Ren'Py 6.14 Pre-Releases

[PyTom]

It's a pre-release! So don't release games with it, okay?

I'm pleased to announce Ren'Py 6.14 "Steampunk Hamster", a release that brings with it many improvements to Ren'Py and Ren'Py development.

Perhaps the largest theme of this release is that the tools we use to make Ren'Py are now the same tools that we use to make Ren'Py games. Along this vein:

• The Ren'Py launcher has been rewritten. It's now far more attractive, and contains a new script navigation function that makes it east to navigate Ren'Py code.
• For most creators, we now recommend using the Editra editor with Ren'Py support. While still in beta, Editra is a lightweight and powerful programmer's editor to which we've added features that ease Ren'Py development. (jEdit is still supported, when Editra is not suitable.)
• The Ren'Py build process has also been updated. Now, it's possible to, in a single click, archive files and build a distribution of your game. Games may also use the same web updater that's used to update Ren'Py.

The engine proper has also seen many improvements:

• Video playback has been rewritten to improve robustness, performance, and stability. WebM is now a supported format.
• The new A White Tulip theme, written from scratch, provides some diversity to the look of Ren'Py games.
• Improvements to rollback, including the ability to fix rollback so that the user can't change a choice once made, without reloading.
• Several convenience shortcuts have been added to screens. A viewport with scrollbars can now be created as a single statement, and the style properties of text inside textbuttons and labels can be changed directly.
• An experimental new image load log helps creators understand image prediction and cache misses.
• Linux x86_64 is now supported by Ren'Py. Linux distributions will support both x86 and x86_64 cpus.
• Ren'Py ships with Python 2.7, and may of the libraries that underly Ren'Py have been updated.

This release has seen a huge amount of support from the community. I especially thank:

• Edwin, for contributing the improved rollback support and several bug fixes and new features.
• Doomfest, for the visual design of the new launcher.
• Ren and Jake Staines for contributing the new A White Tulip theme.
• SleepKirby for improvements to Ren'Py's documentation.
• Apricotorange, for adding the NVL-mode tutorial to Ren'Py's documentation.

As of this release, Ren'Py uses github for project hosting.

Due to the change to the new web updater, shift+U updating from previous versions of Ren'Py is not supported.

Downloads of 6.14 can be found at:

http://www.renpy.org/release/6.14

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

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

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

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

[PyTom]

The current version is 6.14.0.287.

Right now, I suggest backing up projects before moving them into Ren'Py. 6.14 changes details of the .rpyc format in ways that mean it's unlikely a 6.14 game could be moved back into 6.13.

I'd also suggest holding off if you have a very slow internet connection. The new updater is still experimental, and while it works for me, it's not unthinkable that a problem could require a re-download of all of Ren'Py.

Thanks in advance to everyone who will test Ren'Py 6.14 and otherwise help with this release process.

EDIT: One last thing - please don't spread this widely yet, until we get some feedback as to how well 6.14 is working out.

[CheeryMoya]

• Improvements to rollback, including the ability to fix rollback so that the user can't change a choice once made, without reloading.

Bless bless, this is something that I thought wasn't possible without having to repeat a line of code whenever you needed it ;u; I'll test this thing out right now

[nyaatrap]

Congrats on the pre-release! I've been waiting for!

Now I have a problem with jedit. Chose it and downloaded it under the renpy 6.14 folder, but couldn't set it as a default editor. editra works fine, but the launcher can't recognize jedit. (of cause, there's no problem with ren'py 6.13)

The new theme looks cool, but it's breaking the save/load screen currently.

[jack_norton]

YES!!!!!!!!!!!! Downloading now. The autoupdater is my favorite feature but even the rollback improvement is very good. I'll make good use of that

nyaatrap: that happens if you use small screen res I think, like 800x600

[Jake]

that happens if you use small screen res I think, like 800x600

Since 800x600 is the default res, it's hardly fair to call it 'small'.

The problem, if it is one in your resolution, is that A White Tulip's buttons are taller than the buttons in the RoundRect theme. For now, the easiest fix for a game developer is to go into their screens.rpy file, and on line 276 (or thereabouts) change the rows variable to '3':

Code: Select all

        $ rows = 3

But this unfortunately doesn't seem to be something we can do from within the theme, unlike the old layouts code. I'll look into the possibility of a better fix this evening.

[CheeryMoya]

I can't seem to download Editra or jEdit from the new launcher. Do I have to go to the respective sites to grab them or am I doing something wrong? When I use the System Editor, I have access to the old jEdit but then I can't open up my .rpy files just by clicking on it from the launcher. I have the launcher folder in the same place as my projects but that's not doing anything. Also, same problem with the A White Tulip theme and the screens.

Very bad idea to try setting the launcher as your project and editing the files, jEdit vomited a bunch of windows at me >_>

Building a distribution seems to work well enough, it's convenient that it opens up the folder where the zip folders are. Besides the text editors not working, all other buttons are fine.

Sorry if this doesn't really help much, I'm tired and I should sleep soon ;-;

[jack_norton]

Finally had time to try it: really nice. The editra looks very good, though I'm wondering if is possible to setup a key to start the game? like CTRL+0 of SCiTE? or I have to manually launch the game from the launcher?
The new options commands to build a distribution are great: thumbs up!
I'm now going to make some tests with the updater (one of the best new features IMHO) but so far excellent work as always!!

[PyTom]

I can't seem to download Editra or jEdit from the new launcher. Do I have to go to the respective sites to grab them or am I doing something wrong?

No, they should download automatically. The first time you edit a file - or when you go into preferences and select the editor - Ren'Py will ask you which editor you want. It will then bring you to the update screen to download it - click proceed, wait, then proceed again to get it installed.

Are you having a problem with this? Is there an error message being produced when you try to download editra? What does update/log.txt look like?

Finally had time to try it: really nice. The editra looks very good, though I'm wondering if is possible to setup a key to start the game? like CTRL+0 of SCiTE? or I have to manually launch the game from the launcher?

There's a launcher plugin for Editra. I don't know how to use it yet.

Also, for those who are interested, please take a look at the spell-checker in Editra. Go to Edit, Preferences, General, Files, and check "Check spelling while typing".

[jack_norton]

I found a different behavior from before, I had a bug and clicking on the filename.rpy line:XXX in the traceback window didn't bring it up correctly. It was inside a python function, mistakes in normal .rpy code were opened at the right line like before. I'm using Editra but can test also on Jedit if needed

[nyaatrap]

I forgot to report it. There's no problem building my game (astraea rio) with 6.14 and no errors. All animations and battle scripts work fine. I have to change the location of option.rpy to match the new building process though, but it's not a big issue. The problem is.. yeah, calling an Editor. I set editra as a default editor and write random letter to cause errors in my scripts. It gave an error when I lauched it, but I can't open traceback.

edit: now I'm getting an encode error on Japanese in my scripts. It may be caused by switching jedit to editra? I don't know how ┐(´д｀)┌

[CheeryMoya]

I can't seem to download Editra or jEdit from the new launcher. Do I have to go to the respective sites to grab them or am I doing something wrong?

No, they should download automatically. The first time you edit a file - or when you go into preferences and select the editor - Ren'Py will ask you which editor you want. It will then bring you to the update screen to download it - click proceed, wait, then proceed again to get it installed.

Are you having a problem with this? Is there an error message being produced when you try to download editra? What does update/log.txt look like?

Yesterday when I tried it, the screen stayed at "downloading" for the longest time. I don't know if I was just being impatient or the screen was stuck there. Tried it again this morning and here's what I got while trying to get Editra again:

Code: Select all

running ['C:\\Users\\CheeryMoya\\Downloads\\RenPy Beta\\renpy-6.14.0-sdk\\lib\\windows-x86\\zsync.exe', '-o',
'C:\\Users\\CheeryMoya\\Downloads\\RenPy Beta\\renpy-6.14.0-sdk\\update\\editra-windows.update.new', '-k',
'C:\\Users\\ CheeryMoya\\Downloads\\RenPy Beta\\renpy-6.14.0-sdk\\update\\editra-windows.zsync', '-i',
'C:\\Users\\CheeryMoya\\Downloads\\RenPy Beta\\renpy-6.14.0-sdk\\update\\editra-windows.update', 'http://update.renpy.org/6.14.0/renpy-6.14.0-editra-windows.zsync']
rename: File exists
rename: File exists
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "common/00updater.rpy", line 286, in run
  File "common/00updater.rpy", line 377, in update
  File "common/00updater.rpy", line 857, in download
UpdateError: The update file was not downloaded.

Pretty much the same thing happened when I tried to download jEdit too.

I have file parts named "updates.json," "editra-windows.update.new.part," etc. should I delete these and try updating again?

[PyTom]

Yes, you should delete the .part files and try again. (I could have sword Ren'Py did that, though.) Don't delete current.json.

[OdysseyStudio]

So since it now Ren'Py is now being hosted on github, so anyone could conribute code to the project now?

[PyTom]

Anyone always could, but github makes it easier.

I do ask that people check with me before starting a large change - it's possible that there's an existing feature that does what you want - and even if there isn't, it's important that the way something is done works with Ren'Py. (More screens! More actions!)