Ren'Py 6.13 Pre-Releases

[PyTom]

Releasing games with pre-release versions of Ren'Py is asking for problems. Don't do it!


Ren'Py 6.13 "Low-Carb" includes two fundamental improvements to Ren'Py. The first is a complete rewrite of the text display code. In addition to supporting new features such as interpolation of fields, kerning, ruby text, the new display code is far faster than the previous code.

Ren'Py 6.13 also adds a DirectX rendering path. This new renderer should lead to faster and more functional text display on Windows system with DirectX support

In addition to these major features, 6.13 adds a style preferences system, new actions - including actions for image galleries and music rooms - and new themes.

Downloads of 6.13 can be found at:

http://www.renpy.org/release/6.13

A full list of changes to Ren'Py can be found at:

http://www.renpy.org/dev-doc/html/changelog.html

A list of changes that may require you to update your game can be found at:

http://www.renpy.org/dev-doc/html/incompatible.html


6.13.0.1569:

This is the first pre-release of a new version of Ren'Py, one that features rewrites of text handling and a new DirectX rendering system. These are pretty complex changes, but I've been using them exclusively for the past few weeks. So I think it's time to get this version out into the hands of the community to try out.

There's a big change in how we do text handling. The incompatible changes page should explain it, but if your game contains percent-substitutions or square brackets in the text, you'll run into problems. The incompatible changes page gives information on how to work around these problems.

If you don't use text substitution, you should be able to switch back and forth between Ren'Py 6.12.2 and 6.13.

The text rewrite was a huge amount of work. I'd like people to take a look, and see how well it works with their games. While line breaking may be different (unless you re-enable the greedy layout algorithm), it should never take more lines than it does now. Text spacing also shouldn't change, unless you adjust the kerning or something like that.

When it comes to DirectX support, I'd like people to try this release out on as many computers as you can - especially old and slow computers, like netbooks. If you see the "Performance Warning" screen, I'd like to know about it - please provide the log.txt file. If you're on Windows, try clicking the Update DirectX button, and let me know if that fixes it. Note that the Launcher does not use GL or DirectX - you'll have to use a game like the tutorial to test with.

For the other features, I'm interested in any feedback you might give. Style preference, especially, I think will be big in the right hands.

Let me thank, in advance, the community of Ren'Py pre-release testers. Your reports - good and bad - help make Ren'Py a better engine for the creators and users who will be using it.

[Camille]

Got this error message when trying to update. ):

[Aleema]

Yep, me too ... I thought maybe you were updating the file.

Edit: damn Camille. Even your benign screen shots have drop shadows. lol

[Rocket Science]

That was fast...I was just about to report this as well, but I tried to track down an error log first (to no avail).

[PyTom]

For now, please grab the package from the website. I'll look into fixing the updater in the morning.

[Camille]

Edit: damn Camille. Even your benign screen shots have drop shadows. lol

Haha it's a Mac thing! When I screencap a specific window, it makes it transparent and adds a drop shadow. (it then saves the screencap to my desktop as a .PNG, and then my CloudApp automatically uploads it and copies the uploaded image link to my clipboard. 8D ahh, technology!)

On a testing note: with 6.13, whenever I try to run any of my VNs, I just get a black screen instead of the main menu. The main menu music still plays, but nothing else is visible. If I hover over wherever the buttons are supposed to show up, nothing happens. I can't even quit normally, I have to force-quit the launcher in order to close it.

(note: I didn't make any changes to my files other than updating Ren'Py to 6.13 and as soon as I go back to the 6.12 Ren'Py, the games work fine)

[Rocket Science]

ANGLE works fine on my seven-year-old ATI card...until I run CCC. If I enter fullscreen mode while CCC is running, the display becomes corrupted, and while I can go back to windowed without issues (i.e. I don't have to reboot because I can't see a thing) the program hangs at that point. Windowed still works, but if I minimise the window then the graphics display ceases to update (the program still works, it just has a permanent black screen). It only does this while CCC is running; there are no issues without it, so it could be just a driver/card problem.

NewText is great, but there is a minor issue where the top of the next line of text may be rendered at the same time as the current line. I've included a couple of screenshots that demonstrate this (I haven't seen this happen with ordinary text, just outlined and SFont text).

[PyTom]

On a testing note: with 6.13, whenever I try to run any of my VNs, I just get a black screen instead of the main menu. The main menu music still plays, but nothing else is visible. If I hover over wherever the buttons are supposed to show up, nothing happens. I can't even quit normally, I have to force-quit the launcher in order to close it.

Can you please post the log.txt file that Ren'Py generates? I'd like to see if there is some sort of error causing this.

[Samidarenina]

I've also noticed the thing with the premature rendering of the next line's text. Only happened with outlined text so far.
I've also noticed some errors while using ""extend" and the {w} tag - it tends to relocate the current text which doesn't look too nice.

Edit:
Could the Ruby Text Style be set up to take into account the "style.default.line_spacing" too?
Trying to use "style.default.line_leading" messed up all of my menus...

[PyTom]

I've also noticed some errors while using ""extend" and the {w} tag - it tends to relocate the current text which doesn't look too nice.

Can you give an example of this? It may be a byproduct of Knuth-Plass, in which case going back to the greedy algorithm would fix it.

[Samidarenina]

Yeah, that did fix it for now.
Also, I though it would be worth mentioning that Rocket Science isn't the only one having the black screen problem when minimizing the window.

[PyTom]

ANGLE works fine on my seven-year-old ATI card...until I run CCC.

What's CCC?

[jack_norton]

Catalyst Control Center I think, a tool that gets installed together with ATi video card. Haven't had time to try new Ren'Py yet but I don't think having CCC opened while running a game is a "normal" behaviour

[Camille]

On a testing note: with 6.13, whenever I try to run any of my VNs, I just get a black screen instead of the main menu. The main menu music still plays, but nothing else is visible. If I hover over wherever the buttons are supposed to show up, nothing happens. I can't even quit normally, I have to force-quit the launcher in order to close it.

Can you please post the log.txt file that Ren'Py generates? I'd like to see if there is some sort of error causing this.

Here you are~ Hopefully this is useful.

[PyTom]

Grrr... no error in the log, that I can see.

Can you try two things for me?

1) On the black screen, try clicking the close button twice in rapid succession. That triggers boss mode, and will let me know if the game is operating at all.

2) Let the main menu music run to the end. Does it repeat, or stop after the first play-through?