Changelog

March 2025

Breaking Changes

  • apptest_scene has been renamed to apptest_gui
  • Renamed IInputManager::joystickState() to IInputManager::joyState()

Improvements

  • The version of the integrated ImGui has been updated to v1.91.9
  • Added support for joystick vibration on SDL2 and Android

February 2025

Breaking Changes

  • Removed isLeftButtonDown(), isMiddleButtonDown(), isRightButtonDown(), isFourthButtonDown(), isFifthButtonDown() from the MouseState class
    • Use the new isButtonDown(MouseButton button) method or the ncine.input.is_mouse_button_down() Lua function instead
  • Removed isLeftButton(), isMiddleButton(), isRightButton(), isFourthButton(), isFifthButton() from the MouseEvent class
    • Use the new button field of the MouseEvent class and compare values with the MouseButton enumeration
  • Renamed ncine.input.key_down() to ncine.input.is_key_down() in the Lua API
  • Renamed isButtonPressed() to isButtonDown() in both JoystickState and JoyMappedState classes
  • Renamed ncine.input.joy_button_pressed() to ncine.input.is_joy_button_down()
  • Renamed ncine.input.joy_present() to ncine.input.is_joy_present()
  • Renamed ncine.input.joy_mapped() to ncine.input.is_joy_mapped()
  • Renamed Application::interval() to Application::frameTime()
    • Renamed ncine.application.get_interval() to ncine.application.get_frame_time()
  • Renamed IFrameTimer::lastFrameDuration() and IFrameTimer::currentFrameDuration() to IFrameTimer::lastFrameTime() and IFrameTimer::currentFrameTime()
    • Renamed ncine.frame_timer.last_frame_duration() to ncine.frame_timer.last_frame_time()
    • Renamed ncine.frame_timer.current_frame_duration() to ncine.frame_timer.current_frame_time()

Improvements

  • Added new isButtonPressed()/isButtonReleased() methods to the MouseState class to detect the frame when a button is pressed/released
    • Also added is_mouse_button_pressed()/is_mouse_button_released() functions to the Lua input table
  • Added new isKeyPressed()/isKeyReleased() methods to the KeyboardState class to detect the frame when a key is pressed/released
    • Also added is_key_pressed()/is_key_released() functions to the Lua input table
  • Added new isButtonPressed()/isButtonReleased() methods to the JoystickState and JoyMappedState classes to detect the frame when a button is pressed/released
    • Also added is_joy_button_pressed()/is_joy_button_released() functions to the Lua input table
  • Added various utility constructors and conversion methods for the rectangle and vector classes
  • Added a NCPROJECT_DEBUG compiler definition for when projects are compiled in debug
  • Added a new NCPROJECT_ALWAYS_FIND_PACKAGES that can be useful when creating a Linux package with a dynamic nCine library
  • The version of the integrated ImGui has been updated to v1.91.8
  • The version of the integrated Google Test has been updated to v1.16.0

January 2025

Improvements

  • Script and callbacks errors are now shown on screen in apptest_lua/ncinelua
  • Added tabular character support to the TextNode class, with configurable tab size (also in the Lua API)
  • Implemented introspective sort for render queues, making the sorting faster and more robust

December 2024

Breaking Changes

  • Renamed ncine.audiobuffer to ncine.audio_buffer in the Lua API
  • Renamed ncine.audiobuffer_player to ncine.audio_buffer_player in the Lua API
    • Renamed get_audiobuffer() and set_audiobuffer() to get_audio_buffer() and set_audio_buffer()
  • Renamed ncine.audiostream_player to ncine.audio_stream_player in the Lua API
    • Renamed num_samples_in_streambuffer() and streambuffer_size() to num_samples_in_stream_buffer() and stream_buffer_size()

Improvements

  • The version of the integrated ImGui has been updated to v1.91.6
  • The version of the integrated Google Benchmark has been updated to v1.9.1
  • The GameController mapping database has been updated to the one in SDL 2.30.10

November 2024

Breaking Changes

  • Renamed permissions() to get_permissions() in the filesystem table of the Lua API
  • Removed the get_ prefix from get_num_vertices(), get_num_bytes(), and get_num_indices() in the mesh sprite Lua functions

Improvements

  • Lua statistics are now disabled by default to enable hooking by external debuggers like the Lua Local Debugger
  • The version of the integrated ImGui has been updated to v1.91.5
  • Multiple additions, fixes, and expansions to the Doxygen documentation
  • Added some new Lua API functions
    • Added input.num_joymappings() to return the number of available mappings for joysticks
    • Added particle_affector.get_base_scale() to return the base scale factor of a size affector
    • Added a constructor overload that takes the position as a vector for animated and mesh sprites
  • Many viewport, shader, and shaderstate Lua functions now return a boolean to indicate the result
  • When calling the Lua particle_system.add_size_affector() function, you can now use a vec2 for the scale factors

Fixes

  • Added missing overload constructors for mesh and animated sprites in the Lua API
  • Added some missing button names for mapped joysticks in the Lua API
  • Minimum CMake version has been raised to 3.10 to avoid a deprecation warning
  • Added the missing dpi field to the Lua table returned by gfx_device.get_monitor()
  • Fixed the Lua viewport.set_camera() function to accept nil as a camera parameter
  • Added missing joystick buttons to Lua input event tables

October 2024

Improvements

  • Add MemoryFile class constructors that own a memory buffer
  • The version of the integrated ImGui has been updated to v1.91.4
  • The version of the integrated Google Test has been updated to v1.15.2
  • The version of the integrated Google Benchmark has been updated to v1.9.0

September 2024

Improvements

  • The version of the integrated ImGui has been updated to v1.91.2
  • The version of the integrated Tracy has been updated to v0.11.1
  • Swap deprecated ALooper_pollAll() function for ALooper_pollOnce() on Android

July 2024

Improvements

  • The version of the integrated ImGui has been updated to v1.90.9

June 2024

New Features

  • Added many new OpenAL source properties to the audio players
  • Added support for some useful OpenAL extensions
    • pause_device, deferred_updates, source_spatialize
  • Added optional support for EFX effects and filters, also in the Lua API

Improvements

  • The sound sources are now arranged in a pool for the players to pick, fixing some issues with playing
  • Handling the OV_HOLE vorbisfile error code by continue decoding instead of fatal asserting
  • Added a stress test mode to apptest_audio
  • Added support for joystick axes mapped as buttons
  • The version of the integrated ImGui has been updated to v1.90.8
  • The version of the integrated Google Benchmark has been updated to v1.8.4

Fixes

  • Fixed a couple of alignment faults with Emscripten and some apptests

April 2024

Breaking Changes

  • Renamed nc::IAudioDevice::PlayerType::AUDIOSTREAM to nc::IAudioDevice::PlayerType::STREAM

March 2024

Breaking Changes

  • The freezePlayers()/unfreezePlayers() methods of the audio device have been removed
    • The Lua functions freeze_players()/unfreeze_players() have been removed too

February 2024

Improvements

  • Added support for custom memory allocators and window position hints of GLFW 3.4
  • Some minor changes to the IAllocator methods that handle debug allocation entries
  • The version of the integrated ImGui has been updated to v1.90.4

January 2024

Improvements

  • The version of the integrated ImGui has been updated to v1.90.1

Fixes

  • Fixed compilation when enabling the custom memory allocators
  • Moved Particle.h to public headers to fix compilation warnings
    • The header should not be directly included by users

November 2023

New Features

  • There is now an option to use binary shaders: they will be compiled on the first run and then cached on disk
    • Default shaders will use this feature as well, if enabled in the configuration
    • Batched shaders can be compiled twice to query the max number of batches for the UBO size

Improvements

  • A new class has been added to calculate a 64-bit hash from strings or from file information (also in the Lua API)
  • Emscripten stack size has been increased from the default 64 Kb to 128 Kb
  • The version of the integrated ImGui has been updated to v1.90

October 2023

Breaking Changes

  • The Timer::sleep() method now needs an integer number of milliseconds instead of a float number of seconds.
  • The join() and exit() methods of the Thread class do not support custom return values anymore

Improvements

  • The version of the integrated Tracy has been updated to v0.10

Fixes

  • The Thread class can be be move constructed or move assigned without causing random crashes

September 2023

Improvements

  • Updated support for Gradle plugin 8.1.0 and build tools 33.0.1 on Android
  • The version of the integrated ImGui has been updated to v1.89.9
  • The version of the integrated Google Test has been updated to v1.14.0
  • The version of the integrated Google Benchmark has been updated to v1.8.3

July 2023

Improvements

  • The version of the integrated ImGui has been updated to v1.89.7

June 2023

Improvements

  • The version of the integrated ImGui has been updated to v1.89.6

May 2023

New Features

  • Add a new apptest_bunnymark, an nCine port of the famous BunyMark benchmark

Improvements

  • Added an interface class to tweak the frame timer options
    • A second timer has been added to the frame timer to calculate averages

April 2023

Breaking Changes

  • The homeDir() method of the FileSystem class have been renamed to homePath()
  • The get_home_dir() function of the Lua filesystem table has been renamed to get_home_path()
  • The get_datapath() and get_savepath() functions of the Lua filesystem table have been renamed to get_data_path() and get_save_path()

New Features

  • The apptest_lua has a new ImGui interface and can now automatically reload a modified Lua script

Improvements

  • The version of the integrated ImGui has been updated to v1.89.5
  • The version of the integrated Google Test has been updated to v1.13.0
  • There is now a new method in the FileSystem class to return the path to store cached files

March 2023

Improvements

  • The version of the integrated Tracy has been updated to v0.9.1
  • The version of the integrated ImGui has been updated to v1.89.4

February 2023

Improvements

  • The version of the integrated ImGui has been updated to v1.89.3

January 2023

  • The version of the integrated ImGui has been updated to v1.89.2

December 2022

Breaking Changes

  • The animation_index() and frame() functions of the Lua animated sprite have been renamed to get_animation_index() and get_frame()

Improvements

  • The Lua API for the Application class has now a function to get the AppConfiguration table
  • Scale down the size of the error messages in apptest_lua if does not fit the screen
  • Added a method to RectAnimation to automatically add multiple rectangles from a spritesheet
  • Added functions to the Lua API to retrieve the array of children of a node

Fixes

  • The minimum and maximum values of a joystick axis are now queried on Android
  • When calling Sprite::setTexture() with the same texture the rectangle gets reset
  • Create or destroy the Windows console if changing the console log level with the setter

November 2022

Improvements

  • The version of the integrated Tracy has been updated to v0.9
  • The version of the integrated ImGui has been updated to v1.89.1
  • It is now possible to choose the render mode used by a TextNode
    • There is a new render mode for colored fonts that uses the sprite shader
  • On Android there is now always a fallback joystick mapping based on the default system configuration

Fixes

  • The joystick GUID calculation on Android has been updated to be again compatible with the SDL2 controller database

October 2022

Breaking Changes

  • The IGfxDevice::setResolution() method has been removed. Depending on the full screen state, use setWindowSize() or setVideoMode()
  • The inFullscreen and isResizable flags of the AppConfiguration class have been renamed to fullScreen and resizable
  • To query the supported video modes, you have to query the list of connected monitors with IGfxDevice::numMonitors() and IGfxDevice::monitor()

New Features

  • It is now possible to enumerate connected monitors on all desktop backends
    • You can now query window scaling and drawable resolution to better support HiDPI monitors
    • The Lua API has been extended to support the new methods of the IGfxDevice class
    • There is a new apptest_scaling application that shows automatic window size scaling

Improvements

  • Failing to load a file will now never exit the application

Fixes

  • Various fixes about window size, window position, and full screen

September 2022

New Features

  • There is a new onFilesDropped() input callback to support drag’n’drop from the system to the application window

Improvements

  • The JNI helper classes have been refactored to use global references and be more stable and secure
  • Shader programs now detach shaders before deleting them, so they are really deleted and memory is freed
  • The new NCINE_UNDEFINED_SANITIZER CMake options adds support for the UBSan of GCC and Clang

Fixes

  • The Android manifest has been updated to allow compilation on latest Android versions

August 2022

Improvements

  • Improvements to ParticleSystem and to particle affector classes
    • It is now possible to add affector steps out of order
    • A new getter method in ParticleSystem allows the manipulation of affectors
    • Affector steps can be manipulated via a new Lua API
  • A new AudioStreamPlayer getter returns the sample offset relative to the whole stream
  • The audio, font, and particles apptests have brand new ImGui interfaces

July 2022

Breaking Changes

  • The viewport chain is now an array accessible with the static Viewport::chain() method
  • The Application::rootViewport() method has been renamed to screenViewport()
  • The GLShaderAttributes class have been deleted and its functionalities transferred to GLShaderProgram
  • Added the get_ prefix to some Lua getters of the MeshSprite class
  • The Android sources are now an independant module inside the app directory

New Features

  • New Shader and ShaderState classes to support custom user shaders (Lua API too)
    • Mesh sprites now support custom vertex format, if the appropriate shader is provided
    • The script.lua example has been updated to show post-processing using viewports and shaders
  • Added support for multi-texturing and multiple render targets
  • A new apptest_shaders application has been added to test custom shaders with batching
    • It shows post-processing blur, normal mapping, and bloom

Improvements

  • The version of the integrated Tracy has been updated to v0.8.2
  • The render batcher is now able to deal with custom shaders, providing the user writes a batched shader
  • Improved and simplified API for viewports (also ported to Lua)
  • Added methods to set OpenGL debugging labels for shaders, textures, and viewport’s FBOs
  • There is now an onDrawViewport() callback that you can use to set shader uniforms when drawing a particular viewport
  • There is also an onResizeWindow() callback that can be useful to recreate post-processing viewport textures
  • Added missing getters and more methods to the Lua API of the MeshSprite class
  • Updated support for Gradle plugin 7.2.0, build tools 33.0.0, and NDK r25 on Android
  • Added support for the Vector4 class in the Lua API

Fixes

  • Added the missing SceneNode::lastFrameUpdated() method to the Lua API
  • You will never see again errors about reserved OpenGL uniforms or attributes not being found (like gl_VertexID)
  • Non-compiling shaders will not fatal assert like they did before
  • Fixes to the methods dealing with vertices and indices of the Lua API of the MeshSprite class
  • The minBatchSize/maxBatchSize rendering settings have been fixed and will not cause flickering when batching

June 2022

Breaking Changes

  • Added the get_ prefix to some Lua getters of the Application and IAudioDevice classes

Improvements

  • The version of the integrated ImGui has been updated to v1.88
  • No more crashes when dereferencing Lua light user data pointers of the wrong type
    • The tracking of pointers to C++ objects created in Lua has improved a lot

Fixes

  • Trying to play a sound when there are no available audio players will not crash the application
  • Fixed the parameters retrieving of Lua joystick state functions

May 2022

Breaking Changes

  • Added the get_ prefix to the Lua getters of the Font class

Improvements

  • The version of the integrated Tracy has been updated to v0.8.1
  • Added a static method to the TextNode class to calculate the boundaries for arbitrary text and font
  • The Font class can now be constructed using an existent Texture object
    • This allows for texture sharing (like an atlas) or textures constructed from texels

April 2022

Breaking Changes

  • The DrawableNode::LayerBase enumeration has been deleted
    • This also means that TextNode will not be on a higher layer by default
  • The SceneNode::draw() method now returns a boolean to indicate if it has been rendered

New Features

  • You can set the layer of a SceneNode and it will carry this value over to its children
    • A child node with a layer different than 0 will not inherit it from its parent
  • Added a scenegraph visit order when sorting the rendering commands

Improvements

  • The apptest_anchor application can now show and modify all the different order and layer values

Fixes

  • The apptest_scene and apptest_viewports applications now work correctly on Qt5

March 2022

Breaking Changes

  • The Object::name() method now returns an array of characters
  • Inverted position and rotation view values for the Camera. It will now behave as an object that you move around the scene.

Improvements

  • The version of the integrated Tracy has been updated to v0.8
  • Allow a relative path from executables to data on Linux

Fixes

  • Fixed an issue with ImGui and Nuklear uploading VBOs before setting a vertex format (and consequently a VAO)
  • Map and set containers can now perform a rehash when their values or keys are non-copyable classes
  • Updating node transformation before committing uniform blocks

February 2022

New Features

  • There is now a new nctl::StaticString class that stores its characters on the stack

Improvements

  • The version of the integrated ImGui has been updated to v1.87
  • Using the new event-based ImGui input API on all backends
  • Math classes like vectors, matrices, and quaternions will now initialize their members in the default constructor
  • Disabling the cursor will now enable a relative mouse motion if supported (SDL and GLFW)
  • The Qt5 widget exposes a flag to disable per-frame updates
  • It is now possible to retrieve last frame AABB of a DrawableNode
  • More information will be presented when the OpenGL debug context is enabled (marker annotations)

Fixes

  • The fixed capacity property is now correctly initialized when copy constructing, move constructing, and move assign a String
  • A Sprite or a MeshSprite without a texture would make the application crash when a texture was assigned
  • A TextNode without a font would make the application crash when a font was assigned
  • A scene node with a negative scale factor will invert its rotation sign

January 2022

Breaking Changes

  • The public x and y fields of a SceneNode have been made protected for consistency
  • The IGfxDevice interface cannot set the OpenGL viewport and clear color, use viewports instead
  • The ImGui and Nuklear layer settings are part of the GUI settings structure in the Application class

New Features

  • Multiple viewports to support offscreen rendering or split screen
  • A camera system to move around without transforming a parent node (slow on the CPU)
  • The viewport and camera systems can also be used via the Lua API
  • A new apptest_viewports application has been added to test the viewport and camera systems

Improvements

  • Dirty bits to update shader uniforms only when they change
  • Dirty bits to transform a node or update its AABB only when needed
  • There is now a centralized pool of render commands that serves multiple classes
  • There are now OpenGL state classes to track the viewport and the clear color
  • The Rect class has some new useful manipulation methods (also in the Lua API)

June 2020 - December 2021

Breaking Changes

  • The nctl::Array and nctl::StaticArray subscript operator will not grow the array size
  • The return type of the createAppEventHandler function has been changed to a unique pointer
  • The SceneNode query methods for drawing and updating have been prefixed with is, for example isEnabled()
  • The setWidth() and setHeight() methods of the BaseSprite class have been removed
  • The errorToString() function of the LuaDebug namespace has been renamed to correct a typo
  • The parameters order of LuaStateManager::runFromMemory() has changed
  • The default line height of a TextNode object is now its font line height instead of the base
  • The AnimatedSprite class now stores RectAnimation objects instead of smart pointers
  • The type alias declarations for hash containers with string keys have been removed
  • The run() method of the LuaStateManager class has been renamed to runFromFile()
  • The onFrameEnd() callback is now invoked before the OpenGL buffers swap
  • The assign() method of nctl::String will now always truncate the destination
    • The new replace() method wil behave like the old assign() method
  • Pushing an element beyond the capacity of an array will now cause a fatal assert
  • Popping an element from an empty array will now cause a fatal assert
  • Retrieving a front or a back element from an empty array will now cause a fatal assert
  • Retrieving a front or a back element from an empty list will now cause a fatal assert

New Features

  • The engine now supports custom memory allocators
    • All containers have been updated to allow the specification of an allocator
    • Unique pointers support custom deleters in a compressed pair
    • A new apptest_allocators application has been added to test the four included allocator types
    • You can set a name for an allocator and it will be used in Tracy too
  • The FileSystem API now supports Android asset FileSystem
  • It is now possible to load textures, sounds and fonts from memory buffers
  • There is a new loading API for resources as textures, sounds, and fonts
    • The user can create empty resources and load data at a later time
    • Data can be loaded inside a resource multiple times
    • Failed loads will never result in a fatal assert nor modify a resource
    • A texture can be loaded from uncompressed texels and audio from PCM samples
    • A new apptest_loading application has been added to test the enhanced loading capabilities
  • Sprites can be created without a texture, they will be rendered in solid color with a simpler shader
  • TextNode objects can be created without assigning a Font
  • AudioBufferPlayer can be created without assigning an AudioBuffer
  • It is now possible to move construct or move assign resource and node classes
  • A clone() method has been added to node classes to perform an object copy
  • A new onTextInput event has been added to receive UTF-8 characters
  • It is now possible to query and set the window position on all desktop backends
  • There is now an onPostUpdate() callback that you can use to access the node transform for the current frame
    • It is also possible to change it inside the callback by using SceneNode::setWorldMatrix()
  • The nctl::String class will now automatically reallocate memory to expand its capacity and never truncate by default
    • The old behavior is still available by specifying the nctl::StringMode::FIXED_CAPACITY option
  • The template project files are now part of the engine
    • You only need a simple CMakeLists.txt file for your project
  • You can save a texture from video memory to RAM and then from RAM to disk as a PNG or WebP image
  • On desktop platforms the IGfxDevice provides a flashWindow() method to make the taskbar flash
  • nCine can now run on a Raspberry Pi
    • Various fixes to better support OpenGL ES features and older CMake versions
  • It is now possible to disable the scripting API while retaining the Lua integration

Improvements

  • The version of the integrated Tracy has been updated to v0.7.8
  • The version of the integrated ImGui has been updated to v1.86
  • The version of the integrated Google Test has been updated to v1.11.0
  • The version of the integrated Google Benchmark has been updated to v1.6.1
  • All containers now split the allocation phase from object construction
    • Creating a container will only reserve memory for the elements
    • Inserting or removing elements will trigger construction and destruction
  • On Android unfound libraries will not be linked anymore to the game library
    • The Java activity will not load the nCine or OpenAL libraries if unneeded
  • It is now possible to set the ARGB components of a color with a hexadecimal code
  • The nctl::String class can now decode Unicode code points from UTF-8 strings and vice versa
  • The Font class now supports Unicode characters exported in the Fnt descriptor file
  • The Android software keyboard visibility can be toggled on and off
  • The seek position of an audio buffer can be queried and modified
  • It is now possible to set a custom line height for a TextNode object
  • When loading a RGB texture it is possible to treat a color as transparent
  • You can now use nctl::String and const char * as keys for hash containers without specifing an hash function
  • There is a new removeAllChildrenNodes() method in the SceneNode class
  • You can retrieve the current RectAnimation of an AnimatedSprite with the currentAnimation() method
  • Errors in Lua scripts will not cause the engine to assert and exit
    • It is now possible to load a Lua script without running it
    • More information will be provided when a script fails to load or to run
  • The engine project is now shipping with an .editorconfig configuration file
  • The OpenGL class that keeps track of the blending state can now use separate functions for RRB and alpha
  • The file extension comparison method is now case-insensitive
  • The FileSystem class returns constant strings to prevent move assignemnt and any modification to the capacity of destination ones
  • There is now a fixExtension() function in the FileSystem class to assure that a file has the intended extension

Fixes

  • GCC hardening compiler flags have been fixed with the explicit addition of PIE flags
  • The root node of the scenegraph now honors its own transformations
  • The buffer of an AudioBufferPlayer class was not detached from the OpenAL source when it finished playing
  • The setSize() method of nctl::Array will now create objects when extending an array size
  • The ImGui and Nuklear drawing commands were previously appended to the render queue with one frame delay
  • Fix ncine.sprite.set_flipped_x() and set_flipped_y() functions in the Lua API

November 2019 - May 2020

Breaking Changes

  • Removed flipX() and flipY() sprite methods
    • They have been superseded by setFlippedX() and setFlippedY()
  • Removed setOpaqueTexture() sprite method
    • You can achieve the same result with the general setBlendingEnabled(false)
  • The Matrix4x4<T>::scale() static method has been renamed to Matrix4x4<T>::scaling()
  • The dataPath() and savePath() methods of IFile have been moved to the new FileSystem class
    • The access() method of IFile have been superseded by the more powerful query methods of the FileSystem class
    • The nc.application.datapath() Lua function is now nc.fs.get_datapath()
  • The children() method of a SceneNode now returns a nctl::Array

New Features

  • Scene nodes support anchor points and non-uniform scaling
    • There is a new apptest_anchor application that shows all new node features
  • Drawable nodes support custom alpha blending factors
  • Nuklear integration for fully skinnable user interfaces
  • You can now embed the whole engine inside a Qt5 widget by choosing the Qt5 desktop backend
    • If the Qt Gamepad library is available it will be used for gamepad input events
  • Touch events are supported on desktop through the SDL2 and Qt5 backends
    • They now also provide information about touch pressure
  • The FileSystem class has been added to help you query and manipulate paths, files, and directories
    • It comes with a new apptest_filebrowser application that shows an ImGui based file browser
  • ImGui and Nuklear integrations support custom fonts loading
  • Added a new unclamped three channels ColorHdr class
  • The IAppEventHandler class now receives onSuspend() and onResume() events

Improvements

  • The logging system is initialized earlier and can be used inside onPreInit()
  • The Android asset manager is initialized earlier and can be used inside onPreInit()
  • Handling of windows resizing events has been fixed
  • Emscripten applications react to window resizing and fullscreen events
  • Emscripten applications can now load and save local files
  • Sprite flipping methods now take a status flag
  • The version of the integrated Tracy has gone from v0.5 to v0.6.3
  • The version of the integrated ImGui has gone from v1.73 to v1.76
  • Deletion of children scene nodes upon parent destruction has been made optional
  • The Matrix4x4<T> can now translate, rotate and scale in place, avoiding a full matrix multiplication
    • It can now also be multiplied on the right side of a vector
  • Automatic sprite batching is now available on Emscripten
    • You can choose the fixed batch size with a variable in the AppConfiguration class
  • Added support for Google ANGLE libraries on Windows
  • Sorting of render commands is now stable
    • If two commands have the same material sorting key then a secondary key based on node creation time is used
  • All kind of hashmap and hashset containers can now correctly use const char * as key type
  • Added two low-level classes to save textures as Png or WebP images
  • It is now possible to set the swap interval on all desktop backends with IGfxDevice::setSwapInterval()
  • The new String::append(const char *) overload will prevent allocating a string object when appending
  • Visiting the scenegraph should be faster as children are now stored in an array instead of a list
  • The new unordered remove methods of arrays will remove elements faster when preserving order is not required
  • The debug overlay interface has now a node inspector to query and modify nodes in the scene
  • Android Gradle Plugin, Build Tools, compileSDKVersion and targetSDKVersion have all been updated to newer versions

Fixes

  • The Emscripten port compiles with upstream LLVM WebAssembly backend
  • Some minor fixes in the color classes code
  • Culling of drawable nodes works with negative scaling factors
  • Scene nodes are now correctly transformed before children thus eliminating any update delay with nodes chains
  • Caching of TextNode boundaries does not introduce a one frame delay on update
  • The Lua stack is now cleaned after a failure in calling a function
    • Previously the stack would easily overflow if some callbacks were not defined
  • String lenght is now updated if a string is truncated when using a formatting method
  • Fixed OpenGL FBO wrapper class when dealing with reading and drawing buffers

May 2019 - October 2019

Breaking Changes

  • The Font constructor has now inverted parameters: fntFilename as first and texFilename as second
    • The reason for that is the new single parameter constructor
  • SceneNode::parentNode() getter has been renamed to just parent(), to be consistent with the new setParent() setter
  • The xResolution and yResolution fields of the AppConfiguration class have been replaced by a single 2D resolution vector
    • The setResolution() helper method has been removed as it is now possible to call resolution.set()
    • In Lua x_res and y_res have been replaced by the resolution 2D vector
  • The old non ImGui debug overlay has been deleted. If you need the debug overlay you also need to enable the ImGui integration
    • As part of this change the fontTexFilename and fontFntFilename strings in the AppConfiguration class have been deleted
  • The withProfilerGraphs and withInfoText flags in the AppConfiguration class has been unified into a single withDebugOverlay flag
    • You have to explicitely set the new flag to true to enable the debug overlay even when your application is compiled in debug mode
  • Many nctl::String::copy() methods have been turned into assign() methods in order to be more consistent with STL
  • The Timer::now() method has been removed, refer to the new TimeStamp class

New Features

  • Emscripten is now supported as a target platform, meaning you can now use the nCine for web games! :spider_web:
  • The user can now query the available fullscreen video modes on PC and choose one
    • The IGfxDevice interface has been enriched with methods to query the current video mode, the list of available ones and to set a new mode
  • A new deferShaderQueries flag has been added to the AppConfiguration classes
    • When it is set to true all the shader error checks and introspection queries are deferred upon the first use of the shader, if it is ever used.
    • The option allows for decreased starting time at the expense of possible stutters when the shader is first used in a frame
  • New methods have been added to the audio classes to query their state
    • They were used in the new Audio Players section of the ImGui debug overlay interface
  • If you use the nCine compiled as a static library you have now access to more functionalities in the OpenGL classes
    • You can now create PBOs and TBOs.
    • You can now use GL_SAMPLER_1D and GL_SAMPLER_3D types in shaders
    • A new GLCullFace class has been added to track OpenGL face culling state
  • The Font class now relies on FntParser class to extract all the data from a FNT file
    • More checks are now performed to ensure the text can be properly rendered
    • More glyph channel configurations are now supported and rendered correctly
    • The Font class can be constructed with a single parameter: the FNT file. The texture will be loaded according to the file specified in the first page tag.
  • When you compile the engine you can now choose to disable the support for various dependency libraries and features
    • You can disable threads support, Lua bindings, Png or WebP image loading, Ogg Vorbis sound loading or audio altogether

Improvements

  • The version of the integrated Tracy has gone from v0.4.1 to v0.5
    • It is now easier to use Tracy in custom nCine projects, including on Android
    • Threads can be named so that they can be tracked in the Tracy profiler
    • You can now also retrieve current thread priority or set a new one
    • All log entries are written out as coloured Tracy messages
    • Threads id are invalidated on join and cancel so that they can be reused
  • The version of the integrated ImGui has gone from v1.70 to v1.73
  • The GameController mapping database has been updated from the one included in SDL 2.0.9 to the one in SDL 2.0.10
  • The SceneNode classes has seen the addition of long awaited helper methods in the shape of setParent(), alpha() and absAlpha()
    • The first one makes it easy and intuitive to set a node parent without going the opposite way by calling parent->addChildNode(this)
    • The alpha related methods should make it easier to query for a node alpha value
    • There are also new Lua methods for scene nodes: set_parent(), get_alpha() and set_alpha()
  • The new TimeStamp class can be used to collect timestamps at the full precision of the internal clock
    • The Time class has been enhanced with stop() and totalTime() methods to aggregate multiple time spans
    • Most methods of the TimeStamp class are also accessible through the Lua API
  • It is now possible to assign() a certain numbers of characters from a C string to an nctl::String object
  • You can now enable the ImGui debug overlay even when the scenegraph is disabled
    • In this case be sure to track OpenGL states using GLBlending, GLDepthTest and the new GLCullFace class
  • The Font class has a new query method, numKernings(), to retrieve the number of kerning pairs in a font (it is called num_kernings() in Lua)
  • You can access the array of animations in an AnimatedSprite and the array of rectangles in a RectAnimation
  • On Windows the executables use the Windows subsystem instead of the console one
    • They will also expose version properties thanks to the VERSIONINFO file
  • The Android Gradle plugin version has been updated from 3.4.0 to 3.4.1 and Android build tools from 28.0.3 to 29.0.2
    • The changes have been reflected in the template project as well

Fixes

  • Compiler warnings related with nctl::UniquePtr wrapping forward declared classes have been fixed. They could have sometimes led to incorrect object deletions and possible leaks. :fearful:
  • The OpenAL implementation has been rewritten and many bugs that were lurking in the code should have been squashed :bug:
  • Some changes dictated by the layout of the new ncTemplate project
    • The CMake scripts now expect a nCine-data/icons/icon.ico file instead of the old nCine.ico
    • Installers are now built with the CPACK_PACKAGE_VENDOR and CPACK_PACKAGE_HOMEPAGE_URL variables correctly set
  • The returned value for GL_MAX_UNIFORM_BLOCK_SIZE is now clamped to 64kB because some OpenGL drivers might return very big numbers