bbhost v0.2.16

Release bundles for the live server, as before:

• Windows: unzip bbhost-win-v0.2.16.zip into a folder of its own and double-click run-bbhost.bat. It starts bbhost and keeps its log in the logs folder.
• Linux: untar bbhost-linux-v0.2.16.tar.gz and run ./run-bbhost.sh.
• Steam Deck: bbhost-steamdeck-v0.2.16.tar.gz; its STEAMDECK.md has the steps.

New in this release:

• Windows: no more crash when certain effects are drawn. Some Windows players' games closed with ACCESS_VIOLATION at 0x2cce9b5, usually in combat.
  • Cause: the game builds the strips behind some of its effects in two functions that keep working values just below the stack. Windows overwrites that area whenever it handles an exception, and bbhost's texture tracking raises one the first time memory it watches is written.
  • Fix: bbhost now runs its own version of those two functions, which keeps nothing there. They produce the same output as the game's, checked on 800,000 random strips.
  • The community "Intel 12th Gen+ SFX workaround" patch is not needed: it avoided the crash by not drawing those effects at all.
  • The crash was not specific to any CPU. The log now names your processor in a cpu: line near the top.
• Typing in the game's text boxes works. The hunter name, chalice glyphs and network password can now be typed.
  • A new install's settings had them answered or cancelled the moment they opened. An existing setting that still does this is switched back once, and the log says so.
  • The name box starts with "Hunter" selected, so typing replaces it.
  • Each box takes only what the game accepts: the glyph box, for example, takes only valid glyph characters.
  • The password box shows stars.
  • The game behind a box no longer moves while you type.
  • A controller's confirm and back buttons close the box.
  • On Windows, a Japanese, Chinese or Korean input method no longer turns the letters into characters the box would drop.
• Debug Menu plugin: no more death loop. With the plugin on, the player and every enemy died on each load, over and over. Its English text had translated names the game's character scripts look functions up by. Those names now stay as the game has them, so a few rows of the debug menu show them in Japanese.

Full Changelog: v0.2.15...v0.2.16

bbhost v0.2.15

Release bundles for the live server, as before:

• Windows: unzip bbhost-win-v0.2.15.zip into a folder of its own and double-click run-bbhost.bat. It starts bbhost and keeps its log in the logs folder.
• Linux: untar bbhost-linux-v0.2.15.tar.gz and run ./run-bbhost.sh.
• Steam Deck: bbhost-steamdeck-v0.2.15.tar.gz; its STEAMDECK.md has the steps.

New in this release:

• Debug Menu plugin. The developers' debug menu is now an official plugin, with a font of its own and the menu's text in English (Japanese in the plugin's settings). Turn it on in the setup window's Plugins tab; in the game, the ` key opens it. Trying it out online with friends is fine; cheating against other players gets an account banned. The old PC Settings switch is gone: if you had it on, the plugin is turned on for you.
• shadPS4 game libraries work as they are. If the 1.09 update sits beside your game in a folder of its own (CUSA00900-UPDATE or CUSA00900-patch), bbhost reads it the way the console applies an update; there is nothing to copy. The setup window says version 01.09, the update read from CUSA00900-UPDATE, and without an eboot set, the update's decrypted eboot.bin is used.
• A flat green title screen, or a crash at start in FileTransferTask.cpp(865), came from game folders holding files older than the 1.09 update's. bbhost now leaves The Old Hunters off when its files are missing and says why in the log, and a crash report names the files the game could not read. If your log says patch: old-hunters skipped or not the 1.09 m21_00_00_00 layout, copy the update's files over the game folder again and choose Replace (Troubleshooting).
• F12 captures for graphics problems. F12 writes the frame, its render targets and the draw list into a folder of its own in logs (logs\f12-<date>-<time>) and names it in the log: zip that folder and send it with the log. BBHOST_F12_PNG=1 writes PNG files instead.
• AMD: the GPU stopping in the Forbidden Woods. An RX 9070 XT lost the device in the game's own tessellated meshes there. Their buffer accesses are now kept inside each patch, and the device-fault report says where a bad address lies against the tessellation buffer. If it still happens on your card, please send the log; set BBHOST_TESS_HULL=0 before run-bbhost.bat leaves those meshes out meanwhile.

Full Changelog: v0.2.14...v0.2.15

bbhost v0.2.14

Release bundles for the live server: the Windows zip, the Linux tarball and the Steam Deck kit play on https://thehuntersdream.com by default. The dev server's playtest kits are no longer part of a release.

• Windows: unzip bbhost-win-v0.2.14.zip into a folder of its own and double-click run-bbhost.bat. It starts bbhost and keeps its log in the logs folder.
• Linux: untar bbhost-linux-v0.2.14.tar.gz and run ./run-bbhost.sh.
• Steam Deck: bbhost-steamdeck-v0.2.14.tar.gz; its STEAMDECK.md has the steps.

The first start opens the setup window: pick your game folder and the decrypted 1.09 eboot, then Play. The game stays offline until the PC is linked to an account, in the setup window's Account section or with F10 > Account at the title screen. The package's README has the steps.

Coming from the playtest kit? Your saves and game paths carry over. In the setup window, choose Live server under Online (the kit had chosen the playtest server), then link your account again and redo your F10 settings: the kit kept its sign-in and settings to itself.

Also in this release:

• Both packages' READMEs are written for players: setting up, the firewall prompt, linking an account, playing together and reporting a problem.
• docs/running.md describes the debug menu and the two font files it needs.

Full Changelog: v0.2.13...v0.2.14

bbhost v0.2.13

The first release from the new repository. bbhost is now licensed under the GNU GPL, version 3 or later, and comes with new documentation in docs/.

• The live server, thehuntersdream.com, now takes only encrypted (https) connections and plays only with signed-in players, as the playtest server did. New installs are set up for it, and a configuration from an older release that still connects to it over plain http is updated at the first start. Sign in with F10 > Account, or in the setup window's Account section.
• Graphics cards with 8 GB of video memory no longer draw the world black. Copies of the game's mesh data now only use the video memory that textures and render targets leave free, and anything that finds video memory full moves to system memory instead of failing.
• On AMD graphics cards, OBS's Vulkan game-capture layer is kept out by default; with it, the GPU of an RX 580 hung on every start. The new [video] obs_capture setting changes that, and OBS's Window Capture works without the layer.
• Graphics cards without Vulkan's maintenance8 feature (older AMD cards, for example) now get valid shaders for the game's offset texture samples.
• bbhost.exe has an icon, and Properties > Details shows its version.
• A setting that bbhost had added to an older configuration file with a note after it ("# added by bbhost ...") was read with the note as part of its value.

The packages no longer include the debug menu's font. docs/running.md ("The debug menu") says where to put it.

Full Changelog: v0.2.12...v0.2.13