Likely final release for the engine v1 series!
- Full Engine changelog in issues for the Alpha 9 milestone and in Jenkins listing commits
Perhaps interesting is the more respectful size of this release compared to the prior (200ish commits vs 600ish for Alpha 8) despite still being a fairly lengthy and super active period of time. Google Code-In was a large driver of activity but focused more on modules than the engine. This is in line with more and more overall project activity going into module land and elsewhere instead of the maturing engine, leading to more content rather than more architecture.
However, actually summarizing module changes that go along with a game release (Alpha 9 contains engine v1.6.0 but so much more in module land) remains tricky. A time-range commit search limited to the Terasology GitHub Org failed to return actual commits, but seemed to indicate 50 module repos had received changes. Any search wizards able to get that working are welcome to try, but even commits in a time range won't show what's actually new in a future where we have full release management enabled for modules :-)
Engine Highlights
- Fix for #2590 - our most notorious multiplayer crash bug at present!
- Loads of javadoc improvements, code quality fixes, translations, and minor improvements from GCI students (who also did tons of module work)
- Asset overrides/delta updates for UI screens and skins - #3238
- Support for moar explosions ! #3195 (to allow for stuff like explosive rail carts)
- Crouching has been somewhat neutered temporarily as it was problematic in multiplayer
- Further enhancements for the maturing FlexibleConfig system (eventually allow easier configs for all the things)
- Various improvements to the
groovyw moduleand related utility (more pending merge very shortly) FloatingTextComponenttags can now be occluded behind objects (like a distant player tag in a cave below)- Easier interaction with player identities in multiplayer (manually import/export certificates) - see #3123
- Another round of tweaks to the "items persisting at 0,0,0" saga in #3137 - maybe fixed now? Finally?
- Better image scaling in UI elements
- Various rendering work as the overhaul continues
- Initial Java 9 compatibility fixes (rather minor - maybe there are still quirks to discover?)
- Refactoring of how inputs and binds work - probably no visible changes but an FYI
- Gradle upgrade from 2.10 to 3.3 and introduction of the Groovy Wrapper for utility (see #2979)
New modules
While overall module changes are hard to summarize (a ton of stuff happened to Rails in particular though!) listing newly added modules is fairly easy so here's a list:
- AdditionalFruits - container module for more fruits
- AdditionalItemPipes - container module for more item pipes
- AdditionalRails - container module for more rails
- AdditionalVegetables - container module for more vegetables
- AdditionalWorlds - container module for more worlds
- AlchemyPlantGenerator - a world plugin that'll seed the plants used by Alchemy into a given plugin-capable world
- BasicCrafting - a basic crafting system
- Compass - a simple compass
- EdibleFlora - basic growth system providing plant stuff you can eat
- HjerlHede - a pure build module containing some Structure Template based buildings from the Danish natural museum Hjerl Hede
- ItemPipes - pipes! That can contain items!
- Minesweeper - a little game inside a game
- ModuleTestingEnvironment - a testing framework for in-game tests on simulated server + client(s)
- SurfaceFacets - world generation enhancements related to surfaces