Serious Sam 2 Now With Steamworks!

Serious Sam 2 has just been updated with support for Steamworks, to eliminate the need for Gamespy since the service has been announced to be officially closed on May 31st of this year.

The update also includes:
- fixed problems with FOV on widescreen resolutions,
- fixed wrong rendering of Uzi weapon in first person.

Build 180520 for Serious Sam 3 is released.
If you have previously opted into public beta, you already have this.

Here are the changes:

- Fixed a crash after initial dialog on Silent Riddler that happened on some machines.
- Fixed problem with black screen when aiming with assault rifle weapon and post-processing effect allows very high exposure range.
- Fixed crash when entering Extras menu in Bulgarian locale.
- Added safety checks to prevent faulty drivers from crashing when they try to load GLSL shaders cached by older versions of driver.
- Multiplayer: Fixed speed hack cheat detection sometimes erroneously marking players as hacked.
- OSX: Split screen is now supported on OSX.

- Added workaround for a bug in ATI OpenGL driver causing menu and loading background to be black.
- Thoroughly refactored and optimized postprocessing shader system. Some effects are up to 5x faster.
- Choose Levels menu now shows bigger thumnails for each level, and best statistics for it for the current player.
- Fixed a crash caused by Sirian bracelet when multithreaded rendering was enabled.
- Fixed a crash that could happen if a player carrying a flag in CTF game fell into abyss while in third person mode - with multithreaded rendering enabled.
- Fixed banding on very dense haze which starts couple of meters away from viewer when MSAA is not used.
- If thr_iAffinityStrictness was set to a value different than default, it would not be applied on game start. Fixed.
- Fixed the game's affinity strictness leaking into video and audio drivers, if they allow their threads to inherit affinity from main thread. This could potentially improve performance on Linux.
- The default "program has requested the runtime to terminate in an unusual way" message is replaced new logging which can be actually useful in troubleshooting.
- OSX: Added OSX input config for Logitech gamepads as created by Logitech.
- OSX: Fixed ability to dump crash reports on OSX.
- Linux+OSX: Fixed a case where application would sometimes lock up, instead of dumping a crash report, when a crash happened.
- Linux+OSX: Added support to remap controller input to support any types of controllers. New controller configs (.xml files) can be created by users as needed. See http://serioussam.com/wiki/index.php?title=Controller_Config for more details.
- Linux+OSX: Added control mappings for XBox 360, Playstation 3 and Logitech F510/F310/F710 controllers.
- Multiplayer: Fixed an issue where, if a player dies while carrying a flag in CTF game mode, the flag may be irretrievable if flag carrier dropped the flag in an abyss field, etc. In all such cases, the flag item will not be dropped at all, instead, the flag will return directly to its base.
- Multiplayer: Red/Blue team spawn markers worked only in CTF. That feature is now usable in all team modes.
- Multiplayer: Fixed a problem where no servers would appear in versus/cooperative server list if you previously used server filter in the other mode.
- Multiplayer: Added speedhack detection. Players caught using speed hacks will be marked as cheated in the player list.
- Multiplayer: Clients now cannot connect to the server if their UTC times differ by more than a day.
- Editor: Enemies placed in the world (not spawned) were bugged on clients if a cutscene starts on the first chapter. Fixed.
- Editor: Added cvars for forcing Depth-of-Field effect; "efx_fForcedDoFDistance" and "efx_fForcedApertureSize". (For testing purposes only!)
- Editor: Fixed problem with wrong lighting on a model influenced by really really big probe light (like, 20km box).
- Editor: Cvar wld_strPreferredStartChapter (available in editor only) can be used for easier testing of bigger levels.
- Editor: All cvars needed to generate texture precaching resources (used for texture cache warmup befor cutscenes) are now available in final editor builds.
- Scripting: It is now possible to define new input controls from Lua scripts and read their values. See http://serioussam.com/wiki/index.php?title=Lua/CustomCommandsAndBindings for details.
- Scripting: Added new macro math functions: mth*To*() (where * is Euler, Quaternion, AxisAngle, DirectionVector)
- Scripting: Added a new macro function: mthDotV3f(), which calculates the dot product of two 3D vectors.
- Scripting: Created new macro functions on puppet for script-driven combat: DoRangedAttack() and DoMeleeAttack(), which are latent and thus can be waited on in scripts.
- Scripting: Added macro functions SetGoalPoint() and GetBoundingBoxSize() to puppet, which can be used to control puppet movement via goal points.
- Scripting: CBaseEntity::InflictDamageToTarget(). This function complements the previous damage inflicting functions and allows specifying all damage parameters at once. Note that in this function, "self" is source, not target!
- Scripting: Added ability to filter damage on entities from scripts. Use CBaseEntity::EnableReceiveDamageScriptEvent(); Catch all ReceiveDamage events on that entity, and do whatever is needed in response to that. Call the HandleDamage() function _on that event object_ if you want to actually apply the damage (adjusted if needed).
- Scripting: All lua scripts located in Content/SeriousSam3/Scripts/Startup/ will be executed upon project boot (right after the menu system is initialized). These startup scripts can be re-executed at any time using prjExecuteStartupScripts cvar. (This works even in non-moddable version, as these are console scripts.)
- Scripting: When starting a world, after executing WorldScripts.lua, all custom Lua scripts from Content/SeriousSam3/Scripts/CustomWorldScripts/ are enumerated and executed. (Only in editor and in moddable version.)
- Scripting: Created a new macro function: ResolveResource(). This function will resolve a smart pointer to a resource and return a raw pointer that can be used to call functions on it (if the resource class supports sripting).
- Scripting: Base script entity class now exposes a new scripting function: GetWorld().
- Scripting: Added support for dynamic creation of entities from world scripts. Create one or more templates using "Template properties holder" resource, and save it; In a script, use global ResolveResource() and CTemplatePropertiesHolder::CreateTemplate() to get a local CEntityProperties object; Use CEntityProperties::SetPlacement() to adjust to desired position, then CTemplatePropertiesHolder::SpawnEntity() to spawn the new entity.
(Notes: Using CWorldInfoEntity::LoadResource(), one can dynamically load new template holders as needed.; Note that the result of ResolveResource() is strictly local, do not try to cache it across frames!)
- Scripting: Added scriptable hud elements CTextBoxHudElement and CModelHudElement.
- Scripting: HUD element creation now allows multiple instances of the same script hud element class.
- Scripting: Player puppet now exposes GetHUD() function, which retrieves player's HUD. Can be used to control custom HUD elements.
- Scripting: Added CPuppetEntity::IsLocalViewer(), CPuppetEntity::IsLocalOperator() usable to determine which player(s) is playing locally, and which is viewed from locally (could be playing, or being specated).
- Scripting: Implemented ViewerChanged script event which is sent on WorldInfo whenever current local viewer changes.
- Scripting: When an entity is deleted an 'EntityDeleted' script event is sent.
- Scripting: Added macro functions GetPlayerId and GetPlayerName to the CPlayerPuppetEntity class.
- Scripting: The "playerkilled" XML tag in log now has the player id.
- Scripting: A new XML tag "roundstart" is printed to log at the beginning of a match containing information about the gamemode.
- Scripting: Added custom event XML_Log which can catch all XML messages printed to log.
- Scripting: All XML_Log events are now sent both to console scripts and to world scripts. The player Chat event is now removed. Note that this means that world scripts have access to contents of player chat. (It can be used to implement remote commands in chat.)

Build 176695 for Serious Sam 3 is released.
If you have previously opted into public beta, you already have this.

Here are the changes:
- Fix a crash occurring when switching from camera to player spectator mode.
- Added fix for micro-stuttering issue, controlled via 'sim_iFixMicroStuttering' cvar.
- Fixed messed textures after alt-tab in some cases on Direct3D.
- Fixed performance problems with HDR buffer resizing when choosing multiplayer model in menu.
- Fixed slightly wrong haze calculation in some cases.
- Some measures to remedy jittering when waiting for vsync in D3D that happened on some machines in some cases.
- Added cvar 'd3d_bTripleBuffering' to control whether to use triple-buffering, when waiting for vertical retrace under Direct3D.
- Fixed black screen on client when joining a Last Man Standing server.
- Fixed music on DeamonTombs not being controlled by music volume.
- If corruption of official gro files is detected, application will notify Steam that it should verify application cache on next restart. This should hopefully fix any corrupted files user may have on disk.
- If corruption of workshop gro files is detected, they will be deleted so that they will be automatically redownloaded on next application start.
- Editor: Editor now includes additional *_edit.gro files containing non-finalized versions of all files that were stripped of their edit data during creation of the game. This means that the editor download is now about 700MB bigger, but it allows you to edit all meshes, animations, mechanisms, etc.
- Editor: All official content including levels is now editable and can be saved. So custom versions of official levels can be created.
- Editor: If official content from a DLC is edited and resaved, it retains its DLC license. If such content is shipped to workshop, users subscribing to it need to have that DLC installed.
- Editor: It is now possible to finalize files using the shipped editor. Finalized files will be smaller in some cases, but will lack edit data.
- Editor: If some files are missing when loading documents in editor, placeholder "default" resources will be automatically created instead of failing the load.
- Editor: Fixed rendering size and aspect issues when running test game in editor, which caused mouse cursor in menus to be rendered in wrong position and other strange issues.
- Linux: Text input in Linux now respects the current keyboard layout.
- Linux: Support for clipboard (copy/paste).
- Linux: Fixed wrong characters in Linux for comma and period keys.
- Linux: Game now tries to restore desktop resolution after fatal error.
- Linux: Stack dump is now generated when the game crashes (into the Sam3.rpt file), similar to the Windows version. Post this when reporting crashes.
- Linux: Dedicated server would not start from Steam client.
- Localizations: Updated Bulgarian.

Build 174807 for Serious Sam 3 is released.
If you have previously opted into public beta, you already have this. For all others, here is the list of changes:

Here are the changes:
- Fixed slowdown due to constant resizing of HDR buffer when Netricsa HUD is on.
- Showing rendering resolution is now more accurate. (Shows size of HDR drawport and canvas it resides on.)
- Fixed erroneous calculation of object guide box handle size.
- Fixed a problem that would cause player weapon firing (for some weapons) to sometimes (randomly) be one frame late.
- Now using new Steam Workshop API that allows item sizes of up to 200MB, and should be more resistant to transient errors.
- Fixed survival medals not being shown.
- Linux: Gamepads are no longer disconnected if they don't have enough axes or buttons. This should also fix performance impact for such gamepads.
- Linux: Gamepad names are now logged.
- Editor: Implemented new macro function ApplyDamageTool() on base entity. This function exposes Editor's Damage Tool to scripts.
- Fixed an issue causing all split screen users to render primary user's crosshair icon instead of their own.
- Fixed player's view getting stuck when forced to look onto a target entity by script, if Free Look option is disabled.
- Added support for hardware gamma-correction for Linux and OSX platforms.
- OSX: Error will now be reported if cursor connect fails on OSX.

Build 174448 for Serious Sam 3 is released.
If you have previously opted into public beta, you already have this. For all others, here is the list of changes:

- Linux: Added log messages for connected gamepads.
- Linux: Added inp_bLogGamepadEvents cvar for logging gamepad events.
- Linux: Fixed crashes on some window managers due to missing Xlib atoms.
- Added support for OpenGL tearing in VSync via 'ogl_bVSyncTearing' cvar. When cvar is on, screen refresh will wait for number of retraces specified via 'gfx_iWaitVSyncs' cvar and if more vertical retraces passed, will not wait for next one, but will do swap as soon as possible.
- Fixed wrong report of utilized OpenGL extensions.
- Slider widgets in color options menu are now enabled/disabled depending on support of gamma-correction also, not only full-screen or window mode.
- Fixed resolution downsizing not downsizing some buffer in-game causing more GPU memory usage than needed.
- Fixed command bindings not displaying properly in spectator view HUD.
- Added news feed to start screen.
- Editor: Fixed crash when exporting textures.
- Editor: Khnum and Aircraft puppets no longer ignore lethal damage. This allows Killer entity as well as macro functions such as DropDead() to affect these puppets.
- Editor: Added a new macro function to base entity: InflictWeaponDamage(). This function deals damage equivalent to one produced by any given weapon.

Build 173936 for Serious Sam 3 is released.

- Linux: Various fixes for visual artefacts caused by GPU resource corruptions that happened when game was minimized, alt-tabbed or otherwise lost focus.
- Faster switching into game after Alt-Tab, and changing Gfx APIs.
- Linux: Outdated driver versions are now reported to user on Linux.
- Linux: Fixed zombie processes sometimes being left over by the game.
- Fixed problem where correct video mode wasn't started when changing back to game (via alt-tab) if cvar 'gfx_iAPI' is set to gfx API that is not actually supported by the platform.
- Added CPU name detection and output to console.
- For detecting GPU vendor and device ID under Linux, "lspci" external command is now used instead of "libpci" interface.
- OSX: Some fixes for handling of gained/lost keyboard focus.
- Prevented possible application crash that may occur during Steam Workshop sync IO failure.
- Handling of GPU synchronization (if gfx_iFinish>0) is now more responsive. It would sometimes cause stuttering previously.
- FPS counter variation is now also displayed (minimum and maximum frame rate for last refresh interval). Controlled via 'prf_bShowFPSVariation' cvar. (Default is on.)
- Fixed crash at start if Steam is running in offline mode.
- Mouse is no longer confined to window after alt-enter.

Build 173456 for Serious Sam 3 is released.

If you have previously opted into public beta, you already have this. For all others, here is the list of changes:

Update 173456 contains a number of general fixes in the game, as well as some that are specific to the Linux version.

- IMPORTANT FOR LINUX: Most of the weird performance problems in previous builds were caused by performance throttling (aka power saving) features on various CPUs not correctly identifying that the game is running and continually jittering between low and high performance modes (several times per second sometimes!). This build adds a workaround for this which should hopefully prevent the symptoms from being so extreme. It is not perfect however, as there might still be a few percents of performance to squeeze out. The recommended solution is to turn off such features in BIOS for Linux machines. They can be found in BIOS under names such as SpeedStep, Cool'N'Quiet, C1E, PowerNow!, Power Saving, CPU Throttling, Dynamic Frequency Scaling, or something else - depending on your BIOS.

- Added a script that offers to automatically install libpci.3 on linux if it is missing.
- Fixed graphics corruption under OpenGL if game is minimized or "alt-tabbed" while it is loading content.
- Fixed screen-shot grabbing and manual save-game thumbnails not working under OpenGL.
- OpenGL library can now load even if some vendor dependent functions are missing.
- X11 libraries on Linux are now dynamically loaded, so game can properly report and error if something is missing.
- Dedicated server on Linux no longer requires X11 to be installed.
- Fixed problems with filenames of wrong case that happened only with Linux dedicated server.
- Full support for language packs in Workshop. Language mods can now work even in pure (non-moddable) version of the game, and don't require any customization from user side. Just subscribe to them.
- Workshop packages menu is now also available in non-moddable version of application (this allows enabling/disabling of language packs).
- User is now properly notified when Steam Workshop content download fails.
- Fixed issues that might have prevented some user accounts from uploading to Workshop.
- SeriousEditor now displays Steam Workshop sync progress in status bar.
- Upload to Steam Workshop command is no longer available until Steam Workshop sync is finished. Previuously, it locked up the application.
- Fixed an issue causing clients to always see weapon change on HUD at game start.
- Fixed a lockup happening if spectator cameras are linked in a closed loop. This only happened with user-made levels.
- Weapon change attempt is now correctly being indicated on HUD if performed during sprint.
- Fixed popup menus in Serious Editor sometimes going off the bottom of the screen in multimonitor setups.
- Fixed duplicate directory entries being shown in Serious Editor in file browsing for directories inside user-made .gro files.
- Added vertex merge when importing fbx meshes.
- Added facilities in Serious Editor to automate editing on entities from console scripts.
- Added cfuncs edtGetMemberValue(strUserDataPath) and edtSetMemberValue(strUserDataPath, value) used to change entity properties.
- Added cfunc edtSelectEntityPropertyByID(iEntityID).
- On Linux, fixed wrong display settings if no monitor has been marked as primary.
- KDE session version added to the log.

- Added a script that offers to automatically install libpci.3 on linux if it is missing.
- Fixed graphics corruption under OpenGL if game is minimized or "alt-tabbed" while it is loading content.
- Fixed screen-shot grabbing and manual save-game thumbnails not working under OpenGL.
- OpenGL library can now load even if some vendor dependent functions are missing.
- X11 libraries on Linux are now dynamically loaded, so game can properly report and error if something is missing.
- Dedicated server on Linux no longer requires X11 to be installed.
- Fixed problems with filenames of wrong case that happened only with Linux dedicated server.
- Full support for language packs in Workshop. Language mods can now work even in pure (non-moddable) version of the game, and don't require any customization from user side. Just subscribe to them.
- Workshop packages menu is now also available in non-moddable version of application (this allows enabling/disabling of language packs).
- User is now properly notified when Steam Workshop content download fails.
- Fixed issues that might have prevented some user accounts from uploading to Workshop.
- SeriousEditor now displays Steam Workshop sync progress in status bar.
- Upload to Steam Workshop command is no longer available until Steam Workshop sync is finished. Previuously, it locked up the application.
- Fixed an issue causing clients to always see weapon change on HUD at game start.
- Fixed a lockup happening if spectator cameras are linked in a closed loop. This only happened with user-made levels.
- Weapon change attempt is now correctly being indicated on HUD if performed during sprint.
- Fixed popup menus in Serious Editor sometimes going off the bottom of the screen in multimonitor setups.
- Fixed duplicate directory entries being shown in Serious Editor in file browsing for directories inside user-made .gro files.
- Added vertex merge when importing fbx meshes.
- Added facilities in Serious Editor to automate editing on entities from console scripts.
- Added cfuncs edtGetMemberValue(strUserDataPath) and edtSetMemberValue(strUserDataPath, value) used to change entity properties.
- Added cfunc edtSelectEntityPropertyByID(iEntityID).

Update 171822

- Prepared everything for Steam Workshop support.
- Added Bulgarian locale.
- Fixed a crash occuring on server if a client equips sledgehammer, climbs onto a ladder and disconnects while still on the ladder.
- Fixed a crash on dedicated server occuring in coin-op if a game ends with all players disconnected.
- Fixed another way to get out of map on Medina.
- Mirror reflections are now disabled at low GPU quality.
- More optimizations on OpenGL (GLSL) shaders.
- Glowing in menu is now disabled on OSX and Linux platforms, and on 'lowest' GPU quality preset.
- Updated fbx import-export interface to make it accessible from the model editor.
- SeriousEditor: Fixed crash when trying to solve solution which doesn't have lightmaps' dimensions of power of 2.
- SeriousEditor's file open dialog is now better at handling files with weird path formats (mixed slashes and backslashes, dot-dots...)
- Updated browser list control to display green checkered background for files without a catalog index.
- Voice chat now also works via OpenAL, if enabled via svm_bOpenALVoiceRecording. It is enabled by default on Linux, but disabled by default on OSX, because OpenAL recording is broken in most OSX versions.

Update 171000

- Player now has correct animations in 3rd person when wielding the axe.
- Fixed fast-firing exploit on SledgeHammer/Axes.
- In versus game modes, C4 projectile can now be picked up by any player after it has been idle for a while. In non-versus game modes, it can only be picked up by the player who threw it.
- In versus games, C4 bombs now collide and bounce off of enemy players when hit, rather than pass through them.
- After respawning, players can no longer trigger C4 explosives that they threw before being killed.
- When a player is killed in versus game mode holding a weapon with no ammo remaining, they will no longer drop it as a pickable weapon item.
- Fixed sniper mask not being rendered if weapon rendering is disabled.
- Fixed crashing when going into spectate on DemonTomb, Medina and TombofNefretari.
- Added Tehnopolip after 4 min of gameplay on SV_MedinaDefender.
- Fixed some places on MedinaDefender, CairoCity and UnfinishedComplex where player could get out of the level.
- Fixed falling out of world in Fiaca.
- Fixed error in Sphinx explosive planting script.
- Fixed wrong handling of file case in Linux dedicated server.
- Russian VO for JotN DLC.
- Drag&dropping entities onto script variable in editor did not work in the first line in script. Fixed.
- Fixed a rare crash in FBX skeleton loader.
- Added cvar 'ogl_bCompressCachedShaders' to control whether OpenGL shaders will be compressed when cached to files or not.
- Fixed shader cache not saving properly on OpenGL.
- Fixed some fatal errors not being visible if happened in full screen.