Portico v1.0.1

JSAF Stability Improvements

Portico 1.0 is here! It's been a long road, with a lot of hours put in by the whole group to get the release over the line. Over 200 separate tickets have been addressed since the last release, adding a number of new features and filling out the public API. Version 1.0 is a major milestone for any project, and a special thank-you to the whole development is in order. We're very proud of what has been put in place since the project started and we hope you enjoy using it!

Clogging the Tubes - Target 5000

Let's face it, the HLA is a niche technology. Despite this, we've been somewhat overwhelmed by the interest in Portico. To date our various installers have been downloaded almost 5000 times by groups all around the globe. As we tick over to version 1.0, let's bust through this milestone as well!

Save/Restore and Ownership Management

Portico now supports both Save/Restore and Ownership Management services for the HLA 1.3 specification. This is provided for the Java and C++ interfaces and works across all platforms. These have been a long time coming, and now, save for some smaller calls here and there, Portico support covers the full 1.3 specification.

For compete details on the support level of various RTIambassador and FederateAmbassador calls, see the Portico API Status page.

Performance Improvements

Performance has been a focus of the Portico v1.0 release, and significant gains have been made. Through optimization at various levels inside the libraries, Portico is now significantly faster than it was in the previous releases. A comparison of Portico v0.9, Portico v1.0 and DMSO RTI-NGv6 was generated and can be found here. On that page you'll also find a new section describing how to tweak the various Portico options for better performance in your particular environment.

As part of the report generation, a benchmarking application known as PGauge was developed (for both Java and C++). The code for PGauge will be made available in the source respoistory for anyone interested.

Architecture Changes

As part of performance improvements, Portico underwent some significant architectural refactoring. As part of this move, there is no longer a central RTI component. When federates are started on the same network in the same federation, they will find and communicate with one another. Portico version 0.8 (the last release to contain the client/server architecture) will remain available for download by those who would like a point-to-point connection.

C++ Interface Improvements

Throughout the development of the 1.0 release, a number of bugs were identified and fixed within the Portico C++ interface. These improvements have resulted in increased stability across all platforms, as well as better performance.

As part of performance testing, the C++ interface was also put through some considerable load testing across Windows, Linux and Mac OS X, helping to identify any problems and resulting in increased quality for the interface.

Finally, a number of problems with the DLC 1.3 interface have been fixed and full support (to the same level as the RTI-NG compatible interface) is now provided, giving users a C++ platform on which they can build fully featured federates.

Improvements and Bug Fixes

Thanks to help from a number of users on the forums, a number of bugs have been identified and fixed as part of the Portico v1.0 release. These have been across all areas of Portico, but a few were more subtle bugs in Time Management (if anyone finds any more, please post them on the forums!).

What's Next?

Getting a product as big as Portico to Version 1.0 is a big milestone - but it's not a place to stop. From this point we've start to turn our attention to the IEEE-1516 API and are making plans on folding it into Portico family.

Finally, I'd like to extend a big thank-you to everyone who has downloaded and used Portico, and especially to those who have contributed back, either through code, bug reporting or general activity across the forums. Getting this far doesn't happen without the help of a lot of people. Well done and happy simulating!