Hi folks! So, it's time for another big tech update!
New in this build:
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Vastly reduced memory usage during loads/saves
Skippable technical details: Previously, saving was a two-step process, where first we converted the current game state into an intermediate format and then saved that intermediate format to disk. Loading worked the same way, in reverse; load into the intermediate format, then convert the intermediate format into a real game state.
So it turned out that the intermediate format could be extremely large for large games; for our largest player-submitted saves I've seen it consume more than ten extra gigabytes of RAM; we have one user-submitted save file which I couldn't even load on my main development PC because I simply don't have enough virtual memory to hold the intermediate format!
This change entirely eliminates the intermediate format, and we instead load and save directly, saving all of that extraneous RAM usage during saves and loads!
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Integrated the new game architecture which will support the Dungeons feature
The Dungeons feature itself isn't in this build, but all the underlying technology changes which were required for Dungeons is here for early testing. This game architecture change should be invisible to everyone, but it's helpful for us to have more people running on the new architecture, so we can be sure it's really solid and have people testing that the savefile upgrade process from the old architecture to the new one is absolutely seamless!
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Multi-line text editing
This commit adds new, multi-line text editing, which we'll eventually be rolling out to a bunch of different places in the UI, but the one in this build is in the updated building information window, where there is now a small freeform text box where you can take notes, write flavor text, etc.
This update also improves cursor handling over unicode text, and adds word-select on a double-click. (select-all has been moved to triple-click)
...plus miscellaneous small improvements and bug fixes!
Thanks so much for your patience and enthusiasm, everybody! The upcoming Dungeons feature has been kicking my butt for months, but I've finally got the underlying tech in place now (active in this build!) and progress is being made again! Am hoping to have announcements to make about it soon. :D
Best,
-T
Changed files in this update