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Sep 28, 2015

Update v0.8.3: Latency Calibration and Smooth Scrolling

Melody's Escape - Loïc

Update v0.8.3: Latency Calibration and Smooth Scrolling

Changes

The camera's (and Melody's) position in time is now based on a smoothed high-resolution timer instead of directly using the playhead position of the music, preventing "choppy" scrolling if the audio driver doesn't allow per-frame precise reading of the track's position.
Added an Audio and Video Latency Calibration menu (and test) in the options. You can now fine-tune latency compensation if you are playing on a HDTV or with a delay-inducing sound card (please note that delay compensation will make Melody either pause or "skip" at the beginning of a track).
Added an option to switch the art of light orbs to a full circle instead of a partial one (in the "General" options menu)
Fixed an issue with the tempo dection algorithm when using a non-MP3 format (FLAC, OGG, etc.) that in some rare occurences might have resulted in problems detecting the correct tempo. All previously "cached" tracks will be re-analyzed once played again.
Amplified the default volume of "orbs" and "obstacles" sucess sound effects in "All Sounds" mode.
Added a gamepad option to select the desired gamepad device ID (this is useful if you have more than one connected or on some Linux systems where some mouses and keyboards are detected as gaming devices)
Fixed a crash when trying to load custom Mods with an invalid folder structure.
Failing to read a specific sub-folder due to permission issues should not result into an empty folder list anymore.
Updated the FNA framework on OSX and Linux (this should improve performances)

Sep 28, 2015

Update v0.8.3: Latency Calibration and Smooth Scrolling

Melody's Escape - Epsi

Update v0.8.3: Latency Calibration and Smooth Scrolling

Changes

The camera's (and Melody's) position in time is now based on a smoothed high-resolution timer instead of directly using the playhead position of the music, preventing "choppy" scrolling if the audio driver doesn't allow per-frame precise reading of the track's position.
Added an Audio and Video Latency Calibration menu (and test) in the options. You can now fine-tune latency compensation if you are playing on a HDTV or with a delay-inducing sound card (please note that delay compensation will make Melody either pause or "skip" at the beginning of a track).
Added an option to switch the art of light orbs to a full circle instead of a partial one (in the "General" options menu)
Fixed an issue with the tempo dection algorithm when using a non-MP3 format (FLAC, OGG, etc.) that in some rare occurences might have resulted in problems detecting the correct tempo. All previously "cached" tracks will be re-analyzed once played again.
Amplified the default volume of "orbs" and "obstacles" sucess sound effects in "All Sounds" mode.
Added a gamepad option to select the desired gamepad device ID (this is useful if you have more than one connected or on some Linux systems where some mouses and keyboards are detected as gaming devices)
Fixed a crash when trying to load custom Mods with an invalid folder structure.
Failing to read a specific sub-folder due to permission issues should not result into an empty folder list anymore.
Updated the FNA framework on OSX and Linux (this should improve performances)

Jun 24, 2015

Update v0.8.2: New light orbs and performances fix

Melody's Escape - Loïc

Update v0.8.2: New light orbs and performances fix

Game Changes

Changed the look of light orbs. The new look should hopefully alleviate the "motion-blur" feeling induced by LCD monitors with high latency, as they have less contrast than the old ones and softer borders.
Light orbs explosion in Running intensity now pack a bit more punch.
The new in-game sounds now play at the same volume regardless of the movement mode intensity.
Fixed an issue with track caching resulting in difficulty mix-ups if a song had been played with "Custom" difficulty settings.
The Steam Workshop items checking/downloading screen now only happens once per session, so you can quickly switch skins without waiting if you have a lot of subscriptions. Using the "Go to the Steam Workshop" in-game menu will reset that state and make it check again the next time you visit the "Customize Appearance" menu.

Performance Changes (mostly targeted at lower-end GPUs)

Anti-Aliasing on Windows is now slightly faster and toggling the option on/off doesn't require to restart the game anymore.
Added "Graphics Quality" presets in the "Performances" option menu, to easily switch between Low/Medium/High.
Modified "low FPS" detection (below 50FPS) to interrupt the game and show a warning screen allowing the player to automatically lower graphics quality to gain performance (as the obstacle timing/hitbox suffers when performances are poor and that has quite a negative impact on the gameplay, delaying button/key inputs).
Added a "Low FPS" warning label below the heart score during a game if the FPS counter is enabled in the options and the FPS is too low.
Added a new system to detect if the GPU drivers launched the game using the integrated GPU on dual-GPUs computers (usually laptops), to suggest to the player to launch the game using the "gaming" GPU instead.
Added a global variable to the .exe targeted at NVidia Optimus laptop, to tell to the driver to use the NVidia GPU instead of the integrated one. If you own an Optimus laptop, I would love feedback on whether or not this feature is working!
All available GPUs detected are now listed in "log.txt" inside the game's installation folder.
Updated the FNA library on Mac and Linux builds.

Jun 24, 2015

Update v0.8.2: New light orbs and performances fix

Melody's Escape - Epsi

Update v0.8.2: New light orbs and performances fix

Game Changes

Changed the look of light orbs. The new look should hopefully alleviate the "motion-blur" feeling induced by LCD monitors with high latency, as they have less contrast than the old ones and softer borders.
Light orbs explosion in Running intensity now pack a bit more punch.
The new in-game sounds now play at the same volume regardless of the movement mode intensity.
Fixed an issue with track caching resulting in difficulty mix-ups if a song had been played with "Custom" difficulty settings.
The Steam Workshop items checking/downloading screen now only happens once per session, so you can quickly switch skins without waiting if you have a lot of subscriptions. Using the "Go to the Steam Workshop" in-game menu will reset that state and make it check again the next time you visit the "Customize Appearance" menu.

Performance Changes (mostly targeted at lower-end GPUs)

Anti-Aliasing on Windows is now slightly faster and toggling the option on/off doesn't require to restart the game anymore.
Added "Graphics Quality" presets in the "Performances" option menu, to easily switch between Low/Medium/High.
Modified "low FPS" detection (below 50FPS) to interrupt the game and show a warning screen allowing the player to automatically lower graphics quality to gain performance (as the obstacle timing/hitbox suffers when performances are poor and that has quite a negative impact on the gameplay, delaying button/key inputs).
Added a "Low FPS" warning label below the heart score during a game if the FPS counter is enabled in the options and the FPS is too low.
Added a new system to detect if the GPU drivers launched the game using the integrated GPU on dual-GPUs computers (usually laptops), to suggest to the player to launch the game using the "gaming" GPU instead.
Added a global variable to the .exe targeted at NVidia Optimus laptop, to tell to the driver to use the NVidia GPU instead of the integrated one. If you own an Optimus laptop, I would love feedback on whether or not this feature is working!
All available GPUs detected are now listed in "log.txt" inside the game's installation folder.
Updated the FNA library on Mac and Linux builds.

May 1, 2015

Update v0.8.1 Sound effects and new skins

Melody's Escape - Loïc

Update v0.8.1 Sound effects and new skins

Sound effects and text popups

Added in-game sound effects (all are optionals and can be disabled!). By default only "errors" sound effects will play, but you can enable them for all obstacle success and hearts in the "Audio" options menu.
Added sound effects and animations for the hearts score animation during the post-track score overview.
Added "TOO LATE" error text for failed obstacles which didn't receive their input in time. Pressing the wrong button will instead display "ERROR" (and play a different sound too), so you can distinguish between timing problems and incorrect input.
Added a small timer to prevent spamming multiple "ERROR" messages and sound effects when repeatedly pressing incorrect buttons (for visual feedback purposes only, it still resets your score multiplier everytime)
Adjusted floating-text popups positions and made their transitions smoother during intensity section changes

Skins

Added 2 new skins: "Prototype (Inverted)" and "Black Dress"
Modified all default skins to make the "shadows" on the background legs/arms much lighter
Added the default hair texture to the sample hairstyle mod folder (it was missing on Windows builds)
Updated the "sample skin" texture

Misc Changes

Reverted the Running section ground border to "grass", as it was better looking and the alternative didn't help with the "blur" feeling encountered by some players (as I incorrectly assumed it would).

May 1, 2015

Update v0.8.1 Sound effects and new skins

Melody's Escape - Epsi

Update v0.8.1 Sound effects and new skins

Sound effects and text popups

Added in-game sound effects (all are optionals and can be disabled!). By default only "errors" sound effects will play, but you can enable them for all obstacle success and hearts in the "Audio" options menu.
Added sound effects and animations for the hearts score animation during the post-track score overview.
Added "TOO LATE" error text for failed obstacles which didn't receive their input in time. Pressing the wrong button will instead display "ERROR" (and play a different sound too), so you can distinguish between timing problems and incorrect input.
Added a small timer to prevent spamming multiple "ERROR" messages and sound effects when repeatedly pressing incorrect buttons (for visual feedback purposes only, it still resets your score multiplier everytime)
Adjusted floating-text popups positions and made their transitions smoother during intensity section changes

Skins

Added 2 new skins: "Prototype (Inverted)" and "Black Dress"
Modified all default skins to make the "shadows" on the background legs/arms much lighter
Added the default hair texture to the sample hairstyle mod folder (it was missing on Windows builds)
Updated the "sample skin" texture

Misc Changes

Reverted the Running section ground border to "grass", as it was better looking and the alternative didn't help with the "blur" feeling encountered by some players (as I incorrectly assumed it would).

Apr 21, 2015

Update v0.8: Trading Cards, public Workshop and more

Melody's Escape - Loïc

Update v0.8: Trading Cards, public Workshop and more

Added Trading Cards to the game! (and smileys/backgrounds/badges)
The Workshop is now public and visible even if you don't own the game.

Game changes

Added new border decorations for the ground on Running and Flying mode. The reasoning behind this was that the grass was a very high density repeating pattern, scrolling very quickly accross the screen, and it may have an effect on the "motion blur" feeling that some players are experiencing. The new borders are much more streamlined and should feel more easy on the eyes.
Added a "zoom-in" feature, you can now select "120%" as zoom value in the General options menu.
Slightly shifted light orbs' position towards the ground in Jogging and Running sections, so that it's easier to focus on both orbs and obstacles at the same time.
The game will now detect streaks of very low FPS (<30FPS) and suggest at the end of the track to the player to disable Anti-Aliasing or Post-Processing to alievate performances issues.
Added new character skins "Uniform" and "Prototype" (a copy of my "Classic Melody" Workshop item)

Interface changes

Added "Favorite Folders" to the bottom of the main folders list. This menu choice automatically extracts and lists all the different folders from your "Favorite" tagged files, allowing easy access to your common music folders.
Added help tooltips to most options items.

Misc changes

New on-disk track caching format, which now stores obstacles and track intensity data directly (and for each difficulty density type) instead of the music audio profile, reducing the size of cache files by a factor of 10. This change greatly speeds up track loading from cache, especially for very long tracks, and solves very rare cases where the cached version had different obstacles than the first "live" analysis, due to floating point rounding issues. All previously cached music files will now need to be re-analysed again.
Fixed a potential crash scenario related to manually modified Workshop mods folder names

Linux

Updated libbass to 2.4.11, which has improved compatibility with recent PulseAudio versions. Hopefully this should fix the audio garbling issues encountered by some users.

Mod Studio (Windows)

Fixed the Hair Editor's treeview size when using Windows magnified text size above 100%.

Apr 21, 2015

Update v0.8: Trading Cards, public Workshop and more

Melody's Escape - Epsi

Update v0.8: Trading Cards, public Workshop and more

Added Trading Cards to the game! (and smileys/backgrounds/badges)
The Workshop is now public and visible even if you don't own the game.

Game changes

Added new border decorations for the ground on Running and Flying mode. The reasoning behind this was that the grass was a very high density repeating pattern, scrolling very quickly accross the screen, and it may have an effect on the "motion blur" feeling that some players are experiencing. The new borders are much more streamlined and should feel more easy on the eyes.
Added a "zoom-in" feature, you can now select "120%" as zoom value in the General options menu.
Slightly shifted light orbs' position towards the ground in Jogging and Running sections, so that it's easier to focus on both orbs and obstacles at the same time.
The game will now detect streaks of very low FPS (<30FPS) and suggest at the end of the track to the player to disable Anti-Aliasing or Post-Processing to alievate performances issues.
Added new character skins "Uniform" and "Prototype" (a copy of my "Classic Melody" Workshop item)

Interface changes

Added "Favorite Folders" to the bottom of the main folders list. This menu choice automatically extracts and lists all the different folders from your "Favorite" tagged files, allowing easy access to your common music folders.
Added help tooltips to most options items.

Misc changes

New on-disk track caching format, which now stores obstacles and track intensity data directly (and for each difficulty density type) instead of the music audio profile, reducing the size of cache files by a factor of 10. This change greatly speeds up track loading from cache, especially for very long tracks, and solves very rare cases where the cached version had different obstacles than the first "live" analysis, due to floating point rounding issues. All previously cached music files will now need to be re-analysed again.
Fixed a potential crash scenario related to manually modified Workshop mods folder names

Linux

Updated libbass to 2.4.11, which has improved compatibility with recent PulseAudio versions. Hopefully this should fix the audio garbling issues encountered by some users.

Mod Studio (Windows)

Fixed the Hair Editor's treeview size when using Windows magnified text size above 100%.

Nov 20, 2014

Update v0.7.4: New skin & haircuts + a mod editor

Melody's Escape - Loïc

Patch update v0.7.4.0: New skin & haircuts + mod editor

Major Changes

Added a mod editor/studio. You can now very easilly create your own skins, hairstyles and color themes and edit them all in real-time (Windows only).
Added "slow-mo" jumps in running sections, for very specific occurences where the music's energy drastically drops during a few seconds. Those jumps can be identified on the song preview graph by a blue vertical dashed line (note that they are quite rare and mostly found in electro music)
Added new hairstyles: "Long Twin Tails", "Short" and "Braided Ponytail"
Added new skin: "White Dress"
Added new color scheme: "Dark"

Modding Changes

You can access the new Mod Editor in the game's installation folder, under the name "ModStudio.exe". I will soon write a tutorial on how to use this tool, but it should be quite simple to grasp the basics if you're already familiar with Melody's Escape custom content creation. The main advantages are real time color editing and texture reloading.
Added a "belt" skin element for the character skin (empty on the default skin). This element is drawn above the legs and is tied to the position of the "pelvis" element. You can use it for instance to draw a skirt above the legs
Hairlocks are now drawn above the static sprite of a haircut.

Minor Changes

Added some noise/dithering to the sky's background gradient, so that the gradient horizontal lines are less noticeable and to get a slightly more gritty visual result.
Removed the background gradient in menus screen as it resulted in visible horizontal lines with some color schemes.
The flying mode's backgrounds were slightly offset so that they don't intersect visually with the orbs anymore, for better visibility.
Hair movement now flow more naturally for all animations where Melody rolls (especially with very long hairstyles where it was too stiff before)
Flying mode is now slightly faster and running mode is now slightly slower
Multiple changes to the default color palette
Fixed folders with a dot "." character in their name being shown as playlists in the music selection menu
Fixed scrolling the music list with LB/RB shoulder button (or PgUp/PgDown keys) being able to overflow if the list was small.
Removed the "disable dynamic hair simulation" performance option as its cost was quite minimal compared to its high visual quality impact.
Fixed fullscreen mode issues when restarting the game on Linux
The Mac port is now using universal binaries, which should fix Workshop Skin loading issue that prevented some players from running the game after subscribing to a skin.

Nov 20, 2014

Update v0.7.4: New skin & haircuts + a mod editor

Melody's Escape - Epsi

Patch update v0.7.4.0: New skin & haircuts + mod editor

Major Changes

Added a mod editor/studio. You can now very easilly create your own skins, hairstyles and color themes and edit them all in real-time (Windows only).
Added "slow-mo" jumps in running sections, for very specific occurences where the music's energy drastically drops during a few seconds. Those jumps can be identified on the song preview graph by a blue vertical dashed line (note that they are quite rare and mostly found in electro music)
Added new hairstyles: "Long Twin Tails", "Short" and "Braided Ponytail"
Added new skin: "White Dress"
Added new color scheme: "Dark"

Modding Changes

You can access the new Mod Editor in the game's installation folder, under the name "ModStudio.exe". I will soon write a tutorial on how to use this tool, but it should be quite simple to grasp the basics if you're already familiar with Melody's Escape custom content creation. The main advantages are real time color editing and texture reloading.
Added a "belt" skin element for the character skin (empty on the default skin). This element is drawn above the legs and is tied to the position of the "pelvis" element. You can use it for instance to draw a skirt above the legs
Hairlocks are now drawn above the static sprite of a haircut.

Minor Changes

Added some noise/dithering to the sky's background gradient, so that the gradient horizontal lines are less noticeable and to get a slightly more gritty visual result.
Removed the background gradient in menus screen as it resulted in visible horizontal lines with some color schemes.
The flying mode's backgrounds were slightly offset so that they don't intersect visually with the orbs anymore, for better visibility.
Hair movement now flow more naturally for all animations where Melody rolls (especially with very long hairstyles where it was too stiff before)
Flying mode is now slightly faster and running mode is now slightly slower
Multiple changes to the default color palette
Fixed folders with a dot "." character in their name being shown as playlists in the music selection menu
Fixed scrolling the music list with LB/RB shoulder button (or PgUp/PgDown keys) being able to overflow if the list was small.
Removed the "disable dynamic hair simulation" performance option as its cost was quite minimal compared to its high visual quality impact.
Fixed fullscreen mode issues when restarting the game on Linux
The Mac port is now using universal binaries, which should fix Workshop Skin loading issue that prevented some players from running the game after subscribing to a skin.

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