[Torcs-ng-devel] Work in progress, and first try of a release schedule

[Annick et Jean-P. <jpm...@fr...>]

Hi, all.

Some small weeks since the fork, an already many more ideas than spare time ...

First, what we have done so far (tell me if I missed something) :

1) Trunk (https://torcs-ng.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/torcs-ng/trunk)

- migration from CVS to SVN (Xavier)
- torcs => torcs-ng where strictly necessary, noticeably for starting scripts
   under Linux, to enable smooth cohabitation with Torcs in the same installation
   directory and user home directory (Xavier, Jean-Philippe)
- CVS => .svn in makefiles (Jean-Philippe)
- integrated k1999 (Windows) (Jean-Philippe)
- renamed config.h to config-win32.h into repository to avoid committing it
   under Linux, where it is generated ; under Windows, config-win32.h
   is renamed to config.h by setup_win32_generic.bat (Jean-Philippe)
- GCC 4.3 compatibility (Xavier, Jean-Philippe)
- applied animated driver patch by Andrew Sumner (Xavier)
- applied 3D-Wheel patch by Eric Espie (Xavier)
- integrated SuperChamp race mode and full car set by Andrew Sumner (Xavier)
- integrated hymie-sc1 and 2 robots by Andrew Sumner (Xavier and Jean-Philippe)
- integrated locus robot by Andrew Sumner (Xavier and Jean-Philippe)
   and bug fixes on it (Andrew)
- integrated sparkle (Windows) (Jean-Philippe)
- integrated Simu V3 and Simulation menu by Cristos Dimitrakakis (Jean-Philippe)
   BUT: Still some double/float warnings
- improvments on road tracks (shiny cars through increased specular colour)
   and backfire and brakelight textures, by Andrew Sumner (Andrew)
   BUT: Are brake lights enough visible for all cars ?
- integrated Brondehach track by Andrew Summer (Xavier)
- integrated Corkscrew track by Gabor Kmetylo  (Xavier)
- integrated Long Day de Gabor Kmetylo (Xavier)
- updated TRB1 car textures by "Tougeproject", a TRB aficionado (Xavier)
- updated speedometer and rmp-meter textures by Tougeproject (Xavier)
   BUT: Speed digital indicator not very visible (=> change its color ?)
- updated textures for Wheel-2 and g-track-1 by Eckhard M. Jager (Xavier)
- fixes for Autoclutch, ABS and ASR in human driver (Andrew)

Still to do / current :
- simu V2 update from far better (than 1.3.1) Torcs trunk (Andrew),
- Splash screen / icons in NG variants (applicant wanted ;-)
- apply single processor affinity patch (needed for Windows Vista
   otherwise rendering is jerky) by Andrew Sumner (Andrew, Xavier)
- tests and bug fixes.

All that seems to work well under Mandriva Linux 2008.0 x86_64 and x86,
Mandriva Cooker pre2009.0, and Windows XP SP2 32bits,
even if some test is still needed.

2) SDL port branch (https://torcs-ng.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/torcs-ng/sdl-port)

- applied the good old SDL patch from Brian Gavin (Xavier)
- fine tuning of the event loop to process ALL pending events
   before re-displaying (fixes lags and delays in mouse movements)
   (Jean-Philippe).
- fixed localized keyboard support through SDL unicode (Jean-Philippe)
- fixed splash screen crash on 7s time-out (Jean-Philippe)
- added F1 / F12 / ESC / Return shortcuts in some menus where lacking
   (Jean-Philippe)


Still to do / current :
- fix keyboard  auto-repeat,
- apply Cmake (portable compilation system) patch by Mart Kelder
    and port it to Windows (Mart, Brian)
- ...


3) Other current works, not on any branch for the moment :

- apply Career patch by Mart Kelder (Xavier)

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Now, what we plan for the future (may change as time goes by,
and because we are not sure if we will follow Torcs, or show it the way ;-) :

- 1.3.1 is nearly freezed, just waiting for subsequent Torcs tweaks,
   small completion work (like 3D wheels for SuperChamp cars, ...),
   the update to Simu V2 from Torcs Trunk, and some other no risk
   updates / bug fixes, while waiting for Torcs-1.3.1 release.

- 1.3.2 :
   * changes between Torcs 1.3.1 and 1.3.2 (GCC 4 compiler warning fix,
     F1 and Nascar category rename, ...)
   * may be GearChangeMode patch, that add support for grid gear changing;
   * may be NoMaxModuleInterfaces patch, by Jean-Philippe, that breaks
     the current 10-limit of the maximum number of interfaces a Torcs run-time
     loadable module can have, thus enabling robot modules for an unlimited
     number of cars
   * may be integrate Torcs Car Setup Editor by Vincente Marti

- 1.4.0 :
   * the port to SDL (original patch by Brian Gavin)
   * the port to Cmake compilation system (by Mart Kelder),
   * may be a first Force Feedback attempt based on new SDL 1.3 API,
   * may be a first attempt of network gaming feature, from Brian Gavin...

Please, developer guys, feel free to complete !

Any help, suggestion is welcome and appreciated !

Cheers,

Jean-Philippe, for the Torcs-NG team.