GSoC topics 2014

This is currently a brainstorm list of projects students could work on for GSoC 2014. It's not even certain that SuperTuxKart will get reaccepted to participate in 2014, nor are we sure how many slots we will get. Last year we mentored 3 students who all succesfully completed the program and we hope to get at least the same amount of students this year.

The actual projects we will select will depend on the students' proposals, the mentors' availability (to avoid having too much work for one mentor), and also what features benefit STK the most. Please discuss your ideas with us on IRC and try to contribute beforehand so that we can get an idea of your skills. The latter is definitely not necessary but it might help us in our selection process.

For now consider this to be a brainstorming list - to be discussed and fleshed out later.


== Scripting engine ==
SuperTuxKart race tracks are currently either static, or feature looping animations. The goal of scripting is to expose track object control and manipulation capabilities to a scripting language, so that each track may specify custom interactions, as described in more detail on our [[GSoC_Scripting|Scripting Engine]] page.

'''Prerequisites'''
* C++ programming
* experience in a scripting language
* notion of how scripting works

'''Mentor'''
* Marianne Gagnon (auria)
* Fallback : Joerg Henrichs (hiker)

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== Online User Administration ==

SuperTuxKart uses a server to provide several online features. At this stage the server is used to manage addons, but it is expected in the future to also take over a role in online multiplayer. This project is about adding missing features to the server, like simple bug reports for addons (e.g. the original designer of a track could be informed about problems, and other users could be warned that a track does not work properly). We also need a way to moderate our online users (e.g. prevent offensive names from being used, allow different roles for different users, ...). Details can be found  [[GSoC_2014_Server_Side|here]].


'''Prerequisites'''
* PHP(OO)
* CSS and HTML
* (My)SQL
* Familiar with C++ (Only a little bit will have to be done in C++.)

''' Mentor'''
* Glenn De Jonghe (unitraxx)
* Fallback: Stephen Just

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== GUI Improvements ==
SuperTuxKart uses a self written GUI engine that is based on the Irrlicht's GUI elements. Nevertheless the GUI itself has quite a few shortcomings. This project is about fixing existing GUI issues, and improving the look of the menus. This task will require you to implement additional widgets, and (re-)designing the GUI flow and look of the menus. More details about this task can be found on the [[GSoC_GUI|GSoC GUI]] page.

'''Prerequisites'''

* C++ programming
* Experience with GUI programming may help

'''Mentor'''
* Marianne Gagnon (auria)
* Glenn De Jonghe (unitraxx)
* Fallback : Joerg Henrichs (hiker)

----

== Physics and Game Play Improvements ==
The physics of SuperTuxKart are very simple at this stage, and some wanted features of the game can not be implemented at this time. Some examples:
* Properly using motor bikes (at this stage all bikes are internally karts, i.e. no real leaning in curves).
* Corkscrew tracks. Some preliminary support for corkscrew tracks is implemented in STK (i.e. the gravity of the karts can be changed, allowing karts to drive on the walls or ceiling), but many details are missing to actually use this feature.
* Different kart physics.
More details can be found [[GSoC_Physics|GSoC Physics]] page.

'''Prerequisites'''

* Good C++ programming.
* Understanding of physics, potentially experience with bullet physics engine.
* Ability to quickly understand existing code.
* Potentially some GUI coding might be required (e.g. different kart physics need to be shown in the kart selection screen).


'''Mentor'''
* Joerg Henrichs (hiker)
* Marianne Gagnon (auria)

----

== Track Editor ==
A long outstanding problem of SuperTuxKart is the fact that good skills with a 3d modelling software (best blender) is necessary in order to create tracks. This means that many people interested in designing tracks are facing a huge hurdle. Additionally, even for experienced modeller it takes a lot of time to create a track.

More details of this project are on our [[GSoC_Track_Editor|GSoC Track Editor]] page.

'''Prerequisites'''
* GUI development
* C++ or a scripting language
* some blender and 3d modelling experience
* some python experience (to study the current blender track exporter)

'''Mentor'''
* Joerg Henrichs (hiker)
* Lauri Kasanen (cand)
* Fallback: Marianne Gagnon (auria)

----

== GSoC Addon Dependencies ==
Currently, when an artist creates an add-on package (a kart, track or battle arena), their contribution is completely encapsulated within a single archive file for download. This presents a few problems:
* Assets may be stored with multiple add-ons
* Users must download the same files multiple times
* Duplicate data must be stored on the server multiple times
This is particularly prevalent with music that artists include with their track or battle arena packages. A dozen artists may all include the same music track, with a size of 4MB, and we would have to store all dozen or more copies independently. In order to resolve this problem, a dependency system could be implemented for add-ons. A more detailed explanation on this topic can be found on the [[GSoC_Addon_Dependencies | Addon Dependencies]] page.

'''Prerequisites'''
* PHP(OO)
* CSS/HTML
* C++
* (My)SQL 

''' Mentor'''

* Fallback: Stephen Just
----

== Unit Testing ==
SuperTuxKart does not have any kind of unit testing implemented, at this stage it relies on tester to report any bugs. This project is about adding a unit test framework to STK - ideally for both STK and the addon/online server. More details on the [[GSoC_Unit_Testing|GSoC Unit Testing]] page.

'''Prerequisites'''
* C++ (for STK unit testing)
* php, mysql (in case of server-side unit testing)
* Unit testing experience, esp. existing frameworks or scripting languages

'''Mentor'''
* Joerg Henrichs (hiker)
* Glenn De Jonghe (unitraxx)
* Fallback: Marianne Gagnon (auria)

----

==Race History Verifier==
It is very easy to modify the kart characteristics in SuperTuxKart. This makes it difficult to have reliable online highscores. We intend to use the replay feature to help with that: any highscore will need to be submitted with a replay.

In this project the student will try to automatically verify if a given replay is based on an unmodified set of kart parameters. The verification process could look out for excessive acceleration, high speeds from zipper that last too long, too much nitro for a track etc.

'''Prerequisites'''
* Some C++ programming.

'''Mentor'''
* Joerg Henrichs (hiker)
* Fallback : Marianne Gagnon (auria) 


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==Allow to take a video in game==
Many people want to create videos of a SuperTuxKart race. Be it because they want to report a bug, show off a new feature, or just to post it on youtube. To do this atm additional software needs to be installed, and very often there are problems (performance, sound missing, ...). This project is about adding a built-in video recording feature. Anyone would just need to press a start and stop button, and a video is automatically created (similar to the already implemented snapshot feature).

In order to get good performance, you may need to compress frames on the GPU before fetching them. Using the hardware encoding support in latest graphics cards would also be acceptable, but a solution that works on a wider range would be preferred.

'''Prerequisites'''

* Some C++ programming
* experience with video creation (existing libraries can of course be used).

'''Mentor'''
* Marianne Gagnon (auria)
* Lauri Kasanen (cand)
* Joerg Henrichs (hiker)

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GSoC topics 2014

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