ParaEngine Change History

*Author:*

LiXizhi

/** @page ParaEngine_change ParaEngine Change History @author LiXizhi

2008.10.23

• ParaEngine wiki developer site outline are written.

2008.10.21

• we now support namespace (ns) attribute to variables, so that a table can reside in a nested namespace. such as <variable name="Class1" type="Class1" ns="MyCompany.MyProject.Class1"/> more information please see LuaLauguageService? .XmlDocumentationLoader.AddTableDeclaration();

2008/10/20

• system event type is added to EventsCenter? . we can now listen to system event.
• Sys_Event.SYS_COMMANDLINE is implemented and added to event_mapping.lua
• commonlib.Lua2XmlString is implemented.
• script/installer/GenVisualStudioDocProject.lua is implemented to generate a script doc project for SDK users.

2008/10/17

• visual c++ runtime library is distributed as shared assembly. Private assembly is examined but decided not to use.
• if the ParaEngine.sig file is not found, we will set the working directory as the current executable path using GetModuleFileName? ();
• ReadRegStr? and ReadRegDWORD? implemented to NPL.
• the paraworldviewer web installer is created, which is a 50KB setup file to download and install the paraworldviewer application. See script/installer/TestDownload.htm for example.

2008/10/16

• paraworldviewer installer nsis script created. I have find no good way to develop direct plugin for all kinds of web browsers. However, by designing url protocal, we can achieve similar result. Current I installs the paraworldviewer:// and paraworld:// protocal when the two clients are installed on disk. I will secretly inject the single parameter to ensure that only one instance of the client is running and that a message is send to the existing exe if it is requested on a different world.
• fullscreen command line is supported so that we can specify whether to start full screen or not.

2008/10/15

• VsNPL? is fully implemented. see script/VisualStudioNPL/readme.txt for extending intellisense via xml files.

2008/10/14

• VsNPL? solution is added.
  • download the WowAddonStudio? source from SVN from codeplex
  • install visual studio 2008 SDK.
  • Generate a PLK for product name and version, etc. Embed the PLK in resource file. and modify the LuaLanguageServicePackage? .cs accordingly.
  • Edit the project property to add debug command in debug mode: /ranu /rootsuffix Exp /novsip
  • Edit the project property to add post build event to generate reg file for deployment "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 SDK\VisualStudioIntegration\Tools\bin\RegPkg.exe" /regfile:DeployVsNPL.reg /codebase "$(TargetDir? )LuaLanguageService.dll"
  • change the default registry root to [DefaultRegistryRoot("Software\\Microsoft\\VisualStudio\\9.0")] since we are deploying to isolated shell.
  • Added Documentation/NplDocumetation.xml
  • VSPackages is set to load whenever a solution exists. [ProvideAutoLoad("F1536EF8-92EC-443C-9ED7-FDADF150DA82")] // = VSConstants.UICONTEXT_SolutionExists.ToString()
  • Fixed: we need to regenerate all GUIDs in order for language service to load correctly.
  • Now that debug and release mode are compiled with different GUID.
  • DeployVsNPL? .reg is used to create the SetupVsNPL? project: needs to replace following key values - [TARGETDIR]LuaLanguageService.dll - [SystemFolder]mscoree.dll
  • SetupVsNPL? project is implemented which is based on the tutorial of http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb458038.aspx
  • Note: if *.xml documentation file is not valid, it may render the entire code sense invalid for any lua files.
  • TODO: NPLDocumentation will be added in future.
• Install VsNPL? is easy, run the installer at VsNPL? /SetupVsNPL/Release/*.msi

2008/10/13

• API servers are designed to be deployed on clusters.
• Talked about the finance system in paraworld extensively.

2008/10/11

• Discussed the server architecture with kenny. It appears that ejabberd implementation may be rewritten in future.
  • TODO: Move all game server logics to linux platform, I may still need to use NPL on this server side.
  • the number of available racks may be a bottleneck on server architecture.
  • TODO: decrease the radius of visible characters if there are too many characters on server, but do not exempt transmit load character

2008/10/10

• project DarkStar? is studied extensively. project DarkStar? is an open source
• movie platform demo is previewed by leio.

2008/10/9

• randint(lower, upper) bug fixed. it will generate correct upper value.
• Texture:UnloadAsset() will delete texture info for static texture. this corrects a bug when the dimension of the texture changes when unloaded.

2008/10/8

• mini map is can now be captured and saved, which uses the new CaptureSceneState? interface.
• Portal rendering tutorial is given and fixed some minor bugs with portal editing system.

2008/10/7

• successfully ported ParaEngine from vs 2003 to vs 2005. All statically linked libs need to be rebuild using the new compiler, these include, lua, luabind, pcre, sqlite, and directshow base class.
• to prevent dll hell, all libs are using multithreaded c run time, instead of multithreaded dll.
• About building directX show libs. DirectX? Show is now part of the windows platform SDK. however, I still build it from the dxsdk_feb2005_extras, the steps are below
  • download and install to Root/dxsdk_feb2005_extras/DirectShow/Include, add to additional project include path
  • go to and build dxsdk_feb2005_extras\DirectShow\Samples\C++\DirectShow\BaseClasses and copy debug and release output to Root\lib_release\lib\strmbasd.lib and STRMBASE.lib.
  • (During build, needs to correct several bugs to the source code and change to multithreaded mode,since they are not compatible with the new compiler) Note: the above project and files are stored in vss as well. One can grab all files from vss.
• TODO: FCollada is added to solution. I intend to support collada file format for static models.

2008/10/6

• seems that we need to run a devenv /setup to fix the problem.
• CaptureSceneState? and RestoreSceneState? implemented in ParaEngineExtension.lua.
• jmonkeyengine studied.
• Fixed: luabind updated to 7.1. I have tried to port ParaEngine from vs 2003 to vs 2005. But stuck at the place where LuaBind? does not support out_value or pure_out_value for luabind object type. Anything except object is OK.

2008/10/5

• GenMiniMapPage? .html implemented.

2008/10/4

• objects on miniscene graph are always shown in the main scene regardless of which zone they belongs.
• main scene rebuild processing logics changed from queue traversing to recursive functions.
• BaseCamera? now inherits from the BaseObject? interface, which has the homezone property.
• BUG: after right clicking on the object property to edit its position, the creation panel's click to drag create function failed to function.
• TODO: when adding new objects to the scene via user interface, we should automatically add the mesh object to the zone where the camera eye position resides.

2008/10/3

• transparent shader's zwrite enable is reenabled after finished with the effect.
• Render logic change: OBJ_VOLUMN_CONTAINER is obsoleted, use portal system instead. Child objects of scene graph are invisible by default, unless it is miniscenegraph.
• objects with home zone are removed from shadow caster list.
• shadow rendering logics are slightly changed.
• Microsoft made a WOW addin for visual studio 2008 to demo its extensibility. It contains a lua language service which may be of use in future.

2008/10/2

• zonepage can not pick, select, list, highlight portals that belong to the current zone.
• zone object picking, selection, deletion is implemented in zone page.
• ParaObject? :SetHomeZone() method is implemented. Mesh objects are serialized with it.
• rough CBaseObject? collistion test method is refactored to use accurate sphere testing against frustum.
• Portal and Zone object camera frustum testing is made different from normal object, because it must shift the near plane to the eye position. Also portalFrustum's camera frustum should be zero near plane distance.
• BUG: sometimes, first camera persion view's vEye's Y axis can be invalid.

2008/10/1

• when right click to edit an object position, the creation panel's left click does not work anymore.
• personalworldpage are now sorted by write date.
• Portal, Zone auto generation functions are fully implemented. PortalDemo? world is created for demostrating the portal rendering system.

2008/9/30

• installed visual assist X again.
• syntax coloring for lua is implemented using visual studio usertype.dat. see "script/ide/visualstudio_highlight/readme.txt"

2008/9/29

• NOTE: vs 2005 suddenly failed to restart. after uninstalling some components, and have a disk check on c and e drive and restart, the vs 2005 magically start again. however, on the next day, on a clean reboot, the vs 2005 will not start again I uninstalled, started and killed process many times, and it wonnot work. After installing a asus AI software and have the E drive disk checked (actually skipped on reboot), the vs 2005 can restart again. but the message The Windows Forms Designer Hosting Package ({68939055-38E0-4D17-92CB-8909710D8178}) did not load because of previous errors. For assistance, contact the package vendor. To attempt to load this package again, type 'devenv /resetskippkgs' at the command prompt. appears on each subsequent reboot. and it asks me to run "devenv.exe" /resetskippkgs next times. There are some google results of failed loading packages on vs. however, I also suspect that it is the disk problem.
• for highlighting lua source code, there are two ways without using additional software, like lualangpak. One is provided by VS itself. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa301710.aspx the other is by visual assist X, because VB code looks a lot like lua, except the comment.

2008/9/28

• PortalNode? now exposes homezone, targetzone, portalpoints, AutoGenPortalPoints? properties.
• ZoneNode? now exposes zoneplanes, AutoGenZonePlanes? , AutoFillZone? properties
• GetObject? ("<portal|zone>name") is implemented.
• pe:tabs can now function inside form node.

2008/9/27

• width, height, depth, facing attributes added for BaseObject? . they are used for databinding for zone/portal's bounding box. see PortalPage? for example.

2008/9/26

• PortalPage? , ZonePage? , PortalSystemPage? implemented.
• MousePick? now support filter function which allows picking of any object type combinations.
• Map3DSystem? .msg.OBJ_PickObject is implemented which allows picking via a callback function and a filter. It is used with portal and zone picking.

2008/9/25

• pe:numericupdown tag is implemented in MCML for NumericUpDown control
• the character may have alternative standing animations. A character must have the standing animation ANIM_STAND(0), it may also have up to 4 custom standing animations, in the id range ANIM_CUSTOM0-ANIM_CUSTOM3 we will play the custom animations, if any, randomly after the default standing animation is played after some set time(such as 10 seconds).

2008/9/24

• NumericUpDown control is fully implemented in IDE, with spin buttons, mouse wheel and mouse drag.
• databinding also support NumericUpDown via IDE_numeric type.

2008/9/23

• TODO: world upload service should use patching on the server side. and the server need to apply patch via a seperate process that runs at idle time or at night.
• Asynchronous web request on the server side is studied.

2008/9/22

• sky shader now renders with z test enabled, and with depth value set to 1.0. so it is now rendered after the terrain to make the z-buffer work better. Currently both the shader version and fixed function will allow this function of optimization.

2008/9/21

• BUG: when running debug build, I once have the message g:\scm\release\PhysX_2.8.1\novodex\SDKs\Core\Common\src\SceneRaycast.cpp (470) :invalid parameter : NxRay? direction not valid: must be unit vector. I wonder this caused the infinit plane problem.
• TODO: View/fog Distance should be saved in machine config, not in the world db. When saving effect level, make sure shadow, etc are changed accordingly.

2008/9/20

• portal rendering algrithm itself is fully implemented. there are some limitations to the current portal system
  • only the outer world zone can contain other zones
  • the camera can see into a room via at most one portal. in other words, there can not be two doors in to the same room with positive dot product. if there have two such doors, one of the door contents are ignored which renders the result undefined.
  • mobile characters will be automatically added to appropriate zones. However, it is advised to use simple zone shapes with just a few planes
  • static mesh objects are manually added to zones at scene saving time or model exporting time
  • objects inside a zone will not be shadow casters.
  • zones consists of planes, which are expressed as normal from the origin(0,0,0), hence the zone must be convex and contain the origin 0,0,0 point in its inner space. if the zone node contains a exact point (0,0,0) it will automatically become the ground plane.
• portal system will automatically disable sky, ocean, shadow, and terrain when camera is in a zone disconnected with the outer world.
• BUG: the mainmenu in script will black out once when first show up.
• TODO: export zones from 3dsmax or create directly in the game.

2008/9/19

• data binding class now support MCML_node type. See pe:fileuploader for an example.
• pe:container now support relation and visible attributes.
• Project template: InstallApps? is refactored.
• PageCtrl:CloseWindow() is added which allow a page to close its container standard mcml browser.
• log method will not throw exceptions for some strings with percentage letter %.
• TemplateProcessor? .lua is created for creating components via mcml page in DeveloperApp.

2008/9/18

• pe:fileuploader now supports "*." as dir attribute
• DeveloperWnd? in DeveloperApp is refactored. Project template: NPL_File is refactored.
• IM account import is studied.

2008/9/15

• all render targets (miniscenegraph) are created with preset alpha to 0.f.
• CCS UI is optimized for lazy loading. A number of other UI themes are made consistent.
• new installer is made with the new UI system.

2008/9/14

• portal rendering is improved with camera support.
• new black UI theme are done. the content client area is now non-transparent white, with a black border.
• debugwnd, testconsole UI layout improved.
• text property of all ParaUIObject? will not affect its color.
• bug: "warning: sCode exceed the length limit of 4096" occurs on JGSL server when the creation string is too long.

2008/9/13

• the best full screen resolution will always be smaller or equal to the current adapter resolution.
• nsis updated to 2.39. installer slightly refined.
• JGSL servermode will now automatically reconnect every 10 minutes if disconnected.
• vista UAC installer problem solved. the new installer will run by requesting admin level permission.

2008/9/12

• ParaEngine attended the Shenzhen ChuangYeZhiXing? and won the fifth prise.

2008/9/11

• portal rendering system is further implemented. ParaScene? now support ShowPortalSystem? attribute. CZoneNode? and CPortalNode? are implemented.
• CreatePortal? and CreateZone? are implemented via scripting interface.
• PortalSystemPage? is created for testing portal rendering system.
• CBaseObject? are now reference counted as well.

2008/9/10

• portal rendering system is partially implemented. PortalFrustum? is implemented. More information, please see CPortalNode? .cpp file for my design.
• google chrome source code studied and webkit rendering core studied. TODO: maybe we can update the internal browser to webkit.

2008/9/7

• paraworld installer now supports vista. dx and physx installs as non silent mode during vista operating system.
• occlusion query for ocean is improved to use the query result from previous frames if available.
• occlusion query banks are now created on demand.
• TODO: use portal and anti-portal for rendering small meshes, instead of using hardware occlusion query, since the query result may not be available until next frame, otherwise it will stall the CPU.

2008/9/6

• portal and antipoatal rendering studied as occlusion technique in the public world. For public world, we must do LOD and portal based occlusion.

2008/9/5

• attended CSDN hero 2008 at shanghai and give a lecture on paraworld
• listened the "smart" development lecture by ivory jaconbsin.

2008/9/3

• ArtToolsPage? .html and ProToolsPage? .html are added to developersapp. They maintain a list of micellanous tools for artists and developers.
• character, ocean, small meshes now all use hardware occlusion testing.
• ingame statistic descriptions are added to developerapp wiki topic.
• front page is slightly refactored.

2008/9/2

• MapPosLogPage? are implemented in minimapapp. It can be used to store important positions within a given world.
• performance statistics are implemented for all directX draw calls in paraengine.
• Ocean occlussion testing is fully implemented. we will only render when occlussion test is passed. It will greatly improve ocean rendering speed.
• occlussion testing is by default enabled for small smeshes, when their count is above a given threshold, such as 25.

2008/9/1

• pe:name now uses fixed height. <a> mcml tag now support fixed height.
• left click now takes no effect no current player.
• preload.lua and onload.lua script are added to paraworld world loading procedure. the preload script can be used to download and load art resource files. wow models and worlds are ported to engine for art references.

2008/8/31

• custom game fonts are supported at "fonts/*.ttf". See AddFontName? (). One can also add mapping via "GUI_font_mapping" property in config.lua. see script/config.lua for example. A lite font is used and added to installer.
• most mcml and npl files are localized using TranslateFilePage? with autotranslation.

2008/8/30

• http://translate.google.com are used to translate locale files. I modified the AsyncDownload? () method to include the UserAgent? in the http request header. some site such as the translate.google.com need the user agent header to behave properly. Current UserAgent? I used in NPL web service client is below. (request as HttpWebRequest? ).UserAgent = "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1;)";
• TranslateFilePage? now support machine translation from chinese to english via web services. http://translate.google.com and http://www.windowslivetranslator.com/ are two choices. we support the first one.

2008/8/29

• the installer now supports multiple languages via MUI2. If the user selects a installer language, the product will automatically assume that language via its config file.
• bug submit page is implemented.

2008/8/28

• config/config.txt will automatically remove the read-only file attribute when overwriting the file.
• EncodingConvert? ("utf-8", "", s) now supports utf-8 to/from ansci conversions.
• translator now output mcml translations correctly.
• CopyTextToClipboard? is now functional with ansci string.
• TranslateFilePage? .html is implemented and added in developersapp.

2008/8/27

• mcml page translation is implemented. for any div style tags, including the pe:mcml page, we can use the trans attribute to specify how the child nodes are translated.
• ParaworldMCML? translation table are implemented. The Build process now include the generation of translation tables.

2008/8/26

• SetSegment? and GetBase64String? are added. They are used to send files via web services by blocks
• paraworld.map.UploadFileEx() is implemented which will break large files to pieces before sending. see paraworld.map.UploadFileEx_Test() for details.

2008/8/25

• whether we treat png file as DXT3 by default. if the texture filename ends with "_32bits.png", we will load with D3DFMT? _A8R8G8B8 instead of DXT3. If one wants to ensure high resolution texture, use TGA format instead.

2008/8/24

• bug fixed: when xref objects are animated twice when rending ocean reflection.

2008/8/23

• mipmapping is used for dds. png and jpg are by default using DXT3 and DXT1 without mipmapping, which may lose some colors. To use ARGB8 format, one can use tga file format.
• cartoon face and ccs body compositive textures are saved as compressed dds format with full mipmapping, instead of ARGB8 format.
• Texture LOD can now be set at run time.
• CommonSettingPage? .html page are implemented in settingsapp. Texture LOD and anti-aliasing are added to it.

2008/8/21

• MovieApp? are fully designed.
• New main task bar UI is available

2008/8/19

• MovieApp? architecture code are implemented.

2008/8/18

• ccs component can now have xref objects.

2008/8/15

• personalworldpage.html is implmented with multiple view mode.
• pe:if tag condition will be evaluated each time page is refreshed, instead of just once.
• SearchFile? now support getting all file info, such as file size, file attribute, file times. etc. see. GetItemData?

2008/8/14

• starviewpage is partially implemented.
• in pe:gridview one can also apply css style to PageSettings? .

2008/8/11

• new attachment points for CCS is defined. ear, facial addon, back, waist, boots, etc are defined.
• artists want high heel boot models. BootHeight? property (attribute) is added for character. boot height, default to 0.f meters. It only affects rendering. In case, the character is wearing a high heel boot, we may set this to 0.1-0.2 meters. e.g. obj:GetAttributeObj():setfield("BootHeight", 0.1);
• Post processing pipeline are fully implemented and tested with a motionblur shader sample. a dozen of new api is available for doing post processing in NPL.

2008/8/10

• Post processing pipeline is implemented in ParaEngine. see the script/ide/PostProcessor.lua for example usage.
• post processing shaders are added in script/shaders/*.fx

2008/8/9

• An application called NTWrapper is used to host ParaEngine JGSL public server instances as windows service. See the wiki site for operation details.
  • alternatively, windows also provides a tool to start app as system service, see http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;137890
  • winserv is an open source command line application which does the same job, which is good for the task.

2008/8/8

• jgsl grid server is tested with multiple users and multiple worlds. Max history reset number is implemented.
• jgsl client and server agent timeout logics are corrected.
• cheer for Beijing Olympic 2008

2008/8/7

• grid server is fully implemented. server.1@pala5.cn is registered. AutoLobby? is configured to join public server before trying for private servers. wiki documentation for operation is added. see JGSLPublicGameServers?
• JGSL server bandwidth limit is removed for official public servers.
• JGSL client logics are slightly changed to recover from temporary packet lost.

2008/8/6

• grid server is implemented. please see JGSL_grid and JGSL_servermode.

2008/8/4

• installer now will not delete screen shot and world/MyWorlds during uninstallation.
• NPL jabber client will now output error messages in msg.error={code, condition, msg} field, such as offline messages.
• JGSL will now handle offline user responses.

2008/8/3

• PageCtrl backward page now support inner iframes. The inner visible page, if any, first goes backward, and then the parent page ctrl.

2008/8/2

• unhandled mouse up event is allowed to be sent to 3d scene event when there is a 2D window who has focus.
• texture info are not deleted when device is deleted. However, it is deleted when texture are refreshed. This fix a bug when remote http texture reloads.

2008/8/1

• cursor file is loaded from memory (managed asset) to increase speed when cursor images changes frequently.
• we can generate pkg file while the pkg file is still in use.
• ParaIDE? project is moved from AB to VSS
• A bug when changing source control provider in vs2005 is corrected: First UNBIND old solution from old source control provider and save and exit vs. Now delete *.suo file, this is very important. Finally, change the *.sln binding to the new source control provider and get latest version.
• ejabberd is made as a boot service in ubuntu linux server. See the ejabberd solution for details.
• All VMs are auto started with the host server machines
• the ubuntu linux service can now share folders with windows development server via smb service.

2008/7/31

• script solution is moved from AB to vss 2005. Integrated windows account now seperates two different users types artist and programmer. BuildInHouseSDK? () is implemented to build a main.pkg at the root dir for in-house development. It contains the latest script and xml files, but is different from the release version main package.
• AB buckets are created with each 2GB, with a total of 17GB data. Buckets are moved offline and backed up to persistent disks. AB consistency checked are scheduled monthly, old consistency are corrected.
• left button move logics changes slightly: if user double clicks or does not select any object we will get the picking object and move the current character to that location.

2008/7/30

• mcml browser window can now toggle display nav address bar
• BUG fixed: multiline editbox press enter key on the first line will not break text.
• translation locale will generate warning instead of error for unfound translations.
• KidsUI? translation is removed. ParaWorld translation is added.

2008/7/29

• Camera position, character facing, and time of day are now perserved when saving to db.
• default LoginWorld? changed to an ordinary game world. LoadWorld? now support loading a world without resetting UI. This allows us to silently switch main scene while UI is unchanged.
• ParaUIObject? .cursor is added. we allow any UI object to specify a 32*32 image cursor file when mouse over it.

2008/7/28

• Game Cursor is changed automatically according to current selection.
• ParaWorldStart? page now uses real scene instead of miniscenegraph for login scene.

2008/7/26

• if render target conflicts with a static texture, it will replace the static texture in the texture manager.
• CloseWindow? added in os.windows. It also fixes a bug when editing replaceable textures in the scene, cancel editing now triggers the end editing event correctly.
• css:max-width and align property added to div mcml tag.
• MCML browserWnd now support navigation bar to be separate.

2008/7/25

• glow effect parameters are saved with the game world.

2008/7/24

• when character is mounted, any moving state is removed from state manager.
• SettingsPage? for EnvApp is implemented.
• AutoPatcher? design and intial implemented is done. see autopatcherpage.html.
• UI is once again refactored by designers

2008/7/23

• GetCursorFile? is implemented. We can now change the cursor regularly according to our logic
• all paraworld services are now on vmserver 2.0

2008/7/22

• TODO: auto patching should be implemented. using vpatch3.2 and nsis
• TODO: JGSL game server should be implemented as a system service for public world.
• TODO: we should change cursor for different action hint on the mouse.

2008/7/21

• persistent earth world view is get rid of. the ParaWorld world view is the only view in the platform. The star world view is reserved for future consideration.
• container will now leak all unhandled mouse messages to 3d scenes.
• disablemousewheel is added to treeview. QuickChatPage? now uses the new feature to display interactive chat content with two states.
• movie script is designed, which is a wiki style text scripts that can be used to direct speech and actions in a scene. Character speech and camera(actors) may also be extracted completely from the scene.
• vmserver and vmconverter are downloaded and used for the server.

2008/7/20

• ParaCamera? CameraMode? is implemented. Conflicts of WASD key when in free camera mode is resolved.
• When left button is down, camera lock behind is disabled. when right click, camera is locked behind character. When camera is not locked. left click will move the current character to a given location. See mouse handler for more information.
• backward key will remove the current biped's waypoint.
• TODO: JGSL is too easy to have a broken line. we should reconnect to old server once gain after a broken line. If reconnection failed, we will try to host our own server.
• TODO: VIP: model update and sharing: if a model is not found, it will search in the global object category and download if found. We also allow people to upload objects to our category. global object category is the AssetApp? application service. It is for artists to share models with the community. A user can constantly download models to their local server and use offline models with ease.
• TODO: People can only corporate on a published read-only world. If they wants to save their improvisional creations, they can package them into blueprints and use them in their homeworld. In future release, we will support saving as a different file from a readonly cooperative world. This will allow people to work on terrain and landscaping together.
• TODO: VIP: a Beeper with XRef that could play MP3 music, etc.
• TODO: Think about business model and coporation models who wants to run serious virtual worlds on it.
• TODO: Saving animations to world or improving the movie shooting functions.
• TODO: Dumping non-existing models and characters in the world.
• TODO: toggle jabber server address automatically.
• TODO: occasionally, the same character has two same avatars on server.
• TODO: adding jabber friends between lxz1 and lxz2 is one directional.

2008/7/19

• linux system services and boot order is studied and configed the ejabberd.
• TreeView scrolling is fixed. Now that we can disable clipping for fixed height tree view items. However, the scroll step, scroll page size, and the tree view height must all be integer times of treeview item height. Example usage can be seen in Lobby BBS channel page.
• button mouse over will now only take effect when all its parents and itself are enabled.
• Lobby BBS channel page refactored to use new treeview and mouse over feature.
• bug fix: ParaUIObject? :LostFocus() can now loses focus to 3D scene completely. It used to loses focus to its parent container only.

2008/7/18

• FireMissile? now support any ParaXEntity? as first parameter.
• summonmode and summonagent is implemented.

2008/7/17

• action feed can now be cleared by group.
• TextureEntity? now support hit count property and MakeInvalid? method.
• miniscenegraph active rendering will now only render when there is an visible object in 3D or UI that calls the GetTexture? () method. Internally, it used the hit count property of TextureEntity? to decide whether there are hits in the last frame.
• particles can now be rendered properly in miniscenegraph and main scene. The scenestate caches global particle for different scene.
• User confirmation email can now be resent when unactivated user signed in.

2008/7/16

• TeleportPage? is refined and support none-remote-world. profile page and a few other places now supports teleport shortcut.
• aabb bounding box can now be exported from the reference model for characters.

2008/7/15

• TeleportPage? is fully implemented. it now allows people to easy teleport to another user.

2008/7/14

• username can not be empty when register profile.
• downloaded world will be saved as worldname_fileid.zip.
• bug fixed: address bar visibility is now persistent.
• bug fixed: retry_cancel is now properly displayed by MessageBox. When logging in, the user can retry or cancel login process via the new message box buttons.

2008/7/13

• right click OPC to see its mcml profile is supported. JGSL query profile is implemented with local server support. Right click an jabber client character, we can retrieve its profile from context menu.
• Bug fixed: JID of server used to contain upper case letters. After the fix,all JID are converted to lower case using string.lower(), see GetJID? ()
• Map3DSystem.JGSL.query.GetWorldInfo is implemented. see JGSL_query
• paraworld.users.getInfo is implemented with local server.

2008/7/10

• inner world listing is sorted by date on the client
• switch character right is granted to friend role.
• bug fix: user can refresh a previously uploaded world.
• art and model asset are moved to the packages/startup. Main core packages is reduced to include only script and UI texture, which makes granular update easier later on.
• it takes me hours to find a random occurs bug: when compiling and loading empty script file, it may sometimes generate runtime error. Avoid loading empty script file.
• bug fixed: we can publish a world twice.

2008/7/9

• bug fixed: mcml text width sometimes miscalculated. pe_text is fixed. however, multiple lines of scaled font may still appear wrong, but will not affect parent layout.

2008/7/8

• BCS Xref dependencies solved. now it uses the app framework.
• Headon text uses physics height. Headon text display bug corrected: it used to render invisible UI attached to 3D objects like headon text.
• pe:if and pe:if-not are added to mcml tags.
• disabled creating two objects at the same place

2008/7/7

• bug fix: remote texture whose file name is same as texture sequence does not show up.

2008/7/6

• full screen size is auto picked which is nearest to the window size.
• bug fix: full screen mouse is not displayed on some computer

2008/7/5

• ParaWorld preview version is released.

2008/7/3

• ParaWorld automated build pipeline is established. See script/installer/BuildParaWorld
• numerical key 1, 2-9, 0 can be used to face camera and play various predefined animations.
• autotips is fully implemented. camera, fly mode, pause game all added to autotips.
• GeneratePkgFile? () is implemented.
• Basic security fix on BBS chat and action feed with XMLEncodeString? ();
• assetmap is disabled in release build. watermark is disabled in release build.
• Ebook is supported in new ParaWorld app. EBook tutorials worlds are refactored using new world format.

2008/7/2

• biped character picking bounding box is read from ParaX? asset file and is different from physics boundingbox. This makes mouse picking of character object more easier. This also makes headon speech dialog display more accurate.
• TODO: mouse picking: if ray intersects with more characters, we can loop among the touched characters, instead of using the closest candidates.
• biped that floats on water surface animation (like boat) will now use land running animation instead of falling down animation.

2008/7/1

• ParaWorld installer script is completely refactored to use nsis script. It has dependecy check and auto install for windows installer 3.1, .Net 2.0, vc8 sp1, DirectX? 9, DX Update, Nvidia PhysX? where only vc8 sp1, DX Update, Nvidia PhysX? are contained in the install package, all other dependencies are downloaded from the web if not present. More information, please see paraworld_installer_v1.nsi, and script/installer.nsi, installer assets are Texture\3DMapSystem\brand folder.
• random walk will retain its initial center position when the behavior is assigned.

2008/6/30

• Nvidia PhysX? upgraded to 2.8.1. experimental NX_SUPPORT_MESH_SCALE is disabled.
• Nvidia PhysX? upgraded to 2.8.1. Please note that the experimental NX_SUPPORT_MESH_SCALE is still not supported in this latest version.
• pw_sandbox_file is added which included mcml in sandbox mode. sandbox mode is applied to all zip file.
• Tutorial world is made via a minimap.

2008/6/29

• shift character access right is added.
• middle key to fast move the character at administrator right.
• mini-map background is supported. minimap.png(or jpg) file under world root directory is used as the default minimap of the world.
• UploadWorldPage? is fully implemented which upload the current world to user's logical path "worlds/[worldname].zip" on the remote server

2008/6/28

• PublishWorldPage? is implemented with local saving and saving as. World Preview image can be generated from save page. Full scene saving (renaming) is supported.

2008/6/27

• quick chat and BBS channel is implemented with better mcml based UI and some basic formatting to chat text is implemented.
• JGSL client/server is improved with broken line recovery. And performance is boosted by using local namespace.
• JGSL query class is implemented for query information about a given client.
• mcml checkbox and radiobox now supports onclick events.
• linux and win server security is studied for paraworld api and jabber. TODO: more needs to be explored.
• all paraworld server

2008/6/26

• character rflections supported.
• JGSL broadcasting logic is changed. It will only broadcast content after connection, instead of from world loading. Bug fix: The first history message is not resent.

2008/6/25

• ChatDomainIP? is supported in JGSL, although at release time we need to remove it. see webservice_constants.lua.
• headon_speech.lua is improved with full mcml text support, such as <a href="#">link text</a>. Pure text support auto-sized background. If mouse is over text, it will not disappear with life count down.

2008/6/24

• A serious bug in os.hook is corrected. All hook messages are called twice in the old days, now it is working as expected.
• AutoLobbyPage? is implemented with auto login feature. More information, please see Map3DSystem? .App.worlds.AutoLobbyPage.AutoJoinRoom() method.
• session key logics (JGSL_msg.CS_PING and JGSL_msg.SC_PING_REPLY) are built into JGSL client and server. currently we allow a PC to be either a client or a server, but not both. Each time the world path changes, session key will change, thus all servers and clients are disconnected. because we have session keys, offline or other irrelavent messages can be wisely filtered by server or client. and it sures that it only serves the recently connected client or server.

2008/6/23

• following official worlds are added:

  worlds/Official/NewUserVillage1

  used as basic tutorial for both online and offline version

  worlds/Official/NewUserVillage2

  used as advanced tutorial for both online and offline version

  worlds/Official/NewUserVillage3

  used as developer tutorial for both online and offline version

  worlds/Official/DefaultHomeWorld

  used as default homeworld of a user who has not submitted any homeworld before. This makes it possible for other users to join its world even it has never been created before.

2008/6/22

• OpenInBrowserDlgPage? .html is implemented to replace the old dialog box.
• WelcomePage? .html are created for all important official applications.
• DestroyOnClose? property supported for File.MCMLBrowser and MCMLWindowFrame?
• LogoPage? .lua now support use anykey to continue.
• AutoLobbyPage? is implemented and added to statusbar via application interface.
• when moving or copying or selecting using context menu, characters will always face the selected object.
• MiniMapPage? .html is implemented and added to status bar.

2008/6/21

• CharSavePage? is improved with saving functions
• LoginStatus? is shown immediately, when clicking the login button.
• input button in mcml now support Get/SetUIValue method.
• VisitWorldPage? is implmented with user tile, world info retrieval.

2008/6/20

• mount animation is deprecated in ParaEngine, instead use the scripting interface to specify which animation to play.
• witching off a character(vehicle), the character will be stoped to prevent it runs to infinity without a controller.
• character head turning angle is set to 0 when mounted.
• MQL is upgraded. FriendsFinder? .html support strict email and partial name match.

2008/6/19

• DynamicVertexBufferEntity? now can fail gracefully if it can not get enough video memory on restore.
• LogoPage? is refactored and used in ParaWorld for the logopage when application starts.
• ContextMenu and PopupEditor? now always stays in their safe screen area.
• S_Mount action is deprecated. One needs to use ParaCharacter? :MountOn(obj) instead. Recording of mount action is no longer supported.
• "IgnoreWindowSizeChange" attribute is added to ParaEngine attribute, one can now specialy whether window resizing to affect backbuffer.
• windows cursor now works correctly when IgnoreWindowSizeChange? is true and window is resized. mouse position is updated completely via windows ::GetCursorPosition(), instead of d3d cursor.
• pe:editor and pe:container now support aligment="_fi" and width="100%".

2008/6/18

• autotip is refactored to application desktop and uses mcml and work with paraworld application.
• pe:label and font mcml tag support text-shadhow property.
• tooltip of UI buttons are improved with milliseconds accurate popup delay time setting.
• Application Help Page implemented by SettingsApp. File.Help command can be used to trigger it. Each application can register a help page with app:SetHelpPage() like they did with app settings page. F1 key will trigger only the help page of the given application.

2008/6/17

• ParaWorld official site on wiki is planned
• TutorialPage? is implemented in LoginApp. It will be shown when user logged in using the WelcomePage? command from SettingsApp.
• CreditsPage? and OfficialWebPage? is added to LoginApp.

2008/6/16

• Profile.CCS.FaceCamera is added to turn a character to the current camera.
• F1 key will trigger MyDesktopApp? 's WelcomePage? . C key will toggle camera mode.
• WelcomePage? is added to SettingsApp. It allows each application to have a welcome page. See example in MyDesktopApp? .

2008/6/15

• CharPropertyPage? and ObjTexPropertyPage? is added. Context menu for object and character property logics are fully implemented.
• CharPropertyPage? and ObjTexPropertyPage? is fully implemented with all kids movie functions. Character Skin is supported in objeditor.

2008/6/14

• pe:script now support "refresh" property. This allows inline script to be evaluated only once. it is useful for query parameter tab page selection. pe:script documentation is improved.
• MyDesktop? app now handles fly (F key) and run (R key) toggling.
• localserver will now save empty mcml profile. It can be used to delete invalid mcml profile when detected for the current user.
• popup object modifcation window is refactored in CreatorApp. The UI is on mcml page PopupObjModPage? .html
• BlueprintApp? , ProfileApp? , VideoRecorderApp? , now works on the new application framework.
• TODO: pe:world, publish world wizard.

2008/6/13

• developer app switch desktop added. Online user page and recent registered user page is implemented in loggedinuserpage.html.
• pe_gridview paging rendering is now correct with page refresh. TODO: Design a method to refresh only smallest part of the page. Because gridview node are rebuilt during refresh. fetching property of pe:name does not take effect.
• AnimationPage? is fully implemented by the CCS interface. However it requires that animation files not in zip package for the from file tab to work properly
• os.hook post call back are called correctly
• text-align:center now works properly in mcml.
• all alignment type UI controls can now be draggable. In the old days, only "_lt" can be correctly dragged.
• objmodpage is improved with advanced and simple SRT tranformation.

2008/6/12

• Entire paraworld namespace refactored to remove unused files and tables. TableDef? .lua is mostly useless. Each system file will define their own local table space.
  • ccs.lua is refactored to use local table for improved executation performance. ccs.lua is considered a ccs data file and used in ide/objecteditor. TODO: move ccs.lua to ide/objecteditor.
• AppDesktop is implemented to provide public application desktop functions for application developers. The most important one is desktop mode. it also wraps the desktop main menu and app task bar.
  • desktop mode is implemented. one can search for Map3DSystem? .UI.DesktopMode in source code to find where they are used.
• ParaUIObject? .Destroy() now support id. Destory method in ParaUI? is refactored to use id and a bug with PostDestory? is corrected.
• ParaUIObject? .lifetime property is refactored. It corrects a bug of error deletion.
• Bug fix: the first created character will not be used as the default character. This may errounously make a mini scene graph character a main scene player.

2008/6/11

• ParaUIObject? slider now support background and button property. And the background now support 9 element bg.
• colorpicker control now uses colored slider buttons and centered text.
• kids_db is reimplemented as world_db and user_db. the paraworld now completely break dependency from kidsmovie code base. headonspeach display dialog correctly with Reposition called. EBookApp? break dependency from kidsmovie code.
• ParaUIObject? .lifetime property is fixed. The old implementation may lead to crash with UI deletion time?
• dropdownlistbox control now uses id instead of global name.

2008/6/10

• Advanced create world page is implemented.
• APP_WORLD_CLOSING is sent to each application before a world switching occurs. This gives an application a chance to display some user interface before the current world is closed. For example, see worldsApp.
• one can now hook the onsize window of input application. The msg contains current screen width and height. More information see OnScreenSize? ()
• Terrain MainTexture? can now be null or invalid. TODO: better use unchopped main texture, otherwise too many textures are wasted. 8*8=64 main textures per terrain is a waste of space.

2008/6/9

• NewWorldPage? in worldsAPP is implemented with category template, world info page at worlds/Templates/*.*.
• new worlds are created at worlds/MyWorlds by default.
• Empty world templates are created at worlds/Templates/Empty/*.*

2008/6/8

• pe:custom tag is fully implemented for embedded NPL UI objects inside mcml page.
• a tag support page scoping onclick function with type property set to button.
• AvatarRegPage? is refactored with gridview and uses the new a tag with page scoping.
• ScreenshotApp? will take UI screen shot without the screen shot window itself. It will now upload image to web via paraworld.actionfeed.SubmitArticle and paraworld.actionfeed.UploadScreenshot is added for kidsmovie in paraworld.
• pe:avatar now support inner nodes and support TakeSnapshot? function. AvatarRegPage? .html now uses it to display a take snap button.
• TODO: New World wizard, pe:world, publish world.
• TODO: delete invalid mcml profile when detected for the current user?

2008/6/7

• ocean, sky, terrain page is fully refactored in mcml. All old functions are functional, the UI is in mcml page file. See OceanPage? .html, TerrainPage? .html, SkyPage? .html.
• application switching is now enabled for AppTaskBar.
• ide/AutoHide is fully implemented. It gives auto hide capability to any container one specifies. desktop mainmenu is now autohide by default using this technique.
• png and dds static textures are created with dxt3 and dxt1 respectively in ParaEngine.

2008/6/6

• pe:sliderbar is fully implemented, which embed the ide/sliderbar. sliderbar onchange event is fixed to avoid duplicate value calls.
• ide/colorpicker is added and implemented. pe:colorpicker is fully implemented, which embed the ide/colorpicker. colorpicker onchange event is fixed to avoid duplicate value calls. more information, please see script/kids/3DMapSystemApp/mcml/test/test_pe_design.html.
• MCMLWindowFrame? commands is added to create mcml based window frame via app command. SkyPage? is refactored to use mcml page window frame.
• LoginPage? is fully implemented by the LoginApp.
• pe:gridview now support ItemsPerLine? property which allows multiple items to be displayed on a single line.

2008/6/5

• Logged in front page is completely done with story, request and message feed. ActionFeedApp? now implements data source functions for mcml pages.

2008/6/4 －simple mcml style like div support width, height property with percentage like width="70%"

• Support multiple feedtype and feed template: what kinds of feed is sent, nil,"story", "action", "request", "message". Defaults to "message", where "story" and "action" requires that the receiver is a friend of the current user.
• Page object is exposed via embedded code script. It is the same object as the document:GetPageCtrl().

2008/6/3

• rulemapping now support multiple strings in a table as value field. the auto character animation will now use this feature to play different animation when mounted according to the user input such as pressing forward key or down key.
• adding and becoming friends are published to action feeds
• fixed: invalid objects are not attached to miniscenegraph now.
• NPLParser class now support auto indexed table items {"string1", "string2\r\n", 213, nil,["A"]="B", true, false, {"another table", "field1"}}. So IsPureData? () for the above items will be returning true. and NPLWebServiceClientLib? also support this.
• IDE/contentmenu now will indent correctly. TreeNode? can indent correctly.
• a_class, a_style is added to pe:name mcml tag.
• "_mcmlblank" can be specified as target property in a tag. ProfilePage? .html is added to show the profile of the given user.

2008/6/2

• PublishFeedPage? is fully implemented with url, content. Feed is displayed on front page.
• IsPureData? now support limited lua 5.1 syntax. I actually implemented over the old 5.0 syntax, to make it recognize \r in additional to \n in string. Full 5.1 syntax is not ported. It is still basically 5.0 syntax.
• os.lua is now fully integrated with ide/windowsframe. McmlBrowserWnd? now uses the new ide/WindowFrame interface.

2008/6/1

• Profile.Actionfeed.Add command is added. Actionfeed is now displayed on logged in user's home page.
• zorder is added to windowsframe. AppTaskBar integration is partially done.

2008/5/31

• AppStartPage? theme art is fully implemented with or without animation.
• PateCtrl? :Redirect() method is implemented, which allows page script to redirect to a different page. This is used in startpage to display different content based on logged in status. Although we can use iframe for the same function, the backward, forward navigation button will not be usable. So use Redirect and specify a time delay.
• XPath is now moved to commonlib.XPath. The old one conflict with the mcml XPath function.

2008/5/30

• fixed: ide's multiline editbox can now hold pure chinese character. and it uses global unique id for selected line, instead of global name.

2008/5/29

• zorder is added to ParaUIObject? , default value is 0, the larger the more top level. usually set to 1. Internally stable sort (bubble sort) is applied to children at AddChild? and BringToFront? and BringToBack? () function. for real top level windows, the z-order is secretly increased by 1000 to make them stay above all zorder.
• AppTaskBar's StartAppPage? is implemented with datasource. AppTaskBar is a z-order 1 window.
• Universal bone includes hand extension bones: finger0, finger1, finger2, ... .
• Fixed: pivot point of the root bone is not exported in v1/boy. In order for pivot point to be exported, we need to assign weight to each bone. It is common to forget to do so to Root bone. A trick to fix this is to bound all bones to a invisible mesh triangle and assign some weights for each bone. This shall ensure all bones' pivot points are exported.
• InviteFriends? .html is fully implemented with paraworld.users.Invite api call.

2008/5/28

• iframe tag in mcml support relative path. pe:if-is-user supports loggedinuser as uid property. The StartPage? .html in loginapp uses this features to display different pages for logged in and not logged in user
• Online mode buttons are displayed via app command interface.
• if the command line contains "startpage", it will be used as startup page of loginapp. e.g. C:\InstallDir\ParaWorld.exe startpage="script/kids/3DMapSystemApp/Login/NewUserRegPage.html"
• pe:script inline code block with document:write() will handle Chinese character correctly.
• wordbreak is supported in mcml label tag.

2008/5/27

• buf fix: dymaic vertex buffer size overflow: if the requested buffer is larger than the total dynamic buffer size, we will break the input.
• pe:progressbar is added to MCML tags. It is used in PackageMaker. pe:if-is-user is added to MCML tags.
• FriendsPage? is fully implemented, with adding, removing, showing friends, etc. see FriendsPage? .html.

2008/5/26

• mcml a tag supports onclick events and parameters. LoggedInPage? is refined.

2008/5/25

• pe:mqldatasource is fully implemented. see mcml/pe_datasource.lua
• FriendsFinder? now uses mqldatasource and gridview. TODO: if a page contains multiple web service calls to the same paraworldAPI only one is called. This is not the desired behavior.

2008/5/24

• company mail server is fully configured with pop3 and smtp support using smartermail and dynamic DNS.

2008/5/23

• pe:download now supports refreshing, download status text, such as the total number of bytes currently downloaded. More information, please see "script/kids/3DMapSystemApp/mcml/pe_component.lua" and "script/kids/3DMapSystemApp/mcml/test/test_pe_components.html"
• localserver resourcestore now supports individual file progress report callback.
• Maximum numberof Mount attachment points of a character is increased from 10 to 20. One can bind bones to Path in 3dsmax.

2008/5/22

• mcml tag pe:download is fully implemented. mcml tag div support background and onclick event.
• Microcosmos Query Language is implemented. see. NPL.load("(gl)script/kids/3DMapSystemApp/API/paraworld.MQL.lua");

2008/5/21

• all simple mcml tag like div now support "display" attribute, it is similar to css.display property. except that it only recognize "none" as input
• <pe:tab-item onclick="funcName()"/> onclick event is added. <a href="open://relative file path "> is supported.
• rulemapping lib is implemented. see "script/IDE/rulemapping.lua" and "script/ide/test/test_rulemapping.lua". Currenly, this is used in MCML url mapping rules, and mount.rules.lua file for the auto character mount animation.
• "mount.rules.lua" is added and used in event_handlers_keyboard. We can now map any model to their default mount animation using either strict mapping or regular expression mapping.

2008/5/20

• Animated Xref object inside static mesh may contain mount points. This is fit for models like swing, where most of the model is static,only part of the model is animated, and the character can sit on the animated part if it contains mount point.
• Multiple mount point is supported, it will mount to the closest mount point.
• ParaXExporter: A critical bug in release 2008/4/8 is fixed. static mesh bounding box is not exported correctly as before. now this is fixed. bones whose name ends with Mount, Mount1-9 are supported.
• New API added ParaObject? :HasAttachmentPoint() ParaObject? :GetAttachmentPosition() ParaObject? :SetAnimation() ParaObject? :GetAnimation().
• In ParaWorld script logic, the left shift key will switch to and mount on characters or static mesh with xrefed mountable objects. When it is the latter, camera remains on the current character and the W and S key can be used to start/stop the default running/standing animation on the mesh object.

2008/5/19

• LoggedInHomePage? .html is added in LoginApp. It is the page to display after user logged in.
• the registration process is refined with already filled app registration page skiped. Profile reg page check for username and photo and automatically display the tab page.
• Mcml browser and page control can now nagivate back and forward among rcently opened urls.
• ParaUIObject? :SetDefault() is added for default button in a container. DefaultButton? property in button MCML is also added. When enter key is pressed in editor box, the default button of its container will be clicked.
• double precision fixed when transmitting double number over web services.
• ParaUIObject? :Reposition(alignment, x,y,w,h) is added. We can now change the position and alignment even after control is created. ParaUIObject? .height and ParaUIObject? .width will now work for "_m*" alignment. Their meaning, however, is the distance from right and bottom border of its parent.
• pe:xmldatasource is fully implemented with internal xml data node or external xml data file. see "script/kids/3DMapSystemApp/mcml/test/test_pe_gridview.html" for example

2008/5/18

• pe:pager is fully implemented and integrate well with pe:gridview control. pe:pager also support custom look. all events are now working in pe:gridview.
• background2 attribute for button mcml is added which can be used to set vista style buttons.
• "_ctt", "_ctl", "_ctr", "_ctb" alignment now works properly on child controls and also supported in mcml pe:container tag via its alignment property.

2008/5/17

• pe:gridview is fully implemented, with embedded code block and templated rows. More information, please see mcml/pe_gridview.lua and mcml/test/test_pe_gridview.html pe:gridview uses another important design pattern in mcml called templated iterator.

2008/5/16

• ParaXML? can now export all kinds of unknown tags like <%embeded code block%> <! dtd node> <?server side script>. Anything inside is <> is returned in an unkown node like <unknown>%embeded code block%</unknown>
• MCML supports Embedded Code Blocks in MCML Pages. The syntax is <%embeded code block%>. An embedded code block is server code that executes during the page's render phase. The code in the block can execute programming statements and call functions in the current page class. Embedded code blocks must be written in the page's default language. In general, using embedded code blocks for complex programming logic is not a best practice, because when the code is mixed on the page with markup, it can be difficult to debug and maintain. In addition, because the code is executed only during the page's render phase, you have substantially less flexibility than with code-behind or script-block code in scoping your code to the appropriate stage of page processing.

2008/5/15

• pe:gridview is added. pe:gridview and related tags(pe:pager) are used for displaying a long list of templated data with paging.
• ide/windowsframe.lua is refactored and works together with ide/os windows. It simplifies window and window frame creation and messaging.
• universal facial animation bones are defined. ParaXExporter is updated. The current version includes: Bone_forehand, Bone_L_eyelid, Bone_R_eyelid, Bone_L_eye, Bone_R_eye, Bone_B_eyelid, Bone_upper_lip, Bone_L_lip, Bone_R_lip, Bone_B_lip, Bone_chin. in 3dsmax, the bone name must end with "forehand", "left eyelid", "right eyelid", "left eye", "right eye", "bottom eyelid", "upper lip", "left lip", "right lip", "lower lip", "chin" For initial position defined for the universal facial skeleton, please see the art documentation. Currently hair does not have universal skeleton, universal skeleton allows multiple characters to share the same bone animation file.

2008/5/14

• MyDesktop? app is added. EnvApp is refactored to use the new UI framework with AppTaskApp? .

2008/5/13

• AppTaskBar is implemented which uses the new application centric UI framework

2008/5/12

• ide/OpenFolderDialog is refactored to use the fileexplorerctrl.lua.
• AssetsApp/PackageMakerPage is fully implemented, and is now compatible with the ide's commonlib.package framework.
• currently only editbox can have focus(control can not), thus tab key can be used to switch between editboxes. A minor bug is created, when tab key will occasionally jump twice. This is because when clearevent does not clear cached repeated key

2008/5/11

• commonlib.package is fully implemented. It is a package extension system implemented in pure NPL. It support a very simple versioning system.

2008/5/10

• "stdint.h" is added from the web for the bit lib in NPL. I modified lua 5.1.3 core to allow string.format("%x") to work for entire 52 bits, instead of 31 bits in the official release.
• NPL is now able to display debug information for source file up to 120 characters (used to be 60).

2008/5/9

• ParaUIObject? .id is redefined as the global unique id of an GUI object. GetUIObject? (id) now accept both id and name of a given UI object. GetUIObject? (id) is fast because it uses an internal hash. Since we use an id mapping, unattached ui objects can now be detected and reported. Hence, commonlib.GetUIObjectByGlobalID is obsoleted. use GetUIObject? (id) and commonlib.GetGlobalIDFromUIObject is obsoleted. use ParaUIObject? .id property
• ParaUIObject? :SetScript(eventName, Func, ...) is implemented in ide/ParaEngineExtension.
• commonlib.LibStub is implemented which is a simple versioning stub meant for use in Libraries. See test in script/ide/test/test_LibStub.lua
• bit lib in NPL can be opened via luaopen_bit() which is implemented with native bitwise operations. luaopen_bit() is used in ide/math/bit.lua.
• ide/math/TEA and ide/math/MD5 is added which is via the libstub interface.

2008/5/8

• Seeing Olympic holy fire within 100 meters from me near our Company in Shenzhen.
• ide/MessageBox is refactored and can be set to use animations for popup and background fade. ide/styles/*MotionData.xml contains motion data in xaml for the animation effect used within.
• Some minor bugs is fixed in Motion engine, such as ensuring first frame is played immediately upon play and the last frame is shown when animation ends.

2008/5/7

• binary NPL file is now supported. Currently, loading an NPL file, we will first find if there is an up to date compiled version in the bin directory. if there is, we will load the compiled version, otherwise we will use the text version. use bin version, if source version does not exist; use bin version, if source and bin versions are both on disk (instead of zip) and that bin version is newer than the source version. e.g. we can compile source to bin directory with file extension ".o", e.g. "script/abc.lua" can be compiled to "bin/script/abc.o", The latter will be used if available and up-to-date.
• NPL.Compile method is implemented. It uses an externel compiler at script/bin/. To compile all simply call CompileFiles? ("script/*.lua", nil, 10);
• ParaEngine and ParaAllInOne? plug-ins's PostBuild? event is configured in visual studio post build event. Currently it simply xcopy target to output dir. More advanced post build script may be performed in future.
• ParaX? character with _t texture (disable z-buffer or translucent pass) can have 4 bone animations instead of 1.

2008/5/6

• motionlib support ParaUIObject? name and id binding. motionlib in MCML supports motion binding to img, div(any simple tags), text input, button, inner text
• FileExplorerCtrl and mcml pe:filebrowser supports new attributes to enable check boxes and several new events, like oncheck and oncreatenode.
• PackageMakerPage? is implemented in AssetsApp. PrintToFile? () is added. It can be used to determine which asset files are currently in use by the game engine.

2008/5/5

• Social MCML tag pe:name and pe:profile-photo is refactored. more information, see script/kids/3DMapSystemApp/mcml/test/SocialTagsTest.html. It utilizes an asynchronous page pattern with pageCtrl:Refresh() the code is shorter by using only meta code to produce standard mcml inner control for most social tags.

2008/5/4

• Profile registration page now uses pe:label and pe:fileupload. User photo upload is implemented. GetImageInfo? is implemented
• motion lib MCML tags are implemented. please see mcml/test/MotionTest.html and mcml/pe_motion
• PageCtrl Refresh method with time delay is implemented. it is used with the pe:name to provide an asynchronous page element pattern.

2008/5/3

• mcml <pe:tabs> now support Set/GetUIValue and Set/GetValue methods which allows switching tab pages with run time page code. Examples, see FriendsPage? .html
• NPL.activate("ParaAllInOne.dll", "exec:OpenFileDialog"); is implemented which opened an external win32 window asking for file path.
• pe:fileupload control for <pe:fileupload> and <input type="file"> tags is implemented. Examples, see mcml/test/browser.html. if "dir" property is not set, it will open using external browser.

2008/5/2

• bug in ParaGlobal? ::GetDateFormat is fixed. it now allows user specified date format
• LoginApp/StartPage.html is rewritten using new <script> tag for dynamic content. TODO: We can also test for motion lib integration with MCML here.
• VMserver beta 2 and ubuntu 8.04 server edition examined.

2008/5/1

• commonlib.echo and commonlib.dump is added which handles recursive table and function serialization. They are useful for debugging. see ide/serialization.lua. commonlib.echo is now the referred way to output temporary log string.
• commonlib.log has no limit to string size and with formatting like commonlib.log("hello %s \n", "paraengine").
• inline script code defined inside <pe:script> or <script> is executed in a page environment. One can define global variable and functions in the inline code block and use them as they are in the page event handler. They will not pollute the real global NPL environment or glia environment. for example code, please see mcml/browser.xml. src property of <script> also support relative path.

2008/4/30

• regular expression is supported in addtion to wild card, in SearchFiles? method when searching zip files. e.g. this allows us to locate *.jpg in a zip file, etc.
• LoadWorldPage? in WorldsApp support world image preview. It will display the first found jpg image in the world root folder(same rule applies to zip file world); and image not available is displayed for world without previews. The SnapshotPage? in ScreenShotApp can be used to generate world preview image. It will resize the current snapshot and save it to the current world folder as preview.jpg file.
• FriendsFinder? , InviteFriends? and FriendsPage? are added to ProfilesApp.

2008/4/29

• SnapshotPage? is implemented via MCML in screen shot app. Some minor fix in mcml controls. <img> in mcml now handles dynamic sized src texture correctly.
• pe:lable and html label is implemented in MCML.

2008/4/28

• MCMLBrowserWnd? is implemented in WebBrowserApp? . "File.MCMLBrowser" command is implemented to allow any other application to open an MCML page by calling this command.
• Bugs with mcml select tag is fixed when there are less than 3 items in the drop down list. pe:filebrowser tag double click event is fixed.
• ModelBrowserPage? .html(lua) in AssetsApp is fully implemented with code in complete MCML.
• LoadWorldPage? is implemented in MCML in WorldsApp.
• long string is lua 5.1 is supported in NPL and .Net lib. EncodeStringInQuatation? of NPL and .Net will handle \r \000 correctly in long string.

2008/4/27

• ParaEngine goes exhibition at Shenzhen Cartoon Animation Park. ParaWorld movie script is written.

2008/4/25

• OpenFileDialog is rewritten using the new FileExplorerCtrl control.
• pe:filebrowser in MCML is implemented, which is the ide/FileExplorerCtrl control wrapper.
• pe:canvas3d in MCML is implemented, which is the ide/Canvas3D control wrapper.

2008/4/24

• FileExplorerCtrl is fully implemented. see ide/FileExplorerCtrl.lua. Cartoon face coordiate is adjusted. ejabberd server is configured behind NAT and is working well.

2008/4/22

• Terrain config file now support tile range like ([0-63],[0-63]) = %WORLD%/flat.txt and (1,2) = %WORLD%/flat.txt
• Path replaceable is fully supported in terrain related files, NPL db item files, and mesh replaceable files.
• When a new world is created, the %WORLD%/flat.txt and world config file are cloned.
• lualib in luabind and NPL is upgraded from 5.0 to latest 5.1.3. A number of places in old NPL code is updated for compatibility issues.
• mathlib.matrix and mathlib.complex is ported to NPL, see script/ide/math/matrix; Bitwise operation is ported to NPL, see script/ide/math/bit.lua

2008/4/21

• wide screen video recording is suppported in MovieApp? .
• Path replaceable is fully implemented. see test case in ParaIO? _PathReplaceable() in script/test/ParaIO_test.lua