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| 1 | +--- |
| 2 | +layout: post |
| 3 | +title: Psychtoolbox updated |
| 4 | +categories: news |
| 5 | +author: kleinerm |
| 6 | +--- |
| 7 | + |
| 8 | +Psychtoolbox 3.0.20.3 "Appletizer SP3" was released at 3rd February 2025. |
| 9 | + |
| 10 | +The complete development history can be found in our GitHub repository. |
| 11 | +The release tag is “3.0.20.3”, with the full tree and commit logs under the URL: |
| 12 | + |
| 13 | +<https://github.com/Psychtoolbox-3/Psychtoolbox-3/tree/3.0.20.3> |
| 14 | + |
| 15 | + |
| 16 | +[This Psychtoolbox release was sponsored by Mathworks under the year 2024/2025 |
| 17 | +contract for small enhancements and bug fixes.](https://www.mathworks.com/solutions/neuroscience.html) |
| 18 | + |
| 19 | +### Compatibility changes wrt. Psychtoolbox 3.0.20.2: |
| 20 | + |
| 21 | +- None expected. Identical to 3.0.20.2, except for a small improvement in our |
| 22 | + statistics for macOS Apple Silicon to account for Rosetta2. |
| 23 | + |
| 24 | +### Highlights: |
| 25 | + |
| 26 | +- None. This release contains minor functional and quality improvements, bug |
| 27 | + fixes, and refinement of license management support for macOS and Windows in |
| 28 | + the run-up to the launch of the actual paid license model / end of free trial |
| 29 | + period. |
| 30 | + |
| 31 | +### All: |
| 32 | + |
| 33 | +- PsychLicenseHandling(): Add auto download and install for LM client libs. |
| 34 | + Detect absence of required license manager client libraries during 'Setup' and try |
| 35 | + to auto-download and install the missing crucial libraries. |
| 36 | + |
| 37 | + This is relevant for non-standard Psychtoolbox installations via GitHub clone or |
| 38 | + checkout, download of source tree zip/tgz files, or maybe even when the deficient |
| 39 | + Matlab Add-On manager will be reenabled and used in a future release, if we are lucky. |
| 40 | + |
| 41 | + Should fix multiple trouble reports on the forum from both Windows and macOS users, |
| 42 | + encountered if they download the "wrong" (ie., not recommended for beginners) zip or |
| 43 | + tar.gz files for a Psychtoolbox release, instead of the recommended zip file. |
| 44 | + |
| 45 | +- Update license management libraries to Cryptlex Runtime v3.31.2. |
| 46 | + Apart from minor bug fixes, the main improvement is support for system-wide |
| 47 | + activations on macOS, which should be quite useful for our users on Apple macOS, |
| 48 | + as one user account on a Apple machine can activate a machine license, and all users |
| 49 | + on that machine should be able to use it, instead of having to repeat the procedure |
| 50 | + for each user account on a machine. This was so far only possible on MS-Windows. |
| 51 | + |
| 52 | +- DrawFormattedText() and DrawFormattedText2(): Improve formatting/layout of Unicode text. |
| 53 | + Make it work with double() encoded unicode under Matlab/Octave with 'wrapat' and |
| 54 | + 'justifytomax' layout, and per-word bounding boxes. And with text wrapping. |
| 55 | + |
| 56 | + Over 8 hours of tinkering, but seems to work better, as tested on Ubuntu 20.04 with |
| 57 | + Octave 5.2 and Matlab R2024a. |
| 58 | + |
| 59 | +- PsychtoolboxPostInstallRoutine: Prune pointless Octave path removals. |
| 60 | + These are dead and pointless since a while. |
| 61 | + |
| 62 | +- Various other smaller refinements, bug fixes and documentation updates. |
| 63 | + |
| 64 | +### Linux: |
| 65 | + |
| 66 | +- Psychtoolbox was built and tested against Matlab R2024b and Octave 5.2 and later. |
| 67 | + |
| 68 | +### Windows: |
| 69 | + |
| 70 | +- Psychtoolbox was built and tested against Matlab R2024b and Octave 7.3. |
| 71 | + |
| 72 | +- Move all Matlab mexw64 mex files into PsychBasic folder, delete the now unused |
| 73 | + PsychBasic/MatlabWindowsFilesR2007a subfolder, which is obsolete since a long |
| 74 | + time, so get rid of it and store the Matlab mex files for Windows in the same |
| 75 | + location as the Matlab mex files for Linux and macOS - the PsychBasic/ folder. |
| 76 | + The file extension makes sure everything gets sorted. This may make it possible |
| 77 | + to reenable "Matlab Toolbox Add-On" MLTBX support sometime in the future, although |
| 78 | + more work will be needed for that. |
| 79 | + |
| 80 | +- Screen(): Improve/Fix per-pixel alpha for onscreen window transparency. |
| 81 | + This used to work on WindowsXP, but got broken by some later version of |
| 82 | + MS-Windows. This change should fix it on Windows 10+, at least on the tested |
| 83 | + gpu's. Right now this improvement is limited to Octave, Matlab will follow in |
| 84 | + the next release if testing with this does not show problems. |
| 85 | + |
| 86 | +### macOS: |
| 87 | + |
| 88 | +- Psychtoolbox was tested against native Matlab R2024b and against native Octave 9.3 |
| 89 | + from HomeBrew. |
| 90 | + |
| 91 | +- PsychtoolboxPostInstallRoutine: Raise minimum macOS version check to 10.13. |
| 92 | + We need at least macOS 10.13 for Intel Macs and macOS 11 for Apple Silicon Macs. |
| 93 | + |
| 94 | +- Allow system-wide node-locked machine license activations, so only one user has to |
| 95 | + do the activation, and then all users on that machine can use Psychtoolbox without |
| 96 | + need to activate per user account. |
| 97 | + |
| 98 | +- Datapixx mex for Octave/Matlab on macOS Apple Silicon rebuilt against a more recent |
| 99 | + VPixx release from 2019 instead of 2014. Still outdated, but better than before, to |
| 100 | + fix possible interop problems of Apple Silicon Macs with VPixx devices. Not yet |
| 101 | + tested and confirmed to make things work - Awaiting user feedback. |
| 102 | + |
| 103 | +Enjoy! |
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