Skip to content

miniSphere 4.8.0

Choose a tag to compare

View all tags
@fatcerberus fatcerberus released this 12 Aug 03:49
v4.8.0
98163a2

miniSphere 4.8.0 is the eighth minor update in the miniSphere 4.x release series. This release adds a new SphereFS prefix, new DirectoryStream and Image classes, Sphere 1.x compatibility fixes, and more. As always, upgrading is highly recommended!

Important Considerations

  • The Core API includes a new class, DirectoryStream, which lets you game
    enumerate the contents of a directory, seek within the list, etc., much like
    you would read data from a file using FileStream. DirectoryStream objects
    are also compatible with the ES6 iterator protocol so you can use them in
    from() query. Refer to the API documentation for details.

  • SphereFS now supports a new prefix, $/, which maps to the directory
    containing the startup script. This should make importing local modules
    easier.

  • from() can now enumerate live ES6 iterator objects (i.e. with a compatible
    .next() method), not just those with a [Symbol.iterator] method.

  • The Music and Logger modules now have designated base directories and
    providing file extensions is optional. See the API documentation for more
    details.

  • A new Image class in the Sphere Runtime makes it easier to work directly
    with raster images, like you could in Sphere 1.x. For now only basic
    blitting (like Prim.blit()) is supported; more features will be added going
    forward.

  • The backbuffer is no longer cleared between frames during map engine
    processing, to improve compatibility with many Sphere 1.x games that relied
    on this bug. There may be unintended fallout (graphical glitches) from this,
    so keep an eye out.

Changes in This Version

  • Adds a new DirectoryStream built-in class which allows you to enumerate the
    contents of a directory. Works in both miniSphere and Cell!
  • Adds a new SphereFS prefix, $/, which resolves to the directory containing
    the startup script for miniSphere, or the root of the source tree for Cell.
  • Adds a new Image class to the Sphere Runtime which allows working directly
    with images, like in Sphere v1 code.
  • Adds FS.directoryExists() for checking whether a directory exists.
  • Adds support for enumerating live iterators in from.iterable().
  • Adds a new experimental Person class to the Sphere Runtime which makes it
    easier to work with map engine persons.
  • Improves windowed mode scaling behavior when miniSphere is run on a HiDPI/4K
    display.
  • Improves the Music and Logger modules by giving them default base directories
    (like in Sphere 1.x) and making the file extension optional.
  • Improves Sphere 1.x compatibility by avoiding clearing the backbuffer between
    frames during a MapEngine() call.
  • Improves the maintainability of the codebase with extensive refactoring. Any
    bugs, let me know!
  • Renames the analogue.js system script to persist.js to improve
    compatibility with Sphere 1.x.
  • Fixes several issues in the implementation of FS.rename() that could cause
    the function to behave destructively on some platforms.
  • Fixes a bug where Cell FS.writeFile() can accept a buffer object as input.
  • Fixes a bug in Cell FS.fileExists() where it returns true for directories.
  • Fixes a bug in which a path specified uplevel from a SphereFS prefix, e.g.
    @/../filename, is not correctly detected as a sandbox violation.

Installing in Windows

Simply download and run miniSphereSetup-4.8.0.exe. The Inno Setup install wizard will walk you through the installation process.

Installing in Linux

For Ubuntu (14.04 and later), miniSphere is available via personal package archive (PPA) (latest version only guaranteed on current Ubuntu release):

Installing from a PPA is easy. Simply open Terminal and run the following commands:

  • sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fatcerberus/minisphere
  • sudo apt-get update
  • sudo apt-get install minisphere

You only need to do this once. The system will automatically notify you of future miniSphere updates.

Note: Users of other Linux distributions, or those using older versions of Ubuntu, can build the engine manually from the tarball (minisphere-4.8.0.tar.gz).

Assets 4
Loading