Beta versions are not as thoroughly tested as stable
PWA installs; WebGPU updates; several additions; loads of bug fixes
20 February, 2024 ()
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Notes
It's the start of a new release cycle and we have a huge update for you this week! It's hard to summarise all the changes (see the full list below), but a key highlight is you can now use Progressive web app (PWA) installation with the Browser object. While all web exports from Construct are already PWAs, this allows you to use the same 'Install as app' feature that Construct itself provides, prompting the user to create an icon on their desktop/home screen. It's currently only supported in Chrome and Edge. There's also a new ability to add screenshots in the Project Bar, which is intended for PWA installation: if you add at least one screenshot in both the wide and narrow form factors, you'll get the richer install UI for your PWA.
We've also done a lot of work on the WebGPU renderer. By now we think it is close to complete in terms of having similar features and reliability to WebGL, and soon we may start enabling it by default. While we were working in the rendering engine, we also added a new option for effects to opt-in to direct rendering with 3D objects, which potentially provides new capabilities for 3D shaders. The GPU profiler in the debugger now also includes both the self and total time for layers, which is useful when using sub-layers.
There's loads more, including new additions based on feature requests in all sorts of places, including Find All References, the Timer behavior, and the Touch plugin. We've also added autocomplete for animation frame tags to help make it easier to type them in event sheets. There's an absolute boatload of bug fixes and other changes and improvements, notably including that worker mode is now disabled by default again in Safari due to Safari bugs that cause problems with it. Happy testing!
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Launch r380
New Features
Browser object: Progressive Web App (PWA) installation
New Additions
New examples 'Chess board designer', 'Classic raycaster', 'Family tree'
Project Bar: 'Screenshot' image purpose under 'Icons & screenshots'
Context menu option for Tilemap instances to open Tilemap bar
Find All References: 'Show ambiguous' setting
Timer behavior: 'Pause/resume all timers' action
Touch: start/end parameter for 'On touched object'
ShadowLight: 'Set light position' action
Sprite: allow passing tag to 'Set repeat-to frame'
Add autocomplete for animation frame tags in relevant Sprite conditions/actions
WebGPU: support for GPU profiling
Debugger: add 'Self time' column to GPU profiler
Changes
Enable WebGPU for Android exports
Android exports: remove 'External storage write' permission, as it is no longer used on Android 11+
SpriteFont: default invalid colors to white
Windows WebView2: update WebView2 SDK to v1.0.2277.86
Disable worker mode in Safari due to Safari bugs
Bug Fixes
Project Bar: possible crash if copying too much data to clipboard
Project Bar: fix a link to the flowcharts section of the manual
Import audio: could not import tagged FLAC files
Properties Bar: did not always correctly apply min/max values
Properties Bar: incorrect initial animation could be shown while editing timelines
Data editor: pasting content from Microsoft Excel produced unwanted results
Text editor: possible crash closing a text file after making changes
Flowcharts: delete options not working as expected in some situations
Timeline bar: give same feedback as Project Bar when opening/closing folders
Timeline bar: ensure adding behaviour/effect properties generates unique subfolder names
Timelines: possible crash pasting timelines
Timelines: Z elevation not previewed correctly in the editor
Hierarchies: parents with a size of 0 where not producing useful results
Hierarchies: arrows sometimes not drawn correctly with global layers
Hierarchies: some hierarchies not restored properly from JSON
Tweens: tween state not restored properly when using 'Set from JSON string'
Tweens: runtime crash restoring value tweens from JSON
Tweens: looping sale tweens producing unexpected results
Tweens & Hierarchies: size/opacity tweens modifying hierarchy instances not restored properly from JSON
Tweens & Hierarchies: angle tweens not producing expected results when modified by mirrored/flipped parent
Tweens & Timelines: loop and ping-pong accumulating error over time
Particles: sometimes not restored properly when loading JSON
Drawing Canvas: possible jittery rendering when viewed in 3D
Improve precision of log10 expression
Background-blending effects did not always render correctly on rotated layer/layout
Mesh distortion with effect did not always render consistently between editor/runtime
'Polka dot' effect dot size could change depending on spritesheet size
WebGPU: possible error rendering effects with some objects
WebGPU: possible incorrect rendering of Particles in some specific circumstances
WebGPU: Lens2 and bumpmapping effects not rendering equivalently to WebGL
WebGPU: ensure swirl effect rotates clockwise
WebGPU: ensure proper handling of device loss
Performance Improvements
Optimize rendering of 3D objects with certain kinds of effects
SDK updates
Effects can now specify "supports-3d-direct-rendering" to skip pre-draw with 3D objects
WebGPU: define f16or32 type for shaders (which is f16 when supported)
Scripting updates
Add IShadowLightInstance.lightX/Y
Add ITimerBehaviorInstance.setAllTimersPaused()
TypeScript: fix type definition of IWorldInstance.effects
Add I3DCameraObjectType.rotateCamera()
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