Release Notes for Build 128

Release date: October 1, 2006

• The engine now builds as a universal binary on the Mac, but the Intel version has not yet been tested.

• Made changes to the Network Manager and Message Manager that are too numerous to list here. The vast majority of the changes are finished, but there will be a few more in the next build, mostly to move some functionality currently in the demo game module into the engine module.

• Added a lot of new gameplay code to the game module:

• Players can steer a little bit while falling through the air now (you exert a small propulsive force).

• Because you can propel yourself in the air, it is now possible to jump onto something even if you are standing right next to it and can't get any forward motion on the ground.

• Motion of client players is now predicted and smoothly corrected in multiplayer games.

• Rockets and grenades now do splash damage.

• When a player spawns, he has a protection shield for a few seconds.

• When you have another player in your sights, his name is displayed.

• The weapon balance has been improved—the blaster does a little more damage, and the plasma gun does a little less damage than before.

• Added a +100 health power-up (jack-o-lantern model).

• Added a Kill Character script method.

• The Node::EnumerateNodes function has been updated so that the callback function gets the center and radius of the input sphere.

• Added the World::QueryWorld function. This determines whether a fat ray hits environmental geometry, a collider, or nothing. It works like World::DetectCollision, except it returns a collision state constant indicating what was hit.

• Added the InvalidateStaticShadowVolumes function to the Geometry class. This wipes out any cached shadow volumes and should be called if an object becomes dynamic after being static.

• Added the Import Model menu command to the World Editor. This lets you import an MDL file.

• Added amplitude and period settings to the TeleportController class in the Game Module. These control the floating effect for the teleporting remote portals.

• Updated the Display Manager code for MacOS X to use newer operating system APIs. This should allow more display modes to be accessible, and there is no longer a dependency on DrawSprocket.

• (Bug #0000113) Fixed a crash that would occur if a panel effect was cloned.