WEBLOGS (Archive) :: Tucan Entertainment Developers Team

Now it's official! EXCELSIOR Game-Development has been put on ice (for a long, long time) until further notice (maybe forever!)...

The Black Book Edition of EXCELSIOR will be published on EXCELSIOR **online** from time to time, so if you are still interested in the fantastic epic story of the EXCELSIOR Saga, you should bookmark this Site.

Tucan Entertainment will focus its resources on the further development of fMail, the High-Tech AntiSpam-Solution and on another not-yet-announced Game-Project ;-) for which we 'll assemble a new professional team.

This Site will be closed, completely redesigned and relaunched in the next weeks.

THANK YOU to our fans, who have followed us so truly in the past decade. Maybe, we'll receive the vaporware award for the EXCELSIOR Game ;-) ..?

Posted at 3:32 AM

Our first coding tests on Smartphones were very successful, so we are planning to develop a new Mobile Edition of our famous fMail Tools... - to be released in late Q4 this year (ETA).

First we have to finish development on fMail Server v1.7 to get it out of the door on 09/30/2010. After that we are on to develop v2 of our fMail Tools and to improve the management area (including fMail Server account management) of registered fMail Customers via fMail's WebSite.

Carry on!

Posted at 12:25 AM

As I started to work on this project, I have been so sure that it'll be possible...

Okay, here is the to-do list:

1. Disable Minimize, Maximize and Close Buttons in the upper right corner of the Console window.
2. Remove/Delete: Minimize, Maximize and Close from the Console's system-menu.
3. Intercept CTRL+C and CTRL-Break.
4. Handle/Intercept User Logoff and System Shutdown.
5. Disable Close from Taskbar (Window Close).
6. Launch/Terminate the Console Application from another App. (Windows Forms-App.), but the Console App. needs to be closed by TYPING 'quit' and hitting the Return-Key ;-) ...

Is this possible..?

1. successfully achieved!
2. successfully achieved!
3. partially achieved!
4. FAILED!
5. FAILED!
6. successfully achieved!

So I learned it the hard way: Console Applications (Windows) are DIFFERENT from normal Apps. (Windows).

If anyone is interested in my Code (how 1, 2, 3 and 6 were coded in C#), just drop me a Mail and I will make another Blog-Post, showing my nice WinAPI hacks...

Posted at 8:30 PM

As you might know, MIME is specified in six linked RFC memoranda: RFC 2045, RFC 2046, RFC 2047, RFC 4288, RFC 4289 and RFC 2049, which together define the specifications.

Therefore (because of its complexity) we decided to use an 'external' MIME Parser beginning with fMail v1.7 Beta2 as we have only implemented a few MIME APIs for fMail so far (just what we needed). Now, we need a better and more complex MIME parsing, but we don't have enough free team resources to do this on our own (developing such a component according to our high quality standards ;-) would cost us 4 months of dev.-time). And we don't want to maintain it, should the RFCs ever become obsolete by newer ones ;-) !

So we looked for a 'perfect' MIME Parser and discovered MIME4NET. If you'll ever need a MIME Parser, it should be your first choice!

Posted at 1:00 AM

Very hot summer days - Bacardi- & Coding-Time ;-) !

We have written so much code during the last 3 weeks, so we are very confident to release Beta 1 of fMail v1.7 this month.

Can't wait to see it in action...

Posted at 11:54 PM

Finally fMail's Management APIs have been altered to use our newly released Database v2 APIs.

It's amazing - the code of the Management APIs could be reduced by 2393(!!) lines ;-), runs faster now, uses fewer memory, lowers the workload of the GC and is 100% portable to Unix/Linux and Mac w/o changing a single line of code. In addition MS SQL Server (on Windows), mySQL Server (on Windows AND Unix/Linux) can be used as Database Servers by just setting one registry entry!

fMail v1.7 is coming along ;-) ...

Posted at 12:35 AM

We are currently working on fMail v1.7 - what's new?

* will completely use our new Database v2 API
* will introduce FID = fMail Infrastructure for Datacenters, separating the Server into Front-End (SMTP, Spam Protection Technologies 1 & 2), super-secret fMail Middleware-Technology, Back-End (Spam Protection Technology 3, IMAP4/POP3) and Web-Technologies (WebSites, Web-Services for Tools, Outlook AddIn, etc.)
* will have a new error-tracking system on MTI (Mail Transfer Agent for Incoming Mails), will be transferred to MTA in a later version (especially when the new MTA will be implemented)
* will feature new fully-threaded MTO (Mail Transfer Agent for Outgoing Mails)
* will introduce completely re-designed Spam Protection Technology 3 (post-processing for accepted Mails)
* and many more features...

Posted at 11:48 PM

During the last week we developed a new BackEnd-Server, which will host Mailboxes for fMail and will act as IMAP/POP3-Server.

In addition it will be used for the new post-processing process (Spam-Detection Level 3) for accepted Mails. It will perfectly fit in our upcoming new FID (fMail Infrastructure for Datacenters) technology, in which our fMail AntiSpam SMTP-Engine will run as Front-End.

We also completed/updated our new DBv2 API last week. The new Database API integrates all kind of DB-related stuff regarding fMail (Front-End, Back-End and Web) and deprecates the 'old' v1 from now on. This will help us to develop new fMail APIs at the speed of light ;-) ...
It works on MS SQL (Windows), mySQL (Windows AND Linux), both 32bit and 64bit, without changing a single line of code!

More infos about FID and new fMail features soon...

Posted at 6:21 PM

Sorry for posting this so late, but I didn't know until now that Steve, the fearless OGRE Project Lead, is retiring from the role of project lead as of 27th April 2010: read -> http://www.ogre3d.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=57362

On behalf of our Team here at Tucan Entertainment, we wish you the very best and that you'll get well soon...
Thanks for all the tremendous work! Take care - our prayers are with you..!

Posted at 11:15 PM

Today, we 've setup one of our Test-Servers with the new 64bit version of fMail Server 2010 !

As we started to design fMail back in 2007, we have planned to support a wide variety of Platforms:
* Windows Server (and Workstations) should be able to run fMail as 32bit and 64bit version - done! Including one version specially made available for Intel's Itanium Architecture (IA64), but we need an Itanium first for testing ;-) - if you have one and don't need it, plz PM me for donation :-D !!
* Gentoo Linux / openSuSE should be able to run fMail (at least as 32bit) - partially done! Some APIs need fixes, especially the new DatabaseCore (v2) is needed with some modifications.
* SQL Server should be the primary Database-Backend on Windows - done!
* Additional mySQL support on Windows - needs DB-Core v2!
* mySQL support on Linux - look above!
* fMail should run on Solaris x86 - hmm, don't know if we'll do this (but at least we have Screenshots of an early fMail 2008 Server running on Solaris) - no joke!
* Oracle support on Windows/Linux/Solaris - abandoned! ...but you should never say never ;-) !

So we are more than proud that fMail Server 2010 is now available as 32bit AND 64bit on the Windows Platform - Yeah!

Posted at 9:44 PM

Howdy!

We have made fMail 2010 available to our customers two days ago. It's the 32bit version, which uses C# 4.0 and runs on .NET Framework 4.0. Now we are about to build the new 64bit version.

Our Team has set up a roadmap for this year and I will post some new (planned) highlights soon. Our forefront spam-blocking system is -as always- very good, but we will soon introduce some new middleware processing system, which will eleminate the very few spam-mails still passing through from time to time.

In addition, we'll also introduce a new user- and domain-based Quarantine-System and we will give the Users more control over the Spam-Processing process (for the advanced users, default settings will always suffice), so they can decide on each level, whether blocked Mails should be bound to Quarantine or not.

Don't get me wrong: fMail is best known for having an EXTREMELY SMALL Quarantine folder, saving our customers a lot of time every day, but our Team thought that you should have MORE OPTIONS on how Spam is 'controlled' by fMail.

More features to be revealed soon - stay tuned!

Posted at 2:43 AM

Today we have tested fMail 2008 (32bit) on a 64bit Windows 2008 R2 Server using a 64bit SQL Server 2008 for Database operations. Works like a charm!

We are currently in the process of targeting fMail towards C# 4.0. In addition we'll make it ready for 64bit, checking all P/Invoke-calls for using the correct parameters (System.IntPtr) and NOT Integers! Maybe, we'll have to correct some Native Structures, too.

Internally, we are using fMail 1.3 (unstable) since September 2009 on our Development servers, the (current) stable version 1.2 has been released in July 2009. I think we'll move forward to 1.5 (fMail Server 2010, C# 4.0, 64bit) for testing, skipping v1.4, so fMail Server 2010 will be v1.6 on release (May 2010).

Posted at 7:46 PM

Hi there!

Just noticed that I haven't blogged something during the last weeks, but I had a very busy time.

Now, I am back with a new Dev.-Station (just sold my old Notebook on which I coded fMail ;-) !) and hopefully with much more time to work on projects, which really matter :-D !

Posted at 9:09 PM

Hi there, fellow Readers!

Today we'll continue our Threading series with a **special** blog-post. It's more about threading techniques apart from standard .NET Framework 'real' Threads.

I also don't want to handle code-examples, I want to talk about several techniques I am currently evaluating here at Tucan Entertainment, which may be implemented into our EXCELSIOR GameEngine in the future.

If you know the Unity3D Engine, you may know their (C# based) scripting technique 'Coroutines & Yield'. A very interesting concept. As I discovered these features for the very first time, I wondered WHY the statement is called 'yield' and how this magically works 'under the hood'. Of course, this kind of technique is very interesting for the ambitious Game-Developer ;-), so it would be great to get my fingers on such a piece of code...

Yesterday, I found the answer, looking on a IMHO very promising technique, called Iterator-based Microthreading. This technique, which is intended to run on a single(!!) Thread, embedded in our current multi-threaded environment (multiple task-oriented work-queues with schedulers, communicating across Threads via an intelligent Messaging-System) would be the icing on the cake :-D ! I am sure, we 'll implement it in the future, cause there are so many possibilities of usage, which will improve our Engine.

In addition, we are also currently evaluating Microsoft's new Parallel Extensions for the new upcoming .NET 4.0 Framework, which may also used by our Engine in the future, replacing / optimizing / supplementing some of our current techniques. I love the process of abandoning code in favor of new techniques coming available. Indeed, I hate it, really! It reminds me on our old EXCELSIOR Toolset, which we had rewritten from scratch five times :-( !

Another interesting approach are Mono's Continuations, which are so closely tied to the Runtime, that they are only available on Mono (Continuations won't run on MS .NET Framework).

I will refer to this Blog-Post later this year, when we have made decisions on our Final Engine-Design. As for now, I will leave it up to you, making the right conclusions, which technique(s) to use or to combine. Please mail me your thoughts if you'd like.

Posted at 8:37 PM

Posted at 3:11 PM

It's always funny on the Web. If it comes to Multi-Threading, there are sooo many wrong articles on the Net. Myths, rumors and wild guess can be found everywhere. I will write some blog-posts over the year, which will look behind the scenes and reveal some valuable information regarding Multi-Threading...

Don't get me wrong: I won't teach you how to write proper Multi-Threaded Applications! I'll only talk about 'borderline cases' and try to destroy some myths ;-) !

Today, we'll talk about using CheckForIllegalCrossThreadCalls = false;

Developing a Multi-Threaded Game-Engine and a Toolset for developing Games under .NET / C# is pure fun - believe me! Especially, if you want to use a C++ based Render-Engine, which should run (render) on its own Thread, but render (its output) to a managed Windows Form (or managed Control), which runs on the UI-Thread.

Just search on the Net for Multi-Threading + UI-Thread and you'll get some interesting articles as a result. Nearly every article speaks about: 'Never use a Control from a thread other than the UI-Thread (startup-thread).' - of course, it's not clever trying to use Controls from outside the UI-Thread as they ARE NOT THREAD-SAFE! Absolutely true!

(Managed) Windows Forms / Controls are single-threaded by Design, so you 'should' never access them from a Thread other they were created on (UI-Thread). 'Should' - I 've used 'should'!

I recommend to read Daniel Appleman's Book: Moving to VB .NET: Strategies, Concepts, and Code. Okay, it's 'old' and about VB.NET (not C# ;-) !), but it features an interesting chapter about .NET and Threading. These were the days (back in 2001) when the .NET Framework had been in its Beta-Test. And these were also the days of the Visual Basic coders, mainly developing Business Applications, which were easier and faster to develop using Visual Basic than C++. The VB coders could do nearly everything: accessing the WinAPI, using the MTS (huh! what's that? Microsoft Transaction Server ;-) ! ...or should I say COM+ Server? ...or better Application Server, for the younger ones among us?), etc.
But one big thing had been missing - the use of Multi-Threading! So, most of the former VB Coders eagerly awaited the release of the .NET Framework, to be able to write multi-threaded applications with VB.NET.
Mr. Appleman advises in his book to be very careful with threads and to not consider Multi-Threading as an all-purpose 'weapon' doing concurrent things (tasks) easily. You should really read it! IMHO, his 'warnings' were addressed to the 'normal' average VB Coder and were made to prevent them from using threads without the necessary understanding of what's really going on (under the hood).

Back to topic! Using the WinAPI (i.e. with C++) there are NO restrictions accessing Forms / Controls from different threads! And: using the 'old' .NET Framework 1.x, there is no such thing called 'CheckForIllegalCrossThreadCalls'! WTH has this been introduced in .NET 2.0?

I assume for the same reasons as Mr. Appleman has written his chapter. To prevent the 'normal' Coder from doing dangerous things w/o having the necessary knowledge!

But I don't want you to leave w/o providing you with the 'right' knowledge of how to write Responsive UIs with Multiple Threads by Ian Griffiths. A very helpful article and you should learn from it! As for me, I would design my UIs a 'little bit different' than shown in the article ;-) ... - but, it's really okay for Business Applications!

On to CheckForIllegalCrossThreadCalls = false;

You can and SHOULD use it! REALLY! But ONLY if you KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING and ONLY in scenarios WHERE IT SEES FIT! Forget the warnings about it and that MS has only put this in for debugging purposes.

In my personal example (rendering on a Control from a different thread) it's SAFE to use, cause I know (can make sure) that the Control is not accessed from the UI-Thread, ONLY from my Rendering-Thread!

I use it in the Constructor of my Control (not Form! - ...as I only want this control to be excluded from the checks!), like:

public Render3D_Panel()
{
   CheckForIllegalCrossThreadCalls = false;
}

It's a static property.

If you think I am wrong or had gone mad ;-), just write me a mail...

Posted at 2:45 AM

Hello friends!

This year I will post more nice how-to's - today I want to talk about drawing on Controls. I often see really bad made custom controls which flickers and don't show a smooth behavior.

Normally when a Control is rendered, 2(!!) Events are fired in order: OnPaintBackground, OnPaint

First we should disable OnPaintBackground completely:

protected override void OnPaintBackground (System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs pevent)
{
   //do nothing
}

Now we need to set the correct Window Styles (should be done in the Constructor of the Control):

this.SetStyle(ControlStyles.DoubleBuffer |
             ControlStyles.AllPaintingInWmPaint |
             ControlStyles.UserPaint |
             ControlStyles.Opaque, true);

If you set no Styles, your Control does the following 'under the hood':

this.OnPaintBackground();
this.OnPaint();

If you are going to use Double Buffering on, it looks like this:

this.OnPaintBackground();
this.BeginUpdate();
this.OnPaint();
this.EndUpdate();

But if you turn on the AllPaintingInWmPaint style, we 'll get our desired result:

this.BeginUpdate();
this.OnPaint();
this.EndUpdate();

Keep in mind: If you are going to use AllPaintingInWmPaint, you will get a System.ArgumentException from System.Drawing.dll from time to time, which tells you that you 've used an Invalid Parameter. Obviously a Bug! You can avoid it by NOT disposing your Graphics objects; use private class members instead, like:

private System.Drawing.Font drawFont = new System.Drawing.Font("Tahoma", 9, FontStyle.Bold);
private System.Drawing.SolidBrush drawBrush = new System.Drawing.SolidBrush(System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(162, 173, 201));
private System.Drawing.StringFormat drawFormat = new System.Drawing.StringFormat();

[...]

private void Render3D_Panel_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
    e.Graphics.DrawString("Test-Text", this.drawFont, this.drawBrush, 30.0F, 30.0F, this.drawFormat);
}

If you have any questions, just mail me ;-)

Posted at 11:45 PM

Posted at 6:49 PM

Posted at 9:51 PM

Posted at 2:30 PM

Ugh! Sorry - I am late as always! But here we go. We 'll keep our promise and start to publish the Prologue of our 1st EXCELSIOR Book (The Beginning) to the public.

NOTE: if you 'll ever plan to play EXCELSIOR, it is surely a MAJOR Spoiler to read the Books. But our Development will still last for years, so you'll hopefully have forgotten the complete plot, when the Game gets published ;-) !

Just kidding - start to read the Book, you have deserved it for waiting sooo long... - ...and keep in mind, it's ONLY the short Prologue and in GERMAN language only!

The 1st Chapter called 'The Assignment' (dt. 'Der Auftrag') will be published on 12/20/2009 right before Christmas and the 2nd Chapter called 'The Fountain' (dt. 'Der Brunnen') will be published on the last day of the year, 12/31/2009, so just START READING!

Duncan, your truly 'Santa Claus' (late as always).

EXCELSIOR - The Beginning / Prologue -> DOWNLOAD

Posted at 12:31 AM

Posted at 5:03 PM

Okay, our Frameworks for Rendering 3D Scenes, playing Sounds/Music and Support for Physics are ready ;-), so our To-Do Lists got smaller this year...

We are now about re-designing our plans for our Game-Engine, not sure about our Networking plans at the moment, but this is currently not a top priority.

BUT - we'll have something for YOU for the Holiday season... - we 'll give away the first chapters of our Black-Book Edition of 'EXCELSIOR - The Beginning' for FREE - but, in GERMAN language ONLY - sorry ;-) !

If we 'll receive nice comments :-) maybe we 'll publish the COMPLETE Book for FREE..!

So come back often - we 'll start with the Prelude-Chapter on 12/06/09 - right HERE!

Posted at 8:58 PM

...but this time, I have no hat at the moment *lol* - need to find one first!

I am the man on the right - name is Duncan (as you might already know)...

Dragon Age: Origins is definitely and truly the long-awaited successor to Neverwinter Nights 1 - no doubt!

I must admit, I was very sceptic at first, but now I 've the 'feeling' of true RPG playing back.

GREAT STORY - GREAT RPG - BUY IT !

Posted at 2:07 AM

Two days ago I decided to upgrade from Windows Vista Business to Windows 7 Professional. I downloaded the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor and checked my machine for compatibility issues. Needed 4 1/2 hours to 'adjust' my dev.-station (removed some drivers and programs) and to make a backup of all essential files. The Upgrade Process took another 4 hours! After booting Windows 7, I noticed some strange behavior when trying to logoff/shutdown/reboot my system. It told me that one program is still running and that I have to decide whether to shutdown the program by force or to let it finish first (which it never did!). I found out that some copy protection crap called Tages caused these issues. My favorite Game 'The Witcher' has installed this crap on my disk. After removing/re-installing Tages using the Tool on their Homepage, these issues are gone! Lucky me: just thought about doing a clean install! Microsoft had done a PERFECT job - thanx to MS for such a GREAT UPGRADE system - I am really impressed how everything is still 'alive' after such a big 'operation'! Just my 2 cents on the upgrade process - will post more on Windows 7 after some days...

Posted at 12:43 PM