Development Log

What's new:

• Faster sorting of render surfaces.
• New console functions: isVariable() and isCommand().
• No more HDR artifacts caused by the vignette.
• HDR calculation now performs with 4 frames delay.
• "physics_multithreaded" renamed to "physics_num_threads".
• All thread controls moved to EngineThreads, node update can work in multithreading mode, this can get a performance boost for particle systems.
• Number of supported callback arguments was increased to 8.
• Log file name can be specified by new "-engine_log" CLI option.
• Preview works only for images smaller than 4 Mb.
• Shaders has unique id's for easy sorting.
• Fixed selection of objects under terrain holes.
• Terrain holes disappear starting only from 4th LOD.
• Shadows from grass bushes.
• Support of GL_ARB_draw_instanced extension for better ATI compatibility in addition to existing GL_EXT_draw_instanced.
• No more stack errors while calling UnigineScript functions from the C++ API.
• Fixed major stack bug in UnigineScript.
• Update of benchmarking scripts.
• More tutorials on terrain creation.

We have also successfully integrated a third-party networking solution with Unigine, now we are performing different performance tests to ensure that it was a right choice of the technology. If the testing will be successfull, our customers have a chance to get networking ready out-of-the box even sooner than it was expected.

Game Connection Europe (Lyon, France) is coming, so we decided to take a week for additional stabilization of Unigine in order to help our licensees to prepare builds for the exhibition.

News of this week:

• Unloading of corresponding libraries (material and property ones) on the world unloading.
• Fixed triangle visualizer.
• Access to Body, Shape, and internal Dummy object of a PlayerActor.
• Correct linear interpolation for float point images.
• Fixed D3D9 crash if a mesh is missing.
• "float" validator supports inf/-inf now.
• No anisotropy for point-filtered textures in D3D9.
• Clamp sampling of grass textures.
• Fixed 3dsMax export script, now it works with filenames containing spaces.
• Hidden objects are skipped now during export from 3dsMax.
• New "palette" tool for terrain palette conversion.
• Minor fix of normals treating in ResourceEditor.
• Fixed terrain_base_texture_scale in UnigineEditor.
• All selected objects show their wireframe in multiple selection mode, if "mesh wireframe" option is on.
• Input filters for numeric fields in UnigineEditor.
• Two more articles in "How to..." section of the manual: "Create a Blank Terrain Based on a Mesh or a Height Map" and "Use Terrain Palettes".

First of all, here is an another screenshot from our unannounced Unigine-based project, which is the main concern of our art department these days (by the way, it contains 64 square kilometers of terrain):

What's new:

• Terrain optimizations.
• No performance drop if there is an invisible water in the scene.
• Occlusion queries for smart culling.
• Fixed overlighting of impostors and reflections.
• Alpha-testing + anti-aliasing now works correctly on DirectX 10.1 capable hardware.
• Added anti-aliasing support for scattering pass for DirectX 10 hardware.
• Removed Oren-Nayar shaders due to increased compexity of material system.
• Support of mouse scroll in EditLine and SpinBox widgets.
• LODs for particles (particle count reduces with the distance).
• Optimized light scattering.
• A special "destroy" method of containers in UnigineScript for memory cleanup without direct call of a destructor.
• Fixed Image crashes on float and half images in rare cases.
• Grass performance optimizations.
• Fixed crash of ResourceEditor if config file missing.
• UnigineEditor now works more intelligent with textures, there is no need in ImageDDS tool for ordinary cases.
• Scene validator in UnigineEditor.
• Added "How to..." section in the manual, which will be useful for artists.

You can see antialiasing improvement by yourself: No AA, 4xAA on DX 10.0, and 4xAA on DX 10.1.

We have launched a "1% per day" discount campaign: every single day before November, 30 gives you 1% discount on licensing Unigine (or you lose 1%, if you are waiting), so you can get a fully-capable license with 60% discount, if you are on time!

New procedural grass in action (it moves in dynamics):

Recent changes:

• Splatting shaders for terrain with 16 texture slots available.
• Improved terrain editing in ResourceEditor (editing of splatting maps; automatical conversion of textures and clipmaps; 'g' hotkey resets pivot point, like in UnigineEditor).
• Fixed terrain tesselation.
• New "Clipmap" tool for converting textures into clipmaps and vice versa.
• Optimized polygon count in the sky.
• Image class can load multi-channel PSD textures as 3D ones.
• BASE particles renamed to BILLBOARD.
• No more PhongRim shading and color noise on vegetation with low shaders profile.
• Correct detection of AMD videocards in Linux.
• unigine.mat is splitted into several material libraries.
• Updated generator of project files for Visual Studio.
• Handling of NumLock, CapsLock and ScrollLock buttons.
• Support of streams (Stream is a base class for File and Socket now) for save/restore system.
• FileBase class renamed to Stream.
• Access to world nodes via C++ API.
• It's possible to transfer classes with inheritance through the C++ API now.
• Fixed bug with members of inherited classes in UnigineScript.
• More strict accordance to Vista UAC (all user-writable data is stored inside user's home directory, use "project" argument during Engine initialization to override the location).
• More correct FPS calculation.
• Full control of mouse and keyboard events by means of UnigineScript.
• "reference" field in widgets for external references.
• NOW font wrapping is working.
• Smart language switching for GUI L10n, one only needs to call ui.update() after changing locale.
• Hotkey bindings for UnigineEditor can be altered from the editor itself.
• New procedural ObjectGrass: 2 LODs, fast geometry generation by CPU, support of density masks and a lot of other adjustable parameters.
• Added ObjectGrass sample.

It was decided to revert back to terrain splatting instead of huge clipmaps, which are too unconvenient for editing by artists.

There are also important news regarding network support. Right now we have syncronization of world nodes over the network almost ready, it will be available as a sample in Unigine SDK soon. We use a 3rd-party software for transport layer now, later it will be replaced by our in-house module. At the moment a dedicated developer (Anna "ANet" Ishina) is working on our networking issues, a lot of research work has already done, so we plan to complete our multiplayer solution in 5-6 months.

First of all, we have released a new demo, it took a month to create it by our small content department. "Tropics" demo has funny crabs and gulls inside, check it out!

We have updated "Sanctuary" demo also (improved shadows quality, increased textures resolution, added more stereo 3D modes and "candle weapon" camera mode). Screenshots gallery is updated as well.

What's new in the engine and tools:

• Password mode for WidgetEditLine.
• Automatic placement of WidgetSpinBox if it's attached to WidgetEditLine.
• Fixed font wrapping on labels and buttons.
• Fixed color codes for WidgetEditText.
• Correct localization for complex widgets.
• Fixed ObjectWaterMesh and volume fog.
• Support of double precision vectors in math library.
• Automatical approximation of meshes by convex hulls for BodyRigid.
• Auto-update of decals on change of their parameters.
• Optional Phong shading for foliage material.
• Added Xml::removeChild() into UnigineScript.
• Fixed spline exporters for 3dsMax.
• Automatical installer of plugins for 3D editors.
• Improved default look of the Sun.
• Correct import of RGB normalmaps in ResourceEditor.
• Template of WiX-based installer for Windows.
• Fixed impostors overlighting.
• More supported video modes.
• Added getFTime() function for detection of precise frame time.
• Support of password-protected zip packs.
• "Soft mouse" mode support.

There are a lot of "automatic" words in here :)

PS: Due to the popularity of indie developers support program it was decided to continue it, so small independent studios have a chance to license Unigine technologies by low prices, starting from $15k. Please see licensing page for more information.