving/restoring array iterators in UnigineScript.
• Fixed incorrect UV data of water in DirectX 10/11.
• Children particle systems with shift emitter use parent particles as emitters.
• Added more samples of particle systems.
• Tessellation optimization gives up to 30% performance boost.
• PSSM shadow geometry replication by geometry shader (controlled by the folowing console variables: gl_render_use_geometry_replication, d3d10_render_use_replication, d3d11_render_use_replication).
• Tesselated triangles count can be seen in 'RPrimitives' profiler counter.
• Added 'Reduce Mesh' feature into MeshViewer: it removes invisible inner triangles.
• Screensaver launch and power off blocking with running engine on Windows.
• Fixed wrong UV data in WidgetSpriteShader.
• Even more speed optimizations and minor bugfixes.
• Updated documentation on UnigineScript library.

Physical destruction of objects:

Another sample (also can be found in update Unigine SDK):