Authoring Tool Crash - Android SDK bug [FIXED]

[NiCoX]

Hi Andre,

Regarding the first ShiVa 2.0 beta, that will be focused on the exporter part (with the integrated UAT, and the HTML5/WebGL engine preview), "very soon" actually means this month, as we are finishing the last feature we wanted to include in this beta release (which is the "software updates" thing, allowing us to publish patches and hotfixes without having to make a whole release).

[Kacetsu]

Hi NiCoX,

i got the same problem with UAT, but more important for me is your post.

Does that mean that we have to update to 2.0 as soon as it be released and 1.9.2 is not getting any love in such kind of bug fixes?

And if this is the way it is going, do we get a free update?

-K.

[broozar]

yes, exactly: if you want the latest engine with all bug fixes and new features, you have to upgrade to 2.0.

2.0 upgrades are free for all customers who purchased a license/upgrade after Jan 1st 2012. for everyone who has an older license, a decision on the upgrade price has not been yet made - but it's safe to say that ShiVa will never be as cheap as it is now (50% off, 1.9 license plus free 2.0 upgrade).

[Kacetsu]

Thats an bad joke for me!

So long-term customers are getting into the shadow?

If that is be true, the project (3) im working on currently would be the last one i will do with Shiva3d, the next one will be for sure with Unity.

Also that Shiva3d is as cheap as never is not correct. I did buy the advanced version in June 2011 for 780$. I never understand why the price is jumping up and down.

Im currently have 3 projects from small to middle size in the pipe and have now to worry that the long time support will be a nightmare.

[broozar]

[NiCoX]

Kacetsu,

Regarding the engine updates, you do not have to worry: the free ShiVa 2.0 Web Edition will replace the UAT series, and it will be possible to use it the same, by exporting a STK from ShiVa 1.9.2 and then creating the final package with the ShiVa 2.0 integrated authoring module.

Now, as Felix explained, the ShiVa Editor 1.x series updates have been free for years, and honestly if we could we would continue and just give all for free. But unfortunately, the world we are living in does not allow us to do so... hope you'll understand.

[Kacetsu]

Nicox and Broozar,

i think you got me wrong.
I don't say Shiva have to improve there features for free (im lucky you did till now), but the 1.9.2 Release was a few weeks ago and already we found bug(s) that let us not work correctly with the tools. I don't say i want a "new absolut nice feature" for free, but a bugfix like in the UAT that is not giving us an exception like the one we get currently "iStart + iCount > iBufferSize" and just let the cutomers know they have to use Android SDK < 20 would be professional (UAT is not even starting).

Jumping to a new Tool (that is what 2.0 is) is not a option for already running projects.

[broozar]

the 1.9.2 release was around christmas 2013. the "bug" was reported at the end of may 2014. is it really a bug? turns out the error message is generated by changes in the android sdk, changes nobody could have foreseen in detail. Should the UAT crash because of this? of course not.

shiva 1.9.2 is not 100% bug-free, and you could argue that software of the scope of shiva will never be bug-free (google, apple etc. are discovering bugs in their platforms on a daily basis, and we support over 20 of them...). but we don't want to hide behind the statistics, on the contrary. we constantly keep on improving and adapting our engines. the point is, shiva 1.9.2 works just fine with the SDKs and tools that were available at the time of its release. you make a good point that we should let everyone know about the sdk versions/timeframe of supported software that is compatible with 1.9.2, and we will do that on our new website - we have a "legacy" section there complete with license transfer db and downloads, and we assume that people will be working with 1.9.2 for some time before making the switch.

now, as NiCoX said in his post, you can still
1. develop/continue to develop your game with 1.9.2, export the STK and then
2. load the project into 2.0 WEB, which will always be free. since the STK was generated with a licensed 1.9.2, exports out of 2.0 WEB will not be watermarked, so you can take advantage of the new engines and fixes like the Wear SDK incompatibility - the new ShiVa 2.0 WEB essentially replaces the old UAT.

i think that is a very generous arrangement and should keep 1.9.2 fans in the loop in terms of engine updates.