Happy Friday, everybody. Just to let you know, my ankle is doing a bit better and I've been moving around pretty well, but I'm still keeping a brace on it when I go up or down stairs or doing much walking. It's gonna be a while, I think, but I'm sure it'll heal.

There's a new release out today, which is 511.1370. I had wanted to get the fix for DualShock controllers into this release, but I didn't have time to come up with a comprehensive solution yet. I would have waited on the release, but there were some other issues that have been waiting on a fix and needed to get out right away, including one that impacts SS13 servers. So the DualShock fix is still coming, but it isn't here yet.

In this build, I was confronted with a galling math error on my part from the last time I fixed KEEP_TOGETHER/maptext sprites, causing transforms to send them off the rails. (In my defense, sometimes the math gets hairy and if you're not in the right frame of mind it can turn your brain into a pretzel.) Gamepad mappings were still broken, and that's on me because after the last fix I forgot to test something. And SS13 was having a problem with crazy network usage that, from what I could tell, turns out to have been a problem with a comparison on the server when checking on movables each client knew about; specifically, the struct that handles that had an alignment problem, and it appears to have blown up a few 64-bit comparison operations like for pixel offsets, steps, etc. The server thought known objects had changed, and was sending superfluous updates.

For those wondering about the DualShock fix and why it's late, here's the lowdown. BYOND's gamepad code maps all axes from -10000 to 10000, assuming positive and negative; and values near 0 are inactive. But the triggers on the DualShock, unlike many other pads, are actual proper positive-only axes. Those however get mapped to the same range as the others, so they register as -10000 when the triggers aren't pressed. This screws with the Gamepad Setup dialog, which assumes two axes are in use when none are. The fix for this is not trivial, because there's no reliable way to get info from the gamepad that says this axis is a stick and this other one is a trigger; so I may have to come up with something a little bit hacky. (Funnily enough, there is a difference between these axes when I look at one of the parameters; but it's not a general rule I could safely apply to all gamepads.)

On this note, I'm also still investigating a report by Hikato that keyboard movement causes slowdowns when using a gamepad. I haven't been able to confirm this on my end yet, and it makes absolutely no sense that it should happen, but anyway I haven't given up on it.

Plans are still coalescing for 512, so get your requests in while you can. I have a list of wanted features that is, once again, fairly ambitious. Filters are still on the wait-and-see list, because I have yet to come up with a syntax that makes them easy to work with. Filters are complex beasts, so it's not something I jump into lightly.

Big thanks to everyone who's shown their support for BYOND this month by donating or becoming Members. You guys are awesome.

🥓 Pro tip: If you bake bacon in the oven, do it at 325°, not 350 or 400 like you'll hear from some people. Low and slow is better, and it honestly takes about as long as frying a whole bunch. And whether you fry or bake, don't forget to save the grease! That stuff is kitchen gold.