YaZZle 2.0 release notes
These notes pertain to Release 2.0 Alpha 0.1.0, build 20041121-001:
New features for this release
- You may now create your own game types, or modify existing ones. Only 5 game types are currently included, but the previously supported ones will be re-added as soon as the time is found to complete their help info.
- Skinnable playing area, dialog boxes, and buttons. 2 very good looking default skins are included along with one XP-like skin in 2 variations.
- New card deck spec to allow decks that are made up of one card image file per card. The separate Bellot deck download is an example of a deck that makes use of this feature.
- Optional card size enlargement when the window is sized larger or when a newly selected game type requires a smaller number of cards per playing area. Currently only supported for v2 card decks.
- Automatic card size reduction when the window is sized smaller or when a newly selected game type requires a larger number of cards per playing area.
- A game log file will be created which may help track down those nasty bugs that slip through testing.
- New integrated html-based help with rules for each supported game type.
- New and reworked dialogs to cover most aspects of game play.
- Card movement and animation flickering has been completely eliminated.
- Smoother and pc speed independent card movement and animation.
- Support for card stack shadows during card stack movement.
- Card movement via a flicking gesture.
- Optional winning animation.
- Card move sound support.
- Music playlist support.
- High scores support.
Bugs fixed this release
- Switching to a card deck that has a different number of backs than the one currently in use will no longer cause the cards to be displayed incorrectly.
- Switching to a card deck that has different dimensions than the one currently in use will no longer cause the cards and pile placemats to be displayed incorrectly.
- Switching to a card deck that has different dimensions than the one currently in use will no longer cause the cards and pile placemats and placemat positions to be displayed using the previous card deck's dimensions.
- For game types without Waste piles, double-clicking on a Reserve or Tableau card that can be auto-moved to the Foundation will no longer cause the application to crash.
- Attempting a left-click drag and drop to move a non-moveable card will no longer cause the window to be moved.
- There is now a way to lock the window position to help prevent accidental window repositioning during game play.
- Deck selection card back and face images are now correct.
- There is no longer an occasional flickering of a stack of cards as it is dropped when at the end of a drag and drop move.
- There is no longer an occasional flickering of a card when it is flipped.
- Continuous mouse clicks are now handled properly. They are no longer skipped and as a result there is no longer any choppy fast play when repeatedly clicking on the stock pile.
- Using the pause key ('P') to pause the game no longer requires clicking outside of the window and then back within the window before the game is resumed.
- The window properties have been modified so that the game's taskbar icon may be used to manipulate the game window.
- Hard play mode games using a "free cell" style of play will no longer allow one more than the correct number of cards to be dragged and dropped.
- Reserve-to-Tableau moves are now animated if the "Animated cards" option is enabled.
- Multiple card move undos now correctly occur as one undo.
- Right-clicks during left mouse card stack drags will no longer cause a crash.
- Right-clicks on cards that are to be flipped will no longer cause the game to be paused and the right-click context menu to be opened.
- Some drag-and-drop moves which were improperly being rejected for dropping are now properly accepted as good drops.
- ?
Known limitations
- The current approach to card deck usage requires full decks, so any partial decks that you may have used in the past will not be shown in the card deck list for use. The current workaround is to create a Version 2 full deck.
- Only 5 game types are currently supported from the previously supported set of game types, and all of those are single deck game types. More will be added as the time is found to create the required game type inis, help texts, and bitmaps.
- Sounds are enabled but you must come up with your own sound files since no distributable ones could be found. The current set of supported sounds are new deal, pickup, letdown, and stock-to-waste as specified in the YaZZle.ini within the Options section.
- The sound effects will be played at the maximum volume that your current system volume is set to. The music will be played at about 1/6th of this maximum volume. Neither the sound effects nor the music volumes are adjustable by the game player nor by the application itself. There is no current workaround.
- Many of the options have been disabled since they are not currently supported. There are also a few options which were available in the non-skinned version of the application which are still supported but only through their previous hotkey sequences. These options may or may not be supported in future versions.
- Games that cause pile overlaps, such as Pyramid, are slower than other game types in redrawing the playing area due to a work around implemented to get around a drawing bug that only affects redrawing of empty piles that overlap each other.
- There is no visual indication of how many cards are contained within a card pile that is stacked straight up when not in "Randomly place cards" mode.
- There is no shadow for drag-n-drop stacks when in "Randomly place cards" mode.
- There is no support for a non-skinned mode.
- ?
Known bugs
- While YaZZle is open and card movement sound effects and/or background music has at least once been enabled, Windows will not be allowed to go into standby or to hibernate.
- Skins without fixed sized border settings will not have the text for any text area stretched along with the rest of the skin when required due to the window size being different than that of the skin background.
- "Holes" in skin backgrounds are not "covered" by the skin's skinnables nor by the playing cards, allowing the underlying windows to show through. (fixed in next release)
- Skins without a MenuFont section will use the previous skin's menu font, but will correctly use the system menu font when YaZZle is restarted.
- YaZZle does not start up with a maximized window after it had previously been closed while maximized.
- Background pixels that show through an alpha-blended placemat are not drawn "crisply." (fixed in next release)
- Menus are not drawn properly in accordance with the OS's menu transition effect setting.
- There is no way to specify a highlight image for a v2 card deck.
- ?
Suggestions
- Modify Pyramid help to include info about the additional allowed Foundation move which allows a unexposed card to be used.
- Have help available and still allow playing.
- Would be nice to have the capability to specify that a window edge's "middle" part should be tiled rather than stretched. (added to this release)
- Would be nice to have the capability to specify a specific size for menu separators.
- Would be nice to have the capability to specify XP-like menus.
- An easy, generic way to horizontally center a game's title, which currently cannot be accomplished. (added to the next release as horizontal and vertical "alignment" settings, specified as a percentage of the width and height of the skinnable, respectively)
- An easy, generic way to specify width and height values for an "Image="-based skinnable that are different than those of the image, so that the resulting displayed image can be of a different size. (you can currently enter W and H values for any of the skinnables, but they get overridden by the associated "Image=" image file's values; modified for the next release so that if these values are entered they will be used instead of the image file's values; there are also some new settings which will allow for a skinnable's displayed width and/or height to be tied to the width and/or height of one of its parent dialog's fixed-sized border "sections")
- A new "label" skinnable with the same settings as the current game-specific text skinnables.
- Ability to make use of background pict skinnables in defining the shape of the gameplay window. (added to the next release)
- ?
Features for the next major release
A bit of a problem here. The only system containing the sources for this project experienced a hard disk crash after this release's exe was built. And unfortunately the last project snapshot was taken back in August of '04. Which means there will be no new development on YaZZle for the next several months.
What is planned for YaZZle's next major release though, is as follows:
- Bug fixes.
- Suggestions.
- Limitation fixes.
- More skinnable dialogs will be enabled.
- 2 deck game type support will be re-added.
- More of the old game types will be re-added.
- Platform independence re-write will be continued.
- The Version 2 card deck specification coding effort will be completed.
- Some of the old options will be re-enabled (game save, restore, ?).
- Complete documentation for game type, card deck, and skin creation.
- The currently disabled options will be finished and re-enabled.
- Better winning animation.
- Better gesture support.
- ?
Volunteers
- Luuc has volunteered to do a skinning intro (done).