Release Notes


v0.5.2.98 - September 1, 2013



UPDATE


It's been too long, again, but here comes another Synekism release. I really wish it was a grand one but this release is pretty routine.


Among non-visible back-end graphics work I spent considerable time on minor fixes and features. I added an extensive tooltip system (activated by holding down F1) that will display detailed information on the UI element or active tool. The road and lot tools also get an extra guide before building has been initiated - while the tool is selected but not active. You should see a guide road node under your mouse as you walk over the terrain. This node will lock and validate like the active road building guides do so it should be much clearer where a new road segment will start. A couple of bug fixes made it as well.


In terms of a general project update, work continues. The light at the end of this seemingly indefinite tunnel is starting to trickle in. The new graphics engine is taking shape and I'm almost done modernizing (and cleaning up) the codebase as per my 0.5 objectives.


Let me know if there are any problems. Otherwise, the next release is slated for January 1st, 2014.


NEW FEATURES


UI:

  • F5 will now also hide the white city borders in addition to the UI.
  • Holding down F1 will force tooltips to display without the delay. More importantly, holding down F1 will show much more detailed tooltips for all UI elements and tool modes.
  • The horizontal bottom toolbar now has more tooltips for the balance, income, demand bars, and time.
  • Overview mode (Space Bar) now also gets a button at the top right corner of the horizontal toolbar. This button replaces the Overview indicator that was there.

Tool Set:

  • For the road and lot tools you should now see the starting node under your mouse while the tool is selected. This dummy road node (green) will lock and validate the same as the rest of the road tools so you can see where the road will start before actually activating the tool.

Raytracer:

  • The in-house raytracer that was included with Synekism has now been removed from source in order to consolidate efforts towards the main game. So Ctrl+R will now do nothing. Sorry.

Installer:

  • Organized the installation directory a bit.
  • The installer no longer runs other installers for the Visual C++ Redistributable and the DirectX runtimes. Only the needed dlls (libraries) are installed alongside Synekism. This should dramatically reduce the ways in which Synekism can fail to install properly.
  • The installer should be a lot smarter now when it comes to upgrading existing installations of Synekism.

BUGS


Fixed:

  • Removed the ability to start lot creation outside city bounds as well as other invalid zone layouts.
  • Fixed some inconsistencies with locking to road segment midpoints.
  • Fixed instances where edit lots (lots not yet finalized) would not turn red when the current zone was invalid. Only the roads would be red.
  • Some lots were created very small at the ends of zones.
  • Some lots would refuse to be selected or were very difficult to select (for demolition or dezoning).

Known:

  • Roads can still be built overlapping each other and become un-deletable - try pressing F2-R to fix.
  • Some buildings still build outside their lot...
  • Windows XP installer does not add a Start Menu folder for Synekism, despite claiming to do so.
  • Windows might claim that Synekism froze during loading of large cities but please, disregard, and let the game load.

INSTALLATION


System Requirements:

  • Windows XP/Vista/7/8 or Linux with Wine 1.5
  • 1.8 GHz multi-core processor
  • 2 GB of system memory
  • 10 MB of hard disk space*
  • Support for DirectX 9.0c, Shader Model 2 and 128 MB of graphics memory

* This is just Synekism's installation footprint. It does not include space for any user generated content such as the city save files.


What we install:

  • Synekism v0.5.2.98
  • GPU-Z.0.7.2.exe (to check minimum hardware support - removed after installation is finished/aborted)

LICENSE


IDIMORIS SOFTWARE LICENSE TERMS


SYNEKISM


ALL FURTHER REFRENCES OF THE "SOFTWARE" WILL REFER TO SYNEKISM.


Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (Synekism) the right to use the Software. The Software is furnished to do so and is subject to the following conditions:

1. User may not distribute the Software.

2. User may not modify, translate, or make derivative works of the Software.

3. User may not sub-license, rent, lease or provide service bureau services such as Freeware leases or rentals with any portion of the Software.


THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.


Copyright (c) Idimoris 2013