DRenderer 0.56 beta 8

May 162012

Another bug squashed, poor little mite.

With the release of Chris Gransden’s ports of Hheretic and Hhexen, a problem was found with the then latest version of the DRenderer module – 0.56 beta 6. Christopher Martin, who has been updating the module lately, was hot on the case and released beta 7, which he thought addressed the problem.

Unfortunately, that turned out not to be the case.

However, Christopher has looked at the module yet again, and has now issued version 0.56 beta 8, fixing another bug that surfaced with the recent release of the two games – which, hopefully, should now make them fully playable. Continue reading »

OpenVector mailing list

May 152012

Jumps out. Says “Boo!”

With OpenVector and its brethren continuing to be updated by Christopher Martin, Richard Torrens has highlighted the existence of the OpenVector mailing list, which he has been running for a couple of years, and is for both existing users of the software, as well as potential new users.

Richard, who also operates a number of other mailing lists, enthused about the software, saying “OpenVector does everything Draw does (and then some!) and completely replaces Draw. If you use Draw at all – switch to OpenVector!”

There is also a handy page listing control key assignments in OpenVector on Richard’s website, with the possibility of more such pages appearing if there is enough interest.

DrawPrint 1.39 in hot pursuit of 1.38

May 142012

Murphy’s law alive and well in the world of RISC OS software.

A new version of DrawPrint is available from Sine Nomine Software, released to deal with a problem discovered in the previous version very soon after its release.

DrawPrint is an application that provides more control when printing Drawfiles, sprites or JPEGs, allowing them to be printed over multiple pages, allowing the user to select a scale, margins, overlaps, and so on. It also allows individual pages to be exported as Drawfiles for use in other applications.

Version 1.39 addresses a bug found in the ‘Preview’ window, whereby some buttons were disappearing at the bottom if the paper was in landscape mode, or simply not tall enough for the buttons to appear.

 

ArtWorks 2.X2 arrives

May 132012

Straight up! Or curved a bit, with a variable width and graduated fill!

For what may have been a first, this year’s Wakefield Show saw Martin Wuerthner demonstrating a new version of ArtWorks that wasn’t actually ready for sale – though he expected it to become available soon after.

After only a very short time, ‘soon after’ has arrived, and Martin has announced the availability of that new version.

ArtWorks 2.X2 introduces a major new feature, in the form of ‘Artistic Lines’, which presents the user with many new creative opportunities – and they are apparently fun to play with, as well! Continue reading »

More puzzles in Wrangler and SuperDoku

May 132012

Even more ways to avoid being productive.

Hot on the heels of Wakefield, Sine Nomine Software have announced new versions of their popular puzzle games, Wrangler and SuperDoku, adding new puzzle types to both.

SuperDoku is an advanced Sudoku generating and solving application, which can handle more than just standard Sudoku puzzles – it can cope with puzzles of different sizes and shapes, jigsaw blocks, extra blocks, and much more. This update brings it up to version 1.27, which adds Diamond puzzles; Sudoku puzzles with extra blocks, forming an overall diamond shape. Continue reading »

OpenVector, OpenGridPro and DrawPlus: Three apps, three updates

May 132012

You’re once, twice, three times an upgrade.

Christopher Martin has been busy of late. Not content with updates to FFmpeg, FFplay, amongst others, he has also released three updates to OpenVector, OpenGridPro and DrawPlus.

These three are open source enhancements to Draw, with OpenVector and OpenGridPro themselves originally being developed by Jonathan Marten from DrawPlus, and released as commercial applications by 4Mation (as Vector, which featured layering and object library capabilities, and GridPro, which was customised for drawing grids and other regular layouts). They were subsequently made open source, and a 32-bit conversion was then produced by Spellings Computer Services. The sources have since been uploaded to riscos.info, after which Christopher Martin began working on them. Continue reading »

Impulse module updated after 10 years

May 132012

Apps can’t help acting on impulse.

The Impulse module was originally released by Computer Concepts (now Xara), and was in part the result of the company’s plans to develop a replacement for Arthur, the operating system used on the Archimedes computers before Acorn brought out RISC OS 2. The module provides a mechanism for inter-application communications, command execution and data transfer, and is used by databases such as Impact and Powerbase in conjunction with Impression, ImpEmail and Ovation Pro to perform mail-merges and produce reports.

Until now, the most recent update to the module was in December 2002, when version 0.20 was released as the first 32-bit version – but thanks to the efforts of Sine Nomine, version 0.21 is now available. Continue reading »

DRenderer module updated

May 122012

That is not the DRenderer you are looking for.

The DigitalRenderer (DRenderer) module, which is usually supplied along with the SharedUnixLibrary, is used to provide sound support for applications and games ported to RISC OS which make use of that library. However, the version supplied with SharedUnixLibrary on riscos.info can play back audio at the wrong speed and contains some bugs which could theoretically crash a RISC OS computer if they are triggered, although it’s considered unlikely to happen.

Christopher Martin has been updating the module, and provisionally hosting it until a new version of SharedUnixLibrary is made available, along with the new version of DRenderer – the changes for which Christopher has contributed to the GCCSDK team. Continue reading »

Hheretic and Hhexen ports

May 122012

Hheaps of hhectic gameplay for the price of a download or two.

Chris Gransden is continuing to keep himself busy porting things to RISC OS, with Hheretic and Hhexen having been announced just a couple of days before this year’s Wakefield show. These two games are ports of Hheretic and Hhexen, which are Linux ports of Heretic and HeXen – with the extra ‘H’ in each name standing for ‘Hacked’ – originally developed by Raven Software and published by id Software. Continue reading »

DrawPrint 1.38 available

May 122012

Free printing utility even better value for money than before.

DrawPrint is an application that allows the user to print a Drawfile (or Sprite or JPEG) over several pages, with full control of the scale. Margins can be set, with the option of the printed image overlapping from one page to the next, or have page breaks inserted more intelligent way.

Free to download and use, the software was originally developed to provide a way to print from NetSurf on the Iyonix, but it can also be useful for printing many other things – including Excel files via ViewXLS. Continue reading »

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