cocos2d-x-3.3-beta0

We are happy to announce that cocos2d-x v3.3 beta0 is released.

Not all features are listed here, because they were mentioned in release note of v3.3alpha0.

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cocos2d-x-3.3beta0

Highlights of v3.3beta0

• 3d: Camera, 'Reskin', 'Attachment', 'Better support for FBX', 'New fbx-conv', AABB, OBB, Ray and BillBoard
• audio: new audio is added on iOS and Android
• DrawNode: added as many functions as DrawPrimitive, and DrawPrimitive is deprecated
• Primitive: Support Points, Lines and Triagles for rendering
• Renderer: added trianle command
• UI: added WebView on iOS and Android
• Only two libraries in cocos2d-x, one for c++ codes, another one for lua-binding codes
• Many other small features added and many bugs fixed

Features in detail

Camera

This version of camera is powerful then previous one. And you can add it as a child anywhere. If you want to let a Node to be visited by a camera, Node's camera mask should include Camera's flag:

// let sprite to be visited by a camera
auto sprite = Sprite::create("myFile.png");
sprite->setCameraMask(CameraFlag::USER1);
auto camera = Camera::createPerspective(60, winSize.width/winSize.height, 1, 1000);
camera->setCameraFlag(CameraFlag::USER1);
scene->addChild(camera);

If you have many Nodes that want to be visited by a camera, there is a convenient way:

auto layer = Layer::create();
auto sprite1 = Sprite::create();
auto sprite2 = Sprite::create();
layer->addChild(sprite1);
layer->addChild(sprite2);
// it will set camera mask for all its children
layer->setCameraMask(CameraFlg::USER1); 

auto camera = Camera::createPerspective();
camera->setCameraFlag(CameraFlag::USER1);
scene->addChild(camera);

Full test case please refer to tests/cpp-tests/res/Camera3DTest/Camera3DTest.cpp.

Reskin

It is a powerful feature, all the user change the appearance of character.

For example, there a model named girl.c3b, which has two coats, coat0 and coat1. 
The character's coat can be changed like this,

//load the girl from file
auto sprite3d = Sprite3D::create("girl.c3b");
//get the mesh named coat0
auto mesh0 = sprite3d->getMeshByName("coat0");
//you can change texture of this mesh if you like
mesh0->setTexture("cloth.png");
//you can change visibility for this mesh, too
mesh0->setVisible(true);
//hide coat1
auto mesh1 = sprite3d->getMeshByName("coat1");
mesh1->setVisible(false);

Full test case please refer to tests/cpp-tests/Classes/Spret3DTest/Sprite3DTest.cpp.

Attachment

Allows to attach a node to a bone

Usage,

auto sprite = Sprite3D::create("girl.c3b");
auto weapon = Sprite::create("weapon.c3b");
auto attachNode = sprite->getAttachNode("left_hand");
attachNode->addChild(weapon);

Full test case please refer to tests/cpp-tests/Classes/Spret3DTest/Sprite3DTest.cpp.

Better support for FBX

support multiple mesh
support multiple material
bones bind to each mesh limited to 40. But the FBX model can contain more meshes. So the model can contain much more bones.

New fbx-conv

It can export more complex model, which contains multiple meshes and multiple materials.

AABB, OBB and Ray

AABB means Axis Aligned Bounding Box
OBB means Oriented Bounding Box
Ray has a origin position and direction

Each Sprite3D or Mesh has its own AABB.
AABB and OBB can be picked by Ray.

Usage,

//get ray from camera
Vec3 nearP(location.x, location.y, -1.0f), farP(location.x, location.y, 1.0f); 
auto size = Director::getInstance()->getWinSize();
camera->unproject(size, &nearP, &nearP);
camera->unproject(size, &farP, &farP);
ray._origin = nearP;
ray._direction = farP - nearP;
ray.intersects(sprite3d->getAABB( ) );

Full test case please refer to tests/cpp-tests/Classes/Spret3DTest/Sprite3DTest.cpp.

BillBoard

BillBoard is a rectangle always faces to the camera. It is useful in the 3D world. People use BillBoard to create trees in some racing games. It looks real, but the cost is much lower than 3d tree.

BillBoard inherits from Sprite, so it also supports animate. Here is example of creating BillBoard.

//create billboard from .png
auto billboard = BillBoard::create("Images/Icon.png");
addChild(billboard);

//create camera that is looking at this billboard. Otherwise, it is seen by the default camera
auto camera = Camera::createPerspective(60, (GLfloat)s.width/s.height, 1, 1000);
camera->setCameraFlag(CameraFlag::CAMERA_USER1);
addChild(camera); //add this camera

//This billboard is only seen by the camera with flag CameraFlag::CAMERA_USER1.
billboard->setCameraMask((unsigned short)CameraFlag::CAMERA_USER1);

Primitive

Primitive is added to support Points,Lines,Triangles rendering. Previously, if we want to draw a custom geometry(sphere, line), we can only do this by using CustomCommand. Now, what is need is to create a Primitive, set datas, and use the corresponding PrimitiveCommand to draw the Primitive.

Here is a simple example of rendering a quad in Sprite.

• create verexBuffer

auto vertexBuffer = VerexBuffer::create(sizeof(V3F_C4B_T2F), 4);
vertexBuffer->updateVertices(&_quad, 4, 0);

• create vertexData

auto vertexData = VertexData::create();
vertexData->addStream(vertexBuffer, VertexStreamAttribute(0, VERTEX_ATTRIB_POSITION, GL_FLOAT, 3, fasle));
vertexData->addStream(vertexBuffer, VertexStreamAttribute(12, VERTEX_ATTRIB_COLOR, GL_UNSIGNED_BTYE, 4, true));
vertexData->addStream(vertexBuffer, VertexStreamAttribute(16, VERTEX_ATTRIB_TEX_COORD, GL_FLOAT, 2, fasle));
    ```
* create IndexBuffer

```c++
auto indexBuffer = IndexBuffer::create(IndexType::INDEX_TYPE_SHORT_16, 6);
short indices[6] = {0,1,2,3,2,1};
indexBuffer->updateIndices(indices,6, 0);

• create primitive

auto primitve = Primitive::create(vertexData, indexBuffer, GL_TRIANGLES);
primitive->setStart(0);
primitive->setCount(6);

• add command to renderer

_command->init(globalZorder,textureID, glprogramState, blend, primitve, modelViewMatrix);
renderer->addCommand(&_command);

Primitive supports three typs of primitives (POINTS, LINES, TRIANGLES), vertex and index sharing, multiple streams. It has some constrains:

• The size of vertex and index Buffer is fixed, which means data must be pre allocated.

• Batching is not supported.

Triangles command

We have enhanced auto batching feature by introduce TrianglesCommand, the rendering of the Trianglescan be auto batched. Now if we have anything which can be rendered by Triangles, we can useTrianglesCommand or inherit from TrianglesCommand to take use of auto batching feature and gain rendering improvements. The QuadCommand, which is used for Quad rendering, is a good example of inheriting from TrianglesCommand.

The step to use Triangle Command is very simple.

    Triangles trs{verts, indices, vertCount, indexCount};
    command->init(globalZOrder,textureID, glProgramState,blend,trs,matrix);
    renderer->addCommand(command);

To improve performance, Triangles will hold a weak reference to the vertices and indices data to be rendered, which is the same like QuadCommand. The userer should not release any rendered data before theCommand is executed by Renderer.

WebView

WebView is an new widget type which allows you to display web content inside Cocos2D-X. We only provide iOS and Android implementation currently, more platform might be added in the future.

The class is under cocos2d::ui::experimental namespace.

As we clarified the experimental namespace before, the experimental namespace doesn't mean the widget is incomplete, but only due to the lack of full platform support. Feel free to use the WebView
widget in your game.

To display the website Google in a WebView, we could simply write:

    _webView = cocos2d::experimental::ui::WebView::create();
    _webView->setPosition(winSize/2);
    _webView->setContentSize(winSize * 0.5);
    _webView->loadUrl("http://www.google.com");
    _webView->setScalesPageToFit(true);

The setscalesPageToFit method will adjust the WebView content to fit the content size you set.

We could also set some callback to the WebView:

    //we should check the validation of the URL and decide whether to continue or not
    _webView->shouldStartLoading = CC_CALLBACK_2(WebViewTest::onWebViewShouldStartLoading, this);
    //called when web page is finish loading
    _webView->didFinishLoading = CC_CALLBACK_2(WebViewTest::onWebViewDidFinishLoading, this);
    //called when web page is fail loading
    _webView->didFailLoading = CC_CALLBACK_2(WebViewTest::onWebViewDidFailLoading, this);

For full test case, please refer to WebViewTest

New audio

New audio is more powerful than old one, and it is not compatible with old one. We will deprecated old one when new audio is ready on all supported platforms. Now it only supports iOS and Android. We plan to finish it on v3.4.

What's enhanced in new audio engine:

• can play more than one backgournd music
• can have a call back when an audio(music or effect) finishs
• can get duration of an audio
• can get/set playback position of a playing audio
• can change loop state when playing

The difference compared to old audio engine

• all functions are static, which means you can more easy to invoke function, such as Audio::play2d()
• there is only one method play2d() to play music or effect
• should use Audio::getState() to determine an audio is playing, paused
• its class name is cocos2d::experimental::AudioEngine in c++, and its module name is ccexp.AudioEnginein lua-binding
• there is not preload function, you can play an audio immediately

Full test case please refer to tests/cpp-tests/Classes/NewAudioEngineTest/NewAudioEngineTest.cpp.

Only two libraries left

Now there are two libraries left: one for all c++ codes and another one for lua-bindings codes.

If you are developing with c++, you only have to link to libcocos2d. libcocos2d includes all c++ codes:

• cocos2d(including 2d and 3d)
• network
• cocosstudio
• ui
• cocosbuilder
• spine
• chipmunk
• box2d
• ...

Not used codes will be stripped by linker.

If you are developing with lua, you should link to libcocos2d and libluacocos2d. You can comment codes in lua_module_register.h if you don't want to some module.

int lua_module_register(lua_State* L)
{
    register_cocosdenshion_module(L); // comment this line to remove cocosdenshion
    register_network_module(L);       // comment this line to remove network
    register_cocosbuilder_module(L);  // comment this line to remove cocosbuilder
    register_cocostudio_module(L);    // comment this line to remove cocostudio
    register_extension_module(L);     // comment this line to remove extension
    register_ui_moudle(L);            // comment this line to remove ui
    register_spine_module(L);         // comment this line to remove spine
    register_cocos3d_module(L);       // comment this line to remove 3d
    return 1;
}

More information

For further information please read:

• Release Notes, with detailed information of the new API.
• Full Changelog

We would appreciate if you can test this version and report any possible bugs.
Thank you!