= import soy =
PySoy is a 3d cloud game engine for [http://python.org/ Python].  It's object-oriented API is designed for rapid game development while speed critical functions, such as physics processing and rendering, are implemented in C.

With the most computation-heavy parts of OpenGL and [wiki:Physics Physics] processing in C, PySoy remains efficient while offering a high level object-oriented [http://python.org/ Python] API. The goal is to allow for rapid development without sacrificing speed or flexibility.

Built primarily for cloud games, PySoy offers an intuitive API for managing object behavior in 3D space.  An optimized background thread takes care of the low-level processing leaving your [http://python.org/ Python] code free to focus on higher level processing.

Our XMPP services framework, [http://concordance-xmpp.org/ Concordance XMPP], and a suite of browser and XMPP client plugins, will soon allow PySoy games to be seamlessly integrated with chat or web sites.  Our [wiki:License copyleft licensing] protects players ability to download and mod PySoy-based games even when they are run in cloud environments.

= @hardware_requirements =
Our goal with PySoy is to target the video hardware available to everyday computer users.  This is uncommon, most game engines strive for the latest OpenGL 3d rendering features and often require OpenGL 2.0 or higher.  In contrast, we focus on CPU-side game features and keep our 3D graphics requirements to a minimum:
  * '''AMD/ATI Radeon 9000'''
  * '''Intel i915'''
  * '''nVidia geForce2'''

We can do a lot with these cards, there are other 3D game engines available that target the $100+ video card market.

= problem = Ticket () =
As beta-stage software, PySoy is being promoted in order to solicit community help in finding bugs and resolving issues prior to 1.0 release.  If you run into a problem please register an account (doesn't even require email verification) and open a new ticket for it.  Be sure to include your CPU, number of cores, video card, driver, and other critical information along with a way to contact you if you don't intend on checking the site often.  We'll do our best to resolve every issue before the next release.

= print release_schedule =
We've been working on PySoy since June 2006.  We're close to a complete engine but we need your help with testing and feedback.  Each 1.0_beta release adds new features and improves past features based on input and bug reports from the community.  Our current Beta release schedule is:
 * [milestone:beta1 PySoy Beta-1] released in early July 2007 with basic physics and rendering for X11 (GNU/Linux, BSD)
 * '''[milestone:beta2 PySoy Beta-2] released in January 2008''' with basic input (keyboard) and native support on Microsoft Windows
 * [milestone:beta3 PySoy Beta-3] with improved input, plugins for Blender and GIMP, and [milestone:beta3 much more]
 * [milestone:beta4 PySoy Beta-4] with audio, XMPP-based networking, cloud gaming, and many more plugins
 * [milestone:beta5 PySoy Beta-5] with skeletal animation, drawable textures
 * [milestone:1.0-rc1 PySoy 1.0 Release Canidate] for final testing and feedback before 1.0 release
 * [milestone:1.0 PySoy 1.0] with solid 1.x API that game developers can rely on

Access to the current development tree is available via mercurial.  See the [wiki:Download download page] for how to use it.


= contact (us) =
PySoy developers can be found on [http://www.freenode.net/ irc.freenode.net] in the #PySoy channel.  If you need help, have questions, or are interested in getting involved there's a growing community on IRC to be part of.

We also have a [http://www.pysoy.org/mailman/listinfo/pysoy-dev developer mailing list] and an aggregate [http://planet.pysoy.org/ development blog].