In this release, we’re updating the engine from SDL to SDL2, and there are many optimizations to go along with it. Aside from the optimizations, SDL2 is also the stepping stone to ports. We have Linux compiling and playable; it just needs some testing.
Moreover, there is now a(n experimental) multithreading option in the game settings that makes the game even faster!
We also have some new individual tree graphics, and an update to grass ramps as well.
This has been mostly the hard work of Putnam! Meanwhile I’ve started up on adventure mode - the long work of updating menus and adding audio has begun! Hopefully we’ll have some progress to show their soon, as we continue updating fortress mode as well.
Would you mind explaining to me why you would include “anything to do with rendering” in that list? I haven’t tried myself at multithreading yet, but rendering was easy enough (in my limited experience) to completely decouple from the actual game state or game logic.
I’m simply curious, because I’m toying with the idea to utilize multithreading in my next project.
By “rendering” I mean when you interact with OpenGL, the GPU, etc - at least in my engine (lwjgl/libgdx), it’s expected to be on the main thread. From what I understand too when you get into GPU land everything is already kinda-asynchronous on the driver side - it’s only when you call
flush()that it actually blocks your thread - which makes it difficult to profile some things.But I am still a newb at all of this! I’d love to hear your experiences!!