consolidated _core-*/ to _core/

Last year Pyrex, then version 0.9.5.1a, did not support compile-time conditions for things such as platform specific code. To work around this used different _core directories, one for each platform, and a platform test in setup.py would determine which directory soy._core was compiled from.

While functional, this created duplicated work and a fairly messy source tree with four different _core-* directories. With Pyrex 0.9.6 release came support for code such as this:

IF UNAME_SYSNAME == "Windows":
  include "icky_definitions.pxi"
ELIF UNAME_SYSNAME == "Darwin":
  include "nice_definitions.pxi"
ELIF UNAME_SYSNAME == "Linux":
include "penguin_definitions.pxi"
ELSE:
    include "other_definitions.pxi"

... and, thus, we could finally merge those _core-* directories into src/_core and remove kludge from setup.py. Tonight that's exactly what I did. Behold, http://svn.pysoy.org/trunk/pysoy/src

website makeover and new logo

We've been working with the same website design (www.pysoy.org) for a year now. While it got the job done, we're in need of a makeover - and that's exactly what's going on. The basic layout from Planet PySoy is going site-wide with a new docs section, info on how to get involved with development, separate bug and task/idea/etc filing forms, and a ton of new features that will make the site more community-oriented.

In the spirit of community inclusion, I'm also opening the new logo for collaboration and competition for. Draft logos can be worked on in http://svn.pysoy.org/media/logos with the final designs voted on by all active developers near the end of this month. We'll aim to include this in the beta-3 release next month as a special mesh and texture.

normals (dot3) texture

With a few minor bugs left to be worked out, we now have normals mapping. This was written by Jaroslaw Tworek, a high school student in Poland who also added recently volumetric fog and billboards. These features and more will be included in the Beta-3 release next month.

Bump Mapping; yet another feature PySoy has over it's predecessor.

downtime and new server

As many people have noticed, *.pysoy.org was down yesterday. Since our former server is still offline (thanks, Verizon) I've paid out of pocket for a new colocated server hosted at ServerBeach.

After an all-nighter getting it setup, www.pysoy.org is back up, as is svn, and hopefully everything else. I'll resolve any problems tomorrow, as I'm in serious need of sleep now.

PySoy Beta-2 response!

12 hours after the PySoy Beta2 release we've had over 120 downloads, about half of which for Windows.

Some users were quick to point out we forgot three dll's in the installer; glew, iconv, and zlib1. We're rebuilding the installers for Windows to include these and testing to ensure we didn't forget anything else.

PySoy Beta-2 Released!

We finished up the spit-n-polish work tonight and shipped the second "beta" of our 3D game engine for Python!

Included is support for Microsoft Windows (with nice bdist graphical installer), keyboard input and an early draft of the controller-action system, text rendering thanks to Cairo, support for Joints, and other enhancements and fixes too numerous to list.

While over a dozen developers contributed to this release I'd like to especially thank Kirk McDonald for porting the engine to Windows API, Derek Rhodes for getting the Cairo support in, Eric Stein for his work from Summer of Code and since, and Piet Delport who provided countless hours of help to all of us with Pyrex-related issues.

We're far from done so please download, enjoy, give feedback, and if so inspired help us reach 1.0!

r600

A quick update to INSTALL (dependencies list) brings us up to r600. This makes about 50 commits in the past month.

... of course with the sprint ongoing we're likely to reach r750 by PySoy's Beta-2 release next week.

fresh soymilk!

While this is a blog about PySoy, a 3d engine for Python, this post is about a soy related product I recently fell in love with.

It's called the SoyQuick soymilk machine. Basically a pitcher, heating element, grinder, filter screen, and some sensors in one package.

You throw in 2/3 cup of soaked soy beans, fill water to a line in the pitcher, plug in a standard power chord (same as computers use), press the start button, and 15 minutes later fresh soymilk in the pitcher and okara in the filter basket.

This awesome machine plus an ample supply of Special Gunpowder Green Tea is what's fueling me through the PySoy Beta-2 release process.

Beta-2 task assignments

Looking at beta2 tickets there's an extremely disproportionate number of tickets being handled by yours truly.

If you can participate later this week or as part of the sprint, please take a look through what needs to be done and volunteer yourself for some of the workload. Many of these unassigned tickets almost anyone can do without previous experience with PySoy.

Sprinting to Beta-2

What a better way to kick off 2008 than with the long-awaited Beta-2 release of PySoy?

We've been lazy though, very little has been committed since Beta-1's release a few months ago. To play catchup and get us focused enough to reach this goal a sprint has been scheduled for the last weekend of 2007 (Dec 28-30).

The physical site for the sprint is in Manchester, NH. A bank of public IPs (no NAT), caffeine, desktop space, and inflatable crash mats await those able to make it. RSVP for the address.

For those working from home we'll have IRC and video conferencing throughout the weekend. If you're planning to participate join #PySoy or get your webcam working with Ekiga.

Even if you have no experience with C programming or OpenGL we need people for documentation, writing examples, and unit testing. Being inexperienced is an advantage for locating inadequately documented classes and filling in the gaps!

Every serious participant will be mailed a silk-screened "PySoy Sprint 2007" patch. Sews easily to a backpack, jacket, etc to let the world know that you helped make the PySoy revolution!