• gman
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Topic: Molting of the Irrlicht mods

greetings everyone smile  im not sure how many of you visit the forums for Irrlicht, but there are major advancements/bug fixes happening with the engine including a now native B3D loader.  given this, im going to take this time to update the design of the mods a bit and would like to request suggestions from you, the users of the mods.  is there something you would change in the design?  here is my current list of things i want to do during the redesign:

a) im going to join the two mods into a single mod called gg.Irrlicht.  i dont think anyone is using them seperately so there is no point to keep them seperate.

b) im going to drop the T_irr (this one is going to make some folks happy smile )

c) im going to implement some helper functions for some of the more common create() functions similar to the 3Impact mod.  for example, instead of using T_irrVector3df.createFromVals(1,0,1) you would do something like _VECTOR3D(1,0,1).  for color instead of T_irrSColor.createFromVals(155,155,155) you would use _SCOLOR(155,155,155).

d) fix any casting that may not be accurate (similar to the animation node fixes).

please, reply with any and all suggestions smile  please keep in mind that the goal of the Irrlicht mods are to be as consistant as possible with the Irrlicht interface.

2 Reply by yoxola (edited by yoxola 2006-07-28 23:05:04)

  • Registered: 2006-03-02
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Re: Molting of the Irrlicht mods

  • gman
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Re: Molting of the Irrlicht mods

greetings yoxola smile  thank you very much for the reply.

a) i will not be incorporating IrrB3D into the new base Irrlicht mod.  my goal is to stick to the original design of the mods meaning it will try to match the Irrlicht API as near as possible.  i just want to see if i can design it better and make it easier for the Irrlicht users smile

d) yes newton was my decision on physics libs.  i actually already have Pub.NewtonGameDynamics probably about half done.  enough for simple collision support similar to ColDet and way easier than just the extern'd functions.  its WIP so i havent released it yet.  my plan is to document what i have and release it as version 1.  its design is very similar to the 3Impact mod where it has types underneath the functions allowing for folks to use newton as it was designed or to take a OOP approach.  also similar to 3Impact, it has a type factory so all the underlying types can be extended.  still, see answer to a).   newton will stay a seperate mod.  when it matures a bit and the physics functions are all wrapped up, i plan on writing some interfacing types to go into gg.IrrAddons.

4 Reply by Mr. Picklesworth (edited by Mr. Picklesworth 2006-07-29 11:10:56)

  • Registered: 2006-06-13
  • Posts: 16

Re: Molting of the Irrlicht mods

Good decision to merge the modules!
Not sure about dropping the T_irr, but I guess it's fine as long as people aren't using two 3d engines at once.

I like the idea of more helper functions, too!
And a native B3d loader sounds good. I may have better luck with it than the others...

Newton is a great physics engine smile
Very stable and reliable, and it has the best free convex hull implementation I've found! (And it's possible to cancel a collision, which means we can have effects like holes going through objects!)
I think it's fine to keep it as a seperate module, since interfacing it isn't too difficult and doing so manually ensures that no resources are wasted when it's not used.
A seperate simple integration module or some such could be the very best way...


Do you plan to keep IrrB3d going with these changes?

5 Reply by HondaDirtBiker (edited by HondaDirtBiker 2006-08-02 06:05:27)

  • From: United States
  • Registered: 2006-01-05
  • Posts: 37

Re: Molting of the Irrlicht mods

I think dropping the T_irr and adding helper functions would be most welcome.
Great news about the newton module. I was having diffculty applying newton to irrlicht.
These ideas sound good to me.
Great work, gman.

HondaDirtBiker's Website

  • Registered: 2006-08-02
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Re: Molting of the Irrlicht mods

I am really looking forward to these changes (no more T_irr, helper functions, Newton).
You are too nice to us gman ;-)

  • gman
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Re: Molting of the Irrlicht mods

@Mr. Picklesworth - yes all mods i have that are based on Irrlicht will be recompiled for use with the next version.

8 Reply by Luke (edited by Luke 2006-08-22 03:15:50)

  • Luke
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Re: Molting of the Irrlicht mods