ISC Engine 1.9 Is Out — JavaScript and DirectX Support Have Arrived!
One of the biggest ISC Engine updates to date is now available. JavaScript game development and hardware-accelerated DirectX/Direct2D rendering, neither of which was included in the previous Steam release, are now built into the engine.
Your existing iScript projects will continue to work. For new projects, you can select JavaScript, set up your game in init(), and build a fixed-step game loop with update(dt). With engine.include(), you can also organize your project across multiple JavaScript files.
DirectX/Direct2D Rendering
The new Direct2D rendering system uses hardware acceleration for sprites, animations, text, and particles. Camera offsets, transparency, fixed sprite sizes, and rotation are supported on the DirectX path as well. The render target updates automatically when the window is resized, and the engine can fall back to GDI+ if DirectX is unavailable.
Use dx enable in your project launcher to enable DirectX, dx disable to switch it off, and dxinfo to view its status. DirectX is enabled by default for new projects.
What Does the JavaScript API Support?
• engine: screen clearing, window title and size, delta time, timers, camera control, fullscreen mode, game exit, and multi-file script loading
• sprite: creation, movement, velocity, size, visibility, animation frames, image replacement, rotation, cloning, collision checks, mouse-over checks, camera following, batch searches, and projectile firing
• input: key held, key pressed, and key released checks; mouse position and mouse-button edge events
• pad: XInput controller connections, buttons, analog sticks, and triggers, with Xbox and PlayStation button names
• physics: swept AABB movement, platform physics, gravity, and tilemap collisions
• tilemap: loading and rendering Tiled JSON maps, defining solid tiles, and querying map data
• scene: grouping, showing, hiding, and switching menus, gameplay, and other scenes
• ui: panels, labels, buttons, progress bars, and layout helpers
• draw: text, rectangles, ellipses, lines, triangles, images, and health/progress bars
• particle and effect: particle emitters, directional cone emission, and one-shot animation effects
• audio: WAV/MP3 loading and playback, stop, pause, looping, and volume control
• storage: persistent values that remain available after the game closes
• file and db: file operations and database bridges for SQL Server, Access, Excel, and CSV
• net: queue-based TCP server/client communication designed for use in the game loop
• math, text, game, and console: math helpers, on-screen text, the iScript variable bridge, and debugging output
The code editor now includes JavaScript syntax highlighting, IntelliSense, Ctrl+Space completion, and syntax checking before execution. You can select iScript or JavaScript for each project and change the defaults for new projects in the settings screen.
More Improvements
• Sprite angle and rotation support compatible with animations
• Fixed-step update(dt) and engine.deltaTime
• Camera following and multi-collision queries
• Fixed sprite sizing and improved bitmap caching
• Fixes for network shutdown, image replacement, and particle color blending
• Runtime reset, timer cleanup, and execution limits for scripts that become unresponsive
This release passed 256 out of 256 automated checks across 11 test tools. Runtime and gameplay-logic tests for the sample games were also completed successfully.
With ISC Engine 1.9, you can continue using the classic iScript workflow or build larger 2D projects with JavaScript and DirectX. Share your feedback and the games you create with the Steam community!
Version: 1.9.0.0