OpenWheels v0.4.0

New

• Rebuilt restored-campaign levels: Lawn and Order, Idol Hands and Lift Off. Each is now a
  full-length level in the style of the original campaign (layered scenery, invisible collision
  under detailed art, no floating text) with set pieces driven by triggers:
  • Lawn and Order: the neighbours' sunbathers and picnic, Lemonade Hill, a kiddie pool whose
    rims catch the deck unless you lift it, a seesaw over the koi pond, and Mrs. Henderson, who
    swoons when you knock her prize pumpkin off its stand. Finish at the HOA office.
  • Idol Hands: a jungle camp and a carved temple face; strike the idol hanging from a giant
    stone hand and the door grinds open; a boulder drops behind you on the long descent and
    chases you to a low arch; aiming dart guns, a crystal hall with glass and a spike pit crossed
    on a rail, two swinging axes, a gallery that caves in behind you, and a sunset escape.
  • Lift Off: carry a crate with the magnet to Bay 1 to open the hangar door, take the engine
    crate to Bay 2 to open the main door, then fly out under the power lines to the tower helipad.
    Screenshots and the test report are in artifacts/level-review/.
• Tutorial arrows in the restored campaigns. Lawn and Order, Idol Hands and Lift Off show the
  game's own control arrows to teach each restored character's controls; browser-format levels
  keep their system triggers when converted.
• Game controllers on every platform. Windows and Linux (Xbox and PlayStation pads, any pad
  remappable), macOS, Android (Bluetooth / USB pads and handhelds' built-in controls such as the
  AYN Odin / Thor) and iOS. The controller drives through the same virtual fingers as the
  keyboard, and every driving action is remappable with three inputs each (QOL "controller").
  See docs/CONTROLLERS.md.
• Full menu control with a controller. A glowing highlight moves between the buttons of every
  screen (menus, level and character select, pause / victory, popups, the online browser, Your
  Levels, Nearby, account panels); A presses, B goes back or closes, LB / RB turn the chapters,
  the right stick scrolls, R3 gives a free pointer (level editor).
• Rumble on crashes, hits, broken bones, lost limbs and explosions, by strength and distance
  (off / low / medium / high). Android: the controller's vibrator or, for built-in controls, the
  device's; "phone vibration" (off by default) for touch play.
• Tilt steering on Android and iOS (off / low / medium / high): turn the device to lean.
• Touch controls can be hidden on phones and tablets too, and hide by themselves while a
  controller is connected.
• User vehicles on touch screens: riding a browser user vehicle shows SHIFT / CTRL buttons for
  its assigned actions and an eject button, which only existed as PC keys.
• Browser physics, closer to the browser game and smooth. Online levels now use the browser
  game's Box2D 2.0 rules: its solver (contacts, joints, damping, speed limits, sleep), its
  sweep-and-prune broad-phase, continuous collision and contact points, on top of its 30 Hz step.
  Characters and vehicles use the browser's exact shapes, level shapes are built in its order, and
  fans, boost panels, harpoon guns, explosions and NPC break limits behave as in Flash. Checked step
  by step against the HTML5 client on real replays. Levels are drawn smoothly at your display's
  frame rate instead of moving at 30 fps, and replays of your own runs play back exactly. On by
  default for online levels (QOL "browser physics"); campaign, restored and editor levels keep the
  mobile physics. Box2D is now built from source (thirdparty/box2d).
• Main menu fits small screens. The button row shrinks, scales or wraps to two lines on 4:3,
  16:10 and narrow windows instead of running off the edge, and the logo shrinks on very narrow
  windows. A credit line under the logo and an OpenWheels section in the credits.
• macOS and iOS packages with every release. OpenWheels-macos.zip (Intel, runs on Apple
  Silicon through Rosetta) and OpenWheels-ios-unsigned.ipa for sideloading, built by the release
  workflow alongside Windows, Android and Linux.

Fixed

• Lawnmower Man died on his own mower: the mower's hull was in a different collision group
  from its rider, so a bump smashed his chest against the hood. The hull now shares his group while
  he rides.
• Jets on user vehicles (jetpack levels) didn't fire when the vehicle had come to rest: a
  sleeping jet ignored its key. The jet key now wakes them.
• Restored characters' extra buttons (Helicopter Man's rope up / down, Explorer Guy's stand /
  crouch, Irresponsible Mom's kids) were covered by the special button when the special button was
  set to the left side, so they couldn't be pressed (touch or keys). They now sit above it.
• Helicopter Man's rope always has at least 2 m to let out.
• Swords in grouped objects couldn't be grabbed (some sword fights): the original put the
  handle's collision box at the weapon's centre instead of under the drawn handle, so the blade
  hit but the handle had nothing to hold. On browser levels, user levels and the editor's test
  play it now sits where it is drawn (the campaign keeps the original's box).
• Browser physics only on online levels: restored campaign and editor levels no longer run at
  the browser step.
• The "select a character" chapter is now the last chapter in level select.
• Online browser: the search field no longer covers the account button on 4:3 screens.
• Controls page: the table and hint fit narrow windows.
• A rare crash when closing the level editor's inspector.
• Android: the APK is signed with the OpenWheels release key again, so it installs over
  v0.3.0. Test builds from the workflow install alongside it as "OpenWheels beta"
  (org.openwheels.game.beta).
• Builds: macOS (Xcode 16 SDK), iOS (CMake 4, Xcode 15+) and Windows (MSVC) release builds compile
  again; engine patches stay byte-exact on Windows checkouts.

Downloads

• Windows: OpenWheels-windows.zip - unzip and run OpenWheels.exe.
• Android: OpenWheels-release.apk.
• Linux (x86_64): OpenWheels-linux-x86_64.tar.gz - unpack and run ./OpenWheels.
• macOS: OpenWheels-macos.zip (unsigned: right-click the app, Open).
• iOS: OpenWheels-ios-unsigned.ipa (unsigned: sideload with AltStore, Sideloadly or similar).

Legal

OpenWheels is an unofficial fan project. Happy Wheels and its assets belong to Fancy Force / Jim Bonacci. See NOTICE.md.