RenderWare(TM) v1.4 d Release Notes ===================================== February 1995 ------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This software is copyright Criterion Software Limited 1995. All Rights Reserved. This software is furnished under a license agreement or a non-disclosure agreement. The software may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of the agreement. It is against the law to copy the software on any medium except as specifically allowed in the license or non-disclosure agreement. RenderWare is a registered trademark of Canon Inc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to RenderWare v1.4! These release note describe various aspects of Version 1.4 of RenderWare for MS Dos. Information on the new features that have been added for V1.4 and the features that have changed, can be found in the printed documentation supplied with the SDK ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Installation ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To install RenderWare 1.4 for DOS you should use the supplied installation program. To initiate an installation make the current working directory the directory that you are installing from. So if your CD drive is drive E type E: change to the RenderWare Dos installation directory \rwdos CD RWDOS To start the installation type INSTALL The installation program will give you options on what you wish to install. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Environment Variables ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The environment variable RWSHAPEPATH must be set to a directory path comprising all directories that contain RenderWare script and texture files. The installation program will take care of this for you but if you subsequently move the RenderWare installatio then you will need to modify these values. For this distribution RWSHAPEPATH should be set to: set RWSHAPEPATH=c:\rwdos\scripts;c:\rwdos\textures; If RenderWare is not installed in "c:\rwdos\" please substitute the actual location in the above command. Also of importance is the environment variable RWHOME. This defines the directory where RenderWare looks for the dosrw.ini file which defines characteristics such as screen resolution. To use the default dosrw.ini file which is located in the root directory of the distribution RWHOME should be set to: set RWHOME=c:\rwdos Note that if you wish to try a different resolution on a demonstration program just edit the rwdos.ini file to obtain the mode you require. Check that your machine has a VESA BIOS and is capable to achieving the resolution (use VESAMODE to check and UNIVBE for a VESA BIOS TSR). It is strongly recommended that the above lines are added to the AUTOEXEC.BAT of any machine on which RenderWare is to run. This will ensure that the shape path is set whenever the machine starts, and the same screen configuration is picked up. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Configuration ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RenderWare v1.4 applications running under MS DOS do not require a configuration file. However, RenderWare applications should be run under MS DOS with the environment variable RWSHAPEPATH appropriately set - see "Environment Variables" above. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Release Content ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Once you have installed the RenderWare V1.4 DOS SDK, the following top level directories will be present. Each directory in the release contains a readme file that describes the content of the directory. DEMO ---- This directory is split into 2 subdirectories, RWGIFTS and SAMPLE. Both of these subdirectories contain RenderWare demonstration programs together with source code. The difference between the 2 is that the SAMPLE directory contains programs that have been written for the RenderWare V1.4 API, whereas the RWGIFTS directory contains demo source that was written for a previous release of RenderWare and has simply been ported to V1.4 without taking advantage of any of the new features. the SAMPLE sources are as follows DOSCYBER - Cyberstreet DOSROLLE - Rollercoaster DOSVIEW - A simple viewer the RWGIFTS sources are as follows DOSEXP - Duck Shoot DOSKNIGH - Animated Knights DOSMAZE - Maze walkthrough DOSROBOT - Robbie the Robot DOSSIM - N Body Simulation DOSTANK - Tank simualation DOSTUNNE - Tunnel Each of these programs has a SRC, a SCRIPTS and a TEXTURES directory. Note: The executable for each of these demos requires that the scripts and textures are either in the same directory as the executable or are contained in subdirectories called SCRIPTS and TEXTURES respectively. If any of the demo sources are built in place, then the executable will need to be moved into the parent directory in order for the program to run. Alternatively you can copy the SCRIPTS and TEXTURES directory into the SRC directory. INCLUDE ------- This directory contains the main RenderWare header files. This directory should be on the include path for all applications that use RenderWare. LIB --- This directory contains the RenderWare library files. This directory should be on the link path for all applications that use RenderWare. SCRIPTS ------- This directory contains sample RenderWare scripts. There are 3 subdirectories that contain additional scripts. EXTRA - Public domain 3D models that have been converted into the RenderWare format. TEXT - Simple polygonal font scripts EXTTEXT - Extruded versions of the TEXT directory TEXTURES -------- This directory contains sample RenderWare textures. There is an single subdirectories that contains additional scripts. EXTRA - Public domain 3D textures that have been converted into a format readable by RenderWare. TOOLS ----- The following 2 tools are provided for use with RenderWare for DOS. UNIVBE - So that many different video cards can be used with RenderWare, for resolutions higher than 320x200, RenderWare conforms to the VESA standard. If your card has a VESA bios then RenderWare will function at other resolutions. If you have an older card then you will need to install a VESA bios TSR (terminate and stay resident) program. UNIVBE is a VESA TSR and works with most SuperVGA cards. Read the UNIVBE documentation to check if UNIVBE is compatible with your card. The file "vesatest.txt" gives details of cards that RenderWare for DOS has been tested on. It also shows if a tested card works with UNIVBE correctly when using RenderWare for DOS. VESAMODE - This is a simple program, which first checks if you have a VESA bios available. If so it will list all of the modes that are available for access. Only standard VESA modes may be accessed by RenderWare. Read the documentation in the "tools\vesamode" directory for more details. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Known Problems ---------------------------------------------------------------------- We are aware of a very small number of minor problems with this release of RenderWare. These problems will be corrected in the next RenderWare v1.x maintenance release. RenderWare V1.4 Defect List d-107 Polygons which have a masked texture applied to them are still picked, even if the the pick position is over a masked (fully transparent) pixel. (Severity 3: non-fatal). d-123 The documentation of RwSplineTransforms() suggests that, by specifying an "UP" vector, banking will be suppressed. This is not the case. Specifying an "UP" vector will prevent the generation of matrices which "flip" vertical orientation but will not lock the the "UP" vector of the matrix. (Severity 4: non-fatal). d-135 "2d" container clumps in scenes can lead to incorrect rendering. If an object is "2D", for example, a flat plane, and is marked with the clump hint "rwCONTAINER", then incorrect object ordering can result. To correct the problem add "phantom" vertices to the clump to extend it into the third dimension. (Severity 3: non-fatal). d-172 If RwRenderClump() is passed a clump which is part of a hierarchy (i.e., a clump which has a parent and/or children) the library will crash. Passing individual clumps to RwRenderClump() avoids this problem. (Severity 2: fatal). d-249 If during an API level RwModelBegin() and RwModelEnd() context in which prototypes have been defined RwForAllClumpsInScene() (or one of its variants) is called with the default scene the clumps forming the prototype clumps defined in that modelling context will be passed to the callback function. To avoid this problem use a scene created with RwCreateScene() to hold the clumps of interest. (Severity 3: non-fatal). d-260 RwSetCameraBackColor() and RwSetCameraBackColorStruct() do not check the range of the color component values they are passed. If out of range values (less than CREAL(0.0) or greater than CREAL(1.0)) then the resulting colors are undefined. Ensure only color components in the range CREAL(0.0) and CREAL(1.0) are passed. (Severity 3: non-fatal). d-264 RwSetPaletteEntries() does not report an error if a NULL pointer is passed in the place of the RwPaletteEntry array. The function will simply take no action. (Severity 3: non-fatal). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Acknowledgments ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RenderWare is a registered trademark of Canon Inc. Microsoft, MS, MS-DOS and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Pentium is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation.