Stykz Release Candidate 4 Now Available

[stykzman]

I'm happy to finally be able to announce that Stykz 1.0 Release Candidate 4 is now available for download at the main Stykz site. This is the LAST version of Stykz to be released before the official 1.0 release, which I intend to put out before the end of the year (hopefully on or just after Christmas).

This version contains a number of features, a long list of bug fixes, improved performance in a number of areas, and the GIF animations are compatible with just about every app that we've tested (Mac and WIndows)! The list of fixes/changes are long, but here are the highlights:

• Added new Welcome Center which lets you open a recent document, open a blank doc, get help, link to tutorials, etc.
  
  
• Reworked the architecture for manipulating figures to make it as accurate as possible - there should be no more rotate/scale issues.
  
  
• Made polyfills more "intelligent"; if you add a node to a figure where the "parent" and "child" of the node you added is part of a polyfill, the new node you added becomes part of the polyfill.
  
  
• Added support for directly opening .styk and .stk files.
  
  
• Added ability to lock a figure so that it you can't modify it in any way.
  
  
• Added automatic saving and automatic backup
  
  
• Modified interface of the Properties palette so that mixed selections would show as mixed and not as just the value of the first selected object in a group. Fields with mixed selections display as empty; checkboxes show a dash (Mac) or filled-in square (Win); color swatches show a diagonal slash through them.
  
  
• Added decimal precision for width, angle, and length (and you can set how to display the precision in Preferences).

You can see the complete list of everything done for this release by going to the Release Notes page on the Stykz web site.

Two things to be aware of though:

1. Since a number of issues prior to RC4 were related to corrupted preferences, RC4 will automatically reset the preferences to the "factory" settings, so you'll need to go to the Preferences dialog and re-set them the way you want them.
   
   
2. Similarly, there were some issues with upgrading older .stykz documents properly, so all pre-RC4 .stykz files will need to be run through another conversion to work properly with RC4.

This release has gone through a LOT of testing, including having a small group of dedicated testers here on the forums working with builds and reporting issues, so although no software is bug-free, this one should hopefully have a lot fewer bugs than previous versions. Of course, please use the feedback mechanism to let me know know of any issues you find.

Hope you enjoy RC4, and I look forward to getting 1.0 out the door in the coming weeks.

[Sean]

Great!, good job stykzman!

I wrote a post about this on my site too, if you want to check it out, click here: http://www.animationshed.org/stykz-rc4-released/

[Hoboapple]

Hooray! I can't wait! I just hope my animation works...

[MPK Animations]

YESSSS! I've been waiting for this! And like it was said before, great job.

[scykei]

Great!

This build also acts a little weird however. Whenever I have my internet connected, it takes a few seconds (very few, like 5 seconds) to load. Whenever I have it off, it starts instantly after selecting Blank or Default Document. I think it's because of the update check... I think it shouldn't affect performance, should it?

And a few bugs :P

• Make a figure. Right click and drag a node with either Select or Subselect Tools to make a line. Before letting go, press enter. The error report dialogue should pop up.
  
• Select several figures with Subselect tool. Make sure loop is turned on and press play. Stop the player and close it. Voila, the selected figures before pressing the Play button's move nodes are gone. The drag nodes should remain though. This is exactly like how it worked with the Select Tool before it was fixed in this build.

Also, deleting all segments of a figure with subselect will result a single node which serves no purposes. Now I know how to create one. :)

And yeah, this bug isn't properly fixed. Can it not be fixed? D:
It won't work when the current frame is either the first or last. Must be somewhere in between...

Very few random bugs now... I think it's starting to work! :D

Now I can't wait for 1.5 beta... Single windowed Stykz! Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!

[stykzman]

This build also acts a little weird however. Whenever I have my internet connected, it takes a few seconds (very few, like 5 seconds) to load. Whenever I have it off, it starts instantly after selecting Blank or Default Document. I think it's because of the update check... I think it shouldn't affect performance, should it?

Yes, it's probably the update check - performance will be affected based on the speed of your connection. If it's pretty slow, then it may take a few seconds to do the check. I'll see what I can do, but in the meantime you might want to change the check for updates setting from "At launch" to something else.

Make a figure. Right click and drag a node with either Select or Subselect Tools to make a line. Before letting go, press enter. The error report dialogue should pop up.

Good catch... I'll fix that for the next release.

Select several figures with Subselect tool. Make sure loop is turned on and press play. Stop the player and close it. Voila, the selected figures before pressing the Play button's move nodes are gone. The drag nodes should remain though. This is exactly like how it worked with the Select Tool before it was fixed in this build.

I'm not getting this... when I stop the StykzPlayer and close it, the tool has shifted to and the figures that had their segments selected with the tool are now selected with all the nodes red. Anyone else seeing what scykei's seeing?

Also, deleting all segments of a figure with subselect will result a single node which serves no purposes. Now I know how to create one. :)

Actually, you can also create on by going to Figure menu and picking "Single Node". Some people have found a use for single nodes, and I even was going to get rid of the ability to create a single node at all, but I got feedback that it should be kept in.

And yeah, this bug isn't properly fixed. Can it not be fixed? D:
It won't work when the current frame is either the first or last. Must be somewhere in between...

It can probably be fixed, but it's not an easy one (the menu is created by Revolution, but displayed by the OS, so it's very difficult to know when I get the Enter key message whether a menu is currently being displayed or not), and it's pretty esoteric (in fact you're the only one to report on it so far out of the thousands of people downloading and using Stykz). I still have it on my list to fix, but for now I'd just select the right-click menu item with the mouse.

Very few random bugs now... I think it's starting to work! :D

Now I can't wait for 1.5 beta... Single windowed Stykz! Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I can't wait either!

[JerK]

Where is it? I can only find RC3.

[stykzman]

Where is it? I can only find RC3.

If you are downloading from the Stykz web site, you may need to clear your browser cache and refresh the page. If the buttons in the upper-right corner don't have the word "DOWNLOAD" in blue, then you're seeing an old page.

[JerK]

Strange. I tried refreshing and it didn't work.

Aw who cares. awesome job stkyzman!

[venG]

Hey hey!

Nice job Stykzman, like I said on Droidz nice to see you're sticking with it. Keep up the impressive work.