AGS 3.4.0

Started by Crimson Wizard, Thu 15/09/2016 21:10:25

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Crimson Wizard

AGS 3.4.0 released
Final release number: 3.4.0.12







Released: 15th September 2016

Previous stable version: AGS 3.3.5 forum thread


A minute of attention for those who did not have a chance to check 3.4.0 during its development:
AGS 3.4.0 contains a big load of changes, which may take a while to explore. The following (read-only) topic is created to make getting used to it easier:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=52499.0

Also, please, read "Upgrading to AGS 3.4" topic in the manual that comes with this version. It contains important information on most notable new features and few potential problems you may encounter when upgrading older projects.

Another important note on upgrading your project to latest 3.4.0 (read under spoiler):
Spoiler

AGS 3.4.0 now has a "Script API version" and "Script compatibility level" switches, which determine a range of built-in script functions you may use in your game (also called Script API).
"Script API Version" defines the TOP limit, or the latest version of scripting your game uses.
"Script compatibility level" defines the BOTTOM limit, or which OLD functions should still be available.

When you upgrade your game project from the older versions (3.3.* and lower), the Editor automatically sets "Script compatibility level" corresponding to the version of AGS this project was last saved in. This is done for backward compatibility. But you can change that anytime. Be prepared, however, that you may have to fix certain parts of your script. Usually necessary fixes are limited to renaming functions. Also, it is suggested to do "Rebuild all files" after you change any of those two switches.
[close]



What is new in 3.4.0

Common features:
- Added support for building game for multiple platforms (Windows and Linux options are maintained now).
- Added custom game resolutions.
- Added extended WFN font support (up to 256 characters).
- Made custom property values modifiable at runtime.
- Removed limit on custom properties number (was 30 properties per project), increased maximal property name and value length.
- Removed limit on GUI Control number (was 30 per GUI), increased maximal control name length.
- Removed limit on script modules number (was 50).
- Added Locked property to room Objects.
- Added Padding property for TextWindow GUI.

Editor features:
- New splash screen.
- Exposed Clickable property for room Objects in the Editor.
- Exposed TintLuminance property for room Regions in the Editor.
- Added "Close all tabs" command for the pane's context menu.
- Added Preferences option "Prompt dialog on closing multiple tabs".
- The sprite editor now highlights drop targets when you drag sprites around.

Editor Plugin API:
- Exposed GUI Panes to plugin API.

Engine features:
- Added support for any runtime display resolution (now restricted only by your system specifics).
- Added support for vertical sync in Direct3D rendering mode.
- Made engine try to use all implemented graphic renderers in the order of priority, if user selection failed to initialize.
- Rised default sprite cache limit for desktop platforms to 100 MB (was 20).
- Game writes latest translation and mouse speed setting to config file on exit.

Scripting features:
- Added managed user structs; although currently limited to containing only non-pointer variables in them.
- Added support for dynamic arrays in non-managed structs.
THERE ARE KNOWN ISSUES:
Spoiler

It was found that dynamic arrays in struct do not work when you make an array of those struct, for example:
Code: ags

struct MyStruct
{
    int dynamic_array[];
};

MyStruct single_object; // <--- this will work
MyStruct arr_of_structs[10]; // <--- this won't work

Such array caused troubles which were too complicated to fix in time, and require more time to investigate. A decision was made to block creation of arrays of structs, containing dynamic arrays. If you try to declare one in your script you will get an error. Hopefully this restriction will be raised in the future updates.
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- Added support for dynamic array as return value of the struct's member function.
- Added support for static extender functions.
- Added "do..while" kind of loop, in addition to previously existing "while".
- Added "for" operator and related loop construct.
- Added "switch" and "case" operators and related branching construct.
- Added "break" and "continue" operators working in any loop or switch.
- Added missing compound assignment operators (*=, /=, and so on).
- Made preprocessor macros usable in definition of another macro.
- Added "#region" and "#endregion" preprocessor commands.

Script API:
- Added Script API version switch to the project's General Settings. For every supported API version a "SCRIPT_API_vXXX" macro is introduced, where XXX are version numbers.
- Added Script Compatibility Level switch to General Settings. For every compatible version a "SCRIPT_COMPAT_vXXX" macro is introduced.
- Added AudioChannel.Speed property.
- Added CharacterDirection enum and optional "direction" parameter for Character.ChangeRoom().
- Added Character.FaceDirection().
- Added Character.DestinationX and Character.DestinationY properties.
- Added RunActiveOption() and Update() member functions to the DialogOptionsRenderingInfo type.
- Extended Dialog Options API: added support for dialog_options_repexec() and dialog_options_key_press() functions to improve handling of the custom dialog options; added related compatibility project option and support for "NEW_DIALOGOPTS_API" macro in scripts.
- Added game.dialog_options_highlight_color variable.
- Added File.Seek() function and File.Position property.
- Added IsInteractionAvailable() method to Hotspot, Object and Character types.
- Added Game.AudioClipCount property and Game.AudioClips[n] array.
- Added Game.IsPluginLoaded().
- Added GUIControl.ZOrder property.
- Added GUI.Click() and Button.Click() functions which call OnClick event handler of corresponding GUI or button.
- Added GUI.ProcessClick() function that processes click on GUI only, similarily to how old ProcessClick processed click on room objects only.
- Added Mouse.Click() function to simulate mouse click on screen.
- Added Room.GetProperty() to substitute global GetRoomProperty().
- Added Room.ProcessClick() to substitute global ProcessClick().
- Added SetProperty() and SetTextProperty() functions to Room, InventoryItem, Hotspot, Object and Character types.
- Added optional "luminance" parameter to Region.Tint() and Region.TintLuminance readonly property.
- Added SetAmbientLightLevel() to set global light level for anything in the room.
- Added Character.SetLightLevel() and Object.SetLightLevel() functions to set individual light levels. Negative light levels can be used in 8-bit games to produce darkening effect.
- Added System.RuntimeInfo property which returns a short description of current graphics mode, scaling filter and enabled game resources.

Editor bug fixes:
- Fixed Undo history was deleted when an Editor panel changes its docked state.
- Fixed crashes under certain circumstances when a script editor is closed.
- Fixed crash if selecting a character without a normal view in the room editor.
- Fixed Ctrl+Tab did not work for the first time when cycling through opened editor tabs.
- Fixed "Go to Line..." command did not always move cursor to correct line. Also, do not select that line.
- Made the project completely rebuild itself whenever "Enable Debug Mode" value in the General Settings differs from the setting used for the last build, to prevent inconsistency in compiled scripts.
- Fixed a crash when trying to run game setup from the Editor while "Compiled" folder does not exist.
- Fixed project items could sometimes get incorrectly arranged inside the folder.
- Fixed writing faulty timestamps in project file on some occasions that could spoil usage of file versioning control.
- Fixed Help window positioning on multi-monitor desktop.
- Fixed error in autocomplete occuring when there is a single-line comment in the end of the script.
- Fixed incorrect compiler parsing of a static function call inside array index brackets.
- Fixed compilation of struct member functions having name identical to existing global function.
- Fixed compilation of structs having members with names identical to non-basic types, global variables and game entities (such as characters, GUI, etc).
- Corrected few error messages related to struct's function declaration.
- Fixed compiler reporting errors as "runtime errors" under certain circumstances.

Engine bug fixes:
- Fixed result of using transparency parameter of the DrawingSurface.DrawImage() in 32-bit games when drawing opaque sprites over surfaces with alpha channel.
- Fixed DynamicSprite.CopyTransparencyMask() was overwriting magic transparent pixels on destination with alpha values from mask.
- Fixed the speech portrait position was not adjusted for character walking between its lines, when BasedOnCharacterPosition portrait placement is used.
- Fixed occasional pathfinding failure on straight lines with complex walkable areas.
- Fixed using '[' special character in Display-like commands discarded all of the backslashes before it (e.g. "\\[" should now print \[ as expected).
- Fixed WAVE audio not looping after restoring a game
- Fixed a bug that caused MP3 clip continuously increase its base volume if the directional volume modifier was applied.
- Fixed queued audio clips did not update their volume when default audio type volume changes.

WinSetup:
- Added support for "default_translation_name" option in the "[language]" section of the config file.





Thanks to everyone who contributed to and tested this version!




Cassiebsg

Congrats on the release and thanks for doing it! (nod)
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

cat

Quote from: Cassiebsg on Thu 15/09/2016 21:22:18
Congrats on the release and thanks for doing it! (nod)
^This

3.4.0 is such a big improvement compared to the previous stable. I've been working with the alpha for quite some time now and I'm very happy that this is now officially released.

Retro Wolf

Congratulations CW!!

AGD2

Hooray! 'Grats. :grin:

BTW, I was going to post this in the RC2 thread, but noticed it was locked. So...

Our beta testers have noticed, when playing AGS games in full-screen mode on Steam, if the resolution displays black bars at the top & bottom of the screen, and you open and close the Steam overlay (Shift+Tab), then it leaves graphical artifacts of the Steam overlay permanently burned into those black borders. (Apparently ScummVM games had the same issue for a long time with the Steam overlay before it was finally fixed). Anyway, just a heads-up about it.

Mehrdad

GREAT!! . Nice job CW :)
I appreciate for your hard works
My official site: http://www.pershaland.com/

Danvzare

Yay! :-D
Congratulations on this long awaited release. And thank you so very much for all your hard work CW.

I can't wait to start using this version.

Arlann

I've been using the beta to design the prototype of my new game, so thanks a lot for your work and for this release.
And good luck for your next project CW !

Babar

Good stuff!
The main AGS download page mentions 3.4.0, but all the download links actually lead to 3.3.5-7 still!
The ultimate Professional Amateur

Now, with his very own game: Alien Time Zone

Crimson Wizard

Quote from: Babar on Fri 16/09/2016 19:05:37
The main AGS download page mentions 3.4.0, but all the download links actually lead to 3.3.5-7 still!
Should be fixed now.

Haggis

Wow, good job everyone

Jack

Nice work!

What should the credits in a game look like for this version?

"Adventure Game Studio by Chris Jones, Crimson Wizard, ..."

Crimson Wizard

#12
Quote from: Jack on Fri 16/09/2016 22:51:50
What should the credits in a game look like for this version?

"Adventure Game Studio by Chris Jones, Crimson Wizard, ..."

Our credits line for the project looks like: "Chris Jones et al." or full variant: "(c) 1999-2011 Chris Jones and 2011-2016 various contributors.".
The full list of all-time contributors is here,  but if you like to know contributors for this particular update, that would need some investigation because we did not keep detailed statistics about that. Off the top of my head they are me, Gurok (who added numerous scripting features and various additions), monkey0506 (who noteably added ability to build for Linux from the Editor), ChamberOfFear (several improvements to the editor), Nick Sonneveld (who did few fixes to script compiler, and also provided us with automatic build server).

AGS-GD

Thanks for all the handwork and congratulations for the release! I made my first game with AGS 12 years ago! Twelve years and yet the project is thriving by the amazing community and the hard work of a group of amazing dedicated individuals! I can't be any more grateful to you guys!

My update, after 12 years of being here is that I've started my own indie studio http://www.tarbooshgames.com/press, and I'm planning to get back to Adventure Game making in the very near future!

Long live adventure games!
AGS-GD

Myshkin

Just a day after someone asked me if I could make a Linux port of my game, this version gets released with Linux builds available in the editor! Thank you to everyone who puts so much of their free time into this project!

cianty

Thank you so much for all the hard work! It is very appreciated!
ca. 70% completed

Etumretniw

Good job!
A huge thank you to all involved. This opens up new, tremendously exciting possibilities.

Grundislav

Great! Thanks so much for this, the new features are extremely helpful.

arj0n


Dave Gilbert

#19
Thanks for this, CW! Although I have one question. This version seems to be categorized as version 3.4.0, but isn't it technically several versions past that? I have a module (the QueuedSpeech module) which requires "version 3.4.0.3 or higher," and the game will not compile now.

edit: I have commented out the commands in the module that check for the AGS version number and the game compiles fine now. But still, would 3.4.0 be the correct version number?

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