Ren'Py 5.4.2 Released

[PyTom]

I've just released Ren'Py 5.4.2 "Raging Heart", a release of Ren'Py containing a number of bug-fixes. This release includes a working two_window_say extra, and a number of of other bug fixes, especially for problems Ren'Py had working on Mac OS X. I strongly recommend people track the latest version of Ren'Py when developing their NaNoRenO (et al.) games, to ensure that they recieve the benefit of these bug fixes.

I'd like to take a moment to thank Shaja, who reported many of the bugs this release fixes, and helped with the development and testing of many of the mac fixes.

Ren'Py 5.4.2 can be downloaded from the Ren'Py home page:

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

To upgrade, copy over the game directory from a recent version of Ren'Py. There are two changes that may need to be made. If you downloaded a copy of imagedissolve-fix.rpy, delete it (and the corresponding .rpyc file), as it is included in this release. If you use the two_window_say extra, copy in the new version, and change function=two_window_say to show_function=two_window_say in the Character objects of your script.

What's New in Ren'Py 5.4.2

The renpy.display_say function was refactored into two functions, renpy.display_say and renpy.show_display_say. In it's original incarnation, display_say had been a simple function responsible for showing dialogue to the user. Over the past few months, it has accreted logic for click-to-continue and for slow text, among other features. This made it hard to change the behavior of display_say, as a function overriding it would have to implement all that logic itself.

To fix this, we've created a new function, renpy.show_display_say, and made Character and display_say take a new parameter, show_function. This function is now responsible for actually placing widgets on the screen. It has a reasonably well-defined interface, to allow it to be overridden by user code in a way in which display_say is no longer practically able to be.

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The two_window_say extra has been rewritten to take advantage of this refactoring. To update, you'll need to copy over the new copy of two_window_say. You'll then need to change Character objects with the argument "function=two_window_say", to instead have the argument "show_function=two_window_say". In return for this, features such as pauses in text and slow text now work with two_window_say.

Ren'Py now displays dialogue shown via a rollback as quickly as possible. This is a change from the previous behavior, which was to show such dialogue at the speed set by the "Text Speed" preference.

The sound module has been rewritten to play sound (or silence) all the time, rather than pausing and restarting sound playback as necessary. This eliminates popping and errors in some edge cases, like playing a very short sound.

Fixed a bug in the move transition that manifests itself if the move transition is used while a transient is on the screen.

Fixed a bug that prevented ImageDissolves from working correctly on big-ending platforms, like PowerPC-based Macs.

Fixed a bug that caused crashes with a presplash image on non-mac computers.

[Dre]

Would this be the final version for NaNoRenO?

[PyTom]

I don't know, really. If people find bugs over the course of the month, I will release a new version if necessary. I may also release one shortly with the new widescreen mode, if it proves useful.

[PyTom]

FWIW, I will be releasing 5.4.3 in a relatively short while (say, under a week). 5.4.3 will use substantially less memory when loading music from .rpa files, and will make some errors more explicit.

AFAIK, there's nothing wrong with 5.4.2, assuming you find its memory usage acceptable.

I'm also trying to port Ren'Py launcher for Macintosh to the mac-x86 platform. But that will be more-or-less independent of Ren'Py.

Just letting people know whats going on, so they can plan their projects.