Chipmunk2D Pro vs. Chipmunk@Github

[Tony Cheung]

First, please let me thanks for the great work you have put into Chipmunk.

When evaluating the library I found Chipmunk2D on Github first, after cloning there are few Objective Chipmunk header files in it.


While comparing with the files from the download site


It's obviously some files are missing on the Github clone.

May I know exactly what are the difference them? If one made the iPhone static library (out of the Github clone) into their app, is it legal to redistribute it?

[slembcke]

Chipmunk Pro as of version 6.x included 3 main features: an optimized solver (threads + ARM NEON support), the Autogeometry library that let you turn procedural functions or images into collision geometry, and the Objective-Chipmunk wrapper for Objective-C. In Chipmunk 7 (master branch in GitHub), we have made Objective-Chipmunk BSD licensed, but the optimizations and the Autogeometry are still Pro features.

Chipmunk 7 has pretty much been done for a couple months now except for documentation which I've been having a hard time fitting into my schedule. :-\

[aisman]

@slembcke,
You mean we can use the 7.x version for a first try now?

[Tony Cheung]

@slembcke,

Thanks for your explanation, slembke!

If I am starting to build a game from nothing now, should I stick with the v6.x in Chipmunk Pro or the v7 on GitHub? It looks to me that I should take the v7 route since it's latest, however, as you have pointed out, the lack of documentation would likely burn me out...

Another question - I found that the v7 on Github has much fewer .h files exposed in the Objective-Chipmunk module, would features be limited compared to the v6 Pro version, or somehow a subset of features of v6?

If I get a v6.x license now, will there be a migration plan/procedure for ugprading to the future stable v7? or actually v7 is supposed to be backward compatible?

Thanks again for the great work, and spending time answering!!

[slembcke]

@aisman
If you want to start wrapping it into something, the API should be stable now.

@Tony
v7 overall is quite similar to v6. The biggest things to note are shape filters replacing layers/groups, the new collision handler C API and the more explicit names. What headers are missing? There shouldn't be any missing functionality.

[Tony Cheung]