cocos2d for iPhone

A fast, easy to use, free, and community supported 2D game engine

1. 

   riq
   Key Master

   Hi,

   cocos2d v0.9.0-beta2 is available for download:
   http://cocos2d-iphone.googlecode.com/files/cocos2d-iphone-0.9.0-beta2.tar.gz

   Release Notes (details the changes from v0.8.2)
   http://www.cocos2d-iphone.org/wiki/doku.php/release_notes:0_9_0_beta2

   Full Changelog:
   http://cocos2d-iphone.googlecode.com/svn/tags/release-0.9.0-beta2/CHANGELOG

   Highlights:
   - Even more Sprite/SpriteSheet fixes
   - Action fixes
   - TMX Tiled map improvements
   - Simulator & Device renders the same images (no more issues with premultiplied alpha images)

   Who should use I:
   - I'm using it in Sapus Tongue & LevelSVG because I consider it is stable "enough"
   - And it has many fixes that are not present in v0.8.x
   - Being said that, I should warn you that SpriteSheet + multiple sublevel of children still needs more polishing (example: reorder is not yet implemented)

   What's next:
   - Next release will be named "0.99-rc". Once the 0.99 version is stable enough, it will be renamed to "1.0"
   - Scheduler improvements
   - Blocks support
   - minor fixes & features

   What's next next:
   - v1.1 will be 1.0 with NSCoding support (saving/restoring)
   - minor fixes & features

   As always, this release is possible thanks to the community who is constantly adding features, sending patches, proposing ideas, etc:
   http://cocos2d-iphone.googlecode.com/svn/tags/release-0.9.0-beta2/AUTHORS

   Thanks,

   Posted 2 years ago #
2. 

   mhussa
   Member

   Thanks for this release. I'm trying to finish off my first game, what caught me off guard was the pause/resume built into cocos2d. Its fine for application resign etc but for in-game pause with a menu it's impractical. The approaches people have tried on the forum to get around this are really just workarounds and don't solve the problem.

   It would useful for have something like pause/resume at the CCNode level so that anims, particlesystems, motionstreak etc all pause correctly, and still have specific scheduler events running.

   I'd say that's the only real lacking important infrastructure feature for game development. Everything else is covered really well.

   Thanks again.

   Posted 2 years ago #
3. 

   riq
   Key Master

   @mhussa: thanks for the feedback. A better pause support is scheduled for v0.9 (0.99, v1.0) too:
   http://code.google.com/p/cocos2d-iphone/issues/detail?id=439

   Posted 2 years ago #
4. 

   mhussa
   Member

   OK excellent, something like that would really make v1.0 complete. Thanks.

   Posted 2 years ago #
5. 

   Stuart Carnie
   Member

   Awesome work Riq (and contributors)! Glad to see blocks support will be forthcoming too. I'll take a look and make sure there are no other obvious APIs that would benefit from blocks.

   Cheers,

   Stu

   Posted 2 years ago #
6. 

   zombie
   Member

   As always: GREAT!

   btw: What is blocks?

   -zombie

   Posted 2 years ago #
7. 

   sunsu
   Member

   I'm also wondering what "Blocks" support is referring to.

   Posted 2 years ago #
8. 

   redsky
   Member

   see this thread to learn more about blocks / closures

   http://www.cocos2d-iphone.org/forum/topic/3694#post-22216

   Posted 2 years ago #
9. 

   Stuart Carnie
   Member

   Thanks redsky - I've also included working examples in the patch and I'll be happy to create a FAQ / Setting Up page here or on Google Code when Riq incorporates the feature.

   ...but as I said in an earlier post, I'd be very surprised if Apple doesn't include Blocks support in SDK 4.0 :) One advantage PLBlocks gives us, is that it works with Leopard and Snow Leopard and on 2.2.x +.

   Cheers,

   Stu

   Posted 2 years ago #
10. 

    Blue Ether
    Member

    I am also wondering what blocks are.

    The thread that was linked contains an interesting discussion on whether blocks should be included in Cocos. However, I've read it up and down and there's nothing in there explaining what on earth "blocks" actually are. I haven't turned up anything on google either. Can't anyone explain or at least link to an explanation? I'm beginning to think this is simply a piece of jargon.

    Posted 2 years ago #
11. 

    slipster216
    Moderator

    It's basically the ability to insert a small snipit of code to be run, say, during an action, without having to create an actual method to call.

    Posted 2 years ago #
12. 

    Stuart Carnie
    Member

    Sure blocks are just Apple's term for closures in C.

    You can obtain PLBlocks from here. Note that there is a version for Leopard and Snow Leopard.

    Their benefit is to make code that typically requires callback methods more succinct and APIs more fluent, by including the code for the method in context. Also, as mentioned in the wikipedia articles, blocks can capture state.

    A really great example can be seen in this post - specifically the UIActionSheet enhancement.

    Cheers,

    Stu

    Posted 2 years ago #
13. 

    Codemattic
    Moderator

    LISPers are laughing at us "it only took you guys 50 years!"

    Posted 2 years ago #
14. 

    Stuart Carnie
    Member

    @slipster216, in essence, that is basically what blocks are. On of the advantages is that they can refer to state in the current execution context, and capture that state for use at a later point in time. Therefore, when the "snippet" is executed that previous state is available.

    - (void)someMethod:(int)value1 andValue2:(CCNode*)value2 {
      id action1 = ....
      id action2 = ....
    
      int someValue = someFunction(value1, value2);
      id blockAction = [[CCBlockAction actionWithBlock:^{
        // do something with someValue inside action
    
      }];
    
      // blockAction is going to run some time in the future, but will make
      // use of the value stored in someValue now
      [someNode runAction:[CCSequence actions:action1, action2, blockAction, nil]];
    }

    It's concevable that someFunction(...) actually generates a value that is time specific, or derived from the values passed in. Running someFunction(...) when the actual action is executed may yield a different value.

    Imagine trying to write this same code using a callback - you are now responsible for either caching and storing someValue somewhere or retaining reference to value1 and value2 to execute someFunction(value1, value2) later.

    Posted 2 years ago #
15. 

    colonel custer
    Member

    Thanks riq and all contributors.

    FYI
    I've been running the trunk build and haven't had any problems. :)

    Posted 2 years ago #

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