[Soc-2011-dev] Weekly Progress Report #6 - Node Engine for the BGE

[Sven von Brand]

= July 1st =

This is the weekly report of node engine project for the Blender Game Engine.
More information can be found here:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Svbrand

== This week: ==
A small proof of concept was started, this proof of concept is made on
top of the current engine, it is still a work in progress, but allows
to better understand how the engine could work and the advantages of a
component oriented approach. A very extensive and detailed explanation
is found in the proof of concept's blend file.

Also some work was made on the Language Design Document, but at
Benoit's request, effort was put on a technical design document and
the proof of concept.

Benoit did not approve the Language Design Document, he felt it was
lacking in the technical side, and asked for effort be put in
technical design of the engine itself. The Language Design Document
will only be about how the user experience will be using the proposed
node engine's interface to make logic routines and the Technical
Document will be technical solutions to implement the proposed
solution.

I'd like to point out that a language design document is usually not
directly related to the technology to implement it, for this reason a
new document has been started to make detailed technical design
requested by Benoit.

During the week we had a good discussion on concrete technical
solutions I proposed to Benoit based on my work on the language
design, this are reflected on the technical design document.

The technical document was based on Benoit's previous effort but many
changes have been made because of the following new design decisions:
 * Graphs will be part of a Component.
 * A Component will work on a list of Entities
 * An Entity can have reference to a Game Object, a Group of Game
Objects and/or a Scene
 * Component will apply a graph to a list of Entities
 * Pulse between nodes will carry an Entities list
 * Entities can be related to Component through labeling, which can
occur in runtime

There's still much work to do in the two documents and the proof of concept.

Documents and proof of concept can be found here:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Svbrand/GSoC-2011-DesignDoc

== Next week: ==
The technical document has much to be worked on, as Benoit wants for
all technical questions to be answered in paper before starting the
implementation or to have a good reason for not answering a certain
question.

Time will be given to the Language Design Document, to at least have
an understandable cohesive version that is in line with the proof of
concept and the Technical Design Document.

The proof of concept will be worked on for it to also reflect an
abstraction of the nodes and be easier to understand and see it's
advantages.

As part of the proof of concept effort, a small game will be made
showing the advantages it would have to make it with the proposed node
engine instead of the current engine.

== Problems ==
Benoit did not approve the progress of the Language Design Document as
he feels it's more important to answer technical questions directly,
there were also some miscommunication problems as we have a 6 hours
difference and he has little time some days of the week to give to the
project.