v30 (stable)

DQIX Enhanced v30: widescreen without pop-in.

What's new since v29

• Widescreen: no more pop-in at the sides. People, doors, items and
  monsters near the left and right edges no longer vanish: the game asks
  the DS whether each one is in view, and in widescreen it now gets the
  answer for the whole wide picture. (Not while playing with friends far
  away: there every PC has to make exactly the same decisions.)

How to install: download Source code (zip) below, unzip it and
double-click Install Dragon Quest IX.bat. Already on v29? The game
offers the update when it starts (or Help > Check for updates): your saves
and settings are kept.

Playing with friends: everyone needs the same version, so all of you
update to v30.

The plans for what comes next are in ROADMAP.md.

v29 (stable)

DQIX Enhanced v29: a much sharper Enhanced mode, and the screens the way you want them.

What's new since v28

• Sharper Enhanced mode: the 3D resolution goes up to 12x, and the new
  Auto setting (Graphics > 3D resolution, F4) renders at one and a half
  times the size the game is shown at, so fullscreen on a big monitor is
  never stretched and edges come out smooth. If you had 4x (the most
  before), you now have Auto. Upscaling also keeps every pixel the same size
  at any window size (it made some rows wider than others before).
• Smooth textures (Graphics menu, Enhanced; off at first): the DS
  shows every texel of a texture as a block, which at high resolutions
  can look like a low-resolution picture on sharp 3D. Turn this on to
  smooth the textures; cut-out shapes (leaves, grass, hair) get smooth
  edges too.
• Widescreen sky: skies drawn as a backdrop behind everything (the top
  of the Observatory) now fill the whole wide picture instead of only the
  middle, with the game's bare backup sky showing at the sides.
• Widescreen with a clean field: View > Widescreen: the small screen in
  its own window puts the map (and the battle commands) in a second window,
  so the field fills the first one with nothing over it.
• Two windows, both fullscreen: the second window has its own bar with
  Fullscreen, so each screen can fill its own monitor (F11 also works in
  either window; move the mouse to the top to get the bar back).
• Screens your way (View menu):
  • Swap the screens (F9): in stacked, side by side and top screen in
    the corner layouts, the two screens trade places.
  • Two windows: one screen in each, to put them on two monitors. The
    second window opens on your other monitor and remembers where you leave
    it; F11 in either window makes that one fullscreen. Also in the F2 cycle
    when you have two monitors.
  • Widescreen battles: the command screen now sits in the top left
    corner, over the sky, instead of in front of your party and the enemies.
  • See-through small screen (O, widescreen): 100%, 75%, 50% or 25%. It
    turns solid while the mouse is on it, so you can still click it.
• Enhanced mode looks like the DS again where it didn't: see-through
  effects now follow the DS's own rules, so clouds are soft and wispy instead
  of solid white blocks, the glow around Yggdrasil is a soft halo again, and
  light beams, water and other glows look as they should.
  • Fog (the distance haze) no longer covers see-through effects in front of
    the sky, and it is no longer a step too thick everywhere.
  • Overlapping see-through layers no longer pile up into a solid colour or
    hide the sky behind them, and a cloud or glow no longer blends over
    itself.
  • Outlines: at 1x soft like on the DS; at higher resolutions thinner, so
    characters' arms and legs keep their colour instead of turning into
    outline.
  • Solid parts of models drawn with see-through edges now hide what's
    behind them, as on the DS.
  • The DS's shadow effect only darkens where it should.
    Checked against the exact DS picture at the top of the Observatory: the
    difference went down by about three quarters.

How to install: download Source code (zip) below, unzip it and
double-click Install Dragon Quest IX.bat. Already on v28? The game
offers the update when it starts (or Help > Check for updates): your saves
and settings are kept. A 3D resolution of 4x becomes the new Auto.

Playing with friends: everyone needs the same version, so all of you
update to v29.

The plans for what comes next are in ROADMAP.md.

Nightly (v30)

The newest work, less tested. Use the stable release for your main
adventure; try this one in its own folder with a copy of your save.

Right now the nightly is the same as stable v30. The next nightly
(v31-nightly1) will bring new work; see ROADMAP.md for what's planned.

How to install: download Source code (zip) below, unzip it and
double-click Install Dragon Quest IX.bat. Already playing? Use Help >
Check for updates instead.

v28 (stable)

DQIX Enhanced v28: playing with friends far away now works on any internet.

What's new since v27

• Join friends with a code, on any internet: hosting now shows a short
  code like DQ-7KF2-QM4P (copied for you). Friends choose Wireless > Play
  with friends far away > Join a friend and type it. It works even when
  neither router lets anyone in (apartment and mobile internet): the games
  then meet through a small relay on the internet, with a little more delay.
  Where your router does let friends in, the host window also shows the
  direct address.
• Clearer host window: when friends far away can't get in, it says so,
  instead of showing an address that only works inside your home.
• Joining gives up after 10 seconds with a reason (no answer, refused,
  a home-network address) instead of waiting much longer.
• A connection log for playing with friends: game\session\front.log,
  written as it happens (it holds internet addresses: send it privately).
• Fixed: the in-game updater could fail with "'BUILD.bat' is not recognized"
  when the game had been started by some launchers.

Tested for real: two players thousands of miles apart, both on apartment
internet where neither could open a port, joined with a code and played for
over nine minutes with every sync check matching.

How to install: download Source code (zip) below, unzip it and
double-click Install Dragon Quest IX.bat. Already on v27? The game
offers the update when it starts (or Help > Check for updates): your saves
and settings are kept.

Playing with friends: everyone needs the same version, so all of you
update to v28. Buttons react a little later over long distances (the game
picks the delay from the connection); lowering it is on the roadmap.

The plans for what comes next are in ROADMAP.md.

v27 (stable)

DQIX Enhanced v27: the second stable version. Everything below is new since
v26, after 21 nightly test versions.

What's new

• Easy setup: double-click Install Dragon Quest IX.bat and a window
  walks you through it: choose your ROM (it says which version it is),
  where to put the game (Documents by default; it warns about OneDrive and
  folders Windows protects), shortcuts on the desktop and in the Start menu,
  then it builds the game with a progress bar and a Play now button. The
  game is listed in Settings > Apps, where it can be uninstalled (your saves
  are kept unless you say otherwise).
• More routers let friends in: when UPnP is switched off or missing, the
  game also asks the router with NAT-PMP and PCP. Friends with IPv6 can join
  over IPv6 too (the game asks the router's firewall to let them in), and
  joining accepts an IPv6 address.
• Send a bug report (Help menu, or F10): saves the report, then opens a
  ready-made report on GitHub with the zip to drag into it. It says first
  exactly what's included, since the report is public; your save is only
  included if you tick the box.
• Any version of the ROM can be tried: no more checksum check. The USA
  version is the tested one; others get a warning and are built anyway.
• Clearer windows: the update window's buttons fit their text
  ("Update to v27", "Skip this version", "Later"), and when a new stable
  version is offered, a button to install the newest nightly instead.
• Playing with friends far away: tag mode (canvassing for guests) and
  co-op through Pavo with up to 4 players over the internet. The game sets up
  your router where it can, and the host gets a window with the address to
  send to friends and a Start button.
• DQVC like the original: sales on the original calendar (Fridays,
  08:00 UTC), new stock every day, every player their own shop, visitors can
  shop at the host's Sellma, and DQVC works inside multiplayer sessions.
• Modern options (new Modern menu):
  • Widescreen: the world is drawn wider than the DS's screen, so you see
    more of it left and right, and the top screen sits small in the corner
    like a minimap. Menus slide over to make room; in battles the commands
    sit in the corner at half size. 16:9 in a window, as wide as your
    monitor in fullscreen. Enhanced mode.
  • Walk in any direction with a controller's left stick, now on at
    first and without the stylus's arrow on the screen.
  • The top screen in the corner, with the field as on the DS.
• Nothing extra to download: DQVC and the downloadable quests are built
  into the game; the build fetches DQVC's news by itself.
• Updates from inside the game: Help > Check for updates (stable or
  nightly), and a notice when a new stable version is out.
• The game's own icon: dqix.exe gets the icon the DS menu shows for the
  cartridge, made from your ROM when the game is built. Double-click
  game\dqix.exe (or a shortcut to it) to play: no console window.
• New installs start with the DS Lite look: the DS Lite screen filter
  and the screens inside the photo of a real DS Lite (F6 and F7 switch them).
  Updating doesn't change your settings.
• New installs start with Wireless > Connected mode on, so Sellma's
  downloads and DQVC work straight away (switch it off in the Wireless menu).
• The photo of a real DS Lite is the default console; tidier help windows.
• The right stick turns the camera while you walk around (like L and R,
  slower with a light push). In fullscreen, double-click outside the
  touch screen to go back to the window.
• Fixed: a rare freeze after "Continue your adventure" (it took an
  interrupt arriving at one exact moment, e.g. after skipping the logos with
  a tap on one particular frame).
• Fixed: the sticks could tap and press L/R on the title screen; they only
  walk and turn the camera once an adventure is loaded.
• Fixed: A and B (and X and Y) were swapped on Switch controllers (Pro
  Controller, Joy-Cons). Every controller now uses the DS layout by
  position: right button A, bottom button B.
• Fixed: a thin line of one colour along the top of a screen when the
  screens are shown smaller than they are drawn (with the console photo).

How to install: download Source code (zip) below, unzip it and
double-click Install Dragon Quest IX.bat. A window walks you through it.
Already on v26? Download v27 the same way (v26 can't update itself), and
copy dqix.sav and settings.ini from your old game folder into the new
one. From v27 on, updates come from inside the game: Help > Check for updates.

Still being checked: internet play has only been tested on one PC so far,
and router set-up (UPnP, NAT-PMP, PCP, IPv6) against real routers by few
people. If something goes wrong, Help > Send a bug report.

The plans for what comes next are in ROADMAP.md.

v26 (stable)

The first stable version of DQIX Enhanced: the whole of Dragon Quest IX,
built into a native Windows game from your own ROM.

What's in it

• Classic mode: every frame exactly as a DS draws it, with the DS's sound
  and timing.
• Enhanced mode: the 3D on your graphics card at up to 4x resolution
  (F5 switches at any time).
• The DS Lite look: screen filter (colours, pixel grid, motion blur,
  backlight levels) and the console around the screens, as a photo or drawn
  in six colours, even at actual size.
• Keyboard, mouse (as the touch screen) and gamepads; fast forward; every
  setting in the menu bar.
• Sellma's downloads offline through a built-in Wi-Fi server, including
  DQVC on its original calendar (with the optional extras in this version).
• Saves compatible with the DS; F10 bug reports.

How to install: download Source code (zip) below, unzip it, put your
ROM in the rom folder and double-click BUILD.bat. See the README for
details. Nothing from the game is included: the build makes it from your ROM.

This version doesn't update itself yet; the next stable (v27) will, and so
does the nightly.