As you can see, things are progressing nicely. Page accesses were at an all time high for the month of march, more than double the month before. I will do my best to keep the web pages updated as development continues, but I'm only one person. I thank everyone who has written in to me so far with their comments, and welcome any future comments/questions/suggestions about the state of the project.

    The key features still remaining to be implemented are Scrollbars for the Editor panels, adding new/switching between rooms, items, etc., New Game default settings, Event editing, Object Hyperlinks, Data Debugging routines, and a few other smaller issues. Once these features can be implemented however, the editor should be fit for use in editing/creating game modules, and I will make the code available for downloading. I will consider releasing the code earlier to any individual that mails me at steve@theProfessionalAmateur.com requesting the current code.

    In any case, you can expect to see screen shots of the application in its current state by the end of the day, and I will continue hacking away daily for the forseeable future.

    Features will include moving around the room editor using the Cog Engine's compass interface, hyperlinked jumping to any object contained in a room as well as to any room containing an object, as well and the ability to enter the Event editor fuction for any Event associated with any room/object.

     This release includes the new Multi-Threaded graphic download function, which means greatly increased performance during gameplay, especially for low-bandwidth users. Under this system, all calls to download new Images are backgrounded, allowing the player to continue entering commands, moving from room to room, etc. while the graphics download in the background.

     As this is the Beta release, no new major features are planned for the Cog Engine before the final 1.0 release. I would like to have the Internet Explorer NPE problem solved before this release, if at all possible. I also would like to have the Cog Development Application complete for the official release as well as the Cycon Odyssey. Tentative schedule is slated for mid-May, unless more developers would be willing to help out with the workload.

    The new code has not been thrown online here yet, but it can be download from the new CVS server at the new SourceForge site. Look for a new version within the next two weeks.

     As a result, the current interface is going to be scrapped in favor of a JPython implementation. Python allows for rapid GUI prototyping with a clear, simple syntax, and JPython allows for python scripts to be compiled into Java Bytecode for view under standard web browsers. Since JDK 1.2 is not currently available for any major web browser, we have previously been limited to the functionality of Java's older Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT). With JPython however, the COG Engine can benefit from a far more advanced interface, while still remaining compatible with current browsers.

     If anyone is interested in working with the old development code (which includes Graphical Compass Button) please e-mail me and I'll post the source.

Archive of News from 1999