Ren'Py 7.4.0 Released
Added 2021-01-01 00:36:04 +0000 UTCI'm happy to announce Ren'Py 7.4.0, the product of over a year of development, and one of the biggest releases of Ren'Py to date. This release focuses on updating Ren'Py's internals so that Ren'Py is ready for its next 15 years.
Some of the bigger changes are:
A new model-based renderer. While this is opt-in for the moment, it opens the way to features that creators have been requesting for a long time, such as being able to recolor displayables, blurring the screen, and using Live2D to animate sprites. The model-based renderer is extensible with shaders, allowing for custom effects.
A new Python 3 compatibility mode has been added, to pave the way for Python 3 support in the next release. This mode changes the ways in which Ren'Py runs, to allow you to begin porting your game before full Python 3 comes out in Ren'Py 8.0.
Ren'Py's build system has been modernized, and the libraries underlying it have been updated. This allows 64-bit Windows to be supported.
The web platform has been updated, to allow for the incremental download of games.
This release also raises the minimum requirements to run a Ren'Py game. It is now required that a user's computer have OpenGL 2, DirectX 9, OpenGL ES 2, or WebGL to run Ren'Py. The model-based renderer requires OpenGL ES 3 or WebGL 2.
With these changes, there have been a few deprecations. Ren'Py no longer runs on Windows XP. The 32-bit armv7l platform has been removed on iOS, as this platform hasn't been supported by Apple for several years. The Editra text editor has been removed, as it hasn't been supported for quite some time, and wasn't compatible with the new build system.
It's my hope that this release will enable creators to take on projects they couldn't before, and will provide a solid basis for the next releases of Ren'Py.
Downloads of 7.4.0 can be found at:
https://www.renpy.org/release/7.4.0
A full list of changes to Ren'Py can be found at:
https://www.renpy.org/doc/html/changelog.html
A list of changes that may require you to update your game can be found at:
https://www.renpy.org/doc/html/incompatible.html
Please also check out the credits and sponsor list.
Thank you for your support!
Comments
It's been completely smooth so far tonight.. maybe just a weird glitch due to having had an earlier version open that same day without a restart between? Will send you the file if it happens again
Fluffy
2021-01-02 22:31:14 +0000 UTCIf this happens again, can you send me log.txt from the game in question? That should help me figure out what's going on.
Renpytom
2021-01-01 22:52:40 +0000 UTCNot at this time - I suspect I'll need to come up with a new approach to updating to allow this.
Renpytom
2021-01-01 22:52:12 +0000 UTCNoticed that I'm getting a lot of Performance Warnings popup since the new version, happens a lot on auto reload while working on script updates. Might be repeating due to deleting persistent data, is that clearing the renderer choice? It seems to keep defaulting to 'Automatically choose', which apparently isn't good enough It's a barebones game I started on about a week ago, so shouldn't be intensive would have thought
Fluffy
2021-01-01 22:02:16 +0000 UTCNice! I really like the new progressive loading on the web and the live2d integration. Keep up the good work :)
JuiceShooters
2021-01-01 13:48:01 +0000 UTCThis is amazing! Just a question, there's any plans for the Ren'py build-in updater to work with games larger than 2GB? Good job, congratulations for the update and happy new year!
Komisari
2021-01-01 01:14:56 +0000 UTCThe timing on this couldn’t be more perfect! My goal is to release my first game in the new year! Happy New Year!
Samantha
2021-01-01 00:58:44 +0000 UTC
