PalaceChat Windows Beta Notes

Every beta since the last release, newest first. A beta is a test version: it has the newest changes and fixes, but it may still have bugs.

WINDOWS 32 & 64-bit Version 5.0.300.3 Beta

New

• A new, more compact chat bar, now the standard one. The line above the chat box is gone, the room's user count moves to the window title, the person you whisper to shows as a small tag inside the chat box (click its x to stop whispering, each tab keeps its own), and the room's status messages show at the bottom of the room. If you prefer the old look, View > Chat Bar Style > Classic brings it back.
• Group PM is now a button next to the translator, and it lights up while it is on. The translator and emoji buttons have the same new look, and light up while their windows are open.
• Options > Advanced has a new box, "Hide the room's scrollbars". The room still moves with the mouse wheel, up and down, and left and right with Shift and the wheel.

Improvements

• The Cyborg editor is much faster. A big file opens in about a second instead of several, typing no longer freezes it, and the colors follow what you type. Text in quotes that runs across lines, and brackets, are colored right.

Bug Fixes

• With "Shrink the room instead of showing scrollbars" on, switching tabs no longer makes the window grow and then shrink.
• A zoom you set by hand in a tab stays with that tab again, also with the room shrinking on, and comes back when you reopen PalaceChat.
• Closing PalaceChat with unsaved changes in the Cyborg editor now asks before anything closes, and Cancel keeps everything open.

New for room scripters

• STATUSMSGEX, a new script command: a status message in its own color, shown for the seconds you choose. With the new chat bar it shows at the bottom of the room in that color, with the classic one the status line takes the color. Example: "Round 2" "#FF8800" 5 STATUSMSGEX Two more digits set how see-through the band is, from "#FF8800FF" (solid) to "#FF880000" (no band, only the text).

WINDOWS 32 & 64-bit Version 5.0.300.2 Beta

Improvements

• On screens set above 100% (125%, 150% and up) the room is now drawn at your screen's full resolution, so names, chat bubbles and text are sharp, and backgrounds and door pictures look smooth instead of blurry. If you prefer the old look, Options > Performance has a box to turn it off.
• Names and chat bubbles over a video or a web page in the room are just as sharp.
• Rooms with an animated GIF background take far less of your computer's power, and while PalaceChat is minimized, or the room is in a tab you are not looking at, its GIF background rests.
• Animated GIFs on doors in a state nobody sees now stop, start again from the beginning when they show again, and give their memory back after a minute.
• PalaceChat no longer freezes for a moment right after it opens, or when you enter the first room (the entry sound included).
• The first video or web page you open in a session shows up faster.
• Tabs you are not looking at use less memory.

WINDOWS 32 & 64-bit Version 5.0.300.1 Beta

Bug Fixes

• With "Hide title bar" turned on in the new chat log, PalaceChat could close by itself right at startup. It now starts normally.

New for room scripters

• WEBFOCUS, a new script command: a web page in a spot keeps the keyboard once you click into it, until you click somewhere else. For games where you type into the page. Example: 1 ME WEBFOCUS
• HIDEBUBBLES, a new script command: a room with no chat bubbles. What people say still shows in the chat log (and is read aloud, if you have that on), and the bubbles come back when you leave the room. Example: 1 HIDEBUBBLES

WINDOWS 32 & 64-bit Version 5.0.300.0 Release

All fixes and new features from the previous beta series are now folded into this release. The beta list resets here, anything new rolls out starting with 5.0.300.0