2017-03-15
This release is mainly a bugfix release, but also contains the following
changes and additions:
- fixed several bugs and problems with level template handling in the level editor
- fixed several problems with the undo/redo buttons under certain conditions
- fixed various other small and medium bugs (see commit history for details)
- improved menu screens navigation and level selection using the keyboard
- added option to use pre-defined level template for newly created levels
- added level template settings to editor/level configuration screen in editor
- added setup option to show/hide classic elements in the editor palette
- added setup option to enable/disable auto-incrementing solved levels
- added headless mode (no window) for automated tape tests using ‘autotest’
- improved progress and summary output for automatic tape replay / testing
The most relevant new feature in this release is probably the cleanup of the
handling of level templates in the level editor. Using templates for custom
elements is more robust now – accidentally overwriting hours of work in the
level editor should now be much less likely than it was before.
A small, but very useful new feature is the extension of using level templates
not only for custom elements, but for the whole level when creating new levels
in a level set, without having to manually copy around level files. Just
create and save a level as template, and it will be used as the default level
for all new (not yet created) levels in the set, making it very easy to re-use
basic level settings like level size or element properties (be it classic or
custom elements).
Last but not least, the new “headless” mode for automatic tape testing makes
testing all levels of a set against existing solution tapes not only a bit
faster by not using window and graphics, but also allows for scripting or
pure command line execution. The resulting missing progress information in
the game window was added as extended progress and summary information to the
console output when using automatic replay or testing of level solution tapes.
Important update for Windows users (2017-03-21):
The original 4.0.0.2 game packages were missing an image file (RocksCE.png),
so attempting to start the game resulted in an error. The Windows version
has been fixed and re-packaged, and is ready for re-download.
Now available for download!
2017-01-11
This release is a bugfix release which contains the following changes:
- fixed problems that complicated running the game on Mac OS X 10.12 “Sierra”
- fixed (previously blank) default custom element graphics for SDL2
- fixed configuration problems with missing game elements in level editor
- improved saving high score files for single/multi-user installations
- added support for SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH for distribution package maintainers
Now available for download!
2016-12-23
After three long years (and right in time for Christmas), there’s finally a new major release version of
Rocks’n’Diamonds available with a lot of new features and changes!
The most important improvement is support for SDL 2.0, which adds better
fullscreen support, window scaling and finally support for Android and iOS.
(SDL 1.2 is still supported, but does not contain these features, of course.)
Besides SDL 2.0 support, there are many other new features, especially a lot
of additional possibilities for creating custom artwork for new level sets and
games:
- different game window sizes
- different sizes and locations of playfield, game panel and tape area
- all image, sound and music formats supported by SDL_image and SDL_mixer
- larger tile sizes for game elements graphics, like 64x64
- custom default configuration settings to create your own games
- extended menu and toon animations with various new possibilities
Now available for download!
And not to forget: Merry Christmas to all fans of Rocks’n’Diamonds! :-)
2016-12-10
To make tracking bugs and feature requests easier, I’ve set up a bug tracker
to support myself with the development of Rocks’n’Diamonds.
Here it is: The Rocks’n’Diamonds Bug Tracker
It is not intended to replace, but to complement the existing
bug reports section in the
web forum, as the forum is probably still the easiest way for most people to
report and discuss issues with R’n’D. But over the years I realized that I
always lost track of bugs that were disappearing with uncertain status in the
long list of posts of the forum’s bug reports section.
As the bug tracker software (Bugzilla)
practically does not have any kind of countermeasures against spam bots
(probably due to its age – it’s nearly as old as R’n’D itself), I have
decided to create new accounts on demand and limit them to already existing
forum users, so please just ask by forum mail if you’re interested.
Occasional bug reporters are still encouraged to continue using the forum’s
bug reports section for reporting bugs in R’n’D, and I will create a
corresponding bug report entry for it in the bug tracker, if needed.
2016-12-09
To make it easier to browse the R’n’D news posts of the last 18 years,
there is now a news archive page
available which contains links to all posts on one page for quick access.
You can always find it at the bottom of each news page.