Dittobyte/Recompia v0.9.1-beta.2

Pokopia Recomp 0.9.1-beta.2 (Testing)

on GitHub

Changes in this build

• #406 Changelog: gameplay extras are off by default in the Testing build
• #403 Story co-op: the host's story keeps going during a session (pokopia-native 1.4.0)
• #401 Link Play: pokopia-native's co-op module at 1.4.0 (port forwarding, room code out of the log)
• #402 NVN: loop guards for three compute shaders (pokopia-native 1.4.0)
• #400 Merge main into testing: gameplay mods on by default, shadow quality, pool import retry
• #399 Shadow quality: larger shadow maps, live, set by the quality presets
• #398 Pool imports: retry a failed import instead of giving up for the session (#304)
• #396 Park the Joy-Con 2 mouse mode for now
• #395 Merge main (new folder layout) into testing, carrying the off-by-default extras and the Testing tab
• #393 Gameplay mods: every one a launcher switch, on by default in every release build
• #391 Touch Menu button automatic again (handhelds keep a way into the menu)
• #392 Codebase refactor
• #390 Extras are off by default: mouse in menus, taller view, touch Menu button, shader note
• #389 Launcher: Testing tab (log export and viewer, experimental features)
• #387 Add SMAA anti-aliasing for the 3D scene

Update: press Update, then Set up again once (new game hooks for the crafting Search button and Story co-op; your saves and shaders are kept).

Testing build: the gameplay extras (Camera aim, Running jump, Sort, Search, Quit Game) are now off by default; players coming from 0.9.0 who never set them lose them until they switch them on in Settings. A value already in pkp.ini is kept.

The Testing tab

• Added a Testing tab to Settings, shown only on the Testing channel: send logs, read them, and switch the features still being tried on or off
  • Export and report makes one zip of pkp.log, pkp.log.prev, the crash files, setup.log and pkp.ini, opens its folder (testing-logs next to pkp.exe) and the bug report form. Drag the zip into the form: the launcher has no GitHub login, so nothing is uploaded for you
  • Names in paths, your account and server settings and IP addresses are removed before anything is written. Long logs keep their end, so the zip stays under GitHub's 25 MB limit
  • View logs shows the end of each file in the launcher, with a filter and a Copy button
  • Experimental features has Mouse in the game's menus and the Taller view on 16:10 screens, both off by default. The gameplay options (Camera aim, Running jump, Sort, Search, Quit Game) are off by default in this Testing build; switch them on here
• The touch screen Menu button is automatic: on when the machine has a touch screen, so a handheld keeps its way into the menu

Link Play

• Updated the co-op module to pokopia-native 1.4.0. It still plays with pokopia-native 1.3.0 to 1.4.0 and with earlier builds of this game: the way games talk to each other did not change
• Added automatic port forwarding when you host over the internet without a relay
  • Before: your router had to forward port 47600 (TCP and UDP) by hand
  • Now: while you host, the game asks your router to forward it (UPnP, NAT-PMP or PCP) and gives it back when you stop. Ask the router to open the port on the Link Play page's Host view ([net] port_forward) turns it off
  • Still not: a router with UPnP switched off, or an internet provider that shares one address among many homes, can't be helped by this; pkp.log says which, in a nat: line. A relay you run on this PC still needs its own port forwarded. Quitting the game while hosting leaves the forwarded port until its one-hour lease runs out
• pkp.log no longer contains your whole room code, only its first group, so a log is safe to attach to a bug report. The launcher still shows the whole code

Game

• NVIDIA graphics cards no longer risk a crash (device lost) in three of the game's compute shaders when a loop count is not the game's: the count is held to the size of the table the loop walks (on other cards, to 16384). From pokopia-native 1.4.0; [nvn] loop_guard = off turns it off
• Story co-op (experimental, [pkp] link_story_coop): the host's own story no longer stops while friends are visiting. Before, any Link Play session turned the host's story talks into "Bring here to say hi!" and paused its requests. From pokopia-native 1.4.0
• Joy-Con 2 mouse mode is switched off for now: it aimed at the wrong blocks on PC. The middle mouse button no longer turns it on and the Mouse Mode Key row is gone from Settings > Mouse. Camera aim is not affected

Launcher

• Backups, restore and downgrade now find the save folder the same way as Import and the game: when pkp.ini lists [fs] save_dir (or [account] uid) twice, the last one counts
• Added Add DLC (on the Setup page, or drop the file in the launcher): unpack the add-on of a DLC .nsp without building it by hand
  • Before: DLC had to be unpacked and put in aoc/<add-on id>/romfs/ yourself, and the game saw none until you did
  • Now: press Add DLC and pick the .nsp (for the Bubbly Basin key, Pokopia DLC [0400A3A01EE4D001].nsp). The launcher unpacks its RomFS into the folder [fs] aoc_dir names, or into aoc next to the game and sets aoc_dir itself when pkp.ini names none. The game lists the add-on at its next start
  • Still not: the .nsp must already be decrypted, like the game files (an encrypted one is refused in words); no check of the IVFC hashes
• Added arrow-key navigation to the launcher, for a handheld whose d-pad reaches it as keys
  • Before: Steam's default layout for a non-Steam shortcut sends the d-pad as arrow keys, and the launcher ignored them
  • Now: the arrow keys move between controls, Enter presses, Escape goes back (closes a question, or returns Home), the same as the pad
  • Text boxes, sliders and drop-downs keep the arrows they need
• Settings > Gameplay now lists every gameplay option, each off by default (Testing build; a value already in your pkp.ini is kept)
  • Before: only Camera aim and Running jump were there; the Sort button, crafting Search and Quit Game could only be switched off in pkp.ini
  • Now: one switch each for Running jump, Camera aim, Sort button (plus Sort each time the bag opens, off by default), crafting Search and Quit Game on the title screen. A gameplay option added later shows up here by itself
• Set up again after an update that changes only the runtime now just relinks the game (seconds instead of translating and compiling it again); it keeps the compiled game libraries (a few hundred MB) in build/lib

Game

• Added a Search button to the crafting menu (#324)
  • Before: finding a recipe meant scrolling through the tabs
  • Now: press Y (keyboard F) or click Search in the button bar. The same keyboard as name entry opens (works with a controller: d-pad or stick to pick keys, A to type, + for OK), type part of an item name and the list shows only the recipes whose item name contains it, in your game language. Upper and lower case don't matter
  • The search stays on when you change tabs or use the game's Sort, and the button shows the word (for example "Search: log"). Cancel on the keyboard shows every recipe again; closing the crafting screen (or crafting something) clears the search
  • Off by default: switch it on in Settings > Game > Gameplay (or Settings > Testing), or [pkp] craft_search = 1 in pkp.ini
  • Still not: no search during Link Play, and only the item name is searched (not materials or descriptions)

Gameplay

• Fixed camera aim staying off after you used the Joy-Con 2 mouse mode once (#367)
  • Before: turning mouse mode off left the game stuck half in it, so camera aim never came back until a restart
  • Now: pressing the mouse mode key again fully leaves mouse mode and camera aim works again right away
• Fixed the Joy-Con 2 mouse mode hitting the wrong block (#367)
  • Before: clicking broke or placed a block off to the side of the one under the pointer
  • Now: your character turns to the block under the pointer before swinging, so the click lands on it

Graphics

• Added Anti-aliasing (SMAA) for the 3D scene: the game's Settings > Performance > Anti-Aliasing, or Settings (F1) > Display > Upscaling > Anti-aliasing

  • Before: the game had no anti-aliasing here, so edges looked jagged
  • Now: pick SMAA Low, Medium, High or Ultra and press Apply and save (no restart). Only the 3D scene is filtered; the menus and HUD stay sharp. Default (none) is as before. Also [upscale] aa = off | smaa_low | smaa_medium | smaa_high | smaa_ultra
  • Still not: not hardware multisampling (MSAA); not applied together with a Scene Resolution below 100% and an upscaler

• Fixed the Nearest upscaler with Scene Resolution (#232)

  • Before: Nearest gave sharp pixels only with Resolution; with Scene Resolution the 3D scene was still stretched smooth and blurry
  • Now: with Scene Resolution below 100% the 3D scene is enlarged with hard pixels too, and the menus and HUD stay at full size
  • Still not: bloom and other soft glow effects stay smooth on purpose

• Fixed new Pokémon and areas staying invisible until a restart (#304)

  • Before: when the graphics driver briefly refused to map more game memory (importing pool ... failed (-2) in pkp.log), every model whose data lay in that part of memory stayed invisible for the rest of the session
  • Now: that memory is tried again a moment later (after half a second, then up to every few seconds), and imports nothing has used for a while are released first to make room, so the models appear once the driver has room again. pkp.log says when a retry worked

• Added Shadow quality: sharper shadows (Settings (F1) > Graphics > Shadow quality, right under Texture anisotropy, or the game's Settings > Shadow Quality)

  • Before: shadows were drawn from a 2048 x 2048 map, so their edges looked blocky up close
  • Now: pick High (2x), Very High (3x), Ultra (4x) or Extreme (8x) to make the shadow maps that many times larger per side. It applies at once, no restart. Default is as the game draws them. Also [display] shadow_quality = default | high | very_high | ultra | extreme
  • The game's soft shadow edge is made of 16 samples a texel of the original map apart; on a larger map the gaps between them showed as bands. With any option above Default each of those samples is now the average of 3 x 3 samples, which keeps the edge smooth. [nvn] shadow_blur = false turns that off
  • Quality preset now sets it with the anti-aliasing: High gives High (2x) and SMAA High, Ultra gives Very High (3x) and SMAA Ultra, Desktop PC gives Very High (3x) and SMAA High; the others give Default and no anti-aliasing. Changing either by hand makes the preset Custom
  • Still not: Ultra and Extreme use a lot of video memory (a 4x map is 128 MiB, an 8x one 512 MiB, and the game makes several); a size the GPU can't make leaves that map as the game made it

Controls

• Fixed the Mouse Mode Key row in Settings > Mouse (#367)
  • Before: pressing a key on the row did nothing, and after one change the row got stuck at the end of its bar
  • Now: press left or right on the row (or click it), the row says "Press the new key", then press any key, mouse button or wheel notch. Esc cancels. It works every time, and F1 can't be picked by mistake
• Added a Steam Deck button icon style, and Automatic now picks it on a Steam Deck
  • Before: on a Deck, Automatic showed the Steam Controller icons, so Select and Start were the small < and > arrows; the Deck's buttons are View and Menu
  • Now: Steam Deck (F1 > Controller, the launcher's Controls tab, or [prompts] style = steamdeck in controls.ini) shows the Steam icons with the Xbox-style View and Menu symbols. Automatic uses it for a Steam pad on a handheld; Steam Controller stays for a real Steam Controller
  • Still not: only View and Menu differ from the Steam Controller set; the grips and trackpads keep the Steam icons. It needs the new prompt_icons.pak that comes with the build

How to report

Open a bug report, choose Testing as the channel, say which version you have, and attach pkp.log (and setup.log if Set up ran). Thank you for testing.