Neap 0.2.1.6, test build

A test build, for trying what comes next before it is released. Neap does not offer it as an update, and offers the next release once it is out.

Install on Windows

1. Download Neap-0.2.1.6-win-x64.zip below. Windows 10 version 2004 or later, 64-bit.
2. Unzip it into a folder you will keep, and run Neap.exe.
3. The download is not signed yet. If Windows says it protected your PC, choose More info, then Run anyway.
4. Make sure Swarm II is not running in the background, and turn off its Autostart in its App Settings. The two apps fight over the headset when both are open.
5. Remove the Waves audio driver: in Windows Settings, under Apps, uninstall Turtle Beach Audio Driver by Waves Audio Ltd. Neap does not need it.

Install on Linux

1. Download Neap-0.2.1.6-x86_64.AppImage below, make it runnable (in a terminal, chmod +x Neap-0.2.1.6-x86_64.AppImage, or in your file manager tick Allow executing as a program), and run it. It needs a desktop with PulseAudio or PipeWire, which almost every one has.
2. If it says it needs FUSE, install libfuse2 from your distribution, or run it as ./Neap.AppImage --appimage-extract-and-run.
3. The first time, Neap may say it is not allowed to use the headset. Choose Allow access: your system asks for your password once, and the only thing it changes is a small rule file that lets you use the headset.
4. The download is not signed. Check it against the .sha256 file beside it if you like: sha256sum -c on that file.
5. Neap tells you when a newer version is out and opens its page; download the new file to replace the old one.

Added

• The mini panel has spatial sound, between noise cancellation and the equaliser: Off, Windows Sonic or Dolby Atmos, whichever the system offers. It is left out where the system has none, and it stays when the headset is away, as it does on Home.
• A switch on the Settings page turns the mini panel on or off. It is on by default; when it is off, a click on the icon by the clock opens the window, and "Mini panel" is left off the icon's menu.
• The game and chat dial shows live levels: a thin arc inside the ring for each side, growing from its own end as that side plays, so you can see chat speaking and the game's sound as you set the mix. It reads each app's own level, so it follows the mix. Windows only; it stops when the window is behind or animation is off. When the headset's chat wheel moves the dial, the dial now glides to its place.
• A click on Neap's icon by the clock opens a mini panel for mid-game: the game and chat mix, mute for the microphone, noise cancellation and the equaliser preset, with the headset's name, state and battery above them. It closes on Escape or when you click elsewhere. The window is now "Open Neap" on the icon's menu, and on the panel.
• The equaliser is easier to try things on. Points show they can be dragged: a resize cursor, a halo and a larger point under the pointer, and a bubble with the value while one is moved. The curve takes the keyboard, with Left and Right to choose a band and Up and Down to move it, and Shift for a bigger step. Compare plays the headset flat for as long as you hold it and puts your curve back when you let go. Undo and Redo, or Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y, step back through the edits made to the curve since the page was opened.
• The Neap mark and name sit at the top of the menu, above the profile switcher, at the menu's left edge; the window's title is no longer written over them. When the menu is icons only, just the mark shows.
• Every tile on Home has the same layout: icon and switch on top, then the name, then its state, so names line up across a row. On Game and chat, Keyboard shortcuts moves up beside the title.
• The equaliser curve grows with the window and shows a dB scale, preset names stay on one line, and the part of your curve the headset can't reach is shaded grey and named in the legend.
• A max loudness boost on the Audio page raises the Stealth Pro II's own level, so everything through the dock plays louder — for when the headset is too quiet even at full volume. It starts at +0 dB until you move it, is saved on the headset, and is for the Stealth Pro II only: other headsets don't show it.
• An app given to a profile can switch to it only while it's using the microphone, rather than whenever it's open. A profile for Teams calls comes on as a call starts, and the default comes back when it ends.
• Neap recognises the Turtle Beach Atlas Air, finds its speakers and microphone, and shows only what it has: no chat wheel, noise cancellation, lights, Charging Dock or CrossPlay. Its settings can be changed, in testing with an owner of one.
• On the Atlas Air, Superhuman Hearing and voice prompts use the places Swarm II keeps them, rather than the Stealth Pro II's. In testing with an owner of one.
• On the Atlas Air, mic monitoring and the transmitter's light use the places Swarm II keeps them. In testing with an owner of one.
• On a headset with no chat wheel, such as the Atlas Air, a profile saves the game and chat mix and puts it back when it's switched to.
• The game and chat mix on Home links to its keyboard shortcuts.
• A recording lists each change Neap sends to the headset beside what the headset says, and says why when a change wasn't sent.
• What's new is always in Settings, beside Neap's version. With no update waiting, it shows what's new in the version you have, without going online.

Changed

• The app's text is set in Figtree, and the name beside the mark in Outfit, in place of Inter. Both are carried inside the app, so Windows and Linux show the same letters. The text is a little rounder and a little wider.
• The menu and the page each run the full height of the window, so the edge between them reaches the top, and the menu starts in the title bar's row. The headset's status and the update bar sit at the top of the page.
• On Profiles, the profile in use now has a soft tint and says "In use" under its name, and a screen reader hears it on the button that changes its apps. It follows a switch from the menu, or by an app starting, as it happens.
• Every card on Home works the same way. On or off is a switch at the top right, and the card is tinted while it is on; a choice among a few is a row of segments under the name. Spatial sound now shows Off, Windows Sonic and Dolby Atmos in view instead of opening a list, and Superhuman Hearing gets a switch with its sound (Legacy, Footsteps or Gunshots) under the name, faded until it is on. The microphone is a card with a switch too, instead of a tile you press anywhere.
• On Profiles, a screen reader hears each profile's apps, and when they switch, on the button that changes them.
• Deleting or saving an equaliser preset updates the list in about half the time, and the Delete and Cancel buttons are disabled while it runs.
• In a narrow window, a switch that drops under its name now starts where the name does, instead of floating in the middle of the row.
• Before any chat app is chosen, Home and the mini panel show the game and chat dial faded and disabled, with the question about chat apps below it, rather than leaving the dial out, so it is clear what the card is for.
• Buttons, drop-downs, fields, tabs, switches and tiles lose their outlines for a flat, softer look: each is a gentle step of fill from what it sits on, and icons and dividing lines are quieter. The keyboard focus ring is unchanged, and high contrast keeps every outline. A tile that is on, such as the microphone on Home, is a soft violet tint rather than solid violet, and the panels set into a card, such as the chat app list, are a lighter grey in the light theme.
• On the Equaliser page, Discard shows only once the curve has been edited, and a saved preset's delete button shows only on the row you point at, focus or have chosen.
• On Controls, each job for the Mode button and the lower dial is a full-width row you can press anywhere, the chosen one tinted, and the two cards are the same height. The dial's first job is named Microphone monitoring volume.
• Audio's sliders all end at the same edge, with Master volume's mute beside the slider's line instead of shortening it.
• Start when you sign in says why when it can't be changed, as in a practice run.
• Home is redesigned: the headset's readings across the top, Game and chat as one card with a Keyboard shortcuts link, and tiles that show how they work, such as a switch for the microphone, Off, Cancelling and Transparency for noise cancellation, and a preset choice on the equaliser.
• Audio holds what you hear and your microphone in two sections, with noise cancellation, Superhuman Hearing and spatial sound as choices you can see at once, and a link from each section to its equaliser.
• The Equaliser page lists your presets beside a larger curve, with Game and Microphone as tabs and the test tone folded away until it is wanted.
• Clearer words: Noise cancellation, Strength, Noise reduction, Loudness boost and Microphone monitoring, and every failure says what to do next.
• The profile switcher sits at the top of the left menu, and becomes one profile icon when the menu shows icons only.
• The equalisers have a page of their own, Equaliser, with a Game and a Microphone tab. Home's equaliser tile opens it.
• The microphone settings are on the Audio page, and Microphone has left the menu.
• A stronger look: an ultraviolet accent in both themes, and in the dark theme a deeper, single ground behind everything.
• In a small window, such as the Steam Deck's, text, rows and the menu step up a size so they are easier to read and touch.
• The app icon is redrawn as a split half moon over one wave, and the icon by the clock is its own simpler drawing that follows a light or dark taskbar on Windows.
• A calmer, more compact look: neutral grey backgrounds in place of the violet-tinted ones, flat panels without gradients or outlines, smaller text and tighter rows, so more of each page fits on screen. Neap's violet now marks only what is on, chosen or playing.
• Text uses the Inter typeface, carried by the app, so it looks the same on Windows and Linux.
• The menu on the left has a softer chosen-place highlight, and shows a ring around the place the keyboard is on. Pages sit slightly closer to the edges.
• Cards, rows and tiles are flat, and tiles are shorter. In high contrast, cards, rows and tiles have an outline so their edges stay visible.
• Buttons, switches, boxes and sliders are more compact, switches and boxes are easier to see when off, and the mute button follows the theme, including high contrast.
• The game and chat dial is flatter and a little smaller, and its keyboard focus ring is easier to see in the light theme.
• Dialogs and the update banner share the app's spacing, a dialog's main button uses the accent colour, and long dialog headings wrap instead of being cut off.
• Every page uses the same even spacing. On Home the headset summary and the quick settings sit on cards like the mix, the loudness boost on Audio takes half the height, and the Profiles page puts New profile beside its title.

Fixed

• On the Atlas Air, moving mic monitoring above 1% changes it. Every higher level was refused, because its place is where the Stealth Pro II keeps an on and off switch.
• Sliders move in whole steps, so the Atlas Air's voice prompts, from 0 to 15, no longer shake as they are dragged, and never show a number past the slider's end.
• If the headset muted the PC's microphone, by its arm or by being switched off, the microphone comes back on when the arm is seen down, even after Neap was closed or the headset was off in between. A mute you set yourself in Neap stays.
• When the headset gives no answer for a group of its settings, such as the Atlas Air's transmitter light, the app log and recordings say so.
• A recording says "no answer" for a transmitter slot the headset didn't answer for, rather than calling it empty, and names each change Neap sends by the setting it changes: the Atlas Air's mic monitoring shows as mic monitoring, not as the noise reduction switch kept at the same place on the Stealth Pro II.
• A screen reader now announces noise cancellation, the Mode button, the lower dial and Superhuman Hearing's sound as named groups of options, instead of leaving the group's name out.
• A headset with no name of its own now shows its own model name. An Atlas Air without a given name used to show as "Stealth Pro II"; a headset Neap doesn't recognise now shows simply as "Headset".
• On the Atlas Air, the master volume no longer jumps to 100% and back as it is moved, from the slider or the headset's wheel.
• The volume and microphone sliders no longer jump back while they are moved. The headset reports each level a moment late, and a late report pulled the slider back, then forward again. They now leave the headset's reports alone for a moment after a change.
• On the Atlas Air, Bluetooth says whether the headset is listening over it. It used to say "Connected" on the transmitter and "Not connected" on Bluetooth.
• On the Atlas Air, profiles no longer stay on "Reading the headset's settings…". They wait only for settings the headset has.
• A profile saved on one headset no longer shows as changed on another that lacks some of its settings, and saving over it keeps them.
• On the Atlas Air, AI noise reduction is no longer offered. The headset doesn't have it, and the switch was changing its mic monitoring level.
• On the Atlas Air, voice prompts go from 0 to 15, as in Swarm II, so every step changes how loud they are.
• Home calls the Atlas Air "Atlas Air", as Swarm II does, rather than the name it holds. With nothing connected, it says "Headset" rather than "Stealth Pro II".
• On Linux, a headset that seems to say nothing is also listened for where Linux keeps what the headset sends unasked. If it still says nothing, the log says what arrived there.
• On Linux, Neap waits for the headset's replies at the same pace as on Windows, rather than asking about four times as often.
• On Linux, a transmitter that stays silent is restarted once, as if it had been unplugged and plugged back in, with Neap listening as it comes back. Some transmitters answer only if something has listened since they were plugged in. Neap asks for permission once more where it was allowed before this.
• What the headset reports, under Device, can be selected and copied, and a Copy button puts all of it on the clipboard.
• Settings and recordings show a test build's full version, such as 0.2.1.1, rather than the release it follows.
• When a transmitter opens but the headset gives no answer, the log and any recording say so, rather than leaving "Quiet" unexplained.
• When a transmitter opens and the headset gives no answer, the log says what was tried, and the first ask after Neap starts waits longer, in case the answer is only slow.
• Neap no longer changes the settings of a headset it doesn't know, as it always said it wouldn't. It only reads them.
• A recording of another headset now says which functions the headset didn't answer about, rather than counting them as not found, and asks it again before giving up.
• A link in What's new sits in line with the words around it, rather than above them.
• A recording keeps going for well over an hour. It notes a sound level when it changes rather than every second, which filled it after about 37 minutes.
• A recording made on Linux names Linux and its version, rather than calling it Windows, and says once rather than every second that it can't yet tell where sound is going.