News for September 2006

Hi Everyone,

I've uploaded the installers for L3DT v2.4a build 14 to the downloads pages (both Pro and Standard). Barring some major catastrophe, this version will be re-badged as release 2.4b on or about October the first.

So, what's new?

Two things really; the first is general debugging and polishing to make L3DT more stable and easier to use. The second, as I mentioned a few days ago, is the new plugin system. L3DT v2.4b will allow users to add their own load/save/import/export plugins for different file formats. This release (2.4a build 14) includes that plugin system, a few working plugins, and - in the professional installer - the source code for some of those plugins.

If you would like to try your programming skills on writing a new plugin, you will need a working familiarity with C++, and a copy of MSVC v7.0 or later (that's .NET 2002, 2003 or 2005). I have not written any documentation for the code just yet, but I have included the full source code for two of the plugins:

• L3DTio_DMF - loads and saves L3DT's design map file. This plugin shows how to load and save a simple format, including the correct invocations to initialise maps in L3DT, set/get pixel values, and so forth.
• L3DTio_HTF - exports to GLScene's height tile file. This plugin shows how to store and retrieve persistent settings for formats, such as tile size, flip mode, etc.

The Plugin API does not currently support loading/saving mosaics. This will either be included with v2.4b, or in an update shortly thereafter.

Anyway, I would really appreciate it if some users would download and try out this latest dev build. It installs and uninstalls alongside - rather than over - your current 'stable' versions of L3DT, so it should be perfectly safe to try¹⁾. I welcome any and all feedback on the plugin code too.

Cheerio, Aaron.

PS: Feedback or comments can be left in this forum thread.

Edit #1 — aaron 2006/09/22 07:18

Oops, I nearly forgot. Compiled plugins should be placed in the '[L3DT path]\Extensions' directory. Then, to load the plugin into L3DT, open the new extension manager ('utilities→extension manager'), and load your plugin using the 'load' button (you will need to re-start L3DT afterwards). Should your plugin crash during start-up (which will take-out L3DT too, as the calling process), it will automatically be disabled the next time you start L3DT. To re-enable the wayward plugin, use the 'enable' button in the extension manager.

Plugins! The next release of L3DT includes a plugin system that allows third party developers to build their own file input/output handlers for L3DT. The system is running in the latest dev-build on the downloads pages (v2.4.1.12), handling support for the X and PGM formats. Once I've shoehorned a few more features into the plugin API I will release the code for public consumption, including the source for a few example plugin DLLs. It's all in C++, by the way.

On another subject, Bundysoft is now processing sales through Kagi. They accept a greater number of payment methods than PayPal (cheques, money orders, etc), and also have a key generator system that will allow sales to be processed automatically (once I've written a key-gen for them, that is).

Anyway, that's the story up until now.

Cheers, Aaron.