• Exporters: Added support for Maya 2013 and Max 2012
• iOS: touches are no longer passed to the surface below the web view
• iOS: s3eOSReadString now handles split keyboards correctly
• iOS: added s3eEdkAppGetInitialOpenURL to get the initial open URL
• android: fixed icf splash screens when fixing rotation
• playbook: s3eOSReadString now cancels properly
• IwHTTP: fixed to work without threads
• Added menu options to Windows simulator for Retina display
• OSX: fixed to make building extensions possible
• Android splash fixed when using dispfixrot=2
• android: building of EDK modules
• ios: WebView orientation (IwGX and s3eWebView) on iPad
• android: fixed crash with image property in CImagePtr when loading a png file

There is however a crash issue with Bada builds

Another job posting has come across my desk recently so here it is. A new start-up called Playalla is seeking a  C/C++ Marmalade SDK developer for a short term contract (around 3 months) to help them finish their word games. Playalla already have a prototype of their game up and running based on match-3 game play. Ideally they are looking for a developer that has previous experience with creating word games. The work can be carried out remotely so is ideal for a freelance game developer.

If you are interested then please send a few details about yuorself, your experience (games released etc..) to Wissam at wissamharoun@hotmail.com

Mat

The guys over at http://www.beintoo.com/ that developed the awesome BeInToo gamification and rewarding technology are looking for a capable Marmalade SDK developer that can use the EDK to bring their SDK over to Marmalade. If you know your way around the EDK and know enough about the Android / iPhone SDK’s then you should probably get in touch.

The work can be carried out remotely and does not have to be done on-site which is great for freelance developers.

You can take a quick look at the RESTful API to see what the SDK is all about http://documentation.beintoo.com/

Good luck

Mat

If you have a spare 5-10 mins please consider leaving a review for the IwGame Engine at http://mobilegameengines.com/iphone/engines/40-iwgame-engine

And possibly also a review for the Marmalade SDK at http://mobilegameengines.com/iphone/engines/11-marmalade

A BIG thank you to anyone that gets the time to leave a review

New here? What’s IwGame? IwGame is an open source free to use cross platform game engine for iPhone, iPad, Android, Bada, Playbook, Symbian, Windows Mobile, LG-TV, Windows and Mac, built on top of the Marmalade SDK. You can find out more and download the SDK from our IwGame Engine page.

Well this release is a little earlier I’m afraid, we wanted to get UI functionality into 0.34, but 0.33 had a compile issue with the recent Marmalade 6.0 release so we decided to do a release now.

Below is the list of changes for IwGame 0.34:

• Fixed Marmalade 6.0 compile error
• JPEG loading support has been removed as this is now supported by Marmalade image classes
• New extensions system added (pass true for enable_extensions in IwGame::Init() to enable, enabled by default) – Extensions are none standard IwGame code that will be added over the coming months to support game specific features
• Actions now have a 4th parameter
• New modifier system added that allows you to add functionality units to actors and scene. This enables a build from blocks style development
• New AddModifier action that can be used to add a modifier to an actor or scene and modifier its behaviour in real-time
• New ChangeModifier action that can be used to change the active state or remove a modifier from an actor or scene
• Actors can now be marked as draggable. A draggable actor can be moved aruond by the user using their finger
• New SetProperty action added for actors. You can now directly change the properties of an actor using actions. Can also be used to add torque and force onto actors under control of the physics system
• New AddProperty action added for actors. This action can be used to add a value onto the peoperties of an actor
• IwGame now supports brushes in code and in XOML. Brushes can be created and attached to actors saving you from having to specify image and SrcRect for each actor. This enables actor styling across any actors
• CIwGameActorImage can now be instantiated from XOML using the ActorImage tag
• New XOML atlas inner tag added to animations to allow auto generation of sprite atlas frames
• Support has been added for joints (distance, revolute, prismatic, pulley and wheel joints are supported in code and in XOML)
• A scenes physics update can now be changed between constant time step and variable
• Box2D materials now support bullet, fixed rotation and gravity scaling parameters
• Checks for duplicates added to resources, variables, actions, modifiers, class creators
• New CIwGameActorConnector extension actor added – This actor will size and orientate itself so that it connects two static / dynamic points in space (can target moving actors)
• New CIwGameModFollowHeading modifier extension added – When added to an existing actor the actor can be controlled using headnig and speed instead of velocity
• CIwGameImage::CreatePNG() now supports RGBA_8888
• Two basic Hello World examples added, one that displays text in code and another that uses XOML
• BUG FIX: IwGameBox2d now coompiles on Mac without error
• BUG FIX: CIwGameBox2dBody::setFixture() now behaves as expected
• BUG FIX: Collision flags are now restored when turning an object from none collidable to collidable
• BUG FIX: Memory leak in CIwGameActorImage::SetSrcDest(), SetSrcRect() and SetDestSize()
• BUG FIX: Fixed problem with html parsing in CIwGameAds::ExtractLinkAndImageFromtHTML()
• BUG FIX: CIwGameImage::CreatePNG() crash bug fixed

Lots of changes and a few bug fixes for good measure. The most interesting changes include Box2D physics joints (been playing with them all week and they are awesome), the new modifiers system, draggable actors and the ability to set actor properties directly using actions. Lets look at some of these new changes in more detail:

Box2D Joints Support

Physics joints enable you to connect physical bodies together in a variety of ways. The following types of physical joints are currently supported:

• Distance – A distance joint limits the distance of two bodies and attempts to keep them the same distance apart, damping can also be applied
• Revolute – A revolute joint forces two bodies to share a common anchor point. It has a single degree of freedom and the angle between the two bodies can be limited. In addition a motor can also be applied to the joint
• Prismatic – A prismatic joint limits movement between the two bodies by translation (rotation is prevented). The translational distance between the two joints can be limited. In addition a motor can also be applied to the joint
• Pulley Joint – A pulley joint can be used to create a pulley system between two bodies so that when one body rises the other will fall.
• Wheel Joint – A wheel joint restricts one body to the line on another body and can be used to create suspension springs. A motor can also be applied to the joint

All joints share the same base class IIwGameBox2dJoint

Joints can be created in code and attached to a body using CiwGameBox2dBody::addJoint(). Joints can later be removed using removeJoint(). You can also search for existing joints using getJoint() and findJoint()

        <ActorImage Name="Crate1" ...... />
        <ActorImage Name="Crate2" ...... >
            <Joints>
                <Joint type="distance" ActorB="Crate1" OffsetA="0, 50" OffsetB="0, -50" Frequency="10" Damping="0" SelfCollide="true" />
            </Joints>
        </ActorImage>

The easiest way to create and attach joints is using XOML. Below is an example showing how to create and attach a distance joint between two crates:

Actor and Scene Modifiers

IwGame supports modifiers using the IwGameModfier system. Modifiers can be thought of as small functional building blocks that can be stacked in an actor or scene to extend the functionality of that actor or scene. For example, a typical modifier for a scene could be one that tracks the players scores / hi-scores, change day / night settings or detects special gestures. An actor modifier example could be a modifier that allows the actor move around using heading and speed or even a modifier with functionality specific to your game such as make a baddy that walks left and right on a platform. The idea is to allow developers to build games and apps up from smaller re-usable building blocks and be able to add them using code or XOML. Below is a quick example showing how to attach a modifiers list to an actor in XOML:

     <ActorImage Name="Baddy1" ....... >
          <Modifiers>
              <Modifier Name="AddThrustMod" Active="true" Param1="1" />
              <Modifier Name="ShootPlayerWhenClose" Active="true" Param1="1" />
          </Modifiers>
     </ActorImage>

Here we have added two modifiers to the Baddy1 actor which modify its behaviour. Note that up to 4 parameters can be passed to the modifier

Modifiers can also be attached in code like this:

    // Find the modifiers creator
    IIwGameModifierCreator* creator = IW_GAME_MODS->findCreator("addthrustmod");
    if (creator != NULL)
    {
        // Create an instance of the modifier
        IIwGameModifier* mod = creator->CreateInstance();
        if (mod != NULL)
        {
            // Set up the instance
            mod->setName("addthrustmod");
            mod->setActive(true);
            mod->setParameter(0, "1");

            // Add the modifier to the actor
            actor->getModifiers()->addModifier(mod);
        }
    }

Draggable Actors

Any actor can now be set as draggable, allowing the user to tap it and drag it around the world. You can make any actor draggble in XOML by adding Draggable=”true” to its definition.

Setting / Updating Actor Properties from XOML

Its now possible to set or update actor properties directly from an action in XOML. Using the new SetProperty / AddProperty actions

Extensions System

From v0.34 of IwGame a new optional extensions system has been added. The extensions system is basically a collection of actors, scenes, actions, modifiers and other elements that are not part of the base IwGame engine. The extensions system provides support for game specific objects and other functionality that can be used to make creating specific types of games much easier. There’s not many extensions available yet but many more will be added in the future

IwGame Usage Changes

Please note the recent changes that have been applied to IwGame Usage. The new usage terms are shown below:

You are free to use IwGame in your projects in part or in whole as long as the header comments remain in-tact. Whilst you are not obliged to mention your usage of IwGame in your products it would be great and beneficial to let us know as we can publicise your product on our blog and other web sites / services (Our blog receives over 200,000 hits per month) However, if you use any part of the IwGame extensions system, which includes extension actors, extension scenes or extension modifiers then you are required to mention usage of the IwGame Engine in your product.

You may not claim the IwGame engine or its documentation as your own work or package it up and include it in any kind of middleware product without express prior written notice from an executive of Pocketeers Limited with the correct authority to grant authorisation. You may not publicly host any source code that is part of the IwGame Engine, the source will be hosted at http://www.drmop.com/index.php/iwgame-engine/

These changes apply to all versions of the IwGame Engine.

Well that’s it for this update

//#include “pngstruct.h”

Ok, its not often I look in my email box and find good news, but today I saw an email from Marmalade announcing Marmalade 6.0. I took a quick look over the changes list and the new features and it looks pretty awesome. I’m a little disappointed that there’s no native web deployment, but there’s plenty of other cool features to be playing with including:

• Web Marmalade – You can now develop apps with HTML5 / CSS3 and Javascript. Marmalade have used the same standard as Phone Gap to make it compatible (smart move IMO). This is pretty awesome in itself, but to be honest I’m waiting for the full native bridge exposure and documentation. You wont be making any real time smooth arcade style games with 6.0 but its great for apps and none arcade style game development. Either way I’m going to be getting my hands dirty with Javascript (the most lawless language on Earth )
• iPad retina support
• New native UI enhancements including Toolbar, Table, Picket / Listbox , Tab / Tap Group, Activity indicator and Navigation bar
• New Mac anehancements such as support accelerometer and location in the simulator
• And a mass of bug fixes, including the notorious Facebook extension which has been upgraded to the latest on  Facebook SDK for iOS. Also native support for JPEG images

To see the full list of changes check out Marmalades web site at https://www.madewithmarmalade.com/marmalade/whats-new

New here? What’s IwGame? IwGame is an open source free to use cross platform game engine for iPhone, iPad, Android, Bada, Playbook, Symbian, Windows Mobile, LG-TV, Windows and Mac, built on top of the Marmalade SDK. You can find out more and download the SDK from our IwGame Engine page.

A lot of bugs (mostly minor) have been reported since the forum went live so we decided to release 0.32 now and push in-app purchasing to another future release (hopefully 0.33).

We finally got cOnnecticOns approved for BlackBerry PlayBook, its now on sale on BlackBerry App World. Version 2.0 also went live today for iOS on iTunes and for Android on the Android Market / Amazon. Not happy with Samsung however, the game has been knocked back on Bada 1 and 2 numerous times for minor issues that should be footnotes!

Ok, on with the changes, here is the list of changes for 0.32:

• New XOML RemoveAllScenes action added – This will remove all scenes excluding the scene that is provided
• Data bindings now added to XOML – You can now create a bindings list which pair properties up to variables. Changes made to those variables will bautomaticaly be applied to the object that they are bound to.
• Actors and Scenes now support data bindings
• Conditions variables now added to XOML – A condition variable allows you to string together some basic logic based on the value of other variables, these can then be attached to Actions to create conditional actions
• Actions and Action groups now support conditional variables
• IIwGameXomlResource now have parents
• CIwGameString now supports encoding / decoding to / from hex
• CIwGameSprite now has a RebuildTransformNow() method
• CIwGameSprite now has an update method where the trabnsform will be rebuilt. This ensures that all transforms have been buuilt before rendering
• CIwGameScene now has a PreDestroy() method which gets called when a request to destroy a scene is received
• CIwGameActorImage now has a SetSrcRect() method
• Added sound and music volume control to CIwGameAudio
• CIwGameSound now accepts a paramater that allows you to specify volume, frequency and panning when playing a sound effect
• BUG FIX: PNG lib fix for Visual Studio 2008
• BUG FIX: Mac compile issues
• BUG FIX: CIwGameSprite setScale() fixed
• BUG FIX: Precision issues graphical glitches at lower resolutions
• BUG FIX: Actor collilsion size now read corrctly from XOML
• BUG FIX: CIwGameActorText text aligment now applie correctly
• BUG FIX: When an actor or scene has a timeline attached, the first frame was not benig set before displaying the object
• BUG FIX: CIwGameTextSprite hit test fixed
• BUG FIX: CIwGameAds – VServ local now set correctly
• BUG FIX: CIwGameScene – Initial camera transform is now built correctly
• BUG FIX: CIwGameString::URLEncode now calculates correct buffer size
• BUG FIX: CIwGameString::URLDecode now checks for the correct character
• BUG FIX: Infinite loop removed from CIwGameXmlNode::GetAttribute()

The most exciting changes for us at least are the XOML data bindings and conditional variables / actions. They enable the creation of some very complex and ultra re-usable stuff. We are planning on starting a library of useful generic classes and XOML layout files that can be used as plug-ins to help create games and apps even quicker. Our first experiment with this is to create a set of XOML files and scene classes that handle ScoreLoop integration. If this is successful then we will release this as a plug-in library that you can simply drop into your own games and style with your own styles. Will blog about this in the near future.

XOML Data Binding

Data binding is the ability to map properties of objects to XOML variables. Changes to those variables will be immediately reflected in all properties of all objects that are bound. Lets take a look at a quick example:

We declare a global variable that holds a profile name:

    <Variable Name="ProfileName" Type="string" Value="None" />

Next we create a bindings set that contains a single property called “Text” that is bound to the “ProfileName” variable that we just defined:

    <Bindings Name="SC_ProfileBindings">
        <Binding Property="Text" Variable="ProfileName" />
    </Bindings>

We now attach our bindings list “SC_ProfileBindings” to a text actor:

    <ActorText Name="NameLabel" ......... Bindings="SC_ProfileBindings" />

Now if we change the ProfileName variable in XOML or in code, our NameLabel actor’s Text property will be automatically updated.

We opted to use independent binding lists (as opposed to in-line bindings as used in XAML / MXML) because they are re-usable, the same bindings list can be used across many objects. They are also much more readable as bindings are not intermingled with normal property values.

Note that if you also have a timeline animation that updates the same property then the timeline is given priority and the timeline will write over the binding value.

Binding lists can be attached to scenes and actors. The following properties can be bound:

CiwGameScene:

• Position
• Angle
• Scale
• Colour
• Clipping
• Timeline
• Binding
• Camera
• Type
• Active
• Visible
• AllowSuspend
• AllowResume

CIwGameActor:

• Position
• Depth
• Origin
• Angle
• Scale
• Colour
• Velocity
• Angular Velocity
• Timeline
• Binding
• Type
• Active
• Visible
• Collidable
• HitTest

CIwGameActorImage (in addition to those present in CIwGameActor):

• Size
• SrcRect
• Image

CiwGameActorText (in addition to those present in CIwGameActor):

• Text
• Rect

Binding sets that are defined outside a scene will be assigned to the global resource manager, whilst bindings defined inside a scene will be assigned to the scenes resource manager.

Data bindings offer a way to create complex scenes and user interfaces without having to manually update the properties of the individual elements

Conditional Variables and Actions

XOML supports a new variable type called a condition variable. A condition variable is a variable that contains an expression that is defined by a list of variables, operators and values. Lets take a look at a quick example:

    <!--Create a bog standard int variable that contains the current level /-->
    <Variable Name="current_level" Type="int" Value="1" />

    <!--Create a condition variable that tests the current level is between 1 and 9 /-->
    <Variable Name="low_level_extras" Type="condition" Value="current_level GTE 1 AND current_level LT 10" />

We create an integer variable called current_level and assign it the value of 1. Next we create a new variable called “low_level_extras” that is of type “condition”. The most interesting part of our condition variables is the value, which is:

     current_level GTE 1 AND current_level LT 10

Unlike normal variables which contain constant values of some kind, condition variables contain dynamic expressions that are evaluated at run-time. The end result of a condition variable is always either true or false. The above expression in terms of C code would read like this:

     bool low_level_extras = (current_level >= 1 && current_level < 10);

Condition variables aren’t much use on their own and are usually used in conjunction with actions to provide conditional action functionality whereby an action or actions group will only be executed if a certain set of conditions are met. Lets take a look at a quick example:

    <Actions Name="NextScene">
       <Action Method="LoadXOML" Param1="MainScene.xml" />
       <Action Method="LoadXOML" Param1="LowLevelExtras.xml" Condition="low_level_extras" />
       <Action Method="KillScene" />
    </Actions>

The above actions group is called when we click a button to start a game. The actions group starts by loading the MainScene XOML file which creates the main game scene. Next the condition variable “low_level_extras” is checked to see if It is true, if current_level is between 1 and 9 then the variable will return true and the additional XOML file “LowLevelExtras” will be loaded. If however the current_level variable is less than 1 or greater than 9  then the additional XOML file will not be loaded.

This is just a very simple example showing how conditional actions can be used to re-use and extend XOML code.

And that’s it for this update. Thank you to all those who have downloaded cOnnecticOns on one platform or another and massive thanks to those who left us a review, you are awesome.

One cool change that’s just been finished is XOML Conditions. XOML conditions are variables that evaluate to either true or false and their value is an expression of other variables. Lets take a quick look at an example:

<!--Create a bog standard int variable that contains the current level --/>
<Variable Name="current_level" Type="int" Value="1" />
<!--Create a condition variable that tests that the current level is between 1 and 9 --/>
<Variable Name="low_level_extras" Type="condition" Value="current_level GTE 1 AND current_level LT 10" />

The above condition variables value is basically an if statement which translates to:

if (current_level >= 1 && current_level < 10)

But what use is that to anyone you may ask?

Lets consider that we have an actions group such as that show below:

<!-- Next scene action -->
<Actions Name="NextScene">
    <Action Method="LoadXOML" Param1="MainScene.xml" />
    <Action Method="LoadXOML" Param1="LowLevelExtras.xml" Condition="low_level_extras" />
    <Action Method="KillScene" />
</Actions>

The above actions set would usually just load the MainScene scene and run it then load the LowLevelExtras scene and run that. However using the condition variable LowLevelScene will only be loaded and ran if the condition variable low_level_extras equates to true, allowing us to only load the extra stuff if the level is between 1  and 9. The condition variable is evaluated at run-time so you can change variables and affect the result, allowing a very dynamic system to be put together.

It may seem like a small change but it adds the ability to add mark-up side logic, which IMO is huge. My mind is whirring away with ideas for its use at the moment!

Conditions can be attached to individual actions as well as actions groups

XOML Bindings

XOML bindings are currently being implemented (nearly finished). This allows you to bind properties of objects such as actors and scenes to XOML variables using a bindings  list. When you change the value of the XOML variable it also changes the value of the property that it is bound to. This system will be particularly useful for hooking up UI’s and HUD’s to in-game data.

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