minisphere 4.1.1

minisphere 4.1.1 is a maintenance release for minisphere 4.1.

Changes in This Version

• When starting a game with a JSON manifest, the main script is now run as a
  CommonJS module unless the manifest explicitly specifies version: 1.
• console methods now actually send text to the console.
• Sphere Studio now runs minisphere Console at V0 verbosity by default.

Installing in Windows

Simply download and run minisphereSetup-4.1.1.exe. The Inno Setup install wizard will walk you through the installation process.

Installing in Linux

For Ubuntu (14.04 and later), minisphere is available via personal package archive (PPA):

• https://launchpad.net/~fatcerberus/+archive/ubuntu/minisphere

Installing from a PPA is easy. Simply open Terminal and run the following commands:

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fatcerberus/minisphere
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install minisphere

You only need to do this once. The system will automatically notify you of future minisphere updates.

For other Debian distributions such as Linux Mint or Debian itself, simply download one of the .deb packages below. Users of 32-bit systems will want minisphere_4.1.1_i386.deb, while 64-bit users should download minisphere_4.1.1_amd64.deb. Once downloaded, simply double-click the file and your package manager will guide you through the process of installing the package.

minisphere 4.1.0

minisphere 4.1.0 is the first minor release in the minisphere 4.x release series, introducing a new CommonJS module, assert, to the standard library.

Breaking Changes

• There is a new Standard Library module included, assert. It is based on
  the Node.js built-in module of the same name, and includes most of the same
  methods with identical semantics.
• A handful of system object functions have been renamed and given simpler
  names. Specifically: system.doEvents() is now system.run(), and
  system.restart() is now system.reset().
• The Sphere Studio plugin now includes an option to display ssj.trace()
  output. Previously this output would always be invisible while using the GUI
  debugger, with no way to show or even retrieve it.

Changes in This Version

• Adds a new module to the standard library: assert, based on the Node.js
  built-in assert module. Unlike ssj.assert(), the functions in this module
  throw an AssertionError when an assertion fails.
• Renames a few system APIs, giving them easier-to-remember names.
• Adds an option to show ssj.trace() output while debugging a game with
  Sphere Studio.

Installing in Windows

Simply download and run minisphereSetup-4.1.0.exe. The Inno Setup install wizard will walk you through the installation process.

Installing in Linux

For Ubuntu (14.04 and later), minisphere is available via personal package archive (PPA):

• https://launchpad.net/~fatcerberus/+archive/ubuntu/minisphere

Installing from a PPA is easy. Simply open Terminal and run the following commands:

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fatcerberus/minisphere
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install minisphere

You only need to do this once. The system will automatically notify you of future minisphere updates.

For other Debian distributions such as Linux Mint or Debian itself, simply download one of the .deb packages below. Users of 32-bit systems will want minisphere_4.1.0_i386.deb, while 64-bit users should download minisphere_4.1.0_amd64.deb. Once downloaded, simply double-click the file and your package manager will guide you through the process of installing the package.

minisphere 4.0.1

minisphere 4.0.1 is a backwards-compatible update for minisphere 4.0. This update fixes a bug in system.extensions which caused the array to be missing entries.

Changes in This Version

• system.extensions now includes properties for individual extensions. Each
  has a value of true, which allows games to check for the presence of extensions via, e.g.
  an if statement instead of searching the array.
• Fixes a bug which caused the system.extensions array to be missing entries.

Installing in Windows

Simply download and run minisphereSetup-4.01.exe. The Inno Setup install wizard will walk you through the installation process.

Installing in Linux

For Ubuntu (14.04 and later), minisphere is available via personal package archive (PPA):

• https://launchpad.net/~fatcerberus/+archive/ubuntu/minisphere

Installing from a PPA is easy. Simply open Terminal and run the following commands:

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fatcerberus/minisphere
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install minisphere

You only need to do this once. The system will automatically notify you of future minisphere updates.

For other Debian distributions such as Linux Mint or Debian itself, simply download one of the .deb packages below. Users of 32-bit systems will want minisphere_4.0.1_i386.deb, while 64-bit users should download minisphere_4.0.1_amd64.deb. Once downloaded, simply double-click the file and your package manager will guide you through the process of installing the package.

minisphere 4.0.0

minisphere 4.0.0 is the fourth major minisphere release. This version introduces the brand-new Sphere v2 API for a fully modern Sphere development experience.

Release Notes - Breaking Changes

• Several object constructors such as Image, Color, and Surface have been
  repurposed as Sphere v2 APIs, while constructors for legacy objects such as
  ByteArray have been removed entirely. Any code using the constructors will
  need to be updated.
• Objects constructed using a Sphere v2 API--such as the Image constructor
  (see above), Color.Black et al., and so on--are no longer compatible with
  the Sphere v1 API. For example, you can't use a v2 Color object with
  Rectangle() or assign a v2 Image to a v1 spriteset. Doing so will cause
  a TypeError.
• The Sphere v1 API is now deprecated in its entirety. It is not recommended
  to use any Sphere v1 functions in new games, and the v1 API is thus no longer
  documented. New games should use the Sphere v2 API exclusively and migration
  is highly recommended for existing games.
• Automatic CoffeeScript and TypeScript transpilation has been removed from the
  engine. This was always a bit of a misfeature as Duktape isn't quite fast
  enough to do this on demand without causing unwieldy delays. Any
  transpilation must now be done in advance.

Changes in this Release

• Introduces the new Sphere v2 API. The entire Sphere v1 API, including the
  map engine, has been deprecated and is no longer recommended for use in new
  games. For information on using the functions in the new API, see
  docs/sphere2-api.txt.
• miniRT has been overhauled and repurposed as minisphere's implementation of
  the Sphere v2 standard library. See docs/miniRT-api.txt for more
  information.
• Drops support for on-the-fly transpilation of TypeScript and CoffeeScript.
  This must now be done in a separate step.

Installing in Windows

Simply download and run minisphereSetup-4.0.0.exe. The Inno Setup install wizard will walk you through the installation process.

Installing in Linux

For Ubuntu (14.04 and later), minisphere is available via personal package archive (PPA):

• https://launchpad.net/~fatcerberus/+archive/ubuntu/minisphere

Installing from a PPA is easy. Simply open Terminal and run the following commands:

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fatcerberus/minisphere
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install minisphere

You only need to do this once. The system will automatically notify you of future minisphere updates.

For other Debian distributions such as Linux Mint or Debian itself, simply download one of the .deb packages below. Users of 32-bit systems will want minisphere_4.0.0_i386.deb, while 64-bit users should download minisphere_4.0.0_amd64.deb. Once downloaded, simply double-click the file and your package manager will guide you through the process of installing the package.

minisphere 3.3.0

minisphere 3.3.0 is the fourth minor release in the 3.x series. This release boasts improved random number generation using the xoroshiro128+ algorithm, and predefined colors such as Color.Red, Color.Chartreuse, Color.DodgerBlue, etc.

Release Notes - Breaking Changes

• Several legacy API calls have been deprecated (but retained for backward
  compatibility) in favor of new designs:
  • Font.Default, Mixer.Default, and ShaderProgram.Default properties
    replace GetSystemFont(), GetDefaultMixer(), and
    GetDefaultShaderProgram(), respectively.
  • Color.mix() replaces both BlendColors() and BlendColorsWeighted().
• A large collection of predefined colors (the full X11 set) is now provided
  via direct properties of Color. This is often more convenient than
  constructing Color objects manually, and makes code dealing with known colors
  much more readable.
• minisphere now uses the much faster xoroshiro128+ algorithm to generate
  random numbers instead of Mersenne Twister used in past versions. This may
  affect games using RNG.reseed() to manually seed the generator, since the
  generated values will differ.

Changes in this Release

• Now uses xoroshiro128+ as the random number generator instead of the slower
  Mersenne Twister.
• Adds a new property to the RNG object, RNG.state. This allows you to save
  and restore the internal state of the random number generator, for example to
  deter save scumming.
• Adds a bunch of new API calls to make working with Color objects easier:
  Color.fade(), Color.of(), Color.mix() (which supersedes the old
  blending functions), Color#name, and a bunch of predefined colors such as
  Color.Chartreuse, Color.Blue, etc.
• Font, Mixer, ShaderProgram and WindowStyle now include static
  .Default properties which refer to the corresponding built-in default
  assets.

Installing in Windows

Simply download and run minisphereSetup-3.3.0.exe. The Inno Setup install wizard will walk you through the installation process.

Installing in Linux

For Ubuntu (14.04 and later), minisphere is available via personal package archive (PPA):

• https://launchpad.net/~fatcerberus/+archive/ubuntu/minisphere

Installing from a PPA is easy. Simply open Terminal and run the following commands:

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fatcerberus/minisphere
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install minisphere

You only need to do this once. The system will automatically notify you of future minisphere updates.

For other Debian distributions such as Linux Mint or Debian itself, simply download one of the .deb packages below. Users of 32-bit systems will want minisphere_3.3.0_i386.deb, while 64-bit users should download minisphere_3.3.0_amd64.deb. Once downloaded, simply double-click the file and your package manager will guide you through the process of installing the package.

minisphere 3.2.0

minisphere 3.2.0 is the third minor release in the 3.x series. This release boasts a vastly improved module resolver based on Node.js and console.log() support, and paves the way for an eventual API overhaul in minisphere 4.0. Upgrading is highly recommended.

Release Notes - Breaking Changes

• Module IDs passed to require() are resolved using a more advanced algorithm
  designed to emulate the behavior of Node.js. Compatibility is mostly
  retained; however, there may be subtle differences, for example in the
  handling of relative IDs.
• minisphere 3.2 supports console.log() and its variants. Output produced
  this way will only be visible with the debugger (SSJ) attached.

Changes in this Release

• The module system has been overhauled to work more like Node.js, and now has
  support for package.json files, parsing JSON files as objects, and useful
  APIs such as require.cache, module.loaded, and module.require.
• require() can now load JS modules from anywhere in a game's file system by
  prefixing the module ID with a SphereFS alias (@/, ~/, or #/).
• Adds support for console.log() and friends. stdout is reserved for
  under-the-hood logging, so console output will only be visible when SSJ is
  attached.
• Improves frameskip behavior: The frame timer is now reset only if the skip
  limit is hit. This should ensure a more consistent update rate even under
  lag conditions.

Installing in Windows

Simply download and run minisphereSetup-3.2.0.exe. The Inno Setup install wizard will walk you through the installation process.

Installing in Linux

For Ubuntu (14.04 and later), minisphere is available via personal package archive (PPA):

• https://launchpad.net/~fatcerberus/+archive/ubuntu/minisphere

Installing from a PPA is easy. Simply open Terminal and run the following commands:

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fatcerberus/minisphere
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install minisphere

You only need to do this once. The system will automatically notify you of future minisphere updates.

For other Debian distributions such as Linux Mint or Debian itself, simply download one of the .deb packages below. Users of 32-bit systems will want minisphere_3.2.0_i386.deb, while 64-bit users should download minisphere_3.2.0_amd64.deb. Once downloaded, simply double-click the file and your package manager will guide you through the process of installing the package.

minisphere 3.1.2

minisphere 3.1.2 is a backwards-compatible update for minisphere 3.1. This update fixes a deadlock issue when running against Allegro 5.0, which is an issue on Linux, as well as a bug which could have prevented .s2gm-based games from running.

Changes in This Version

• Fixes an issue where sounds were reinitialized whenever a script called
  Sound#play() (including the first time), potentially triggering a deadlock
  bug in Allegro 5.0. This affects Linux only, as Allegro 5.2 is used on
  Windows.
• Fixes a regression in minisphere 3.1.0 which could cause games with an
  otherwise valid .s2gm manifest to fail to start with an Unsupported Engine
  error.

Installing in Windows

Simply download and run minisphereSetup-3.1.2.exe. The Inno Setup install wizard will walk you through the installation process.

Installing in Linux

For Ubuntu (14.04 and later), minisphere is available via personal package archive (PPA):

• https://launchpad.net/~fatcerberus/+archive/ubuntu/minisphere

Installing from a PPA is easy. Simply open Terminal and run the following commands:

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fatcerberus/minisphere
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install minisphere

You only need to do this once. The system will automatically notify you of future minisphere updates.

For other Debian distributions such as Linux Mint or Debian itself, simply download one of the .deb packages below. Users of 32-bit systems will want minisphere_3.1.2_i386.deb, while 64-bit users should download minisphere_3.1.2_amd64.deb. Once downloaded, simply double-click the file and your package manager will guide you through the process of installing the package.

minisphere 3.1.1

minisphere 3.1.1 is a backwards-compatible update for minisphere 3.1. This update fixes a bug in miniRT and adds the ability to pass a Mixer object to Sound#play().

Changes in This Version

• Fixes a bug in miniRT/music where it tried to call console.write() instead
  of console.log(), causing it to throw an error and potentially crash the
  game when logging error messages.
• Sound#play() will now accept a Mixer as its second or third argument.
  Previously the Mixer had to be passed to the Sound constructor, which was
  awkward.
• The map engine now uses its own mixer for map-defined BGM.

Installing in Windows

Simply download and run minisphereSetup-3.1.1.exe. The Inno Setup install wizard will walk you through the installation process.

Installing in Linux

For Ubuntu (14.04 and later), minisphere is available via personal package archive (PPA):

• https://launchpad.net/~fatcerberus/+archive/ubuntu/minisphere

Installing from a PPA is easy. Simply open Terminal and run the following commands:

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fatcerberus/minisphere
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install minisphere

You only need to do this once. The system will automatically notify you of future minisphere updates.

For other Debian distributions such as Linux Mint or Debian itself, simply download one of the .deb packages below. Users of 32-bit systems will want minisphere_3.1.1_i386.deb, while 64-bit users should download minisphere_3.1.1_amd64.deb. Once downloaded, simply double-click the file and your package manager will guide you through the process of installing the package.

minisphere 3.1.0

minisphere 3.1.0 is the second minor release in the 3.x series. This release brings several improvements to SphereFS and Galileo, three new miniRT components, and fixes several minor bugs. Upgrading is highly recommended.

Release Notes - Breaking Changes

• SphereFS prefixes have changed. Single-character prefixes are now used for
  SphereFS paths instead of the ~usr, ~sgm, and ~sys aliases used in
  previous versions. Any code depending on the old prefixes will need to be
  updated.
• The user data folder has been renamed to "minisphere". This was done to be
  more friendly to Linux users, for whom filenames with spaces are often
  inconvenient. If you need to keep your save data from minisphere 3.0, move
  it into <documents>/minisphere/save.
• The Galileo API has been updated with new features. These improvements bring
  some minor breaking changes with them as well. Refer to the API reference
  for details.
• The search path for CommonJS modules has changed since 3.0. Modules are now
  searched for in @/lib/ instead of @/commonjs/.
• ListeningSocket has been renamed to Server. Networking code will need to
  be updated.

Changes in this release

• SphereFS now uses single-character aliases: #/ for built-in engine assets,
  @/ for the root of the sandbox, and ~/ for the user data directory (for
  save data).
• Changes the user data directory name back to "minisphere" to be more friendly
  to Linux users.
• Adds some new components to miniRT: miniRT/binary for easy loading of
  structured binary data, miniRT/xml for XML parsing and DOM generation, and
  miniRT/prim to pre-render expensive-to-draw primitives like circles.
• Adds a new Transform object which allows working with transformation
  matrices.
• Improves the Galileo API: Shapes can now be drawn directly, Groups have a
  transform property which allows their transformation matrices to be
  manipulated, and shader uniforms can be set using group.setInt(),
  group.setFloat(), and group.setMatrix().
• Adds new Galileo Shape types SHAPE_LINE_LOOP and SHAPE_LINE_STRIP.
• minisphere now looks for CommonJS modules in lib/ instead of commonjs/.
• Async() is now called DispatchScript() for API consistency.
• ListeningSocket is now called Server.
• You can now use -0 through -4 on the command line to specify the engine
  log verbosity level.

Installing in Windows

Simply download and run minisphereSetup-3.1.0.exe. The Inno Setup install wizard will walk you through the installation process.

Installing in Linux

For Ubuntu (14.04 and later), minisphere is available via personal package archive (PPA):

• https://launchpad.net/~fatcerberus/+archive/ubuntu/minisphere

Installing from a PPA is easy. Simply open Terminal and run the following commands:

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fatcerberus/minisphere
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install minisphere

You only need to do this once. The system will automatically notify you of future minisphere updates.

For other Debian distributions such as Linux Mint or Debian itself, simply download one of the .deb packages below. Users of 32-bit systems will want minisphere_3.1.0_i386.deb, while 64-bit users should download minisphere_3.1.0_amd64.deb. Once downloaded, simply double-click the file and your package manager will guide you through the process of installing the package.

minisphere 3.0.8

minisphere 3.0.8 is a maintenance release. This release adds support for repeatable commands in SSJ as well as fixing a segfault.

Changes in this release

• Fixes a bug where minisphere would crash instead of showing an error message
  if it was unable to create a render context.
• SSJ will now continue with the previous course of action if given a null
  command. This only works for certain commands.

Installing in Windows

Simply download and run minisphereSetup-3.0.8.exe. The Inno Setup install wizard will walk you through the installation process.

Installing in Linux

For Ubuntu (14.04 and later), minisphere is available via personal package archive (PPA):

• https://launchpad.net/~fatcerberus/+archive/ubuntu/minisphere

Installing from a PPA is easy. Simply open Terminal and run the following commands:

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fatcerberus/minisphere
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install minisphere

You only need to do this once. The system will automatically notify you of future minisphere updates.

For other Debian distributions such as Linux Mint or Debian itself, simply download one of the .deb packages below. Users of 32-bit systems will want minisphere_3.0.8_i386.deb, while 64-bit users should download minisphere_3.0.8_amd64.deb. Once downloaded, simply double-click the file and your package manager will guide you through the process of installing the package.