GS 0.8.3 Released!

dereklarue

0.8.3 Finally released!

-=Fixes=-

Actors no longer disabled when new actors spawned below them in the same layer.
Inner rules are processed more reliably.
Stability improvements(less crashing).
While previewing the game on the GS Viewer, you can now manually select a scene to preview by clicking on the scene from the scenes list.
Preserve Scene option in the Change Scene behavior has been deprecated for new games. Current games with that behavior option will still be able to use it to the extent that it may not “work” as it did in previous builds.

-=Enhancements=-

Implemented full UTF-8 support.

-=Features=-

Opening Actor Editors from Scene Layer: Now you just need to double click the actor’s name in the Scene Layers and don’t need to rearrange actors to modify a specific instance.
Additional Warnings for removing used attributes: If you are about to delete an attribute, it will tell you where it is used as a warning.

Did your problems get fixed?

rebump

Sweeet. Will upgrade when I hop on in a bit.

Other thread about the new features/fixes here:

http://gamesalad.com/forums/topic.php?id=3412

(just tidying up the forums) ;-)

BeyondtheTech

How do you say... BOOYAH! Let's see how well it performs. Thanks, GS!

CodeMonkey

Not saying that you have to, but just in case, make a copy of your project before opening and saving it in this new version. Its good practice to have backups when getting something new.

micah

"Preserve Scene option in the Change Scene behavior has been deprecated for new games. Current games with that behavior option will still be able to use it to the extent that it may not “work” as it did in previous builds."

Does that mean that we shouldn't use "Preserve Scene" anymore?

I had originally made it so you can pause Aeropack (by switching scenes and preserving the current level) then resume it again, but I took out that feature because it made it so the cannons would stop shooting (since they used timers, which weren't reset when it resumed). If I add the same kind of pause feature in, it'll still be broken in the same way?

quantumsheep

"Did your problems get fixed? "

Actually, no

I still get a bug with my ship being hit.

Seemingly at random, when the shields are at 0 and you get hit, it either reduces your lives by 1, or doesn't.

I just played it in preview mode within GS - I play the game, my shields go down to 0, I get hit, I don't lose a life.

I reset the game within preview mode by clicking the reset button.

This time when my shields are down, my lives go down by 1 when hit.

Additionally, when my 'tracker' enemies come on-screen, they're supposed to shoot at the player's x/y coordinates. Again, it seems 50/50 as to whether they do.

I wouldn't mind so much if I thought I could fix it. But as it happens inconsistently (i.e. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't - for no apparent reason) I'm at a loss.

All of this worked fine in .7

Sorry to sound down - it's almost 4am and I was hoping I wouldn't have these issues anymore. Time for bed methinks.

Cheers,

QS

CodeMonkey

It means the option for "preserve scene" is no longer there on the behavior. If you already have it incorporated and existing in your game and you are happy the way it works, this new version won't kill it. If you try to add a Change Scene behavior back in, it won't have the preserve scene option. So it is best not to use it.

Eastbound

Thanks for the update codeMonkey!

Just a bug I want to bring to your attention, that I don't know if I have seen brought up:

When you tile backgrounds, it is very common to have black flashing lines appear on the iPhone, and I actually noticed it a few times while playing "Bork's Adventure" online.

JamesZeppelin

Thanks for update. Very excited to fire it up.

rebump

I would imagine the "Preserve Scene" option is just an attribute or sub-tag of the "Change Scene" XML markup in the actor's XML file. You could probably manually add it back in to your new "Change Scene" behaviors if you are so inclined. Yup, a sub-tag with an attribute:

`

.
.
.
true

`
But backup before you try this in case it doesn't work as I don't want to be responsible for messed up game projects! Sorry CM! ;-)

homelesswombat

- Make more than one actor able to be select/copy/pasted in scene editor. Make holding shift slide actors along 90 and 45 degree angles. Perhaps add an optional "Snap to Grid" option.

- Make an actor's Size and Image Size two separate attributes.

- Make actors' "Moveable" attribute allow for rotation but no x/y motion.

- Fix Bug: Can't remove tags from actors once they're tagged.

- Fix Bug: Occasional loss of Rules. My actors will start acting funny and when I go in an look at the Rules, they have been greyed out and set to default. Then I have to reboot and set them back up again.

Pretty Plz

debugdesign

It might just be my version but double clicking on the layer names do not allow you to edit it...

Anyone else getting this issue?

BeyondtheTech

Just checked, debugdesign. Worked for me. That was a much needed feature! No more relayering just to get to the right Actor. Whew!

debugdesign

thanks, I may have to re-install

alnkhailan

Ok ... here you go ... the cold ... experience generated ... BUGS!!!!!:

- When you work on a game with lot of scenes .. the program slows down enormously to the point that i have to Save then Restart the program in order to clear up memory space i guess ? (Memory Management Issue)

- Find a solution to POSTING HIGHSCORES ON A WEBSITE/SERVER + FACEBOOK + TWITTER .. and please make that available to EXPRESS SUBSCRIBTIONS .. do not limit it to the 2000 subscribtion or a lot of us will be very very very sad. Highscore posting is an ESSENTIAL PART of any game these days ... don't you agree ?

- The change image attribute is probably not working correctly ... i tried to use a if/else rule to change an image back and forth on an actor ... it flips the image the first time ... the second time it should go to the else and restores the image .. but it never does !!!

- Add a RULER to the window

- Add a Snap to Grid option

- Add Selectable "Fade, Slide, Explode, Shift up, Shift down, Shift left/right" and such as options to the "Change Scene" option to reduce the amount of timers and rules made by the user.

- Pressing SHIFT to enable you to select multiple actors at once.

I hope i made myself clear and if you are unsure about something please tell and i will try to explain by posting some pics...

Many thanks gentlemen and i would like to send the Gamesalad staff an Imaginary kiss for a great program that i am loving more and more with every time i use it. :* mwwwwaaaahhh
much love.

Alnkhailan

Hunnenkoenig

I didn't use "Preserve Scene" yet, but I want to add PAUSE function to my game. How do I do it now if "Preserve Scene" is not in anymore?

Jel

loving the new "Actor Editors from Scene Layer" it makes it soooooo much easier to make changes.

PPenguin

I'm kind of sad to see the "preserve scene" option go, because I had in mind an action/adventure/RPG type game where you could bring up a "menu" scene anytime during the game, and then dismiss it and have the game continue where you left off.

Why did you guys deprecate that? Is there a better way to do this?

CodeMonkey

@homelesswombat You remove actor tags from actors from the project editor-> Actors tab and delete the actor when you have that tag selected.

@alnkhailan "- The change image attribute is probably not working correctly ... i tried to use a if/else rule to change an image back and forth on an actor ... it flips the image the first time ... the second time it should go to the else and restores the image .. but it never does !!!" I can't reproduce that, I would need to see what conditions you have set up for the rule.

@preserveSceneMissers - you can always add the pause/selectable menus in your scene and bring them up or move them into position when they are needed.

firemaplegames

For some reason, the new update killed the smoke trails on the main menu of Stunt Squirrels! on the Web version...I'm sure it's fixable on my end though. I'll dig into it in a little bit.

Patronus

The strangest thing happens. I have 2 scenes, both use the same global variables. On GS it works fine and both screens shows all the data correctly. When uploading it to the iPhone it is if there is a separate set of identical global variables for the second scene, all zero. When I flip to the first scene all the values are there, but when I flip to the second scene they are all zero. When I flip back, they are still there. As if there occurred an invisible duplication of my global variables, which are now local to the second scene. I was hoping that the recent scene-change issues may have caused this but no luck. This only happens on the iPhone, not in GS.

I was on the brink of uploading the app to my iPhone when I downloaded GS 0.82 so I can't say whether it is a new issue but I never had discrepancies between GS and the iPhone before. It is still the same with 0.83

Any ideas?

Hunnenkoenig

0.8.3 is slow as hell.

I have to wait for every action at least 5-10 seconds. I also restarted GS and my laptop, but nothing changes.

After a few minutes if I click something (like expression editor i.e.) I have to wait until it crawls onto the screen.

JamesZeppelin

Yes I agree, Leader boards are essential thee days and what still separates GS games from the big boys.

However, I don't know if an 8.3 release announcement is the right place to get that across.

AND a second however, I would be willing to bet such a standard feature in games is not being overlooked by GS either. I'm sure just getting the actual engine to perfection takes priority over connecting to servers.

Personally i would like a near perfect creation experience first
crawl > walk > run > happy

ORBZ

Any plans for version binding so we don't have to worry about forward porting all our games forever?

Slowboy

@Patronus = Have you updated the GameSaladViewer to 0.8.3 on your phone yet?

Vmlweb

I have a rule if pressed set attribute to true otherwise set to false.
For some reason it's always false

Can anyone help me please?

CodeMonkey

@vmlweb is the attribute always false even when you press the actor? I can not duplicate it. It will hit the Otherwise once you no longer press the actor.

Patronus

@Slowboy, I could never get GS Viewer working on my iPhone so I have never used it. Well, it works but it doesn't communicate with my Mac, so I have done all my development thus far without it.

Vmlweb

@codemonkey
It's always false even if I press it.
The room isn't freezing either because other buttons are working.

rebump

So far so good for me with 0.8.3.

Actually, other than the resized screen upon preview exit issue (which is fixed in 0.8.3), the 0.8.* series has caused me no additional issues other than losing a working "preserve scene" which was working for me fine in 0.7.0. The few issues I am having (to work around) were there with 0.7.0 I believe.

Keep up the great work!

firemaplegames

hmmm. my particles work fine in GS Creator, they just appear different on the web viewer. sparser?

Not a biggie, I'll see if I can tweak it later on.