[simspark-devel] SimSpark 0.2.3 and RCSSServer3D 0.6.6 are available now!

[Hedayat V. <hed...@gm...>]

Dear all,
Simspark 0.2.3 and rcssserver3d 0.6.6 are released and you can
download them from [1]. Since these packages are going to be used in
RoboCup 2012, please use them as soon as possible.

Please note that rcssserver3d 0.6.6 requires simspark 0.2.3 and will 
*not* work with previous versions of simspark. Therefore, you should 
install simspark 0.2.3 and then rcssserver3d 0.6.6.
It is highly recommended to remove previous versions
of simspark and rcssserver3d before installing the latest versions.
Also, remove your ~/.simspark directory before running the latest
version. Notice that, since simspark 0.2.2, spark.rb is copied to
~/.simspark in the first run, and ~/.simspark/spark.rb is used in
subsequent runs.

More detailed release notes of rcssserver3d and simspark follows:

SimSpark 0.2.3
==================
Finally, a new release of simspark has come! The most exciting feature 
of this
release is probably the multi-threaded agent control (thanks to Andreas from
RoboCanes for the initial patch). Previously, this part of the code was
sequential even in multi-threaded mode, but now it can manage several 
agnets in
parallel which should (hopefully!) increase performance. Besides, there are
a number of compilation and bug fixes here and there and also better Windows
support. Small enhancements are also available. You can find more 
details below:

- Multi-threaded Agent Control
  -- AgentControl multi-threaded implementation added and enabled by 
default.
     It can be disabled using $threadedAgentControl variable inside 
spark.rb.
- OpenGL System can now request the end of simulation (makes it possible to
   close spark monitor's window to quit!
- The location of init scripts (e.g. zeitgeist.rb) can now be specified 
using
   --init-script-prefix (you still can put most of the scripts and data 
files
   like rsg/ directory inside your ~/.simspark/ instead).
- Compilation fixes
- Support more recent Ruby versions
- Windows Compilation fixes, and few enhancements for better Windows support
- Support for building Windows binary in GNU/Linux using Mingw32
  -- Notice: Windows related changes were already used in 0.2.2 simspark
     installer
- Several bug fixes

Thanks to Yuan Xu and Sander van Dijk for their contributions in this 
release.

RCSSServer3D 0.6.6
====================
It's time for a new release! This release comes with a number of bug 
fixes and
several minor enhancements here and there. Now, you can run the server for
two complete halves. Teams now change their sides in the second half. Also,
automatic kick off and automatic quit modes are added. Field dimensions are
also increased to 20x30 meters, and free kick distance is 2.0 meters now.
More detailed information about this release follows:

* Rule Changes:
  - automatic referee now enforces rules whenever players are permitted to
    play, rather than only in playon play mode.
  - it is no longer possible to score directly from kick off, the ball 
should
    at least touch another player before going into the goal
  - in kickoff playmode, the kicker cannot touch the ball again until 
another
    player touches it.

* Field/Dimension Changes:
  - New dimensions: 20x30
  - Free kick distance: 2.0
  - Corner kick position: in the middle point between goal and corner of 
the
    field, to facilitate faster corner kicks.
  - Nao's foot height is now 0.02 rather than 0.03. Ankle's position 
changed
    accordingly

* Several Bug fixes. Some notable ones are:
  - Penalty lines and middle circle are now visible at their actual position
    (Thanks to Marcus for his bug report, and Sander).
  - Fixed a small bug in parsing move paramter (Thanks to Andreas 
Seekircher)
  - Fixed a mistake which prevented from touch group rules to be applied 
at all
  - Fixed a small bug in goal counting which cause this function to always
    count a goal when ball moved out of the field

* Enhance Automatic Kickoff Support:
  - Changed default value of 'WaitBeforeKickOff' to 30, since 5 seconds
    is too small for any team to start.
  - WaitBeforeKickOff is now calculated from when the first agent connects
    rather than from the beginning of the before kickoff playmode (when the
    simulator is started)
  - A game can be started with kick off for the left team, or using 
'coin toss'
    to determine which team should start the game. CoinTossForKickOff 
variable
    in naosoccersim.rb can be used to change the behavior. It is disabled
    by default.

* Enhance Support for 'Second Half':
  - Automatic Kick Off mode assigns Kick off to the correct team in the 
second
     half
  - Change teams' sides in the second half if enabled (enabled by 
default). It
     can be disabled using ChangeSidesInSecondHalf variable in 
naosoccersim.rb.

* Automatic Quit:
  - In Automatic Quit mode rcsssever3d shuts down automatically when the 
game
    is over. It is disabled by default but can be enabled using 
'AutomaticQuit'
    variable in naosoccersim.rb

* Other Enhancements:
  - The location of init scripts (e.g. zeitgeist.rb) can now be 
specified using
   --init-script-prefix (you still can put most of the scripts and data 
files
   like rsg/ directory inside your ~/.simspark/ instead).
  - Better Windows support
  - Support creating Windows binaries under Linux using MinGW

Thanks to all MC members who contributed to this release,
Hedayat Vatankhah
RCSServer3D Maintenance Committee

[1] http://sourceforge.net/projects/simspark/files