ROADMAP

= ROADMAP

This represents the direction Rubygame will be going in, but
keep in mind that plans and details may change over time.


== 2.X (_possible_ minor releases before 3.0)

=== Focus: Surface & Rect

- Surface improvements
  - Make Surface instances copyable and marshalable
  - Support for palettes on 8-bit Surfaces
  - Export as OpenGL-ready 32bit pixel data.
  - To Fix: New Surfaces never have alpha channels
  - To Add: Surface#pixels= (set pixel data directly)
  - To Add: Surface.load_from_pixels (create from pixel data)

- Optimize Rect for speed


=== Focus: Sprites

- New sprite system
  - New Sprite, Scene, and Camera classes.
  - More powerful and simpler to use.
  - Integration with the Chipmunk physics library?



== 3.0 (next major release)

- Backwards compatibility is broken:
  - Deprecated classes / methods retired:
    - Rubygame::Mixer module.
    - Rubygame::Mixer::Sample class. Use Rubygame::Sound.
    - Rubygame::Mixer::Music class. Use Rubygame::Music.
    - Rubygame::Surface.load_image method. Use Rubygame::Surface.load.
    - Rubygame::Ftor class. An alternative class will be provided.
    - Rubygame::MediaBag class. Use Surface#[], Sound#[], and Music#[].
  - Surface#get_at
  - Sprites::Group#collide_group

- Change Sprites::Group#collide_group to scrap the 'killa/killb' stuff,
  take a block instead.



== Possible future developments

- Switch from SDL_gfx to SPriG for graphics primitives.
  - SPriG provides more functionality and flexibility, and a more
    consistent interface.
  - How does speed compare?
  - Is it buggy?

- Alternative back-ends:
  - OpenGL (faster rendering, better Mac support)
  - Allegro?

- Polygon, circle, and other geometric primitives
  - Drawing, with styles?
  - OpenGL drawing?
  - Collision detection?
  - Physical shapes w/ Chipmunk?
  - Generate bounding Polygon from an image automatically?

- Path (Curve?) (graphs/plots for tracing position and other uses)
  - Can find the position N units along the path.
  - Can draw a line showing the path.
  - LinearPath (connect the dots, linear interpolation)
  - BezierPath (chain of continuous cubic Bézier curves)
  - CodePath (calculated from a code block)

- Effect (Action?)
  - "Attach" to an instance, does something over time.
  - E.g. moves a sprite from point A to point B over N seconds.
  - Many types of effects, easy to define custom ones.
  - Takes parameters: start/end time, others depending on effect.