New Features in Castle Game Engine 7.0

This page is a draft of Castle Game Engine 7.0 news announcement. It documents new features since the last 6.4 release.

• Castle Game Engine Editor application!

  • Run it by simply executing "castle-editor" binary in the "bin/" subdirectory of our release zip.
  • Editor allows to visually design TCastleUserInterface (like TCastleButton, TCastleLabel) and TCastleTransform (like TCastleScene) hierarchies.
  • Editor also manages (creates, compiles) Castle Game Engine projects, using our build tool underneath.
  • Integrated with our tools (runs view3dscene, castle-view-image etc. when double-clicking), can preview data (models, images, sounds).
  • Runs a configured FPC/Lazarus (in preferences).
  • Expect more improvements to editor in the future releases. My plans are on https://github.com/castle-engine/castle-engine/blob/master/tools/castle-editor/README.md --- some of these plans are implemented, some not yet. There also a huge TODO file specifically for the editor :)

• Much better API for viewports and cameras.

  • To display TCastleScene/TCastleTransform hierarchy, use TCastleViewport, always. It is a normal user interface control, you can set it's size/position as any other UI control.
  • The concept of camera (where are you looking at) and navigation (whether we handle some keys/mouse to move the camera) was split. TCastleViewport.Camera is always created, and corresponds 1-to-1 to the parent viewport. TCastleViewport.Navigation is optional, you can explicitly create an instance of TCastleExamineNavigation or TCastleWalkNavigation and assign them there.
  • Auto-detection of camera is by default off. This way you can reliably use Viewport.Camera.SetView(...) or Viewport.Camera.Position := ..., without worrying that some auto-detection will override them. Use Viewport.AutoCamera := true to explicitly request this auto-detection.
  • Auto-detection of navigation is by default off. This way you can reliably set Viewport.Navigation := ... (or leave it nil deliberately) without worrying that some auto-detection will override it. Use Viewport.AutoNavigation := true to explicitly request this auto-detection.
  • See news 1, news 2. See view_3d_model_basic example.

• Big user interface classes improvements.

  • Easy functions to serialize / deserialize TCastleUserInterface and TCastleTransform hierarchies (see CastleComponentSerialize unit) as JSON files.
  • CastleSettings.xml file to easily define scaling and default font.
  • New controls: TCastleCheckbox, TCastleDesign, TCastleHorizontalGroup, TCastleVerticalGroup.
  • Float positions / sizes for everything.
  • All existing controls significantly reworked and improved. So many improvements to our user interface hierarchy happened that it's impossible to list it in short -- see news 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

• Nintendo Switch full support from CGE. https://github.com/castle-engine/castle-engine/wiki/Nintendo-Switch

• glTF 2.0 initial support.

  • Static textured models are supported.
  • Animations of transformations supported.
  • See https://castle-engine.io/creating_data_model_formats.php for details of glTF 2.0 support.
  • Expect more work here soon: Physical Based Rendering, morph targets, skinned animations.

• castle-data:/ protocol (more advised than previous ApplicationData function). The “data” directory is documented https://castle-engine.io/manual_data_directory.php in a new manual page. It is also listed on a reworked manual page about networking, downloading and URLs https://castle-engine.io/manual_network.php.

• Optimizations and profiling features:

  • Built-in simple profiler (TCastleProfiler, use through the Profiler singleton). See https://castle-engine.io/wp/2018/08/25/headlight-built-in-simple-profiler-more/
  • Built-in frame profile (TCastleFrameProfiler)
  • Integration with Nintendo profiler
  • Large speedups, see news: https://castle-engine.io/wp/2019/10/13/numerous-optimizations-and-dynamic-batching/ .
  • Dynamic batching now available.
  • Loading optimizations (see here).
  • Everything described in the updated optimization docs on https://castle-engine.io/manual_optimization.php

• Rendering:

  • New screen effects API, you can now make screen effects over any UI control (just place it as child of https://castle-engine.io/apidoc-unstable/html/CastleScreenEffects.TCastleScreenEffects.html), and they are much friendlier to use. See https://castle-engine.io/wp/2018/07/29/new-screen-effects-api-and-demo-text-node-optimizations-multi-texture-modes-fixes/ .
  • Easy mirrors on flat surfaces (see https://castle-engine.io/wp/2018/10/08/simple-water-using-castle-game-engine/ )
  • SeparateDiffuseTexture for prettier look.
  • Shadow maps, clip planes available with OpenGLES renderer (this improves all platforms using OpenGLES by default: Android, iOS and Nintendo Switch).
  • ASTC (Texture Compression) Support

• Localization:

  • Two methods, with demos: https://castle-engine.io/manual_text.php
  • CastleLocalizationGetText allows to easily translate UI design (created e.g. using CGE editor), including generating template for translators to translate UI design.
  • See https://castle-engine.io/wp/2019/07/21/localization-improvements-and-a-japanese-version-of-escape-from-the-universe/ and https://castle-engine.io/wp/2018/04/25/engine-improvements-localization/ .

• Animation features:

  • Animation blending (https://castle-engine.io/wp/2018/03/21/animation-blending/)
  • Many new features related to PlayAnimation. TPlayAnimationParameters allows to specify things like StopNotification callback, playing backward etc. (see https://castle-engine.io/wp/2018/04/21/engine-improvements-rejuvenated-playanimation-method-easily-play-animations-backward-with-blending-stop-notifications/ ). Additional methods like StopAnimation, ResetAnimationState.
  • Ability to easily play simultaneous animations using TTimeSensorNode.Start/Stop.
  • See https://castle-engine.io/wp/2019/06/22/many-animations-improvements-gltf-simultaneous-anims-view3dscene-panel-optimizations/

• Notable new examples:

  • tiled/strategy_game_demo/ - Complete working strategy game, with maps designed using Tiled, working equally well with hexagonal/orthogonal/isometric maps (thanks to new Tiled API), user interface designed using Castle Game Engine Editor and TUIState. See also https://castle-engine.io/wp/2019/01/06/strategy-game-demo-using-cge-and-tiled/ , https://castle-engine.io/wp/2018/12/28/tiled-maps-improvements/ .
  • tiled/map_viewer/ - Simple viewer for Tiled maps. You can pan and zoom maps, and load any Tiled map.
  • headlight_test/ - Shows new TCastleSceneManager.UseHeadlight property.
  • audio/play_sounds/ - Test mixing sounds.
  • localization/gettext/ - Localization example, translating resourcestrings and UI designed in CGE editor.
  • screen_effects_demo/ - New screen effects API demo.

• Android improvements:

  • --target=android to build both 32-bit and 64-bit binaries.
  • New services, like facebook, apps_flyer, freetype, download_uri etc.
  • Many upgrades to build infrastructure (new Gradle version etc.)
  • AdMob upgraded, and supports TAdWatchStatus that reports why user did not watch the ad.

• Physics improvements:

  • Collision detection (TRigidBody.GetCollidingTransforms, OnCollisionEnter, OnCollisionExit).
  • Triggers and physics settings
  • And more, see https://castle-engine.io/wp/2019/06/15/physics-collision-detection-and-new-properties/

• Sound improvements:

  • Split into multiple backends, and FMOD backend added, see https://github.com/castle-engine/castle-engine/wiki/FMOD .
  • More features for sounds XML files, like aliases and groups. See https://castle-engine.io/wp/2019/04/29/new-sound-features-alternative-backends-new-demo-aliases/
  • LoopingChannel, to easily play multiple sound tracks, ambience tracks etc.
  • Sound streaming.

• Last but not least, stuff "around" CGE:

  • Docker image with docs: https://castle-engine.io/wp/2019/02/16/using-castle-game-engine-with-docker/
  • New forum https://forum.castle-engine.io/
  • License simplified. The engine is "LGPL with static linking exception" (i.e. you can use it in commercial applications) out-of-the-box. See https://castle-engine.io/wp/2018/05/30/nurbs-simplified-license-just-lgpl-out-of-the-box/ and https://github.com/castle-engine/castle-engine/blob/master/COPYING.md for details.
  • API searching, switching betwen stable/unstable API docs.