jMonkeyEngine v3.3.0-stable released

@pspeed Thank you so much for leading the way in this release Paul. When I say this, I think I speak for everyone here, we really appreciate the time and value you add to the community. JME 3.3 was one crazy yet fun ride, thank you so much for being the driver!

Time to edit the gradle build files for all my projects and change them to use the new stable :joy:

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@Jayfella, as I said this morning I would whip up (carefully) a new blog post announcing the new release.
So I should have an “interesting” and professional article :grinning:, check the PR here.
And I have not said it yet, your awesome @pspeed! Let’s keep this engine rolling!

Thanks, @ItsMike54,

regarding this

a new animation system called Monkanim,

please remove the “Monkanim” from there, it might cause confusion with another animation system that Nehon had done before this one.

Also, you could include some more in the change log:

like bumping to LWJGL 3.2.3, supporting Morph animation, support Light Probes blending in PBR, Support Sphere Probe Area and Oriented box probe area in PBR , , Support for AmbientLight in PBRLighting, Addition of DynamicAnimControl, lot’s of physics bugfix, lots of JavaDoc improvement, …

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Ok, I’ll make some changes.
EDIT: DONE!

Is there a proper introduction to the new animation system available? That could be linked to the blog post even…? As a long time jME user and forum stalker, it is quite a question mark for me too. I only know it brings Morph animations. But what else and how to convert from old to new etc.

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Yes, there is one that Nehon wrote:

JME 3.3 loads it automatically by new animation system when loading a gltf models.

And for converting old models you can use this:

AnimMigrationUtils.migrate(model);

@ItsMike54 in case you like, you can also create a new blog post for this as well. Mostly you need to copy-paste what Nehon said, but please do not use the name “Monkanim”, just call it the new animation system.

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Actually I always wanted to do a tutorial/video/blogpost on the new animation system but for that I wanted to iron out a few issues, but I never got around to that.

Seriously dont you think it’s time you just gave up al the rubbish, I used to be a big fan but after years and years and years of tinkering you still cant release 1 single version of the SDK that just woiks. Its embarrassing. Just basic things like android sdk selection, the stupid error that comes up about xcode when you are on a pc, even the plugin libraries sources are still wrong and dont work. WTF are you on about with STABLE?? you are having a laugh. I’ve spent 4 year writing and app in jme and got it working on android and ios and windows and linux so it is possible but nothing just works out of the box. you keep updating it and making claims about it being stable but it NEVER NEVER EVER is. I would just give it up and accpet you are not cut out for producing a complex piece of software like this and with the most basic things that still dont work on a standard install is a joke. I wrote the equivalent in UNITY in 2 weeks and everything works. I know you will delete this post but if as least 1 of you so called experts get the message I will have done my job. SERIOUSLY GUYS GIVE IT UP AS A BAD JOB!!! jme-ios some json libraries. WTF happened to the ios build. dont bother telling me it’s me who doesnt know what im doing. Ive been developing for 30 years and this is just going no where. Android sample app type doesnt even add the chooser source code so you cant run or compile it???

The SDK is a separate project.

Can I download it and give it a try? It sounds phenomenal. Is it Java-based or C based?

Maybe you can lend your experience to the totally separate SDK project and help get it working, too. Sounds like it would be no problem for you.

JME IOS support is experimental. It’s looking for someone to manage it if you want to try to fix it.

This sounds like something to with the SDK also. You may want to submit a bug to that project.

Yes Paul, I accept that you have been involved with this for a long time and have took offence by my rant but its true that the most basic errors are still there from years ago. I am talking about the SDK not the engine but unless I’m supposed build from source or integrate in Netbeans myself then the SDK is essential especially for someone coming to it new.
I’ve got 4 apps on googe play. Chatter Games is done with JME and took 4 years. I had to write most of the android stuff in Android stuido because the android integration is severely flaky. in IOS I had to write all the UI and even sounds in XCODE because JME just never worked. I even spent months compiling the bullet sources in XCODE to get it working on iOS because the ios is still is alpha for over 7 years (probably longer).
What I’m saying is, how do you expect a newbie to come to this and build your comunity when the basic standard download doesnt work without a load of messing around with it.
Create a basic game and try to select the android SDK folder, it doesnt recognise it. Maybe its the version of android sdk ive got installed but who knows.
The potentially could be an amazing piece of software but it still not stable enough to call it version 1.0 never mind 3.2.2stable.
JME-IOS.JAr is completely screwed up and has got json librraries (spelt GSON for some reason).
Why does the plugin update check still not work after over 7 years of failing?

Checkout Chatter Games. It’s shows how good JME potentially can be but you need to concentrate on basic fixes and forget new fuinctionality for a while.

The other 3 apps are on Google Play called Wavey Ball, Baileys Holem and Nice Cans all done in Unity in under 3 months. No it’s not Java but so what???

Oh, I thought you said you rewrote unity in a week. It makes more sense now.

Yes, the JME SDK will always lag Unity because it has part of one person working on it instead of a paid team. That’s why we broke it off into a separate project… hoping that having its own release cycle, etc. would attract more developers. But it’s way easier to complain about it than to fix it so that’s where we stand there.

New users can create a project from a gradle template in a few minutes and get productive. Yes, it increases the minimum level of knowledge necessary to use JME but JME was always deceptive here. JME is a Java developers tool and you must know Java already to use it. From that standpoint, the SDK (in anything short of a Unity clone) will always be a disappointment to “new users” who don’t know Java. Point-click only gets you so far.

GSON is Googles JSON library and is used by gltf support in JME.

Anyway, I know they are looking for help on the SDK. You should join that team and contribute patches and stuff.

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Ok, i didnt know that GSON was Googles JSON. So fair enough.

Why are you doing it as 2 seperate projects then? If you integrated the engine into and built the SDK each time then you wouldnt necessarily need to know how to build from gradle or even know any Java to start with.
Yes, I accept it’s for pre-existing developers but why limit yourself to that? Get new people involved who can use it from day 1 without knowing anything about gradle, java or anything else. Just provide a working set of samples (which not all do) and you will grow the community much faster.

As I said, I’ve been a massive fan for years and it’s a shame that the android build in the SDK doesnt work out of the box, now iOS doesnt have a hope of working as it stands.

I can’t even add libraries in the SDK any more.

To get more people in the community the android and ios has to be nailed in the SDK then you will see massive growth. As it is, its far too niche to get any real expansion.

Most JME developers don’t use the SDK. It has half of a person working on (maybe less than half). Even with a whole team of folks we will never make it comparable with Unity. It’s not our goal and it’s impossible.

…so for the good of the ENGINE, we cut it loose. Maybe our mistake was not just deleting it completely. libgdx seems to get along without an SDK, I guess.

This is an impossible goal, really. Those folks are already well served by Unity. If I wasn’t a Java developer, I’d be using Unity or Unreal, too.

In the end, when you jump on a tandem bike and complain about it going too slow… the other folks riding the bike are just going to ask you to start pedaling. This is a 100% volunteer project.

So in the end, I’m sorry that I’m not spending my own free time in the way that you prefer.

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I dont think it is an impossible goal, if the SDK worked. Not everyone wants to develop in c#. I personally prefer Java and that’s why I started with JME. A lot less people want to develop a game engine. Most people want to build games witha a game engine. I accept you want to keep building it rather than produce a product. It’s completely a programmers way of looking at it. I have a team who think that nothing is ever finished and needs to be tweaked more and more and if I didn’t stop them we would never get any releases on the market and go out of business.
Ultimately, you must want to produce a product that can be used to build games not just develop it forever. Unity wasnt even a thng when JME first started but JME has been ‘work in progress’ for so long that it’s been left behind. That’s the real shame of the whole thing. Too much tweaking and not enough goal oriented thinking. Anyway, I appolgise if I came on strong, and I accept everything you are saying.

Until we can hire a team the size of Unity’s, I guess we’ll just have to target other failures like libgdx.

The engine works. You can develop games with it very easily. Only takes a minute to get started… if you already are a Java developer. The engine is our “product”.

Most of us just want to write games and not work on an SDK. You know someone like that, too… you see him everyday.

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Just as a matter of interest. Can you tell me why you made the decision to move away from the SDK?
It seems like a strange decision? The netbeans licensing model allows you to rebadge it. Why stop doing that?
How many people would buy a Mercedes if they suddenly decided to say “Sorry it’s flatpacked now, you have to put it together yourself. Here’s the box with all the parts and here’s a screwdriveer, knock youself out”

That seems to be from my perspective what you did?

I would very much like a fully working SDK. As a result of not paying anyone though, I have zero control over what people work on. I can demand and argue and shout from the rooftops, but people will just work on whatever it is that interests them. All I can do is be grateful for the fact that they do contribute without pay.

I also understand that sometimes money is required - and I’ve set up a patreon page, software store and a new front end website - for free - so that funding can contribute toward improvements. Currently it pays for all of our online costs - and barely that - but it’s keeping JME alive. Hopefully in the future it will be large enough that we can fund bug bounties and even feature requests.

Again though - I am only one man - and I would very much love a graphic designer and social media expert to help. But again it’s without pay.

It’s extremely difficult to keep an engine running given our situation. Lots of people talk the talk, only a very few actually contribute and create the things they feel are lacking. I accept that. I also accept that money talks. So we have two options pushing us forward here. And two options for everyone to contribute.

I understand your frustration. I feel the same in many respects. But there is only so much a handful of “doers” can do, and only so much a small funding pool can pay for.

If there’s anything you can do to improve our situation other than pointing out what we already know - please do that thing. We could really do with it.

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I can help with iOS if you like. I did put a doc together on building on iOS and that is around on here somewhere.
I also tried helping a few people by answering their questions but I gave up on that because they just didn’t read my answers properly.
What is the best way to contibute with iOS then? That seems to be an area that not many are working on.

B e c a u s e t y p i n g i n a n I D E fe el s l i k e this to m e.

And because “gradle run” takes 5 seconds where the SDK takes 30+ seconds minimum on the same project properly configured to work around the 20 year old netbeans incremental compiler bugs. ANT is super super ancient by now. State of the art 20 years ago.

Because I don’t have to micro manage every jar file I want to use and all of their dependencies. Add the dependency to my build.gradle file and it sucks down what it needs.

When I develop with my preferred tools, I have no problem working on 15 different projects at once (that is not an exaggeration). Everything is fast, etc…

It’s no contest FOR ME. Everyone will have a different perspective but the SDK provides 0 value for me, personally. I haven’t even had a version of it installed for more than 5 years.

ok fair enough. I just like the way the SDK does the desktop, iOS and Android build all in one go.