January 1, 2013 at 5:40 am
The New Year brings, among other things, Synekism 0.5.1. This release is a regular one with updated support, some bug fixes, and minor simulation changes.
Much of the time was spent on the new graphics engine. It is a massive undertaken as I''m discovering more and more each time I work on it. I would say it is about half way done and I''m hoping to make it live next release but, as promised, no promises. As a reminder, this wheel I''m reinventing is primarily to make future optimisations and new features, like an improved UI and better 3D graphics, exponentially easier to implement. It is part of my plan to rewrite Synekism from the low-level upwards for the long term.
Still, I spent some time on visible additions as well. Synekism now supports Windows 8 and Linux (via Wine) and your cities should look a lot nicer now that multi-sampling is enabled by default and building brightness has been fixed for DirectX 9. I also spent yet more time on the installer - adding support for the Windows Games Explorer and making the installation neater overall.
Finally, I''ve touched the RCI ratios making residential significantly more in demand than commercial and industrial lots. And to help with some inspiration I added my demo city to the installer. It won''t install by default - you have to select Examples from the list of components.
Let me know if there are any problems. Otherwise, the next release is slated for May 1st, 2013.
Happy New Year!