The first jME3 release of 2011 is at the same time the last alpha release of jME3, the beta release of jME3 will finally be in “API freeze” although most planned API changes have been incorporated already in alpha-4 and we will try to keep the changes until beta at a minimum while mainly concentrating on adding new features.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTErYjsJ_Yk

About Alpha-4

It took us longer than anticipated to get alpha-4 out but we think this package was well worth the wait. Many improvements and additions like lighting support for terrain, post-process water and physics controls bring jMonkeyEngine3 a big step closer to its final release. The SDK steps into a whole new dimension of visual editing thanks to @Sploregs new terrain editor plugin for jMonkeyPlatform, many internal improvements in the platform make extending and improving it even easier.

The jMonkeyEngine3 SDK has really become a mature product by now and success stories like those of Mythruna and other projects further strengthen our belief in providing a complete game development package that keeps all aspects around the development under control so that you can concentrate on creating your game.

From this release on the jMonkeyPlatform with all its plugins will be referred to as “The jMonkeyEngine3 SDK”. While the jMonkeyPlatform application itself will keep its name, the amount of available plugins that come preinstalled and can be added make the whole package more than just a simple application, hence the shift to the SDK name.

We sincerely hope that also those users that code in other IDE’s start to use the SDK and its functions, remember you can edit other IDE projects assets via File->Import Project->External Project Assets.

Changes in the engine

- Lighted terrain
- Post Process Water
- Depth Blur Filter
- Movement paths & cinematics tracks
- Physics Controls
- Improved physics character
- Overall improved physics flexibility
- NiftyGUI 1.3 (changes may break current xml)
- OpenGL 1 support (currently all materials are unlit in OpenGL1)
- Support for mat param -> renderstate binding to support OpenGL1 for your own shaders
- Uses lwjgl 2.7.1

Notable deprecations
- PhyiscsNodes have been deprecated (in favor of Physics Controls)
- Most unshaded material j3md files are deprecated: (in favor of Unshaded.j3md)
- SolidColor.j3md
- VertexColor.j3md
- SimpleTextured.j3md
- ColoredTextured.j3md
- The m_ prefix for material settings has been deprecated (its kept in the shader source only)
- JOGL support has been deprecated

Changes in the SDK

- Terrain editing and painting
- SkyBox creation wizard
- Vehicle editor (WIP)
- Improved Material Editor
- Undo/Redo support (WIP)
- Adding of items via SceneExplorer
- Executing of functions like tangent generation via SceneExplorer
- Editing of UserData for Spatials
- Support for Controls in SceneExplorer (AnimControl, PhysicsControl etc.)
- Improved physics support
- Improved switching between plugins in open scene

Changes in the jMonkeyPlatform Plugin API
- Generally improved internal and extension APIs
- Support for creating custom items via the SceneExplorer
- Support for Undo/Redo
- Support for custom Controls in SceneExplorer
- Improve support for custom Spatials in SceneExplorer

Platform and Update Center changes
jMonkeyPlatform is now based on our own build of the NetBeans platform which allows us to update the base platform independently from the NetBeans IDE update cycle. A new update center on jMonkeyEngine.com provides the updates for the base platform. For the time being these are generated from the “silver” version of NetBeans, which makes jMonkeyPlatform more up-to-date than the current NetBeans beta release
The update centers for NetBeans plugins are now disabled by default to avoid cluttering the list of available plugins with stuff thats mostly not relevant to jME, however you can simply enable these to access the additional plugins that are available for the NetBeans IDE as well.

Upgrade notes

Note that depending on the content binary asset files created with alpha-3 might not be compatible with alpha-4 as no upgrade handling code is added to the jME3 serializer methods before beta. Also note that some API changes (especially physics) might break existing code, most changes should not be too complicated though.

Its recommended to uninstall previous versions of the SDK using the uninstaller:

Windows:
- Select jMonkeyPlatform in your installed software list and uninstall it
- (Alternatively) Double-click the uninstall.exe in the jmonkeyplatform folder
- Go through the uninstall wizard

Linux:
- Run the uninstall.sh file in the jMonkeyPlatform install folder
- Go through the uninstall wizard

MacOSX:
- Right click the jMonkeyPlatform application and select “show contents”
- Double-click the uninstall.command file in the folder that opens
- Go through the uninstall wizard
- Delete the empty jMonkeyPlatform application.

SVN changes

Shortly after this release the /branches/jme3 branch in svn will finally be moved to /trunk/engine to replace the now end of lifed jME 2.1, which will be moved to /branches/jme2.1. The /branches/jme3-gdeGame Development Environment - The basic definition of jMonkeyPlatform. branch will be moved to /trunk/sdk.

Download the SDK

Download the SDK in our downloads section.

Happy coding,
the jMonkeyEngine Team

Give it a good read, keep up with the latest changes in the source and help out any way you can: Commit to a pending task, test the latest revisions, write code reviews, document the newest changes and finally, just give us a shout if you like where this is going.

Roadmap: jMonkeyEngine 3 Alpha-4

Materials

• Ambient Pass – Per many requests on the forum.

• Fix RenderState combining issue.
• Remove “m_” prefix from material parameters.
  • Do it in all examples and built-in materials.
  • Deprecate the old way by showing a message in the log once upon detection:
    • WARNING: Specifying the m_ prefix for material parameters is no longer necessary and is deprecated. Please see this page for more info: http:// …
• Unshaded Materials – Any models imported with lighting off will not work in jME3.
  • Probably remove the majority of “unshaded” materials we have right now.
    • WireColor.j3md
    • SolidColor.j3md
    • VertexColor.j3md
    • SimpleTextured.j3md
    • ColoredTextured.j3md
    • Gui.j3md
    • Nifty.j3md
  • Turn them into Unshaded.j3md
  • And add support for light-maps
• Add support for default values in material definitions (not very important but does influence the end-user).

Filters

• Multisampling support must be finalized and work for all filters
• Transparent Shadows – Per many requests on forum.

Collision

• Collision detection on triangle strips and fans – seems primarily fueled by TerraMonkey users, however since the addition of the height-map-specific ray-casting algorithm it’s no longer such a big issue.

Networking

• The sync system works fine but just needs better integration and more testing.

Audio

• Rewrite audio system
• It’s unclear why a rewrite is needed or what in the current implementation causes issues:
  • The issue is that all audio source changes are not made instantly, but are deferred to update later, this causes a lot of extra OpenAL calls that are not needed.
  • The audio system runs on the render thread, the biggest issue is that decoding e.g. OGG/Vorbis audio also happens there, this means that if the render thread lags, audio is going to sound bad. Also audio decoding is going to cause unnecessary FPS drops if the CPU core that the render thread runs on isn’t particularly fast.

GUI

• Nifty GUI is shaping up nicely, but since we don’t want to update to a buggy/unstable version we are still using v1.2.
• So we wait until Nifty 1.3 official is released.
• Then we can fix the input consuming issue

Video

• Current video playback system in jME3 works but inadequately so.
• Locally I (Kirill) have a much better system but due to time and priorities it’s taken a backseat. Problem is that, if the file has an audio stream, the system will crash. I have yet to understand what causes this issue.
• If anybody experienced with Cortado’s JStreamer can take a look at it, that would be great.
• Do note that video is not a high priority feature of jME 3.0.

Asset Management

• We still don’t have smart asset caching, you need to manually clear the cache of the AssetManager.
  • Consider this a memory leak

Scene Graph

• Tangent Generator – It does not work for certain models, specifically those with inverted UVs along vertices and similar discontinuities.
• Light culling – If you have a huge scene and you attach a few point lights to it, you will ramp up the vertex counts by a lot. We need a way of culling lights so only objects that are within their radius are affected. Some people already complained about that.

Physics

• Cloning of controls

*** Update 14.01.2011 ***

Several of the major issues & enhancement mentioned are already receiving a lot of attention in the latest updates. Be sure to keep up with this feed (subscribe) and take the latest changes for a spin.

Direct Download – jME3 SDK Alpha1, no questions asked, for the impatient and daring.

We have decided to release jME3 in two different packages:

1. jMonkeyEngine3 SDK (includes jMonkeyEngine3 and jMonkeyPlatform)
2. jMonkeyEngine3 Standalone (includes jMonkeyEngine3 only)

Go to our download repository and pick whichever flavor suits you.

Showcase videos

jMonkeyEngine3 Demo Video

jMonkeyEngine3 SDK Demo Video

Documentation

• http://www.jmonkeyengine.com/wiki/doku.php/jme3
• http://www.jmonkeyengine.com/wiki/doku.php/jme3:jmonkeyplatform

If you’re wondering how the new jME3 matches up to the good ol’ jME2, check out the newly updated comparison, and join in on the discussion if you want to have your say.

We are also attempting to build an exhaustive list of all current and upcoming features. As of this writing, only the current and most complete features are listed.

Now let’s talk community!

Please read our contributor’s handbook. Make sure you don’t miss the part about reporting bugs. This is an alpha after all.

We could also use more video footage.

Frankly, we’re all rather exhausted now! There’s so much in store for the days to follow though. Here’s a taste:

• Plenty more showcase contents
• Webstarts!
• What’s up next? (general core, Android, terrain, jMonkeyPlatform plugins)

Happy Alpha Day, fellow jMonkeys!

~ jMonkey Team