Release 0.8.6

OpenOMF 0.8.6

Highlights

OpenOMF now supports mods, loaded from zip files placed in mod directories. A mod can replace visual assets such as sprites, backgrounds and pilot portraits, optionally at higher resolution, and adjust HAR, arena and tournament attributes and animations. To keep online matches fair, most mod assets are disabled during netplay. Please note that mod support is still experimental, and the format may change in future releases. Broader palette support for mods is also coming in a later release.

Music mods are now also supported, and we included multiple remixes by Shady Monk (Shay.) and DeBisco in the release package; you can turn these on in the audio menu. You can also add music mods yourself: OGG/Opus format is supported, and OGG LOOPSTART, LOOPEND, and LOOPLENGTH loop tags are honored.

The audio subsystem was overhauled with a new sound-effect source system, more correct sound tracking and handling, better sound handles, and a corrected loudness formula.

Note: if you package OpenOMF, be warned that path handling is now different. See https://github.com/omf2097/openomf/blob/master/PATHS.md for details.

Mods

• Load mods from zip files in mod directories, overriding sprites, backgrounds, animations, animdata.ini files, and portraits, with 2x/4x asset support, load-order sorting, version de-duplication, and netplay blocking (#1313)

Music and audio

• Music mods with multiple co-existing remixes, plus an in-game music source selection (originals, remixes, or both) (#1313)
• Honor OGG LOOPSTART, LOOPEND, and LOOPLENGTH loop tags (#1379)
• Bundle the official soundtracks into releases; see https://github.com/omf2097/openomf-music-mod for mod source (#1412)
• Audio subsystem overhaul: new sound-effect source system, more correct sound tracking and handling, better sound handles, and a corrected loudness formula (#1395, #1396)

Graphics and rendering

• 16-bit rendering surfaces (#1376, #1377, #1378)
• Optional extended 1024-color palette (#1373)
• Fullscreen scaling filters (#1340)
• Scalable intermediate framebuffer for cleaner output at different resolutions (#1312)
• New on-screen display (OSD) subsystem (#1389)

Gameplay and fight mechanics

• Frozen HARs can no longer block (#1310)
• Airborne stasis'd enemies can now be hit (#1383)
• Prevent re-hit juggling after stun (#1296)
• Throws against stunned opponents reset stun (#1295)
• Successful throws can no longer be interrupted (#1294)
• Three-tick jump delay (#1301)
• Arena round crossfades and more accurate round-start timing (#1097)
• Scoreboard fixes (#1311)

Tournament mode

• New tournament winnings and prize-money calculations (#1248, #1265)
• AI pilots now spend money: buying random upgrades, and their robot when starting with a random HAR (#1338)
• Use HAR-specific tournament victory text (#1413)
• Fix second tournament pilot portrait position (#1414)

Networking and lobby

• Numerous lobby and netplay UX fixes: chat line limits and alignment, name entry only after connecting, proper VS-screen cancel and back behavior, cursor fixes, sanitized copy-paste, gamepad text-field UX, plus an out-of-bounds and a double-free fix (#1408)
• Another batch of netplay fixes (#1369) and lobby connection fixes (#1417)

GUI, mechlab and fixes

• GUI library improvements and leak and null-safety fixes across menus, text input, and mechlab (#1345)
• Mechlab fixes: free confirm-dialog button userdata, refresh upgrade-button status on tickers, and remove obsolete price checks (#1331, #1332, #1339)
• Text input character filtering (#1336)
• Fix a crash in chrtool when the file argument is not found (#1330)
• Replay (REC) action and extra_data cleanup, DOS backwards-compatibility fixes, and hardened rectests (#1314, #1318, #1319)
• Fix the newsroom screencaps by not reading outside the FBO (#1415)
• Crashes now prefer a proper crash handler over abort() (#1307)

Packaging and platform

• Linux AppImage builds, plus .desktop and icon installation and installing resources into the search path (#1399, #1400, #1410, #1365)
• Windows build process improvements (#1391)

Under the hood

• New path library used throughout for filename handling (#1179, #1299, #1300, #1302)
• New script parser engine and script cache (#1351, #1406)
• Extensive formats modernization and utils container optimizations (hashmap, list, vector, ringbuffer, str) with much wider unit-test coverage (#1349, #1350, #1352, #1353, #1354, #1355, #1397, #1398, #1404, #1405)
• Documentation moved to Sphinx and ReadTheDocs with architecture docs, plus an AI policy (#1347, #1356, #1357, #1358, #1362, #1374)
• Sprite atlas debugger and packer improvements (#1360, #1361)
• Assorted bug fixes and cleanups (#1322, #1348, #1370, #1394)
• Toolchain and CI modernization: stricter printf-format checking, clang-tidy enforcement, updated GitHub Actions (Node 24, Ubuntu 26.04), and MSVC CI fixes (#1333, #1334, #1385, #1386, #1387, #1388, #1393, #1401, #1402, #1407, #1409)

Contributors

@Vagabond, @mrannanj, @Nopey, @LegendaryBlueShirt, @katajakasa, @miguelmartins1987, @stubobis1, Shady Monk (Shay.) and DeBisco

Full Changelog: 0.8.5...0.8.6