Turbulenz SDK 0.20.3 is an update for both the Turbulenz Engine Installer and SDK components.
Please see the Change List for details on API changes.
Note
The Turbulenz Engine Installer is now included with the SDK. If you intended to develop using this SDK, you will need to install the engine located here: *SDKINSTALLDIR*/engines/0.20.3/. This Turbulenz Engine is a pre-release for developers and is only intended for development with the SDK. If you want to access games on https://turbulenz.com, make sure you check https://hub.turbulenz.com/download to ensure you have the latest compatible version. In the future, engine version management will be taken care of automatically.
Windows XP/Vista/7
The Turbulenz SDK for Windows is available from https://hub.turbulenz.com as a downloadable a self-extracting installer exe. This contains the tools, samples and engine components required to develop Turbulenz applications.
The following software should be installed before installing the Turbulenz SDK:
Essential
- Python 2.6.5+ - http://www.python.org/download/releases
Note
It is possible to use Python 2.7 (Not 3.X) with the tools. This feature is currently in beta. If you encounter any problems, revert back to using 2.6.
Recommended
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 - Used to compile speed-ups for python environment if available on platform.
- PDF reader - Required to read documentation in PDF format
After installing the essential and recommended software, install the SDK:
- Visit https://hub.turbulenz.com and login
- Download SDK 0.20.3 for Windows
- Run TurbulenzSDK-0.20.3.exe
- Follow the instructions
Note
Performance of any Python modules could potentially be slower if speed-ups cannot be compiled. It is recommended that you install Visual Studio before installing the Turbulenz SDK, so that the speed-ups can be configured in the environment. If you are using a 64bit version of Python you must have installed a 64bit version of the Visual Studio compilers.
Mac OS X 10.6/10.7 (BETA)
The Turbulenz SDK for Mac OS X is now available to developers in beta from https://hub.turbulenz.com as a self-extracting shell script. This contains the tools, samples and engine components required to develop Turbulenz applications.
The following software should be installed before installing the Turbulenz SDK:
Essential
- Python 2.6.5+ - http://www.python.org/download/releases
Note
It is possible to use Python 2.7 (Not 3.X) with the tools. This feature is currently in beta. If you encounter any problems, revert back to using 2.6.
- Mac OS X 10.6
- Xcode 3.2.6+ - This MUST be installed before running the script so that Python can compile certain modules.
Note
Only the command line development tools are required from Xcode and the iOS SDK is NOT required and can be skipped. If compilation tools such as GCC are already available, then the whole of Xcode is not necessary.
- Mac OS X 10.7
- Xcode 4.3.2+
or
Command Line Tools for Xcode (February 2012 or later)
Note
If you don’t already have Xcode installed, Turbulenz recommend the command line tools only, which is the minimum required for Turbulenz development.
Recommended
- Cg Toolkit - http://developer.nvidia.com/cg-toolkit - Required to compile shaders using the cgfx2json tool.
After installing the essential and recommended software, install the SDK:
- Visit https://hub.turbulenz.com and login
- Download SDK 0.20.3 for Mac
- Open a terminal in the same directory as the SDK installer and type:
- chmod a+x TurbulenzSDK-0.20.3.run
- ./TurbulenzSDK-0.20.3.run
- Follow the instructions
As technology and tools are updated, so too will the recommendations for development environment. Turbulenz aim to recommend versions of various third party tools and services that are the most stable, reliable and representative of the final product for development of your projects.
The web browser is the focus point for development. Games developed using Turbulenz are run, debugged and profiled from the web browser. Although performance of the browsers in release mode is relatively consistent. The choice for debug mode, depends on the performance of the browser and the tools available for it. Most JavaScript debuggers are either integrated into the browser or add-ons. These debuggers allow developers to pause execution, step through code, inspect variables and execute functions via the console.
| Windows: | XP/Vista/7 |
|---|---|
| Mac: | 10.5/10.6/10.7 |
Turbulenz recommends for debugging in debug mode:
For canvas configurations: Chrome 17 with Web Inspector (built-in)
In canvas 3D (WebGL), Chrome offers the best performance.
Chrome’s web inspector also includes a heap snapshot tool for looking at memory usage.
| Windows: | Firefox 11 with Firebug 1.8.4 |
|---|---|
| Mac: | Safari 5.0/5.1 with Web Inspector (built-in) |
For plugin configurations: Firefox 3.6.X with Firebug 1.7.3
Firefox 3.6 is recommended for performance in debug mode. This is due to fact that it runs plugins in-process, making the execution of low level API faster. Later versions of Firefox can be configured to run plugins in process too. See Running in Process.
| Windows: | Firefox 11 with Firebug 1.8.4 can be configured to achieve a similar performance level with in process. |
|---|---|
| Mac: | Safari 5.0/5.1 with Web Inspector (built-in) |
Note
Performance of plugin configurations in release mode is unaffected by being in or out of process. This is true across all supported browsers.
Ensuring accurate JavaScript code is written before runtime is an important step when developing with JavaScript. There are a number of tools that are designed to inspect JavaScript usage and check syntax. Turbulenz recommends for code verification:
Note
For JavaScript code optimization, a minimization tool is required that combines speed with accurate optimization. Choosing an appropriate minimizer improves the workflow of developing and ensures that the code will run as expected on the Turbulenz JavaScript engine. Turbulenz recommends for minimization:
UglifyJS
Note
Requires Node.js - http://nodejs.org/#download to be run from the command line.
To edit JavaScript code for Turbulenz applications, there are very few restrictions. The choice of editor should meet your development needs and include the features you require. Turbulenz recommend using an editor with a minimum of JavaScript syntax highlighting, code verification options and external command execution. If you are looking for a basic editor to try, Turbulenz recommend:
Komodo Edit
0.20.3
0.20.0
0.20.2
0.20.0
The loading mechanism for the Turbulenz Engine has changed.
The function TurbulenzEngine.run is no longer available in 0.20.0 onwards. To run tzjs/tzo code, refer to the documentation for TurbulenzLoader.
This affects developers who are NOT using Turbulenz templates. The makehtml template system will automatically add the code to use the TurbulenzLoader. To migrate code from 0.19.0, simply rebuild the template.
TurbulenzEngine.onload & TurbulenzEngine.unonload must be defined to take advantage of this.
Warning
This change is not compatible with Turbulenz Engines version 0.19.0 or earlier. Make sure that anyone testing your game installs the 0.20.0 engine.
The Turbulenz Engine plugin on Mac OS X is now installed into the users plugin directory
~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins
instead of the system-wide directory
/Library/Internet Plug-Ins
Developers installing older versions of the engine after installing this version will need to delete the current version from their user plugins directory to avoid conflicts.
A new update method is now required to be called every frame when using the SoundDevice.
The Turbulenz tools should now be invoked directly, e.g.
makehtml -h
without the .py suffix or python -m prefix to invoke them as modules. This unifies tools invocation across Windows and Mac platforms.
The Scene object now uses internally an IndexBufferManager to manage the creation and sharing of IndexBuffers, the file jslib/indexbuffermanager.js is now a requirement when using a Scene.
Display resolution is no longer changed when switching to fullscreen, and getSupportedDisplayModes(), fullscreenWidth and fullscreenHeight have been removed from the GraphicsDevice interface. The desktopWidth and desktopHeight properties remain, but their values may not necessarily reflect the resolution when going to full screen (since the user may move the browser window to another screen before switching to fullscreen). Game code should check the width and height properties on GraphicsDevice once fullscreen mode has been entered to accurately determine the correct resolution.
Engine objects VertexBuffer, IndexBuffer and Texture now return formats as GraphicsDevice.VERTEXFORMAT_*, GraphicsDevice.INDEXFORMAT_* and GraphicsDevice.PIXELFORMAT_* instead of as strings. Canvas and plugin modes are now consistent in this respect.
Graphics APIs that take a Semantics object could sometimes be passed an array of strings or GraphicsDevice.SEMANTIC_... enums. The plugin version no longer supports this and has strict argument checking, ensuring that the canvas and plugin modes are consistent.
0.20.1
0.20.0
If you are having difficulties with Turbulenz Technology, the following support resources are available for developers:
Documentation should be the first port of call, wherever possible. Documentation for each SDK is included within (In HTML/PDF format). The latest documentation can be found online at http://docs.turbulenz.com
Having a problem with a programming interface? Take a look at the API reference. There might be an argument you are missing or dependency you need to include:
Something slightly different in a previous release? We put interface upgrade information in the release notes for each SDK. If there’s something different you have to do, you’ll find it listed here:
Do we already know about your problem? The known issues contain a listing of caveats, some of which we are fixing, some which 3rd parties are fixing and a few facts of life. Make sure you look at the known issues for the version of Turbulenz you are working with. Issues do get fixed!
If you think something is not quite right, doesn’t make sense or is missing, give us some feedback.
This is where you can find important notifications, useful articles and frequently asked questions. If there’s something we think our developers should know about, we’ll put it here. The knowledge base will grow and update over time to keep coming back, there might be an better way to it!
If you’ve racked your brains, searched the documentation and you are just plain stuck, then maybe its time to send Turbulenz a support request. Questions, issues, feature requests, advice, whatever you need help with... put it in the form and we will try to get back to you as soon as possible. Once you’ve submitted it you can track your request until you get the right information and the issue has been resolved.
To use the support system, navigate to https://hub.turbulenz.com and click on ‘Support’
In some cases we may give you an additional issue reference so you can find out exactly when the issue fix is available. In these cases you can compare your issue with the release notes for the version of the SDK your issue was resolved in.
Once you have started your support request, you can correspond with the support team about that ticket via the support site or email.
The following is a list of the changes to the known issues in this SDK.
Placing Firebug breakpoints before window.onload in debug builds results in the Turbulenz Engine failing to load properly.
The “insert” key is not supported on macs when using the plugin.
On IE the samples’ slider and text controls are not fully functional.
With the canvas versions of applications the captured mouse can move outside of the browser’s window. This is because a consistent definition of ‘mouse lock’ functionality for canvas is yet to be defined.
Creating a GraphicsDevice with width or height of 0 may fail on some configurations on Windows where Angle is used.
With Firefox 4 and above on Windows coming out of fullscreen may hang.
On Windows Vista with an ATI video card, Firefox may not refresh the display until the browser is activated or moved.
On Mac the python tools do no work when invoked with “python -m”, e.g. “python -m dae2json -h”. However using the SDK environment you can simply use the tool directly, e.g. “dae2json.py -h”.
Calling hasOwnProperty on a JavaScript object returned from the plugin implementation throws an error (Not in canvas implementations).
Under Mac OS X, switching to full-screen browsing under Firefox 3.6 while the plugin version of the engine is running can result in rendering being halted.
WebGL performance in Firefox 4 and above may be limited by the browser’s current implementation. Consider using Chrome to get a better representation of WebGL performance.
The plugin implementation of the engine requires a CPU that supports SSE2.
When running intensive JavaScript applications that push the performance of the platform, such as the multiple animations, the browser may become less responsive. You may have to manually terminate the process to regain control. Make sure the browser you are using can handle JavaScript running at full load and scale up slowly. See the Turbulenz recommendations for the preferred browser to use for development.
Some browsers don’t support delete on engine object properties (plugin only), e.g. delete techniqueParameters.diffuse does not work, use techniqueParameters.diffuse = undefined instead.
Erratic behavior has been observed in Safari 5.0 on Mac OS X, relating to input and debug mode applications. Turbulenz recommend using Safari 5.1 if any of this behavior is observed.
The SVG samples doesn’t work on Internet Explorer 8 in any mode. This is related to IE8 not parsing the SVG file correctly.
The nVidia drivers (version 8.17.12.7061 - 8.17.12.7533) bug causes multiple render targets to render the output for the first target to all target textures. nVidia have now fixed this bug in the latest driver download on their website. The current work around for shaders generated with cgfx2json is to reorder any writes to gl_FragData so they are in order. For the moment the best thing to do is just install an older version of the driver. However, if for some reason you cannot install the new driver follow the steps in this example.
WebGL is currently unsupported by Firefox on Mac OS 10.5.
The MathDevice ignores JavaScript arrays as destination parameters and acts as if no destination has been given. This is to ensure performance in maintained.
For shader support the plugin implementation of the engine requires a GPU that supports GLSL (OpenGL Shading Language).
The SDK HTML help search feature does not work on Chrome. See http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=47416.
Running Turbulenz tools at the same time as the local server can sometimes result in access errors in “simplejson_speedupds.pyd”. Please close the local server before running any Turbulenz tools.
Sound stuttering can be heard when the browser is using 100% of CPU.
In some cases, refreshing a web page when a Turbulenz application is requesting data can leave the browser in an inconsistent state. Please avoid refreshing when the application is still loading.
In some cases on Windows 7, the SDK installer is unable to automatically open the Windows Firewall for the Local Server on a local network if UAC is enabled. To allow the local server to be accessed over a local network, please manually update the Windows Firewall rule.
When using the Input Device, certain browsers can take a little longer to release the mouse pointer when pressing ESC. Try holding ESC for a longer period of time, or alternatively use alt-tab to navigate to a different window (windows only) or end the process if the browser stops responding.
The mouse wheel does not send scroll events in Safari 5.0 on Mac OS 10.5.
The middle mouse button does not send click events in Firefox on Mac OS 10.6 and 10.5, and in Safari 5.0 on Mac OS 10.5.
Switching window or tab on Safari 5.0 and Firefox on 10.5 does not send a blur or mouselocklost event.
The browser is not in focus when exiting fullscreen in Safari 5.0 & Firefox on Mac OS 10.5.