AVWW Beta 0.557 "Of Bitmap Fonts And Pipelines" Released!

[x4000]

Original: http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2012/01/avww-beta-0557-of-bitmap-fonts-and.html

This one is another really major release in a lot of ways, as it finally implements some major performance and render-capability improvements that I've been wanting to do since even before we started beta.

I'd been avoiding these things since they tend to be a time sink, but we're now hitting the point where there were a number of bugs that I just couldn't solve any other way than addressing the more fundamental issues -- pretty much all of which are with Unity's vanilla GUI capabilities.  I've been adapting in the better third-party EZGUI code, with a lot of heavy customizations for even better performance and to fit into our render pipeline.

Anyway, I'm doing my best not to get sucked into a major time sink with these GUI changes, but the results that are already in place from what I've been doing rather speak for themselves -- the parts I've swapped out so far are really more attractive, and in some cases I'm seeing a 50% speed improvement, which is huge.  Not that the game was slow before, but we want to make sure it is able to run as close to 60fps on as many computers as possible.

This release also includes a couple of new music tracks which are both awesome, a couple of general bugfixes, and quite a few multiplayer bugfixes.  The multi-part enemy code is also working quite well now, and the Urban Predator enemy from the prior release is going to be seeing an update hopefully tomorrow to include some of that new functionality.  Another new enemy, the Urban Crawler, is nearing completion and should hopefully also be ready tomorrow.

More to come soon.  Enjoy!

This is a standard update that you can download through the in-game updater itself, if you already have 0.500 or later. When you launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found if you're connected to the Internet at the time.  If you don't have 0.500 or later, you can download that here.

[TechSY730]

Cool.

Any plans for moving AI War to use the EZ GUI library? Would it be a bit more stable than trying to recreate all the needed functionality yourself? (For example, textboxes in AI war still behave strangely)

[Dizzard]

My main screen is really flickery. (and by flickery I mean having a seizure) A bit like when there was those problems with the deep except this is worse.

It's alright in game, it's just the main menu screen.

[x4000]

Yes, I plan to update ai war with the new GUI system when we work on the next expansion there.

Dizzard, I think your installation is simply messed up and doesn't have all the updates somehow. I strongly suggest just reinstalling the game over top of the folder, then installing all the updates again, and those issues should go away.

[tigersfan]

Yeah, Dizzard, it's working fine for me too.

[x4000]

My main screen is really flickery. (and by flickery I mean having a seizure) A bit like when there was those problems with the deep except this is worse.

It's alright in game, it's just the main menu screen.

I still think that the issues with the deep are actually a bad install (basically, somehow one of the updates was missed on your machine -- possibly you had the bad luck to be downloading it right in the instant I was uploading it, or something).

However, thanks to Keith I'm now able to verify your siezure issue -- it only happens at a resolution of 1024x768 out of the various screen resolutions I've tried (though it probably happens at a few others in that range, just not on any of the larger resolutions that I normally play at, or any of the really tiny resolutions that I checked after you guys mentioned it).  Anyway, so that one is a bug that I'll put in a fix for in the next version -- sorry about that!

[Ixiohm]

I can confirm Dizzards problem with the deep, I downloaded his world file from Mantis and I experience the same blackness when I load it.
But besides that everything works great 

[x4000]

I can't remember -- Josh, are you seeing the same thing as Dizzard and now Ixiohm?

[tigersfan]

I can't remember -- Josh, are you seeing the same thing as Dizzard and now Ixiohm?

I hadn't gotten it in normal play, but, I've not actually tried the uploaded world yet. I'll do that now.

EDIT: When I download the files he sent and try it, I have the same issue he does. When I go into a new "Deeps" region, everything looks fine.

[Hyfrydle]

I was the one with the dark issue in the deep. Downloading and installing the latest update now.

[x4000]

I'll have to check it out, but it sounds like it might just be an Old World syndrome, so to speak.

[Hyfrydle]

Same problem in the new update. I only uploaded one affected region but in that game the majority of the deep regions are very dark. In my newest game I don't have any deep regions to see if it happens in a newly created game.

[Hyfrydle]

Just started playing the latest update and water and lightening espers are fine in large rooms or outside but in confined areas they just fill the whole place and make it very difficult to survive.

[x4000]

Shields will help, but also more enemies are in the works.

[Hyfrydle]

Shields will help, but also more enemies are in the works.

No access to shields on my current continent. Also any news on warping to cleared mission areas to get back after death. The long walk back gets boring fast.