181 replies to this topic

[LinktheMaster]

@Saffiith: What's the policy of a 2.5 release after the next candidate? I suggest a two-week paradigm - where if at any point no reasonable breaking bug is found within a span of two-weeks, ZC 2.5 is packaged and released.

If my two cents matters, I would recommend at least one month. Lots of people are cautious with moving to a new release candidate in fear of quest-breaking bugs. So it may take a couple weeks just for people to start actually using it, then a couple weeks to see those bugs.

[kurt91]

So, what happens after 2.5 is finished? Do you plan on making a version 3.0? I mean, 2.5 seems much too far along for any additional features, but if you decide to do a ZC3, then it might be interesting to see what comes up in a feature suggestion thread.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about starting anything a day after 2.5 is finished. You guys have been working on it forever, and probably would like a break.

[Saffith]

There'll surely be a 2.50.1 to fix bugs that were too minor to deal with for 2.50 or just weren't found in time.
I believe the plan for 3.0 is a complete rewrite. Indeed, I think that's the only possibility; if we continue building on the current codebase, I'm not sure we'll ever reach another release.

[blue_knight]

So I was trying out the Quad rendering modes in 2.50 RC 2 since I was using them already for the "Mode 7" mode in World Tree (to be replaced by scanlines + pre-rotated DrawBitmap() for better quality when RC3 comes out)... Anyway when I switched over to RC 2.5 (I forget the exact version since the downloads are down, but DrawBitmap() works) - and Quad() no longer works properly at all - even with standard PT_TEXTURE rendering mode:

ZC 2.50 RC 2:



ZC 2.50 RC 2.5:



It only draws the first scanline of every quad for some reason.

I should probably add the DrawTile(), DrawCombo(), DrawBitmap(), Rectangle() and other drawing commands seem to work as intended, it's just Quad() that is broken (and maybe Triangle(), I haven't tried it).

Edited by blue_knight, 27 January 2012 - 03:10 AM.

[Shoelace]

I am very excited. I put my quests on hold for so long waiting for the release, that I am excited to jump in them! I was messing with ZC to look around, it is looking very good.

One thing, I was wondering (I guess it kinda off topic but..) because I never got an answer back. Is there a way to Copy and Paste a subscreen? I was wondering because I am going to make about.... 50 Subscreens.... They are all going to look the same except for some minor details. I wanted to know if it is possible to copy and paste the subscreens, so I don't have to make the entire subscreen 50 times over.

[LinktheMaster]

There is and there isn't. You can't copy and paste, per se, but you can export subscreens and import them in as a new cutscene. It's a little bit more of a tedious process than copying and pasting, but it works and would be much faster than recreating.

[Saffith]

So I was trying out the Quad rendering modes in 2.50 RC 2 since I was using them already for the "Mode 7" mode in World Tree (to be replaced by scanlines + pre-rotated DrawBitmap() for better quality when RC3 comes out)... Anyway when I switched over to RC 2.5 (I forget the exact version since the downloads are down, but DrawBitmap() works) - and Quad() no longer works properly at all - even with standard PT_TEXTURE rendering mode:

Gleeok, if you want to deal with this, it seems to have started in build 1416. I'll look at it when I've got more time, otherwise.

[LinktheMaster]

Can I ask for the string editor to get fixed? I can't figure out any consistent pattern, but I see lots of random stuff added to the end of strings, especially if I close them and open them back up. Something I've seen often are commas ( , ) at the end and \255\255s at the end. I use a lot of control codes, so that may have something to do with it. Today I opened up ZQuest and there were two <New String> entries. One was an actual string that said <New String> and another was just the normal option to create a new string.

While these issues themselves aren't too worrisome, I just have to be a bit worried that some day the string editor is just going to blow up on me.

[King Harkinian]

Speaking of the string editor, can someone add a word wrap option? I hate having to hold space so I can line up text correctly when it gets split between lines. I'm pretty sure a few people agree with me, so can someone please add something like this?

[Gleeok]

So I was trying out the Quad rendering modes in 2.50 RC 2 since I was using them already for the "Mode 7" mode in World Tree (to be replaced by scanlines + pre-rotated DrawBitmap() for better quality when RC3 comes out)... Anyway when I switched over to RC 2.5 (I forget the exact version since the downloads are down, but DrawBitmap() works) - and Quad() no longer works properly at all - even with standard PT_TEXTURE rendering mode:

ZC 2.50 RC 2:



ZC 2.50 RC 2.5:



It only draws the first scanline of every quad for some reason.

I should probably add the DrawTile(), DrawCombo(), DrawBitmap(), Rectangle() and other drawing commands seem to work as intended, it's just Quad() that is broken (and maybe Triangle(), I haven't tried it).

Looks like (yet) another allegro bug. grrr...


...OK, Quad() and Triangle() are fixed now. Thanks for the report blue_knight.

Side Note* I can only reasonably optimize the most common cases because of how allegro handles sub-bitmaps here. That would be square PO2 sizes of 1, 2, 4, and 8. If you are using *lots* of oddly shapen texture rectangles each frame you might want to try and cache them somehow.

[Saffith]

Can I ask for the string editor to get fixed? I can't figure out any consistent pattern, but I see lots of random stuff added to the end of strings, especially if I close them and open them back up. Something I've seen often are commas ( , ) at the end and \255\255s at the end. I use a lot of control codes, so that may have something to do with it. Today I opened up ZQuest and there were two <New String> entries. One was an actual string that said <New String> and another was just the normal option to create a new string.

While these issues themselves aren't too worrisome, I just have to be a bit worried that some day the string editor is just going to blow up on me.

Now that you mention it, the string editor does appear to be fraught with memory access errors... That's gonna be fun to fix.

Speaking of the string editor, can someone add a word wrap option? I hate having to hold space so I can line up text correctly when it gets split between lines. I'm pretty sure a few people agree with me, so can someone please add something like this?

It's "Text wraps around bounding box" in the Attributes tab.

[blue_knight]

Normally I wouldn't ask, but since RC 2.5 support seems to be dropped (i.e. download not available)... is there an ETA on the next release? I mainly ask because it contains some important additions and fixes, thanks.

[Saffith]

At this point, I'm just waiting on demo quests for two bugs that I expect will be simple to fix once I can see them. Theoretically, that could be done today. _L_ stopped by the forums today, so he's presumably aware now that we're preparing for another release. If all goes well, it shouldn't be more than another day or two, but we'll see...

Actually, someone already tried to provide one of those demo quests, but it isn't working for me. Here's the link; if anyone else can get it working, reupload it somewhere else and let me know.

[blue_knight]

Ok, thanks for the update.

As for the demo quest, I tried it... but it gives a decrypting error when trying to load in ZQuest. In the player I get "Error: Unable to open file." This is with RC 2.5.

Edited by blue_knight, 29 January 2012 - 06:19 PM.

[Kite]

Is there any possibility that the infamous "continue bug" can be fixed? This is a bug that has been present in certain older quests when playing them in builds since 1.92 beta build 184.

An example of a quest that exhibits it would be Link's Birthday Deluxe by Mr.Z. Go through a small part of the quest and try saving. Once resuming the save, there is a good chance Link will be stuck in a place where he shouldn't be.

I think the reason this happens is due to a change in sidescrolling warps that sets continue points in 1.92 beta build 184. I think there is a quest rule that fixes this, but it isn't set for older quests like Link's Birthday Deluxe.