Rob, Thank you!
Tony On Nov 24, 8:44 pm, "Rob Bateman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hello Away3ders! > > As some of you may have noticed, things have been getting a bit complex of > late in Away3d development. What with flash 10 and textfield importing, and > speed and stability a priority within the trunk and version releases, the > team have decided to create a number of development branches within which > you can follow certain features as they are created. However, this requires > a little explaining, which i hope this mail will do. > > Referring to "branches" basically refers to folders in the branches > directory of the googlecode svn. In version control, a branch means a copy > of the codebase that is developed independently to the main trunk > > Branches in svn repositories are the usual way for any new feature to be > developed. There are two advantages to working this way - the feature being > developed in the branch can be done so independently of the main trunk, so > as not to risk the trunk version becoming unstable, and developers wishing > to test the new features can do so by pointing their svn clients to the > branch directory. (in version control-land, this operation is usually called > switching) > > When using banches in a project, merging updates becomes a very important > task. trunk fixes need to be merged into the branch code while it's > development continues, and once ready for release, branch code needs to be > merged back into trunk code when it is time to update the trunk with the > completed branch additions. > > So I'm sure your all thinking 'this sounds great, but why the hell didn't > things work like this before?!'. The simple reason for this is the > restrictions of the framework. Without a stable framework, branches run into > multiple problems as packages move around, classes get renamed etc. The > merging step is usually where problems manifest themselves, when a > significant amount of movement has gone on and the merging algorithms cannot > automatically resolve updates to files. However, Away3d is at a stage in > development where the framework is quite stable, and unlikly to change much > soon. So branching is possible! > > Now to introduce a few branches that currently exist. > > *textfields*. This one is probably the one you've heard of - it's a > development branch for adding bezier shape support to Away3d. Currently > textfields are supported (using font information exported from the five3d > library), with plans for svg and ttf importers in the near future. > > *3.0.0* - the stable branch for anyone wanting to use Away3d in cs4 and > flex4. This branch will only update with the trunk, so you will still > receive bugfixes to any recent problems if you use this branch. > > *flash10* - the development branch for the flash 10 version of Away3d. > Because there are a lot of new features to take advantage of, it was > considered too much work to maintain a stable version in this branch as > well, hence the 3.0.0 branch which developers should use for any production > work. flash10 will have a lot of activity surrounding it over the coming > months and will eventually become version 3.1.0 as stablility is > re-aquired... > * > multiplayer* - a place for development of our multiplayer extensions to be > used in conjuntion with fms. This branch will ultimately become a whole > suite of new classes for anyone wishing to use Away3d as a multiplayer > client for games. > > *haxe* - the one i'm currently most excited about :). Haxe can now compile > to flash 10 and has a number of very interesting additions to the language > not available in as3... at present our codebase is being converted to haxe > code for an initial compile - once this is done, optimisation can commence! > > *culling* - the newest branch, containing development for advanced nearfield > and farfield culling, and frustum culling of objects in large scenes. There > are also a few modifications to the way you can project into a view, with > the addition of the lenses package inside cameras for added control over > perspective effects. Should be pretty interesting - you can checkout > nearfield culling of triangles right now with the current version > > That's about it for branches! i hope you get a chance to check out some of > these developments. As we always say, the code in a branch is obviuosly > under development, and therefore the features you see may not reach the > trunk in the same way they started! As development progresses, changes to > methods and properties can occur, so using branches for production is > probably a bad idea. On the other hand, if you get the chance to experiment > with a code branch and feel like you want to be part of it's development, > please let us know! Branches are a great way of getting more people involved > in the development process, as they allow many different strands of an > engine to be coded independently. > > finally, there has been a great deal of minor updates to the trunk since the > initial release of 2.2.0, so we will shortly be versioning an interim update > 2.2.5, to be tagged and zipped etc for production use. > > cheers y'all > > The Away3d Team > > -- > > Rob Bateman > Flash Development & Consultancy > > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
