Meld Unbound v1.9.0

Meld is now a standalone desktop app. Download it, extract it, run it. No Python, no installer, no terminal. Unbound closes the arc that started at 1.8.0 and rolls the 1.8.4 to 1.8.9 updates into one release, hardened by their field reports.

What this adds since 1.8.0, in short:

The app	A portable folder for Windows, macOS and Linux. Meld lives in the tray, opens its UI in a window, and deleting the folder uninstalls it.
Status bar	An always-on-top strip made for long renders: one colored block per worker, current task, ETA, CPU, RAM and disk, plus an optional history graph.
Self-updating	Meld notices new releases, verifies them against the release checksums, stages the new build beside the old one and switches only after it proves it starts. The old build is kept. The arnis generator updates on its own, so a generator fix never waits for a new Meld.
Data preparation	"Get the data for this region" picks the right Geofabrik country files for your selection. Baking prices RAM, disk and time against your actual machine with measured numbers, corrects itself live, and refuses a job that will not fit while naming the fix.
Presets	A world's look as one shareable file, with machine-specific settings stripped. Three tuned starters by Teddy563 ship in the box: Default, Scaled 1:10, and Extended height at true terrain height.
Speed and stability	Parallel baking is truly parallel in the app build, the worker cap follows your cores, estimates calibrate themselves, and a long list of release-day reports from Discord got fixed at the root.
The generator	Bundles the Arnis fork 3.0.10: caves, farmland texture, tile-invariant rendering, road detail modes, props, rail tunnels. Kept 0 commits behind upstream by decision.

First start: Windows shows SmartScreen once (More info, then Run anyway). macOS needs right click and Open, or System Settings, Privacy and Security, Open Anyway.

Full history is in the CHANGELOG. The real world in Minecraft, from a city block to a whole country.

Portable - extract the folder anywhere and run it. No installer, no Python needed.

Download	For
Meld-*-win-x64.zip	Windows 10/11
Meld-*-mac-arm64.tar.gz	Mac (M1 and later)
Meld-*-mac-x64.tar.gz	Mac (Intel)
Meld-*-linux-x64.tar.gz	Linux

Windows — Meld.exe starts in the tray with no window. Run
packaging\Create-Shortcut.ps1 for a desktop icon. First launch shows a SmartScreen
warning because the build is unsigned: More info → Run anyway.

macOS — the build is not notarised, so Gatekeeper blocks it: open
System Settings → Privacy & Security and choose Open Anyway.

Linux — run packaging/install-shortcut.sh for a launcher entry. GNOME has no
tray without the AppIndicator extension; ./Meld --no-tray works regardless.

Full Changelog: v1.8.9...v1.9.0