Ren'Py 5.5.0 Released

[PyTom]

I'm ready to announce the release of Ren'Py 5.5.0 "The Melancholy of Themeable Interfaces", the latest release of Ren'Py. Unlike the later releases in the 5.4 series, this release includes a number of major changes to Ren'Py, which I hope will make the games with it faster, better, and easier to write.

Probably the biggest change is the new themeable interface. This interface can be easily recolored, and so hopefully provides a middle ground between the previous look and a completely custom theme (as was done for some games).

A second area of work was the sound system. It's now possible to easily define a loop consisting of multiple sound files. It's also possible to completely disable sound, so a game without a soundtrack won't adjust the computers' mixers.

Aliens, time travellers, sliders, espers, and even normal humans can download the latest release from:

http://www.bishoujo.us/renpy/

As usual, you can upgrade to this release by copying over your game directory. In addition, there are two updates that should be made to your script:

First, library.script_version should be set to (5, 5, 0). If a library.script_version line does not exist in your script, it should be added.

Second, to take advantage of the new theme, a call to themes.roundrect() needs to be added to an init block of your script. This call needs to be placed after config.screen_width, config.screen_height, and library.script_version are all set, but before any style is adjusted.

The new theme is not yet documented, as I'm in the process (mostly paused due to life) of updating the Ren'Py reference manual. But reading common/themes.rpy should give one enough information to start on figuring out how to recolor the new theme. If people come up with color schemes for the new theme, please send them to me and I'll add them to a future release of Ren'Py.

Although I've tried to find all bugs in this release, with the sheer number of changes involved, it's possible some bugs slipped through. So please report them to me, so I can fix them.

Be sure to read below to find out what's new that I forgot to mention here.

What's new in 5.5.0.

The library.script_version should be set to (5, 5, 0) to take advantages of changes in this version.

The big feature of this release is the new Ren'Py default theme, which can be enabled by calling theme.roundrect(). This theme can easily be recolored. An alternate version of this theme can loaded by calling theme.roundrect_red(). The call should be placed after library.script_version and config.screen_width have been assigned to.

config.with_callback has been changed. It now takes two arguments. The first is the transition being performed. If this transition is a None transition created as part of a scene, show, or hide statement, then the second argument is the transition found in that statement. Otherwise, it is None. config.with_callback is now requried to return a transition, which replaces the specified transition. Hopefully, this is enough to make with_callback useful, by always giving the callback information specified by the user.

The list of characters used by SFonts was wrong, so that has been fixed. The documentation has also been improved to include a convenient list of what those fonts should look like.

Character has been updated to pass arguments beginning with show_ as keyword arguments to its show_function and predict_function.

There is a new function, ui.frame(), which has been split off from ui.window(). While both functions create a window, the default style of frame is one that allows widgets to be placed atop it. (Whereas ui.window() generates a window optimized for text.)

There is a new property, box_first_spacing, that if not None gives the spacing between the first and second elements of a hbox or vbox. The xfill and yfill properties also are now used by vboxes and hboxes.

renpy.music.play and renpy.music.queue have been updated to take lists of filenames as well as single filenames. If a list of filenames is given, and loop is True, Ren'Py will loop through the list of filenames, rather than a single filename.

Two variables, library.main_menu_music and library.game_menu_music allow one to cause music to be played when in the main and game menus, respectively.

By setting the library.always_has_joystick variable to True, one can access the joystick menu even if no joystick is connected to the computer. This enables a joystickless developer to customize the joystick menu.

A bug that prevented music changed by a game menu from reverting back when leaving the game menu has been fixed.

A bug that prevented a fixed click-to-continue indicator from working has been fixed.

The screenshots taken with the 's' key are now PNGs, rather than BMPs.

There is a new image operation, im.Recolor, that can be used to recolor each channel of an image.

A new config variable, config.sound, can be used to completely disable the sound subsystem.

Fonts can now be read out of .rpa archives.

A number of styles have been renamed. The following are the style name changes:

style.error_window -> style.error_root
style.file_picker_window -> style.file_picker_frame
style.file_picker_window_vbox -> style.file_picker_frame_vbox
style.gm_nav_window -> style.gm_nav_frame
style.gm_root_window -> style.gm_root
style.joy_vbox -> style.js_frame_vbox
style.joy_window -> style.js_frame
style.joyfunc -> style.js_function
style.joyfunc_label -> style.js_function_label
style.joyprompt -> style.js_prompt
style.joyprompt_label -> style.js_prompt_label
style.mm_menu_window -> style.mm_menu_frame
style.mm_menu_window_vbox -> style.mm_menu_frame_vbox
style.mm_root_window -> style.mm_root
style.prefs_pref -> style.prefs_pref_frame
style.prefs_window -> style.prefs_frame
style.yesno_window -> style.yesno_frame
style.yesno_window_vbox -> style.yesno_frame_vbox

Basically, the purpose was to normalize styles with the frame vs window distinction, and to normalize the abbreviation of joystick as js. Previous style names will work for the forseeable future.

[Watercolorheart]

Previous style names will work for the forseeable future.

Thanks for making it backwards-compatible ...

[PyTom]

Thanks for making it backwards-compatible ...

Well, I've been trying to make games made with versions of Ren'Py since 5.4 forward compatible. I'm not sure if I'll succeed, and I reserve the right to break compatibility if I have to... But I'm trying fairly hard.

[zen]

Been away a while, just got to testing 5.5.0 Using the command:

voice "welcome.wav" in the demo, plus the included 5.5 voice script yields:

TypeError: voice() got an unexpected keyword argument 'interact'

Worked fine in 5.4.2

Cheers

[PyTom]

Fixed, you can grab the new version from:

http://www.bishoujo.us/trac/browser/ren ... rpy?rev=43

[Quin]

I tried using the built-in screenshot taker in 5.5.0, and the resulting .png file wouldn't open. I tried it again in the same spot, in case it was a fluke, and the error was reproducible. I also get the error trying to take screenshots in different parts of my game.

In IrfanView, I get the error "Decode error ! Invalid or unsupported PNG file."
In Firefox, I get the error "The image "file:///C:/_renai/renpy-5.5.0/screenshot0001.png" cannot be displayed, because it contains errors."
In GIMP, I get the error "PNG image Message Error while reading 'C:\_renai\renpy-5.5.0\screenshot0001.png'. File corrupted? GIMP Message Opening "'C:\_renai\renpy-5.5.0\screenshot0001.png' failed: Plug-In could not open image"
In MS Picture It! Premium 10 (hey, I tried everything I had available), I get the error "Sorry, this file can't be opened."

The resulting file is within 2% of the filesize if I take a PrintScreen grab, crop it and save it as a PNG, so it's creating an appropriately sized file.

Any insight? This used to work fine for me in 5.4.x... but I think it saved BMPs instead of PNGs back then. And, yes, other PNGs from other applications open without problems, so I'm not missing a driver or a plugin to view PNGs.

(I can provide a corrupted file upon request, but I'm thinking this is probably an error not specific to my machine.)

[PyTom]

The text-files versus binary-files issue on windows turns around and bites me on the ass again. A one-character fix, unfortunately in a place where I have to cut a new release of Ren'Py to distribute it.

[Quin]

Well, it's not a problem for me personally. If I want a screenshot for my own purposes, I can do the PrintScreen-and-crop method. But I was going to mention the screenshot option in my docs. I suppose I could simply avoid mentioning it. ^_^

(Although, if you happen to release yet another version before the end of the month, I'll use the newer version. Funny... I think back in February, I was joking about how I should plan to write my NaNoRenO game with Ren'Py v5.5.3. Scary how that's almost come true...)

[RedSlash]

Hey Tom,

I'm trying to build the renpy module for 5.5.0 (Linux) but it seem that it's missing the IMG_savepng.c file.

Code: Select all

$ RENPY_DEPS_INSTALL=/usr python setup.py install
running install
running build
running build_py
running build_ext
building '_renpy' extension
error: IMG_savepng.c: No such file or directory

[PyTom]

For now, grab IMG_savepng.c and IMG_savepng.h from:

http://www.bishoujo.us/trac/browser/ren ... ule?rev=44

This will be fixed in 5.5.1.