Ren'Py 4.7.2 Released

[PyTom]

Okay, hot on the heels of a successful NaNoRenO, I'm releasing Ren'Py 4.7.2. This release works around a bug in python's libraries that prevented the saving of large files, such as are created when the new readback mode is used. This release, the first to ship with readback support, features a version that is improved over the first version I released. This release also features a number of changes that should improve Mac support... if someone could test it there, I'd appreciate it. Finally, there are a number of error reporting and documentation fixes.

As always, Ren'Py can be downloaded from:

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

As usual, to upgrade copy the game directory between Ren'Py distributions. Savegames should be preserved over such an upgrade.

While a number of files changed in the cross-platform release, there are only a few files that need to be changed in a windows distribution. These are run_game.exe, lib/renpy.zip, common/library.rpyc, and common/style.rpyc. This information might be handy if someone wants to make an updater.

Changes in 4.7.2


This release should be compatiable with the .rpyc and .save files
produced by 4.7.1.

The new readback extra caused save files to reach a size and/or
complexity that caused errors in cPickle on Windows, which in turn
lead to a repeatable crash of Ren'Py, and left a corrupt save file in
the saves directory that prevented further saving and loading of
games. This has been addressed in two ways. The first is the use of
pickle (as opposed to cPickle) throught Ren'Py, a change that may slow
down the engine a little but should ensure correctness. The second is
that we now catch the errors produced by corrupt files, and (if
config.debug is not set) proceed by ignoring that file.

There is now a new extra, readback.rpy. This implements readback, in
addition to, or instead of, rollback. Readback is limited in a number
of ways, insofar as it only shows text without changing pictures or
other things. As part of implementing readback, we added a new
function, say, that is called when the user gives dialogue consisting
of a pair of strings.

There are a number of changes that improve support of the Mac OS X
platform. The foremost among them is that we ship a new file,
run_game.pyw. This is identical to run_game.py, but is necessary for
the game to run in a graphical environment on the Mac. (It also will
run the game without a console window on Windows, if you have the
appropriate dependencies.) Ren'Py still requires that PyObjC and
pygame are installed on a OS X 10.3 box before it can run.

The way font line spacing is computed was changed in this release, in
the hope of making it consistent on all three platforms. We now ignore
font linesize hints, which seem to be computed incorrectly on some
platforms, and instead set the line spacing to be equal to the ascent
and descent of the font. The user can increase or decrease the line
spacing by setting the new line_spacing text property. The old
line_height_fudge property is now ignored. The style.rpy common file
was updated to take account of this change.

To aid the user in finding the source of error messages, we now report
the name of the file being parsed when an error occurs during the
parse phase.

The tutorial has now been renamed "The Ren'Py Reference Manual", as
it's really more of a poorly-organized comprehensive reference then a
tutorial. This is in the hope that the Ren'Py user community will one
day write a more reasonable tutorial. A number of errors in the
reference were corrected.

The functions used in keymaps can now return values, which are
returned to the ui.interact() that called them. This was needed
to support readback.

LICENSE.txt has been updated to include the names and URLs of software
that a windows build of Ren'Py depends on, the licenses of which you
will be required to comply with when releasing a Ren'Py game.