ShiVa 2.0 news

[NiCoX]

Hi all,

According to some threads on this forum (and mainly this one: http://www.stonetrip.com/developer/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=25342), most of you are wondering what is coming next, and especially what are the upcoming engine and editor features. Also, some are worried about the availability, as the expected ShiVa 2.0 release is even not yet in beta. The goal of this post is to give you a better understanding of the situation, and give answers to the recurrent questions.

+ About the Editor:

So, for now months, if not years, a part of our team is working exclusively on the upcoming version of (y)our tool. ShiVa 1.X has been made years after years, and became hard to maintain and to make evolve. For ShiVa 2.0, we decided to rewrite everything from scratch, which was a big (crazy?) challenge. But we did it and most of the hard work is now behind us. But indeed, that also means all is not finished, and yes, we are late. We are late but we don't want to release something unfinished, and we are convinced it worth the wait. About an expected date, I don't have one, unfortunately. About what this new editor will bring, here is a short list:

- a cross platform editor, available for Windows, Mac and Linux
- a new UI design, with many usage and workflow improvements
- the possibility to create editor modules, using XML files and Lua 5.1 scripts
- a complete editor script API
- a command line version, making it possible to automate desired tasks on a headless server
- a generalized "multi target" asset management system, to simplify cross-platform development
- a full undo/redo support
- a Maya-like shelf
- fully customizable key bindings
- multicore support for heavy tasks
- micro updates
- particle engine enhancements
- HUD improvements and enhancements

+ About the Engine:

Something important to understand is that the engine evolving constantly, there won't be a "2.0 engine". The new editor will just open some previously closed doors. Ok, but what doors does it will open? ShiVa 2.0 will be mainly an editor update, but here is a list of things that are on our roadmap, that may (or may not) be included in the ShiVa 2.0 initial release:

- full Lua 5.1 support
- object oriented script framework and API
- custom shaders support, including a cross platform assembly language
- new built-in post render effects
- DirectX 11 renderer
- physics engine improvements/replacement
- clothing support

+ About the UAT:

Again, like the engine, this tool has its own roadmap, each major release adding new target platforms. Here are some details about the upcoming ones:

- Flash 11: this port is almost done, all samples and most tested games are already working without any modifications. A first beta will be available very soon.
- PS3 and Xbox 360: those ports are already done, and 3 games are about to be announced.


To be honest, I wanted to tell more about all of that, but it would take more time, and because of the light pressure some of you are putting (and I understand, no problems really ), I finally decided to post my draft as-is, and I propose you to ask if you have any questions or need some details, I'll try to answer them. I think it's the best compromise

[radek_ne]

You create a really interesting product

Create editor modules, "multi target" asset management system, to simplify cross-platform development, multicore support for heavy tasks, object oriented, shaders and more more more ...

Beautifully

A lot of work!

[Xdust]

You create a really interesting product

Create editor modules, "multi target" asset management system, to simplify cross-platform development, multicore support for heavy tasks, object oriented.

Beautifully

A lot of work!

Yea, Im betting 18 Months till its ready, at least. Wowsers, what a project.

[badfish]

Thanks for the news. Looking forward to a linux editor with command line functionality, i am missing my bash console!

[kalango]

Awesome news, seems to be a lot of great stuff comming. Im most interested about the customizing features and graphics/physics improvements. i'll be happy if it gets its release in june or july.
Whenever you got the time (maybe the blog guy could do that), could you add a little more detail like whats up with the assembly language, what is the new physics engine, etc?

[dpharaoh]

I am most interested in a Flash export actually hehe. But keep up the good work Nicox. Please raise the price and hire some help!

[straybullet]

A few features I would like to see is an easier way to import 3d models and the Terrain editor.

Has any improvements been made to the Terrain editor at all. I come from Torque and I have to say they have one of the best Terrain editors.

I recently started toying with the HERO engine and their terrain editor is awesome as well. Hell even NeoAxis has a great terrain editor....

I think making it easier for devs to import 3d models and make terrain would be a huge bonus.

BUILT IN ADMOB FOR ANDROID - why does IOS get it and not Google's own platform? Mortar is only a patch, lets make it seamless.

[RedQueen]

Just this rough draft made me tingly all over with excitement

[neilb]

a cross platform editor, available for Windows, Mac and Linux
a command line version, making it possible to automate desired tasks on a headless server
multicore support for heavy tasks

I already automate a lot of my development tasks to save time, and those features alone are enough justification for a day 1 upgrade

[feng3d]

Good News!

[stevz]

Awesome!!!

[giggsy]

Especially from a programmer- and workflow point of view, this all sounds very good!

I know you said you can't tell us a release date, but maybe you can give us a rough timeframe, e.g. what the internal deadline currently is (something like Q2, Q3 or Q4). Otherwise people will keep asking when it's finally done

[redmotion]

Sounds amazing! You really do listen to your customers. We've all had some pretty strong demands over the last two years and I'm not surprised you needed to do a complete rewrite.

Just a few questions:
1. Will it be backwards compatible with 1.9 projects? (for me this is not a huge problem as I will develop old projects with 1.9 and anything new on v2.0, (it would be nice to have the option to have both installed seperately.)
2. Will you keep the current AImodel editor structure? I really like the "on-rails" approach to the AImodel layout.

[kaxig]

Great news!

Let me tell you: of all game development frameworks I worked with, your Shiva framework is the best. Besides some editor workflow annoyances and missing LUA compatibility, you always found the best approach to get the most useful functionality into the framework. I'm really looking forward for the new editor and engine!

There is just on one thing that bothers me...
> object oriented script framework and API

Is this feature optional?

I may sound elitest but I don't buy into the OOP promises. Your AI model approach prevents us from lots of architectional mistakes and the state machines are very comfortable for developing games. Especially your procedural programming approach is one of the most distingushing features. I would very much like to see Shiva going into an even more functional programming direction than the OOP way. Please! Please! Please, at least let it be optional!

[_geo_]

This sounds quite good. I especially like the full LUA Support and the Cross-OS Editor will also come in handy

Things i would like to add:

• "HUD improvements and enhancements" - could you specify how much "improvements" the hud editor will get, because right know the hud workflow requires so much manual work in the editor is quite tedious (button -> action -> event)
• Tweening/Animations - Compared to libraries like TweenLite from Flash, animating things in ShiVa feels like working in the stoneage to me. I would love to see more handy animation functions enabling us to make swift and simple animations with just one line of code. The Hud Editor has those features to some extend but the "3d" API doesn´t.
• "object oriented script framework and API" - will this be backwards compatible?
• also a rough release date (mid 2012, fall 2012, early 2013 ...) would be very nice

Thx and keep up the good work