Defold 1.4.4 BETA

britzl · March 19, 2023, 8:23am

Defold 1.4.4

The latest beta is now released, and we invite those interested in beta testing the new features in the editor and engine to join now.

The beta period will be 2 weeks and the next planned stable release is two weeks from now.

Please report any engine issues in this thread or in issues using Help → Report Issue

Disclaimer

This is a BETA release, and it might have issues that could potentially be disruptive for you and your teams workflow. Use with caution. Use of source control for your projects is strongly recommended.

Access to the beta

Download the editor or bob.jar from Releases · defold/defold · GitHub

Set your build server to https://build-stage.defold.com

Release notes

Summary

BREAKING CHANGE: (#7431) Refactor textures as resource
NEW: (#7457) Show self values in debugger for *.render_script, *.script and *.gui_script
NEW: (#7413) Improved gamepad support for the Windows platform
NEW: (#6845) Paged texture atlas support
NEW: (#7378) Added frustum culling support for model component
NEW: (#7415) Added go.exists()
FIX: (#7437) Fix bug when some of embeded GOs maybe ignored by component counter
FIX: (#7429) Removed duplicate Size property on Gui Text objects
FIX: (#7353) Fixed index buffer lookup in headless graphics backend
FIX: (#7406) Use locale-insensitive conversion from lower to upper case in bob
FIX: (#7400) Show an error message when an added collection file is missing
FIX: (#7444) Updated sprite size property documentation
FIX: (#7395) Improve error message when Android build is too large
FIX: (#7401) URL decode Bob resource path before attempting file operations
FIX: (#7446) Bugfix for using basis transcoding since paged atlas feature
FIX: (#7430) Produce uv bounds for dynamic atlases
FIX: (#7410) Some font glyphs are not rendering correctly
FIX: (#7388) Identical names require the same values in templates
FIX: (#7419) Set resource name based on filename
FIX: (#7435) Add support for external buffers from the .gltf/.glb formats
FIX: (#7396) Validate Android package name and iOS bundle identifier
FIX: (#7451) Update JavaFX (Fix issue with freezes when using AMD GPUs on Linux system)

Engine

BREAKING CHANGE: (#7431) Refactor textures as resource
As a first step in representing textures as actual handles that can be passed around between the render scripts and the rest of the engine, we need to separate between the actual texture handles and the resources that hold them. A HTexture is currently a pointer to the asset created by the graphics adapter which is then stored in the resource system. Instead, a wrapper around the graphics handle is stored, which means that we can change the way we represent the handle.

Technical note: This is a breaking change in the public dmSDK part of the engine. Several resources now store TextureResource pointers instead of the HTexture objects, and any native extension that use these APIs will have to update their code to make sure the types are correct.

NEW: (#7457) Show self values in debugger for *.render_script, *.script and *.gui_script
Show values from self table in debuggerfor *.render_script, *.script and *.gui_script .

NEW: (#7413) Improved gamepad support for the Windows platform
Added support for various controllers on the Windows platform by implementing a Direct Input layer that can support a wider range of devices natively. This means that you no longer need to use a translation layer between XInput and Direct Input via external tools such as DS4Windows to be able to use gamepads with Defold.

NEW: (#6845) Paged texture atlas support
Added support for generating atlases with multiple pages of texture data. Enable this feature by setting the max page size value in the atlas files to non-zero. To use the paged atlas in the materials, the material shaders require a “sampler2DArray” uniform in order to sample from the texture.

NEW: (#7378) Added frustum culling support for model component

NEW: (#7415) Added go.exists()
Added a go.exists() function to check if a game object exists. Usage:

if go.exists("/my_game_object") then
    print("The game object exists!")
end

FIX: (#7437) Fix bug when some of embeded GOs maybe ignored by component counter
In a case when embedded GOs in a few different collections are the same, component counter didn’t count the second and the following GOs.

FIX: (#7429) Removed duplicate Size property on Gui Text objects
Gui Text nodes no longer show two Size properties.

FIX: (#7353) Fixed index buffer lookup in headless graphics backend
This fixes a buffer overrun issue when using index buffers with the headless graphics backend.

FIX: (#7406) Use locale-insensitive conversion from lower to upper case in bob
This fixes an issue when using the bob command line tool to bundle a Defold project on an operating system with a locale which is does not have a standard lower to upper case mapping, such as Turkish (where a lower case i becomes İ, ie a capital I with a dot).

FIX: (#7400) Show an error message when an added collection file is missing
Show a better error message when a collection file which has been added to a collection does not exist. Previously a NullPointerException error was shown with no reference to the missing file.

FIX: (#7444) Updated sprite size property documentation
The sprite size property was marked as read-only even though it is possible to change the size of a sprite if the size-mode is set to manual.

FIX: (#7395) Improve error message when Android build is too large
It is not possible to create an APK larger than 2Gb using the Android bundletool, but the error message when bundling a very large APK using the command line tools or editor is not very informative. This fix detects the case when the APK is too large and outputs additional information in the error message.

FIX: (#7401) URL decode Bob resource path before attempting file operations
Bob now URL decodes the file:// URL that references the Bob jar file before attempting file operations.

FIX: (#7446) Bugfix for using basis transcoding since paged atlas feature
Fixed an issue with using basis compression together with cubemap generation, where the output of the texture encoding produced an empty result. To fix this issue, we have separated the transcoding into two passes - a preprocessing pass for memory allocation of the result, and one to do the actual transcoding.

FIX: (#7430) Produce uv bounds for dynamic atlases
Added support for using dynamic atlases in GUI.

FIX: (#7452 Updated build toolchain with XCode 14.2, macOS 13.1 and iOS 16.2
We’ve updated our toolchain to support latest XCode plus macOS and iOS sdks.

Editor

FIX: (#7410) Some font glyphs are not rendering correctly
Small glyphs, such as the dot (.) character, are not rendered correctly when the uncompressed size of the glyph is smaller than the compressed size. When this happens the first byte of the glyph is ignored and the glyph is rendered skewed or shifted one pixel in the font texture.

FIX: (#7388) Identical names require the same values in templates
User-facing changes: when multiple templates used in the same GUI define resources with clashing names, we now require them to refer to the same values. For instance, suppose a GUI file named A.gui contains two templates: B.gui and C.gui. If both templates define a font named “main_font” and the actual fonts used in each template are not the same, A.gui will not know which one to use and will randomly choose one. To prevent this issue, we will now display a build error when such clashes occur.

FIX: (#7419) Set resource name based on filename
A common source of problems when working with collection proxies is the fact that all collections are given the name “default”, and if you are not careful and remember to change this name you will run into issues such as The collection ‘default’ could not be created since there is already a socket with the same name.. This change will give a created Collection, Material, or Model resources the same name as the filename.

FIX: (#7435) Add support for external buffers from the .gltf/.glb formats

FIX: (#7396) Validate Android package name and iOS bundle identifier
An Android package name and Apple bundle identifier follows strict rules, but there are no checks in place to verify that the package name and bundle identifiers in game.project actually follow the rules. This fix adds a check when bundling for Android, iOS and macOS that these values follow their respective formats.

Android: Must consist of two or more segments separated by a dot. Each segment must start with a letter. Each segment must only consist of alphanumeric letters or the underscore character.

iOS and macOS: Must consist of two or more segments separated by a dot. Each segment must start with a letter. Each segment must only consist of alphanumeric letters, the underscore or hypen (-) character.

FIX: (#7451) Update JavaFX (Fix issue with freezes when using AMD GPUs on Linux system)
JavaFX updates to the latest at the moment 19.0.2.1 version. It will help with stability and performance, especially on Linux.

Mathias_Westerdahl · March 13, 2023, 1:41pm

I’ve made a new release for Spine here, that is compatible with Defold 1.4.4:

Alex_8BitSkull · March 13, 2023, 2:49pm

Super hyped to try out the gamepad stuff, well done @jhonny.goransson !

AarrrBee · March 13, 2023, 3:03pm

There’s something different in how our Spine anims appear in GUI scenes. We render these by attaching textured GUI nodes to the Spine hierarchy.

Everything else looks fine, including:

Rendering using the equivalent method in non-GUI collections
Spine rendering in GUI scenes that doesn’t use this technique

Unfortunately I don’t have time to put a repro together as we’re preparing for being away at GDC.

1.4.3 / extension-spine 2.7.1:

1.4.4 beta / extension-spine 2.8.0:

Mathias_Westerdahl · March 13, 2023, 3:11pm

I think the issue is showing in the 1.4.3 / extension-spine 2.7.1: version as well.
Look at the mouth for instance, it shows some clipping.

However, the issue is worse now in this release.
I’d guess that something with the extrude borders might have changed.
Perhaps @jhonny.goransson has an idea.

AGulev · March 14, 2023, 7:48am

Please, make a small repo when you have time, without a repo case it’s a bit hard to localize and fix the bug.

Haath · March 14, 2023, 7:48am

Christmas came early this year

jhonny.goransson · March 14, 2023, 9:27am

Just as a FYI, there’s two issues I’m currently looking into for this beta:

the input layer is tanking performance on windows currently due to the gamepad changes
something has happened with the atlases (re the spine screenshot posted earlier)

So if you encounter these, know that they will be fixed.

AarrrBee · March 14, 2023, 10:21am

Bug: msg.post("@system:", “reboot”) crashes on mac OS (the only platform I have access to today)

Mathias_Westerdahl · March 14, 2023, 10:47am

Any callstack or messages in the console?

AarrrBee · March 14, 2023, 2:09pm

    Assertion failed: (g_HidContext == 0), function Init, file hid_native.cpp, line 172.
    # 0 pc     0x370414 dmengine _ZN7dmCrashL7HandlerEiP9__siginfoPv+36
    # 1 pc     0x2c8c1d libxpc.dylib _sigtramp+29
    # 2 pc     0x26630f libxpc.dylib __pthread_kill+11
    # 3 pc     0x29df7b libxpc.dylib pthread_kill+263
    # 4 pc     0x1e7ca5 libxpc.dylib abort+123
    # 5 pc     0x1e6fbe libxpc.dylib err+0
    # 6 pc     0x4726c3 dmengine _ZN5dmHID4InitEPNS_7ContextE.cold.4+35
    # 7 pc     0x2fc3d4 dmengine _ZN5dmHID4InitEPNS_7ContextE+580
    # 8 pc      0xfc57f dmengine _ZN8dmEngine4InitEPNS_6EngineEiPPc+4895
    # 9 pc      0xfe6ba dmengine _Z14dmEngineCreateiPPc+170
    #10 pc      0xff24f dmengine _ZN8dmEngine7RunLoopEPKNS_13RunLoopParamsE+95
    #11 pc      0xff1c2 dmengine _Z11engine_mainiPPc+98

jhonny.goransson · March 14, 2023, 1:49pm

Thanks, fixed the issue. Will update here when there’s a new update available!

jhonny.goransson · March 14, 2023, 6:27pm

There should be a new beta available now, please test again if you have the opportunity!

AarrrBee · March 15, 2023, 10:37am

Thanks, both of the bugs I reported above appear fixed.

I found a new issue while trying #7457 (showing self in the debugger) and by the way thank you for this enhancement as it will be very useful.

It can be reproduced in the side scroller tutorial:

Add a simple init function to star.script

function init(self)
	print("init")
end

Choose Debug ->Start/Attach to build with the debugger attached
Set a breakpoint in the init function.

Result: the game freezes and the following is output to the console:

DEBUG:SCRIPT: Debugger: builtins/scripts/edn.lua:200: bad argument #1 to 'pairs' (table expected, got userdata)
DEBUG:SCRIPT: stack traceback:
	builtins/scripts/edn.lua:231: in function <builtins/scripts/edn.lua:230>
	[C]: in function 'pairs'
	builtins/scripts/edn.lua:200: in function 'collect_refs'
	builtins/scripts/edn.lua:188: in function 'collect_refs'
	builtins/scripts/edn.lua:213: in function <builtins/scripts/edn.lua:210>
	[C]: in function 'xpcall'
	builtins/scripts/edn.lua:226: in function <builtins/scripts/edn.lua:223>
	[C]: in function 'pcall'
	builtins/scripts/mobdebug.lua:1045: in function <builtins/scripts/mobdebug.lua:797>

AGulev · March 15, 2023, 10:51am

Thx, I’ll take a look

AGulev · March 15, 2023, 11:28am

I can’t repo it on my machine, could you give me more info:

your OS;
did you do any other changes in the project? if so, could you share the project with me?

AarrrBee · March 15, 2023, 12:00pm

I’ve seen it in Windows and Mac but I just attempted it again and it is a little timing dependent. If it doesn’t crash the first time the breakpoint is triggered, hit F5 and it will probably happen the second time.

AGulev · March 15, 2023, 3:49pm

Thank you very much for your active testing of this beta.
Debugger issue has fixed and will be available in an hour or so.

AarrrBee · March 15, 2023, 5:15pm

Yes is fixed, and thanks for supporting gui scripts now.

britzl · March 15, 2023, 8:48pm

I very much agree with this. It is much appreciated! Thanks @AarrrBee !