Release Preparation of A27.1

[Itms]

Hi everyone,

We are preparing the first "patch release" of 0 A.D., now that our workflow allows us to do that. We need your help testing it!

What is a patch release?

A patch release is a minor release of 0 A.D., bringing a few selected fixes from the development version into the latest release of the game. All fixes of the patch release are already present in the development version (the future Release 28).

There are two important aspects to a patch release:

1. Patch releases are OOS-compatible with major releases. If your friend has not heard about the patch release, or cannot install it for whatever reason, they should still be able to play multiplayer with you. This limits the kind of fixes we can include in a patch release.
2. Patch releases are prepared on the side, and do not take precedence over our work towards the next major release. We prepare and provide patch releases as our resources allow. This limits the scale of the fixes we can include in a patch release.

What is the current status of A27.1?

We have setup all the infrastructure for generating patch releases, and a first testable version is ready for you. It is still incomplete, and thus labeled as "Release Candidate Zero" (RC0).

In A27.1, we wish to include, but those are not yet in RC0:

• a fix for the flood on non-flood maps reloaded from a save
• a fix for modifying your lobby password when you have an uppercase letter in your username

In RC0 are included:

• a fix for the large performance issue observed by some players on older hardware
• several small performance improvements in the calculation of simulation hashes (related to multiplayer stuttering)
• a fix for the distorted 3D models with GPU Skinning
• fixes for crashes with Vulkan and/or with GPU Skinning
• a fix for the game crash on pressing Fn key
• a fix for a crash in Atlas when the map generation fails
• fixes for multiplayer port forwarding
• package fixes for Linux desktop environments
• various build fixes for Linux (some sent by package managers)

A27.1 will not include:

• any modification of simulation hashes: it could remove stuttering entirely, but it would make A27.1 incompatible with A27 (against rule 1 above)
• incremental simulation hashes: those improve stuttering as well, but are too complex to backport (against rule 2 above)

How can I test it?

You can download the release bundles of A27.1-RC0 at https://releases.wildfiregames.com/rc/

Please report below any crashes or new issues (that weren't already present in A27, unless they are listed as allegedly fixed above).

Thanks for your help and support!

[borg-]

Congratulations development team for their commitment and dedication.

[sj113]

How can I check if it installed correctly?

because after installation it still displays alpha 27.

[Lopess]

Congratulations to everyone on the team for the new update, I'm happy with this new approach!

[Seleucids]

I am currently playing on the RC. It feels much much smoother than A27 and I have experienced no random crash / stuttering so far. The minimum fps has always been very high. Good improvement! 

However, Atlas crash still persists, especially on Wayland.

 

[Itms]

1 hour ago, sj113 said:

How can I check if it installed correctly?

because after installation it still displays alpha 27.

In the bottom of the main menu, it should display (release-a27.1, 68d99) instead of (release-a27, 8c96b)

[Itms]

1 minute ago, Seleucids said:

However, Atlas crash still persists, especially on Wayland.

Is it already a known issue? If not, please open a ticket on Gitea, if yes we'll try and take a look.

[Seleucids]

5 minutes ago, Itms said:

s it already a known issue? If not, please open a ticket on Gitea, if yes we'll try and take a look.

There are many variations of the crash errors. I will put the issue onto Gitea. This RC gives a different error to the A27-0 version.