Wesnoth 1.9.1

[ivanovic]

This is the second release of the 1.9.x development branch. As with normal development releases, it may include many more bugs than stable releases from the 1.8.x series — additionally, 1.8 content is not compatible with 1.9.x due to the many changes in the game engine and WML syntax between both branches. Don't be disappointed if the game crashes every now and then — "normal" players (those who want a stable gaming experience) should not use this release, and stick to the stable branch instead.. However, if you want to test the future of Wesnoth and help us find bugs early, you are welcome to check out 1.9.1. We require your help for finding and fixing issues. If you find a bug, please do not assume that it is so obvious that we already know about it. Report it and make sure that we are aware of it.

The changes in this release cover many graphics updates (especially for terrains) as well as the usual bug fixes and translation updates. Beside this the WML engine was improved, CPU usage with animated terrains (especially the animated water) decreased, and many campaigns received significant updates.

There are already some known issues, but let me provide you with a list of great new things first. The known issues come afterwards...

Important changes and new features

[b]Legend of Wesmere Multiplayer Port[/b]

This campaign received large changes to work better as cooperative multiplayer campaign. It was split into several chapters and many scenarios were rewritten or changed. It is not final yet, but testing is always welcome. Please keep in mind that previous savegames will not work.

[b]Networking[/b]

The reported issues of 1.9.0 that were related to the new network layer are supposed to be fixed. It should now be possible to connect to the multiplayer server using the usual methods as well as uploading add-ons.

[b]New main menu[/b]

The main menu was completely redone. It does look slightly different and does most likely still have several bugs. Please report issues that you find. Possible suggestions for a better layout are welcome, too. The suggestion should work well for low resolutions (like 800x480) as well as larger sizes.

[b]Typography changes[/b]

Almost every text in Wesnoth was fixed to follow the new Typography Style Guide. It is meant to establish uniform typography all over Wesnoth. It is recommended for UMC authors to try to follow this style guide, too. Work done in the Writers forums that is intended for mainline *has* to follow this guide to ease our work when importing stuff. As a consequence of this change most translations are extremely incomplete at the moment, so don't be surprised if you find many English strings even though you play with a different language selected. If you find places where the new typography style guide is not followed, please do report them so that they can be fixed in the next version.

Of course there is also the full changelog listing (almost) all the changes since 1.9.0. A changelog for the most visible changes for users is the players changelog.

Known Issues (might be fixed in the next release(s))

• Connecting to the ingame add-on server requires you to click twice because by default the address field is empty. After clicking the first time it is filled and will work as you are used to. Uploading and downloading of add-ons should work nicely with this release.
• Animated terrains might cause a significant performance drop depending on your CPU as well as your screen size. It was significantly improved compared to 1.9.0, but does still have some impact. So if the game is too slow for you, try to deactivate the animated terrain. If you had deactivated terrain animations you might want to test them again to see if it is better for you. It is not sure if/when we will be able to fix this. A rewrite of the engine to support OpenGL might be required so that calculations can be done by the GPU instead of the CPU. Such a rewrite was not started yet and we do not know if or when this will happen at all!

Downloads

Source code:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/wesnoth ... 2/download (311.6 MB) md5sum
Here is the XDelta for the sources:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/wesnoth ... a/download (1.9.0 to 1.9.1, 19.8 MB)
Check http://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?t=7034 for information on using XDelta.

The Windows package is already available. You can find it on the download page.

The MacOSX package is already available. You can find it on the download page.

The OpenPandora package is already available. You can find it on the download page.

Many of the Linux packages have already been created, and all known packagers have been contacted. Information about where to get the respective binaries or how to get them to work can be found in the Linux binaries page in the wiki. Download links for other supported systems will be available at the downloads page once the packages are created and published.

As a fallback you can also get the sources from http://files.wesnoth.org/ — but you should first try to get files through SourceForge.net to help us save bandwidth. Please get the files from SourceForge.net if possible.

The multiplayer server for 1.9.1 is up and running. This server can be only be used to play with other 1.9.1 users. If you do encounter problems, please report them.

A new add-ons server for 1.9.x is already running. It was started during the development of 1.9.0. If you encounter any problems with content from the add-ons server not working as expected, please notify the content's author — most of them should be here in the Scenario & Campaign Development forum.

If you find any bugs don't hesitate to report them, but please read the instructions on how to post bugs first! Instructions for bug reporting can be found at ReportingBugs. Again, we require your help for finding and fixing issues, no matter how trivial or complicated they are!

Enjoy!

PS: Within the next seven days anyone asking when the binary for xyz will be ready will be banned and the post will be deleted. Such questions just distract the developers and packagers and don't do any good, so better not ask them...

Bug reports in the forums tend to get forgotten. You will get better results by following the guidelines and report them in the bugtracker.

[Nebiros]

The multiplayer server for 1.9.1 is up and running. This server can be only be used to play with other 1.9.0 users.

I'm guessing this is a typo and should say "other 1.9.1 users"?

[ivanovic]

The multiplayer server for 1.9.1 is up and running. This server can be only be used to play with other 1.9.0 users.

I'm guessing this is a typo and should say "other 1.9.1 users"?

Jepp. Fixed.

[Pentarctagon]

Just noticed this: when I move the mouse from wesnoth to the taskbar, the mouse will go underneath the taskbar until all of it is on the taskbar and off of wesnoth.

[Captain_Wrathbow]

*Casually clicks into Release Announcements forum for lack of anything better to do or read*
*Sees this topic*
*Face lights up enthusiastically*
*Checks home page*
*Starts downloading*

[beetlenaut]

Wow! Loading a campaign is at least as fast as it used to be now. That resolves my main complaint about 1.9.0. Also, the game runs fast enough that I can use animated maps again. One of my CPU's sticks at 100% usage, but I can live with that.

Why did everything on the title screen move to the edges? Unless something new is going to be in the middle, it doesn't make much sense: the really important part of that screen is tucked down in the corner now. As far as the tip of the day is concerned, the slight blurring of the background map that it used to have was important to make the text legible. Also, on a large screen the box is gigantic.

[Iris]

Why did everything on the title screen move to the edges?

Because a [dfn=Mordante/SkeletonCrew]certain developer[/dfn] replaced the old titlescreen code with brand new code and didn't consider restoring the old behavior as a priority for this release.

[Captain_Wrathbow]

ARCANE COW!
What did you guys do?!
With terrain-anims turned on, 1.9.0 was virtually unusable for me, but in 1.9.1, it runs so smoothly that I forgot that they were switched on!
And the load times (particularly campaign load times) are at least half as long. (for me, that is... maybe it's not quite as much an improvement for others)
I don't know what you devs did, but everything is so smooth and quick, it's unbelievable. I can't imagine it getting any better, but I bet I'll be amazed again with the next release.

[SkeletonCrew]

Why did everything on the title screen move to the edges?

Because a [dfn=Mordante/SkeletonCrew]certain developer[/dfn] replaced the old titlescreen code with brand new code and didn't consider restoring the old behavior as a priority for this release.

Wrong I considered the buttons staying in the middle silly, especially on large screens,
so now it stays on the edges.

[Killcycle]

ARCANE COW!
What did you guys do?!
With terrain-anims turned on, 1.9.0 was virtually unusable for me, but in 1.9.1, it runs so smoothly that I forgot that they were switched on!
And the load times (particularly campaign load times) are at least half as long. (for me, that is... maybe it's not quite as much an improvement for others)
I don't know what you devs did, but everything is so smooth and quick, it's unbelievable. I can't imagine it getting any better, but I bet I'll be amazed again with the next release.

Weird, 'cause loading campaigns and recalling units and stuff of that sort takes longer for me :S I'll agree that the animated map setting no longer has any effect now, though. Good job on that part! I'm not sure what could be the slow-down, 'cause it only seems to happen with things that access data; when recalling, recruiting, loading, saving, going through menus... it all seems clunky now :/ It might just be my system, but nothing's changed since I had 1.9.0 in there =P (and I actually still have it installed... when I load 1.9.0 up, it still seems to act normally... strange, this.) Would having only one client installed change anything? They have their own program files directory and data area, so I can't think of how it would. Still, I'm no techie.

[beetlenaut]

I considered the buttons staying in the middle silly, especially on large screens, so now it stays on the edges.

But now it looks mostly empty except for the largest element, which is the tip of the day. Also, when you start up a program, you expect to find buttons either at the top or, occasionally, in the middle. The bottom right corner is not even on the list. The old layout was much better. (I'm looking at a large screen too: 1920x1200.)

[Killcycle]

I considered the buttons staying in the middle silly, especially on large screens, so now it stays on the edges.

But now it looks mostly empty except for the largest element, which is the tip of the day. Also, when you start up a program, you expect to find buttons either at the top or, occasionally, in the middle. The bottom right corner is not even on the list. The old layout was much better. (I'm looking at a large screen too: 1920x1200.)

Empty? But it's not empty, there's a map there!

I think it looks overall better this way - the tip of the day is often short enough to be mostly transparent, and with the moved menus I can actually make out most of the map, beautiful as it is. The only peeve I have with it is that the menu bar on the right is farther from the edge than the tip of the day is from the left - but that's just a minor MINOR thing. With the older title screen, the map wasn't emphasized as much; now it is

[Captain_Wrathbow]

IMO, the map shouldn't be emphasized; it's the background!
And as beetlenaut said, on large screens, the tip-box looks awfully huge and disproportionate.

I know this isn't how it is, but I think that to a casual user downloading and playing for the first time, it could look like the devs were just too lazy to put the buttons and tip box in the right place, and instead just let them sit on the bottom and corner. In short, it looks quick and sloppy, rather than carefully planned, designed, and placed.

[silene]

to a casual user downloading and playing for the first time, it could look like the devs were just too lazy to put the buttons and tip box in the right place

Not just to casual users.

[Anonymissimus]

to a casual user downloading and playing for the first time, it could look like the devs were just too lazy to put the buttons and tip box in the right place

Not just to casual users.

This new titlescreen layout is disharmonic. Humans tend to place and enjoy distributing objects over areas in such a way that there is something everywhere in a uniform way. Not just humans actually, nature, the Golden Ratio comes to my mind. Many paintings use this to decide where to e.g. place some central person.