changelog.md

Changelog

This file contains all changes made to ZenKit in reverse order, meaning the newest change is listed first. This file is updated whenever a new version of ZenKit is released. More information about how versioning works can be found in readme.md.

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v1.3.0

Version 1.3 re-brands "phoenix" as "ZenKit" to avoid confusion with PhoenixTales' Game of the same name. Basically all APIs have gotten a new look with more appropriate names and a replacement for phoenix::buffer has been introduced. The build system has also been changed and requires manual intervention when updating to the new version. A migration guide is available at https://zk.gothickit.dev/library/misc/v1.2-to-v1.3/.

Here are the changes not related to the renamed API.

Breaking Changes

The phoenix CMake target has been renamed to zenkit and the following changes have been made in relation to that change:

• The following CMake variables have been renamed:
  • PHOENIX_BUILD_EXAMPLES to ZK_BUILD_EXAMPLES
  • PHOENIX_BUILD_TESTS to ZK_BUILD_TESTS
  • PHOENIX_BUILD_SHARED to ZK_BUILD_SHARED
  • PHOENIX_INSTALL to ZK_ENABLE_INSTALL
  • PHOENIX_DISABLE_SANIZIZERS to ZK_ENABLE_ASAN (Danger: The meaning of this variable has been reversed)
• phoenix::vdf_file has been fully removed. Migrate to zenkit::Vfs!
• phoenix::way_net::waypoint has been removed
• phoenix::archive_reader::read_raw_bytes has been removed in favour of phoenix::archive_reader::read_raw_bytes(size_t)
• phoenix::model_script::parse_binary has been removed in favour of phoenix::model_script::parse
• phoenix::vobs::camera_lock_mode has been removed in favour of phoenix::vobs::sprite_alignment
• phoenix::vob::camera_alignment has been removed in favour of phoenix::vob::sprite_camera_facing_mode
• phoenix::symbol::{get,set}_{string,int,float} now take a raw pointer as context.
• phoenix::cs_camera::frames has been split into trajectory_frames and target_frames

Other breaking changes:

• [59d79309] The value setters in DaedalusSymbol now take regular pointers for the context (instead of shared_ptr)
• [cd8092c6] DaedalusScript::enumerate_instances_by_name now only enumerates const instances

Features

• [cfec0051] XZEN-encoded worlds are now supported. Thanks, @ThielHater!
• [13dbb6a7] The member array lengths of vobs::npc now have names thanks to a patch by @JucanAndreiDaniel
• [bbf0505f,ad4a3540] @Try added support for the Nintendo Switch port of Gothic 1 by adding c_menu_item_frame::frame_pos{x,y} and c_menu_item_flags::hor_selectable in the Daedalus support library
• There are two new interfaces for interacting with data which replace phoenix::buffer: zenkit::Read and zenkit::Write
• [535ef541] The phoenix::mesh now comes with a new API for retrieving raw, un-triangulated polygons from the mesh data
• [9caff1b3] Added a getter for DaedalusInstance bound types
• [2122d852,7e8b4800,fed97b02,fd58eef2] Added spec-compliant ZenGin Archive parser. This new implementation properly handles object references and is capable of parsing objects automatically using the new ReadArchive::read_object API.
• [34b26bc2] Added a new WriteArchive API for creating ZenGin Archives using ZenKit
• [c3dbd5e5...46e9ea43,6aa96dbc,aba71724,cd2e3d7f,60d49f14,05cbd047,9b694f06] Implement save for various object types, including the VOb-tree. These objects can now be loaded, modified and then saved again using ZenKit only. The objects are: VirtualObject and its descendants, CutsceneLibrary, Font, Mesh, ModelHierarchy, Texture, Vfs, MultiResolutionMesh, ModelMesh, Model, World
• [fc75d4b5] Added Write implemented to write to a given file system path
• [338cce71] Added getters and setters for the global DaedalusVm instance
• [369ea8bc] DaedalusVm::print_stack_trace now reports global state information as well
• [f7230659,253e29b6] Improved SaveGame support drastically. Save games can now be fully parsed and also created using ZenKit alone.
• [202e9b8b] Added a TextureBuilder for creating new textures from scratch
• [a3a408f9] Deadalus external functions can now also take a DaedalusSymbol& as a parameter (instead of just a name)
• [d0b8dcf7] Add support for loading uncompressed VdfsTool VDFs

Bugfixes

• [a5cdce4c] Fixed possible nullptr-dereference in Vfs::mount_disk
• [9d7c3f74] Fixed an integer underflow in register_default_external
• [42efd418] Fixed loading of rigid-body information from save-games.
• [5eb44c88,2b5aa9e8] Fixed some issues with memory leakage in the Vfs
• [713480bf] Fixed a dangeling reference issue in DaedalusVm::register_default_external
• [c9acf8e9,3d67ed5a] Fixed some broken bounds checks in DaedalusVm and DaedalusScript

Misc

• Added documentation for all known VObs and their fields. This new documentation can be viewed at zk.gothickit.dev, and it has been mirrored to the Gothic Modding Community (GMC)'s page.
• [6e71a70c] mio has been dropped and replaced by a custom, simpler memory mapping implementation (zenkit::Mmap)
• [1f887325] Sped up Mesh parsing for some Windows systems by up to 15x

Deprecations

• All APIs in the phoenix namespace. Migrate to their analogs in the zenkit namespace instead! Also see the migration guide

v1.2.0

Update 1.2 introduces a host of new features, mostly for the VM, to support modding frameworks like Ikarus and LeGo. There are also many bugfixes, which mostly address issues with games files provided by mods. Notably, there is one small breaking change which only affects users who have been manually passing include_polygons to mesh::parse() , as described below.

Breaking Changes

• [33f6f6da] For performance reasons, mesh::parse() now takes a vector of ints instead of an unordered_set. Thanks, @Try!

Features

• [69f1df07] You can now call script functions manually, pushing values onto the stack as required, by using vm::unsafe_call(). This addition was made for compatibility with the C interface.
• [637b8888] You can now register a custom default external function for manually handling the stack. This addition was made for compatibility with the C interface.
• [78a1c828] Added a new implementation of the VFS in the form of Vfs. This will fully replace the old vdf_file implementation in phoenix 2.0.
• [5230465d] Meshes can now be parsed without passing include_polygons.
• [bbec4cc1,f46144fa] Added named constants for Gothic 1/2 specific enum values in npc_type.
• [e481bcae] The VM now supports overriding functions in a way which will not push a call stack frame ("naked functions"). Thanks, @Try!
• [e481bcae] The VM can now report accesses of specific symbols by calling a registered callback. This is required for supporting the Ikarus modding framework as well as debugging support. Thanks, @Try!
• [13c929b6] Daedalus function parameters for externals can now be explicitly passed using a new func type, instead of a plain int.
• [a348a389] The VM now supports two new instance types, opaque_instance and transient_instance, which can be used to support modding frameworks like Ikarus. Thanks, @Try!

Bugfixes

• [2c2a099c] vm::call_function() now properly compiles when building a shared library.
• [b4af7ed0] The camera_trajectory enum now contains the correct enum value for camera_trajectory::object.
• [fee2dd16] Added support for semicolons in model script source files.
• [ed37464c] The buffer now no longer segfaults when loading empty files.
• [68714dfa] When reading a line at EOF, the buffer no longer throws an exception, but rather returns the empty string.
• [356647d8] light_preset and light VObs now correctly support greyscale color transitions.
• [3fe0f7be] Parsing of model scripts now features improved compatibility for modded installations.
• [0e7e507d] For compatibility with mods, values of Daedalus string symbols are now parsed using a special algorithm to avoid data corruption.
• [9e8458ed,7e447c3e,bcb47c1b] The Vfs now correctly handles trailing whitespace in node names.

Misc

• [4ac598e8] textures can now be copied and moved.
• [1d6a3b7a] scripts can now be copied and moved.
• [19ab9ac2] Buffer exception constructors are now public.
• [d6566d5d,bee00d13] VM stack traces are now printed using the logger.
• [3b6825b7] The element count of c_item::{text, count} has been extracted as a constant. Thanks, @JucanAndreiDaniel!

Deprecations

• [78a1c828] Deprecated the old VFS implementation in vdfs.hh.

v1.1.1

This update again brings many bugfixes and smaller improvements in addition to updates to the documentation. phoenix can now also be built as a shared library which should be considered an experimental feature. This update also finally replaces the old lexy parser for model scripts with a self-rolled implementation.

Bugfixes

• [03cb97bd] Fixed a stack corruption issue in the VM which could be triggered if the movvf or movf was called with a member but no current instance was present
• [c6cb69de] Fixed broken VM execution flag allow_null_instance_access for instructions addmovi, submovi, mulmovi and divmovi.
• [cae1c118, f0d6751f] Fixed a VM/script bug which could occur when using higher-order functions.
• [2cd3da6f] Added checks for division by zero errors in the VM.
• [3693450b] Prevent null-pointer de-reference in vm::initialize_instance if the instance's parent symbol can not be found.
• [1bf25106] VDF entries with a size larger than the VDF file itself are now no longer loaded.
• [5d78aa49, 4e7b8630] Fix an issues with ignoring whitespace in binary archives.
• [c7d4115f] Catch numeric conversion errors in archives and re-throw them as parser_errors.

Misc

• [4e9ae25e] Move the const-ness check for script symbols into the VM.
• [c7c6b94a] (experimental) Allow for building phoenix as a shared library.
• [15cd5893] Save the checksums for animations, model meshes and skeletons.
• [16679249] Switch to a custom model script parser, dropping the dependency on lexy

v1.1.0

Oh boy, this is a big one! There are a lot of additions, some changes and also some deprecations here. Also, the performance of phoenix has improved quite a bit, especially interacting with VDFs and parsing worlds. We've also made the first steps to making phoenix a shared library by adding support for cmake --install (thanks @DaDummy!) which will be expanded on in the future. Another cool thing is the new, centralized documentation page for phoenix and ZenGin internals available at https://phoenix.lmichaelis.de. It's quite bare-bones still but some interesting stuff has already been moved over.

Anyway, here's the list of changes:

Bugfixes

• [0c29d032, 6a64eee3] Fix issues related to stack guards and externals.
• [529137d5] Fix incorrect parsing of animation sample rotations.
• [1403f5e2] Fix undefined behavior in trigger_mover
• [2456b7fe] Report the end of archive objects at EOF as well.

Features

• [397bacfa, 702c8382, b7a650af, 6dd7fe4a, 57037739, 9568b8ad, db6616f4, 15396f07, 63692ad2, d855c166, 89327216] Add support for parsing save-games. This feature allows phoenix to fully parse original save-games from their directory structure. See save_game.hh for additional information.
• [08bcab36] Add archive_reader::print_structure to print the contents of an archived object as XML. This is mainly useful for debugging, and it only works properly with ASCII and BIN_SAFE archives since BINARY archives don't contain field names.
• [f789a925] Add a safer version of archive_reader::read_raw_bytes which takes the number of bytes to read as a parameter. This works since we normally know how many bytes to parse anyway, otherwise BINARY archives would not work.
• [0d0f07db] archive_reader now has an API to easily check whether it's a save-game or not (archive_reader::is_save_game).
• [30793759, b8db4092] Add unstable APIs for retrieving and visiting archive entries and objects without a schema. See archive_reader::next and archive_reader::visit_objects for more details.
• [a8526c34] VM external functions may now take raw instance pointers. This allows for bypassing potentially expensive std::shared_ptr copies.
• [d0ad2da0] The default external implementation now handles instances by pushing a null-instance instead

Changes

• [ae776007] script::find_symbol_by_name and everywhere the script and VM require a symbol name parameter now take a std::string_view instead of std::string.
• [0bfd3cfd] symbol::get_string now returns a std::string_view instead of a std::string
• [0d1b976b] Indexes into script symbol values are now represented by a size_t instead of a uint8_t
• [fd0023b7] Internal Change: phoenix' tests are now much easier to identify and feature additional checks for VObs and different game versions
• [c0ace3cb] bsp_tree leaf polygons are now stored in a std::unordered_set instead of a std::vector for performance reasons. This change improves world parse times by about 6%.
• [39319e92] If the signature of a VDF files being parsed is not recognized, phoenix now throws a vdfs_signature_error

Deprecations

• [32770f8d] way_net::waypoint(std::string const&): This is a broken and slow API which should not be used.
• [f789a925] archive_reader::read_raw_bytes(): This API is unsafe and should no longer be used.
• [1df2b5e0] model_script::parse_binary(...): Use model_script::parse(...) instead, it now supports both binary and text-based scripts.
• [30de6a4e] camera_lock_mode and vob::camera_alignment: Old and incorrect names for sprite_alignment and vob::sprite_camera_facing_mode respectively.
• [604b61bd] vdf_entry* vdf_entry::find_child(std::string_view) & and vdf_entry* vdf_file::find_child(std::string_view) &: Mutating VDF entries is broken, thus these APIs should not be used. Use the const versions instead.

Performance

• [ebb48be2] messages::block_by_name now makes use of a sorted vector instead of a map lookup
• [604b61bd, 1957cbb8] VDF entry lookups are now up to 90 times faster due to usage of std::set to contain the entries.
• [ee00a037] The VM now uses a flat array as a stack instead of an actual std::stack. This eliminates unnecessary heap allocations during runtime and thus improves speed.
• [f8c69354] Improve performance of buffer in general by about 20%
• [5bf91b45] Improve archive_reader::read_object_begin performance by about 7%

Misc

• [d2b86498, 21dbecd6, bdc8bb39, b962249a] phoenix is now also compiled with -Wpedantic and -Wshadow
• [2556143e] Add support for using CMake install (thanks, @DaDummy!)
• [de512dad] Clang 14 is now tested in CI and fully supported
• [cc00c0ea] fmtlib is no longer a dependency of phoenix
• [16328f8a, 44a59c1e, a61ab85e, 18464552, 8196b897, 3d79c512 - 55de3c63] Add centralized documentation site for both the phoenix library and ZenGin internals. It can be found at https://phoenix.lmichaelis.de.

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v1.0.2

In this version, some quite severe bugs regarding model script parsing have been fixed. Additionally, this release contains a lot of smaller fixes detailed below:

Bugfixes

• [cbe6feaa] Fix issue in archive_reader::read_bool which would return false for any value other than 1. This is not the correct behaviour since it should return true for any non-zero value instead. This is now the case.
• [5c1c34c6] Fix typo in #define for log levels (thanks, @DaDummy!)
• [15f0e4f9] Fix a bug in archive_reader_binary::skip_opject which caused the parser to jump 4 bytes too far
• [a3a23ce0] Fix a compilation error specific to Apple Clang in c_info::remove_choice
• [b3b7eb21, ff6735b7] Fix incorrect parsing of enums in BINARY archives.
• [17dfa5af, 3abd7719, 26f53ec9, 5c628a45] Fix many issues regarding MDS parsing. MDS files seem to have a defined structure at first but there are typos in original files which break that structure. These fixes address various typos in these files to make them parse correctly again.

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v1.0.1

This version contains patches for many bugs as well as some performance improvements in the VDF and ZenGin Archive parsers. The following changes have been made since v1.0.0:

Bugfixes

• [d9357f6] Previously, only the non-const version of script::find_symbol_by_name was case-insensitive. Now the const version is too.
• [7d87485] Non-free waypoints are now correctly included in the way_net::waypoint lookup
• [c8c2294] Return null-instances from the default VM external set by vm::register_default_external if needed
• [ce320ad] If a default external is set the stack guard in the opcode::be branch of vm::exec is now inhibited preventing stack corruption
• [272c2a3] The stack guard for the opcode::bl instruction in vm::exec used sym as uninitialized which caused VM crashes if any script function was overridden
• [612b078] Fix incorrect usage of std::isspace in multiple locations which could cause crashes using compilers which treat char as signed

Performance

• [88c43eb] Improve archive_reader::read_object_begin performance by up to 30% by using sscanf instead of std::stringstream internally

Misc

• [52e3136, 21d59b8, 6bc9967] Allow using Git submodules in addition to CMake's FetchContent for resolving dependencies
• [ccf8ce6] Updated old SHA1 hash of the lexy dependency (thanks, @thokkat!)

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v1.0.0 – Initial release

After about a year of development, phoenix released version 1.0.0 in October 2022. After replacing Try/ZenLib which was forked from ataulien/ZenLib in the Gothic engine re-implementation OpenGothic and a bit more than 500 commits, phoenix has finally reached a point at which I would consider it to be stable enough to make a full release.

Thanks to everyone who helped test the implementation in OpenGothic#271. I want to especially thank @Try for allowing me to integrate into OpenGothic! It really helped motivate me to keep working on phoenix and to make it better!