jME 3.10.0-alpha3 Available for Testing

A new 3.10.0-alpha3 release is available for testing.

project.ext {
  jmeVer = '3.10.0-alpha3'
}
dependencies {
    implementation "org.jmonkeyengine:jme3-core:$jmeVer"
    implementation "org.jmonkeyengine:jme3-desktop:$jmeVer"
    ...
}

(An alpha2 version was also released a few days ago, but I found a regression in my preliminary testing, so we quickly fixed that and put out alpha3)

This alpha3 release includes some notable changes and new additions to the engine:

• Engine now defaults to using SinglePass instead of MultiPass rendering. The engine will also now default to autoscaling the singlePassLightBatchSize with a default max light batch size of 16; can be changed by calling app.getRenderManager().setMaxSinglePassLightBatchSize();
• Added FastNoiseLite.java (a lightweight single class noise library) to the engine.
• Added a new “Vector Effect” system, which uses a new appState to conveniently handle things like fading and flicking Vectors and Colors. Includes a new EaseVectorEffect, NoiseVectorEffect, and SequencedVectorEffect. (examples are included in jme3-examples showing how to use this new system)
• Added Global Light support. Lights can now be initiated with a new constructor to make the light affect the whole scene (rather than having to move lights to the RootNode which was previously required)
• Added a hardened memory allocator that can be enabled by including the jme3-safeallocator dependency in your project.
• Added a new HSVOffset vec3 matParam to jme3’s 3 core shaders (Unshaded.j3md, Lighting.j3md, and PBRLighting.j3md) to allow for modifying a material’s color in hsv color space.
• Added support for importing draco .gltf models.
• Added mouse device support for android.

And many more improvements and bug fixes that are listed in the full release notes: Release jMonkeyEngine 3.10.0-alpha3 · jMonkeyEngine/jmonkeyengine

(I also previously mentioned some upcoming changes to the Point and SpotLight algorithm that were going to be in this release; however, those have not yet been included and are now planned for the next alpha release)

As always, a big thanks to all contributors and reviewers that make new jME releases possible.