Hi, we invite you to try a public beta which is available in the beta branch: "beta_0.9.8"
To opt in:
right-click VZX Player in the games list (in Steam)
select "Properties"
select "Game Versions & Betas"
click the drop-down to select "beta_0.9.8"
You'll know you've succeeded in when the window title says version "0.9.8.0".
About this version
The main purpose of this version is to fix bugs and support more hardware.
Behind the scenes we have changed a lot about how we develop the project.
What's new?
Improved Game Controller / Keyboard Navigation
Lots of improvements and bug fixes related to game controller and keyboard navigation. Pack list, settings list, edit boxes in settings list etc.
Intel GPU Support Improved
We have worked quite a bit on the Intel GPU support.
But don't expect it to be perfect. We're not yet at a stage where it is oficially supported.
It does seem Intel Arc GPU's work quite well. There were bugs preventing our modern visuals from working (would show just a white blob).
After these bug fixes, we have also been able to run all visuals (with low resolution and low FPS!) on an Intel UHD 630 without crashes.
However, there has been at least one crash when we added this branch to Steam a few weeks ago. So there's still more to this story that we simply don't know how to solve yet.
One can speculate it could be because of old drivers or low RAM. Local logging (logs are included in crash reports) has been extended to include info about CPU and RAM for this reason.
We'll see how it goes and monitor crash reports to maybe do some more adjustments or perhaps introduce a more specialized warning if there is a clearly identifiable pattern.
In any case - the Intel warning has been disabled for all configurations.
SteamOS / Steam Deck
VZX Player isn't the best fit for SteamOS as you can only run one application at a time from Steam Big Picture Mode and as you probably already know - VZX Player requires another application to produce the audio. Microphone does work on Steam Deck but that's not a great option.
Still, we know some want to use it, so we've focused on fixing what we can for this release. This includes the game controller support already mentioned and a few shader bugs that were present on Steam Deck.
(There is also desktop mode on Steam Deck, we haven't tested that however.)
When we get access to Steam Machine hardware, we want to try it there also.
So, we shouldn't say it's fully supported, but at least improved a bit.
Running "without Steam" no longer produces/checks locally generated license files
We have removed our custom and purely local / offline license file generation + checks as it would complicate development going forward.
This means you can run offline (when Steam process is not running) without restriction - before you had to occasionally start it through Steam to regenerate those timestamped license files.
We still connect to Steam to read DLC ownership and pricing information when Steam is running however.
When launching from outside Steam, when pressing ESC to quit the program, above the exit menu buttons, we've added a "Visit VZX Player on Steam" button and also a different text below the pack list.
Various Smaller Improvements
The player binary is now cryptographically signed which is intended to help with "Windows Smartscreen" blocking it from running. It also means that if the EXE has been altered or corrupted, it shouldn't start. (To see the signature, right-click the EXE in windows explorer, select Properties and then the "Digital Signatures" tab.)
The mouse cursor disappearance timout and pop-up tray timing have been adjusted slightly
CPU/RAM info in logs (included in a crash report) - CPU model, total RAM capacity, to help us understand what conditions can cause errors. (To see this in a log file, open the log file in %LOCALAPPDATA%\\vovoid\\vzx_store_player\\log.txt, then search for "System RAM".)
Compiler version and argument list added to logs to further help with debugging crashes.
Audio backends have been consolidated into the same executable (if you're curious how this works, check with SysInternals Process Explorer when VZX Player is running).
Font sizes and column widths have been fixed in key remapping editor.
Remove unused fonts in asset packages making them slightly smaller and should save a little bit of RAM.
The console window flashing by has been fixed, it no longer does that.
Some AMD GPU shader bug fixes, mainly affecting the Steam Deck
I have something to report!
First, check the list of known issues available here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/981590/discussions/0/664989013663464016/
If it's addressed there, you don't have to report it.
It's not on the list, where do I report it?
Please join our discord server ( click the icon below ) and report it in the channel #development.