Ren'Py 4.8.8 Released

[PyTom]

Ren'Py 4.8.8 "Кедр (Cedar)" has been released. This version includes support for auto-forward mode, and improved support for unicode inside scripts. It also includes the fourth release of DSE.

As always, it can be downloaded from:

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

Upgrade by copying over the game directory from a previous release.

With this release, I've depleted the list of new features to add to Ren'Py. So if no bugs are reported, this release may well become 4.9.

New in 4.8.8

Auto-forward-mode has been implemented. It is controlled by its own preference, which gives the number of seconds for which a given number of characters is shown to the user. The number of characters is configured by config.afm_characters, which defaults to 250. The number of characters is determined by the length of the string shown to the user with a number of bonus characters added to it. The number of bonus characters is configurable in config.afm_bonus, which defaults to 25. Auto-forward-mode can be hidden from the user by setting library.has_afm to False.

The preferences screen has been redesigned, to have three columns.

Unicode support has been extended to names in the script. Now names in the script can contain unicode characters, as well as ascii characters. This includes labels and image names. Right now, we consider all unicode characters to be alphabetic, so be sure to use ASCII space where spaces are required.

[mikey]

Ren'Py goes East ^_^.

Hmmm, the link seems to be broken.

[PyTom]

Okay, fixed now.

Cedar was Yuri Gagarin's call sign. I included the cyrillic transcription b because this is the first release to support unicode names internally.

I'm debating if the next stable release of Ren'Py should be called 4.9, 5.0, 6.0, or 8.0. I'm beginning to think that the changes made to Ren'Py in 4.8 are large enough to warrent a major version increase. (The biggest one is the introduction of the C _renpy module for speed reasons.)

6.0 and 8.0 are in the running because I think odd numbers are unlucky, and powers of two are very lucky.

Thoughts, anyone?

[mikey]

Well, I am actually a fan of coding (as in code-naming), so of course this always has my imagination ^_^

Okay, hmmm... superstitious? If you want even nrs then 6.0 is my choice, or perhaps 8.0 that sounds realy binary and powerful. So then, actually 4.9 s going to get renamed into 8.0 >> that's great, I like it confusing (no really I DO like it). It's just like having a prototype and then giving it another name... aaah the good old times of YF-17 Cobra turning into F-18 Hornet (IIRC).

Although the logical thing would be 5.0. Mostly because it's easy to always distinguish the latest version and by not skipping some numbers you'll add value to the release (with 4.8 being followed by 8.0 that might be confusing)

I think what you could do to mark the importance and superiority of a new version is simply to make a new set of backgrounds for the main menu, refresh the demo game with new pictures and Eileen in one or two different locations (although that would mean you couldn't upgrade simply by overwriting - on the other hand a truly new version might be forgiven if this were the case), and try to change things on this end, mostly because it's visible the most - and people will always "get it" more of there's actually a change in appearance. Of course calling it Ren'Py 5-series or something like that will also raise awareness of the new product.

[Megaman Z]

(Well, apart from auto-forward, but that's fairly minor and not overly needed for non-H games.)

I guess I shouldn't mention that I play Lifeline mostly hands-free now. (big toe to circle button!)

Auto-forward-mode has been implemented. It is controlled by its own preference, which gives the number of seconds for which a given number of characters is shown to the user. The number of characters is configured by config.afm_characters, which defaults to 250. The number of characters is determined by the length of the string shown to the user with a number of bonus characters added to it. The number of bonus characters is configurable in config.afm_bonus, which defaults to 25. Auto-forward-mode can be hidden from the user by setting library.has_afm to False.

uh-huh... the only thing that really registered was that it's implemented and that afm_characters sets the speed. I assume that afm_bonus adds a pause after each say command as well. I'm not too much into catching up with the features right now, so I'll look at updating the engine on my end when progress on TOZSP starts up again.

[Grey]

I would just go with the logical 5 so the layman can understand it easier. Jumping from 4 to 8 seems silly, and going to 6 due to superstition of all the odd numbered 4 builds doesn't seem very reasonable.

Going from even 4.8.8 to odd 5.0.0 won't suddenly induce instability in the code or hex your ability to write working new stuff in.

[ShiraiJunichi]

Plus, then you'd have to skip lucky number 7 ;_;

[Megaman Z]

Plus, then you'd have to skip lucky number 7 ;_;

good point... (although... wait... what the heck was I going to say again?)

[Alessio]

Wow, Ren'Py sure develops fast...

Why don't you just join the marketing craze and call it Ren'Py2005 or Ren'PyXP... or Ren'PyCedar (TM)?

Just kidding. I'd go with 5.0 as well, having always liked logical numbering. But feel free to ignore my view. It's not a big issue IMHO.

[PyTom]

I've decided to go with 5.0, as it does seem logical. I'll probably adopt the convention that 5.even releases are stable, bug-fix series, while 5.<odd> are development releases.

And so, the next release, due out tonight, will be called...

4.8.9. (A few more bug fixes are in it, as well as a new preference controlling skip after choices.)