Last week I really wanted to get 513.1512 out early, but it got delayed by a number of issues until ultimately I was looking at tempting the Friday curse and still had a number of open issues. This week I had hoped to get to it early, but more delays hit, and in some ways I'm glad they did. With all the fixes and a couple of good new features in there, it was worth the wait.

One of the major delays I hit this week was investigating a bug that turns out to be dependent on the user's video card. On Nvidia cards, certain unusual uses of the outline filter cause a bizarre shading effect under maptext, but only depending on whether the maptext extends above or below the original icon (if above, nothing happens, and probably also if it extends to the left), and there is no explanation for the bug except that I can positively say it's an Nvidia issue and not, for once, my fault. Although I'd still like to fix it if possible, it's resisted all efforts at analysis—and also I don't have an Nvidia card.

The big thing about this latest release of course is that this time, I hope, the mouse hit stuff is really truly done. It's been very difficult to get right, partly because of dealing with old logic that was no longer relevant but also because of new logic that missed the mark somehow. But finally things are looking up in that department.

The skin editor update is still in the works, and I know it's a minor thing but it'll be a big deal to me because it means I can cut the compile time for Dream Maker, which has to handle all those different property pages. Compiling BYOND takes a bit, first doing the small byondext library, then byondlib, then byondwin, and finally the front-end programs which can all go at once since they're not interdependent. But Dream Maker has always taken the longest, so it'd be nice to improve that.

I'm thinking ahead to 514 features still, working on some code for particles. Although collisions are not high on my list for a first round, I do think it's important to support ground collisions of some kind so for instance sparks can bounce or disappear. More complexity can be added later.

I want to thank everyone who's contributed to BYOND this month, as Members or donors or on Patreon or SubscribeStar. Your support makes all this development possible.

Tomorrow we get an extra day of February, so put it to good use! Nah, just kidding, there's no good use for an extra day in February, but maybe have a donut or something.