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Significant Release: GoW PyPRP 1.3.0

PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 1:39 pm
by Kato
GoW PyPRP 1.3.0

You can also find the latest release at http://guildofwriters.com/pyprp/latest.zip. You should use this for wiki links.

Changes:

  • Animated textures are implemented and working! Look for a tutorial on this soon.
  • Sound flags have been changed.
  • Realtime shadows have been implemented and are working.
  • Softvolumes have been updated, but are still not fully working.
Remember, you can find bleeding-edge versions at the GoW PyPRP SVN at http://svn.guildofwriters.com/pyprp.

Enjoy :)

-Kato

Re: Significant Release: GoW PyPRP 1.3.0

PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 4:49 pm
by andylegate
Guys?

This was a REALLY bad time to release this new plugin. There are some of us that are in the middle of a competition.

Just saying that you either should have held off until next weekend when the time limit on Age Building ends, or have released it last week when the time limit started.....with full instructions on how to use Animated Textures included.

Sorry, but some of us feel this is going to give some people a distinct advantage over others. :|

Re: Significant Release: GoW PyPRP 1.3.0

PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 4:53 pm
by D'Lanor
Good point. Perhaps the judges could ignore the new features?

Re: Significant Release: GoW PyPRP 1.3.0

PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 5:00 pm
by Nadnerb
Really now, if there were any people using the "bleeding edge" plugin features by using the latest updates from the SVN during this contest, it would have been no different than this. The only change here is that a "version" has been declared due to there being some critical mass of new features accumulated. The same people would have had the same perceived advantages with or without an official release. I don't see the problem here.

In fact, the only other thing that happens when we declare a new version is that people suddenly seem to expect everything new to be completely documented and put into wiki for dummies form, in which case, we might as well not have even had a version 1 yet.

So basically you're saying that instead, the developers should simply not tell anyone what is possible with the new plugin, even though they could technically use it just by going to the svn? That would be even more skewed in favor of the developers, if any were participating in the competition, and would deny people who were not participating in the competition the knowledge that they could try some new things.

Re: Significant Release: GoW PyPRP 1.3.0

PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 5:04 pm
by andylegate
I've already made a formal request of the Maintainer judges in this aspect. It would be unfair for me to demand that guys like you that have the advantage of knowing right away how to use new plugin features with no instructions at all, not use them.

But at the same time, I've asked the Maintainer Judges to not use animated textures as a measure against other Ages that are submitted without them. I'm not about to suddenly change plugins with less than a week to go before the time limit is up, and especially without the knowledge or instructions on how to use something like this.

That's why I'm an advocate for plugin's being held back until at least some info on how to do some of the new features are at least posted with the new plugin.

A good example of that is the Sound Tutorial. I was using it the other day, as I couldn't remember how to do something. I'm using plugin 1.2.1.
Well, guess what? The 3D sound had been changed. Frowning as I didn't remember it being done that way, I used that scripting, and got a big fat error when I went to export. This was 2 days ago. I fixed it by loading up one of my other Ages and looking at it.
Then today this new plugin comes out, and guess what? It's the one that the tutorial is talking about with these new flags.

Now....that means for 2 days we had the incorrect tutorial in place, during a competition inwhich many new writers maybe involved.

Ouch.

Hopefully I was the only one that ended up having to take a couple of Tylenol until I could figure out what was going on.

But this is a great example of the many tentacles of the Writers Guild not talking to each other, or at least not paying attention to what is going on. Sorry if I just ticked someone or people off, not judging you, just pointing out some very valid facts.

Re: Significant Release: GoW PyPRP 1.3.0

PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 5:12 pm
by Nadnerb
Ok, you bring up an interesting point about the wiki. Apparently there is a fine line between keeping it up to date with new features, and invalidating it by assuming that people are using the latest plugin version. At the moment I can't think of a trivial way of getting around this, aside from perhaps leaving lots of little version notices all over the tutorials.. It's something that will have to be looked into.

Re: Significant Release: GoW PyPRP 1.3.0

PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 5:37 pm
by Lontahv
I will, as a judge; ignore animated textures in the RAD ages. This is because having animated textures in your age at this point does not mean that you can build ages well. What it means is that you're either in with the devs (me, Nad etc.) or check the forums 20 times a day and know everything about blender there is to know and like things without instructions. :P

I think that animated texture are SO important to making good ages that if it is to be fair everyone should have the chance to have them in their age. But this does not mean that the RAD people can't use them.

Just... don't use animated textures in puzzles for your RAD ages or your the puzzles too will be ignored. :twisted:


~Lontahv

Re: Significant Release: GoW PyPRP 1.3.0

PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 7:33 pm
by Kato
I'd like to personally apologize (on behalf of myself, and no one else) for this bad judgment call. At the time, we believed that releasing the plugin now would be good for the RAD competition. Obviously, this did not turn out to be the best decision. I hope that you all will be able to proceed with the competition unhindered.

In the future, we will better consider the effects of releasing new features like this, and especially with the wiki. Personally, when editing the wiki, I will try to include version notes. Let me also remind you that you can access a page's "history" to see past versions of it.

-Kato

Re: Significant Release: GoW PyPRP 1.3.0

PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 8:21 pm
by Lontahv
I coded a few classes for the moving animations(with lots of help from the other pyprp devs) and I feel as if we couldn't know that we where going to get this to work. I was hoping to get it working and release it before it was too late but... that didn't happen. It's like a scientist "planning" to discover something on a certain day--it's not what happens. You try, and when you get it, you get it.

Next age competition we'll get to use animated textures and maybe even mesh anims. :)

At lease people weren't planning animated textures into their RAD ages in advance. There's nothing to undo just to avoid doing. I'm glad we raised this issue before it was too late for some age creators. ie. having to rework puzzles so that they don't use animated textures.


EDIT: Instructions by Nadnerb here: http://guildofwriters.com/wiki/Animating_Textures

~Lontahv

Re: Significant Release: GoW PyPRP 1.3.0

PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 9:24 pm
by Chacal
Kato wrote:I'd like to personally apologize (on behalf of myself, and no one else) for this bad judgment call.

I'm not sure it was so bad a judgment call. There has been exactly one complaint. If I participated in the competition, I would hurry and try to get new features in before submission time.