gdx-vfx

A maintenance release to stay in sync with the latest libGDX version.

Notable changes:

• Updated to libGDX 1.12.1

This is a hotfix release for v0.5.2 that apparently contains broken/empty JAR artifacts.

From v0.5.2:

Nothing more than a maintenance release.
The only noticeable change would be an upgrade to libGDX 1.12.0

Nothing more than a maintenance release.
The only noticeable change would be an upgrade to libGDX 1.12.0

It's been a while since the last beta release (0.5.0), and there were a few goodies dangling around in the 0.5.1-SNAPSHOT.
It sounds like it's a good time to roll them out along with the libGDX 1.11.0 version support, so all ya good folks could drop that nasty "-SNAPSHOT" from the dependency version 😉

PS: The project is not under active development at the moment (the end of 2022).

What's new:

• libGDX version is updated to 1.11.0
• VfxEffect constrains its internal width and height on #resize(int, int).
  Max side size of the internal buffers is now limited to the VfxEffect#MAX_FRAME_BUFFER_SIDE constant value which is 8192 by default.
  Feel free to change it according to your project requirements.

This release brings a lot of breaking changes. The wiki documentation is updated accordingly. If you're migrating from the old version, please consider reading the list below.

• GWT module launcher no longer should make a call to GwtVfxGlExtension#initialize().
  Please revisit GWT integration guide on the wiki page.

• VfxManager#render() method was broken down into separate stages (methods):

  1. VfxManager#applyEffects() applies the effect chain to the captured result.

  2. VfxManager#renderToScreen()/VfxManager#renderToFbo() methods are now responsible for rendering the result.
     You also have an option to retrieve the current result using VfxManager#getResultBuffer() and perform custom drawing (e.g. render buffer's texture using SpriteBatch).

• VfxManager's #beginCapture()/#endCapture() have been renamed to #beginInputCapture()/#endInputCapture().

• As an alternative to #beginSceneCapture()/#endSceneCapture(),
  an input texture/buffer may be supplied through VfxManager#useAsInput() methods.

• VfxManager no longer cleans up the buffers when begin input capture.
  You should make an explicit call to VfxManager#cleanUpBuffers()
  in order to reset previous result before start capturing/providing a new frame.

• Filters/effects cleanup. Some getters/setters were renamed.

• VfxEffect has got #update(float) method to update time based values. You should call VfxManager#update(float) every frame in order to update the effects.

• VfxEffect no longer has any render() related methods, it's now just a base interface that's declares the most essential lifecycle methods (like resize(), rebind(), dispose(), etc).

• The concept of Filters was eliminated, there are only Effects now. Although not every effect is made for VfxManager chaining render (read below).

• Any effect that wants to participate in VfxManager's effects chain, should implement ChainVfxEffect interface. A good example of a non-chain effect is CopyEffect or MixEffect, they are more like utility effect units, provide specific render capabilities and can take part in complex effect pipelines (e.g. CompositeVfxEffect).

• NoiseEffect was removed due to similarities with FilmGrainEffect.

• PingPongBuffer replaced with VfxPingPongWrapper which is a lightweight version and doesn't manage its own pair of VfxFrameBuffer, but instead works only with the provided instances.
  VfxPingPongWrapper can be integrated with VfxFrameBufferPool.

• VfxFrameBufferPool added. It acts like a regular LibGDX Pool, but with a twist... It manages the lifecycle of all the created VfxFrameBuffer instances internally.

• VfxWidgetGroup is now fully compatible with transform enabled parent/child actors (check out web demo).

• VfxWidgetGroup's internal frame buffer may be configured to resize to widget's size or to match real screen PPU.

• IntegerRoundFillContainer was removed as VfxWidgetGroup supersets its functionality.

Fixed some more alpha rendering related issues.

• Fixed copy filter ignores alpha #6

• Fixed gdx-vfx-gwt module references demo-core instead of gdx-vfx-core (impossible to build GWT project).

For migrating from pre 0.4.0 versions, please consider reading official documentation on wiki, as the release brings massive refactoring/renaming breaking changes.

A very raw functionality and effects. Early preview build.