Kiln 0.2.0-dev.25

Kiln 0.2.0-dev.25

A hotfix for 0.2.0-dev.24: ShroudForge mods and EML mods together, XHL mods, Skill Search's search box, and a launcher window that stayed black on some Linux machines.

Players and server owners

• ShroudForge's data mods apply again next to EML mods. 0.2.0-dev.24 made EML mods run when a ShroudForge mod is on. With More Gliders and Unlock Blueprints together, ShroudForge then refused one write of Unlock Blueprints and threw away its whole startup pass, so no data mod applied at all (Crafting Essentials, Unlock Blueprints, More Gliders and the other EML mods). ShroudForge (Kiln's build of 1.7.9) now checks a write into a value a mod created against that field's own type, which is what Unlock Blueprints' write is; Kiln's own EML runner had the same mistake and has the same fix. Seen in a game (Linux, Proton): Unlock Blueprints updated 2544 recipes, the startup pass completed, ShroudForge's mods' shortcuts work, and ShroudForge, EML, Greeneye, shroudlink, native DLL and Kiln mods loaded and worked together.
• XHL mods import again. XHL's mods since November carry a mod.json that only names the mod. Kiln took that file for a broken EML mod, left the mod out and said "Nothing to add". Such a folder is now an XHL-Core plugin, placed in the game's mods folder with every file it came with, where XHL-Core loads it. A hand-installed XHL mod in the game folder is shown as an XHL plugin instead of "Can't run".
• XHL-Core 2.x is recognised. The launcher said XHL-Core was missing while it was installed, and every download of it became one more mod. It is now one mod, "xhl-core", whose next version replaces it.
• XHL-Core starts its XHL mods under Kiln. Kiln chain-loaded XHL-Core under its file name, dinput8.dll, next to Kiln's own dinput8.dll. XHL-Core then took itself for the game's main dinput8.dll and waited for a call that only ever reaches Kiln's, so none of its plugins started and "XHL Mod Settings" never appeared (seen under Proton). Kiln now runs XHL-Core from its own copy named xhl-core.dll in the game's kiln\chain\ folder, where it hooks in behind Kiln the way it does behind any other loader. Nothing to rename or move: open the launcher once (or press Play there) so it places the copy; XHL-Core's log is then next to it, in kiln\chain\<its id>\XHL-Native-Plugin-Host.log.
• Skill Search's search box is back. Skill Search ships its EML part and the Shroudtopia module that draws the search box (its page says "Requires Shroudweave") in one folder. Kiln's Shroudtopia runner left out every folder that also holds an EML part, so the box never showed. Such a folder now gets its Shroudtopia module loaded, and only DLLs that are Shroudtopia modules.
• A black launcher window on Linux. On some machines (one report: NVIDIA, X11) the launcher's window stayed black. The launcher now notices when its page has not come up 15 seconds after the window opened, starts again without the GPU by itself, and keeps doing so at later starts. Settings > Appearance > "Draw the launcher without the GPU" turns this on or off; --software-render (or KILN_LAUNCHER_RENDER=software) forces it for one start, --gpu-render the other way. Started from a terminal, the launcher's first line names its log, and the log says how the window is drawn, the WebKitGTK version, the session type and the NVIDIA driver's version. Drawing without the GPU leaves the fire on the Play button out (a plain button instead); Steam and other programs the launcher starts still draw with the GPU.
• Update the Kiln runtime in your game too (the launcher shows the update next to Kiln on Play, or on the Runtime page). The runtime brings the ShroudForge, EML, XHL-Core and Skill Search fixes. The first start after the update runs ShroudForge's whole startup pass again (45 seconds on the test machine); later starts reuse it.

Known limits

• XHL-Core from its own copy is tested in Kiln's tests and in a Wine harness (a DLL loaded from kiln\chain\ no longer finds itself under the name dinput8.dll), not yet with XHL-Core's plugins in a game. Its log says role=chained when it works. A start from Steam before the launcher placed the copy uses the old path once.
• Kiln's creative menu and ShroudForge's World Editor both use F7 (World Editor: "Paste at cursor"), and Auto Loot Plus's settings and World Editor's "Capture and save blueprint" both use F8: one press does both. Change World Editor's shortcuts in its settings (ShroudForge's menu > World Editor > Keyboard shortcuts).
• Creative mode's glider steering and ShroudForge Unlimited Flight's "Upward Gliding" both steer the glider's nose with W and S. With both on, the nose can keep turning after you let go (Unlimited Flight changes the glider's turn rate a moment late). Use one of them.
• Servers: unzipping Kiln's server pack into a server that already has XHL-Core (its dinput8.dll) replaces XHL-Core, and the server half of XHL mods stops working. Put XHL-Core back as kiln/chain/xhl-core.dll in the server folder and add the line chain\xhl-core.dll under [chain] in kiln/chain.ini.
• The black-window fallback was tested on a virtual X display, not on an NVIDIA machine with X11: whether drawing without the GPU fixes that player's window is not known yet. If the window is still black with --software-render, start it from a terminal and send the launcher.log it names.
• Everything in 0.2.0-dev.24's known limits still applies.