IrrExt - Is now up and running!

Zeuss · Post by **Zeuss** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 12:49 pm

IrrExt aims to be the central hub of all extensions for Irrlicht.

Many people have done great work such as Acki, Blindside & Klasker to name a few, but the problem has always been that you have to go digging to find these nuggets through the forums and often get buried in the torrent of new projects & additions.

Hopefully we can get everyones great work in 1 place and create the ultimate resource collection, with easy access and integration into Irrlicht.

People have already expressed interest which is great, and I am going to get in contact with various people and see if I can get them on board.

The aim is to have a coordinated package releases for Irrlicht 1.5.

dejai · Post by **dejai** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 1:03 pm

Sounds like a really cool idea zuessy! I have been reading the conversations between you and bitplane over the last hour. Good luck with the project.

bitplane · Post by **bitplane** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 2:37 pm

Update: code has now been moved from the old irrlicht-plugins google code repository.

Also, we should only call it Irrlicht Extensions if Acki joins or doesn't object, otherwise we should just go with "irrext" which is the unix name of the sf project. I'll retitle the thread until I get an answer from him.

Time to make a list of everything we need to collect/get permission for? Should we do it here or over on the irrext project forums/tracker?

FuzzYspo0N · Post by **FuzzYspo0N** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 3:20 pm

there but keep a up to date list in this threads first post.. so that as things are added like

"klaskers gui - awawiting response"
"blindsides shadows - confirmed, added"
"ackis extensions - confirmed, pending"

so that the non technical tracker guys can watch to and find what is or isnt available right here, locally

BlindSide · Post by **BlindSide** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 3:40 pm

Ok, I'll make an effort to get XEffects and maybe irrNet (Blergh, but some people still find it useful.) into this.

Few questions though:
So where is this project going, is it a collaboration of different extensions?
Are they all in one file, or will they be listed as seperate downloads under the project page?
Can/Will the extensions contain modifications to the Irrlicht source code?

Also, I see alot of other projects/graphics engines listing features on the front page that are only available through extensions, eg. " - Skeleton animation (Available through SneakyPinkie's skeleton animation extension)". So it really wouldn't hurt Irrlicht to mention some of these features on the features page such as Arras's tiled terrain which I think is a huge asset, or possibly my shadow maps which people are always complaining Irrlicht lacks in comparison to other engines.

Maybe when this IrrExt project is stable and widely in use (Dare I say, standardised), whoever is managing the website would have more incentive to mention these things.

Oh, and offcourse thanks goes to Zeussy and Bitplane for managing this and dealing with the hassle of putting up a sourceforge project (They can take ages to respond eh.).

Cheers

Nadro · Post by **Nadro** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 5:55 pm

It's very good idea:) I can place my IrrCg in this project:)

Zeuss · Post by **Zeuss** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 7:36 am

I do not want to be seen as treading on peoples toes, and intruding on peoples turf such as Acki's Irrlicht Extensions, he has done great work and I don't want to discredit/ignore him.

The current idea is to collate related extensions into 1 package and also produce a factory class for them.

There has been a distinct crowbar seperation of extensions and patches.

Extensions are extensions that do not require changing and recompiling the irrlicht library itself.

Patches are extensions that change the engine and therefore will require recompiling of irrlicht.

These will packaged seperatly and clearly marked as such.

So in answer to your questions blindside, yes it will be a collabaration of different extensions that should easily intergrate with Irrlicht.

You can get the extensions seperately from SVN or together as a package.

They can modifiy irrlicht source, but must be clearly marked and kept from those that don't.

I'm sorry I didn't make that clear in the first post!

bitplane · Post by **bitplane** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 9:32 am

BlindSide wrote:Ok, I'll make an effort to get XEffects and maybe irrNet (Blergh, but some people still find it useful.) into this.

Cool, much appriciated. Is that you volunteering to maintain these in the subversion repository?

BlindSide wrote: Few questions though:
So where is this project going, is it a collaboration of different extensions?
Are they all in one file, or will they be listed as seperate downloads under the project page?
Can/Will the extensions contain modifications to the Irrlicht source code?

I think where things are external like nodes, animators, elements, materials etc, it would be sensible to have releases with much as possible stuck into as few as possible chunks, with a compile config to remove the things you don't want. The actual code should be kept separate though. Say for example we could have a class that you just create and it adds factories containing all the useful external nodes and animators, but that would be after we have a collection of working stuff together. Also some things will be restricted because of the license (for example, lgpl is incompatible), others require modifications to the engine so they'd have to be released as patches.
Some things rely on others, so those would have to be bundled together. Where things can be kept separate, I think it makes sense to have a separate download/package/release too.

BlindSide wrote: Also, I see alot of other projects/graphics engines listing features on the front page that are only available through extensions, eg. " - Skeleton animation (Available through SneakyPinkie's skeleton animation extension)". So it really wouldn't hurt Irrlicht to mention some of these features on the features page such as Arras's tiled terrain which I think is a huge asset, or possibly my shadow maps which people are always complaining Irrlicht lacks in comparison to other engines.

Maybe when this IrrExt project is stable and widely in use (Dare I say, standardised), whoever is managing the website would have more incentive to mention these things.

Yep we can have a nice list of external stuff on the home page along with screenshots where appropriate

Vsk · Post by **Vsk** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 3:22 pm

Great Idea, PLEASE ADD THE ARRAS TERRAIN!!!!.

But where and how would it be access?,
I suggest continue or at least have as and option the same for that we obtain actuly, I mean by direct download from a server. I, for example don't use cvs.
Could it be possible?

Zeuss · Post by **Zeuss** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 6:52 am

@Vsk: That is our aim, to coordinate with Irrlicht releases and offer downloads of packaged items that can be released.

MasterGod · Post by **MasterGod** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 9:39 pm

Can you define please what is counted as an Irrlicht extension? Does irrAI for example? Does my engine? is it only custom scene nodes? Which categories (I don't remember the right word sorry) does a project needs to answer to know if it can enter the IrrExt projects list.

hybrid · Post by **hybrid** » Sat Apr 26, 2008 8:12 am

Well, large projects shouldn't be included in irrExt, because the maintenance is not feasible then. I'd favor to include only additions which can be added to the library without changing Irrlicht's source code. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a chance to develop a package for a specific Irrlicht version, because one would need an altered dll.
So this would boil down to custom scene nodes, GUI elements, material renderers, shaders, and loaders/writers. Maybe also filesystem extensions and stuff.

JP · Post by JP » Sat Apr 26, 2008 10:53 am

Yeah that was my thought, that irrAI and game engines etc would be too big to be considered an extension.

But maybe these library addons can be listed on the IrrExt page (if it's a website, not sure what is is

) or maybe we could create another similar project called something like IrrLib which lists all the library addons you can use with Irrlicht?

MasterGod · Post by **MasterGod** » Sat Apr 26, 2008 1:25 pm

JP wrote:Yeah that was my thought, that irrAI and game engines etc would be too big to be considered an extension.

But maybe these library addons can be listed on the IrrExt page (if it's a website, not sure what is is ) or maybe we could create another similar project called something like IrrLib which lists all the library addons you can use with Irrlicht?

Cool though IrrLib isn't the first name I would have given it

JP · Post by JP » Sat Apr 26, 2008 2:25 pm

Right, Mastergod, we know when we're not wanted! Let's got and make a rival depository! Didn't wanna be in cahoots with those smelly guys anyway!

But Mastergod... if you don't like my IrrLib suggestion you can just get bent...

If anyone hadn't already gathered i'm joking

I think that a seperate depository for libraries and bigger addons would be good and it would be good if we could run it in much the same way as IrrExt and hand-in-hand so it's all easy to use and find for users.

IrrLib was obviously just off the top of my head, i kinda agree that it's not really a great suggestion... can't really think of anything else though so suggestions would be good!