0.6.0 Update

[Almost]

I'll miss the restart function, having a quick and reliable way to restart a game and reload all files / remove all physics data is very helpful, especially in debugging.

Assigning the restart function to a key like R is a habit that has served me well thus far.

[Jasoco]

Yeah, me too. I guess I'll get used to it.

I'm trying out the latest snapshot of the OS X build. Of course it can't get past the first line since it's a Require. Guess I'll backup my current version of my Adventure game and see if I can't make this 0.6.0 compatible tonight.

So how close are we to the final? And where can we get the current documentation for the new version? I this the only page?
http://love2d.org/wiki/index.php?title=Version_0.6.0

[bmelts]

If you have any problems with the OS X build (crashes, inconsistent behavior, etc.), yell at me, since I'm the guy currently in charge of making it work on Macs. Well, Intel Macs, anyway, rude has a PPC Mac to find all my bugs on

How close are we to final? Only rude knows the answer, and even he might not be sure. The fact that there's builds out there that function (mostly) is a good sign, though

As for documentation, I don't think it's been written yet - that's bartbes and rude's domain AFAIK. They (or I) can probably answer (or try to answer) questions you have - we all lurk in IRC a lot, if you feel like venturing into #loveclub.

[bartbes]

I don't think anybody mentioned this yet:
If you create a file object using love.filesystem.newFile, you no longer use love.filesystem.open(f), but f:open(), same applies to all other things. (like write, read, close, etc)

[Simtex]

Probably a bit early for posting issues, but I'm running the 8/31 build on 64-bit Windows 7 beta, and when you close Love, Windows pops up with a "love.exe has stopped working" error (it's running fine otherwise).

Also, would it be possible to get x64 builds for Windows? I notice you have them for Linux. Running 32-bit code on 64-bit systems can cause some performance degradation, and when Windows 7 releases in October, there will probably be a larger migration towards the 64-bit version than there was with Vista.

[Jasoco]

I want a 64-bit OS X version that can still run on 32-bit and PPC in a Universal Binary. Instead of just a 32-bit/PPC binary.

Do you have a 64-bit Mac to compile one on, anjo? Or is it 32-bit only because you don't have a C2D?

Not that it matters. Would a 64-bit version of Löve for either OS even matter really? I mean, would we gain any speed? I already get 60FPS with the 32-bit version on a 2.0GHz C2D with 2GB RAM. But sometimes it does go to 55 or 50. If a 64-bit version could provide a steady 60FPS that would be amazing.

Another thing I would like to see, at least in the OS X version (And any other PC's that might support it) is support for detecting the MacBook's built-in motion sensors. Which is, to the people not in the know, sensors implemented for use with HD's to protect them from crashes, but can be accessed by any program with the right hooks and calls. Even though games created with this support would be limited to a fairly small amount of devices, it would still be cool to create Loco Roco style tilt based games for normal sized laptops. MacBooks can detect tilt in all three axis.. axies.. whatever. X, Y and Z. Basically I'm all for alternative inputs. Keyboard, Mouse and JoyStick is nice, but tilt detection would be awesome as an addition.

[bartbes]

Well, I can imagine it is possible to wrap it to a joystick device.. but it seems weird to add a feature for a single platform AND limited devices for a cross-platform engine..

[rude]

Simtex: that's certainly not supposed to happen. 64-bit builds will come eventually, though it will require compiling all libraries as 64-bit as well. That will take tons of time, so not going to do that for 0.6.0. Does the crash happen with just the no-game screen too?

[bmelts]

I want a 64-bit OS X version that can still run on 32-bit and PPC in a Universal Binary. Instead of just a 32-bit/PPC binary.

Do you have a 64-bit Mac to compile one on, anjo? Or is it 32-bit only because you don't have a C2D?

Not that it matters. Would a 64-bit version of Löve for either OS even matter really? I mean, would we gain any speed? I already get 60FPS with the 32-bit version on a 2.0GHz C2D with 2GB RAM. But sometimes it does go to 55 or 50. If a 64-bit version could provide a steady 60FPS that would be amazing.

Hi! I have a C2D Mac (Jan. 2008 MacBook White), so it's not the computer that's the issue.

The main problem with compiling a 64-bit Mac version of LÖVE is the libraries. As far as I know (and correct me if I'm wrong, here), 64-bit apps cannot dynamically link to 32-bit libraries, just as Intel apps can't dynamically link to PowerPC libraries. This would mean I'd have to recompile all the libraries LÖVE uses to include 64-bit architectures in addition to the standard 32-bit architectures. (That's four total, if you're keeping score at home.) I've compiled some of the libraries the Mac version of 0.6.0 uses from scratch, to ensure that LÖVE is properly Universal, but quite a few of the frameworks are just downloads from the developers' sites, and having to rebuild them from source while solving any potential problems that the 64-bit architectures introduce... that could end up causing a lot of trouble. For LÖVE 0.7.0, sure, I'd be happy to make it natively 64-bit. But it took me a fair amount of effort to get the Mac version working properly with the libraries it uses as is, and I don't want to go back and introduce even more complexity into the equation this close to release.

As for the performance issue - while a 64-bit optimized version of LÖVE might well have better performance on a 64-bit machine, under a 64-bit kernel, etc., the current version of LÖVE, as far as I know, does not contain any particular optimizations for 64-bit platforms. (No 64-bit math or that sort of thing.) So, I doubt you'd see much of a performance boost if it were recompiled as-is. If you want to experiment, though, the source code for LÖVE is freely available, along with an Xcode project I maintain - you can download and compile it to a 64-bit target (and get the libraries all set up), and see if your games run any more smoothly than under 32-bit translation.

Another thing I would like to see, at least in the OS X version (And any other PC's that might support it) is support for detecting the MacBook's built-in motion sensors. Which is, to the people not in the know, sensors implemented for use with HD's to protect them from crashes, but can be accessed by any program with the right hooks and calls. Even though games created with this support would be limited to a fairly small amount of devices, it would still be cool to create Loco Roco style tilt based games for normal sized laptops. MacBooks can detect tilt in all three axis.. axies.. whatever. X, Y and Z. Basically I'm all for alternative inputs. Keyboard, Mouse and JoyStick is nice, but tilt detection would be awesome as an addition.

I agree, the MacBook motion sensing is awesome and provides some serious gameplay potential - even if a laptop is a bit more awkward to manipulate in a 3d space than its younger cousin, the iPhone. As cool as motion sensing is, though, it's a pretty limited feature - only people with certain kinds of Macs would be able to take advantage of it, since I don't know of any non-MacBooks that have that feature exposed. So, I'm not sure that feature is a great fit for LÖVE at this point (are there any game frameworks out there that support it? I haven't heard of any). On the other hand, if LÖVE ever gets ported to the iPhone, then I could see about implementing it

[Jammang]

No bugs found on my pc so far, although older game versions do not run, I thought love was backwards compatible?

Also I tried doing a 'love.graphics.screenshot( "Screenshot.bmp" )' and I got 'attempt to call field 'screenshot' (a nil value)'. has this been depricated? or is there a new method for screenshots now?