Bugfixes and maintenance release (v1.22.6.1 + v1.22.6.2)
A new update has been released for BlastZone 2 to address a number of bugs and apply a few small improvements. Here is the full list of changes:
v1.22.6.1:
Fixed broken HUD when pressing Alt+Enter during gameplay
v1.22.6.2:
Fixed greyed out back arrow when it is available for leaderboard score listings
Page flipping improvements to the Steam friends list and addon pack list
Added new "Press 'T' to chat" note in the online multiplayer lobby
Online multiplayer chat messages now use the leaderboard name unless unspecified
Adjusted description text positioning for a few menus
Fixed a crash when attempting to start a Steamworks multiplayer game when in offline mode
Improved Steamworks friends list handling when the list is blank
To make sure you have the update, start the game and check the lower left corner of the title screen for "v1.22.6.2" or above. Be sure to give feedback and questions in the forums. Enjoy!
Antivirus issue fix, online multiplayer fixes, and new item drop design spec (v1.22.5.1 + 1.22.6.0)
Two new updates have been released for BlastZone 2! These address a few critical issues, including some antivirus software falsely detecting BlastZone 2 as a virus. I can assure everyone that these were false positives and they were caused by BlastZone 2 using a hidden cmd window to execute cURL commands to upload and download leaderboard data. This was addressed by migrating to a completely internal solution that uploads and downloads leaderboard data directly within the game without the use of a hidden command prompt window. This will prevent any antivirus software from flagging BlastZone 2 in the future. For anyone who has already experienced this issue, it is completely safe to remove BlastZone 2 from your antivirus blacklist and play as normal. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Other fixes in these updates include a critical online multiplayer bug and improvements include a new enemy definition property for level editing among other improvements and fixes. Here are the full release notes:
v1.22.5.1
Fixed a critical wave progression bug for the client in online survival multiplayer games
Improved packet loss tolerance for a few key events for online multiplayer
Added the ability to show extra timing debug info
-Press F1 multiple times to cycle between:
-No debug info
-Only framerate
-Framerate with update/render/particle/framePrep/frameFlip timings
-Framerate with update/render/particle/framePrep/frameFlip and sound/steam/directIp timings
V1.22.6.0
Changed the way leaderboard communication works to prevent issues with some antivirus software
-Now communicates natively with the leaderboard server without the need for external executables
-The old behavior launched a hidden CMD window to execute a cURL command to upload/download data to the leaderboard. This was deemed suspicious behavior by some antivirus software and would blacklist BlastZone 2
Enemy definitions now can define item drops
*NOTE: This update breaks compatibility with enemy definitions made for older versions of BlastZone 2
-All officially released missions and addon packs have been updated to work with the new spec
-A new property has been added to the end of all enemy definitions in the "enemydefs.dat" files
Item drop values include:
-Forcing no drop
-The old random drop chance behavior
-Specifying which item drops from this enemy, including points, health, and stat upgrades
Explosion particle counts have now been capped to improve performance in extreme situations
-This cap limits the total amount of particles that can be displayed on screen and doesn't affect individual explosions when this cap isn't reached
-The cap value is proportional to the particle detail level specified in the game options
-The "very high" particle detail level maintains the old uncapped behavior if no cap is desired
Added "Press Pause/Escape to skip" text to all cutscenes; This functionality has always existed, but was not obvious to the player
When first starting the game and viewing highscores, the gamemode category now defaults to Mission mode
Fixed items not being dropped from enemies while one player is respawning in multiplayer
As usual, to make sure you have the latest updates, launch the game and check the lower left corner of the title screen for “v1.22.6.0” or higher. Please leave any feedback or questions in the forums. Enjoy!
Multithreading improvements, Bug fixes, and code maintenance (v1.22.5.0)
A new update has been released for BlastZone 2! The focus of this update is to greatly improve particle multithreading and fix the broken client side communication for Direct IP online multiplayer games. There are a number of other bug fixes and improvements included in this update, here is the full change list:
Numerous general code improvements across many areas of the game; prevents many potential issues
Greatly improved thread timing and synchronization for multithreaded particles
-Improves overall parallelism and performance when many particles are onscreen
-Reduces overall cpu usage by up to 25%
-Improves visual smoothness of particle animations
-Allows particle updates to scale beyond 60hz for high refresh rate displays
-Improves efficiency even more when running on a slow machine that is unable to maintain 60fps
Fixed broken client side communication for Direct IP online multiplayer games
Fixed incorrect rendering for client side powerup items for online multiplayer games
Small tweaks to the frame pacing algorithm
Adjusted description text positioning for game mode and difficulty selection screens to have less overlap with menus
Tweaked the enemy explosion start frame to transition from an unexploded ship better
To make sure you have this update, launch the game and check the lower left corner of the title screen for “v1.22.5.0” or higher. Enjoy!
** Update ** Two additional updates have been released since this announcement was made. The version number is still v1.22.5.0. Updates include:
Additional multithreaded concurrency improvements to further improve performance when many particles are onscreen for multicore cpu's
Fixed a menu sequence break bug when pressing Fire2 or Escape during the level addon pack selection screen
Addon pack update and data loss prevention update (v1.22.4.8)
A new update has been released for BlastZone 2! This update focuses on a convenience update for level addon packs and preventing data loss when BlastZone 2 is closed improperly. Here is the full release notes:
Removed level addon pack dependency on PackRegistry.dat; addon packs are now automatically detected
Settings, unlocks, and highscores are now saved to disk at a few key points in game instead of only saving on shutdown, prevents data loss if the game closes improperly
To make sure you have this update, launch the game and check the lower left corner of the title screen for “v1.22.4.8” or higher. Enjoy!
P.S. - I am continuing to prepare for the big content creation release for BlastZone 2. This update brings the game one step closer to this release and I hope everyone is looking forward to it!
**Update: A small update has been released for v1.22.4.8 to cover additional cases to prevent data loss and slight tweaks to the config screen.
Libraries update (v1.22.4.7)
A new update has recently been released for BlastZone 2! This one focuses on updating a number of third party libraries that BlastZone 2 makes use of. A few of these were years old before this update, so it was long overdue. These updates include a number of optimizations, bug fixes, security fixes, and general improvements. Here is the complete list:
Migrated to libPng v1.5.28; Used for loading textures
Migrated to FreeType v2.7.1; Used for generating fonts
Migrated to zLib v1.2.11; Used for compression/decompression
Updated to cURL v7.53.1; Used for leaderboard uploading/downloading
To make sure you have this update, launch the game and check the lower left corner of the title screen for "v1.22.4.7" or higher. Enjoy!
Addon pack bug fixes and new stress test level packs (1.22.4.6)
A new update has been released for BlastZone 2! This one focuses on level addon pack bugfixes and includes 2 new addon packs. This is to prepare for level editing info that will be released soon. The full change list is below:
Fixed a crash when attempting to spawn a scripted enemy that isn't defined
Fixed fallback wave intro animation when one isn't defined for level addon packs
Fixed quick charge not activating for the A1 ship for level 1 and 2 of addon level packs if specified to be unlocked
Fixed quick charge downgrade not working for addon level packs if specified to do so
Added 2 new level packs to stress test the BZ2 game engine and PC hardware
-Press F1 to bring up framerate display
-"stress_test" is a moderate stress test
-"stress_test_2" is an extreme stress test
Small modifications to the existing "test_pack_1"
-Makes use of an additional enemy type to demonstrate behavior
To make sure you have the latest update, start the game and check the lower left corner of the title screen for "v1.22.4.6" or above. Enjoy!
Intermittent startup crash fixed and other fixes/improvements (v1.22.4.4 + v1.22.4.5)
A new update has been released for BlastZone 2! The main fix is for an intermittent startup crash issue which has been reported in the discussion board. Thanks a lot to those who also confirmed the issue and gave feedback on it to help me out. This was tough to track down because of the unpredictable nature of it, but I am happy to say the issue is now completely fixed! Included in this update are a number of other bugfixes and improvements, here is the complete list:
Fixed veteran difficulty being locked out for addon packs if veteran difficulty hasn't been unlocked for regular mission mode
Fixed an occasional startup crash
Fixed a small startup memory leak
Optimized startup loading screen rendering
To make sure you have this update, startup the game and check the lower left corner of the title screen for "1.22.4.4" or above, enjoy!
**UPDATE** A new update has been released to fix a bug introduced in 1.22.4.4. This prevented some ships from being selectable in local multiplayer. To make sure you have this fix, check for "v1.22.4.5" or above. Sorry for the inconvenience!
