020 Release is ready!

[Talad]

Thanks to the efforts of the team, a new PlaneShift release is ready! The server is up and the upgrade to next release (0.3.020) is complete! To join the game you need an updated client. You can find the windows and linux distributions in our download page. MacOSX will follow shortly.

Here is a list of changes for this release:

New Features:
- Duels aren’t deadly anymore. You will knock a player down and then you will receive a message asking if you want to kill the player or not.
- Banking: Players will now be able to open a personal bank account. Guildleaders will also be able to open a guild bank account and set permission who can access the account. Not enabled yet in-game.
- New characters will now enter a tutorial-world when they login.
- The Death Realm is now cursed! Not enabled yet in-game.
- Authors are now able to name their books.
- Only the author of a book or sketch can now edit it. This ONLY applies to books and sketches bought AFTER the .20 release!
- Equipping helmets will now remove the hair mesh.
- Various fonts were changed to ones with a better (GPL) license.
- Work started on taxing.

Art:
- Various maps now use the new "Lighter2" lightmap system for creating light and shadows.
- Various maps now use a newer 3d format (genmeshes instead of thingmeshes).
- More icons and meshes for items have been added.
- A tutorial area has been added for new players. The tutorial has to be completed by new players before moving to the game world.
- The tavern has been expanded.

Changes That Have Been Made.
GUI:
- Mouserun has been enabled by default to aid new players. It can be turned off by un-assigning the "LeftClick" in Options->Controls->Keys->Camera->MouseRun.
- The order of the main menu icons has been changed to make it more intuitive. Obviously this will need getting used to for long-time players.
- Many changes and updates to the Planeshift Advanced Windowing System, this is the code backend of the graphical user interface.
- The book writing window now looks better.
- Chatbubbles are prettier.
- The last used spell is now highlighted in the spells window.
- When your name is mentioned the specific tab will now flash in way recognizable from the normal way.
- The tutorial window now looks better.
- Equipped items won’t show up in Buy/Sell window anymore.
- You can now have up to 200 shortcuts.
- You’re now prompted for a password when you try to delete your character.
- Various fixes to the graphical user interface.
- The item description window now shows item sizes.
- The total amount of trias is now displayed in the skillwindow.
- The guild invitation window always stays on top now.
- Several improvements for weather and especially fog.
- Fog now reduces your viewing distance, so it is actually "thick" now.

Sound:
- Changes to most environment sounds, for fading and distance values.
- New sound setups for the Winch and the Bronze Doors.
- A new sound for the "DRCitadel" in the Death Realm.

Movement and Combat:
- You will get the “too tired” message at 10% stamina now.
- Stamina now regenerates faster when sitting.
- Natural armour is now counted as a bonus to normal armour, instead of something that is replaced when you equip bought armour.
- Now you cannot use “/attack 1” anymore but you should use “/attack bloody” instead.
- You won’t be able to lure NPCs anymore by just pressing the attack button.
- A toggle key for running/walking can be used when you have autorun enabled(r), you must enabled it under Options first.
- Passing a region border no longer stops you from running.


Engine:
- Planeshift now uses version 1.2 of The Crystal Space 3D engine and the Crystal Entity Layer environment.
- Meshes, textures and materials are now deleted when they aren’t needed anymore, this improves memory usage.
- The client now loads less models and textures during startup causing it to launch much faster, they are loaded on-demand now.
- Many changes and fixes to map loading and unloading, making it better and faster.
- Some optimizations in network code to make the server faster.

Various:
- You can now trade while sitting.
- Players can now stack items together regardless of quality and creator.
- An error message on /unstick now displays how long you have to wait until you can use /unstick again.
- The /pos command for showing your position now shows your instance too.
- Advisors can now see who other advisors are.
- The timeout for advisor sessions has been doubled.

Bugs That Have Been Fixed:
- You can now type in the auction tab again instead of having to use /auction.
- Several server crashes.
- Several fixes to make sure players won’t get stuck in instances anymore.
- Players can now loot when killing mobs with a Damage Over Time spell.
- Various fixes to the marriage system.
- The command “z” to sit now always works, sometimes you had to press it twice.
- Fixes to movement code so you should get stuck less often.
- Some fixes to the /unstick command
- Many changes and fixes to the locking and unlocking of doors.
- It is not possible anymore to fish for gold.
- Sometimes you had to press “r” twice to enable autorun, this is now made more elegant.
- The preview of skins now works in pssetup.
- Advisor messages now actually display the right information.
- The FPS cap and the distance cap now actually work.
- You can now close the sketch window with the red cross.
- If you use quotes ("") in a sketch, the entire sketch isn't wiped anymore.

Freshly Implemented Bugs:
- After a partial stack within the furnace is moved, only the amount that you moved will be melted. The rest can be lost.
- After all art and engine related changes, users may experience more lag than usual at times. You can fix this by decreasing Distance under "Options-->Graphics-->Details".
- When moving to a new map, the progress bar of the loading screen will not show the progress correctly.
- Some issues with guildhouses access rights.
- When mouserun is enabled, sometimes clicking on the GUI or on an NPC will cause your character to move too.


Important Notes:
Yes, many of you noticed it already and commented about it. The client became a lot slower for some. This is because the engine was updated to version 1.2 of Crystal Space. At the same time, Planeshift started to use the brand-new "lighter2" system for light and shadow effects. The result of this is that that performance has gone down on some platforms only. A workaround is to set "Distance" under options to a lower value. It is also strongly recommended to update your graphics drivers. In the mean time the developers will investigate where performance can be improved.

- thanks to ThomPhoenix for this report

[Raa]

Talad, I love all the new stuff, except for one thing. When we zoom in on our characters too much, it goes to 1st person view. Is there a way to change it?

Also, I'd like to see what the new fog looks like. So, if the weather could get a little dreary, I'd like that. It makes me feel fuzzy and warm inside.

 

[ThomPhoenix]

Yes, your view switches to 1st person when you zoom in a lot, it's a new feature. At the moment you can't disable it, just try to zoom in less. Looking at the back of your character's head isn't much fun anyway

[Miaua]

- After all art and engine related changes, users may experience more lag than usual at times. You can fix this by decreasing Distance under "Options-->Graphics-->Details".

Important Notes:
Yes, many of you noticed it already and commented about it. The client became a lot slower for some. This is because the engine was updated to version 1.2 of Crystal Space. At the same time, Planeshift started to use the brand-new "lighter2" system for light and shadow effects. The result of this is that that performance has gone down on some platforms only. A workaround is to set "Distance" under options to a lower value. It is also strongly recommended to update your graphics drivers. In the mean time the developers will investigate where performance can be improved.

Latest graphics drivers, distance at 15.
I'm still barelly able to move (mainly on grassy areas) and Hydlaa and Jayose map eats ~1GB of RAM.
The grass around isnt greatest idea. 

Another thingy is unfortunate PvP system. But that hopefully will be better soon

But for the rest of release... GREAT WORK. Thank you

[ThomPhoenix]

It's not the grass that causes it, although it probably plays a part. The entire new lighting system is more likely the cause. Some people lag a lot, and for others (like me) the client is even faster than the old one. Investigation continues.

[Aiken]

It's not the grass that causes it, although it probably plays a part. The entire new lighting system is more likely the cause. Some people lag a lot, and for others (like me) the client is even faster than the old one. Investigation continues.

An a test server I had running removing all the grass in the plaza fixed it for me. On my local server grass = very bad stuttering, no grass = very smooth movement.

[Ver]

The new grass really seems to be more trouble than it's worth.

[Seneche]

This is sounding great! Thank you. 

[Vornne]

Sorry Thom , I don't think it is due to lighter2 (at least not all) the other maps without grass seem to run just as fast for me, and I got very similar performance near the laanx temple in the grass with both versions of art (though I will test again to be sure). Though I think I have longer loading times, and greater memory usage with lighter2 maps.

edit: after testing multiple times each with both 019 and 020 art, on the maps hydlaa_plaza, arena and bdroad1, Framerates were about the same both versions in arena and bdroad1, but with hydlaa_plaza the 020 map was much slower in all places with new grass, it was maybe a tiny bit slower in other places without grass, and in the area around the laanx temple with grass in both versions, but very close.

Loading times were up by huge amounts for hydlaa_plaza: about 15 seconds with 019, 1 - 2 minutes with 020, and arena: 7 seconds with 019, 45 seconds - 1 minute, though bdroad1 was about the same both versions at around 15 seconds. This is probably caused by increased memory usage and more swapping out to disk, 020 used from 100-200MB extra on the combined rss + swap value of psclient measured in top compared to 019, tested with those three maps, done twice with each version, restarting the client in between. I was running a linux 64 bit cvs debug build, I will test with the release binary when I get it.

I have heard that removing the grass from hydlaa_plaza sped it up a lot for some people, I will try that later.

[Lanarel]

I suggest discussions about lag are moved to the VERSION 0.3.020 - WHAT IS NOT WORKING FOR YOU?  thread. Also, do not forget the VERSION 0.3.020 - WHAT IS WORKING FOR ME one

But now that I am typing anyway, for me grass clearly is not a problem, and I do not have the best GPU. Running from the statue into the grass near Harns does not slow me down, or cause a drop in fps. The problem (drop of fps by factor 10) is solely when I look at many buildings.

[Mornox]

"Fishing for gold"?   What the heck is that?

Mornox wonders what was used for bait.

[Caarrie]

"Fishing for gold"?   What the heck is that?

Mornox wonders what was used for bait.

a bug that got fixed

[Nikodemus]

  ?
You guys meant this?

[Caarrie]

i was thinking more how do i fish for gold not mine for fish

[Kieve]

Darn, and here I was thinking I'd head over to the fish-mine after work and dig me a trout or two...