Methane Asteroids v0.7.3

In this release Methane Asteroids sample was upgraded to Methane Kit v0.7.3 which includes stability improvements of the Vulkan RHI and enables support of the Vulkan API on MacOS via MoltenVK framework, thanks to enhanced portability and support of the monolithic pipeline state objects in Vulkan RHI.

External libraries

• MethaneKit library was updated to v0.7.3

Builds

• MacOS build with Vulkan RHI MacOS_[x86-64|Arm64]_VK_Release was added to the CI Build workflow.

Note

For MacOS users: In case of error "App Is Damaged and Can't Be Opened" on attempt to run bundled application, try removing application from quarantine with the following command:

sudo xattr -d com.apple.quarantine MethaneAsteroids.app
open MethaneAsteroids.app

Methane Asteroids v0.7.2

In this release Methane Asteroids sample is upgraded to Methane Kit v0.7.2 release and include a replacement of the PerlinNoise library with FastNoise2 library, which improves asteroid textures quality by using fractal noise and speeds up texture generation with help of underlying FastSIMD vector-instruction layer.

Asteroids

• Asteroids code was updated to comply with RHI interface changes in Methane Kit v.0.7.2:
  • Texture::SetData signature has changed.
• Asteroid tri-planar texture generation was changed to use FastNoise2 library with SIMD acceleration and fractal noise instead of old PerlinNoise library. This improves visual quality of the generated textures and improves speed.

External libraries

• MethaneKit library was updated to v0.7.2
• PerlinNoise library was removed
• FastNoise2 library was added at v0.10.0-alpha

Builds

• MacOS build was split for Arm64 and x86_64 architectures because of FastNoise2 library limitation. Previously MacOS fat binary was combined for both architectures in one build.

Note

For MacOS users: In case of error "App Is Damaged and Can't Be Opened" on attempt to run bundled application, try removing application from quarantine using the following command:

sudo xattr -d com.apple.quarantine MethaneAsteroids.app
open MethaneAsteroids.app

Methane Asteroids v0.7.1

This is a refactoring release which updates Asteroids implementation from previously used Methane Graphics Core virtual interfaces to the new Methane Graphics RHI (Rendering Hardware Interface) PIMPL classes from Methane Kit v0.7.1 release. RHI PIMPL classes provide new convenient way to use RHI with an extra performance boost from inlining API calls directly to final implementation, instead of virtual calls made through abstract interfaces. See FPS performance comparison of Asteroids with 3 implementations: v0.7.0 RHI virtual interfaces, v0.7.1 RHI PIMPL classes without inlining and with inline calls to final implementation.

Asteroids

• Asteroids implementation was rewritten to use new RHI PIMPL convenience classes instead of virtual interfaces to get extra performance boost in release builds.

External libraries

• Methane Kit was updated to v0.7.1 with a new RHI PIMPL classes.
• CPM.cmake was updated to v0.37.0. This release fixes parallel cmake generation for multiple configuration used in CLion.

Builds

• Windows builds in GitHub Actions are upgraded to use Visual Studio 2022.

Methane Asteroids v0.7.0

Methane Asteroids now support build for iOS and tvOS devices and simulators:

• External libraries:
  • MethaneKit was updated to v0.7.0 release with iOS and tvOS support.
• Build infrastructure:
  • Added iOS toolchain Externals/iOS-Toolchain.cmake from iOS-CMake project to enable iOS & tvOS build configuration with CMake.
  • Included MethaneGlobalOptions.cmake in the root CMakeLists.txt for correct setup of Methane global options.
  • Extended Build/Unix/Build.sh script to support iOS & tvOS builds via new command-line arguments --apple-platform, --apple-dev-team and --apple-deploy-target.
  • Added iOS and tvOS configurations to CMakePresets.json.
  • Added iOS and tvOS Simulator builds to GitHub Actions.
  • Added CLion cmake configurations for iOS and tvOS.
  • Added iOS and tvOS build instructions to Build/README.md.

Methane Asteroids v0.6.5

• Asteroids sample was split from Methane Kit repository to demonstrate external framework usage scenario. Previous versions of this sample can be found as a part of Methane Kit releases.
• Linux platform and Vulkan API are now supported via Methane Kit v0.6.5 along with many other Graphics API improvements.
• Asteroids scene complexity can be changed now with single-key shortcuts 0 .. 9.
• Perlin Noise external library by Stefan Gustavson was split from Methane Externals to a separate repository and is now used directly by Methane Asteroids via PerlinNoise wrapper class.
• External Package management was switched from Git submodules to CPM - Cmake Package Manager.
• Simplified CI build system was setup using GitHub Actions.