Mostly internal bug fixes.
This is a required fix. We found a bug in the new Community code which would cause uploads to fail. This fixes that bug.
]]>As of mid-January the digital certificate we use for connecting with the Community will expire and cannot be renewed. So, we’ve rebuilt the Community services and this new version of Kodu is required to access it.
If you do not update you will no longer have access to the Community page in Kodu. You will not be able to browse, upload (share), or download files from the Community. Everything else will continue to work as expected.
Other than the changes to the Community, this version has only minor changes since the last release.
Beta test the new Kodu!
At the end of the year the existing Community site will go away. We’ve been busy creating a replacement for the Community and need some help testing it. For technical reasons the new Community will also require a new version of Kodu. This will be version 1.6. After mid-January older versions of Kodu will not be able to access the Community site. We do plan on moving all the old worlds to the new system once we’re sure it is stable.
You can download the Kodu 1.6.9.0 here:
KoduSetup_1.6.9.0.exe
KoduSetup_1.6.9.0.msi
The Community should look and act almost exactly as it did before with, hopefully, some performance improvements. For testing we ask that you create and share worlds and download worlds shared by others. In particular, please test worlds with multiple linked levels. Note that if we run into problems during testing, we may reset the database so don’t delete any worlds off your machine that you want to keep.
If you find anything that doesn’t work as expected please send email to KoduSupport@InfiniteInstant.com. Please include the exact version of Kodu you are running and detailed steps on how to recreate the problem.
If all goes well, 1.6 will be fully released in the next couple of weeks. Thanks for your help!
]]>Looks like I made a mistake with the last release which caused the terrain for worlds to disappear when imported. Apologies. This new version should fix the problem.
This release also fixes a problem with loading languages that only seemed to show up on systems set to Vietnamese. I’m still not 100% certain what caused the issue but this does fix it.
]]>1.5.76.0 is a minor release with just a few bug fixes and changed features.
Add support for micro:bit V2. Kodu should now work with V1 or V2 devices.
Add support for translating individual levels.
Includes support for localizing:
- titles
- descriptions
- ‘say’ strings
- ‘hear said’ strings
- tutorial instructions
Includes Russian for built-in Kodu worlds.
Right now doing a translation is a tedious process of hand editing the Xml file. In the future I hope to create a tool to make this easier and less error-prone.
Tweak the movement of Kodu and other bots that use the hover chassis. This change is not drastic but does make the bots feels more controllable and less like they’re sliding sideways a lot.
Fix bot to bot collision response when one bot is user controlled and the other is not. Previously the user controlled bot wouldn’t budge when collided with. Now acts as it should.
Change News Feed on the Main Menu page to stay open all the time. Previously,
it would close when not being read which may have hid important announcements.
When open it would also sometimes “trap” input making it difficult to get back
to the Main Menu.
Kodu terrain map files now use the extension .Map instead of .Raw. The .Raw extension was being blocked by some anti-virus software. There should be no user-noticable effect of this.
Add further compression to audio and remove opening video to reduce installer size.
Update EULA, Privacy Statement, and Code of Conduct links to point to web site.
Hi, I’d like to introduce myself. I’m Stephen Coy (scoy). I’m one of the original Kodu developers and have been working on Kodu since the project was started 14 years ago in Microsoft Research. For the last several years I’ve been the only person working on Kodu full time. Recently, I left Microsoft. I didn’t want Kodu to just disappear when I left so before leaving I was able to shepherd Kodu through the process of being released as open source. Microsoft also kindly allowed me to take over the community database and web site. My plan is to continue to support Kodu for years to come. Joining me will be Chris Phillips. Chris worked with me at Microsoft and has basically done all the work on the web site and community for the last decade.
Very little will change:
Kodu will remain free for everyone to use.
In the immediate future Chris and I are going to be working on reworking the community server and related web site to help bring the costs in line. Hopefully, this will also make the whole system more efficient. We think we can do this without any outages so this shouldn’t affect Kodu use.
I’ve also been considering a Kodu Wiki to document in detail each of Kodu’s programming tiles including their use, limitations, and samples. Is this something you would find useful? Let me know.
As far as Kodu itself goes, I will continue to do new releases for bug fixes and minor feature additions. In the longer term I’m also working on a new UI system for Kodu which will be more consistent and stable than the current system.
-scoy
]]>I normally wouldn’t put out a release so quickly after the last one, but we’ve got a severe issue to fix. A change in how Windows reports the hardware devices it detects has completely broken our micro:bit code. On the latest version of Windows, older versions of Kodu no longer detect any micro:bits. This release fixes the problem.
Second is the ability to rename characters. You can now change a character’s name to make it easier to keep track of.
The rename option is found in the character settings (DNA) menu. Also, if you right click or tap on a character, the Rename option will appear in the menu.
Multiple characters can have the same name.
There are also new filter options derived from the named characters. You can name a character “Fred” and then program another character with WHEN See Fred DO …
Note that the name acts like a characteristic of the character. So, for instance I could create a creatable Saucer and a creatable Sputnik, and name them both “Enemy”. As they are spawned, they will all be called “Enemy” so I can then program my character with WHEN See Enemy DO … and this will react to both Saucers and Sputniks.
I think this is going to be a very powerful feature for more advanced users. Not only does it allow some interesting capabilities, but it also can help to make the intent of characters more clear helping to make the game more understandable.
Kodu now speaks Vietnamese!
The “Print Kode” option has been updated to also include any tutorial instructions.
More tuning on how things bounce and roll.
The Octopus can now move on land again.
When editing a level, you can now easily align characters with the N/S and E/W axes. Hover the mouse over the character so it is highlighted and then use the up and down arrow keys to rotate the character.
Fixed a bug in the missile code which would sometimes cause them to destroy the character they were launched from.
Fixed a bug in the text string handling code which, in some cases, could cause the help descriptions to get cut short.
Fixed a but in the mouse click tile. When combined with a specific character type it would trigger when clicked on the background when it should only have triggered when clicked on a character of the specified type.
The “timer” tiles were not being reset properly when a game was restarted. Fixed.
Fixed bug with movement. Characters with no obvious facing direction (wisp, saucer, etc.) would not respond to absolute directions (Move North, …) properly.
Fixed a bug in the language translation code which was preventing updates from being downloaded when needed.
The alignment of pipes was originally broken. When this was fixed it left old levels with pipes in skewed positions. The code now detects old levels and fixes the pipe alignment.
Add MaxHealth, BlipDamage, and MissileDamage tiles. Their values can be set and read just like any score tile.
Updated Damage and Heal tiles to support full range of scores for their values rather than just numbers.
Add OverPath tile. This allows you to sense when a character is over a path. Does not trigger when character is jumping.
Change OnWater and OnTerrain tiles to both return false when the character is jumping. A typical use for this would be to have the character die when touching water (or lava) but allowing them to jump over it safely.
The MouseOver detection now also works for the onscreen GUI Buttons.
World and private scores can now appear in Say commands much like the color scores can. To display the current value of world score A use <score A>. To display the current value of private score b use <private score b>.
Add new settings slider tiles from controlling BlipReloadTime, BlipRange, MissileReloadTime, MissileRange, CloseByRange, FarAwayRange, and HearingRange. These can now all be adjusted via programming during gameplay.
Accented characters in Spanish now work properly with the Spanish keyboard. For instance, typing ‘a now results in á.
Micro:bit 1.5 is now supported!
The edit/run cycle of complex levels should now be faster. Previously moving from run mode back into edit mode caused the full terrain to be reloaded. This no longer happens and so, should be much quicker.
In game, when a full screen text dialog is displayed, we now wait half a second before accepting input. This is to help prevent accidental closing of the dialog.
Fixed Rover’s rotation when scanning rocks.
Increase friction for all characters so they don’t coast quite as much.
Fixed TurnSpeed and MoveSpeed programming tiles.
Fixed bug in terrain sensor when used over smooth terrain.
Fixed a bunch of bugs related to movement when frame rate is very low (<10). This caused characters to fall through the ground, to get stuck when moving, to bounce oddly, to overshoot when turning, and to be too twitchy to control easily.
Fixed bug with blips not hitting some characters. Problem was related to the order that the characters were added to the world.
Fixed a bug in the Load World Menu when changing the sort order.
Fixed bug in input arbitration which was causing unused inputs to sometimes block active ones. For instance, if you programmed WHEN GamePad LeftStick DO Move above WHEN Keyboard Arrows DO Move, the GamePad line would block the input from the keyboard line even when no gamepad was being used.
Fixed a bug where rules which were first indented and then unindented would sometimes not be evaluated correctly since the system still thought they were indented.
Fixed bug with detecting Bumped Missiles colored other than white.
Fixed hearing range to be linear between 0 and 100 meters. Setting to full is the same as setting to infinity. By the way, the square terrain tiles are ½ a meter on a side, so 10 meters equals 20 blocks.
Fixed missiles show by the GUI buttons to just fly forward. Previously they flew toward to world origin.
Fixed bug with GUI button labels where they would persist across worlds even when deleted.
Fixed bug preventing Alt+NumPad special characters from being added.
Fixed a bug in the scoring where sometimes the private scores from the target object where being used rather than the private scores from the object running the code.
Fixed bug with scores set to Quiet being reset to Loud on reload of level.