Merge branch 'source' into source

Author: ozkriff

content/posts/newsletter-003/index.md

@@ -131,12 +131,15 @@ it's pretty active.
 [veloren-survey]: https://veloren.net/devblog-36/#player-survey
 [veloren-video]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwP7SXdWcTg
 
-### [PF Sandbox][pf-sandbox]
+### [Canon Collision][canon-collision]
 
 ![Exported models with textureas and skeletal animations](pf-sandbox.jpg)
 
-[PF Sandbox][pf-sandbox] by [@rukai] is a platform fighter sandbox featuring:
-in game Fighter and Stage Editor, replays, and TAS tools.
+[Canon Collision][canon-collision] by [@rukai] is an Undertale + Homestuck
+fan-made platform fighter with powerful tools for modding.
+It was forked from another project of rukai's
+[PF Sandbox](https://github.com/rukai/PF_Sandbox) so he could focus on making
+a game rather then an engine.
 
 This month,
 [exporting and hot-reloading assets from blender](https://twitter.com/thisIsRukai/status/1180477120113340417),
@@ -145,7 +148,7 @@ This month,
 and [animations](https://twitter.com/thisIsRukai/status/1188261107124727808)
 were added to the project.
 
-[pf-sandbox]:https://github.com/rukai/PF_Sandbox
+[canon-collision]:https://canoncollision.com
 [@rukai]: https://twitter.com/thisIsRukai
 
 ### [Antorum][antorum]

content/posts/newsletter-012/canon-collision.png

@@ -85,6 +85,116 @@ Wonder can be [played in the browser on itch.io][Wonder].
 [ludum-dare]: https://ldjam.com
 [48-hour-jam]: https://ianjk.com/rust-gamejam/
 
+### [Canon Collision][canon-collision]
+
+![Basic Projectiles](canon-collision.png)
+
+[Canon Collision][canon-collision] by [@rukai] is an Undertale + Homestuck
+fan-made platform fighter with powerful tools for modding.
+
+This month, he started work on the project again after taking a break.
+Notable changes:
+
+- [basic projectiles](https://twitter.com/thisIsRukai/status/1287377878460456963),
+- [WIP grab implementation (with some humorous results)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSrBGpT-Ebs),
+- [New animations + attacks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaPkRSNhoSM)
+- and [custom shaders](https://twitter.com/thisIsRukai/status/1279324105125163008).
+
+[canon-collision]:https://canoncollision.com
+[@rukai]: https://twitter.com/thisIsRukai
+
+### pGLOWrpg
+
+![Improved river pathfinding, paths respect topography](pglowrpg_12.gif)
+
+The [@pGLOWrpg] (Procedurally Generated Living Open World RPG) is a long-term
+project in development by [@Roal_Yr], which aims to be a text-based game with
+maximum portability and accessibility and focus on interactions and emergent
+narrative.
+
+For the past month(s) the main focus of the development was on the river
+generation system in the worldgen. Main features of the river generator are:
+
+- High robustness with most edge cases covered;
+- Single-pass with subsequent iterations generation, with numerous options to
+  tweak the process for either precision of the pattern or speed of generation;
+- Rivers are sorted upon intersections, their widths are adjusted, waterfalls
+  are formed when necessary;
+- Inflow and outflow directions are recorded for each cell, which allows to
+  follow the river upstream or downstream;
+- Simple yet effective erosion model implemented, which ensures no upwards flows
+  are allowed;
+- Each stream has its unique ID, which will later be linked to the stream data;
+- Streams have 12 orders of magnitude from smallest brooks to major rivers;
+- All the options are available to user under "General", "Advanced" and
+  "Very advanced" sections for any level of fine-tuning;
+
+Further development will involve re-factoring of the code and making it ready
+to be published prior to implementing new features. For small dev reports follow
+[@pGLOWrpg] on Twitter.
+
+[@Roal_Yr]: https://twitter.com/Roal_Yr
+[@pGLOWrpg]: https://twitter.com/pglowrpg
+
+### [Sandbox]
+
+![Sandbox screenshot](sandbox_screenshot.png)
+
+[Sandbox] is a falling sand game by JMS55 that provides a variety of fun
+particle types to place, and then you get to watch the resulting interactions!
+
+As they didn't make it in time for last month's newsletter, this month's edition
+covers the work they did in June and July:
+
+- Released version 1.0 and 1.1, created a flatpak package and associated metadata,
+  and published it to [Flathub].
+- Several new particles such as Fire, Mirror, Glitch, and some hidden ones,
+  and tweaked or overhalled almost every other particle!
+- A fancy new glow post process effect for Acid/Fire/Electricity,
+  created using wgpu-rs compute shaders.
+  - As a precursor to this, they made a PR to the pixels crate that removes the
+    old RenderPass approach in favor of giving the user direct access to wgpu.
+- Made a slick new icon and background for the game.
+- Added a video recording feature using gstreamer-rs and x264enc,
+  and then later removed it (for now).
+  - Moving from recording the raw texture generated for pixels
+    to the post-processed texture from wgpu
+    involved a major overhaul, and it proved too glitchy and slow.
+    Hopefully it will be revived later, in the form of recording user inputs.
+- Many structural improvements, such as less glitchy particle
+  placement with Bresenham's line algorithm,
+  better error handling, and ensuring particles
+  are only ever stored on the heap.
+- Performance improvements, including generating noise in a separate thread.
+- Currently WIP: UI using imgui.
+
+![Sandbox icon](sandbox_icon.svg)
+
+Got any ideas? Leave an [issue on github][Sandbox], or add it yourself!
+
+[Sandbox]: https://github.com/JMS55/sandbox
+[Flathub]: https://flathub.org/apps/details/com.github.jms55.Sandbox
+
+### [Pushin' Boxes][pushin-homepage]
+
+[![Pushin' Boxes gameplay](pushin_boxes_gameplay.gif)][pushin-itch]
+
+[Pushin' Boxes][pushin-homepage] ([itch][pushin-itch])
+is a [Sokoban][pushin-sokoban] clone made with [ggez][pushin-ggez] by
+[@septum][septum-twitter]. It features 16 levels of puzzling box-pushin' action
+where the player controls a little robot (named プシン).
+Check out a [blog post][pushin-post] about the game's release.
+
+[The source code is available on GitLab][pushin-repository].
+
+[pushin-homepage]: https://septum.io/games/pushin-boxes
+[pushin-itch]: https://septum.itch.io/pushin-boxes
+[pushin-sokoban]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokoban
+[pushin-post]: https://septum.io/blog/my-first-game
+[pushin-ggez]: https://github.com/ggez/ggez
+[pushin-repository]: https://gitlab.com/septum___/pushin_boxes
+[septum-twitter]: https://twitter.com/septum___
+
 ## Learning Material Updates
 
 ### [Rust on iOS with SDL2][rust-ios-sdl2-post]
@@ -102,8 +212,133 @@ surface. This demo is using [Rust-SDL2][rust-sdl2] for bindings.
 [sdl2-project]: https://www.libsdl.org/download-2.0.php
 [rust-sdl2]: https://crates.io/crates/sdl2
 
+### [An Introduction to Data-Oriented Design in Rust][dod]
+
+![vector vs linked list perf](data_oriented_design.svg)
+
+Data-Oriented Design is an approach to program optimisation focused on
+considering the features and limitations of the target hardware, and
+carefully controlling the memory layout of data to take advantage of
+those.
+
+In [this article][dod], [jamesmcm][jamesmcm] provides benchmarks and
+code for four example scenarios:
+
+- [Array of Structs vs. Struct of Arrays][wikisoa]
+- Branching in a hot loop
+- Iteration in a vector vs. a linked list
+- Monomorphisation vs. [Dynamic Dispatch][traitobj]
+
+The full article is available [here][dod].
+
+[jamesmcm]: https://github.com/jamesmcm
+[wikisoa]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AoS_and_SoA
+[traitobj]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/ch17-02-trait-objects.html#trait-objects-perform-dynamic-dispatch
+[dod]: http://jamesmcm.github.io/blog/2020/07/25/intro-dod/#en
+
 ## Library & Tooling Updates
 
+### [This Month in Mun][mun-july]
+
+[![Mun logo](mun-logo.png)][Mun]
+
+[Mun] is a scripting language for gamedev focused on quick iteration times
+that is written in Rust.
+
+[Rustacean Station][rustacean] released [a podcast about Mun][rustacean-mun]
+in which the Mun Core Team sat down with host Jeremy
+to talk about why they chose Rust to develop Mun. If you are interested in
+having an inside look into Mun's origins and evolution, we recommend you check
+it out - or any of Rustacean Station's other podcasts for that matter!
+
+Their additional [July updates][mun-july] include:
+
+- initial support for the Language Server Protocol;
+- a community entry for the [Make It or Break It content] of Spaceship
+  recreated with Mun & Rust;
+- CLI support for creating Mun projects;
+- performance benchmarks and improvements;
+- bugfixes and improved documentation.
+
+[Mun]: https://mun-lang.org
+[mun-july]: https://mun-lang.org/blog/2020/07/30/this-month-july
+[rustacean]: https://rustacean-station.org
+[rustacean-mun]: https://rustacean-station.org/episode/020-mun
+[Make It or Break It content]: https://github.com/mun-lang/mun/issues/220
+
+### [wgpu][wgpu-site]
+
+![procgen dynamic "grass field"](tuitui-grass-field.jpeg)
+
+^ _[@MacTuitui]'s everyday [nannou] experiement #1274_
+
+The work is ongoing to validate all the incoming commands and guarantee API safety.
+Special thanks to [@GabrielMajeri] for helping to convert assertions
+into errors at `wgpu` level.
+The wgpu devs are also introspecting shader requirements
+and matching them against the pipelines, but this will take more effort
+before it will become universally available.
+
+[@cwfitzgerald] has been busy adding a few handy native-only extensions,
+such as descriptor indexing and push constants.
+They have also converted the project's logging to [tracing](https://crates.io/crates/tracing),
+setting up the infrastructure for CPU profiling.
+
+In the past 2 months, the API for descriptor structures in `wgpu-rs`
+have been undergoing a turbulent period.
+First, non-exhaustive semantics led to introduction of constructors.
+Then, efforts to reduce code duplication inside `wgpu` project has led to the
+[bovine invasion](https://github.com/gfx-rs/wgpu-rs/pull/460) on wgpu-rs API side.
+The devs are figuring out the plan to address that with a builder pattern now,
+which will address both the `Cow`s and non-exhaustives,
+hopefully putting the end to the turbulence.
+
+In the meantime, `wgpu-rs` ecosystem is flourishing with applications and libraries.
+The [showcase gallery](https://wgpu.rs/#showcase) was updated with a few shiny images.
+
+------
+
+Finally, [@kunalmohan] has been busy
+[implementing WebGPU in Servo][webgpu-in-servo], based on `wgpu`.
+Thanks to this work, Servo is currently ahead of Gecko
+in terms of API being up-to-date and covered 🎉.
+It's already capable of rendering most of the examples,
+and the devs are looking forward to the day when the same Rust code
+(rendering with `wgpu-rs`) will be deployable to the Web,
+and viewable from Firefox, Servo, Chrome, and other browsers.
+
+[@GabrielMajeri]: https://github.com/GabrielMajeri
+[@cwfitzgerald]: https://github.com/cwfitzgerald
+[@kunalmohan]: https://github.com/kunalmohan
+[webgpu-in-servo]: https://github.com/servo/servo/projects/24
+[@MacTuitui]: https://twitter.com/MacTuitui
+[nannou]: https://nannou.cc
+[wgpu-site]: https://wgpu.rs
+
+### [Graphene][graphene] - Vulkan Render Graph
+
+![execution flow example](graphene.png)
+
+[Graphene][graphene] is a Vulkan render graph. Still heavily a work in progress,
+it is built to be a simpler abstraction over Vulkan, with long-term ambitions to
+serve as a graphics test-bench.
+
+Currently, it implements a mesh render pass followed by a chromatic aberration
+post-process in less than [250 lines of Rust code][graphene_example_code].
+Current features include easy Vulkan initialization, automatic swapchain
+resizing, glTF mesh loading, and shader hot-reloading.
+Check out a ["Render graphs" blog post][graphene_blog]
+for a more in-depth introduction to the project.
+
+![chromatic aberration demo](graphene-demo.jpeg)
+
+You can follow progress on [GitHub][graphene] or on [Twitter][apoorvaj].
+
+[graphene]: https://github.com/ApoorvaJ/graphene
+[graphene_blog]: https://apoorvaj.io/render-graphs-1/
+[graphene_example_code]: https://github.com/ApoorvaJ/graphene/blob/a1ee574d92445f4cff195ca517af2912ebfce697/src/demos/00/main.rs
+[apoorvaj]: https://twitter.com/ApoorvaJ
+
 ### Vulkan Renderer (Name TBD)
 
 [![Vulkan renderer on iOS prototype](vulkan-renderer-prototype.jpeg)][vulkan-renderer-prototype-video]
@@ -136,6 +371,60 @@ tokio), all but a few worked out-of-the-box!
 [vulkan-renderer-prototype-video]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks_HQbejHE4
 [moltenvk]: https://github.com/KhronosGroup/MoltenVK
 
+### [Ludusavi]
+
+![Demo of Ludusavi GUI](ludusavi.gif)
+
+[Ludusavi] is a tool written in Rust by [@mtkennerly] for backing up PC game
+save data. It has backup info for more than 7,000 games, is cross-platform for
+Windows, Linux, and Mac, and has a GUI as well as a command line interface.
+The GUI was created using the [Iced] crate.
+
+The [backup info] is sourced from [PCGamingWiki] so that everyone can help to
+expand the data, and it's stored in a documented format so that other backup
+tools can share the same data set. A [plugin] for [Playnite] was also just
+released.
+
+[Ludusavi]: https://github.com/mtkennerly/ludusavi
+[@mtkennerly]: https://twitter.com/mtkennerly
+[Iced]: https://crates.io/crates/iced
+[backup info]: https://github.com/mtkennerly/ludusavi-manifest
+[PCGamingWiki]: https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Home
+[plugin]: https://github.com/mtkennerly/ludusavi-playnite
+[Playnite]: https://playnite.link
+
+### [Langcraft]
+
+[Langcraft] is the Minecraft LLVM target you've never wanted.
+
+Langcraft started as a dare to the `#lang-dev` channel of the Rust
+Community Discord to be able to parse Rust code in Minecraft.
+Naturally, it grew into a full code generator that can translate
+most LLVM IR to
+[Minecraft data packs](https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Data_Pack),
+the game's deliberately-limited in-game scripting language. Langcraft
+is entirely language independent, so any language with an LLVM-based
+compiler can (with the right API bindings) run in Minecraft. Currently
+bindings to both C and Rust exist. While not as visually impressive as
+a redstone computer, Langcraft does stretch the bounds of the game quite
+a bit, using jukeboxes for memory, armor stands to represent pointers,
+and rearranging compiled code to make it run in the bounds of the data
+packs' fixed instruction limit.
+
+This is all, naturally, entirely useless. The project is also still
+heavily work-in-progress and does not pretend to be stable, but it is
+usable. A handwritten interpreter for a Rust-like language has already
+been demonstrated running, and even more complex projects like [CHIP-8
+emulators](https://github.com/Dhole/chip8-rs.git) function (albeit at
+extremely slow speed).
+
+You can watch a [video of Rust interpreter running Fizzbuzz][langcraft-video]:
+
+[![youtube preview](longcraft-video.jpeg)][langcraft-video]
+
+[Langcraft]: https://github.com/SuperTails/langcraft
+[langcraft-video]: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Cx0w5Wn9pPU
+
 ## Popular Workgroup Issues in Github
 
 <!-- Up to 10 links to interesting issues -->