quakeforge/NEWS

NEWS for the QuakeForge project
-------------------------------

Changes from 0.3.0

    o General enhancements.
        * NQ (quake1, single player, NetQuake, WinQuake) is back.
        * Video (driver and renderer), audio, gamecode (progs), console,
          model loading and general utility code shared in common libs between
          NQ and QW
        * Plugin system for sound and cd drivers.
        * Ogg Vorbis compression for sound effect samples (streamed ogg support
          is planned).
        * Menu system re-written in QuakeC/Ruamoko
        * Curses console for servers in *nix.

    o Progs engine enhancements.
        * Fully modular. Mod/Server-independant, allowing for
          stand-alone QuakeC interpreter and client-side code.
        * The engine is no longer dependent on progdefs.h. This makes
          QuakeForge have trouble with QuakeC compilers that strip
          symbol names -- but those can be repaired using the new
          "qfdefs" tool.
        * New basic types, and instructions for using them, for version
          0.fff.002 progs (Quake's Version 6 is still supported).
        * Better dynamic string handling. Dynamic strings are
          garbage-collected.
        * Object-oriented runtime system, in the style of Objective-C.
        * Runtime fixups of built-in functions whose builtin number is
          zero. If a built-in function is available to the engine, with
          the same name given in the source code (e.g.
          "void (void) coredump = #0;"), the engine will set the value
          to the actual number used by the engine.
        * Debugging support (needs compiler support, which qfcc
          provides), including line-number information. Can display the
          line of text in the source on which an error occurred, if the
          new Cvar "pr_source_path" is set correctly.
        * Instruction-level code dumps are now formatted in an
          easier-to-read "assembly-code" format.

    o QuakeForge Code Compiler, qfcc -- a replacement for qcc.
        * Uses libQFutil for general utility functions such as hash
          tables, file access (incomplete), and pak files.
        * Uses libQFgamecode for progs information, such as opcode
          tables, enums, types, etc.)
        * Uses a lex/yacc (actually, Flex and Bison) scanner/parser
          architecture, like a "real" compiler does.
        * Drastically reduces the number of global defs needed for
          a given progs, by reusing temporary globals when possible.
        * All functions use the same block of defs for their local
          variables (compatible with all known servers), which further
          reduces the number of global defs needed.
        * Nested/chained function calls work properly.
        * Simple expressions, such as "a = b + c", compile to a single
          instruction instead of two, and do not use a temporary
          variable.
        * Local variables can be initialized to known values, as in
          "local float foo = 0.1;".
        * Uses the C preprocessor, so header files are now possible and
          useful.
        * The compiler checks for uninitialized and unused variables in
          functions, to help in finding errors.
        * The compiler can generate and use object files, for separate
          compilation (you don't have to compile all of your source all
          the time, only the parts that have changed). Normally, object
          files have a .qfo extension.
        * The compiler can link libraries, which are implemented as .qfo
          files inside pak archives.
        * The compiler implements stricter type checking, to assist in
          finding and fixing code errors.
        * The C language's "for", "do...while", and "switch" control
          structures have been adopted to provide a richer set of
          structures for programmers to use.
        * Additional functionality is given for progs that are to be
          used with QuakeForge's more advanced progs engine:

            x IMPORTANT:
              The order of operations is slightly different in "native"
              mode. The evaluation of "!foo & bar" is no longer
              "!(foo & bar)", but rather "(!foo) & bar". The new order of
              operations rules is more correct, but is different from how
              QCC evaluated. If you give the --traditional switch to
              qfcc's command-line, the old behavior is used.
            x The compiler now allows you to create your own functions
              that can accept a variable number of arguments, using the
              special "..." notation. The special constants "@argc" and
              "@argv" help with this. @argc contains the number of
              arguments, and @argv contains a list of those arguments. The
              handling of this is an improvement on C's vararg function
              handling, in our opinion, made possible by how the Quake
              system works.
            x New basic types: integer, pointer, enum, and id.
            x You can create new complex types, like arrays, structures,
              and unions, and allocate them at runtime.
            x String operators. You can add strings together to
              concatenate them, and you can compare their contents using
              the <=, <, >, >= operators.
            x The integer type has the full array of C operations
              available to it.
            x QFCC and QuakeForge now contain an object-oriented
              programming system, in the style of Objective-C and
              Smalltalk. It's *very* powerful, and can be used to create
              lots of interesting new things with rather little effort. If
              you don't wish to use the new system, you can safely ignore
              it with no danger to your code. :)
            x Special support for using the "self" special variable inside
              OO methods as well as the entity of the same name. If you
              use OO support for entities and want to assign a method as a
              touch/think/etc. function, "self" always refers to the
              object that "owns" the method being executed. The special
              variable "@self" was created to refer to the self entity.
              "@this" refers to the object.

    o Enhanced console scripting - GIB (GIB Isn't Bash)
        * New language derived from the quake console.
        * Functions with arguments and return values.
        * Looping (while, for) and branching (if) commands.
        * Local and global variables as well as access to cvars.
          Supports Python-like slicing of variables.
        * A basic math interpreter that respects order of operations
          and provides most arithmetic and logic operators.
        * Non-preemptive threading and callbacks to GIB functions in
          response to game events (limited but functional at the moment)
        * File reading, writing, and searching.
        * Integrates with console -- GIB functions can be exported as
          console commands to be used at the console or in binds.
        * See gib.html in doc for more information.

    o Enhanced time cheat ("speed cheat") protection
        * Time cheats only work for a split-second before protection
          kicks in.
        * Players moving with wrong timings are sped up/slowed down to
          the correct speed.
        * Delay before protection activates means that lag and normal
          network latency won't affect protection.
        * People who aren't really trying to cheat won't be kicked :)

    o Rendering enhancements
        * Experimental 32 bit software renderer.
        * Dynamic lights don't shine through walls.
        * Colored alias model lighting for GL.
        * Vertex Array use for sprites, particles and text. No fallbacks yet,
          so QF wont work with old or broken GL drivers. 
        * Switchable particle styles: r_particles_style 0 for Id. Default is 1,
          for lower particle count, larger texture particle effects.
        * 16 bit vertex alias model format.
        * Improved software gamma that more closely resembles hardware gamma.
        * Countless speed improvements.