From:	 Jorrit Tyberghein <Jorrit.Tyberghein@uz.kuleuven.ac.be>
To:	 news@voodooextreme.com, ptiseo@mediaone.net, john@gagames.com, bobz@mr.net,
	 news@bluesnews.com, news@linuxgames.com, web@flipcode.com,
	 news@telefragged.com, lwn@lwn.net, tim@3dfiles.com, civax@mail.com,
	 matze@3dnow.org
Subject: Crystal Space 0.94r001 Released!
Date:	 Mon, 08 Apr 2002 10:58:55 +0200

Crystal Space 0.94r001 Released!

Here is a new version of Crystal Space (0.94). Crystal Space is
an Open Source and very portable 3D Engine. Currently it runs on
Linux, Windows, MacOS/X, DOS, BeOS, ...

There have been lots of changes. Here is a small list:

- Lots of changes and improvements to AWS (Alternate Window System).
  For example there are now layout managers (BorderLayout and
  GridBagLayout from Java/Swing for example).

- Improved speed for 3D sprite model loading. Also caching of
  SMOOTH() information which greatly speeds up loading models
  that have smooth normals.

- Better handling of lightmap and octree cache. These caches now
  really work and should be cross-platform in all cases. MD5 checksum
  is used to calculate unique filenames for cached items.

- New experimental DrawPolygonMesh() for OpenGL which is a lot faster
  (for example, a 3500 polygon thing model went from 20 to 80 FPS by
  using this new DrawPolygonMesh()). There are still a few problems
  with it so I don't recommend to use it already.

- OpenGL renderer has much better support for recognizing and handling
  OpenGL extensions in a general way. Note that the extensions are not
  used yet at the moment. This will be for future releases.

- New cal3dtocs application to convert cal3d animations to CS library
  files.

- New options to enable Z-buffer clearing from within a world file
  and also to control the far plane (after which everything will be
  clipped).

- New MESHLIB command in world files to include mesh objects from a
  library. This allows for modular world files.

- Some fixes to Map2cs and 3ds2lev.

- New null 3D renderer/canvas and also a memory canvas which renders to
  an off-screen buffer.

- New freetype2 plugin (as opposed to the old freetype1 plugin that we
  already had).

- New landscape engine designed with huge landscapes in mind. This is still
  work in progress.

- New map loader for the isometric engine.

- Lots of other small fixes, improvements, and optimizations all over
  Crystal Space. In particular the OpenGL renderer and engine have had
  several bug fixes. But also almost all other modules.

- The DOS port now works. Also Linux, Windows, MacOS/X, OS/2 should now all
  work fine.

- There have been a few API modifications between 0.92 and 0.94. They are
  documented in the appendix of the documentation. In general there is not
  much that needs to be changed. The changes are rather minor.

You can download the new release from http://sf.net/projects/crystal or else
from http://crystal.sf.net

Greetings,



--
==============================================================================
Jorrit.Tyberghein@uz.kuleuven.ac.be, University Hospitals KU Leuven BELGIUM

"You know," said Windle, "it's a wonderful afterlife."
        -- (Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man)
==============================================================================