Game Maker 8.1 Features

GameMaker 8.1 is epic. Many sweet features like the ability to zoom in the room editor have been introduced. Still no ability to export to other platforms. The following features are now available:

No more Softwrap!

Let’s hope we don’t see a big increase in pirating.

Changed room editor RIGHT mouse click priorities. Menu for normal, CTRL+RMB for delete You can now RIGHT CLICK an object and EDIT it from within the Room Editor

Will take time to adjust, but me likey.

You can now use the mouse wheel to ZOOM in/out in the Room editor. Middle mouse button PANS around the room The Image Editor has been updated to use the mouse wheel and middle button for better zooming and panning. You can now PAN around inside the PATH editor using the middle mouse button.

A great improvement, now if only you could fill a selection with objects.  

A customisable background grid has been applied to the room editor.

I might actually use the grid now. Edit:  I have not been able to find where in the program this feature is located.

You can now change the default background colour for rooms (when no ROOM background has been set) You can now disable background room filling, so you can see the background GRID when no ROOM colour has been set

 

A new and improved NEWs system, bringing together news and tech tips from across the community.

What exactly do they mean by saying there going to be getting tech tips from the community. Will anyone be able to contribute to the community news?

New, more secure .EXE encryption.

I hope lateral GM and other programs will still work.

New GML commands such as draw_self() and d3d_light_define_ambient. Better 2D and 3D support with a 24bit ZBuffer and faster rendering.

Ambient light–nice, but they still have a long ways to go if they want a good 3D system.

Some custom YoYo extensions brought into the fold, such as os_type and os_device to aid multiplatform coding.

 

Improved code editor features include;

Faster rendering Block TAB’ing Better accented character support Easier to use Code Completion support Customisable background colours.

This and the new zoom feature are the strong points of GM8.1.   Update: Here’s a complete list of changes from GameMaker 8.1’s help manual:

• Changed room editor RIGHT mouse click priorities. Menu for normal, CTRL+RMB for delete
• Room ZOOM mode added
• Mouse Wheel ZOOMS in room editor
• Middle mouse button PANS around the room.
• Transparent Background Settings dialog moved to main form.
• Transparent Background grid size now a global setting.
• Transparent Background grid added to room editor.
• Transparent Background grid can now have user colours.
• Image Editor now uses the mouse wheel to zoom.
• Image Editor now uses the middle mouse button to “pan”
• Can now PAN around inside the PATH editor using the middle mouse button.
• You can now change the default background colour for rooms (when no ROOM background has been set)
• You can now disable background room filling, so you can see the background GRID when no ROOM colour has been set.
• Added +/-/= zoom buttons to Room toolbar
• You can now RIGHT CLICK an object and EDIT it from within the Room Editor.
• Rendering inside the Code Editor sped up.
• inside the code editor, you can now mark a block of text and use TAB and SHIFT-TAB to tab it in and out.
• News window now resizable.
• Room settings now remembers “maximised” setting.
• Shiney new ABOUT box.
• Resource renaming changed back to windows default; F2 (was changed from F2 to CTRL-R in GM 8.0)
• Code window now has a “toggle” icon for Code Completion on/off
• You can now press ESCAPE inside the code editor to get rid of the code completion box.
• Game Maker now saves .gm81 files (instead of .gmk)
• New .EXE encryption
• New News feed system added
• draw_self() added
• os_type returns you the operating system your running on (win, mac, ios etc.)
• os_device returns you a device type (iPhone, iPhone4, iPad etc.)
• ZBuffer is now 24Bit
• Hardware T&L for Faster 2D and 3D rendering.
• You can now change the background colours of the code editor, including the current line and selection.
• “Delete underlying objects” Now off by default in the room editor.
• You can now use <AltGr&gr (right alt) in the code editor to insert accented characters.
• d3d_light_define_ambient( colour ) added for a global ambient
• You can now set the default TAB on the object panel (so you can default to the code panel for example)
• In Standard Edition, script searching will now search ALL scripts, including objects, rooms, creation events, timelines and triggers.
• added dot_product(x1,y1, x2,y2)
• added dot_product_3d(x1,y1,z1, x2,y2,z2)
• added point_distance_3d(x1,y1,z1, x2,y2,z2)
• Font creation totally rewritten. Now produces much nicer anti-aliased fonts, and doesn’t cut them off.
• You can now change the “Execute a piece of code” in D&D action list, by using the 1st line of your script and a “///” style comment at the start.