Monday, August 18, 2008

OpenFracas 0.6 Released

OpenFracas 0.6 "Cedric" has been released. This release marks the 1 year anniversary of OpenFracas. The most notable change in 0.6 is the new map file-format. Much of the work this release has been behind-the-scenes, making the game work with the new format.

While it may seem a trivial addition, it means that it is now possible to save and restore games in progress, as well as the maps upon which they were played. We originally inherited the map file format from Fracas 2.0, and had extended it well past what it was intended to handle in order to get it to keep up with the progress of OpenFracas. Nevertheless, it was far from an ideal solution. We didn't have support for reading and writing Fracas games-in-progress, and the file format in general wasn't suited to our goals for OpenFracas.

Additionally, a new Maps section has been added to our website at http://www.openfracas.org/maps.php where users can download maps and saved games, and can also upload their own creations to share with others.

The file format used now, .ofmap and .ofgame are based on the YAML data serialization library/format and are a much more robust file format, while still maintaining human readability.

The Map Editor has received updated code to allow it to use the new file formats, as well. The features of the Map Editor will grow in time as it matures, and the last of the code-base is brought around to using the new formats.

OpenFracas 0.6 is available on the downloads page; please feel free to contact us with any questions, concerns, or bugs on our forums.

Ubuntu users who have added our repository to their package manager will find the new version automatically available as an update.