343 Release Notes

(BYOND 3.5 Beta 1)

General Updates

• Fixed: Overflows of the maximum number of rsc entries advertised to clients was causing the server to freeze up. (Shadowdarke)
• Improved the efficiency of some icon operations (like Blend) in many cases.
• Fixed a security hole in which rogue clients could execute any proc in the game through the client-server verb calling protocol. (BobOfDoom)

Sound Updates

• Sound under Windows is now handled by the FMOD library. This significantly improves playback performance, sound mixing quality, and supported sound formats. It also opens the door for us to add much richer sound control in a future version of BYOND.
• BYOND can now play sounds and songs in the following formats:
  • Wave
  • Ogg Vorbis
  • MIDI
  • MOD
  • S3M
  • OXM
  • XM
  • IT
  • Raw
• Don't put copyrighted music in your games!

Interface Updates

• The BYOND Pager (byond.exe) is now separated from Dream Seeker. This is a significant step along the way to BYOND 4.0, where the Dream Seeker interface will be fully customizable by the game developer. For 3.5, Dream Seeker retains its traditional interface, minus the pager.
• You must now login through the pager before entering a game in Dream Seeker. The pager will open Dream Seeker for you.
• Because it is now separate from Dream Seeker, the pager must remain open (even if minimized) while playing games in order to maintain contact with the BYOND Hub.
• The pager can now be minimized to the system tray (this is the default when the window is closed or minimized).
• The pager's system tray icon changes whenever you have a new unread message waiting.
• The pager now has a "Home" tab which displays the latest BYOND news and announcements.
• The pager now has a "Games" tab which displays selected live game information from the Hub.
• New program and document icons.

BYOND Membership

• The pager includes new features to support BYOND Members.
• BYOND Members who are online have an icon next to their name indicating their Membership status.
• BYOND Members can watch their favorite games in the Games tab.
• BYOND Members can choose to see all live games in the Games tab.
• BYOND Members can now receive pager messages in a more timely fashion than in older versions of BYOND.
• Added client.IsByondMember(). Returns true if the person is a BYOND Member, allowing games to easily give extra benefits to those who support BYOND.

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