[F4-users] An update

[J. P. <ja...@37...>]

I have been exchanging emails with a few people off the list
regarding future development of the engine. I'm going to try
to move those discussions on to the list so everyone can see
what is going on. I've also been doing quite a bit of coding,
and I wanted mention what I was doing.

I've been talking to Timo Suoranta, the author of the "Teddy"
engine (http://teddy.sourceforge.net/) about integrating some
of our code. We're still working out what that means exactly,
but it looks like the rendering system might finally get some
much needed attention.

The current component/scripting system has a number of issues
and inconsistencies, which I've been putting off for a while.
In the real world, my "simplified" COM system didn't work out
as well as I had hoped. I've started work on a new system,
much closer to a real COM implementation, which looks to
solve a lot of these problems. I am also taking this opportunity
to fix up a number of issues and inconsistencies elsewhere in
the project. This is a big task, and rather than breaking the
current codebase in the process, I am doing it as a separate
branch. Development will continue on the current code (as
I'm using it for my own game project) until the new branch
is capable of replacing it. I will put the new stuff into
it's own CVS area in the near future, I think you'll agree
it's a major improvement.

I got sick of typing all of those damn macros everywhere and
looked for a solution. Checked out Scott Bilas' FuBi papers
and the libffi project. I think I've got a design that will
allow scripting and networking with one just one macro, but
it's pretty hardcore stuff. If it works...well we'll see ;)

That's it for now. I'll post a note when the new code is online
so people can check it out.

Jason
379