The Render Engine's website is still down. I'm starting to get a bit frustrated, due to the fact that I really can't release v2.0.0 as a beta unless I have a site to promote it on. I've spoken with my server host and he assures me it'll be up "soon" which seems to be code for "when I get around to it." I guess I shouldn't complain about it... the site is hosted free and the domain costs me $1.00 annually to renew. But it is frustrating, as I said.
I've gotten the simple physics demo working again. It needs some tweaking to make it feel right, but it is working. I'll be spending some time on the rag doll demo to get it working again too. I've also been working on the 2d Level Editor. I updated the HTML rendering context to better handle tile maps and tiling in general. It's working quite nicely, but I have to do some digging as to why sprites are so darn slow on the iPad.
Additionally, I did some work on the Mouse, Keyboard, and Touch input components. Rather than writing callbacks into a host object, you use event binding to handle keystrokes, mouse, and touch interactions. Gone are the "onSomeCallback()" methods, replaced by "object.addEvent(name, callback)". This makes it possible for multiple objects to receive event notifications when an event occurs on an object. I tried to do the same thing for collision, but that needs to stay a callback since a game object can (and should) respond to a collision event. It also fires an event, but the event is fired after a collision has occurred, rather than to determine if a collision has occurred.
Another note about events... They are now an inherent part of the engine. When objects are destroyed, an event is fired. As objects are added to another object, an event is fired. Things running in the browser are typically event-based, rather than cycle-based (or loop-based). I originally tried to keep the engine more like traditional game programming, but events just feel right.
I've got v2.0.0 all set to go beta, so as soon as I have a website again I will get a beta version tagged (or however that works in Git) and you all can get cracking with it. I want bug reports and good heavy testing of everything the engine has in it. I'll be sure to include your name in the credits for the engine - see your name in lights!
I haven't had a lot of time to dig into your project yet but was wondering if rendering is only done via canvas or is there also a way to use DOM objects? I haven't been able to get good canvas framerates on iOS devices, CSS animation w/hardware accel seems to fare better. Also, I have a few sites on freehostia.com and it seems pretty reliable (free, no ads). Maybe time to consider a switch? $1 domain renewal is cheap! If you don't mind me asking who is your registrar?
ReplyDeleteCheck out R.rendercontexts.HTMLElementContext for how you can render to the DOM. There is an HTML context demo, plus I believe the Tile Map demo is currently using the HTML context because I was doing iOS testing on it.
ReplyDeleteBrett
ReplyDeleteWe are working a some game development and are moving into the HTML 5 game development. We are evaluating engines currently so I would love to get on the beta program - so far we have been working with box2dweb directly but would be interested in checking out your engine. We are doing a number of mobile projects with appMobi - www.appmobi.com. We work closely with their development team. We are seeing numerous requests for games. Also depending on what your dealing with on your hosting we may be able to help out with that - so please drop me a line
Chuck Durham
charles.durham@siesan.com
Hello Brett,
ReplyDeleteRegarding the site, have you heard of Weebly? I am NOT in any way affiliated with them but I find their services amazing. Anyway, just check the features here: www.weebly.com/features.php
We are all hoping for your site to be up again soon. :)