Phaser v4.0.0 Release Candidate 7

[photonstorm]

Version 4.0.0 - Release Candidate 7

New Features

• Actions.AddEffectBloom allows you to quickly set up a bloom effect, using several filters, on a target Camera or GameObject.
• Actions.AddEffectShine allows you to quickly set up a shine effect, using a new Gradient and filters, on a target Camera or GameObject.
• Actions.AddMaskShape allows you to quickly add shapes to a target Camera or GameObject as Masks. Blurred edges and inversion are supported.
• Actions.FitToRegion transforms an object to fit a region, such as the screen.
• Display.Color: several helper methods now support modifying an existing Color object instead of creating a new one.
  • HSLToColor
  • HexStringToColor
  • IntegerToColor
  • ObjectToColor
  • RGBStringToColor
  • ValueToColor
• Display.Color.Interpolate: an extra interpolation mode is available.
  • HSVWithHSV: new method to interpolate HSV values, in HSV space.
  • ColorWithColor has new parameters to allow it to operate in HSV space.
    • hsv flag sets it to operate in HSV space.
    • hsvSign flag can force it to interpolate hue either ascending or descending. Default behavior picks the shortest angle.
• Display.ColorBand describes a transition between two colors. Intended for use in gradients.
• Display.ColorRamp describes a range of colors using ColorBands. Intended for use in gradients.
• GameObject#isDestroyed flag helps you avoid errors when accessing an object that might have removed expected properties during destruction.
• GameObjects.Gradient is a new game object which renders gradients.
  • Gradient shapes include:
    • LINEAR
    • BILINEAR
    • RADIAL
    • CONIC_SYMMETRIC
    • CONIC_ASYMMETRIC
  • Gradient repeat modes include:
    • EXTEND: flat colors extend from start and end.
    • TRUNCATE: transparency extends from start and end.
    • SAWTOOTH: gradient starts over every time it completes.
    • TRIANGULAR: gradient reverses direction every time it gets to the end or start.
  • Optional Interleaved Gradient Noise based dithering to eliminate banding.
• GameObjects.NineSlice has two new parameters: tileX, tileY, which allow non-corner regions of the NineSlice to tile instead of stretch. Some stretching is still applied to keep the tile count a whole number. Thanks to @skhoroshavin for this contribution!
• GameObjects.Noise renders noise patterns.
  • Control value power curve.
  • Select from trigonometric or PCG algorithms.
  • Output grayscale, random color, or random normals.
• Cellular noise objects: GameObjects.NoiseCell2D, NoiseCell3D and NoiseCell4D provide cellular/Worley/Voronoi noise.
  • Render cellular noise with sharp or smooth edges, or random flat colors.
  • Smoothly animate scroll through the XY plane or evolve the pattern through Z or ZW axes.
  • Add octaves of detail.
  • Supports rendering as a texture or normal map for use in other effects.
• Simplex noise objects: GameObjects.NoiseSimplex2D and NoiseSimplex3D provide simplex noise.
  • Render simplex noise, the successor to Perlin Noise.
  • Use gradient flow to smoothly loop noise animation.
  • Add octaves of detail.
  • Apply turbulence and output shaping for a variety of effects.
  • Supports rendering as a texture or normal map for use in other effects.
• Tint is overhauled.
  • tint and setTint() now purely affect the color settings.
    • Previously, both would silently deactivate fill mode.
  • tintFill and setTintFill() are removed.
  • New property tintMode and new method setTintMode() now set the tint fill mode.
  • Phaser.TintModes enumerates valid tint modes.
    • MULTIPLY
    • FILL
    • ADD
    • SCREEN
    • OVERLAY
    • HARD_LIGHT
  • FILL mode now treats partial alpha correctly.
  • BitmapText tinting now works correctly.
  • Conversion tip: foo.setTintFill(color) becomes foo.setTint(color).setTintMode(Phaser.TintModes.FILL).
• CombineColorMatrix filter for remixing alpha and other channels between images.
• GradientMap filter for recoloring images using a gradient and their own brightness.
• Key filter for removing or isolating colors.
• ImageLight filter for image-based lighting, a soft, highly realistic form of illumination.
• PanoramaBlur filter for adjusting images for ImageLight.
• NormalTools filter for manipulating normal maps.
• Quantize filter for reducing colors and dithering.
• Vignette filter returns from Phaser 3.
  • Now sets a configurable border color instead of erasing alpha.
  • Also supports limited blend modes.
• Wipe filter returns from Phaser 3.
  • Now allows you to set the texture displayed in wiped-away regions.
  • Now provides helper functions to set directional reveal/wipe effects.
• Math.Hash provides fast hashes of 1, 2, 3, or 4 dimensional input, using trigonometric or PCG methods.
• Math.HashCell provides hashes of 1, 2, 3, or 4 dimensional input, using hash results in a Worley noise field. This produces a continuous but lumpy field.
• Math.HashSimplex provides hashes of 1, 2, or 3 dimensional input, using a simplex noise implementation. This produces a continuous, smooth field.
• Texture#setSource method for updating the source of a texture. Note that, while the source will update, derived values such as object sizes will not. It's advisable to switch between textures of identical size to avoid unexpected transforms.
• Texture#setDataSource method already existed, but has been changed to be more useful like setSource.
• TextureManager#addFlatColor method for creating a flat texture with custom color, alpha, width, and height. This is intended to act as a temporary stand-in for textures you might not have loaded yet.
• TextureSource#updateSource method for switching sources directly.
• New Phaser.Types.Textures.TextureSource and Phaser.Types.Textures.TextureSourceElement types to simplify the increasing number of sources for a texture.

Fixes

• Fix TimeStep#stepLimitFPS to drop fewer frames, running much more smoothly at the target frame rate. Thanks to @flow and @Antriel for discussing the topic.
  • Documentation in FPSConfig#limit now clarifies that frame limits are only necessary when artificially slowing the game below the display refresh rate.
• Fix Shape not respecting lights even though it had the lighting component.
• Fix SpriteGPULayer creation time handling getting confused by 0.
• Fix blend modes leaking onto siblings within a Container. Thanks to @saintflow47, @tickle-monster and @leemanhopeter for reporting this.
• Fix texture offsets in ParseXMLBitmapFont. Thanks to @leemanhopeter.
• Fix DynamicTexture turning black if it initially has a power-of-two resolution and is resized to a non-power-of-two resolution. Now any WebGL texture resize will wrap with REPEAT if it is power of two, or CLAMP_TO_EDGE if not. Thanks to @x-wk for reporting this.
• Fix TextureManager.addUint8Array method, which got premultiplied alpha wrong and flipY wrong.

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This discussion was created from the release Phaser v4.0.0 Release Candidate 7.

[niklas-e]

Great work on Phaser 4 and this new RC! I'm wondering why v4 is not already the main version / full release? To me it seems it has been looong time in development and quite stable. The main branch (v3) has been dormant for long time which makes Phaser look somewhat dead/dying project by a quick glance. For example, I almost completely skipped Phaser when tried to figure out which game engine to try out for our next game), but then by just coincidence I stumbled upon an article discussing v4 which made me take another look.

[Axolotlguy7707]

Wait, so is it stable enough for a large project then? Like, are there any known bugs?

[photonstorm]

If we could turn back time, RC1 would have been the official 4.0.0 release, and each RC after that would have been a point release. But alas, we cannot, so we're ironing out our final set of tweaks and then pushing the release during April in time for Phaser's birthday.