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{{:Development/Timeline}}
{{:Development/Timeline}}
As you know, Allegiance was originally developed by Microsoft back in 2000, 2001. They released seven patches to both update the game code and to balance the gameplay. These changelogs are maintained in the [[archive]] section of this wiki and, if you wish, you can access them by following the links within the timeline to the right.
Allegiance was originally developed by Microsoft in 1999-2000. They eventually released seven patches to both update the game code and to balance the gameplay. These changelogs are maintained in the [[archive]] section of this wiki and, if you wish, you can access them by following the links within the timeline to the right.


When Microsoft stopped developing the game players couldn't fix the game code, but they could attempt to balance the gameplay by using [[Individuals#KGJV|KGJV's]] [[ICE]] program to edit the [[factions]]' stats. Many independant developers sprung up, each with their own idea of how to balance the game which led to different versions of Allegiance, with subtle but important differences. These were called [[core]]s and had an ugly side-effect of creating "Core Wars", where players tried to force others to play on their personal favourite.
When Microsoft stopped developing the game players couldn't fix the game code, but they could attempt to balance the gameplay by using [[Individuals#KGJV|KGJV's]] [[ICE]] program to edit the core gameplay data files.


When the [[History#Disappointment_of_the_Highest_Hopes.3B_Fulfillment_of_the_Greatest_Ones|source code was released by Microsoft]] in 2004 the community founded the [[FAZ|FAZ project]] - Free Allegiance Zone. The goal of the project was to fix the many bugs that had been discovered and documented, to update the network code to ensure ease of installation, and to begin upgrading the game with new features. This is an ongoing process, with work currently (August 2008) being done for the fifth release of FAZ.
When the [[History#Disappointment_of_the_Highest_Hopes.3B_Fulfillment_of_the_Greatest_Ones|source code was released by Microsoft]] in 2004 the community founded the [[FAZ|FAZ project]] - Free Allegiance Zone. The goal of the project was to fix the many bugs that had been discovered, to update the network code to ensure ease of installation, and to begin upgrading the game with new features. This is still an ongoing process.


==Development process==
{{Out of date}}
The core of Allegiance, including the game client, server and lobby code are being developed by the [[Development team|FAZ Development team]] in an open source project led by the Development [[Zone Leader]]. Note that you don't have to be an official member of the FAZ team to help develop - anybody is free to download, examine and offer patches. For your patch to be included in an official build it needs to be submitted to the Development team for approval. The authentication front-end [[ASGS]] system is closed source for security reasons.
For each release a set of goals are created and members of the development team can commit to the SVN repository for review and inclusion in beta builds until a feature freeze is made (usually when the development team feels enough improvements have been made). Patches that have a clear affect on gameplay are taken to the community for voting.
[[FAZ Beta|Beta builds]] are run on a special development lobby to weed out bugs. Towards the end of each development cycle public weekly beta games are held to stress test the new releases and find the final bugs.


==Development process==
It is important to note that only pre-approved builds are accepted by [[ASGS]] when logging on for play and the production lobby is restricted. Therefore you can not build your own client and play on the normal servers, nor you can build your own server and put it on the production lobby.
The core of Allegiance, including the game client, server and lobby code are being developed by the [[Development Team|FAZ Development team]] in an open source project led by the Development [[Zone Leader]]. Note that you don't have to be an official member of the FAZ team to help develop - anybody is free to download, examine and offer patches. For your patch to be included in an official build it needs to be submitted to the Development team for approval.


The [[ASGS]] system is closed source for security and licensing reasons. However, some trusted members of the community have access to the full ASGS source.
==Language, Platform and APIs==
Allegiance was originally created with Visual C++ 6.0. It was built as a 'real word' showcase of Microsoft DirectX (version 7) technologies:


*DirectPlay for networking
*Direct3D for 3D graphics
*DirectDraw for 2D graphics
*DirectInput for mouse/keyboard/joystick inputs
*DirectSound for 3D spacialized sound effects


For each release a set of goals are created. All members of the development team are free to submit patches to a SVN repository for review and inclusion in beta builds until a feature freeze is made (usually when the development team feels enough improvements have been made). Patches that have a clear affect on gameplay are taken to the community for voting.  
The game also intensively uses another key Microsoft technology : COM/OLE (local and remote).


[[FAZ Beta|Beta builds]] are run on a special development lobby to weed out bugs. Towards the end of each development cycle public weekly beta games are held to stress test the new releases and find the final bugs.
When the source code was released in 2004, the Free Allegiance community ported it to Visual C++ 2003 and following versions.
Along the way, the community upgraded the networking code to DirectPlay 8, the graphics to Direct3D 9 removing DirectDraw in the process and the inputs to DirectInput 8.


It is important to note that only pre-approved builds are accepted by [[ASGS]] when logging on for play. Therefore you can not build your own client and play on the normal servers.
As of today, the code requires Visual C++ 2008 or 2010 (2003 and 2005 versions are not supported anymore) and latest DirectX SDK.




==Current Development==
==Current Development==
Additional wiki articles concerning development:
Additional wiki articles concerning development:
*[[:Category:Development]]
*[[:Category:Development|Category: Development]]
*[[FAZ Beta]]
*[[FAZ Beta]]
*[[Creating Models for Allegiance]]
*[[Creating models for Allegiance]]
*[[Downloading and Building the Source]]
*[[Downloading and building the source]]
*[[Code documentation]]
*[[Code documentation]]
*[[Making Custom Maps]]
*[[Making custom maps]]




===Mods===
===Mods===
There have been many patches that aren't part of the official build for various reasons.  
There have been many patches that aren't part of the official build for various reasons.  
*[[Chat Packs]]
*[[Chat packs]]
*[[User Interface Mods]]
*[[User Interface mods]]
*[[Targeting Reticules]]
*[[Targeting reticles]]
*[[Hi-res textures]]
*[[Hi-res textures]]
*[http://reddragoninn-rdi.com/Quia/Alleg/colorblinddoors.rar Colored Doors for the color blind], hosted by Quia (place files into the Artwork\Textures sub-directory)
*[http://www.mesialonline.com/Allegiance/alleg.html Mesial's fansite] is the most complete archive of mods.
*[http://www.mesialonline.com/Allegiance/alleg.html Mesial's fansite] is the most complete archive of mods.


==Historical Development==
==Historical Development==
*[http://www.allegacademy.org/devs/peterarisman.shtml Historical Interview with Allegiance's original Art Lead]
*Original Developer Journal - Written in early 2000
*Original Developer Journal - Written in early 2000
**[http://au.pc.ign.com/articles/075/075281p1.html Chapter One] - Game Development Virgins
**[http://au.pc.ign.com/articles/075/075281p1.html Chapter One] - Game Development Virgins
Line 53: Line 66:
===Code changelogs===
===Code changelogs===
Note that these are different from Game Balance changelogs, you would need to look up the appropriate [[Cores|core]] to view those.
Note that these are different from Game Balance changelogs, you would need to look up the appropriate [[Cores|core]] to view those.
*[[MS]] - 2000
*[[MS|Microsoft Allegiance 1.25]] - {{Date|2001|6|16}}
*[[FAZ R1]] - March 1, 2006
*[[FAZ R1]] - {{Date|2006|3|1}}
*[[FAZ R2]] - August 1, 2006
*[[FAZ R2]] - {{Date|2006|8|1}}
*[[FAZ R3]] - December 14, 2006
*[[FAZ R3]] - {{Date|2006|12|14}}
*[[FAZ R4]] - November 1, 2007
*[[FAZ R4]] - {{Date|2007|11|1}}
 
*[[FAZ R5]] - {{Date|2009|11|16}}
 
*[[FAZ R6]] - {{Date|2012|5|14}}
*[[ACSS|ACSS (FAZ R7)]] - {{Date|2012|10|15}}
{{FAZdev}}
{{FAZdev}}

Latest revision as of 15:41, 6 January 2013

1999
Dec The closed beta of Allegiance was released.
2000
Jan The open beta of Allegiance was released.
Open beta changelog
Mar 29th Public release of Allegiance.
May 19th Version 1.1 released.
1.1 Code changes
1.1 Balance changes
May 25th Version 1.11 released.
1.11 Balance changes
Jun 19th Version 1.2 released.
1.2 Code changes
1.2 Balance changes
Jun 26th Version 1.22 released.
1.22 Balance changes
Jul 3rd Version 1.23 released.
1.23 Balance changes
Sep 26th Version 1.24 released.
1.24 Code changes
2001
??? Spunkmeyer released Special operations core.
Feb 18th SOV_Vencain released SOVRoute
May 15th Microsoft announced that it had decided to stop supporting Allegiance
Apr 27th SOV_Vencain released SOVShowCG
Jun 9th SOV_Vencain released SOVGuard
Jun 16th The final patch, Version 1.25 was released
1.25 Balance changes
Sep 1st SOV_Vencain released SOVLog
2002
??? Pook released Zoom core.
Jan-Jun Allegiance Wars 3 (AW3)
May 2nd Spunkmeyer released Allegiance + core.
Jun 21st SOV_Vencain released SOVLogin
2003
Jul 17th Open beta of ASGS released by Pook.
2004
Feb Noir released Dark Nebulae core.
Feb Vlymoxyd released Race core.
Feb 5th SOLAP persuaded Microsoft to release the source code for Allegiance.
Apr DrStrnglv released Rock Paper Scissors core.
Apr 27th FAZ Beta officially started.
Aug Hawkwood released Edge of Reality core.
Sep Paradigm released Good old Days core.
2005
Sep Pook released Pook core.
2006
Apr Weedman released Star Wars core.
Mar 1st FAZ R1 released by Dev team.
Aug 1st FAZ R2 released by Dev team.
Aug 17th Grimmwolf released Good old Days II core.
Dec 14th FAZ R3 released by Dev team.
2007
Mar Apochboi released Warp core.
Sep Gappy released Valley of Saturns core.
Nov 1st FAZ R4 released by Dev team.
Nov 1st Andon released Battlestar Galactica core
2008
May 17th Community Core released.
2009
Jul Development and design of CSS started
Nov 16th FAZ R5 released by Dev team.
2010
Nov CSS goes into closed beta phase
2011
Jan NightRychene released eXtreme Core
Feb New Installer makes installation easier
2012
Feb ACSS enters the public beta phase
May 14th FAZ R6 released by Dev team.
Oct 15th ACSS replaces ASGS

Allegiance was originally developed by Microsoft in 1999-2000. They eventually released seven patches to both update the game code and to balance the gameplay. These changelogs are maintained in the archive section of this wiki and, if you wish, you can access them by following the links within the timeline to the right.

When Microsoft stopped developing the game players couldn't fix the game code, but they could attempt to balance the gameplay by using KGJV's ICE program to edit the core gameplay data files.

When the source code was released by Microsoft in 2004 the community founded the FAZ project - Free Allegiance Zone. The goal of the project was to fix the many bugs that had been discovered, to update the network code to ensure ease of installation, and to begin upgrading the game with new features. This is still an ongoing process.

Development process

Outdated.png
Outdated content This page does not reflect the current state of things.

Some information within this article is either obsolete, hasn't been updated in a long time, incomplete, or otherwise invalid.

The core of Allegiance, including the game client, server and lobby code are being developed by the FAZ Development team in an open source project led by the Development Zone Leader. Note that you don't have to be an official member of the FAZ team to help develop - anybody is free to download, examine and offer patches. For your patch to be included in an official build it needs to be submitted to the Development team for approval. The authentication front-end ASGS system is closed source for security reasons.

For each release a set of goals are created and members of the development team can commit to the SVN repository for review and inclusion in beta builds until a feature freeze is made (usually when the development team feels enough improvements have been made). Patches that have a clear affect on gameplay are taken to the community for voting.

Beta builds are run on a special development lobby to weed out bugs. Towards the end of each development cycle public weekly beta games are held to stress test the new releases and find the final bugs.

It is important to note that only pre-approved builds are accepted by ASGS when logging on for play and the production lobby is restricted. Therefore you can not build your own client and play on the normal servers, nor you can build your own server and put it on the production lobby.

Language, Platform and APIs

Allegiance was originally created with Visual C++ 6.0. It was built as a 'real word' showcase of Microsoft DirectX (version 7) technologies:

  • DirectPlay for networking
  • Direct3D for 3D graphics
  • DirectDraw for 2D graphics
  • DirectInput for mouse/keyboard/joystick inputs
  • DirectSound for 3D spacialized sound effects

The game also intensively uses another key Microsoft technology : COM/OLE (local and remote).

When the source code was released in 2004, the Free Allegiance community ported it to Visual C++ 2003 and following versions. Along the way, the community upgraded the networking code to DirectPlay 8, the graphics to Direct3D 9 removing DirectDraw in the process and the inputs to DirectInput 8.

As of today, the code requires Visual C++ 2008 or 2010 (2003 and 2005 versions are not supported anymore) and latest DirectX SDK.


Current Development

Additional wiki articles concerning development:


Mods

There have been many patches that aren't part of the official build for various reasons.

Historical Development


Code changelogs

Note that these are different from Game Balance changelogs, you would need to look up the appropriate core to view those.

FAZ Development
About Free Allegiance Zone
Releases: R1 · R2 · R3 · R4 · R5 · R6  · (current)R7
Allegiance R8: What's new? · Build it!
Testing Beta: Overview · Testing procedure