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Release Progress (2.4.0)

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Re: Release Progress (2.4.0)

Postby Torsten » Thu Jul 28, 2011 9:48 pm

Here comes a short update about the progress of our release.

We finally convinced Jenkins , our continuous integration server to build the Windows release binaries (yeah!). Like almost all bugs, this was - once found - a trivial one, but we really had a hard time hunting it down.
Curt is working hard on packaging the setup for our first release candidate.

Two good news followed by a bad one:There are a few issues with OSG 3.0.0 which fg 2.4.0 will be using. Most shocking was, that the 3d-stereo modes were broken. Mathias pushed a fix for that one today and I just (seconds ago) verified that 3D seems to be working again, at least in our next branch. It might be too late to make it into RC1, but it will definitely be part of a later RC.

Stay tuned and keep your fingers crossed...
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Re: Release Progress (2.4.0)

Postby curt » Thu Jul 28, 2011 10:20 pm

Going with the philosophy that version numbers are cheap, I am currently uploading "Setup FlightGear 2.4.0rc2". Hopefully the stereo fixes can make it into RC3. It takes about 90 minutes to upload, and then I need to push it out to the mirror system.
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Re: Release Progress (2.4.0)

Postby truthsolo » Fri Jul 29, 2011 1:45 am

Have you considered putting this in a torrent as well? I'd be more than happy to make one for Windows users with your RC2 installer and seed it from my 40Mbps+ link. With a few good seeders, it could improve both download times and exposure of FG.

Also, would you be interested in an ATI-compatible (by that I mean no point-sprites) set of binaries for Windows? Until someone familiar with OSG can find a better way to get runway lights on ATI, jester's patch is working very well and I've seen a few people request them. It might even be worth offering it as an option in the install program, until a better solution is found of course. If so, I'll checkout the release branch and whip 'em up as fast as I can (if not, I'll do it anyway and host them on my server so us ATI users can fly in the dark ;))

Just a thought.. I couldn't fly at night until I compiled my own, and many people are not interested or do not have the resources to compile (or buy a new video card).

PS: What ended up being the problem with the Jenkins build?

cheers,

Rob
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Re: Release Progress (2.4.0)

Postby Cluster » Fri Jul 29, 2011 7:19 am

Yes, we REALLY REALLY (there's nothing like a super capital, so I'll stick with REALLY) need a fix to the runway light issue! We can't go around fixing this and that, but simply ignoring hundrets of people who can't fly at night because the lights of the runway are displayed! And normal people like me (no insult on you there, thruthsolo, you are just way smarter than the normal, sry, I meant than the average gamer, hehe ) don't know what compiling is, how it works, and become headache from looking at weird coding and complicated compiling tutorials :P

FIX THE RUNWAY LIGHT TO THE WAY THEY WERE BEFORE 1.9.0!!!!
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Re: Release Progress (2.4.0)

Postby Torsten » Fri Jul 29, 2011 7:26 am

truthsolo wrote in Fri Jul 29, 2011 1:45 am:Also, would you be interested in an ATI-compatible (by that I mean no point-sprites) set of binaries for Windows?

I'd find it very unfortunate to have two sets of binaries floating around, depending on what kind of GPU one is running. I am not aware of that patch, I must somehow have missed it. Can you point me to where I can find it?

truthsolo wrote in Fri Jul 29, 2011 1:45 am:PS: What ended up being the problem with the Jenkins build?

Hehe - that's a secret. You'd have lost your faith in the developer team if we had exposed what the root cause was that was :?
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Re: Release Progress (2.4.0)

Postby Johan G » Fri Jul 29, 2011 8:41 am

Torsten wrote in Fri Jul 29, 2011 7:26 am:
truthsolo wrote in Fri Jul 29, 2011 1:45 am:PS: What ended up being the problem with the Jenkins build?

Hehe - that's a secret. You'd have lost your faith in the developer team if we had exposed what the root cause was that was :?

That goes a long way proving that the developer team are humans as well. :wink: :lol: (And a bit more experienced by now.)
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Re: Release Progress (2.4.0)

Postby truthsolo » Fri Jul 29, 2011 12:43 pm

I understand having two sets of binaries is not the best idea; but what is worse.. to have a second set of binaries, or a product which only functions on Nvidia hardware? I'm referring of course to the ATI runway lighting bug (232); Jester's patch can be found here.

So do I get my email whitelisted on dev-list now for that? *coughcough* It's ok, faith not lost; I'm a developer too—and human, as Johan said, who makes silly mistakes all the time (like trying to initialize a pointer-to-array as though it were an array itself.. Doh!).

Cluster: I don't think it's that simple, since the graphics engine is completely different now from 1.9. I agree though, it's a major issue that desperately needs attention. I'm not that smart; just a network security guy with some previous programming experience. My brother is the smart one, he writes software that writes its own software (for aircraft systems on Airbus, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, etc) and designs what shows up on PFDs & MFDs. Cheers!
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Re: Release Progress (2.4.0)

Postby Cluster » Sun Jul 31, 2011 2:36 am

I don't really know what compiling is, but I think it would be rather possible for ppl to open a certain .xml file (with notepad, I did the same thing when I created a livery for fun, and reprogrammed the livery xml file so it says LOL airlines instead of British Airlines) (the one that programs the runway lighting), and replace the coding in it with a code that's alright for ATI grapghic cards... (I don't know too much of what exatly point sprites are, so I don't know if this would work.

OR

somebody could go into the history of the mapserver and replace all the light programming and textures and stuff with the old ones from V.1.9.8.
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Re: Release Progress (2.4.0)

Postby bschack » Sun Jul 31, 2011 5:57 am

Cluster wrote in Sun Jul 31, 2011 2:36 am:I don't really know what compiling is, but I think it would be rather possible for ppl to open a certain .xml file (with notepad, I did the same thing when I created a livery for fun, and reprogrammed the livery xml file so it says LOL airlines instead of British Airlines) (the one that programs the runway lighting), and replace the coding in it with a code that's alright for ATI grapghic cards... (I don't know too much of what exatly point sprites are, so I don't know if this would work.

OR

somebody could go into the history of the mapserver and replace all the light programming and textures and stuff with the old ones from V.1.9.8.


Going back to 1.9.8, as I understand it, would be virtually impossible. Point sprites previously depended on a library (PLIB) that is no longer used for rendering. Ripping out OSG, the replacement for PLIB, and re-inserting PLIB would be an enormous undertaking (months and months of work), and result in giving up the many advantages that OSG gives us (aside from the broken sprites problem).

As for your suggestion of an XML file, even better would be a command-line option (like --no-sprites) that would invoke the patch whipped up by Jester. I think it would be fairly trivial to implement.

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Re: Release Progress (2.4.0)

Postby ThorstenB » Sun Jul 31, 2011 9:44 am

The issue is being worked on and there will be working runway lights for ATI graphics cards with the FG2.4.0 release.
We're currently discussing/checking how to solve this. Maybe we'll even manage a proper fix (render runway lights without the use of point-sprites, when the graphics card doesn't support it). Otherwise there will be a work-around to disable the sprites, such as a property switch in the rendering dialog or command-line parameter.
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Re: Release Progress (2.4.0)

Postby eekpo » Sun Jul 31, 2011 12:38 pm

Hi,
since the git fgdata 2.4 branch is not usable ( unable to download it, too huge ).
How could we get the corresponding data package ?

Thanks.

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Re: Release Progress (2.4.0)

Postby ThorstenB » Sun Jul 31, 2011 9:48 pm

The Windows installer contains the base package. The Mac installer (hopefully we'll have a Mac release candidate available soon) should also.
For Linux we could probably provide and upload a tar archive of the official base package. I've asked Curt about this.
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Re: Release Progress (2.4.0)

Postby eekpo » Sun Jul 31, 2011 10:09 pm

ThorstenB wrote in Sun Jul 31, 2011 9:48 pm:The Windows installer contains the base package


Hi,
If you refer to the fgsetup-2.4.0.exe , we've not found the data, contains only the fg*.exec files,
What is the right link ? we can download data from.

Thanks

BTW: Win32Installer is fgfs_win32_nightly_2.5.0.exe

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Re: Release Progress (2.4.0)

Postby curt » Mon Aug 01, 2011 4:22 pm

For now, this is a good link (it's the first mirror to be updated with new stuff.)

ftp://ftp.goflyflightgear.com/flightgear/Win32/

[ caution: I'm currently uploading rc3 so make sure it's size is ~ 414 - 415Mb before you try to download it. ]
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Re: Release Progress (2.4.0)

Postby toshi » Mon Aug 01, 2011 5:47 pm

Hi curt,

Yesterday, I downloaded "Setup FlightGear 2.4.0rc1.exe" from other ftp mirror site, and reported some problems of rc1 to bug tracker.
But, FTP mirror list on http://www.flightgear.org/mirrors.html seems to include some dead servers.
I hope the mirror list page to be updated.

Just a information:
Now we can download "Setup FlightGear 2.4.0rc3.exe" (424436 KB 2011/08/01 12:30:00) from ftp://ftp.goflyflightgear.com/flightgear/Win32/.
At this moment, download speed from this ftp server seems fast (over 300 KB/sec) compared to other ftp mirrors.
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