Ren'Py 6.7.1 Released

[PyTom]

I'm pleased to announce the release of Ren'Py 6.7.1 "Apple Juice". The primary focus of this release is on improving Mac OS X support, which was done by producing a universal binary and distributing Ren'Py with the cross-platform jEdit text editor. The jEdit text editor also supports a number of nice new features, including an optional spell-checking plugin. Other features include:

* A background predictive image loading thread that allows images to be loaded while animations continue playing.
* The ability to change, in-game, the caption of the Ren'Py window when running in windowed mode.
* A canvas that allows user-defined displayables to draw lines, polygons, ellipses, and arcs.

I'd like to thank everyone who generously supported Ren'Py development over the past few months. Their donations allowed me to purchase a new Mac, which made improved Mac support possible.

Downloads of 6.7.1 and a full release announcement can be found at:

http://www.renpy.org/wiki/renpy/releases/6.7.1


Special call for testers:

The predictive image loading thread is one of the biggest changes I've made to Ren'Py in the past year or so, even if it's the sort of thing most players won't notice. (Nobody notices when images load faster, only when the system pauses for them.) It allows predictive image loading to occur even while Ren'Py is using the CPU for other things, like movements or transitions. Several recent games should benefit from this improvement.

However, it's also a bit risky. During development, there were several deadlocks caused by the image loading thread competing with the main thread. I believe I've properly fixed all these deadlocks, and I'm able to run several games correctly. However, having people test with their products would really help me get confident about this release.

Thanks in advance.

[DaFool]

Do you have some form of script (or a game, etc.) that will attack all the issues in one go? It seems there are quite some complicated things here. I don't exactly have a testable WIP in Ren'Py right now.

[PyTom]

No. All the scripts I tried work fine. Basically, I just want people to run their games and see if it locks up. (It shouldn't.)

[Aenakume]

* A canvas that allows user-defined displayables to draw lines, polygons, ellipses, and arcs.

i was halfway through doin that myself. ^_^;

Did you use pygame.draw?

[PyTom]

I wrap around it. You have to be a bit careful so that it works with the scaled mode, which doesn't use normal pygame surfaces.

A high-level canvas based on this would be a nice addition.

[jack_norton]

Congrats on the new update. A stupid minor thing that I find annoying is the game window that doesn't appear centered on screen (on Pc, on mac don't remember). There isn't a way to fix that? When I release a game I solve the bug by having it start in fullscreen, but I don't understand why the window isn't autocentered on screen?

[Aenakume]

I wrap around it. You have to be a bit careful so that it works with the scaled mode, which doesn't use normal pygame surfaces.

A high-level canvas based on this would be a nice addition.

i started with Solid, and went from there. When you say be careful, do you mean do what Solid does - delegate to an image and then render there, then render again in the actual displayable?

i dunno how high-level what i was doing was. ^_^; i queued up the draw operations, and then drawed them all in one shot, so the surface doesn't have to be locked and unlocked over and over, and it doesn't stay locked for too long. i used pygame.draw for some things, and i was adding some stuff. The documentation said the anti-aliased lines don't work, so i figured i was gonna have to do them too (but i hadn't got there yet).

It looked kinda like this (taken right out what i was usin to test, except the numbers replaced by descriptive words):

Code: Select all

c = Canvas(width, height, xalign=0.5, yalign=0.5)

# Single pixel
c.pixel((x, y), colour) # By default, anti-alised
c.pixel((x, y), colour, antialias=False)

# 1-pixel wide line
c.line((x1, y1), (x2, y2), colour)
c.line((x1, y1), (x2, y2), colour, antialias=False) # was about to start on this

# Filled rectangle
c.filled_rect((x, y), (w, h), colour)

# Planned
lines # takes a bunch of points and draws line segments between them, maybe in terms of line - default is closed=False
rect # probly in terms of lines
circle
blit (for images)

Also, i was thinking of makin a library of extra functions like draw_star or draw_heart - just to make it more fun. They would work like:

Code: Select all

c = Canvas(w, h)
draw_smiley(c, size, colour, linethickness?)

[delta]

Congrats on the new update. A stupid minor thing that I find annoying is the game window that doesn't appear centered on screen (on Pc, on mac don't remember). There isn't a way to fix that? When I release a game I solve the bug by having it start in fullscreen, but I don't understand why the window isn't autocentered on screen?

This might be related: Once upon a time, I found that on Windows, the game window always appears where the presplash window appeared, with the upper left corners matched. The presplash was always centered; So having a small presplash and big game window would shift the game window towards the lower right. In short, I was forced to use a presplash as big as the game window, which I found somewhat inelegant but not something to worry too much over either. This may have changed with the new presplash handling code in 6.7.0c, maybe it's time to check again.

[PyTom]

This was a change in 6.7.0c. The presplash now runs in its own process, which shows a centered window. The main window doesn't force centering, so it shows up wherever the user's window manager wants to place it. It's not clear to me I should be overriding the user's window manger... however, if you want to force the main window to be centered, the following code will accomplish it:

Code: Select all

init python hide:
      import os
      os.environ['SDL_VIDEO_CENTERED'] = '1'

[jack_norton]

Cool tried and worked! thanks.

[monele]

Is it okay to add this to the wiki? I've been looking for auto-centering ever since it disappeared from an old version of Ren'Py ^^;... (and it seems I wasn't alone at the time)

[PyTom]

Sure, the cookbook seems like the right place.

[monele]

http://renpy.org/wiki/renpy/doc/cookboo ... red_Window

Added there. I hope this is the proper way to do it ^^;

[Twar3Draconis]

Testing it now. I like the added text editor.

[Ashen-tan]

Waiting for full release because I'm never around to rightly test it.

That, and I can't do it on-the-go because I STILL can't get my laptop yet. D: Looking forward to working with this version, though, considering about 70% of all the work I do is on Macs.