The latest release of Sirrf, the Simple Irrlicht Framework, version 0.2.0, is now available for download. In the two months since the previous release a lot of changes have taken place. These changes range from small API changes to major feature additions. The most noticeable changes include:

• Asset Management
  The biggest new feature is asset management. Assets are managed by the AssetManager class. This manager manages so-called asset groups, which represent a collection of assets (meshes, textures, etc). These assets are retrieved from a directory with the appropriate directory structure. In turn the found assets are processed by asset processors. And at the end of the road, the user can use these assets without having to deal with paths. Furthermore asset management makes it possible to reload all assets in realtime, with direct results on the current scene. Reloading assets is as simple as one function call.
• XML-based Entity files
  It is now possible to load data concerning entities and their components from XML-files. This means that you can now define a scene through XML-files.
• Local Event System
  As of version 0.2.0 a HasEvents class, which provides the base for a local event system, is available. The availability of local event systems makes the entire framework more performant. Currently the HasEvents class is used by entities and asset groups.
• Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 support
  Version 0.2.0 is the first release that officialy supports Microsoft Visual C++ 2008. This should make it easier to set up Sirrf-based projects accros multiple platforms.

See the change log for more information regarding the changes in Sirrf version 0.2.0.

This is not the end of Sirrf’s development, though. Sirrf’s development will continue and Sirrf will undoubtely become even better in the future. And you, as a Sirrf user, as a member of the Irrlicht community, can help us improve the framework. This can be done by contributing code to the project, but also by testing the framework. Either way, we hope that Sirrf will be of use.

Useful links
SourceForge.net page – http://sourceforge.net/projects/sirrf
Downloads – http://sourceforge.net/projects/sirrf/files/ | http://www.ohloh.net/p/sirrf/download?package=Sirrf