October 12, 2015: BerryBots v1.3.3

• High-resolution ("Retina") graphics support on Mac OS X - game graphics, stage previews, and button icons.
• Improved game speed tuner:
  • Default to 30 fps, with additional grooves at 15 fps and 60 fps.
  • Keyboard shortcuts for slow down and speed up ("[" and "]").
  • Persist speed setting while app is running.
  • Higher max speed.
• UI tweaks:
  • New Match dialog got a minor facelift.
  • Output consoles now larger initial size.
  • Reuse main game window across matches.
  • Put replay controls under results dialog and output consoles.
• Allow ships to change names and colors during the match if debug gfx are enabled.
• Updated to LuaJIT 2.0.4, SFML 2.3.2, wxWidgets 3.0.2, and KineticJS 5.1.0.
• Bug fix: Crash when starting (or restarting) a match if a bot has compilation errors.
• Bug fix: print() should match Lua's default behavior - supporting multiple arguments and using tostring.
• Bug fix: Start Match hotkey (alt-M) broken on Linux and Windows.
• Bug fix: Packaging saves to wrong directories after changing base directory.
• Bug fix: Escape backslashes in replay text data (output consoles, stage texts, ship / team names).

August 6, 2015: The new PlayBerryBots.com

• The new PlayBerryBots.com is up, featuring a sleek new AngularJS interface, beautiful low contrast colors c/o Solarized, and a "starter kit" with movement and targeting snippets to get you off the ground.

January 26, 2014: BerryBots Little League

• The BerryBots Little League is here! A new tourney every few weeks with a different stage or rule set. Get started coding and submit your bot right from the web at PlayBerryBots.com/battle.

December 3, 2013: BerryBots v1.3.2

• New web UI. Try BerryBots in a browser at PlayBerryBots.com.
• Game Runner updates.
  • Added file access to ships and stages directories from RunnerFiles. This enables research that evaluates changes to source code, like genetic algorithms.
  • Added RunnerForm.reset(), to clear all fields and values.
  • Added RunnerForm.addDropdown(), to choose from a set of strings.
  • Added MazerEvolver sample runner. It uses a genetic algorithm to evolve a ship to solve a maze.
  • Added option for "Round-robin" seeding in simpletourney. All ships face each other and overall win/loss determines bracket seeding.
  • Added win percentages to batchduels.
• Replay/web UI rendering changes.
  • Default to 0.5x speed (~30 fps), with options for 1x ("Bouncy") and 20x ("Ludicrous") speeds.
  • Added restart button to playback controls.
  • Tweaked playback controls to be less intrusive on desktop browsers.
• Bug fix: Lua errors not being saved to replay output consoles.
• Bug fix: Inaccurate API docs for TeamResult.stats table. It's a map, not a list of tables. See example usage in batch1p or batchduels.
• Bug fix: Writing extra null chars to end of file from RunnerFiles.writeFile() on Windows.
• Bug fix: "make install" broken when SFML is already installed on system. (Thanks to cortezthekiller for the bug report and patch.)
• Bug fix: Crash when calling RunnerForm.ok() multiple times.
• Bug fix: Crash when printing empty string with Admin.drawText() or DebugGfx.drawText().

November 10, 2013: BerryBots v1.3.1

• Linux binaries now in .deb (Debian/Ubuntu/Mint) and .rpm (Fedora/openSUSE) packages.
• Revamped build process with autoconf.
• Tweaked torpedo blast graphics to more closely resemble torpedo blast behavior.
• Added "Restart" button to results dialog.
• Mac app is now signed (for Gatekeeper).
• Bug fix: Not always correctly propagating scores to ranks to winner. (E.g., if you only set scores, ranks and winner should be deduced.)
• Bug fix: Torpedo debris not showing in replays.
• Bug fix: Line breaks in output consoles breaks replay data parsing.
• Bug fix: Multiple spaces render as one space in replay output consoles, mangling ASCII art.
• Bug fix: Crash on Mac OS X when launching New Match with a mouse click after first match is launched with hotkey (cmd-M).
• Bug fix: Lua print() with a boolean value doesn't work.

October 13, 2013: BerryBots v1.3.0

• Replays!
  • Replays include game graphics, video player controls, output consoles, and full results.
  • Replays are saved as HTML files. View them locally or post them online to show off your creations. Rendering is HTML5 Canvas and Javascript using KineticJS.
  • Sample: battle2-2013.10.05-17.03.40.html
  • Overview video: BerryBots replays
  • How to save replays:
    • GUI: The results dialog now contains "View Replay" and "Save Replay" buttons.
    • Raspberry Pi: Pass -savereplay to berrybots.sh.
    • Sample Game Runners: Check the "Save replays" checkbox.
    • Game Runner API: Call MatchRunner.saveReplay().
• Revamped stage preview. Larger image and more info, like stage size, team size, and stage ships. (Sample)
• Game Runner API updates.
  • Added MatchRunner.saveReplay() to save the replay of the last result returned by MatchRunner.nextResult().
  • Added RunnerForm.addCheckbox() to allow boolean form inputs (e.g., "Save replays").
• Updated to LuaJIT 2.0.2, SFML 2.0+, and wxWidgets 2.9.5.
• Added a 20 lap limit to RaceTrack sample stage.
• Bug fix: Crash when switching between Game Runner and normal matches.
• Bug fix: Crash when previewing stages with no description.
• Bug fix: Crash when closing Error Console on Linux/GTK.
• Bug fix: Incorrectly calculating per-ship scores in batchduels sample runner.
• Bug fix: Rendering negative energy in dock for destroyed ships.
• Bug fix: Debug gfx circles are too coarse (only 30 points).

April 21, 2013: BerryBots v1.2.0

• Game Runner API to execute BerryBots matches and process the results. Watch the overview video or read the API docs.
  • Multi-threaded execution of matches.
  • Simple system for configuring and receiving input parameters, presented to user through a GUI form.
  • Basic file access for saving settings or match results.
  • Includes sample Game Runner programs for batch single-player stages (like LaserGallery), batch duels, and a single-elimination tournament.
  • For now, only supports Mac, Linux, and Windows.
• Robust results handling.
  • In addition to setting a winner, stages can set ranks, scores, and/or custom statistics for each ship or team.
  • If no winner is set, winner is ship/team with rank=1. If no winner or ranks are set by the stage, they are determined according to highest scores.
  • Sample stages updated with ranks, scores, and statistics.
• Added color and duration parameters to Admin.drawText() (now same as DebugGfx.drawText()).
• Bug fix: Don't segfault when quitting from Package Ship or Package Stage dialogs on Linux.

April 7, 2013: BerryBots v1.1.4

• Bug fix: World.touchedZone and World.touchedAnyZone fixed for ship programs. They were working for stages, but functioning the same as inZone/inAnyZone for ships.
• Bug fix: Memory leaks from not closing Lua states for ship programs, and not detaching timer thread.
• Bug fix: Always print to end of output console, even after user has moved the cursor.
• Tweaked zone tags in sample/racetrack.lua to give a better clue to ships as to which direction they should move around the track.
• On Mac OS X, added a plist setting to allow disabling anti-aliasing in the game graphics. Set Disable Anti-aliasing to true in ~/Library/Application Support/BerryBots/config.plist. If you're on an older Mac and BerryBots crashes when you start a match, give this a try.

March 31, 2013: BerryBots v1.1.3

• Document hard limit of 4096 of each type of debugging graphic. Print warning to ship/stage console if the limit is hit.
• When game is paused and window loses focus, drop frame rate to 5 fps to consume less resources.
• Bug fix: Don't disable garbage collection during calls to user Lua code. This was inadvertently causing GC never to run for some memory-intensive bots.

March 24, 2013: BerryBots v1.1.2

• Display debris when a ship is hit by a torpedo. One particle of debris per damage taken.
• Print Lua stack trace to output console when ship/stage programs encounter errors, in addition to error message.
• Print a different message to output console when a ship destroys itself.
• On Mac OS X, offer to update samples and API docs in base directory when running a new version for the first time.
• Bug fix: Output consoles can be properly resized again.
• Bug fix: Ships and stages packaged on Windows now work on non-Windows.
• Bug fix: When trying to load a file for crawling during packaging, don't crash if Lua encounters an error.
• Bug fix: Minor issue with random seeding for Lua states.
• Bug fix: Some lib path issues with build process on Mac OS X.

March 19, 2013: BerryBots v1.1.1

• Graphical debugging for ships and stages. Watch the overview video or read the DebugGfx API docs. For now, only supports Mac, Linux, and Windows.
• Updated LuaJIT to 2.0.1.

March 11, 2013: BerryBots v1.1.0

• Full GUI for Mac / Linux / Windows.
  • Dialogs for running matches, packaging ships and stages.
  • Left-hand dock in main window to access ship/stage output consoles, pause or restart the match, and adjust execution speed.
  • Preview stages from New Match dialog (like Mac's "Quick Look").
  • Quick access to ships and stages directories and API documentation.
  • Keyboard shortcuts for just about everything - hit Command (on Mac) or Alt (everywhere else) to see hints.
• Improvements to sample ships and stages.
• New targeting challenge stage: LaserGallery. Goal is to destroy each of five ships with increasingly hard to hit movements as quickly as possible.
• New 5v5 team battle stage: TeamBattle1. Try RandomBot, WallHugger, and Chaser.
• Stages display warning if loaded with wrong number of ships, and destroy any extra ships.
• Battle stages display game time in bottom left and scores at end of a match.
• Maze stages display completion time.
• Misc bug fixes, code cleanup, and colors.
• Sandbox improvements:
  • Removed support for loading or packaging ships/stages as LuaJIT bytecode. Running bytecode is much more dangerous than source code. There are Lua bytecode exploits to escape a sandbox and execute arbitrary code. Roblox's blog post about removing bytecode support provides a good overview: Bye Bye Bytecode.
  • Disabled LuaJIT Debug library, JIT library, and package.loadlib function. (I/O and OS libraries already disabled.)
  • Disallow running ship/stage packages that contain symlinks.
  • Hard limit on CPU time for each call to user Lua code. The limit is quite large - the goal for now is only to recover gracefully from misbehaving code. If a stage hits this limit, the match is aborted. If a ship hits the limit, it's disabled for the rest of the match.
• Lots of bug fixes, code refactoring, and cleanup, including:
  • bots/ and stages/ directories are now the base path for loading packages, not the directory of the main ship/stage file. So you can have a library in
    bots/voidious/pathlib.lua
    and use it from
    bots/voidious/maze/mazemaster.lua
    with:
    require "voidious.pathlib"
    Having source files spread across directories works much better now.
  • Re-organized build process with Makefile and documented build instructions on the wiki.
• A fancy new overview video.

January 18, 2013: BerryBots v1.0.1

• Simplified the build process on all platforms.
• Fixed several issues with compiling under Linux (32-bit and 64-bit).
• Misc fixes to the sample ships and stages.

November 20, 2012: BerryBots v1.0.0 released - yay! =)