Version 1.4.0

1.4.0 - 2022-01-17

This release marks the migration of the project documentation to polymod.io, a new website for the project hosted by Github Pages.

Aside from several new configuration options, version 1.4's key feature is integration with the FireTongue. Passing a FireTongue instance to Polymod will cause Polymod to check for custom assets in the locales folder and load them when the appropriate translation is being used. See the Polymod website for more information.

Added

• Added a new Github Pages site for documentation.
  • This page is automatically generated using the master branch, with the Jekyll project located at /docs/.
• Added a new logo for the library.
• Added FireTongue integration for asset localization.
  • This incredibly powerful feature allows you to pass a FireTongue instance to Polymod, which will allow loading assets from the locale folder. This allows for locales to override not just strings, but also data files and even audio/visual assets, just by using your framework's asset management system.
  • For example, when the locale is set to en-US, openfl.Assets.getImage("images/billboard.png") can return a default image, or a custom image when the locale is pt-BR.
  • This not only allows developers to translate audio or graphics with almost no effort, but also allows mods to translate audio and graphics of the base game, or EVEN OTHER MODS.
  • With the existing features of Polymod, mods should also be able to reasonably append new locales to the manifest, without requiring the developers to modify the base game.
• Added a new compile definition: POLYMOD_API_VERSION_MATCH
  • This allows you to define how strictly mods must match when loading.
  • NONE matches any version, MATCH_MAJOR requires the major version to match, MATCH_MINOR requires the minor version to match, and MATCH_PATCH requires the patch version to match.
  • This defaults to MATCH_PATCH to prevent breaking changes, but you should probably update this to at least MATCH_MINOR to reduce strain on your mod developers.
• Added a new compile definition: POLYMOD_USE_HSCRIPTEX
  • This EXPERIMENTAL option allows you to replace the default hscript parser with hscript-ex, which provides support for classes.
• Added the new FlixelBackend backend.
  • This backend provides additional HaxeFlixel-specific fixes to the OpenFLBackend.
  • Added FLIXEL as a Framework value to manually select this backend.
  • Updated the framework detector to use the FlixelBackend over the OpenFLBackend when HaxeFlixel is being used.
• Added a new function, Polymod.clearCache(), which triggers the backend to clear any cached assets from memory.
  • This is useful if you want to ensure assets reload after a modlist or locale change.
• Improved the Mod Metadata format with new and useful attributes.
  • These changes are backwards compatible; new fields are optional, and changed fields still support the existing format.
  • Added the homepage attribute to allow mods to provide a URL.
  • Added the contributors attribute to provide a list of contributors.
    • Each contributor is an object with the following keys: name, role, email, url.
    • New applications are encouraged to use this attribute over the author attribute where possible.
• Added a new sample demonstrating usage with FireTongue.

Changed

• Deprecated the author attribute in favor of the contributors attribute.
  • The author attribute is still supported for backwards compatibility.
  • Retrieving author when contributors is defined will return the name of the first contributor.
• Improved compile-time error output for when @:hscript({context}) receives an invalid value.
• Changed the openfl_hscript sample to demonstrate retrieving and calling one or more functions from a single script file.
• Cleaned up samples by removing unnecessary project configuration.

Fixed

• Fixed a crash bug which occured when LimeBackend was used without a frameworkParams argument.
• Fixed a bug where MOD_LOAD_PREPARE and MOD_LOAD_DONE were showing as errors rather than notices.