Hi, I was trying to make the engine using visual studio 2013 with directx june 2010 and Physx 3.3.1. But when it was on the linker phase to create crown-release-32.exe I get an error. Do you know what could be the problem?

I have a scene where I'm adding one unit which uses one material that includes the standard sprite shader. The unit is created at vertex 0,0,0. I then add another unit which uses a different material and different shader, but the internals of the fragment shader don't seem to matter here - it can be exactly the same as the basic sprite shader and the problem still occurs.

This second unit appears fine, but as soon as I start adding more units on top which use the same shader as the first unit I created, the second unit starts to show through the third. Here's a screenshot of the problem :

The gradient is the first unit I was talking about and it's using the standard sprite shader included in the example projects you've shared with me. The second unit is the star layer and it's using a different shader - and again I can compile this shader with the same code as the other sprite shader and the problem still occurs. The third group of units I add are the tiles that make up the bridge thing in the foreground. These use the same shader as the gradient background unit.

I doubt this is so much a problem as it is my inexperience with controlling draw order / depth when it comes to playing with shaders. Any insight into how this all works?

Thanks!

-Zach

~/Downloads/crown$ make engine-linux-release32

third/bx/tools/bin/linux/genie --file=genie/genie.lua --with-luajit --with-openal --with-bullet --with-tools --compiler=linux-gcc gmake

third/bx/tools/bin/linux/genie: 2: third/bx/tools/bin/linux/genie: Syntax error: ")" unexpected

make: *** [engine-linux-build] Error 2

For the life of me, I'm not seeing it.

Fedora 23, 64bit

$ ./crown-debug-64 --source-dir /home/kingsley/Downloads/crown/samples/01-physics/ --bundle-dir /tmp --compile --platform linux --continue
eac0b497876adedf-424247333dfb94b1 <= grid.material
eac0b497876adedf-8d4c847f2ad44b96 <= notexture.material
48ff313713a997a1-ce20b2a5524dca1c <= skydome.mesh
48ff313713a997a1-4362dbe08c02948a <= cube.mesh
e0a48d0be9a7453f-4362dbe08c02948a <= cube.unit
e0a48d0be9a7453f-3bc32bb81c975af2 <= cube_prefab.unit
eac0b497876adedf-ce20b2a5524dca1c <= skydome.material
a14e8dfa2cd117e2-eb68aaa83687073a <= lua/camera.lua
a14e8dfa2cd117e2-9dea40fdc2245efc <= lua/game.lua
a14e8dfa2cd117e2-5bfc062cf75525e5 <= lua/class.lua
e0a48d0be9a7453f-5d4e7845bfca884c <= ramp.unit
e0a48d0be9a7453f-9899ff2b9397a399 <= plane.unit
e0a48d0be9a7453f-ce20b2a5524dca1c <= skydome.unit
cd4238c6a0c69e32-424247333dfb94b1 <= grid.texture
e0a48d0be9a7453f-6096f939f031e445 <= cube_prefab2.unit
7a4202f968757bc9-5e02bba66d851216 <= core/shaders/.default.shader.swp

Assertion failed: sort_map::has(_compilers, type)
    Compiler not found

    In: ../../../src/resource/bundle_compiler.cpp:176
Stacktrace:
    [1] ./crown-debug-64() [0x4d93a3]
    [2] ./crown-debug-64: (crown::error::abort(char const*, int, char const*, ...))+0xa8 in /home/kingsley/Downloads/crown/build/projects/linux/../../../src/core/error/error.cpp:31
    [3] ./crown-debug-64: (crown::BundleCompiler::compile(crown::StringId64, char const*, crown::CompileOptions&))+0x54 in /home/kingsley/Downloads/crown/build/projects/linux/../../../src/resource/bundle_compiler.cpp:178
    [4] ./crown-debug-64: (crown::BundleCompiler::compile(char const*, char const*, char const*))+0x232 in /home/kingsley/Downloads/crown/build/projects/linux/../../../src/resource/bundle_compiler.cpp:114
    [5] ./crown-debug-64: (crown::BundleCompiler::compile_all(char const*))+0x2c1 in /home/kingsley/Downloads/crown/build/projects/linux/../../../src/resource/bundle_compiler.cpp:154
    [6] ./crown-debug-64: (crown::bundle_compiler::main(bool, bool, char const*))+0x37 in /home/kingsley/Downloads/crown/build/projects/linux/../../../src/resource/bundle_compiler.cpp:224
    [7] ./crown-debug-64: (main)+0xe3 in /home/kingsley/Downloads/crown/build/projects/linux/../../../src/main/main_linux.cpp:738
    [8] /lib64/libc.so.6: (__libc_start_main)+0xf0 in ??:0
    [9] ./crown-debug-64: (_start)+0x29 in ??:?

compilation terminated. make[2]: *** [../../linux64/obj/x64/development/openal/third/openal/Alc/backends/alsa.o] Error 1 make[1]: *** [openal] Error 2 make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/vlad/crown/.build/projects/linux' make: *** [linux-development64] Error 2

using make linux-development64 or linux-debug64

Arch Linux 4.3.3, GCC 5.3.0

[[email protected]][~/dev/crown/build/linux64/bin]% gdb ./crown-debug-64
<snip gdb boot prelude>
Reading symbols from ./crown-debug-64...done.
(gdb) r
Starting program: /home/rob/dev/crown/build/linux64/bin/crown-debug-64
[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
Using host libthread_db library "/usr/lib/libthread_db.so.1".
[New Thread 0x7ffff33f0700 (LWP 31049)]
Initializing Crown Engine 0.1.13...

Assertion failed: s != NULL
        s must be not null

        In: ../../../src/core/strings/dynamic_string.h:85
Stacktrace:
        [1] /home/rob/dev/crown/build/linux64/bin/crown-debug-64() [0x4f7b59]
        [2] /home/rob/dev/crown/build/linux64/bin/crown-debug-64: (crown::error::abort(char const*, int, char const*, ...)
        [3] /home/rob/dev/crown/build/linux64/bin/crown-debug-64: (crown::DynamicString::DynamicString(char const*, crown::Allocator&))+0x4c in /home/rob/dev/crown/build/projects/linux/../../../src/core/strings/dynamic_string.h:86
        [4] /home/rob/dev/crown/build/linux64/bin/crown-debug-64: (crown::DiskFilesystem::DiskFilesystem(char const*))+0x47 in /home/rob/dev/crown/build/projects/linux/../../../src/core/filesystem/disk_filesystem.cpp:29
        [5] /home/rob/dev/crown/build/linux64/bin/crown-debug-64: (crown::Device::init())+0x82 in /home/rob/dev/crown/build/projects/linux/../../../src/device.cpp:84 (discriminator 1)
        [6] /home/rob/dev/crown/build/linux64/bin/crown-debug-64: (crown::init(crown::DeviceOptions const&))+0x7b in /home/rob/dev/crown/build/projects/linux/../../../src/device.cpp:474 (discriminator 4)
        [7] /home/rob/dev/crown/build/linux64/bin/crown-debug-64: (crown::func(void*))+0x23 in /home/rob/dev/crown/build/projects/linux/../../../src/main/main_linux.cpp:342
        [8] /home/rob/dev/crown/build/linux64/bin/crown-debug-64: (crown::Thread::run())+0x36 in /home/rob/dev/crown/build/projects/linux/../../../src/core/thread/thread.h:112
        [9] /home/rob/dev/crown/build/linux64/bin/crown-debug-64: (crown::Thread::thread_proc(void*))+0x18 in /home/rob/dev/crown/build/projects/linux/../../../src/core/thread/thread.h:118
        [10] /usr/lib/libpthread.so.0: ()+0x74a4 in ??:0
        [11] /usr/lib/libc.so.6: (clone)+0x6d in ??:0
[Thread 0x7ffff33f0700 (LWP 31049) exited]
[Inferior 1 (process 31045) exited with code 01]

(This was the last hurdle to run on Windows!)

In World::update_scene when updating the animation events, and EventHeader with a type of 27 appears.

This is currently unhandled in the switch statement, and throws this fatal error (debug mode):

CE_FATAL("Unknown event type");

This can be ignored to continue running, perhaps downgrade this warning to a log?

The Pepper binary is non-functional under Ubuntu 14.04. Shaderc searches for GLIBCXX_3.4.21 which is not found even after libstdc++6 is installed. This results in the scene not loading properly.

There are also no instructions for building the tools, which are written Vala. Vala 0.22 and and libgee-0.8-dev were installed, but it doesn't compile, because there are errors related to Gio modules not being found.

It looks like your tools are created using Mono? Is it opensources?

I want to try some experiments with Mac/Mono so may help you to create mac port for engine/tools.

I've downloaded and built crown on Windows and immediately hit this assert:

Assertion failed: err != 0 In: ......\src\core\os.cpp:178 CreateDirectory: GetLastError = 3 Stacktrace: [ 1] crown::error::abort in c:\users\rhs\github\crown\src\core\error\error.cpp:26 [ 2] crown::error::abort in c:\users\rhs\github\crown\src\core\error\error.cpp:35 [ 3] crown::os::create_directory in c:\users\rhs\github\crown\src\core\os.cpp:178 [ 4] crown::FilesystemDisk::create_directory in c:\users\rhs\github\crown\src\core\filesystem\filesystem_disk.cpp:326 [ 5] crown::Device::run in c:\users\rhs\github\crown\src\device\device.cpp:359 [ 6] crown::run in c:\users\rhs\github\crown\src\device\device.cpp:760 [ 7] crown::func in c:\users\rhs\github\crown\src\device\main_windows.cpp:337 [ 8] crown::Thread::run in c:\users\rhs\github\crown\src\core\thread\thread.cpp:105 [ 9] crown::thread_proc in c:\users\rhs\github\crown\src\core\thread\thread.cpp:21

What seems to be happening is Device::run is looking for the data directory, and as it isn't set is returning "" instead of nullptr - so instead of falling back on os::getcwd to get the current directory - it uses an empty string, which goes through this logic:

	const char* data_dir = _device_options._data_dir.c_str(); // returns "", not nullptr
	if (!data_dir) // doesn't hit
	{
		char buf[1024];
		data_dir = os::getcwd(buf, sizeof(buf));
	}
	_data_filesystem = CE_NEW(_allocator, FilesystemDisk)(default_allocator());
	((FilesystemDisk*)_data_filesystem)->set_prefix(data_dir);
	if (!_data_filesystem->exists(data_dir)) // "" does not exist, so this condition is met
		_data_filesystem->create_directory(data_dir); // attempts to create a new directory with ""

One fix could be to check the length:

_device_options._data_dir.length() > 0

Hello :)

I cannot seem to get crown to link to Physx...

Linking 
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lLowLevelCloth  
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lPhysX3  
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lPhysX3Common  
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lLowLevel  
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lPhysX3CharacterKinematic  
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lPhysX3Cooking  
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lPvdRuntime  
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lSceneQuery  
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lSimulationController

Things I have done...

• set the environment variable PHYSX_SDK_LINUX to the location I unpacked Physx.
• added the $PHYSX_SDK_LINUX/Bin/linux64 directory to /etc/ld.conf.d/physx.conf
• ..so ldconfig -v checks out with ...

        libPhysX3CommonCHECKED_x64.so -> libPhysX3CommonCHECKED_x64.so
        libPhysX3PROFILE_x64.so -> libPhysX3PROFILE_x64.so
        libPhysX3CookingPROFILE_x64.so -> libPhysX3CookingPROFILE_x64.so
        libPhysX3CookingDEBUG_x64.so -> libPhysX3CookingDEBUG_x64.so
        libPhysX3CommonDEBUG_x64.so -> libPhysX3CommonDEBUG_x64.so
        libPhysX3_x64.so -> libPhysX3_x64.so
        libPhysX3CharacterKinematicDEBUG_x64.so -> libPhysX3CharacterKinematicDEBUG_x64.so
        libCgGL.so -> libCgGL.so
        libPhysX3GpuPROFILE_x64.so -> libPhysX3GpuPROFILE_x64.so
        libPhysX3GpuDEBUG_x64.so -> libPhysX3GpuDEBUG_x64.so
        libPhysX3Gpu_x64.so -> libPhysX3Gpu_x64.so
        libPhysX3Cooking_x64.so -> libPhysX3Cooking_x64.so
        libPhysX3CharacterKinematicCHECKED_x64.so -> libPhysX3CharacterKinematicCHECKED_x64.so
        libPhysX3GpuCHECKED_x64.so -> libPhysX3GpuCHECKED_x64.so
        libPhysX3CharacterKinematicPROFILE_x64.so -> libPhysX3CharacterKinematicPROFILE_x64.so
        libPhysX3CookingCHECKED_x64.so -> libPhysX3CookingCHECKED_x64.so
        libPhysX3Common_x64.so -> libPhysX3Common_x64.so
        libPhysX3CommonPROFILE_x64.so -> libPhysX3CommonPROFILE_x64.so
        libPhysX3DEBUG_x64.so -> libPhysX3DEBUG_x64.so
        libCg.so -> libCg.so
        libPhysX3CHECKED_x64.so -> libPhysX3CHECKED_x64.so
        libPhysX3CharacterKinematic_x64.so -> libPhysX3CharacterKinematic_x64.so

• I even tried moving the Lib/linux64/*.a static libs to /usr/local/lib

So I am a little confused as to why the linked cannot find the library. Some of these names do not marry up at all such as -lLowLevel ... But my C++ is a bit rusty so this could easily be the problem.

Cheers.

Currently when creating a new component manager, there is a lot of boilerplate code to handle the SoA nature of the data (allocating, deleting). It would be very helpful to have some helper code somewhere to automate this process more.

One of the biggest issues with the bitsquid engine is that they have their content-compilers built into the engine instead of having them separated. This causes issues such as not being able to run different compiler chains at the same time since the compiler server hogs one port that is predefined for everything to use.

Instead a separated compiler-chain would be a much more viable solution. Either by linking in libraries from the engine and having separated compiler layers above that or simply by using a common data library for file serialization.