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[Skeggox]

Right, so I've uploaded what I've got so far for definition files: http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Cell_definition_files

Let's use the discussion page to figure out what needs to go in there

[Daenyth]

Not sure if you've posted already and I missed it, but if you give me the github url I'd be happy to manage an arch linux package for it in the arch-games repo, when I have some more time.

[Skeggox]

Thanks Daenyth, that would be awesome. I'm an archlinux fan myself, and plan to install it on my laptop again soon. I'll need it for testing the Obsidian Linux build.

I'll let you know when it is up on github.

[Peteł]

(...)
It might not understand all of the properties of a cell/object (Toady might have introduced new building types, or constructions) but it would be able to load it and maybe display a ? mark or something, instead of crashing or throwing a tantrum. And it can write the cells back out after it's work is done, passing through anything it doesn't understand just in case the next tool or a future version of itself will.
(...)

if (errorsOccurred == true)
throw new Tantrum("!()/(/$§/!*");

Time to subclass "Exception" in every programming language known to man..

[peterix]

(...)
It might not understand all of the properties of a cell/object (Toady might have introduced new building types, or constructions) but it would be able to load it and maybe display a ? mark or something, instead of crashing or throwing a tantrum. And it can write the cells back out after it's work is done, passing through anything it doesn't understand just in case the next tool or a future version of itself will.
(...)

if (errorsOccurred == true)
throw new Tantrum("!()/(/$§/!*");

Time to subclass "Exception" in every programming language known to man..

I'm SO renaming the DFError.h header of DFHack to DFTantrum.h

[Skeggox]

I've been doing that for a while now

Most of my personal projects have an exception called Vloermoer, which is a colloquial Afrikaans word for tantrum that is fun to say. It literally means to beat up the floor. I usually throw that one whenever there is an error caused by the user doing something stupid.

[Skeggox]

Progress Report

I've gotten the Cell engine (the part of Obsidian that loads, saves and manipulates the data from DF) basically working. I can now load and save XML files that uses a version-independent format to store fortress data. This will mean you can upload a compressed Obsidian save file with your favorite mega project, and then anyone on any platform can download and view/render it using almost any version of Obsidian*. You no longer need to have to get the exact version of DF, load up the fortress and then attach to it with a visualizer that supports that specific version of DF.

It still needs to be polished a bit before I can release, but it works!

After polishing I'll start on the Visual Fortress geometry module. It will use VF's geometry generator as-is to construct the renderable geometry. Once that module is done I'll try and release a stable version of Obsidian so that others can write exporter modules for offline rendering (using 3DSMax or Povray or Blender or what have you).

* Big version differences in the Cell engine will need to use XSLT stylesheets to internally upgrade/downgrade the format, but that should happen automagically behind the scenes.

[Djohaal]

I like how the cell engine works

[Libelnon]

dunno if this has been addressed already and I've not seen it, but will Obsidian render the buildings etc. that were missing from VF? Such as workshops, forges, doors...

[opsneakie]

Eventually, the answer is yes. It just depends on when I actually have the time to get models assembled for them all. s far as I'm aware, it will render pretty much everything once we have the models for it. Doors, beds, chests, tables etc are going to be the first priority model-wise, but I think eventually we'll have every part of the fort rendering.

[Retro]

I'll be happy enough to have just natural and b-C constructions, really. The farther the project goes past that, though, the awesomer.

[Skeggox]

Unlike VF and other previous visualizers, I'm not going to spend any dev time in making my own rendering system etc.
I'm using an off-the-shelf scene manager and rendering engine called OpenSceneGraph instead.

So, if OpenSceneGraph can render it, you will see it in Obsidian. OSG comes with a nice scene composer called OSGEdit, so anyone that wants to help with models, textures, shaders etc. can use that composer.

On other news - the save/load part of the Cell engine had a setback, but I'm on top of it again. I tried to write out one of my megaprojects from 40d#, 6x6 embark with 50 z-levels. The XML save file came out at just under 200MB. Erm. Even compressing it only brought it down to 80MB.

I had to go back to the drawing board and rethink things a bit...

This weekend I re-wrote the save/load code to use cons hashing. This should reduce memory and file size by a factor of probably around 100, once I beat the last bugs into submission.

So, yeah, there is definitely progress

[jfsh]

I am extremely excited for this.

[Greiger]

*standing over an abandoned Visual Fortress on the side of the street*
We can rebuild it.  We have the technology.
*Insert million dollar man theme here with images from a finished Obsidian*

*insert suggestion for the optional rendering of bloodspatter here*

It would be nice to see fortresses in 3D again.  I admit I usually enjoy isometric more, but there's just some things isometric cannot convey quite like real 3D.

[BEvilR]

SO EXCITED!

Don't get me wrong I love my stonesense, but sometimes I just want the big picture, and I assume with the Lua scripting your proposing, this thing will be able to do nearly anything, GMod Style.