SemaTor 1.1.586 — Desktop studio, Creator tools and Xenon fixes

1.1.586 — Desktop studio, native game creation, SemaSynth and smoother play

Changes since public 1.1.585. This release brings a substantial expansion of the desktop creative suite, native ST/STE game building and music authoring, together with rendering, input and compatibility fixes across SemaTor.

Desktop workspaces and creative workflow

• Reworked Maker, Paint, Program Lab and Sample Editor around compact desktop menus, grouped tools and contextual inspectors, leaving more space for the document or canvas.
• Refined spacing, labels, selection and property panels in both Violet and GEM themes, including narrower and resized windows.
• Desktop authoring keeps its mouse-and-keyboard layout when a gamepad is used. Actual touch input retains adaptive controls without turning the desktop editors into controller menus.
• Paint gains docked layers and timeline controls, document menus and more usable canvas space.
• Maker replaces long button rows with workspace menus and compact Rules, Variables, Sounds and Object types inspectors. Dropdowns support keyboard operation.
• Object Events uses a compact split desktop layout. Room settings make better use of wide windows, with room audio beside the main properties and a scrolling fallback in compact windows.
• Rebuilt the Sample Editor workspace with clearer transport, zoom, selection, precision fields and sample tools. Added distinct waveform artwork for Violet and GEM.
• Program Lab and Samples improve access to controls in compact and touch layouts, with clearer playtest shortcuts and contextual guidance.
• Linked creative documents to their Studio projects, with clearer navigation between a project and its associated artwork, music and code.
• Added typed file drops and shared pixel-clipboard workflows between creative apps.
• Improved edit-in-another-app round trips between Maker, Paint, Code Reader, SemaSynth and Samples, including return/apply/cancel handling and protection against silent loss of edits.
• Connected Program Lab assets, Maker routines and debugger source origins so build and playtest work is easier to follow.
• Added searchable SemaSynth lessons to Help, including a playable STE sample lesson.

Creator: game logic, starters and native effects

• Expanded object-type behaviours: rules can belong to a type, allowing instances to share their event logic.
• Added key and joystick event rules, control mapping and editable sound-effect definitions.
• Added an editable Puzzle starter: touch three numbered locks in order, then reach the door. Wrong-order contact resets the puzzle. Its rules, routines, variables, messages and artwork are ordinary project data.
• Added the editable two-player Twin switches starter. Both players hold their switches together, then meet at the unlocked door; keyboard and native joystick controls are included.
• Added visual native FOLLOW paths with numbered points over the room terrain. Unsupported attachment to a custom engine is rejected clearly.
• Added installable, editable sparks/particle effects, camera shake and persistent high scores for native games.
• Failed high-score writes remain pending and can retry, rather than silently losing the score.
• Added opt-in native pixel collision queries with SELF/OTHER event scope, alongside the existing collision tools.
• Fixed particle background restoration at the left screen edge, including clipped overlays.
• Improved long HUD-message drawing and avoided redrawing numeric HUD fields when the message actually covers them.
• Fixed room HUD numbering, repeated room-start rules, touch/contact bounds, invalid goal selection and a scrolling-speed mismatch.
• New starters create clean projects. Project replacement and editing have more consistent Undo behaviour, including message typing, failed actions and selecting an object without moving it.
• Changing rooms clears stale selections. Project names are made safe for generated filenames, and export-folder failures report an error.

Creator: artwork, worlds and camera

• Import pictures as backdrops, scene images, tiles, sprite sheets or maps, with a before/after preview and memory-budget feedback.
• Support includes Degas, NEOchrome, Spectrum 512, PNG, BMP, GIF and SemaPaint pictures. Spectrum artwork is reduced to the target palette with a warning.
• Added target-aware ST/STE palette conversion, palette reuse, optional dithering, cropping/scaling and sprite-sheet transparency selection. Import is a single undoable action.
• Expanded banks to 64 sprite assets and 128 tiles. Sprites support 16×16, 32×16, 16×32 and 32×32 sizes with up to four animation frames.
• Added paged asset banks, size controls and separate storage for expanded sprite and tile slots. Existing terrain cannot accidentally be enlarged.
• Map imports can reuse mirrored tiles while preserving their orientation. Larger artwork is preserved through supported Paint and import workflows.
• Expanded projects support up to 48 objects and 64 rules. Native sprite drawing, clipping, erasing, collisions and playtest inspection understand the larger assets.
• Added rooms larger than one screen, up to 16 screens, with room-size controls, editor panning, a minimap and camera coordinates.
• Added camera-follow support and native scrolling-world generation, including double-buffered ST views, STE canvases and parallax support.
• Creator Smooth Motion and expanded views understand larger worlds and sprite sizes. Builds can include the matching SemaTor profile beside their disks and in exports.

SemaBASIC, debugging and building games

• Added SemaBASIC editing and compilation to native 68000 code, with an in-editor reference, syntax colouring, a full reference and tutorial.
• Added code units on object and game events, reusable modules, typed procedures/functions and recursion.
• Expanded the language with LONG values, arrays, constant arrays, DATA/READ/RESTORE, strings and font-based PRINT/TEXT drawing.
• Added STOS-style game commands, world/camera access, a Main program and WAIT/VBL waits. STE-specific commands check the machine at runtime.
• Extended music and sound commands, including playback position, channels, volume and looping where supported.
• Playtest debugging now operates on the running child game, with breakpoints, instruction stepping and named live values. SemaBASIC supports source-line breakpoints, steps and watches.
• Expanded debugger object inspection to cover larger projects and corrected alarm/field selection.
• Build errors point back to the rule or routine that caused them. Assembler size, relocation and line limits stop the build at the relevant line.
• Generated games boot directly from AUTO. The 520 ST target checks its available program memory before producing an oversized game.
• Added packed programs and packed or disk-loaded room/scene resources, with memory checks that account for loading and unpacking.
• Added 360 KB and 720 KB disk layouts and games spanning up to nine disks, with room/scene disk assignment and complete disk-set exports.
• Disk prompts accept Fire or a key, including prompts before gameplay and intros. Cancellation and restored scrolling are handled more reliably, and collected builds retain their disk sets.

Creator music, samples and per-room audio

• Added four-channel MOD import, preview and native STE playback, with project memory/rate feedback.
• Expanded MOD playback with stereo placement, sample volume/loops and additional supported tracker effects, including retrigger, note/pattern delay, tremolo and pattern loops.
• SemaSynth songs or individual patterns can become Maker MOD music. Instruments can become YM effects or STE samples, with unsupported conversion details reported.
• Added Use in Maker / Edit in SemaSynth workflows with undoable application and cancellation. Maker-generated MOD music can reopen its associated SemaSynth song.
• MOD instruments can open in the Sample Editor and return with their edited sample and valid loop selection.
• Improved ADSR and YM effect playback, long song identities, sample-loop handling and protection of game PSG effects while music timers run.
• Added per-room choices for the project song, silence or imported 50 Hz SemaSynth SNDH music, plus selection of which existing PCM effects load with the room.
• Room audio can load from disk or be packed into the program. Room changes stop the old audio before replacing its resources; scenes restore project music, while re-entering an already loaded room preserves track position.
• Room duplication, reordering, removal, save/open and Undo preserve room-audio choices.
• Room audio currently accepts SemaSynth SNDH files up to 128 KB and uses the existing 16-effect/128 KB sample bank. It cannot be combined with global MOD music. High-rate stereo MOD plus sample effects is restricted when it would exhaust the native CPU budget; MOD E0 and EF are not implemented.

SemaSynth: composition and instrument editing

• Expanded the synthesis engine with instrument lanes, macros, WAVE/SID waveforms, sync-square, buzzer locking, glide, portamento and vibrato.
• Reworked instrument editing with cards, lanes, hardware views, presets and a waveform editor.
• Added pattern effects, variable pattern lengths, transpose, groove, sub-song editing and block tools.
• Pattern keyboard shortcuts act only while the pattern editor is shown, preserving the desktop's other shortcuts.
• Improved song looping, Loop here, noise-column editing, envelope shapes and author/year metadata.
• Improved the native SNDH player, timer selection, playback-rate support, sub-songs and game-driver integration, with CPU-budget information.
• Fixed SID waveform phase agreement between preview and export, SNDH metadata and cleanup of timers, interrupt state and sound-chip port bits.
• Improved YM voice mixing and consistency between SemaSynth preview and emulator playback. The separate experimental tone-counter behaviour remains disabled.

SemaSynth: samples, STE, MIDI and music formats

• Added one- and three-channel 4-bit digi conversion, drum kits, Quartet playback and sample-editing tools.
• Preserved digi data when saving songs and improved conversion/noise-shaping behaviour with the active YM model.
• Added editable Quartet channel D and preserved all four sample voices through Maker MOD export.
• Added an STE sample-track editor and sequencing lane, stereo WAV import, native SNDH export and stereo audio export.
• Preserved stereo STE playback through preview, recording and A/B seeks, with shared DMA playback and tone-control handling in the runtime and Jukebox.
• Integrated STE sample tracks with Creator song ownership and checked their coexistence with Quartet playback.
• Added host MIDI input/output and recording/clock support, Standard MIDI File workflows and routing between the emulated ST MIDI port and host MIDI.
• Fixed MIDI export sequencing and note timing. Live MIDI follows actual preview events and variable-length pattern positions.
• Added YM2–YM6 and VTX import, including supported YM effects, plus YM6 export with effects and checked VTX export for register songs.
• Improved STE music playback in the Jukebox, including DMA sound, tone controls and machine identification used by STE tunes.

Xenon and individual game fixes

• Xenon: Finer desktop background and motion sampling, with four spatial rows on desktop and the lighter three-row setting retained on Android.
• Xenon: Fixed reverse-driving replay-origin clipping, multipart-sprite placement and projectile matching around scrolling tiles.
• Xenon: Reused identical background work to reduce unnecessary preparation, separated spatial precision from timing, and restored effects audio correctly after loading a state.
• Speedball 2: Improved experimental Smooth Motion continuity, busy-presenter handling and fallback drawing when the GPU cannot supply a picture. Added recognition of the supported Replicants loader.
• Double Dragon: Improved experimental Smooth Motion, removed a backward step at a blank-frame boundary and kept the expanded view through GPU fallback. Early Enemy Activation is a separate choice from the visual Expanded View.
• Golden Axe: Kept widescreen output through GPU fallback. Phone touch/controller input no longer unintentionally starts player two.
• R-Type: Improved independent music/effect rendering efficiency. Existing controller setups gain the default B = Space mapping while preserving custom assignments.
• Gods: Preserved wide scenery strips and HUD icons through a torn field.
• Oids: Side panels follow the completed video field, avoiding a mismatch with the main picture.
• Turrican II: Retained wide scenery without black side areas when holding a GPU-rendered picture.
• Toki, Xenon and Turrican II: Improved CPU intermediate-picture fallback when the GPU route supplies no picture.
• Updated game-specific touch overlays and controller presets for Golden Axe, R-Type and Double Dragon.

Rendering, performance and emulator reliability

• Moved more enhancement drawing away from the emulation lock, reducing contention between original game execution and picture preparation.
• Reduced repeated memory copying and scene-capture work across Smooth Motion, expanded views and game-specific overlays.
• This work covers Arkanoid II, Batman, Cannon Fodder, Double Dragon, Fire and Ice, Gods, Kick Off/Kick Off 2, Lemmings, Lotus, The New Zealand Story, Out Run, Populous II, Rainbow Islands, Return to Genesis, Sensible Soccer, Speedball 2 and The Chaos Engine, among others.
• Extended the same separation to specialist interfaces and overlays in Dungeon Master, Lombard RAC Rally, Mega lo Mania, Phantasie, SWIV, Time Bandit, Xenon 2 and Zak McKracken.
• Reduced capture/preparation overhead for Smooth 3D in Elite, Falcon, Formula One Grand Prix, Starglider/Starglider 2 and Stunt Car Racer.
• Threaded mode avoids waiting for unused enhancement pictures when enhancements are off, and exchanges settings, sound controls and display state more consistently.
• Frame generation presents complete pictures during busy UI updates, addressing mixed-picture menu flicker. Overload handling and respecting an explicitly disabled governor were improved.
• Wide-view presentation is separated from optional extended gameplay, so seeing more scenery and changing the playable area remain distinct behaviours where offered.
• Reduced rewind capture work by examining changed memory pages instead of repeatedly comparing the whole machine.
• Corrected MFP timer timing and interrupt-priority behaviour, including 60 Hz operation. XBIOS Vsync now waits with interrupts enabled as expected.
• Improved keyboard-controller reset/input handling and startup/save-state compatibility in the integrated runtime.

Android testing build

• Android remains a separately distributed private test APK, not a public desktop-release attachment.
• Updated Classic-default migration for phone installations and reduced avoidable work in the mobile rendering path.
• Improved gameplay/menu display-mode requests, refresh-rate voting, surface lifecycle handling and frame deadlines.
• Touch controls no longer also press the emulated mouse-port button in joystick games.
• Link a folder reads the linked location in place instead of copying it. Avoided creating unintended User/games or User/media directories outside the Apple-specific layout.
• Improved portrait and narrow-screen labels, control sizing and access to STE sample controls.
• Performance diagnostics distinguish gameplay from menus, loading and pauses, making recorded timing more useful.

Distribution and validation

• Public desktop packages and signed updates are available for Windows x64, Linux x86-64 and Linux ARM64. Windows portability fixes and required runtime artwork are included.
• Refreshed the website enhancement catalogue and release documentation. The catalogue describes available enhancements, not a guarantee that every game or edition is compatible.
• Public package checks exclude application source, debug symbols, private fixtures and development/reference assets; required runtime assets and licences remain included.
• Creator validation includes complete generated disks running on emulated 520 ST and STE targets, native drawing/gameplay checks and modern/GEM desktop layout checks. Occasional particle bursts pass these checks; sustained heavy effects can still exceed an original machine's 50 Hz budget.
• Xenon has extended live-run and captured-scene comparison coverage, including first-boss damage, but boss defeat, sector transitions and a complete campaign remain unverified.
• Physical phone/STE confirmation and broader full-campaign testing remain pending. Experimental enhancements and actual performance depend on the game, scene, selected effects and device; Smooth Motion does not promise a fixed frame rate or change the original simulation speed.