Defold 1.9.8 BETA
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 GitHub: Release v1.9.8 - beta · defold/defold · GitHub
Defold 1.9.8
Among a long list of improvements, we’ve now also added a documentation page for our newly added sound streaming support: Read the manual here: Sound Streaming in Defold
Summary
- NEW: (#10087) Add physics event checkbox to collison component (by JCash)
- NEW: (#10127) Remove unused
luajit-32andluac-32executable from bundler (by AGulev) - NEW: (#10190) Add support for Android devices with 16 KB memory page sizes (by AGulev)
- NEW: (#9971) Prefer 48khz audio devices, and fallback to 44.1khz (by JCash)
- NEW: (#10230) Add
httpmodule to editor scripts (by vlaaad) - NEW: (#10045) Add confirmation dialog for Rebuild options (by AGulev)
- NEW: (#10055) Enable wheel zoom and add related keyboard shortcuts in code view (by sprocketc)
- NEW: (#10073) Allow editing markdown files (by sprocketc)
- NEW: (#10096) Allow editing html files (by sprocketc)
- NEW: (#10099) Disable change tracking for initial project load transactions (by matgis)
- NEW: (#10098) Default to
$XDG_STATE_HOME/Defoldinstead of$HOME/.Defoldfor Linux logs (by menaechmi) - NEW: (#10032) Introduce pivot point controller in atlas view (by sprocketc)
- NEW: (#10141) Added arm64-linux to LinuxBundler (by JCash)
- NEW: (#10173) Add
pprintto editor scripts (by vlaaad) - NEW: (#10133) Introduce visibility toggle on the outline panel (by sprocketc)
- NEW: (#10218) Add a new preference to prevent the browser from opening after
Build HTML5(by AGulev) - FIX: (#10097) Combined shader resource (by Jhonnyg)
- FIX: (#10046) Throw a Lua error if
nilpassed intogo.exists()function (by AGulev) - FIX: (#10100) Directx12 initial work (by Jhonnyg)
- FIX: (#10109) Migrate builtin shaders to the new shader pipeline (by Jhonnyg)
- FIX: (#10229) Remap linux gamepad inputs according to old glfw (by Jhonnyg)
- FIX: (#10187) Moved http script module to an extension (by JCash)
- FIX: (#10189) Added http cache support for partial requests in http.request() (by JCash)
- FIX: (#10198) Fixed an issue where the
sys.open_url()function did not work (by AGulev) - FIX: (#10210) Added range information to http.request callback (by JCash)
- FIX: (#10224) Use shader version 330 as default for desktop platforms (by Jhonnyg)
- FIX: (#10052) Bundling from the editor no longer invalidates build information (by AGulev)
- FIX: (#10089) Add alternative completions shortcut on macOS (by vlaaad)
- FIX: (#10108) Activate tabs on right click (by sprocketc)
- FIX: (#10112) Fix arrow key movement of GUI elements on non default layouts (by sprocketc)
- FIX: (#10136) Fix debugger on mobile devices (by AGulev)
- FIX: (#10149) Fix exception when pasting named resources inside Gui scenes (by matgis)
- FIX: (#10183) Visibility fixes and enhancements (by sprocketc)
- FIX: (#10200) Zoom at pointer position on mouse wheel (by sprocketc)
- FIX: (#10170) Add context menu to scene view (by sprocketc)
- FIX: (#10150) Minor toolbar enhancements (by sprocketc)
- FIX: (#10216) Fixed an issue where texture compression checkbox was not taken into account when using
Build HTML5from the editor (by AGulev) - FIX: (#10207) Add 2d mode toolbar button (by sprocketc)
Engine
NEW: (#10087) ‘Add physics event checkbox to collison component’ by JCash
The collision component now has 3 checkboxes, allowing you to disable the object generating redundant events.
When two collision objects interact, we check if we should send a message to the user, given these checkboxes.
This helps to greatly reduce number of physics events passed to from the engine to the Lua scripting.
E.g. given the “Generate Contact Events” checkboxes:
When using physics.set_listener():
| Component A | Component B | Send Message |
|---|---|---|
 ︎ |
︎ |
Yes |
 |
︎ |
Yes |
| ︎ |
|
Yes |
|
|
No |
When using the default message handler:
| Component A | Component B | Send Message(s) |
|---|---|---|
| ︎ |
︎ |
Yes (A,B) + (B,A) |
|
︎ |
Yes (B,A) |
| ︎ |
|
Yes (A,B) |
|
|
No |
NEW: (#10127) ‘Remove unused luajit-32 and luac-32 executable from bundler’ by AGulev
NEW: (#10190) ‘Add support for Android devices with 16 KB memory page sizes’ by AGulev
Support for 16 KB memory pages will soon be a requirement for the Google Play Store.
The engine now includes an extra flag to ensure compatibility with 16 KB page sizes while remaining fully compatible with 4 KB page size Android devices.
More information is available here:
Support 16 KB page sizes
NEW: (#9971) ‘Prefer 48khz audio devices, and fallback to 44.1khz’ by JCash
We now use the preferred sample rate of the audio devices. It usually means getting 48khz. We also try to fallback to the old 44.1khz setup if the 48khz if not available.
Internally, we also adjust the number of sample frames we process for each audio frame.
if the audio device doesn’t recommend a setting, we will use these defaults:
- 48000hz → 1024 frames
- 44100hz → 768 frames
- -unknown- → we calculate a best guess (see dmSound::GetDefaultFrameCount() )
If the driver doesn’t recommend the frame count, you can set it using sound.sample_frame_count (default = 0)
FIX: (#10097) ‘Combined shader resource’ by Jhonnyg
Refactored shader resources used in engine:
There are no more vertex/fragment/compute resources. Instead there is just a single shader resource that contains shaders for all supported shader stages. This means that two materials that use the same set of vertex and fragment shaders will share the same shader program, instead of instantiating individual programs per material. This will reduce memory as well as open up for fixing multiple issues on non-opengl graphics adapters.
FIX: (#10046) ‘Throw a Lua error if nil passed into go.exists() function’ by AGulev
Passing nil to go.exists() results in a Lua error, as this aligns with expected behavior and helps catch logical issues in the code.
FIX: (#10100) ‘Directx12 initial work’ by Jhonnyg
This adds a work-in-progress implementation of a Directx12 graphics adapter that can be used for xbox.
FIX: (#10109) ‘Migrate builtin shaders to the new shader pipeline’ by Jhonnyg
The builtin shaders are now written in #version 140 glsl, which means that they will now be compiled to the target shader language with the new shader compile pipeline. To read more about the new pipeline and how to migrate existing shaders, head over to Shader programs in Defold
FIX: (#10229) ‘Remap linux gamepad inputs according to old glfw’ by Jhonnyg
Since the GLFW update to 3.4, gamepad mappings behaves differently on linux. This should now be fixed.
FIX: (#10187) ‘Moved http script module to an extension’ by JCash
This allows us to both exclude it via an app manifest but also allows it to use the extension system to access global contexts like the http cache. To remove the symbol, In the app manifest, add the ScriptHttp to the excluded symbols.
FIX: (#10189) ‘Added http cache support for partial requests in http.request()’ by JCash
This allows the user to do a partial http request, and also to have it cached on disc.
local headers = {}
headers['Range'] = string.format("bytes=%d-%d", 0, 16384-1)
http.request(url, "GET", http_result_fn, headers)
FIX: (#10198) ‘Fixed an issue where the sys.open_url() function did not work’ by AGulev
Fixed an issue on iOS where a deprecated function was used for URL opening, causing it to not work on iOS and iPadOS.
FIX: (#10210) ‘Added range information to http.request callback’ by JCash
We added the following variables for a http request callback:
range_start- Start byte offset into the filerange_end- End byte offset into the file (invlusive)document_size- The full size of the document (in bytes)
These are always available unless it’s a progress type callback.
local function http_result(self, _id, response)
if response.status == 200 or response.status == 206 or response.status == 304 then
print("start", response.range_start)
print("end", response.range_end)
print("file size", response.document_size)
...
FIX: (#10224) ‘Use shader version 330 as default for desktop platforms’ by Jhonnyg
Desktop platforms now crosscompile to GLSL version 330 instead of 140 for Linux and Windows when using the OpenGL backend. Since the OpenGL context is created with version 3.3 as the lowest supported version, this change should have no impact, except to fix a few issues on linux together with AMD GPUs.
Editor
NEW: (#10230) ‘Add http module to editor scripts’ by vlaaad
Editor scripts can now make HTTP requests using the http module, e.g.:
pprint(http.request("https://api.nasa.gov/planetary/apod?api_key=DEMO_KEY", {as = "json"}))
-- Output:
-- { --[[0x4de6c2e]]
-- status = 200,
-- headers = { --[[0xa1982c5]]
-- ["content-length"] = "1102",
-- age = "0",
-- vary = { --[[0xe26075e]]
-- "Accept-Encoding",
-- "Accept-Encoding"
-- },
-- ...
-- },
-- body = { --[[0x4b2488fe]]
-- media_type = "image",
-- title = "SpaceX Rocket Launch Plume over California",
-- copyright = "\nMartin LaMontagne\n",
-- date = "2025-02-17",
-- url = "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2502/FishPlume_LaMontagne_960.jpg",
-- hdurl = "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2502/FishPlume_LaMontagne_2272.jpg",
-- service_version = "v1",
-- explanation = "What's happened to the sky? Last Monday, the photogenic launch plume from a SpaceX rocket launch created quite a spectacle over parts of southern California and Arizona. Looking at times like a giant space fish, the impressive rocket launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc, California, was so bright because it was backlit by the setting Sun. The Falcon 9 rocket successfully delivered to low Earth orbit 23 Starlink communications satellites. The plume from the first stage is seen on the right, while the soaring upper stage rocket is seen at the apex of the plume toward the left. Venus appears at the top of the frame, while a bright streetlight shines on the far right. The featured image was captured toward the west after sunset from near Phoenix, Arizona."
-- }
-- }
NEW: (#10045) ‘Add confirmation dialog for Rebuild options’ by AGulev
A confirmation dialog has been added for the Rebuild options to prevent accidental rebuilds, which can take a lot of time in large projects.
NEW: (#10055) ‘Enable wheel zoom and add related keyboard shortcuts in code view’ by sprocketc
Some users experience keyboard-layout specific issues with zoom shortcuts in code view. This aims to make code zoom easier by enabling wheel zoom, and by adding the following defaults
Ctrl or Meta+Add→ zoom inCtrl or Meta+Subtract→ zoom outCtrl or Meta+0→ reset zoom
NEW: (#10073) ‘Allow editing markdown files’ by sprocketc
Allow editing markdown files on text view. The web view should be updated accordingly.
NEW: (#10096) ‘Allow editing html files’ by sprocketc
Allow editing html files. The web view should be updated accordingly.
NEW: (#10099) ‘Disable change tracking for initial project load transactions’ by matgis
Improved project load time and peak memory usage when loading large projects in the editor.
NEW: (#10098) ‘Default to $XDG_STATE_HOME/Defold instead of $HOME/.Defold for Linux logs’ by menaechmi
On Linux, the .Defold folder was hardcoded to the $HOME folder. It now follows the XDG spec and uses $XDG_STATE_HOME or $HOME/.local/state/Defold.
NEW: (#10032) ‘Introduce pivot point controller in atlas view’ by sprocketc
Introduced a pivot point controller in atlas view. Snapping while moving the pivot point is enabled on Shift down.
NEW: (#10141) ‘Added arm64-linux to LinuxBundler’ by JCash
You can now add arm64-linux as a platform to Bob.jar.
NEW: (#10173) ‘Add pprint to editor scripts’ by vlaaad
This changeset adds pprint editor script function:
local t = {1, 2, a = 3, b = 4}
t.self = t
pprint(t)
-- Output:
-- { -- [[0x7f8b1b0]]
-- 1,
-- 2,
-- a = 3,
-- b = 4,
-- self = <table: 0x7f8b1b0>
-- }
NEW: (#10133) ‘Introduce visibility toggle on the outline panel’ by sprocketc
Introduced a visibility toggle to the outline tree. The toggle will be visible on mouse over, or when the node is hidden.
NEW: (#10218) ‘Add a new preference to prevent the browser from opening after Build HTML5’ by AGulev
Some browsers always create a new tab when opening the same URL.
In such cases, it may be useful to rebuild the HTML5 build without reopening the browser and instead manually update the page.
This is now possible with a new checkbox in Preferences.
FIX: (#10052) ‘Bundling from the editor no longer invalidates build information’ by AGulev
Bundling from the editor no longer overrides the build folder, which means that the building process (Ctrl+B) after the bundling process will not take extra time.
FIX: (#10089) ‘Add alternative completions shortcut on macOS’ by vlaaad
This change adds an alternative completions shortcut on macOS: Alt+Space.
FIX: (#10108) ‘Activate tabs on right click’ by sprocketc
Activate tabs on right click, to fix the context of the displayed menu.
FIX: (#10112) ‘Fix arrow key movement of GUI elements on non default layouts’ by sprocketc
Moving gui elements using arrow keys on non default layouts now works as intended.
FIX: (#10136) ‘Fix debugger on mobile devices’ by AGulev
Fixed issues with debugger on mobile devices and contentless bundles.
FIX: (#10149) ‘Fix exception when pasting named resources inside Gui scenes’ by matgis
Fixed an issue where pasting a named resource inside a Gui scene would throw an exception.
FIX: (#10183) ‘Visibility fixes and enhancements’ by sprocketc
Hide children of invisible nodes without toggling their visibility state, fix hiding models and double clicking on the visibility toggle.
FIX: (#10200) ‘Zoom at pointer position on mouse wheel’ by sprocketc
When 2d-mode is enabled, zooming will now take the pointer position into account, so that the focus point remains the same on scroll. We can use the mouse position to target the point that we want to zoom into, and avoid panning as a separate navigation step. Holding ALT will activate the previous behavior. On 3d-mode the opposite is applied. We maintain a fixed camera target on mouse wheel (as we used to), and pan to the pointed position on ALT down.
FIX: (#10170) ‘Add context menu to scene view’ by sprocketc
Introduce a context menu to scene view.
FIX: (#10150) ‘Minor toolbar enhancements’ by sprocketc
Add tooltips to toolbar and separate tool activation buttons from the rest.
FIX: (#10216) ‘Fixed an issue where texture compression checkbox was not taken into account when using Build HTML5 from the editor’ by AGulev
FIX: (#10207) ‘Add 2d mode toolbar button’ by sprocketc
Introduced a 2d-mode button that toggles the state of the scene camera. realign-camera now also toggles this state, instead of just switching to 2d. The 3d camera is cached, so we can switch to the previous 3d view.
Do you have any information/plan if it will be also possible to use this context for Editor Scripts?
