Stykz 1.02 (Build 222) Available for Download

[stykzman]

I just released an update to Stykz that improves performance (a bit), fixes a number of bugs, and enhances the Stykz Help:

• General
  
  • Added compaction to stack saving to help with file size reduction/performance enhancement.
    
  • Improved performance with moving multiple figures with the arrow keys.
    
  • Improved overall performance of Stykz by approximately 15%.
    
  • (Mac Only) Added custom icons for Pivot .stk and .piv files.
    
  • Fixed bug where the segment shown when drag-copying a segment was "stuck" on the first frame of a document after Stykz crashed. [1444]
    
  • Improved performance slightly by not checking Stykz documents when they open for font changes for the current platform. [1449]
    
• Docs/Help/Support
  
  • Stykz Help
    
    • Added "Copying Segments" topic under the "Working With Segments" section. [1436]
      
    • Added "...Copy a Segment?" topic under the "How Do I...?" section.
      
    • Updated The Palettes > Controller Palette to include info on playing animations back from the currently displayed frame instead of frame 1.
      
    • Added "...Start Playback From the Current Frame?" topic under the "How Do I...?" section.
      
• Figure Manipulation
  
  • Fixed bug where attempting to deselect a single segment would deselect *all* of the segments of the target figure. [1434]
    
  • (Windows Only) Fixed bug where antialiasing for newly created segments would sometimes not match the antialiasing of the target figure. [1439]
    
  • Fixed bug where a polyfill in progress would get canceled if the "3 nodes" reminder alert was displayed. [1447]
    
• Import/Export
  
  • Export Animated GIF
    
    • Modified Frame Delay so that it would show red if you picked a number less than 6/100ths of a second. [1428]
      
  • Import Pivot .stk File
    
    • Changed import so that if you hit the "75 generations" limit, the figure it was creating is removed from the document instead of leaving it partially done.
      
• Installer
  
  • (Windows Only) Fixed bug where the shortcut to the Stykz Forums in the Start menu would not work. [1446]
    
• Menus
  
  • (Windows Only) Fixed bug where Show Antialiasing was not matching the currently applied antialiasing of the frontmost document, especially with new documents. [1441]
    
  • (Windows Only) Fixed problem where mnemonics (underscores in menu items) were displaying at the wrong time). [1445]
    
• Palettes
  
  • Commands Palette
    
    • Added 'Set Color of Selected Figures - Web Safe' command to allow making a button bring up the Web Safe color picker.
      
  • Controller Palette
    
    • Fixed bug that was causing an error dislog to appear when using the scrubber with the Frame Palette not showing.
      
  • Library Palette
    
    • Fixed bug that generated an error when trying to add a figure with all segments hidden to the Library. [1440]
      
  • Properties Palette
    
    • Fixed bug where creating an empty selection rectangle and releasing the mouse would incorrectly switch to show Figure Properties. [1448]
      
• Stage/Windows
  
  • Fixed bug where nodes of the default stick figure for new documents would be in front of the menubar on Windows.
    
• Undo
  
  • Fixed bug where some error dialogs were displaying when trying to undo the deletion or cutting of figures.
    
  • Fixed bug where locking/unlocking a figure could not be undone. [1419]
    
• Welcome Center
  
  • Fixed bug where closing the Welcome Center after clicking on "From a Stykz .styk File..." and cancelling would bring up a second "Open" dialog box. [1418]
    

If you have any issues downloading the update, or if you find anything new to report, let me know.

Enjoy!

[EmPeeKay]

Great! I like that you make the frame delay turn red. That's a really good idea!

Also nice to see you working on performance.

[stykzman]

Great! I like that you make the frame delay turn red. That's a really good idea!

Also nice to see you working on performance.

There's a lot more where that came from! My next release should (a) reduce the size of Stykz files by several megs (which will mean it will take less memory to load), (b) get around the "75-generations" limit, and (c) provide a means to save out a text representation (XML or CSS-style format) of a Stykz doc and reconstruct a Stykz doc from a text representation. If I can do it fast enough, I might use (c) for backup purposes so if any other docs get corrupted, the text file will be able to recreate the doc.

Anyway, more to come!

[GuitarMangler]

Everything is looking good! Can't wait for the next update.

When reducing the size of .stykz files which things in particular are you trying to minimize?

[stykzman]

Everything is looking good! Can't wait for the next update.

When reducing the size of .stykz files which things in particular are you trying to minimize?

Well, any reduction in the size of the .stykz file will help with memory allocation and performance (to some degree). So right now I know of two places that can be reduced right off the bat - the first is eliminating all of the nodes from all of the frames other than the one you're currently on (right now nodes are kept for all frames, which is a waste of space). The second is that there's a bunch of metadata I'm keeping track of for each node that can be maintained differently and use less space.

There are also other areas which I'm going to look at as well - not keeping track of figure/node info for figures that never get moved or changed; that is, if you put a cityscape figure one 50 frames and it's in the same exact position on all those frames and it never gets moved or edited, I should only need to keep figure/node info for a single frame and then "point" the other 49 frames to that one to get the info I need. Right now, it's basically keeping 50 copies of the same data...

There's more, but that those are the highlights.

[.joker]

performance yes!