[previewyoutube=3WsAgByLERs;full][/previewyoutube] Project Heartbeat 0.8 is now available, this update is relatively decent size and comes with mostly under-the-hood improvements, but it also packs some long time requested features and changes. A new song was scheduled for this update however it didn't make it in time, hopefully we'll have it in the next update.

Important changes

Lyrics system

A new lyrics system has been integrated into the game, this allows showing lyrics on screen in two ways, simple full phrases or karaoke-style syllable progression. You can disable the lyrics or change their position and color in the options menu under the "visual" section. This feature is also enabled for PPD charts that come with lyrics.

Translation system and new translations

The game is now officially translated to Spanish and Catalan, the game will try to select the language based on your machine's settings however you can also force a particular language in the "Game" section of the options menu.

PPD Manager Tool

The PPD Manager Tool allows you to change your PPD song's artwork and youtube URLs easily from within it.

Timing window modifier

Introducing the timing window modifier, this modifier allows you to change the timing window of all notes, keep in mind using this disables leaderboard usage. I hope this will be a fun modifier to play around with.

Arrows changes

Arrow notes have been changed in looks, they now have target colors that match the note colors.

Performance improvements

Project Heartbeat is powered by Godot Engine, Godot added a new feature that allows PH to draw notes in a single burst instead of drawing each note and note sprite one by one, this translates into a very big performance improvement, in some cases doubling the FPS. There have also been a lot of under the hood changes to improve performance and make the experience smoother, you will particularly notice these in the main menu song list and in the editor.

Latency improvements

0.8 comes with some new PH-specific engine audio driver modifications which translates into a massive latency reduction, PH will try to go as low as your audio driver will allow. For windows users, this feature is only available if you are using Windows 10.

Editor changes

Timeline revamp

The way you navigate the timeline and the way it looks have received a big change, the new sleeker design should make it easier for you to distinguish each row. New keyboard shortcuts have been added to navigate the timeline, create basic notes and select notes. You can learn more about them in the editor's manual.

Multi presets

A new multi presets tab has been added to the editor, you can use this new feature to arrange multi notes in many different ways, there are also dynamic presets that you can use for some specific cases, I hope you enjoy experimenting with them.

Note transforms

This update also adds some new note transformation options, these allow you to do things such as rotate a group of notes around their center, interpolate note rotations and other fancy things, please try different combinations and see what you can come up with! Other minor changes

• Change how SFX and Input are handled for the game.
• Add ability to reset playtest in editor by using the contextual button (F or select by default).
• Disable caching.
• Move version text to bottom right and make it hide when hovered.
• Invert song title and author
• Add black outline to ratings
• Add practice mode click to seek and fix practice mode progress and timing label when using start_time.
• Add check for downloaded youtube dl videos when starting multiplayer games.
• Add DIVA audio split support to main menu and multiplayer.
• Added the ability to load into the editor by using the --song-editor command line argument.
• Make notes be drawn on top of the timeline
• Use audio normalization in the editor.
• Show the sine wave on selected notes.

Bug fixes (A lot of these were pushed to 0.7 as hotfixes but they are included here anyways).

• Fix note duplication bug.
• Fix fine position breaking undo_redo.
• Fix rare multiplayer race condition causing post-game to never happen or update.
• Fix first song played in menu not using normalized volume.
• Fix fullscreen not being set properly when the game starts causing it to cover half a screen.
• Fix joining steam lobbies from an invite.
• Fix editor crash when opening a second song.
• Fix song load error related to youtube_url based songs and DSC splitting.
• Fix pre-game screen deadlock.
• Fix slide particles changing in size when hit too late.
• Fix DSCLoader randomly failing
• Fix song chart meta editor rounding up scores.

[ 2020-12-20 06:30:07 CET ] [ Original post ]