News Archive
[10/26/2007]
we are working on next version. it will contain a terrain renderer and user account management. for holding user data it will use postgres.
[08/28/2007]
update to version 1.2.2 has been released for linux (gcc4.1.0).
[07/22/2007]
update to version 1.2.2 for win32 has been released which brings a better support for UTF-8 and a better looking gui skin.
[09/26/2006]
we have added VRC to GameDev's ShowCase. we are planning new features for VRC's next release. unfortunately, our artist is very busy at the moment. if you are an artist and are interested to help us, so let it the project admin know ;-) we search also for an additional programmer. the next release will offer account management, so users will be able to register a permanent account.
[08/31/2006]
the problem with dynamics shadows on nVidia cards has been fixed in new release 1.2.1. download the update package for win32 and linux using the links above.
[08/27/2006]
after the release of 1.2.0 some users having nVidia cards complained about broken dynamic shadows (a long strip in view direction). it figured out that the newer nvidia drivers have a bug with glsl built-in uniforms for eye-space linear planes. a work-around has been implemented and will be released as patch, soon. in the meantime the patched executables for win32 can be downloaded here. replace your vrc.exe and vrc-server.exe by those provided in the link -- most of you will need only vrc.exe, though.
[08/14/2006]
VRC 1.2.0 has been released, check the download section. in addition to some bug fixes, this version provides following features:
- first version of voice chat functionality, it does not work perfectly, though :-( read the Readme.txt file for more details.
- menu settings for fx and background sound
- dynamic shadows using shadow maps -- don't forget to enable it in menu.
- scripted fishes using Lua
- some visual enhancements
[08/02/2006]
VRC 1.2.0 beta06 is out. get it here. we plan to release VRC 1.2.0 in next 14 days.
[07/19/2006]
VRC 1.2.0 beta05 is out. get it here. we have setup a new ftp and VRC server host. the old VRC server (1.1.0) is currently down. we hope to release the official version 1.2.0 in next weeks.
[07/14/2006]
VRC 1.2.0 beta04 is ready for download. as ever, please report any bugs. it is also available for linux (gcc 4.1.0). beta03 was not worth mentioning ;-) beta04 adds dynamic shadows to the island using shadow maps. the shadow quality is not that high; but hey, it's just the initial release of shadows on the island :-)
[06/22/2006]
VRC 1.2.0 beta02 is ready for download. as ever, please report any bugs. it is also available for linux (gcc 3.3.5).
cwyers, a member on gamedev.net wrote the following song in his forums post about VRC's Mr. Banana :-)
-
the only thing better than giant talking bananas
are giant talking BANANA PHONES!!!
Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring banana phone
Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring banana phone
I've got this feeling, so appealing,
for us to get together and sing. Sing!
Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring banana phone
Ding dong ding dong ding dong ding donana phone
It grows in bunches, I've got my hunches,
It's the best! Beats the rest!
Cellular, Modular, Interactivodular!
Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring banana phone
Boop-boo-ba-doo-ba-doop!
Ping pong ping pong ping pong ping panana phone
It's no baloney, it ain't a p(h)ony
My cellular bananular phone!"
[05/17/2006]
VRC 1.2.0 beta01 is ready for download. please report any bugs. new features include among other things menu settings for music, fx sound and voice chat, and some scripted fishes. some old bugs have also been fixed. there is still few feedback on voice chat quality, so don't expect too much ;-)
[04/24/2006]
we began implementing some simple NPCs for VRC island. first fishes are already able to swim in water. other animals will follow. the work on voice chat functionality is currently stucking a bit. probably it won't be included in next release as it is currently hard to organize a distributed test with many people executing the test cases at same time :-/
the great news is that in ShaderX 5 book which will be published end of 2006 an article about VRC's vegetation shader will appear. the proposal has been accepted and we got a go for writing from Wolfgang Engel and the publisher Charles River.
[03/20/2006]
the documention wiki has been attacked several times :-( we decided to disable the unregistered edit.
the voice chat implementation is still in work.
[02/26/2006]
first voice chat tests were successful. some further implementations and refinements for voice chat related gui and features such as private voice chat are still on todo list.
entiy Mesh got a lift for supporting LOD. for handling LOD, the open source library GLOD is used in conjuction with OSG in Mesh entity.
[02/05/2006]
the work on voice chat functionality in VRC has begun. we hope to have first version of voice chat in a few weeks.
[01/23/2006]
Update02 for VRC 1.1.0 has been released for win32, update for linux will follow. it adds copy&paste functionality to gui.
[01/23/2006]
Update01 for VRC 1.1.0 has been released for win32 and linux. following features has been added.
new features:
-
when the application window is minimized or loses input focus then the sound is muted, otherwise demuted.
-
when the application window is minimized or loses input focus then chat activities are
notified by animating the application icon in task bar.
-
saving considerable amount of cpu usage when application window is minimized -- cpu usage drops to near 0%.
thus VRC can run in background without affecting other applications.
[01/22/2006]
a phpBB based forums site has been setup for all VRC related discussions. special thanks go to dusti for installing phpBB.
update01 for VRC 1.1.0 is being prepared for release. it will improve the sound features and notification for chat activity when the
application window is minimized or has no input focus.
[01/15/2006]
VRC release 1.1.0 is ready for download. this release is available also for linux. the linux version has been built using gcc 3.3.5 on Suse 9.3. visit the Support section for download.
this release contains following fixes and additions.
fixes:
-
fixed a problem in player physics.
physics updates were tightly coupled to fps causing slower movement of players
with older machines. now, the physics should behave better also on older machines
with fewer fps than 60 (note that a software throttle limits the fps to about 60).
-
now, a server can be defined also by its host name (in addition to an ip address) in settings / networking
-
fixed a problem in IRC client avoiding an application crash when an IRC server crashs
-
updated the networking library (ReplicaNet), be aware that the networking protocol
of prior versions are not compatible with this version.
-
new Mini Map with player name display
-
improvements in IRC chat channel handling, also added 'whois' command to IRC chat client.
[01/01/2006]
we wish you all a happy new year.
the work on new web site design is completed.
creating VRC binary package for various linux distributions is in progress. the Suse binary seems to work also on Gentoo. currently we try to build VRC on Fedora Core 4 as it seems not to like Suse binaries :-(
[12/28/2005]
the web site has been updated, the design is still in progress.
We are currently working on linux release for VRC 1.0.1. We hope having VRC on most common linux distros soon. Currently there is a release candidate for Suse9.3.
[12/24/2005]
marry christmas to all :-)
[12/17/2005]
the project web site has been updated.
also a new video has been grabbed. you will need the DivX codec for playing it.
[12/16/2005]
a new minor release 1.0.1 is out addressing following issues
- much faster application start; after fixing a problem in osg's ive plugin,levels can be loaded from binary scene files now.
- replaced the fullscreen radio button in settings/display by a checkbox
- configurable logging level via .cfg file rather than a fix level 'error' before
[12/12/2005]
the team is proud to announce the first official release of VRC. download it here.
again, we want to thank many people for testing and feature suggestions. big thanks also to the team members:
- jens for his awesome 3d modeling and sound creation
- kami for 2d design and his continuous mental support
- mpretz for helping with web design and other things -- e.g. showing me how to hold a bowling ball right
[12/05/2005]
the preparations for next release are further going on. new screenshots show current look and feel of the island map. jens is doing stunning artwork :-)
we would like to thank people who helped us beta-testing VRC in last weeks (wallaba, ker2x, bzg, etc.). some useful fixes and feature extensions
for character input handling and chat funtionality have been done in last weeks.
we have grabbed an avi showing the island map. get it here.
[11/13/2005]
the work on IRC integration is completed, the chat box gui has been enhanced, and the level design is in progress. we are working on preparation of first official VRC release which will be available before x-mas -- we hope at least ;-)
new screenshots have been added.
[10/19/2005]
first screenshots of island level are available. we are currently implementing IRC protocol support in addition to VRC's specific chat protocol.
[10/06/2005]
new screenshots of physics+gui demo have been added. mapping of the first VRC level 'island' has begun.
[09/25/2005]
the linux port is completed. a new demo has been released: GLSL-demo. it shows dynamic lighting and normal-mapping with up to 3 light sources. get it at sourceforge's download section.
[09/06/2005]
the work on linux port has begun. we hope having the framework and VRC also on linux in next weeks. special thanks to CrazyEddie for his help on creating the project build system on linux (autoconf based).
[08/16/2005]
now we have a second ftp server which contains demos. check it out.
[07/21/2005]
we have set up a new section for artwork, take a look on the latest screenshots arrived from Jens Rogosch - it looks damn good ;-)
[07/14/2005]
the crash problem is fixed and the development is continued.
[07/09/2005]
good news: a console entity has been finished with over 30 commands. it can be used for online diagnosis or automated testing.
bad news: we have a serious crash problem in release build of the project since 4 weeks, and we are still searching for the reason :-(
[05/22/2005]
the menu entity is ready for next release. work on player entity and networking is in progress. some new screenshots have been added.
[04/10/2005]
Crazy Eddie's gui system has been integrated into framework. big thanks to paul. first entities for menu and game settings are under construction.
[03/28/2005]
after a little break the development of vrc is continued. here some news releated to our used technologies:
- for further development OpenSceneGraph will be used.
- Newton is currently evaluated for physics
[10/16/2004]
the framework and plugins have been cleaned up and extended, the new version 0.4.0 is ready to download. the sources have been moved to berliOS' svn repository. look into download section for instructions for anonymous download.
the external libs and a sample data package are also located at berliOS' download section.
the release of virtual chat room is delayed a bit because of my lazy artists :-)
[05/26/2004]
ctd is further refined by networking and a 3d menu frontend. the next release will be a virtual chat room (VRC) with voice over ip functionality demonstrating these features. i hope we will get it up and running in the next three months. btw: big thanks to ctd's new member Jens for his work on concepts and artwork (3d design and music / sound).
[03/31/2004]
the new release "Neo-CTD beta03" is out. it contains a fly-by level: mashine room. get it in download section.
[03/08/2004]
unfortunately the next level release is still not ready because of my heavy workload in the last months. however two utilities are released: an exporter for 3ds max which creates keyframe animations for unskinned meshes, and an 3ds max importer for ASE format which is able to import also a second texture and uv channel. we use this importer to get scenes back to 3ds max which are lightmapped by Gile(s) -- see http://www.frecle.net/giles
[01/01/2004]
we wish you a happy new year :-)
[10/01/2003]
further development of CTD will be done using NeoEngine. the work to port all existing plugins into new engine environment is in progress. the first release with new engine will be ready in february 2004.
[08/15/2003]
a new demo room ist released which contains an engine extension for managing opengl lists. triangle meshes are automatically packed into gllists to increase graphical performance. furthermore the demo shows user-defined mesh smoothness using vertex normals. the smoothness is defined by designer in 3ds max. take a look into screenshot section to see the results.
[06/25/2003]
the engine has been extended for support of gpu shaders. the new release showroom temple contains three lighting shaders (point, directional, and spot) and one bump map shader. get the showroom in download section.
juan is currently working on a really cool multi-view system. some applications for such a system are huds, menus, picture in picture effects, etc. i hope it will be ready soon.
[04/22/2003]
second beta release is published. it contains 9 plugins and a plugin documentation.
[12/10/2002]
the story of the game (in german and english) is ready to download.
[12/02/2002]
the fmp utility is ready; it can convert alias wavefront's obj format to fly3d's fmp and appropriate shader and entity files. get it at download section.
[11/28/2002]
the first beta release of one of ctd's worlds is ready to download.
[07/15/2002]
the story and C++ programmer's guidelines for this project have been added.
[07/13/2002]
mailing lists and forums are set up and ready to use (see here).
[07/11/2002]
the sourceforge project YAG 2002 has been approved. thank's a lot to the sourceforge staff, and a special thank to Fabio Policarpo and Alan Watt for their work on the book and game engine Fly3D (read more in section Development), which we are using to develop the game.
first screenshots can be viewed in section Screenshots.