PhysX 2.6.4: Breaking compatibility with Cyan

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PhysX 2.6.4: Breaking compatibility with Cyan

Postby phoenix » Mon Jul 25, 2011 4:50 am

Shorah All

Here is a very important subject that needs a bit of clarity from the URU veterans out there who know what is happening with PhysX 2.6.4 and the CWE engine.

I have a recently compiled GoW CWE plClient that is built on Physx 2.6.4 SDK and instructions on how to test this by connecting to the Cyan shard using the MOUL-OS tut on github.

On top of this for those who have compiled the plClient, I eventually downloaded PhysX_9.10.0513_SystemSoftware.exe and renamed it PhysX_Setup.exe and placed it in the root folder of MOUL-OS. Then when MOUL-OS refused to run, I had to install that renamed PhysX_Setup.exe by hand.

Now. besides the 3 "Debug Assertion Failed" notices and clicking ignore 3 times, I get to the avatar selection menu, with someone named "eric" in the menu even though I logged in with my username and password. So far so good, but this is as far as it goes! You can mouse around, but you can't login.

Now here is the big question... Since Cyans MOUL is based on PhysX 2.6.0 and the CWE plClient is based on PhysX 2.6.4 can anyone tell me if the custom client will work with Cyan content? Apparently the viewpoint from a few sources is that standard MOUL content will not work with PhysX 2.6.4 SDK, and this gives rise to the next questions...

1) Does anyone have a copy of PhysX 2.6.0 SDK? (Google is proving useless!)
2) Why has GoW decided to break away from compatibility with Cyan? (There was talk of keeping compatibility to extend on what Cyan was doing, and also in keeping in the same spirit of the Uru Story)
3) If we cant access Cyan MOUL content with the CWE plClient, then how do we convert our MOUL content to run with Physx 2.6.4?

I would especially like to here from Deledrius on how to get around the PhysX factor. So far I have a shard about 90% complete and I really need to know this stuff. Please help!

Finally, my last observation might hurt because it is so obvious! Since the GoW fork of CWE is under such heavy development, why havent you guys attached a version number? The reason is; the git clone I made of plasma a week ago compiles just fine except for "libcurl" warnings, whereas the version from this week fails to compile. Since the CWE has such an intensive dev cycle, it would be feasible to start using version numbers. Any comments?

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Re: PhysX 2.6.4: Breaking compatibility with Cyan

Postby Branan » Mon Jul 25, 2011 8:05 am

The 2.6.4 PhysX SDK will work for 95% of things in the game, though a few are slightly broken. It is not what's causing your avatar select issue, though.

The devlibs bundle (which I assume you're using) includes Python 2.7, while Cyan uses Python 2.3. You will need the 'python27' branch of our moul-scripts repo checked out, and copy that "python" directory into your CWE install folder. Then create a shortcut to run it as "plClient.exe /localdata"

Regarding version numbers: it's all still considered pre-release development. We'll tag a version when we feel things are cleaned up enough to be worth tagging. For now, CWE vs. the official client is mostly of interest to developers, not regular users. We should probably have an announcement sticky for when we break things, though. I'll talk to the Tsar about how he wants to handle that.

EDIT: I forgot to talk about your broken build. We added a dependency on libpng. Just grab the devlibs.zip from the GoW server again, and it will have the new library you need.
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Re: PhysX 2.6.4: Breaking compatibility with Cyan

Postby Deledrius » Mon Jul 25, 2011 9:43 am

I'm not sure why you want to hear from me specifically, especially regarding PhysX. I know very little about the physics code in Uru and as such have not touched it. However, I know of nothing which needs "getting around" with it either, so I'm unable to help you with that.

In regards to your inability to compile, to my knowledge there was no point in the last week of commits in which the tree was uncompilable. I work to ensure any commits I make or pull into the master branch don't break the build. Which isn't to say it can't happen, but it's something I personally strive to avoid and as near as I can tell all the active contributors feel the same way. As Branan mentioned, we did add some new dependencies this week in order to support new functionality (better cursors, and the ability to save screenshots as PNGs, as well as other future possibilities!) which you will find all listed in the README. Please check it out, and for simplicity it is recommended you use the aforementioned cwe-devlibs prefix to help get you building faster.

None of the changes we've made so far to the engine incorporate anything which breaks compatibility. Again, I have personally been making all my changes only add to or fix existing code; maintaining compatibility is a primary goal for the time being. Things like using PhysX 2.6.4 and Python 2.7 don't substantially affect the game, but make it easier to build (or even possible in the case of old versions of PhysX being unavailable) and provide us more options for improving the existing code. If and when changes do occur that break from Cyan's MOULa server compatibility, I expect they will be made publicly and with at least some discussion over the matter. At the very least, it won't just happen in an unlabeled commit. Anything that does do so in that matter should be considered a bug, and reported to us on the Issues page.
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Re: PhysX 2.6.4: Breaking compatibility with Cyan

Postby phoenix » Tue Jul 26, 2011 12:56 am

Hey Guys

Thanks for the transparency, your answers really help shed some valuable light as to where you are in the GoW dev cycle. I have sent Tsar an email to offer GoW a comprehensive and detailed tut on how to setup a Sandbox Shard which would be useful as a wiki for the die hard fans out there who want their own testing shard, and your info helps me be accurate. The tut is 95% complete, and there are some small things I need to tidy up. With your comments, the tut will be almost finished.

Thanks a mill

Later

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Re: PhysX 2.6.4: Breaking compatibility with Cyan

Postby diafero » Tue Jul 26, 2011 1:59 am

Best place to get the tutorial in final shape is to put it into the wiki, I'd say :)
I planned to look into that myself soon anyway, so while following your tutorial I could correct the issues I encounter.
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Re: PhysX 2.6.4: Breaking compatibility with Cyan

Postby phoenix » Tue Jul 26, 2011 3:44 am

Yip, thats the plan. I had a look at the wiki section and tried to add the tut, but it said that only certain groups were allowed.

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Re: PhysX 2.6.4: Breaking compatibility with Cyan

Postby kaelisebonrai » Tue Jul 26, 2011 4:09 am

phoenix wrote:Yip, thats the plan. I had a look at the wiki section and tried to add the tut, but it said that only certain groups were allowed.

Phoenix


All users who are members of the forums can edit the wiki. (Well, with one notable exception (A single forum user by the name of "Egon"))

Did you log in using your forum username?
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Re: PhysX 2.6.4: Breaking compatibility with Cyan

Postby phoenix » Tue Jul 26, 2011 4:45 am

Yes I did. Maybe I did not create it in the right section.

Do you have any pointers?
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Re: PhysX 2.6.4: Breaking compatibility with Cyan

Postby phoenix » Tue Jul 26, 2011 4:54 am

Hey Deledrius

Regarding your quote

and for simplicity it is recommended you use the aforementioned cwe-devlibs prefix to help get you building faster


That is exactly what I have been using, and when I compile I get numerous repeats of the following warnings;

Code: Select all
warning LNK4099: PDB 'vc90.pdb' was not found with 'C:\cwe-prefix\lib\expat.lib'
warning LNK4099: PDB 'libcurl.pdb' was not found with 'C:\cwe-prefix\lib\curl.lib'
warning LNK4099: PDB 'vc90.pdb' was not found with 'C:\cwe-prefix\lib\expat.lib'


I followed the instructions on to the letter as well as version numbers. Check my output file attached.
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Re: PhysX 2.6.4: Breaking compatibility with Cyan

Postby Paradox » Tue Jul 26, 2011 7:17 am

Those are only warnings and shouldn't cause any problems.
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