[Ohrrpgce] Almost time for etheldreme stable release!

Mon Nov 20 21:07:54 PST 2017

On Monday, November 20, 2017, Ralph Versteegen <teeemcee at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> On 12 November 2017 at 14:53, Ralph Versteegen <teeemcee at gmail.com
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','teeemcee at gmail.com');>> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On 12 November 2017 at 14:28, James Paige <Bob at hamsterrepublic.com
>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','Bob at hamsterrepublic.com');>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Nov 10, 2017 at 6:20 PM, Ralph Versteegen <teeemcee at gmail.com
>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','teeemcee at gmail.com');>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Ah, I see I was mistakenly counting the 3 months from Dwimmercrafty+1
>>>> rather than Dwimmercrafty!
>>>>
>>>> What counts as something that "can't wait" for F? Only things to fix
>>>> bugs or backcompat problems? Or does it include changes that other work
>>>> depends on, and would result in too much being done in a branch?
>>>>
>>>
>>> I would say any of the above. Basically is there anything you think is
>>> better to merge now rather than to wait to merge until after etheldreme?
>>>
>>
>> Feature-wise, anything that will make a major difference to users. But I
>> don't have anything like that not already mentioned.
>>
>>
>>>>
>>>> For how long before a release do we want to avoid major changes?
>>>> Sitting around in nightlies is no substitute for testing with release
>>>> candidates. People only download new nightlies rarely. I'd say how long to
>>>> wait depends on how significant the change is rather than a hard cut-off.
>>>> Also, we can keep things out of the release either by not checking them
>>>> into wip (eg by using git branches) or by branching etheldreme early in
>>>> svn. I think it's easier not to branch stable releases long ahead.
>>>>
>>>
>>> How about if we aim for a RC around the 18th and a release around the
>>> 25th if all goes well?
>>>
>>> I know that is a short RC testing range, but I don't think a longer
>>> range will actually result in a lot more testing
>>>
>>
>> Sounds fine. I think a week is the right length of time.
>>
>>>
>>> I also agree that it is better not to branch the stable release long
>>> ahead. I think I didn't branch the dwimmercrafty release until the day of
>>> the release, and that worked fine for me.
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> I keep jumping between working on so many different things that I can't
>>>> decide what to do next.
>>>>
>>>> The biggest things I had been planning to work on in the next weeks was
>>>> changing the graphics file format, replacing the spriteset browser, and to
>>>> convert battles to slices.
>>>> That would allow raising the sprite size limits, and possibly the
>>>> 16-color limit (with additional work in the sprite editor) without
>>>> depending on the new animation system.
>>>> However it looks like I'll have little time to work on the OHR for the
>>>> next 10 days anyway, so it's all moot.
>>>>
>>>
>>> That sounds like a lot of work for just 10 days, even if you had nothing
>>> else to do in the world! :)
>>>
>> Converting battles to slices will probably hit into some painful edge
>> cases in the animation system, but is largely about replacing Frame with
>> Slice, not new features.
>> I don't think a new spriteset browser is going to be that big a project,
>> since it doesn't do terribly much (until animations are added.).
>> The new rgfx file format isn't finalised, but I've pretty much decided
>> which changes I'm going to make to it. Saving, loading and upgrading to
>> rgfx is largely implemented.
>>
>> Anyway, once I have a free week and pull myself away from other OHR
>> distractions, I'm going to spend a week just on animations. I think that's
>> enough time to get them in place :)
>>
>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> More realistically, I've been doing lots of work on slices recently,
>>>> most of which isn't exposed yet. I'll think about whether it's ready to
>>>> expose.
>>>> And I wanted to work on equip slots.
>>>>
>>>> A general summary of stuff I'm actively working on but haven't merged
>>>> yet:
>>>> -line slices
>>>> -template slices (hidden slices which are ignored for all purposes)
>>>> -refactoring embed_text_codes, so that you can use embed codes in text
>>>> slices
>>>> -map editor improvements
>>>>
>>>> And some stale stuff that's close to mergeable:
>>>> -nicer looking minimaps either using scale_surface (which require 32
>>>> bit color) or an alternative (which doesn't)
>>>> -joystick rewrite, to fix our utterly broken joystick handling (so
>>>> little risk of breaking anything by merging it)
>>>> -a color replacement tool for backdrops, which REPLACES the 'disable
>>>> palette colors for import' menu.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Those last two especially sound like great things to sneak in before
>>> etheldreme. :)
>>>
>>
>> I was a little be worried about removing the 'disable colors' menu (I
>> modified it into the remap tool). I was thinking that a color remapper
>> (which is just a 'replace color' tool with undo) can't do everything color
>> disabling does. If two colors in the original get mapped to black, then the
>> remapper can't separate them again. But if you disabled black, they might
>> get mapped to dark blue and dark red. Which is a crappy solution too!
>> And this is only a problem for 32 bit bmps; 8 bit bmps are fine, because
>> you can remap colors during import, before the information gets lost.
>> And it would be possible to improve the remapper for 32 bit import too,
>> by first converting them to 8-bit with an optimal palette.
>> So I'll merge it.
>>
>>
>>>
>>>> BTW, don't forget to update this out-of-date whatsnew line:
>>>>     * You can now browse for items rather than typing in their ID
>>>>       numbers [James]
>>>>
>>>
>>> I'm not sure what I need to change there... Maybe I phrased it badly?
>>>
>>
>> It's out of date because it only mentions items, but you can browse for
>> other stuff too.
>>
>
> Despite being a RC, we still didn't update whatsnew for that or the
> highlights.
>
> The amount of unmerged stuff I have is only increasing!
> Although I finished Line slices (after finally deciding that they should
> draw from x,y to x+w,y+h, not to x+w-1,y+h-1, and that using negative width
> and height is most natural, both of those things are necessary for lines
> properly connecting together when you parent one to another), I didn't
> merge them because I hadn't written the script commands... hmm, should do
> so anyway, and the commands are pretty easy to add anyway
>
> The other thing was that I meant to expose the option to change the game
> resolution. Even though it's a RC, exposing it doesn't actually change
> anything, and it's been in testing for years. I'm sick of telling people
> that the option is still hidden.
>
>
I would say go ahead and sneak that change in. After all, RC is just state
of mind :)

Hopefully i'll have time to fix up the whatsnew.txt tomorrow

>
>>
>>>
>>> ----
>>> James
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 11 November 2017 at 12:43, James Paige <Bob at hamsterrepublic.com
>>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','Bob at hamsterrepublic.com');>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> It is almost time for the Etheldreme stable release!
>>>>>
>>>>> If possible, I hope to release it by the end of this month (Last week
>>>>> of November, ideally)
>>>>>
>>>>> My general impression of the current nightly wip builds is that they
>>>>> are pretty stable, not to crashy, and have a respectable amount of nifty
>>>>> new stuff.
>>>>>
>>>>> I don't have any pending critical stuff that I need to finish. TMC, do
>>>>> you have anything that needs to be checked in that can't wait for the f*
>>>>> release?
>>>>>
>>>>> The only halfway ambitious thing I might attempt before then (only if
>>>>> I have time) would be to try and do a little more work on ThingBrowser to
>>>>> enable editing while browsing (which currently only makes sense for
>>>>> ItemBrowser, but will be important for AttackBrowser, HeroBrowser,
>>>>> EnemyBrowser, etc...)
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> ---
>>>>> James
>>>>>
>>>>>
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>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
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