v0.1.33

Faster on weak graphics chips, a notice when a newer release is out, and a Misc tab.

Online: nothing in the connection or in the game's own steps changed, so this release should play with 0.1.32 as before; a match between the two was not tried.

Updating on Windows: replace every file of the old copy, not only the .exe.

Faster

Measured on an integrated graphics chip (the Radeon in a Ryzen 7 9800X3D), in a recorded fight at 16:9 with every effect on and the frame limit off:

Resolution	0.1.32	0.1.33
1x	278	299
2x (the default)	96	117
3x	45	56

• The HUD's copies. For some HUD draws (a bar's fill, a word through a band) the renderer copied a whole drawing buffer, nine times a frame in a fight. It now copies only the part those draws touch. This is most of the gain at 2x and above.
• Finding the drawing setup. The renderer searched through several hundred setups for every primitive. It now remembers the answer. This is the gain at 1x, where the processor is the limit.

If the HUD ever looks wrong in this release (a piece missing from a bar or a portrait), start the game with BT3_DATE_WHOLE=1: that brings the old copies back, and tells us where to look. Please report it either way.

New

• Update notice. Once per start the game asks GitHub for the number of the newest release. If it is newer than yours, a line shows over the picture for ten seconds, and the settings window (F1) gets a "Download page" button that opens the release page in your browser. Nothing is downloaded or installed by the game. "Check for updates" on the Misc tab turns the request off.
• A Misc tab in the settings window, with "Check for updates" and the three skip options (logos, intro video, copyright page). The skip options have moved here from the UI tab.
• "Random" includes added stages and songs. In the duel select (which Ultimate Training uses too) and the team select, a random stage or song is now drawn from the stages and songs you added as well as the disc's. With nothing added, and in an online match, the draw is the game's own as before.

Fixed

• The model viewer was stretched. In a picture wider than 4:3, the character reference's model viewer was stretched like the menus around it. It is a 3D scene and is now shown with the wide view, like a fight.

Tested

On Linux, without a display. The speed: the table above, by the same recorded fight before and after. The pictures: nine frames of two recorded fights with the smaller copies (seven with Vulkan, two with OpenGL) and three with the remembered setups, each identical in every pixel to the picture without the change. The update notice: the real request to GitHub, and the line and the button from the window's own picture with a pretended newer release. The model viewer: at 16:9, from a picture of it. The regression run gives the same result as before, and the matching PS2 build was run and both checks pass.

Not tested: "Random" with added stages and songs in the game itself (it was checked by reading the code and by the regression run only); the HUD in more than those two fights, in other modes, and in menus; the speed on any other graphics chip; the "Download page" button opening a browser; entering and leaving the model viewer by hand; anything on Windows, including the update request there, which goes out a different way than on Linux.

v0.1.32

Options for the start of the game and for wide screens, three contributions, and Disc Fusion unlocked.

Online: nothing in the connection changed, so this release should play with 0.1.31 as before; a match between the two was not tried.

Updating on Windows: replace every file of the old copy, not only the .exe.

New

All of these are in the settings window (F1) on the UI tab and are off unless you turn them on.

• Skip logos and Skip intro video (by Renzo-MGRR, #50). Start without the publisher logos and without the opening movie. From the next start of the game.
• Skip copyright page. The page of legal text held for five seconds before the title screen, every time the title screen comes up.
• Menus in 4:3. In a picture wider than 4:3 the menus are stretched to the width. With this on they are shown at their own shape in the middle, and fights keep the wide picture.
• Side bars: Black or Border. Where the picture is narrower than the window (a 4:3 picture, or the menus with "Menus in 4:3", in a wide window) the sides can be a gold panel with a patterned border instead of black. You can use your own: put a trim.png (the strip along the picture, kept in proportion) and a fill.png (stretched over the rest) into a folder bars next to the game, and restart.
• Disc Fusion is unlocked. Ultimate Battle's Disc Fusion asked for the discs of the two earlier games. Both now count as recognised, so its two modes can be entered. The game takes nothing from those discs; it only checked for them.

Fixed

• Loading screens beyond 4:3 (by Victorgonl, #49). The figures of the three loading screens were stretched with the page. They keep their proportions and their place at the left, and on the screen with the swords the swords are spread over the whole width.
• The matching PS2 build (by mikayle855, #52). Since the HUD changes of the last releases the original game no longer built from the source: it did not link, and one function differed from the disc. Both executables are byte-identical to the USA disc again. Nothing changes in the PC version.

Tested

On Linux, without a display, from pictures of the game's own window or frame: each skip option; the menus at 4:3 and the bars at 16:9 and 21:9, with the built-in pictures and with a replaced pair; the three loading screens at 4:3, 16:9 and 21:9. The matching build was run and both checks pass.

Not tested: any of the new options clicked in a real window; the change of shape between a menu and a fight with "Menus in 4:3" on; the bars with the OpenGL renderer (it ran with them, the result was not looked at); Disc Fusion's two modes beyond the unlock itself; anything on Windows.

v0.1.31

Performance back, the competitive speed settled at 114%, and smaller online fixes.

Online: needs 0.1.29 or later for the matchmaking service. For 114% both players need 0.1.30 or later; a quick match hosted by a 0.1.30 runs at its 120%, one with a 0.1.29 at 100%. Both players always get the same speed.

Updating on Windows: replace every file of the old copy, not only the .exe.

Fixed

• A large drop in frame rate since 0.1.25, on weaker graphics chips. The waterfall fix of 0.1.25 computed depth per pixel for everything that is drawn, which keeps a graphics chip from leaving out hidden pixels early. It is now done only where it can change the picture. On an integrated chip at 2x internal resolution, in the same recorded fight: 112 pictures a second in 0.1.24, 82 in 0.1.30, 103 now. The picture is the same bit for bit.
• Online: the players' names were drawn over the intro. They are now shown only while the game draws the HUD.
• Online: a player's name sat on the panel of a team's waiting fighters. The names are further in, and follow the HUD in a wide picture and in the "in the middle" HUD style.

Changed

• The competitive speed is 114%, the value players settled on with the sliders of 0.1.30 as the match for 120% on the PAL version. Quick matches run at it and the Host tab's "Game speed" starts from it.
• Music is no longer changed by the game speed. Looping music and a stage's background sound play as they are at any speed. "Music follows game speed" (F1, Audio) brings back the behaviour of 0.1.30. Spoken lines and jingles always follow the game.

New

• Your online name is remembered between runs.

Known

• About 8% of the frame rate of 0.1.24 is still missing on such chips: the cost of the waterfall fix itself.
• Matches through the relay may drop, as in 0.1.29: not looked into further yet.

Tested

Performance: the published 0.1.24 and 0.1.30 against this build, offscreen on an integrated chip; pictures compared with the change on and off in a fight and in the waterfall scene, on Vulkan and on OpenGL. Speed: connected pairs without a window, this build hosting at 114% with itself and with the published 0.1.30 (both at 114%) and 0.1.29 (both at 100%). Music: the music player's output at 114% and 120% with the box off (the original, sample for sample) and on. The saved name: read back from a settings file, in a screenshot. The names with the HUD: the signal against screenshots of a recorded offline fight.

Not tested: the names' new place and their absence in an intro in a real online match (nobody has seen either yet); the frame rate on a display or on any other chip; anything on Windows.

v0.1.30

A test release: game speed you can set, sound that keeps its pitch, a HUD style choice, and more volume sliders.

Online: needs 0.1.29 or later for the matchmaking service. With a player on 0.1.29 a match can only run at 100% or 120%.

Updating on Windows: replace every file of the old copy, not only the .exe.

Game speed: help find the right number

Players reported that 120% here is a bit faster than the competitive standard, which is 120% of the PAL version in Dolphin. That is 60 pictures a second, where 120% of this (USA) version is 72, so the matching number here is somewhere from 100% to 120% and is not known yet. This release makes the speed adjustable so it can be found:

• F1, Cheats: "Game speed", 50% to 200%, for play outside online. An online match never uses this value.
• Online, Host tab: "Game speed" is now a slider from 100% to 150% for matches with a room code. Quick matches still run at 120% until the right number is known.

If you play the PAL version at 120% in Dolphin, please set the Cheats slider until a fight feels the same (try 100% first) and report the number.

New

• Sound keeps its pitch at any speed. In 0.1.29 everything was played faster and so higher. Music, stage sound and spoken lines are now shortened or lengthened in time at their own pitch, as emulators do; hit sounds and battle voices play as they are.
• HUD Style (F1, the new UI tab), for pictures wider than 4:3: at the screen's edges (as before, the default), at the edges with long health bars that reach the timer (by victor-g-lima, #28), or in the middle as in 4:3.
• Four volume sliders (F1, Audio): Music, Sound effects, Voices, Stage sounds. The two new ones start at what "Sound effects and voices" was set to.
• Copy and Paste for room codes: a Copy button beside the code you host with, a Paste button beside the field you join with.

Known

• Matches through the relay may drop, as in 0.1.29: not looked into further yet. Matches that connect directly, which are most, are not affected.
• A time stretch can be heard on some material (a flutter on long notes), more so the further the speed is from 100%.

Tested

On screen on Linux, by the maintainer: the HUD styles, the volume sliders, the new tab, the sound at 120%. From screenshots: the three HUD styles at 16:9 and two at 21:9, at full health. Without a window: the speed setting changes the game's pace by exactly the percentage and is ignored by two connected copies; matches between this release and the published 0.1.29 in both roles end up at the same speed on both sides (120% or 100%); two copies with different HUD styles and picture shapes stay in step; the stretched music is made of unaltered pieces of the original.

Not tested: anything on Windows; a real match between two networks at any speed; long health bars in team battles, split screen and Survival.

v0.1.29

Online matches at 120% speed, an update notice, and fixes to the relay and the screen shape.

Online: this release is needed for the matchmaking service (room codes and quick match). Older releases are told there is no room. Two copies of an older release can still play each other by typing an address.

Updating on Windows: replace every file of the old copy, not only the .exe.

New

• 120% game speed online, the standard of competitive play for this game. Every quick match runs at 120%; with a room code the host chooses on the Host tab ("Game speed", 120% by default). The whole match runs a fifth faster, sound included (it is heard slightly higher). If the other player is on 0.1.28 or earlier, the match runs at 100%: the two games never run at different speeds.
• "Update available. Online servers are unreachable until you update." The online screen now says so, with your release and the one that is needed, when the matchmaking service asks for a newer release than yours.

Fixed

• Joining or hosting a match reset the picture to 4:3. A shape chosen in the settings during that run of the game went back to what it was when the game was started.
• The relay was unavailable to everyone for most of a day. A relay login was taken with every room, and since quick match every search that waits makes a room: the day's logins were used up by searches that never played through the relay, and every pair that could not connect directly was told "could not reach each other". A login is now asked for only when a match needs one, a few seconds into a connection that does not succeed directly.

Known

• Matches through the relay may drop. In tests of the new relay path with two copies behind one router, two of five matches lost the connection a few seconds in, and it is not yet known whether the new path or something older is the cause. Matches that connect directly, which are most, are not affected. If a relayed match drops for you, please say so, with the lines starting with bt3: net: and relay: from a run started with BT3_RELAY_LOG=1.
• Releases up to 0.1.28 cannot show the update notice: they say "The matchmaking service gave no room" or "gave no answer".

Tested

120% speed: two copies connected by address, without a window: both run their steps 13.9 ms apart instead of 16.7 and agree with each other 400 steps into a scripted fight; with a 0.1.25 as the other player the match runs at 100%. The update notice: on screen, on Linux. The relay asked for late: through the matchmaking service with the direct ways blocked, it connects by room code and by quick match (see Known for what happened after). The 4:3 fix: by where the setting is kept, and that two copies still agree; not on screen.

Not tested: how 120% feels and sounds in a real match between two networks; anything on Windows.

v0.1.28

Small follow-ups to quick match.

Online: connects to 0.1.16 and later; quick match needs 0.1.27 or later on both sides.

Updating on Windows: replace every file of the old copy, not only the .exe.

Changed

• A quick-match search ends after three minutes. The tab counts the time down, then says that nobody was searching that queue and offers "Search again". Before, a search went on for as long as the window stayed open.

Fixed

• The log no longer contains the other player's address. When you joined a match found with a room code or by quick match, the game wrote the host's address into its log ("net: joining ..."). The game never showed it on screen, but logs get pasted into bug reports. If you have posted a log of an online match from 0.1.27 or earlier where you were the one who joined, it has your opponent's address in that line. The address is now only printed when you typed it yourself (Join by address).
• Smooth motion was switched off for a moment at the start of every run. The guard added in 0.1.25 for machines that cannot keep up was counting the first pictures of a run, which are slow on any machine, and printed a line about it in the log. It recovered by itself; it now leaves those first pictures out.

Also

• The log now says whether an online match is connected directly or through the relay.

Tested

The search timer, on screen on Linux: it counts down and stops; during one such test the search was matched with another player, and that match (182 ms round trip, input delay 3 frames, rollback of up to 8) played fine and ended cleanly. That is the first quick match seen between two networks. The new log line, and that neither log of a room-code match holds any address, with two copies on one machine.

Not tested: the Smooth motion fix on a display (it was read from a log and checked with the regression run only), a quick match through the relay, and anything on Windows.

v0.1.27

Quick match, and full speed on slow machines.

Online: connects to 0.1.16 and later. Quick match needs this release on both sides (older ones do not have it); rooms with codes work with everyone as before.

Updating on Windows: replace every file of the old copy, not only the .exe.

New

• Quick match. The online screen has a third tab. Pick a queue and search: you are put with whoever has been searching that queue longest, or you wait until someone does. Five queues: single battle, team battle, and DP battle with 10, 15 or 20 DP, all without a time limit. The tab shows how many are searching each queue. It waits for as long as you leave it open.
  • The two games connect the way they do with a room code: directly when they can, through the relay when not. As in most online fighting games, in a direct connection a player who inspects their own network traffic can see the other's address.
  • Every quick match uses the same settings: rollback of up to 8 frames, and an input delay measured from the connection when the match starts. (The Host tab's choices are for matches with someone you can agree them with.)
  • Nothing is sent while you are not at that tab, and nobody is ever listed as online: other players only see a count of who is searching.
• Skip pictures instead of slowing down (F1, Video; on by default). The game advances one step per picture and has no other clock, so a machine that could not show pictures in time ran the whole game in slow motion. Now, when it falls behind, it computes the next step without drawing it and catches up: choppier, but at full speed. At most four in a row are left out. It helps where the graphics chip is the slow part, not where the processor is.

Tested

Quick match: two copies on one machine through the matchmaking service, in a window and without one: they find each other, connect directly, and both have the queue's rules, rollback of up to 8 frames and the measured delay. Frame skipping: on an integrated graphics chip at 8x, in a stretch where a picture takes 33 ms, the game went from half speed to full speed at the same 30 pictures a second; with every other step forced to be skipped, the pictures that are shown are the same as without skipping.

Not tested: quick match between two networks or through the relay; frame skipping on a display, online, or with Smooth motion on; anything on Windows.

v0.1.26

A fix for 0.1.25, and your own camera settings online.

Online: connects to 0.1.16 and later. The new camera and shake settings are used when both players are on this release; with an older one both sides get the defaults, as before.

Updating on Windows: replace every file of the old copy, not only the .exe.

Fixed

• Ticking "V-sync" closed the game (0.1.25, the Vulkan renderer). The change is now applied between two frames instead of in the middle of one.

New

• Online: your own camera type and screen shake. An online match starts both players from an empty save, so everyone got the option menu's defaults. Each player's side now uses the two settings from their own save. You see your fighter with your settings and your opponent sees theirs with their own; nobody's choice is imposed on the other. The settings are read from the save file, so change them in the game's option menu and let the game save before going online.

Tested

V-sync on and off, on screen, on Linux with an Nvidia card and the Vulkan renderer. The online settings with two copies on one machine through the matchmaking service: both copies agree on the four values, reach a fight set up with them, and are at the same frame with the same health 400 steps into it; against 0.1.25 in either role they connect and use the defaults.

Not tested: what the camera type and the shake look like in an online match (no one has looked at one yet), a long match, and anything on Windows.

v0.1.25

Do not tick the V-sync box in this version with the Vulkan renderer: it closes the game. Fixed in 0.1.26.

A day of reports from players: quitting, the settings window, sound, and a batch of picture faults.

Online: the connection format is unchanged, so this release connects to 0.1.16 and later. A match between this release and an older one was not tried; both players on the same release is the safe choice.

Updating on Windows: replace every file of the old copy, not only the .exe. A copy with the new program beside older files crashed the moment an online match started (see Fixed).

New

• Esc asks before it closes the game. Esc outside the settings window used to quit at once. It now asks "Close the game?" with Exit and Cancel; Esc again takes the question away. The window's own close button still closes at once.
• An "Exit game" button at the bottom of the settings window, on every tab.
• More of the settings window works from a controller. Circle / B closes it, L1 / R1 switch tabs, and any connected controller works it, also one plugged in after the game started (before, only the first one found at start).
• V-sync (F1, Video; off by default). Turn it on if the picture tears. It adds a little delay, which is why it is off unless you ask for it.
• Smooth motion backs off on a machine that cannot keep up. Every in-between picture costs as much as a real one, and they were shown whatever they cost, so on a weak graphics chip the whole game slowed down and each in-between picture stayed on screen long enough for its flaws to be seen (reported as "characters go 2D and glitch"). The game now shows fewer of them, or none, while the machine is behind, and more again when there is room.

Fixed

• Music turned the voices down. The Music slider was applied to everything that is streamed: the songs, but also voices and the stage's background sound. It now reaches the music only; "Sound effects and voices" reaches the rest, and moving it changes voices that are already playing.
• Windows: a crash when an online match starts. Seen on a copy that had the new .exe beside the .exe.mem file of an older release. That file tells the game where its own variables are and must belong to the program next to it. The game now checks, and if the file is another release's it says so on screen and plays online without rollback instead of crashing.
• Online: the opponent's aura showed through scenery. While the opponent charged behind a tree or a building, a dark shape sat on it where they stood. An online match now treats effects the way each half of a split screen does: the ones meant for the fighter you follow are drawn for your fighter only.
• A missing triangle in a waterfall (Ruined Earth), a different one as the camera moved. Depth is now kept as whole numbers per pixel, as the PS2 keeps it, so a surface laid onto scenery is drawn over it everywhere.
• Smooth motion: the wall at the edge of the map tore when flying along it. The wall is now drawn for an in-between picture from the game's own description of it, instead of from the pieces the game had already cut off at the screen's edges.
• Smooth motion: a distant waterfall jumped sideways for one picture now and then while the camera moved. It happened whenever the water's animation changed its texture.
• A flat blue triangle across the picture after leaving the water, at 16:9. A ripple ring that had grown far past the size of the map was still being drawn; with the wider view it came out as a large flat shape for a couple of seconds.
• Binding a controller button pressed its own row again, so the next button was taken too. The controller no longer works the window while a binding is being taken, and a binding waited for from a controller ends by itself after five seconds if nothing is pressed.

Known

• With Smooth motion on, where both fighters stand at the same stretch of the map's edge, the wall's shading differs slightly from the original there. With it off the wall is the game's own, untouched.
• A glow that stops in a straight line on the ground (a charge or an explosive wave while standing) is how the game draws it; PCSX2 shows the same.
• Smooth motion still has flaws of its own in fast movement (a limb out of place for one picture).

Tested

On Linux, on screen: the exit question and button, the settings window with a controller, the waterfall, the wall, the water at 16:9. By replaying recorded sessions and comparing pictures: each of the picture fixes, on an integrated graphics chip, with the same pictures from an Nvidia card's OpenGL renderer in one comparison. Two copies on one machine through the matchmaking service: they connect, with rollback.

Not tested: anything on Windows, including the crash fix (checked on Linux with a deliberately wrong file); the Music and voices sliders by ear; V-sync on a display; the aura fix and this release against an older one in a real online match; split screen with the wall fix.

v0.1.24

The settings window can be opened and used from a controller.

Plays online against 0.1.16 to 0.1.23.

New

• START + SELECT opens the settings. Pressing the two together on a controller opens and closes the settings window, like F1. It is the controller's own two buttons, whatever you have bound in the game.
• The settings window works with the controller. D-pad or left stick to move, Cross to choose, Circle to go back.
• A key and a button of your choice. Controls has a new first row, "Open this window": click the key or the controller column and press what you want. START + SELECT keeps working beside a button you choose; clearing the key gives F1 back.

Changed

• The game no longer takes the controller while the settings window is open. Before, only the keyboard was held back, so a controller moved the game behind the window.

Known

• If START goes down a moment before SELECT, the game sees that START first: in a fight it pauses. SELECT first, or the two together, does not.
• With the controller, Cross on a binding starts waiting for a button, and the next button you press is taken. Esc on the keyboard leaves the binding as it was; there is no way back from the controller yet.

Tested

Opening and closing with START + SELECT, on Linux with a controller. Not tested: Windows, a second controller, and the online screen with a controller. Both builds are made from the same source and passed their self-test; if it does not open for you, say which controller.