Crystal Space 3D SDK / News: Recent posts

After nearly 10 years of development we are very proud to release version 1.0 of Crystal Space. Crystal Space is an Open Source and portable 3D engine framework which runs on GNU/Linux, Windows, and MacOS/X. It is fully featured with support for vertex and fragment shaders, dynamic lighting and lightmaps, skeletal animation, physics, 3D sound, terrain engine, python support and much more.

Together with Crystal Space 1.0 we also release Crystal Entity Layer 1.0. This is a game layer on top of Crystal Space which makes it easier to develop games. Crystal Entity Layer is heavily oriented towards scripting (but also works in plain C++) and adds features like customizable third person camera, movement system, quest system, rule system, path finding and so on.... read more

Here is the first candidate release for Crystal Space and Crystal Entity Layer 1.0 (1.0rc1). Crystal Space can be found at http://www.crystalspace3d.org

Crystal Space is an Open Source and portable 3D engine framework which runs on GNU/Linux, Windows, and MacOS/X and is written in C++. Here is a list of some of the most important features:
- Support for OpenGL rendering with CG and ARB shaders (both vertex and fragment shaders). Some standard shader features that are included are specular, parallax, bumpmapping, glow, ...
- Support for lightmaps or hardware based lighting and shadows.
- Powerful terrain engine with support for dynamic LOD, material blending, and scattering.
- Skeletal animation system using the CAL3D library or with built-in system.
- Physics using ODE library.
- 3D sound system.
- Scripting system with support for Python, Perl, and Java. You can access the full Crystal Space API from those languages.
- Powerful plugin system allowing you to make your own extensions to Crystal Space.
- Optional visibility culling system based on coverage maps.
- Optionally you can use portals to subdivide your maps. Portals can also 'warp space'. By using this trick you can (for example) make mirrors.
- Optional software renderer.
- Built-in window system based on CEGUI.
- Very good support for Blender through the Blender2crystal exporter plugin: http://b2cs.delcorp.org
- Good support for 3dsMax.
- Lots of other features like procedural textures, font system, various image loaders (jpg, png, mng, tga, ...), XML format, virtual file system, input/output console, ...... read more

Today we released the second version of Crystal Space and CEL 1.0 (http://www.crystalspace3d.org). This is not yet a real release candidate as we are aware of a number of problems. But we wanted more people to help test this release. So consider this a prerelease of what 1.0 will be.

ChangeLog between 1.0pre1 and 1.0pre2:
http://www.crystalspace3d.org/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=ChangeLog_1_to_2... read more

Crystal Space is an Open Source and portable 3D engine for GNU/Linux, Windows, and MacOS/X. It supports a lot of modern features like stencil shadows, skeletal animation, advanced shaders, and a lot more. You can learn more about Crystal Space at http://www.crystalspace3d.org

Crystal Space has finally released the magical 1.0 milestone! Today we released version 1.0pre1 of Crystal Space. This is not yet the real 1.0 release but it is a prerelease to allow more people to help test this version.... read more

Today we released the first version of Crystal Space and CEL 1.0. This is not yet a real release candidate as we are aware of a number of problems. But we wanted more people to help test this release. So consider this a prerelease of what 1.0 will be.

You can download the new release at:

http://www.crystalspace3d.org/downloads/release/crystalspace-src-1.0pre1.zip
http://www.crystalspace3d.org/downloads/release/crystalspace-src-1.0pre1.tar.gz
http://www.crystalspace3d.org/downloads/release/crystalspace-src-1.0pre1.tar.bz2... read more

We're moving away from SourceForge's tracker system to manage open bugs, feature requests etc. To file issues, please start at: http://trac.crystalspace3d.org/trac/CS/wiki/Reporting%20bugs

Crystal Space (Open Source and portable 3D engine with lots of modern features, http://www.crystalspace3d.org\) is holding a conference in Aachen (Germany) on 15/16 July. Among other things we will talk about Crystal Space (obviously), Blender integration and other things.

If you want to come you can register (before the end of May!) at this url:

http://conference.crystalspace3d.org/registration/visitor-registration... read more

Crystal Space (http://www.crystalspace3d.org) is an Open Source and portable 3D Engine.

There is a new pseudo stable release of Crystal Space and CEL. We are pretty confident that this release works well on various systems and platforms and we recommend that you use this version. You can get it from the download page (http://www.crystalspace3d.org/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=Download).

Visit the Project Forums (http://community.crystalspace3d.org/forum/index.php) or reply to this email in case of problems. Always state the version of CS that you're using there and also details on your system (compiler, OS, 3D card, ...)... read more

Crystal Space is an Open Source 3D Engine for Linux, MacOS/X, and Windows. We support many modern features (vertex and fragment shaders, stencil shadows, lightmaps, physics, skeletal animation, scripting, ...).

For some time now we are running a donation campaign to try to raise a bit of money for a new computer that would help us develop Crystal Space on Linux and also improve Crystal Space development in general (i.e. it would give us easy access to valgrind again which is an extremely useful tool to debug problems in any kind of program). At this moment we're only $400 (USD) short of the required money for the computer we have in mind. If you want to help us with this goal then you can visit the Project Donations page (http://www.crystalspace3d.org/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=Project+Donations) for more details about possible ways to donate to us or you can go directly to the Crystal Space Donations Page at https://sourceforge.net/donate/index.php?group_id=649 (requires PayPal or payment through credit card).... read more

Crystal Space is a portable Open Source 3D engine which lots of features. It fully supports OpenGL and uses various OpenGL features like stencil shadows, vertex and fragment shaders (shaders through ARB extensions and CG), and others.

The latest stable release (0.98r004) is getting old. More and more I have to tell people to use the latest CVS because bugs have been fixed there and CVS is simply a lot better. On the other hand many people are afraid of the instability and indeed from time to time the CVS version doesn't compile or work properly. So normally it would be time for another release. The next stable release is supposed to be 1.0 but we are not ready for 1.0 yet. A lot more work has to be done still. So we decided to have more regular intermediate pseudo-stable releases. These pseudo-stable versions are not as well tested as the real stable release but we are pretty confident that they are okay and most things are working properly.... read more

Crystal Space is an Open Source and portable 3D Engine Framework. It is fully featured and has lots of advanced features (shaders, stencil shadows, ...)
You can learn more about Crystal Space at http://www.crystalspace3d.org

Crystal Space is accepting donations at https://sourceforge.net/donate/index.php?group_id=649
This money will be used to get a new linux computer which is needed to better support Crystal Space on linux. At this moment Windows, Linux, and MacOS/X are supported by Crystal Space but most of the active developers are on Windows which means that that platform gets most attention. I have a linux computer but it is underpowered which makes it bad for testing the latest CS features on linux too.... read more

Lately the Crystal Space community seems to have gotten a new head start. Especially since the Crystal Space site has now moved to a faster server it is now a lot easier to update it and so the related projects, screenshots, and the new movie section are now very alive and relevant.

But we need more! Crystal Space currently still is not very well known with many people and often Crystal Space is perceived as bulky and old. People don't often realize how fast Crystal Space has moved the last half year (especially with the new renderer architecture that is now a lot more mature) and how fast Crystal Space will move in the near future (there are some great things on the horizon, especially with respect to lighting and shadows).... read more

Round six of the lego competition has started. If you want you can vote for my models (or my daughters models) in the lego competition that is happening at lego.com. Registration is free and anonymous. You can register at: https://club.lego.com/eng/login/factory/registration.asp

If you did that then you can vote for my models: http://www.lego.com/eng/factory/Compete/searchresult.asp?attribs=29E6B0B5-FD77-4866-A947-A1BB42604C7B%2C6&username=jorritTyb&submit.x=0&submit.y=0&submit=Go or for my daughters models: http://www.lego.com/eng/factory/Compete/searchresult.asp?attribs=29E6B0B5-FD77-4866-A947-A1BB42604C7B%2C6&username=maaike272&submit.x=11&submit.y=9&submit=Go... read more

Today Crystal Space reached an important milestone. We finally removed the old renderer. This brings up one step closer to the famous 1.0 release so this is what we will focus on in the (near?) future.

If you look at the left side of the Crystal Space page you can also see a new link to the Crystal Space Community Site (http://www.crystal-community.tk/). This site is all about the user community of Crystal Space. If you have screenshots, free models, tutorials, or just want to chat on the forums then this is the place to be.... read more

Here is a new release of Crystal Space 0.98r004. Crystal Space is an Open Source and feature rich 3D Engine which runs on Linux, Windows, and MacOS/X.

Lots has changed since 0.96 (see http://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?group_id=649&release_id=266198\). This is the fourth release of 0.98. This version should now be very stable. Go to http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=649&package_id=664&release_id=266198 to download Crystal Space.... read more

At this moment the latest stable release is VERY old (more then a year). We no longer support this version as the CVS version that is in development is very stable now. I recommend you check out that version (either by using CVS or by downloading a snapshot) instead of 0.96r004. However, we will soon release a new stable 0.98 version.

Greetings,

Crystal Space is an Open Source 3D SDK for Unix, Windows, MacOS/X. It renders with OpenGL or software and features curved surfaces, volumetric fog, dynamic colored lighting, terrain engine, LOD, procedural textures, portals, etc. This is a maintenance release to Crystal Space 0.96. In the mean time a lot more exciting things are happening with the CVS version of CS :-)

- Lots of fixes to configure for better project configuration on various flavors of operating systems.
- Bug fix in milk2spr.
- Some fixes in OpenGL renderer and canvas.
- Fixed a huge amounts of bugs and problems in the ensockete driver.
- Fixed some bugs in the socket driver too.

Crystal Space 0.96r003 has been released. This release fixes a number of the problems and issues discovered in the 0.96r002 release. Crystal Space is an Open Source 3D SDK for Unix, Windows, MacOS/X. It renders with OpenGL or software and features curved surfaces, volumetric fog, dynamic colored lighting, terrain engine, LOD, procedural textures, portals, etc.

Here is a brief overview of some of the problems addressed by this release:... read more

A new release of Crystal Space is now available. The 0.96r002 release fixes a few bugs and also adds a major optimization in the OpenGL renderer (some levels go more than twice as fast now). Crystal Space is an Open Source 3D SDK for Unix, Windows, MacOS/X. It renders with OpenGL or software and features curved surfaces, volumetric fog, dynamic colored lighting, terrain engine, LOD, procedural textures, portals, etc.

Check out http://crystal.sf.net for more details. A lot has changed in this release. Some highlights: XML format, effect system, smart pointers, ODE physics, ...

Greetings,

Crystal Space is an Open Source and portable 3D SDK (http://crystal.sf.net).

In order to support Crystal Space (for future contests and other) we opened a shop at http://www.cafepress.com. At this moment there are three items in the shop:
- a baseball cap ($15.99) ($3 profit for CS)
- a mousepad ($13.99) ($3 profit for CS)
- a tile coaster ($6.50) ($2 profit for CS)

We will add more later. To go to the crystalspace shop you can enter CafePress and search for 'crystalspace' or else go directly to http://www.cafeshops.com/cp/store.aspx?s=crystalspace... read more

The Crystal Space Contest FTP Site is Open. So if your contest entry is ready you can put it at the following ftp site:

- address: 62.188.48.183
- login: crystal-compo-entrants
- pass: letmeenter

PLEASE do not forget the contest guidelines on how to submit entries! Also don't forget that it is legal to send in unfinished entries. An unfinished good entry is still better than a finished bad entry :-)
Go to the http://crystal.sf.net/contest.html (contest page) for more info about the contest and the important contest rules (http://crystal.sf.net/contest_rules.html).... read more

At http://www.geocities.com/sunshadowgames/cs_tut.html there is a new CS tutorial site. They are still working on a lot of tutorials but several are already finished.

Greetings,

I'd like to remind everyone that there is a Crystal Space based contest going on right now. You still have one month to contribute. The prices are $500, $250, and $200 USD for the first three entries. See http://crystal.sf.net for more information.

Greetings,

In order to get rid of the $1000 we recently got we decided to create a Crystal Space contest. Here are the rules:

1. The deadline for the contest is August
the first of 2002. Entries should be mailed
to me (jorrit.tyberghein@uz.kuleuven.ac.be)
BEFORE that date.

2. The contest is about writing a game, demo,
or useful tool for Crystal Space using the
Crystal Space framework.

3. It is recommended that the source code of
this contest entry is not more than 5000
lines. Blocks is 4500 lines and csdemo is
3653 lines so this should be possible :-)... read more