v4.0.0.6 (AGS 4.0 Early Alpha 11)

This is AGS 4.0 Early Alpha 11.

Contains fixes from 3.6.1 Patch 3 (except ones related to backwards compatibility).

Other changes:

Editor:

• Added "Watch Variables" panel which lets to watch values of the selected script variables while running the game. This feature is working only if game is built in Debug mode.
• Support importing 1-bit (monochrome) and 4-bit images as sprites, room backgrounds and masks (converted to 8-bit).
• Ensure that Editor exports room backgrounds in their actual color depth.
• Improved scrolling of drop-down lists in the Room's navigation bar: made scroll buttons larger, and support mouse wheel.
• Fixed breakpoints not working in room scripts.

Script API:

• Added Pathfinder struct, which lets to search walkable paths in certain two-dimensional "space", and returns them as an array of Points.
• Added Room.PathFinder property that returns a Pathfinder object, searching paths over this room's walkable areas.
• Added Character.MovePath() and WalkPath(), which makes character to move along an arbitrary list of coordinates, and Character.GetPath() that returns current character's walking path.
• Added Object.MovePath() and Object.GetPath() functions, that work similar to Character's.
• Added GUI.ScaleX and ScaleY properties, GUI.SetScale() function.
• Added GUI.GUIToScreenPoint() and GUI.ScreenToGUIPoint() functions.
• Added Speech.SpeakingCharacter that returns currently speaking character (for blocking speech).

Engine:

• Ensure that Character.Speaking returns true even if character has no speech view.
• DynamicSprite.CreateFromFile() may now load 1-bit and 4-bit bitmaps, converting to 8-bit.
• Fixed VideoPlayer's looping mode not working.

Engine Plugin API:

• Added IAGSEngine.Log(), which lets plugins to print using engine's log system.

v3.6.1 - P3 (3.6.1.25)

This is a 3.6.1 Patch 3.

Editor:

• Fixed that after deleting a View's frame editor did not select next frame (regression in 3.6.1).
• Fixed "Delete last loop" button not appearing in the View Editor if the view is filled using "Assign sprites to view" command from the Sprite Manager.

Engine:

• Implemented an alternate solution for rendering "bad" TTF fonts that does not increase their loading times (after previous patch 2).
• Allow scene render during "load room" event if the last room transition was "Instant".
  This has to be done because number of games used this event for custom transitions.
• For games compiled in "Debug" mode "warnings.log" file will be written in "savegame dir" on platforms where modifying game directory is forbidden in principle (OSX, iOS, Android, Web).
• Fixed System.Log() was registered for plugins using a wrong argument list.

Compatibility:

• Fixed loading of 3.5.0 saves (broken in 3.6.1).

Windows:

• Fixed disk space check was testing space in the current directory instead of the save game location.

v4.0.0.5 (AGS 4.0 Early Alpha 10)

This is AGS 4.0 Early Alpha 10.

Contains updates and fixes from 3.6.1 up to Patch 2 (except ones related to backwards compatibility).

Other changes:

Editor:

• More panes in the Editor are DPI-aware (rescale well with the system font scaling).
• Editor tabs now display icons indicating their contents (may be disabled in Editor Preferences).
• Room panel tabs now display room names.
• Support reordering folders in Project Explorer with drag & drop.
• Support importing plain script files: ash, asc or both, - besides script modules (*.scm).
• Added "Controls transparency" slider to GUI edit pane.
• Fixed few problems occuring when importing old rooms into the new editor.
• Fixed some of the new files could be left after old room upgrade in case of a failure.
• Fixed import, palette remap and compilation of 8-bit room backgrounds in 8-bit games.
• Fixed double warning message when trying to close the Editor while a game test is running.

Script API:

• Added Character.MoveStraight() complementing WalkStraight().
• Added String.Join(), String.Split() and String.Trim() functions.
• Added System.GetEngineInteger() and System.GetEngineString() for returning diagnostic information about engine's runtime state. Possible arguments are defined by EngineValueID enum.

Engine:

• Overlay.X and Y properties of textual screen overlays, such as blocking speech, now treat assigned values correctly as screen coordinates and return values set by user consistently. They also return the assigned values without any offsets for textual overlays created using a TextWindow (having extra borders and padding).
• Added "--no-plugins" command-line argument that denies loading any plugins; also added respective config option.
• Fixed taking screenshots not working properly (regression in AGS 4.0).

v3.6.1 - P2 (3.6.1.24)

This is a 3.6.1 Patch 2.

Editor:

• Fixed few potential program errors for "Generate Keystore" in Android preferences.
• Fixed external processes (such as test game runs) were started using ShellExecute, which could theoretically lead to unintended results.

Engine:

• Fixed String.Replace crashing the engine if the resulting string exceeds 3000 bytes.
• Fixed releasing a mouse button could cause double "on_event" call (with eEventGUIMouseUp).
• Improved rendering of TTF fonts which have glyph sizes surpassing declared font's height.
  This fixes the look of text on gui controls, and automatic outlining on these fonts.
• Fixed a dialog shown with InputBox() function drawing typed text beyond text box'es border.
• Fixed custom dialog options in the "old mode" not triggering redraw when the active option changes.

v3.6.1 - P1 (3.6.1.23)

This is a 3.6.1 Patch 1. Unfortunately there was a serious problem found soon after 3.6.1 release announcement, releated to dynamic sprites (see below). This patch aims to fix that, and also fixes few less critical regressions.

Editor:

• Fixed View's frame preview sometimes drawn incorrectly, in case of certain panel sizes.
• Fixed folding in the script editor not working correctly if there's a commented closing bracket ("//}") inside this code section.
• Fixed Editor sometimes failing to update game exe's file information and/or icons, if user was importing any sprites during this working session.

Engine:

• Fixed room objects not updating under Direct3D/OpenGL renderer, if they were assigned a dynamic sprite, then that sprite was deleted, and a new one assigned with coincidentally same ID.
• Fixed room objects not updating under Software renderer, if they were assigned a dynamic sprite, and that sprite was modified while object was not visible on screen.
• Fixed inventory cursor's crosshair not displayed (when enabled in game settings).

3.6.1 Release

This is a stable 3.6.1 release. The contents of this update are listed in Changes.txt as usual.

If you're making games with this, please be sure to read "Upgrading to 3.6.1" article in the manual.

People who were working on this release:
@AlanDrake
@edmundito (fixes for OSX and iOS)
@ericoporto
@ivan-mogilko
@tag2015 (fixes)

v3.6.0 - P11 (3.6.0.58)

Editor:

• Fixed exception in Room Messages editor occuring if a certain game's Character is missing.

Engine:

• Fixed disabled GUIs not hiding their controls if "Hide all their controls" disabled style is set in General Settings, and game is run with Direct3D or OpenGL renderers.
• Fixed "greyed out" GUI controls leaving traces on parent GUIs when running with Software renderer.
• Fixed text parser in Dialog Options not working correctly if "new key handling" mode is on.
• Fixed DynamicSprite.SaveToFile() return value was inverse (regression in 3.6.0).
• Fixed engine crash in GetHotspotProperty() if the function is called with invalid ID.
• Fixed room Camera may fail to restore its position in the room after loading a save.
• Fixed fonts may not be assigned correct parameters when a new game is launched by calling RunAGSGame() in script (regression since 3.6.0 or 3.5.*).

Compatibility:

• Fixed engine refusing to load saves made by 3.2.0 engine, although being capable to do so.

v4.0.0.4 (AGS 4.0 Early Alpha 9)

This is AGS 4.0 Early Alpha 9.

Contains updates and fixes from 3.6.1 RC6 (except ones related to backwards compatibility).

Other changes:

Editor:

• Fixed 8-bit images imported and converted for a 32-bit game to not get their colors clamped to a low-precision palette.
• Fixed 8-bit rooms not being usable in the new Editor version (regression in AGS 4).
  NOTE: 8-bit backgrounds are still not working fully correct in this version, new imported bgs do not have their palette remapped.
• Fixed Room Editor can crash when working with non-32bit rooms (regression in AGS 4).

Script API:

• Added VideoPlayer struct, which provides means of playing non-blocking videos rendered onto a sprite that may be displayed on any game object.

Engine:

• Camera will not follow a disabled player character.
• Fixed error occuring when trying to make a screenshot while running Direct3D renderer (regression in AGS 4).
• Fixed sprites leaving traces on background while running Software renderer (regression in AGS 4).

v3.6.1 - RC6

This update fixes a number of regressions found in 3.6.1, and few more minor things.

Editor:

• Fixed Log Panel could not be shown again using menu command if it was closed by pressing "x" button.

Engine:

• Removed "supersampling" option from OpenGL renderer for now, as it's not consistent with the other renderers and not maintained properly.
• Allow game to call DynamicSprite.CreateFromDrawingSurface() and CreateFromBackground() with zero or negative size, clamping it to 1x1, in consistency with Create().
• Fixed Software render crashes if rendering in "game_start" script (for instance, if there's a call to Display).
• Fixed some TextBox keys were still tested while interface is disabled.
• Fixed old-style InventoryScreen dialog not letting to select an item.
• Fixed mouse cursor being visible during fade-out and fade-in transitions (this applies to texture-based renderers, Software renderer historically displays a cursor during fade-out, and that cannot be fixed easily at the moment).
• Fixed room objects and characters not drawn in correct positions if FadeIn() command was called in "room load" event.
• Fixed Crossfade and Dissolve transitions not rendering correctly in old-style letterboxed games.
• Fixed one extra frame drawn before Crossfade or Dissolve fade-in starts, causing a room to "blink".
• Fixed couple of potential crashes occuring during render after RunAGSGame() command.
• Fixed unnecessary warning about "dynamic sprite not deleted" displayed on exit for sprites generated by textual overlays.
• Fixed IAGSEngine.SimulateMouseClick() in plugin api causing stack overflow due to infinite recursion.
• Fixed old-style letterbox viewport getting broken after loading an old pre-3.5.0 save.

Android:

• In AGS Player removed currently unused "Super sampling" and "Drop video frames" preference settings.

Winsetup:

• Added config option to disable fullscreen mode selection.
• Fixed "graphics filter" option not displaying a correct initial selection.

v4.0.0.3 (AGS 4.0 Early Alpha 8)

This is AGS 4.0 Early Alpha 8.

Contains updates and fixes from 3.6.1 Beta 16 to RC5 (except ones related to backwards compatibility).

Other changes:

Editor:

• Added Enabled and Visible properties to Characters, Enabled property to Room Objects.
• Added FaceDirectionRatio property to General Settings, Room and Walkable Areas.

Script API:

• Added WalkableArea and Walkbehind structs which let work with these region types in OO-style.
• Added Character.Enabled and Visible properties, added Object.Enabled property, Character.on is deprecated.
• Added Game.FaceDirectionRatio, Room.FaceDirectionRatio, WalkableArea.FaceDirectionRatio and Character.FaceDirectionRatio.
• Added File.Rename().
• ListBox.FillSaveGameList(), RestoreGameDialog() and SaveGameDialog() now let define a range of save slots for display.
• Added MoveSaveSlot() which renames a savegame.
• Added "walkarea[]" and "walkbehind[]" global arrays.
• Global arrays of game objects (Characters, GUIs, etc) are now declared as arrays of object pointers. From the user's perspective this is a mere formality, as working with these arrays will be syntactically same, but this makes it easier for the engine to handle these arrays and objects internally.
• Removed Object.MergeIntoBackground() function as redundant, and complicating Object's logic.

Engine:

• AudioChannel.Position and PositionMs no longer return a very large value while skipping cutscene.
• DeleteSaveSlot() no longer causes highest save to be renamed to fill a gap in saves.