Changes.txt: merge 3.6.2 changelog in

Author: ivan-mogilko

Changes.txt

@@ -25,57 +25,23 @@ Editor:
    compiler for your game (see list of changes in related section below).
  - Added Custom Properties for: Audio Clips, Dialogs, GUI, GUI Controls, Regions, Walkable Areas.
  - Added Enabled and Visible properties to Characters, Enabled property to Room Objects.
- - Added TurnWhenFacing property to Characters.
  - Added BlendMode property to Characters, GUI and Room Objects.
  - Added FaceDirectionRatio property to General Settings, Room and Walkable Areas.
  - Added readonly Length property to AudioClips, for the reference.
- - Textual GUI controls can now select "Null Font" as their font: this will prevent any text to be
-   drawn even if one is assigned, and make it have zero size (when it matters).
  - Implemented "Watch Variables" panel which lets to watch values of the selected script variables
    while running the game. This feature is working only if game is built in Debug mode.
- - Added "Open Recent" submenu in the File menu.
- - Sync script editor's commands in Edit menu with the context menu.
- - Added "Toggle Line Comment" command to Edit menu for scripts.
  - Added "Word Wrap" command to Edit menu for scripts.
  - General panel look enhancements.
- - More panes in the Editor are DPI-aware (rescale well with the system font scaling).
  - Support built-in Base Color Themes that have the custom themes applied over them.
  - Game template selection now displays template's description right in the dialog.
  - F2 is now a hotkey for editing labels in the Project Tree. "Game statistics" are now displayed
    by Ctrl + F2.
- - Editor tabs now display icons indicating their contents (may be disabled in Editor Preferences).
- - Room panel tabs now display room names.
- - Editor will now remember certain window states: "Sprite selector" window and splitter position,
-   splitter position in "Sprite manager".
- - Support reordering folders in Project Explorer with drag & drop.
- - Support importing plain script files: ash, asc or both, - besides script modules (*.scm).
- - Added "Controls transparency" slider to GUI edit pane.
- - Copy, paste and delete commands now apply to all the selected GUI controls in GUI editor.
- - Support editing group properties for selected GUI controls.
- - Support to import and keep sprites as explicitly 8-bit images without converting to the game's
-   default color depth. This lets to have chosen sprites used as 8-bit masks in a 16/32-bit game.
- - Support importing 1-bit (monochrome) and 4-bit images as sprites, room backgrounds and masks
-   (converted to 8-bit).
- - Do not alter or clamp palette for 8-bit sprites imported in a 16/32-bit game.
+ - Support importing and keeping sprites as explicitly 8-bit images without converting to the
+   game's default color depth. This lets to have chosen sprites used as 8-bit masks in a 16/32-bit
+   game.
  - When importing room backgrounds of a different size Editor will now let user decide whether
    to reset, keep or rescale room masks.
- - Removed obsolete "Copy walkable area mask to regions" command from the Room editor.
- - Improved scrolling of drop-down lists in the Room's navigation bar: made scroll buttons larger,
-   and support mouse wheel.
- - Do not delete previously built game exe from Compiled/Windows folder when testing a game
-   from the editor.
- - Added "/maketemplate" command-line option that tells Editor to run, make template out of the
-   said game, and quit.
- - Fixed Editor refusing to open a project if one or more of the sections are missing in the file.
- - Fixed importing indexed PNG as a sprite would mistakenly treat the source image as 32-bit.
- - Fixed importing 8-bit BMP sprites with no "Remap palette" and "Leave As Is" as a transparency
-   option would still remap palette index 0 to the first found palette entry with Alpha 0,
-   even if that's a filler entry not used by the image.
- - Fixed exporting room backgrounds was always writing a 32-bit image rather than using actual
-   background's color depth.
  - Fixed faulty double-click on project items in case user dragged the cursor away.
- - Fixed an unhandled exception occuring when rebuilding rooms if any script's header is missing.
- - Fixed double warning message when trying to close the Editor while a game test is running.
 
 Compiler:
  - The new extended script compiler is available. Almost all of the new Scripting features are
@@ -131,9 +97,6 @@ Script API:
    "space", and returns them as an array of Points.
  - Added MaskPathfinder struct, which lets to initialize a Pathfinder using a 8-bit sprite
    serving as a navigation mask.
- - Added eNullFont constant that lets assign or pass a "null font" to any property or function
-   parameter which expects a font's ID. This "null font" will simply make any text not drawn
-   and have no actual measurements (size, spacing, etc).
  - Added global events: eEventDialogStart, eEventDialogStop, eEventDialogRun,
    eEventDialogOptionsOpen, eEventDialogOptionsClose (these are handled in "on_event").
  - Added Custom Properties interface to types: AudioClip, Dialog, GUI, GUIControl, Region,
@@ -148,56 +111,34 @@ Script API:
    Overlay.Rotation.
  - Added Game.FaceDirectionRatio, Room.FaceDirectionRatio, WalkableArea.FaceDirectionRatio
    and Character.FaceDirectionRatio.
- - Added Character.TurnWhenFacing property.
  - Added Character.MovePath() and WalkPath(), which makes character to move along an arbitrary
    list of coordinates, and Character.GetPath() that returns current character's walking path.
  - Added Object.MovePath() and Object.GetPath() functions, that work similar to Character's.
- - Added Character.MoveStraight() complementing WalkStraight().
  - Added static Dialog.CurrentDialog property and non-static ExecutedOption and AreOptionsDisplayed
    properties.
  - Added ColorFormat enum, and optional "color_format" parameter to DynamicSprite's functions:
    Create(), CreateFromBackground(), CreateFromDrawingSurface(), CreateFromExistingSprite()
    and CreateFromFile().
- - Added RenderLayer enum, and optional "layers" parameter to DynamicSprite.CreateFromScreenShot(),
-   that tells which of the game's render layers to capture when making a screenshot.
  - Added DrawingSurface.BlendImage() and DrawingSurface.BlendSurface() functions.
  - Added readonly DrawingSurface.ColorDepth property.
  - Added readonly Game.SpriteColorDepth[] indexed property.
  - Added GUI.ScaleX and ScaleY properties, GUI.SetScale() function.
  - Added GUI.GUIToScreenPoint() and GUI.ScreenToGUIPoint() functions.
  - Added File.Rename().
- - ListBox.FillSaveGameList(), RestoreGameDialog() and SaveGameDialog() now let define a range
-   of save slots for display.
  - Added Overlay.SetPosition() and SetSize() functions for convenience.
  - Added Overlay.Tint(), SetLightLevel() and RemoveTint() functions, Overlay.HasTint,
    HasLightLevel, LightLevel, TintBlue, TintGreen, TintRed, TintSaturation, TintLuminance
    properties, matching Character and Object tinting functionality.
  - Added Room.PathFinder property that returns a Pathfinder object, searching paths over this
    room's walkable areas.
- - Added Speech.SpeakingCharacter that returns currently speaking character (for blocking speech).
  - Added StringSplitOptions enum, String.Join(), String.Split() and String.Trim() functions.
  - Expanded String.IndexOf() with new parameters: "StringCompareStyle", "index" and "count".
- - Added MoveSaveSlot() which renames a savegame.
- - Added optional "sprite" parameter to SaveGameSlot(), that lets to pass a number of an arbitrary
-   sprite to write into this save instead of a standard "screenshot".
- - Added System.GetEngineInteger() and System.GetEngineString() for returning diagnostic
-   information about engine's runtime state. Possible arguments are defined by
-   EngineValueID enum.
- - Added new game-wide option OPT_SAVEGAMESCREENSHOTLAYER that lets to define which of the game's
-   render layers will be captured when making a standard screenshot for the save game.
- - Expanded `on_mouse_click` callback, now supports two more parameters: click x,y coordinates.
  - Added "walkarea[]" and "walkbehind[]" global arrays.
  - Global generated game objects (Characters, GUIs, etc), and global arrays of these objects
    (character[], object[], gui[], etc) are now declared as object *pointers* and arrays of
    pointers respectively. From the user's perspective this is a mere formality, as working with
    these variables and arrays will be syntactically same, but this makes it easier for the engine
    to handle them and objects internally.
- - Overlay.X and Y properties of textual screen overlays, such as blocking speech, now treat
-   assigned values correctly as screen coordinates and return values set by user consistently.
-   They also return the assigned values without any offsets for textual overlays created using
-   a TextWindow (having extra borders and padding).
- - All the area-related GetAtScreenXY functions (for Hotspot, Region, Walkbehind and WalkableArea)
-   now return a null pointer if no room viewport is found under given coordinates.
  - Removed "hasAlphaChannel" param from DynamicSprite.Create() and CreateFromExistingSprite().
  - Removed HasAlphaChannel property from DialogOptionsRenderingInfo.
  - Removed "transparent" param from Overlay.CreateGraphical() and CreateRoomGraphical().
@@ -212,33 +153,149 @@ Engine:
  - Animated buttons now display flipped frames correctly.
  - AudioChannel.Position and PositionMs no longer return a very large value while skipping
    cutscene.
+ - Overlay.X and Y properties of textual screen overlays, such as blocking speech, now treat
+   assigned values correctly as screen coordinates and return values set by user consistently.
+   They also return the assigned values without any offsets for textual overlays created using
+   a TextWindow (having extra borders and padding).
+ - All the area-related GetAtScreenXY functions (for Hotspot, Region, Walkbehind and WalkableArea)
+   now return a null pointer if no room viewport is found under given coordinates.
+ - GetTextHeight() no longer reduces "width" parameter by -1. This was an ancient mistake in
+   the engine kept for many years for backwards compatibility.
+ - Both blocking and non-blocking videos are buffered and played on a separate thread.
+ - Added FLAC support for music, speech and sound effects.
+ - Added "--print-rtti" command line option which prints script RTTI table to the log.
+   (RTTI stands for "runtime type information", and is used for handling of certain advanced
+   script features, such as nested managed structs.)
+
+
+===================================================================================================
+
+VERSION 3.6.2 - Beta
+
+Common:
+ - Event handler function are now allowed to be located in any script module.
+ - New naming rule for the voice clips: full char name, followed by a number, separated by a dot,
+   e.g. "RogerTheGreat.1234.ogg". The old rule may be enabled again by a switch in "Backwards
+   Compatibility" settings.
+
+Editor:
+ - In General Settings added "Use old-style voice clip naming rule" which lets to select whether
+   the game should expect old-style voice clip filenames (4-letter char name followed by number)
+   or the new one (full char name, followed by a number, separated by a dot).
+ - Added "TurnWhenFacing" property to Characters.
+ - Textual GUI controls can now select "Null Font" as their font: this will prevent any text to be
+   drawn even if one is assigned, and make it have zero size (when it matters).
+ - "Events" tab on the Properties Grid now has "ScriptModule" selection, which lets define in which
+   module should the related script functions be generated and looked for. The GUI Controls use
+   a ScriptModule set in their parent GUI, and Room events always has a fixed room script selected.
+ - Added "Open Recent" submenu in the File menu.
+ - Sync script editor's commands in Edit menu with the context menu.
+ - Added "Toggle Line Comment" command to Edit menu for scripts.
+ - More panes in the Editor are DPI-aware (rescale well with the system font scaling).
+ - Editor tabs now display icons indicating their contents (may be disabled in Editor Preferences).
+ - Room panel tabs now display room names.
+ - Editor will now remember certain window states: "Sprite selector" window and splitter position,
+   splitter position in "Sprite manager".
+ - Support reordering folders in Project Explorer with drag & drop.
+ - Support importing plain script files: ash, asc or both, - besides script modules (*.scm).
+ - On "Color Finder" pane also display actual RGB values that the engine will use. They may be
+   different from requested RGB, because historically engine limits drawing color's RGB precision
+   to 16-bit.
+ - Font's "SourceFilename" and "Font Size" properties now have buttons that let import another font
+   file, or reimport same font with different size respectively, instead of clicking on a button on
+   the preview window.
+ - Global Variables panel now allows to declare arrays.
+ - Added "Controls transparency" slider to GUI edit pane.
+ - Copy, paste and delete commands now apply to all the selected GUI controls in GUI editor.
+ - When pasting a copied GUI control, Locked property of a new control will be turned off.
+ - Support editing group properties for selected GUI controls.
+ - Support importing 1-bit (monochrome) and 4-bit images as sprites, room backgrounds and masks
+   (converted to 8-bit).
+ - Support importing indexed PNGs as room backgrounds and masks.
+ - Do not alter or clamp palette for 8-bit sprites imported in a 16/32-bit game.
+ - Removed obsolete "Copy walkable area mask to regions" command from the Room editor.
+ - Improved scrolling of drop-down lists in the Room's navigation bar: made scroll buttons larger,
+   and support mouse wheel.
+ - Do not delete previously built game exe from Compiled/Windows folder when testing a game
+   from the editor.
+ - Added "/maketemplate" command-line option that tells Editor to run, make template out of the
+   said game, and quit.
+ - Fixed Editor refusing to open a project if one or more of the sections are missing in the file.
+ - Fixed importing indexed PNG as a sprite, previously Editor would mistakenly treat the source
+   image as 32-bit.
+ - Fixed importing 8-bit BMP sprites with no "Remap palette" and "Leave As Is" as a transparency
+   option would still remap palette index 0 to the first found palette entry with Alpha 0,
+   even if that's a filler entry not used by the image.
+ - Fixed exporting room backgrounds was always writing a 32-bit image rather than using actual
+   background's color depth.
+ - Fixed "Color Finder" and color properties were mapping a color number to RGB values with
+   accuracy mistakes, resulting in slightly different values than the engine would use.
+ - Fixed an unhandled exception occuring when rebuilding rooms if any script's header is missing.
+ - Fixed double warning message when trying to close the Editor while a game test is running.
+
+Script API:
+ - Added eNullFont constant that lets assign or pass a "null font" to any property or function
+   parameter which expects a font's ID. This "null font" will simply make any text not drawn
+   and have no actual measurements (size, spacing, etc).
+ - Added Character.TurnWhenFacing property.
+ - Added Character.MoveStraight() complementing WalkStraight().
+ - Added RenderLayer enum, and optional "layers" parameter to DynamicSprite.CreateFromScreenShot(),
+   that tells which of the game's render layers to capture when making a screenshot.
+ - Added File.GetFileTime() that returns file's modification time.
+ - Added Game.GetSaveSlotTime() that returns a time this save slot was last written.
+ - Added FileSortStyle and SortDirection enum, and optional "fileSortStyle" and "sortDirection"
+   parameters to ListBox.FillDirList(). This lets to sort resulting list by name or time,
+   in ascending or descending order.
+ - ListBox.FillSaveGameList(), RestoreGameDialog() and SaveGameDialog() now let define a range
+   of save slots for display.
+ - Added Speech.SpeakingCharacter that returns currently speaking character (for blocking speech).
+ - Added MoveSaveSlot() which renames a savegame.
+ - Added optional "sprite" parameter to SaveGameSlot(), that lets to pass a number of an arbitrary
+   sprite to write into this save instead of a standard "screenshot".
+ - Added System.GetEngineInteger() and System.GetEngineString() for returning diagnostic
+   information about engine's runtime state. Possible arguments are defined by
+   EngineValueID enum.
+ - Added new game-wide option OPT_SAVEGAMESCREENSHOTLAYER that lets to define which of the game's
+   render layers will be captured when making a standard screenshot for the save game.
+ - Expanded `on_mouse_click` callback, now supports two more parameters: click x,y coordinates.
+
+Engine:
+ - Dropped support for pre-3.5.0 game saves.
+ - Ensure that Character.Speaking returns true when a speech is playing even if the character
+   has no speech view.
  - DynamicSprite.CreateFromFile() may now load 1-bit and 4-bit bitmaps, converting to 8-bit.
  - Do not alter or clamp palette for 8-bit sprites loaded into a 16/32-bit game at runtime.
  - Assigning InventoryItem.Graphic will no longer reassign CursorGraphic too even if they were
    identical previously.
- - Both blocking and non-blocking videos are buffered and played on a separate thread.
- - GetTextHeight() no longer reduces "width" parameter by -1. This was an ancient mistake in
-   the engine kept for many years for backwards compatibility.
- - DeleteSaveSlot() no longer causes highest save to be renamed to fill a gap in saves.
- - Added FLAC support for music, speech and sound effects.
+ - Calling DeleteSaveSlot() on a slot within 0-50 range will no longer secretly move a save with
+   the topmost number (within the same range) to fill the emptied slot. If you still like to
+   recreate this behavior, then use MoveSaveSlot() command.
+ - Implemented video buffering on a separate thread. Allow to drop late video frames.
  - Added new accessibility config settings in "access" section: "speechskip" and "textskip".
    These let player to override game's skipping style for character speech and text messages
    respectively.
+ - Added "max_save" config option in "override" section: this lets to enforce an arbitrary number
+   of saves displayed in a standard save/restore dialogs in game.
  - Added "--no-plugins" command-line argument that denies loading any plugins;
-   also added respective config option.
- - Added "--print-rtti" command line option which prints script RTTI table to the log.
-   (RTTI stands for "runtime type information", and is used for handling of certain advanced
-   script features, such as nested managed structs.)
+   also added respective config option "noplugins" in "override" section.
+ - Fixed displaying room masks with Debug command in legacy "upscale" mode.
 
 Engine Plugin API:
  - Added IAGSEngine.Log(), which lets plugins to print using engine's log system.
 
+Compatibility:
+ - Fixed loading of games made in AGS 2.55-56 which include plugins.
+ - Fixed loading of rare games made with AGS 2.5 or higher, which contained deprecated
+   "room animations" (animations themselves are currently not functional).
+ - Fixed old pathfinder imprecision affecting few pre-3.0 games.
+ - Allow pre-2.7 games to have RestartGame() command be followed and overridden by a NewRoom().
+   This is necessary for some older games to be able to proceed.
+
 WinSetup:
  - Redesigned winsetup into a tabbed dialog.
  - Added "Accessibility" settings for skipping speech and text messages.
 
-
-===================================================================================================
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 VERSION 3.6.1 - Patch 7, September 2024