v0.6 is out!

Three weeks sounds about right for a release schedule. This release was focused on many quality of life improvements, so let's go over them real quick.

To make connecting to a game easier, the join dialog now remembers last succesfully used IP address. The join dialog has also been changed to a modal window and the IP input is automatically focused so you can start typing right away.

I'd like to enable all modal dialogs to be easily confirmable by pressing enter, but that's not supported by the UI library and I need to do major changes to do so. On a similar note, I've been able to allow gamepads to "click" by pressing A in menus. That is only an intermediate step as I need to also enable gamepads to move the cursor in menus.

The huge change in this update is the ability to share the maps "automagically". If a server wants to host a map that the peer doesn't have, they will download the map from the server and install it into the game folder. This feature requires that you install the game somewhere outside of Program Files as this folder requires admin priviledges to write files. My favourite spot is C:\Games.

In terms of new content, new songs have been added to the soundtrack and of course, there is a new map. It is 3-player FFA map called "Lasertag" build on "neon" texture pack. While working on this map, I also wrote a devlog on the topic of map design philosophy in Rend. You can read it on my blog: https://medium.com/@nerudaj/devlog-23-a-few-thoughts-on-map-design-44e5360c8fbf

Full changelog:

Gameplay:

• Added a new 3-player map: "Lasertag"

UX:

• Last IP that was succesfully used to join a networked game is remembered and pre-filled in the Join game screen
• If server hosts a map that peer doesn't have, that map will be downloaded

• Join game dialog is now a modal window

  • Text input for IP is autofocused
• Gamepad button A can be used to confirm UI dialogs and B button can be used to go back

Bugfixes:

• Fixed graphical glitch in editor that shows in place of the sidebar until a map is opened
• Server-side peer no longer desyncs when another peer disconnects

Other:

• New tracks were added to the soundtrack