Retrocycles News

macOS builds are now considered stable. Any still open macOS specific issues can be viewed on our tracker.

In case you are wondering about the .3 at the end, that is because the first three attempts to build the source and deploy the result failed at various points.

There is not much else to this release. Mostly bugfixes, adaptions to new environments, fixes to the build system that bring it more in line with standards, code quality improvements from fixing all the warnings the macOS compiler raised.

There is now a VSYNC enable/disable/default option in the display system setup backported from trunk! That probably was a Z-Man specific itch. Changes in Linux land switched the default from On to Off, and it is annoying to override with the command line.

[h3]Changes since 0.2.9.1.1 relevant to Steam:[/h3][h3]Fixed Bugs[/h3]

• Sound trouble deja entendu (#130)
• Display lists keep rim wall lowered (#141)
• FPS display inaccurate (#143)
• Online play suddenly stopped working. (#145)
• Work around Ubuntu sending spurious window activation messages (#68)
• Desktop/AppData/Icon files are installed in a wrong place during make install (#73)
• Steam: No logging, does not work in pressure vessel (#77)
• Retina display not working correctly (#88)
• 0.2.9 clients lose connection on 0.4 server (#98)
• Window title sometimes SDL_APP (#102)
• Docker Image: Increase thread stack size (#104)
• Client sends quickly typed chat message with last character missing (#106)
• Backslashes not escaped when saving to user.cfg (#110)
• Fix invulnerability bug handling (#111)
• macOS DMG Build problems when building inside the source tree (#119)
• error: use of undeclared identifier ‘finite’; did you mean ‘isfinite’? (#120)
• User data saved in the wrong place on macOS (#125)

[h3]New Features[/h3]

• Make network trafic realtime priority (#137)
• Add macOS dmg bundling (#86)
• Integrate macOS build into pipeline (#87)
• Sign the application bundle (#89)

[h3]Contributors[/h3]
Armanelgtron, Cosimo Cecchi, Manuel Moos

This is just a small update that works around a crash bug in some recent Linux distributions. Confirmed affected were Manjaro users. Very likely, Arch and current Debian users were affected as well. Also very likely affected were users of all distributions who did not have the library SDL1.2 installed on their system, or who opted in to the "Steam Linux Runtime".

A fix to the library bug is underway, but may take a while to arrive for everyone, so a quick fix here was in order.

And, to be frank, also the old, regular widescreen overlords. All this time, the game had been optimized for 4:3 or 5:4 screens, with menu text and HUD elements getting stretched to the side for widescreen users. No more of that! The changes also benefit splitscreen users; for a horizontal split, the HUD will now no longer cover half the (split) screen.

And while we were at fixing fonts, the default console rendering now tries to display the bitmap font precisely as it is designed, pixel by pixel; that should make the console more readable and sharper looking for everyone.

Playing back debug recordings has been made simpler and more robust; the --playback command line switch is no longer required and the network code should no longer give up when the recorded server response does not match what the playback code expects. Especially, this version should have no problems playing back tournament recordings made with version 0.2.8.

[h2]Full Patch Notes:[/h2]

[h3]Changes since 0.2.9.0.1:[/h3][h3]Fixed Bugs[/h3]

• Use after free in nNetObject::ClearKnows (#34)
• Missing null check for master server info (#58)
• Basic screen aspect ratio failures: Text (#59)
• Center message issues (#62)
• AppImage library content still lacking (#63)
• Crash in menu key repeat handling (#66)

[h3]New Features[/h3]

• Make AppImage builds fit for registration at AppImageHub (#17)
• Make SIZE_ and SPEED_FACTOR floating point instead of integer (#20)
• Do not show a player's own IP on the client (#27)
• Make --playback optional so recordings can be more easily played back (#37)
• Steam on Windows: Add playback registry keys so .aarec files automatically playback with a doubleclick (#38)
• Make clientside playback more robust (#56)
• user.cfg fine grained upgrade system (#61)

[h3]Other Changes[/h3]

• Make custom camera the default for new players (#35)
• Turn down tutorial tooltip spam (#36)
• Onboarding game improvements (#39)
• ROUND_CENTER_MESSAGEs are still displayed in nCLIENT state (#49)
• Make Full HD players see the small font as little as possible (#60)

[h3]Contributors[/h3]
Armanelgtron, Manuel Moos, SwagTron

Hello Grid People,

Users coming from Armagetron Advanced 0.2.8 and new users were unhappy about the addition of the tutorial-like 'press X to turn' messages. And they were right, they were quite obnoxious. We toned them down now, made them repeat less often if you choose to follow them, and they all go away at once if you enter the keyboard layout menu. Almost all. The one pointing to the ingame menu is unaffected.

Also, the opening game against a single AI has been modified a bit with a smaller arena and finite trails, that should make it less frustrating; you no longer end up separated from the AI, waiting who will survive longer.

Because those changes affect new users and we expect their influx to reduce in the coming weeks, these changes are now published a bit early so as many as possible can benefit from them. Full patch notes below:

[h3]Changes since 0.2.9.0:[/h3][h3]New Features[/h3]

• Make SIZE_ and SPEED_FACTOR floating point instead of integer (#20)
• Do not show a player’s own IP on the client (#27)
• Make –playback optional so recordings can be more easily played back (#37)
• Steam on Windows: Add playback registry keys so .aarec files automatically playback with a doubleclick (#38)

[h3]Other Changes[/h3]

• Turn down tutorial tooltip spam (#36)
• Onboarding game improvements (#39)

[h3]Contributors[/h3]
Armanelgtron, Manuel Moos, SwagTron