[xoreos-devel] 0.0.6 release video

Sat Mar 30 05:53:44 CET 2019

Hi! I modified the scenario as you suggested and added a section with KotOR
features. I'm in the process of recording the audio files. Will send it to
you for approval when done.

ср, 20 мар. 2019 г. в 23:09, Vsevolod Kremianskii <vkremianskii at gmail.com>:

> Thanks for the review! Yes, I intended to fully voice it myself.
>
> ср, 20 мар. 2019 г., 21:07 Sven Hesse <drmccoy at drmccoy.de>:
>
>> Hej!
>>
>> On 2019-03-20 16:31:55 +0700, Vsevolod Kremianskii wrote:
>> > Hi! I sort of got it laid out, except for the KotOR bits. Any feedback
>> > would be appreciated.
>>
>> Do you want to voice this, or use text?
>>
>> If you're voicing it, can you also add subtitles? I assume you're
>> going to upload it on YouTube? YouTube should allow for .srt-style
>> soft-subs.
>>
>> As long as I don't have to voice it, though. I auditioned for a indie
>> video game once, and was told my readings were horrible and my mic was
>> bad. Also, I have a thick German accent. :P
>>
>> > xoreos has a goal to create a highly portable and extensible game
>> engine to run the aforementioned games.
>>
>> I'd go for *the* goal, even.
>>
>> > With the help of numerous contributors over the years
>>
>> Can you, maybe, have a fly-by of the GitHub avatars and names of the
>> contributors there? It would feel kind of wrong to just name-tag me
>> and not all the other people who worked on xoreos over the years.
>>
>> Dunno if this is the right place for it, but as for the start of the
>> project: it kind of grew out of a conversation between clone2727 and
>> me, while we were still active within the ScummVM project.
>>
>> We've been talking about KotOR/KotOR2 for a while, and I've mentioned
>> that I worked on a FLOSS toolset for Neverwinter Nights for a bit,
>> and that the file formats in KotOR look very familiar. We thought out
>> aloud about doing a reimplementation project for the BioWare games,
>> until I just said "screw it" and threw something together.
>>
>> If you look at the git history, at the very beginning (when it was
>> still called "eos"), you'll see that it was basically clone2727's and
>> my personal pet project for a while, not even public on GitHub. :P
>>
>> > it have been developed steadily ever since.
>>
>> has
>>
>> > which has finally found it's way into master
>>
>> its
>>
>> > This feature is still a work-in-progress
>>
>> either
>>
>> is still a work in progress
>> is still work-in-progress
>>
>> > We also have gained initial support for the ActionScript and ScaleForm
>> Gfx, thanks to Nostritius. This brings us closer to a having a functional
>> user interface in the Dragon Age games.
>>
>> for ActionScript
>>
>> brings us closer to having
>>
>> > KotOR games have received the most significant update in this release.
>> The engines were unified between the two games, leading to a major code
>> deduplication and an improvement in the ease of development.
>>
>> The KotOR games
>>
>> I'd drop the article before "major code deduplication", though.
>>
>> > There are, of course, other changes, which we will not cover as part of
>> this video.
>>
>> One issue I always had with writing release notes was that many
>> changes are not really visible from "the outside", either because
>> they're changes in *how* we do things or because they're prerequisites
>> for later changes.
>>
>> > Full changelog is available in the project's repository on GitHub.
>>
>> The full changelog
>>
>> > xoreos is a very ambitious project, and while there have been a lot of
>> progress over the years,
>>
>> has
>>
>> > It is likely, however, that KotOR games and Neverwinter Nights will be
>> our primary areas of improvement in the future.
>>
>> the KotOR games
>>
>> > You can follow the project on our GitHub page (a link is in the
>> description). Feel free to tinker with the source code, your contributions
>> are very welcome. Also, check out our subprojects: xoreos-tools and
>> Phaethon.
>>
>> Can you add a sentence on what xoreos-tools and Phaethon are/do?
>>
>> In general, this looks okay; I like it. I didn't expect so many words,
>> but I let you have the creative control there :P
>> _______________________________________________
>> xoreos-devel mailing list
>> xoreos-devel at xoreos.org
>> https://xoreos.org/mailman/listinfo/xoreos-devel
>>
>
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# Scenario of a release commentary for xoreos 0.0.6

## Intro

Hi and welcome to xoreos. This is a first release commentary in a decade long history of the project.

xoreos is a reimplementation of the BioWare Aurora engine and derivatives, which are used to power such games as Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire and Dragon Age: Origins. The goal of xoreos is to create a highly portable and extensible game engine to run the aforementioned games.

The project was started in 2010 by DrMcCoy and clone2727. With the help of numerous contributors over the years, it has been developed steadily ever since.

In this video we'll showcase the changes in the latest release of xoreos, version 0.0.6, code-named Elanee.

## Release changes

xoreos has historically been using OpenGL with the fixed function pipeline, which has long been deprecated and replaced by shaders. There was a long-standing effort by mirv-sillyfish to bring shader-based rendering to xoreos, which has finally found its way into master. Shader-based renderer potentially gives us an improved performance and a better control over the rendering process. This feature is still a work in progress and should be explicitly enabled with a "rendernew" command line option.

Another quality of life improvement is the ongoing transition of the codebase to the C++11 standard. This enables us to write cleaner code and use the standard library classes in place of their Boost and SDL equivalents, which, in theory, improves portability of the engine.

Supermanu has finished his work on the pathfinding feature, which was merged into master, but is not yet integrated with the game logic. Pathfinding means better AI and smoother gameplay, when it will eventually be used by the game engines.

We also have gained initial support for ActionScript and ScaleForm Gfx, thanks to Nostritius. This brings us closer to having a functional user interface in the Dragon Age games.

Neverwinter Nights 2 has finally got some attention recently, thanks to rjshae, who is gradually adding new features to the engine, including cursors, traps, triggers and support for more NWScript functions.

The KotOR games have received the most significant update in this release. The engines were unified between the two games, leading to major code deduplication and an improvement in the ease of development. We have also added many KotOR-specific features.

The original object interaction mechanics were implemented, complete with a tooltip and action buttons. Player character will now move towards a target before activating it.

Camera in the KotOR games now bounces from walls and static objects instead of penetrating them.

NPC equipment (clothing, weapons and armor) are now correctly loaded.

We have also implemented rendering of lightsabers. Pressing the X button will make the player character draw his weapons.

We can now add and remove party members from the party selection menu. Party members will follow the party leader, which can be switched either using the TAB button or from the in-game menus. Implementation of the party management allows us to get past the first door on the Endar Spire. Characters can also unlock doors now, meaning that the third room is also accesible.

On the KotOR 2 front, missing NWScript functions were implemented, which made it possible to skip the prologue and get to the Peragus area of the game.

There are, of course, other changes, which we will not cover as part of this video. The full changelog is available in the project's repository on GitHub.

## Future plans

xoreos is a very ambitious project, and while there has been a lot of progress over the years, there is still much to be done. Due to a relatively slow pace of development, we do not yet have a release roadmap. It is likely, however, that the KotOR games and Neverwinter Nights will be our primary areas of improvement in the future.

You can follow the project on our GitHub page (a link is in the description). Feel free to tinker with the source code, your contributions are very welcome. Also, check out our subprojects: xoreos-tools, a collection of tools to help with the reverse-engineering of Bioware's Aurora engine games, and Phaethon, a resource explorer for those games.

Thanks. Bye!