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March 2022

 

GitHub Beta Releases

I've set up automated builds via continuous integration using GitHub actions for the Pragma repository.

Basically this means that every time I publish any changes to Pragma or the Filmmaker, a new beta-build will automatically be generated and published on GitHub. I will be using this system for beta-releases from now on, so you'll be able to get new beta-updates here: TODO

Please remember that these are beta-versions, which means they're not necessarily stable and some things may not work properly or suddenly break. If you want to be on the safe side, you can wait for the next stable release, however I don't have an eta for that.

Graph Editor

The graph editor is now almost complete and fully functional. It supports constant, linear, and bezier spline interpolation, as well as easing modes (as as Blender). TODO

Cycles X / Live raytracing improvements

Cycles X is a new major update to the Cycles renderer that was added to Blender last year. A few months ago they also made it available as a stand-alone version, so I took some time to upgrade to it.

  • There should no longer be rendering issues with certain GPU models
  • Rendering should be significantly faster now
  • Adaptive sampling is enabled by default when rendering with Cycles X in PFM, which should decrease render times even further
  • Improved denoising with the OptiX denoiser
  • Cycles X can now be used for the live raytracing render viewport, which is almost real-time:

Some changes to the scene (currently limited to light sources) update the live render immediately.

 

Improved asset import support

zip drag-and-drop import

Added model asset import support for formats: blend, fbx, dae, x3d, obj, abc, usd, pmx (MMD)

 

Internal Web-Browser

I've added an internal web-browser to the Filmmaker interface:

asset_browser_example.png

It has bookmarks to several big SFM and Blender content websites (e.g. SFMLab, SmutBase, etc.) and any files you download through it will automatically be analyzed by Pragma. If Pragma detects any asset files in the download (e.g. models, maps, etc.), they will automatically be imported and will be usable immediately. This works with most downloads from most websites, although some archive types (e.g. .rar) can cause some issues in rare cases.

 

Support for the Source Engine "Eyes" shader

Not a major update, but I've finally added support for the old "eyes" shader from the Source Engine.

Basically, the Source Engine has two different ways of rendering eyes, an older version (used by older Source games, like Half-Life 2, as well as a lot of custom models), and a newer version (used by TF2 and newer Source games). Previously there was only support for the new shader and not the old one, which meant that the eyes of characters using the old versions would not be rendered correctly. That is now functional as well:

legacy_eyes_shader_1.pnglegacy_eyes_shader_2.png

 

IK Rigs / IK in Interface

 

 

Particles

 

Old system fixes (water, etc.)

 

New project format?

 

Prelewd

Unfortunately there's still no new version of Prelewd yet, but I do have some exciting news for the near future!

- ew animations

- interface updates

- etc.

 

I've added an internal Web-Browser to the Filmmaker:

 

https://wiki.pragma-engine.com/books/pragma-filmmaker/page/downloading-and-importing-assets#bkmrk-web-browser

Its main purpose is to make the import of assets significantly easier. Any files you download with the browser are automatically analyzed, and if any assets are detected they are automatically imported and immediately available in the asset explorer windows.

  •  

TODO: Image

  • Engine Cleanup and general fixes/improvements

 

- New Filmmaker project format

 

improved blender support

 

 

Prelewd

- New animations coming up

- UI overhaul

  • Significantly improve peformance of retargeted actors

 

Full Changelog

(For previous versions, see https://wiki.pragma-engine.com/books/pragma-engine/page/changelog)

Filmmaker v0.4.6
  • Replaced Cycles with Cycles X (With OptiX and OptiX denoising)
  • Significantly improved performance of live raytracing render
  • Live raytracing render now automatically updates on certain scene changes (e.g. lighting)
  • Graph Editor is now mostly functional and can be used for animating
  • Added internal Web-Browser which automatically detects and imports downloaded assets
  • Added new project file format (old format is no longer supported)
  • Added reflection probe and lightmap baking
  • Added option to copy/paste and share actors with animation data between projects
  • Added secondary and tertiary viewports
  • Significantly reduce real-time peformance impact of retargeted actors
  • Sky settings have been moved to "sky" actor component to allow animating sky properties
  • Sky overrides and angles can now be previewed in the game viewport
  • Actors and actor components can now be removed
  • Improved asset explorer filter
  • "emission_factor" entry field in material editor is now a color field instead of a simple slider
  • General load and save performance improvements
  • Added quicksave and autosave
  • Added new rebindable hotkey system and default hotkeys
  • Bones can now be animated with transform widgets in 3D viewport
  • Support for volumetric spotlights when rendering with Cycles
  • Generated model asset icons now zoom in and focus on the character head for character models
  • Added IK configs, IK posing and animating with IK
  • Actors can now be right-clicked in game viewport to edit materials directly
  • Fixed timeline zoom issues and improved zooming behavior
  • Fixed incorrect camera FOV values when importing a SFM session
  • Lots of crash, interface, general bug fixes, improvements and QOL changes
Engine
  • Added support for meshes with more than 65535 vertices
  • Significantly improved asset loading times
  • Added model asset import support for formats: blend, fbx, dae, x3d, obj, abc, usd, pmx (MMD)
  • Assets can now be automatically detected and imported from archive files
  • Added support for Source Engine "Eyes" shader
  • Added support for "$alpha" VMT parameter
  • Added console commands:
    • asset_multithreading_enabled
    • asset_file_cache_enabled
    • render_enable_verbose_output
    • debug_dump_font_glyph_map
    • locale_localize
    • util_convert_cubemap_to_equirectangular_image
    • util_convert_equirectangular_image_to_cubemap
  • Added "-console" launch parameter arguments: "gui", "guid"
  • Console command launch parameters that appear after "+map" are now executed after the map has been loaded
  • Added entity components:
    • game_animation_player, game_animation_recorder
    • func_portal, portal
    • liquid_surface, liquid_volume, buoyancy, surface, liquid
    • weapon_physcannon
    • wireframe_camera
  • Added maps: test_3d_skybox, test_ai_nav, test_fog, test_mirror, test_physics, test_portal, test_water, test_particles
  • Added gravity gun script
  • Added support for rotating GUI elements
  • Added support for UTF8 fonts and localization
  • Added "local view target factor" for controlling character eyes
  • Updated particle system to new renderer
    • Various blob particle improvements
  • Fixed water buoyancy physics
  • Fixed fog not rendering
  • Fixed 3D skybox not rendering
  • Fixed water not rendering
  • Fixed issue where light source could appear as turned on despite being turned off or removed previously
  • Fixed crash when loading models with custom activity names
  • Added Fortress Forever to default mount list
  • Added support for equirectangular skyboxes and sky angles
  • Fixed crash when attempting to export model asset with invalid flex rules
  • Fixed some model meshes not being rendered
  • Maps in new-game menu are now split into native maps and external maps
  • General performance improvements

  • Spot-light inner cone angle has been replaced with blend fraction

  • Spot-light outer cone angle has been changed from half-angle to full-angle

  • prop_dynamic entities no longer spawn with physics
  • General crash fixes and improvements
Lua
  • Lua-defined component members can now be animated
  • Add "prepared render command buffer" system for issuing multi-threaded render commands
  • Component member flags can now be specified as strings
  • Added Component member meta data information
  • Added function bindings:
    • asset.find, asset.clear_unused, asset.normalize_asset_name, asset.load, asset.reload, asset.precache, asset.is_supported_extension, asset.wait_until_loaded, asset.wait_until_all_pending_jobs_complete, asset.poll, asset.poll_all
    • ents.Entity:GetUri, :GetMemberValue, :SetMemberValue, :DebugPrintComponentProperties
    • ents.EntityComponent:Log, :GetUri, :GetMemberUri, :GetDynamicMemberIndices, :GetStaticMemberCount, :GetMemberIndices
    • ents.ModelComponent:ReloadRenderBufferList, :IsDepthPrepassEnabled, :SetDepthPrepassEnabled, :IsAutoLodEnabled, :SetAutoLodEnabled
    • ents.BaseEnvLightSpotComponent:GetBlendFractionProperty, :GetOuterConeAngleProperty, :GetConeStartOffsetProperty
    • ents.CameraComponent:GetFocalDistance, :SetFocalDistance, :GetFocalDistanceProperty
    • ents.PanimaComponent:DebugPrint, :GetCurrentTime, :SetCurrentTime, :GetCurrentTimeFraction, :SetCurrentTimeFraction, :ReloadAnimation
    • ents.LightComponent:SetLightIntensityType, :SetLightIntensity
    • ents.ReflectionComponent:GetLocationIdentifier, :GenerateFromEquirectangularImage
    • ents.LightComponent:IsBaked, :SetBaked
    • ents.add_component_creation_listener
    • ents.find_installed_custom_components, ents.get_registered_entity_types
    • ents.RenderComponent:IsInPvs
    • ents.TransformComponent:Teleport
    • ents.WorldComponent:RebuildRenderQueues
    • ents.ModelComponent:UpdateRenderMeshes
    • file.is_empty
    • debug.render_mesh
    • game.get_number_of_scenes_queued_for_rendering, game.get_queued_scene_render_info, game.set_gameplay_control_camera, game.reset_gameplay_control_camera, game.get_gameplay_control_camera, game.clear_gameplay_control_camera, game.get_primary_camera_render_mask
    • geometry.calc_rect_circle_touching_position
    • gui.create_render_target, gui.create_color_image, gui.register_default_skin, gui.set_focus_enabled, gui.is_focus_enabled
    • game.DrawSceneInfo:AddSubPass
    • gui.Base:CheckPosInBounds
    • gui.DropDownMenu:FindOptionIndex
    • gui.Element:GetRelativePos, :SetLocalAlpha, :GetLocalAlpha, :IsRemovalScheduled, :ResetRotation, :GetRotationMatrix, :SetRotation, :SetStencilEnabled, :IsStencilEnabled, :SetLocalRenderTransform, :ClearLocalRenderTransform, :DrawToTexture, :GetLocalRenderTransform, :AnchorWithMargin, :ClearFocus, :SetParentAndUpdateWindow
    • gui.Text:GetTextHeight, :UpdateSubLines, :SetMaxLineCount, :GetMaxLineCount
    • gui.Shape:ClearBuffer, :SetShape, :GetBuffer, :SetBuffer, :GetVertexCount
    • gui.WIContextMenu:IsPopulated
    • gui.ProgressBar:SetLabelVisible
    • input.InputBindingLayer, input.add_input_binding_layer, input.get_input_binding_layers, input.get_input_binding_layer, input.remove_input_binding_layer, input.get_core_input_binding_layers, input.update_effective_input_bindings, input.get_effective_input_bindings, input.set_binding_layer_enabled, input.is_binding_layer_enabled, input.is_binding_layer_enabled, input.InputBindingLayer:FindBoundKeys
    • locale.localize
    • math.snap_to_gridf, math.get_power_of_2_values, math.calc_bezier_point
    • math.Mat4.create_reflection
    • math.Quaternion:MirrorAxis
    • math.Transform:ToPlane, math.Transform:Reflect
    • math.Vector2:GetAngle, math.Vector:Reflect
    • Model:GetExtensionData, :GetSubMesh, :FindSubMeshId
    • Model.Mesh.Sub:GetTriangle, :GetIndexType, :SetIndexType, :AddIndex, :SetIndex, :GetIndex, :HasUvSet, :GetExtensionData, :ReverseIndices, IndexType and MaxIndex enums
    • Renamed Model.Mesh.Sub:GetTriangles to :GetIndices
    • panima.Animation.load, :RemoveChannel
    • panima.Channel:Resize, :GetSize, :SetTime, :SetValue, :ClearValueExpression, :GetValueExpression, :RemoveValue, :FindInterpolationIndices, :FindIndex, :RemoveValueRange, :AddValueRange, :SortValues, :GetInterpolatedValue, :FindIndexRangeInTimeRange
    • prosper.blur_texture
    • prosper.RenderTarget:GetColorAttachmentTexture, :GetDepthStencilAttachmentTexture
    • prosper.Window:GetMonitorBounds, :Maximize, :IsMaximized
    • shader.BaseTexturedLit3D:IsDepthPrepassEnabled, :SetDepthPrepassEnabled
    • table.is_empty, table.table_to_map
    • util.File:GetSize, util.import_assets, util.generate_hair_file, util.generate_hair_data
    • udm.is_numeric_type, is_generic_type, is_non_trivial_type, type_to_string, get_numeric_component, lerp, get_numeric_component_count, is_vector_type, is_matrix_type, get_matrix_row_count, get_matrix_column_count, is_array_type, get_class_type, parse
    • input.is_ctrl_key_down, is_alt_key_down, is_shift_key_down
    • udm.Array:ToTable, udm.PropertyWrapper:ToTable, :ToAscii
    • udm.Property:AddValueRange, :RemoveValueRange, :SetValueType, :RemoveValue, :Copy
    • Material:SetLoaded
  • Added classes/enums:
    • util.ThreadPool
    • util.ZipFile
    • gui.DrawToTextureInfo

    • asset.AssetLoadFlags

    • shader.BindState

  • Fixed EntityComponent:GetMemberValue, :SetMemberValue not working correctly for some member types
  • Fixed util.remove not removing all objects in table correctly in some cases
  • Fixed Lua-defined component members of type string not working correctly
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