New release: Kyodai Mahjongg 2006 1.0

[Nao]

• [Music] There's now a total of 25 minutes of CD-quality music in Kyodai Mahjongg! (See below for details)
• [New] Implemented soft shadows (shadows with smoothed borders), at absolutely no CPU time cost.
• [New] Platform mode now offers a more interesting view: transparent glass effect with full board reflection.
• [New] The platform's frame now has rounded borders for a more realistic effect.
• [New] The layout selector's layout preview window now shows different layers in fading colors, in order to look like kyodai.com's preview system.
• [New] Now, on Solitaire and Rivers games, the time counter will only start after your first click. This is in order to encourage users to develop a strategy prior to removing tiles.
• [New] The dialog box animations are now a little more noticeable.
• [New] Added a new Contemplation mode (Slowest), enabled by default.
• [New] Changed "Tileset" menu to "Tiles", moved "Small Tiles" menu to top level, and renamed "Small Tiles" to "Stones" for better clarity. Games that use "Stones" instead of "Tiles" are Clicks, Slider, Hashira and Kumika.
• [New] Finally implemented Rivers tile removal animation the way I always envisioned it, with a line representing the link between the tiles.
• [New] Updated program icon and installer to something more... modern. The installer now works in your default language, too.
• [New] While I was at it, I replaced the toolbar icons with a new icon set, "Nuvola" by David Ignoni. Also used a couple of Windows XP icons for the Start menu group.
• [New] You can enable and disable "Large icons" for the toolbar in the View > Toolbar type menu.
• [New] The player's name is now set by default to your Windows account's name instead of "Player1".
• [New] The layout selector now offers a Difficulty rating for every layout. This is only an estimation based on the free tiles/total tiles ratio, and won't work for all types of layouts.
• [New] 3D engine converted to DirectX 8.1.


• [Language] Updated translations : Italian, Norwegian. Added incomplete translation to Arabic by Awadh. Work in progress. I also updated the Japanese translation by myself, only for the main onscreen text.


• [Skin] Added "Classic" skin, taken from the website's sidebar background used in early 2005.
• [Skin] New default skin: "Smooth", a gradient maroon seamless tile made by the author, which renders nicely in the menu and window system.
• [Tileset] Added the beautiful "Gargoyles" by 'Ren, which was omitted from v20.00 by mistake.


• [Fix] Fixed support for complex character sets such as Arabic, Japanese, Greek, etc. Fixed 16 language files that didn't have the right charset.
• [Fix] From now on, when changing the Direct3D device crashes the game (happens to me only in fullscreen mode), the program won't freeze, it just will quit immediately. Just restart the game and it should run fine again. If it doesn't, launch it using the "Reset options" shortcut.
• [Fix] Fixed "Set Font" feature which didn't work any longer.
• [Fix] Improved selection dialog box's layout.
• [Fix] Fixed a bug in the Music menu when selecting a theme with no music attached.
• [Fix] Texts in the help files are now anti-aliased when anti-aliasing is enabled on Windows.
• [Fix] Improved down arrow key handling in Hashira.
• [Fix] Fixed various glitches in the layout editor.
• [Fix] Fixed "squeek" sound when starting a Clicks game.
• [Fix] Fixed a showstopper in the layout editor when cancelling a "Save as" action.
• [Fix] Fixed a problem with Ogg songs and the Random Music feature.
• [Fix] Finally fixed that "Musics" subdirectory to be correctly spelled as "Music".
• [Fix] Disabling the "Play in a window" option will no longer make the caption bar go away.
• [Fix] Removed ability to add song files to themes, for esthetic reasons. Just use the Music menu to switch between songs...
• [Fix] Fixed another of these long-lived bugs: Hashira tiles getting stuck in the frame when the computer is too slow.
• [Fix] Follow-up to v19.75's Random Music issue: figured out an undocumented way to include MOD songs in the Random Music process.
• [Fix] Particle animation disabled for Ghost animation type, for Feng Shui reasons or something like that.
• [Fix] Fixed interoperability between the "Show Numerals and Letters" and "Large Numeral and Letters" options.
• [Fix] Fixed a bug from v20.00 public beta 1 where the program would sometime crash at startup with a "JPEG error #42" message.
• [Fix] Added an entry in the troubleshooting guide about the "Set Volume" feature not working on some configurations.
• [Fix] It's not so important, but now the hall of fame file (Hallfame.ini) will only record the actual best scores instead of dozens of empty rows for each and every layout.
• [Fix] Fixed a vertex list unlocking bug that may have been the cause of ingame crashes on some video cards.
• [Fix] Removed "Rotate" option from the Contemplation Mode menu to clean up some code (I don't believe anyone ever used it anyway).
• [Fix] The English and French help files have been fully revised. Hopefully you won't find any obsolete information in them.
• [Fix] As always, lots and lots of other little things...



• [Music] Added a great new CD-quality OGG song: Emerald, by my friend Miguel Samiez, taken from his album Bluescape Limited bonus CD. Sweet dreams!
• [Music] [Only in the full download of KMJ] Added another OGG song: Fusion, by Miguel Samiez. It's a mix between Endless, Fairy Tale and The Sad Song, taken straight from the Kyodai Mahjongg soundtrack album.
• [Music] [Only in the full download of KMJ] Added another OGG song: We are like Crystal, by Miguel Samiez. A very moving song with a melody you'll never forget. Taken from the Bluescape album.
• [Music] [Only in the full download of KMJ] Added another OGG song: Rain Dust, by Miguel Samiez, in its short version. One of Miguel's finest earlier KMJ works, now in CD quality. Taken from the Bluescape Limited bonus CD.
• [Music] [Only in the full download of KMJ] Added another OGG song: Ice Palace, by Miguel Samiez.
• [Music] "Congo Nights" comes back to KMJ after years of absence.

[Webangel]

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[Nao]

You're welcome, you're welcome,  you're welcome

[Raveneye]

Wow!

You da man, Nao!

[dmaggard]

Is it just my imagination or are the fireworks really better in the released version?

[pkloz2002]

I did not initially see that your latest work of art was on the home page.  I got so used to just going right over to the community forum pages.

Outstanding Nao.  If anyone was wondering why it too so long to release this lastest version all the have to do is see all that you have fixed, improved on, and added.

Now rest easy: for your latest and greatest is out.  Maybe you should take your lady on a nice vacation and not even think of KMJ for awhile.  You sure are more than deserving of that.

[Nao]

I didn't touch anything, dmaggard. Maybe that's the magic of randomness

[pkloz2002]

dmaggard I guess I must have been imagining it also.  The fireworks seem more intense.  Or maybe it is just the power of suggestion as I did not load and play until after I read your post.

[Thorgred]

great job!

[dmaggard]

dmaggard I guess I must have been imagining it also. The fireworks seem more intense.

I compared it to beta 3 and there really is no difference,  Maybe it's that I have yet to copy my old Hall of Fame to the new, empty Hall of Fame that came with the new release, and hence I am seeing the fireworks after every game.

[Nao]

Actually the Hall of fame gets automatically copied from your KMJ directory to your KMJ 2006 directory... Provided of course both directories are in "Program Files".

[Webangel]

Nao, you have here another 'Shareware Award Winner.' It most definitely has my vote. (standing ovation) A job very well done.

[Raveneye]

Just wanted to say a couple of things Nao...

1.  Absolutely fantastic!!!
2.  Absolutely fantastic!!! -- did I already mention that part?
3.  I love Congo Nights (why was that ever taken out?) and thank you very much for putting it back! It reminds me of Jean Michel Jarre's work...
4.  All the OGG songs are top notch as well -- "We are like crystal" is simply superb and "Fusion" is indeed the perfect default song.
5.  ALL of the old bugs are GONE!  I am truly in awe...
6.  Found a NEW bug.  But you do deserve a break so I won't tell you about it until you're ready...

[Nao]

Webangel> Thanks I'm not calling for votes any longer, though. I do not appreciate how I never received my trophy for the second award I got, and how they handled the whole thing when I asked about it. My best award is still the audience award, the only one that matters: 10 million visits to kyodai.com!

1. Thanks!
2. I know
3. I removed it because someone told me long ago that it was a ripoff from Skaven's works. I listened to the work in question sometime later, and realized it wasn't true. But I always forgot to include the song back into KMJ, now it is done.
4. Yeah
5. Did my best
6. You're welcome to tell. As long as it's not a showstopper, I won't even be upset (There's a private forum thread for beta testing stuff, please post it there!)

[vkp]

Just wanted to say: Outstanding!