Stable 50 - Halfway there?

[Cervator]

Official release number is 0.50.0, so that must totally mean we're half way to 1.0.0, right? 0.5.0 totally didn't count Get it from GitHub!

This is a nice release. @Josharias Survival has become quite mature and deep, and there's a highlight video to go with this release. Check it out!

That goes with earlier videos from Josharias' channel showcasing other parts of JS like my favorite - fully functional windmills! There is even some movement on making weather patterns affect the output of stuff like windmills

To further help test multiplayer in particular @minnesotags is running a 24/7 server at "terasology.tuffkidtek.com" - this is still an exercise in crashing and fixing things, so the exact version online and state of the world will vary. Best to check in on IRC if you cannot connect. There is a bug active where you have to be very exact about the release you use to connect.

Other changes in the release (or see changes in Jenkins):

• The Windows executables now require Java 8 as part of @shartte's push to better identify or bundle a JRE for the game. Likely the next stable release will entirely require Java 8, but for now you can still launch in any other way with Java 7.
  • The "Terasology.jar" file moved into /libs in the binary package as part of this, so launching the game as a jar now needs a command like "java -jar libs/Terasology.org"
• Multiplayer enhancements - lots!
  • Permissions have been improved, now there are different groups to assign to players so you can make "moderators" and such rather than just standard user vs. admins. Solid bit of work by @Florian who is continuing making progress in that area
  • On a related topic Florian has also been improving the persistence and handling of player identities (names, color, etc). Not much point in assigning rights if they don't stick! Some commands can also auto-complete player names when appropriate.
  • You can launch a headless server on a custom port with -serverPort=##### - thanks [deleted user] !
• Logging changes - the game will now write out a few purpose specific log files and reset them each game execution. They'll also roll into new files over time or based on size, which should help with servers.
• The CrashReporter has been updated some more by @msteiger to handle the above, as well as use a more user friendly wizard-like approach for uploading logs. You can now also send log files to our home on Google Drive rather than just to Pastebin.
• There are now two "Core" type modules, as @Josharias split out the usual starting inventory into its own module so you can author modules that require Core without getting the inventory. This is part of the process to better organize and package modules and will change further.
• Commands have been improved and fixed up some more, both in general and for the new permissions. "teleport" finally works again, after a long long time! The "listUsers" command now also lists offline players that have connected in the past. Naturally that still needs more improvements so we can have an online-only list. And did I mention auto-complete on player names?
• @msteiger has been improving noise options for world generation further and the PolyWorld generator makes spectacular island worlds now. It still isn't included in the stable game package but should be soon!

In other news:

• We applied to GSOC 2015 but again there were just too many applicants and despite being a perfectly viable candidate organization with a solid ideas page we didn't make it in
• Our applet had its certificate expire briefly - the renewal process took a little longer to get through than expected. All set for a year again!
• @Immortius' work on the Gestalt library series continues, including some nice documentation
• @msteiger has been improving the setup of our unit tests, there should be fewer weird dependency issues going on now. This is another area that should get much better and more interesting over time - one day we'll arrive at TWOVANA!
• He also improved the WorldViewer (separate world map viewer project) further, to where it is looking pretty dang spiffy! Take a look at its thread and a screenie

 

[Wolfgange]

Is there any sort of feature overview of the game as a whole (Done recently)? If not, I think that would be necessary to showcase it's current state. Something fast-paced (~1-2 Min), brief, yet covers a variety of the features (With one of Terasology's epic songs, such as "Snowflakes" playing in the background).

 

[Cervator]

Is there any sort of feature overview of the game as a whole (Done recently)? If not, I think that would be necessary to showcase it's current state. Something fast-paced (~1-2 Min), brief, yet covers a variety of the features (With one of Terasology's epic songs, such as "Snowflakes" playing in the background).

About a dozen stable releases ago we had a few where a teaser/trailer video was released showcasing what was in each build, usually scored with one of the soundtrack pieces. I think @Skaldarnar was doing them, and we've had an offer or two from time to time to help out. But as with everything in an all-volunteer setting it is hard to keep up anything consistently, especially when timing is involved

As for overall everything then no, it has been ages since we've done a full overview. Closest is the feature showcases like the one above. I'd like to see us do more of those, just have too much on my plate personally already. Volunteers welcome!

 

[Limeth]

Hello, fellow Terasologists! The updates look awesome, great job. It's a shame se didn't make it to GSOC, I believe many of us were looking forward. I have just quickly checked out the gestalt project and must say that it looks awesome, especially the sandboxing and restrictions! I hope to get back to coding with you.

 

[Skaldarnar]

Yeah, it's indeed about time to make another showcase video! I might have some free time next week, so probably I can manage to record some clips and put them together in the fashion of the old teasers/trailers. If you've got some good ideas of what to present leave a short note (e.g. WINDMILLS ) and I'll see what I can do about it.... Probably the teaser would be more about stable build 51, since @Josharias' introduction video has some good amount of information and awesomeness

 

[Wolfgange]

Yeah, it's indeed about time to make another showcase video! I might have some free time next week, so probably I can manage to record some clips and put them together in the fashion of the old teasers/trailers. If you've got some good ideas of what to present leave a short note (e.g. WINDMILLS ) and I'll see what I can do about it.... Probably the teaser would be more about stable build 51, since @Josharias' introduction video has some good amount of information and awesomeness

It would be great if there were a cinema mod for Terasology like SCCM. I was thinking of presenting the project as a whole, while including some mods in the video on the side. Ex. Show a sunset from a forest with a windmill off to the left. Or show some houses with one of the walls filled up with the crafting blocks.

 

[Skaldarnar]

@Wolfgange yeah, a camera mod(e) is definitely on my wishlist - I think having cameras as components could help with that a lot. A video capturing the ambient feeling of Terasology sounds great, showcasing everything, but not so obvious

 

[Cervator]

We do at least have cinematic mode where movement is smoothed out a fair bit, makes videos with a lot of movement much better, like fly-overs and such

But yeah, separate cameras would be a huge improvement on top of that. That has come up a fair bit lately too. Ping @manu3d !

 

[manu3d]

I hear ya! Step by step we'll get there.

 

[Wolfgange]

Has the launcher been abandoned? I'm getting "The game data downloaded and extracted okay, but required version information was not found."

 

[Cervator]

Has the launcher been abandoned? I'm getting "The game data downloaded and extracted okay, but required version information was not found."

Launcher is still there and version 2.0 is fancier than ever - but a thing or two has broken lately and we haven't gotten around to fixing it.

https://github.com/MovingBlocks/TerasologyLauncher/issues/311 is the issue you hit. @msteiger @shartte @Skaldarnar - ping!

https://github.com/MovingBlocks/TerasologyLauncher/issues/304 is another one to get modules bundled again sometime