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Game Maker 8.1 Official Feature List

YoYo Games has announced that Game Maker 8.1 is now “almost ready” for release.

Alongside previously known improvements such as an overhauled room editor, enhanced script editor, built in updater and executable file encryption, details have been posted of a number of other changes that will be made to the software.

The Softwrap DRM system which limits installs to 5 per license is to go.  Some users have reported problems with this but it seems that issues are far less common than they were with Game Maker 7.  When work on Game Maker 8 was nearing completion the community were asked whether they would prefer a pre-Christmas release utilising Softwrap or would prefer to wait for an alternative system to be implemented by YoYo Games. The pre-Christmas release was chosen. Details of any in-house Softwrap alternative and the restrictions it may enforce have not yet been published.

We are promised a new and improved news system which will “bring together news and tech tips from across the community” and to aid with development for mobile devices some extensions such as os_type and os_device.

Game Maker 8.1 Features:

  • Bug fixes
  • No more Softwrap!
  • 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
  • You can now use the mouse wheel to ZOOM in/out in the Room editor.
  • Middle mouse button PANS around the room
  • A customisable background grid has been applied to the room editor.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • New, more secure  .EXE encryption.
  • New GML commands such as draw_self() and d3d_light_define_ambient.
  • Some custom YoYo extensions brought into the fold, such as os_type and os_device to aid multiplatform coding.
  • Better 2D and 3D support with a 24bit ZBuffer and faster rendering.
  • Improved code editor features include;
    • Faster rendering
    • Block TAB’ing
    • Better accented character support
    • Easier to use Code Completion support
    • Customisable background colours.

In terms of feature improvements the changes between Game Maker 8 and 8.1 appear to be on a similar scale to those between Game Maker 7 and 8. Mike Dailly has stated that this list does not include all the changes either.

What do you think?

32 Comments

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    • (This bug is a result of either because the drawing is not happening exactly at the monitors refresh rate and the front and back buffers are not swapped when the screen is grabbing the image out of vram *or* not triple-buffering correctly, as I suspect is the case here).

  1. I feel that the one thing that is really holding Game Maker back, is the fact that it limits you to creating games that are of a low resolution. It is this problem that is making me believe that my best move now, is to learn ActionScript 3.0 for Flash CS5, as you are able to create professional looking games through crisp graphics.

    GameSalad, Adobe Flash, xCode. All these programs that allow you to create games all have this feature. It is about time Game Maker has a higher resolution capability also!

    Charlie

    • Aren’t you mixing up high resolution and vector graphics?
      You know about “Interpolate colors between pixels” feature in GM, don’t you?

  2. Zach :@YemSalat
    You do realize that Mac only have 5.19% and iOS has 1.81% of the market share?

    And you do realize iOS is a mobile operating system, which is designed mainly for entertainment, while Linux is mainly desktop and designed for “whatever-geeks-are-up-to”
    The other simple fact is – iOS is a solid system, unlike *nix OSes varying in implementation. It would be hell for developers to create a build that will be able to run indifferently on all *nix operating systems.

    • @YemSalat:
      Mac OS X is either UNIX or UNIX like, I don’t remember.
      Either way, from the mac version it shouldn’t be too much of a hassle to port over to Linux.

      YoYoGames has shown us, time and time again that they can port their magical runner to any system they like with little effort, or at least seemingly little effort.

      I know that iOS is designed for mobile devices meant primarily for entertainment.
      Meaning 100% of the market for iOS will have users.

      But the point I was trying to make about Linux is most of the people that use Linux are “geeks”, as you put it, and most of those geeks play games frequently.

      I honestly think that YoYoGames would be more successful focusing more on Windows then iOS then Mac then Linux then Android, but that’s my view on the market based off of the attitudes of both GM users and the general consumer.

      I simply fail to see why YYG wouldn’t try to get the entire market, this appears to be what they’re doing, in order of largest to smallest share. A Linux port may be just around the corner.

    • I agree with the part about many Linux distros being crap, they are. However, iOS was designed to be idiot-proof, and thats who Apple attracts.

    • @Zach:
      I believe you are still missing the point.
      You see, iOS and other mobile systems are designed with selling apps in mind.
      You’ll have hard times trying to install anything w/o buying if the software was made to be bought. So all developers are targeting the app market because they know that the end user will have to buy their product in order to be able to use it.

      While in the desktop (Windows,Mac,Linux, etc..) market the situation is absolutely different. Users will more likely download some free software instead of paying for the same dam thing. Developers are left alone with all the publishing-protecting stuff, so it is much harder to sell your product on the desktop market.

      Basically YoYo is staying where the money is, and I do understand them in this case.

    • I’m not sure if I’m %100 correct about what you’re saying, and correct me if I’m wrong.

      You’re saying that when you scale things in GM they become blurry?

      If so then there is no fix to this, it cannot simply make more pixels that don’t exist. So it must stretch what it has and attempt to make the most from it.

    • Currently when GM scales up sprites it either blurs it or uses ‘nearest neighbour’ depending on your graphics card. It would be really useful to have an option to always use the ‘nearest neighbour’ scaling method. Currently I have to use surfaces which are always a bit buggy.

  3. I don’t know why all you guys get so exited about these new features. I don’t see anything groundbreaking in the coming 8.1 (probably the update system is the only one of them)
    Faster 2D and 3D – sounds too vast, it would be nice if they made some explanation on how the higher performance was achieved (as far as I know they are using the same delphi-runner as they used in 8.0, correct me if I’m wrong)

    All those cosmetic changes with room/code/etc. editors are nice, but that is just the GUI-side. It would be much more appreciated if they added new functionality-wise features.

    To sum up: the good thing is – it’s not Game Maker 9.0, its 8.1. The program is on its way to some important improvements (I really hope so)

  4. Still can’t output binaries for Unixes other than Darwin? Still can’t run natively on Unixes other than Darwin? Blah, giving GM a miss yet again. 🙁

    • Having in mind that all you Unix-lovers are just 1% of the market, no support for those systems becomes a reasonable descision.

    • @YemSalat

      You do realize that Mac only have 5.19% and iOS has 1.81% of the market share?
      Linux has 0.92% of the market share.

      http://www.netmarketshare.com/os-market-share.aspx?qprid=9

      Windows has the largest still with 89.62%.

      Most people who have iOS devices play games on it meaning the gaming market on iOS is about 100%.

      The same applies with the linux market.

      Yes, it’s not as big, but it’s still decent and worth porting.

  5. If I have a gmc file from gamemaker on Windows could then I open edit it in the mac gm? And then compile it to a dmg file? Sorta like porting it? Thanks

  6. Ok, so if I’m a GM8 user, I’m getting this for free? Sounds reasonable.

    But if I’m not, then I’ll prolly skip this and wait for GM9, no offense YoYo, but I already paid 50 dollars between GM7 for Mac and GM8 for Windows, so you guys got decent money out of me anyways. 😛

    Question: you guys ARE accepting GM for Mac on the Store, right? :/

  7. I think the last time I purchased a license was for GM7 which allowed a free upgrade to GM8…I think that means if I want 8.1 I need to pay up? Like I said on the GMC thread I’m not sure these minimalistic changes are worth the money. But, I’d rather get in another purchase before the price hike, which I am very glad they are doing (not often you’d say that about a product).

    I’m liking YYG more and more these days…

  8. @Zach: NPT was talking about the pricing…we are no longer living in a cheap world, everything is getting more expensive, YYG cannot stay cheap and expect to survive, $40 is fair (especially since most of the upgrades will be free because people already own 8.0…AND it’s $25 up until June, so they are actually cutting us HUGE breaks).

    As for my bet, based on those “updates,” doesn’t seem like much essence, just a bunch of fluff. I guess I’ll be winning that bet and won’t have to stop posting on GMC, but I will stop bashing YYG altogether if they still make the April 20th deadline set by NPT.

    • Ahh, come on, don’t you know that $40 was a pretty nice sum of money 30 years ago?
      NPT was kind of joking about your attitude, meaning that 40 bucks is not that much.

    • I bought it years ago; despite this, $40 is not something everybody may be able to choke up when needed. I am glad the software is making a progression in development, however it seems that it is also going beyond the easy development aspect, to a more serious investment. Though, I agree that $40 is not nearly close to what they could ask for Game Maker.

      I am also failing to understand your calender comment.

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