v1.4.4

This is a stable maintenance release. It fixed some regressions introduced in v1.4.3.

• Fixed the macOS build crashing on startup.
• Fixed audio distortion when the audio device uses a sample rate other than 48 kHz.
• Fixed the internal mixer_chunksize setting being ignored. This resulted in a larger audio buffer than intended, increasing latency.
• Fixed some minor SDL3 migration issues, particularly in handling of IO errors.
• Fixed mimalloc being built incorrectly as a subproject.
• Debugging symbols for the official builds are now available as a separate download.

v1.4.3

This is a stable maintenance release. It features some bugfixes, optimizations, and other improvements backported from the v1.5 development tree.

• SDL3 is now used instead of SDL2. Should work with any SDL3 version, but latest is recommended.
• The Nintendo Switch homebrew release is currently not available until the SDL3 port is ready for that platform. See devkitPro/SDL#99
• When the online shader translator is enabled, the glslang API is now used directly instead of shaderc. The glslc frontend from shaderc is still used for offline shader validation and translation (e.g. for Emscripten builds), but is not required at runtime.
• Implemented a new rendering backend based on the SDL3 GPU API. This backend is now used by default in Windows and macOS builds, so the game now renders with Vulkan and Metal APIs on those platforms, respectively. Requires the shader translator. The Linux build still prefers OpenGL, because it is more efficient with the Mesa drivers, but includes support for SDL GPU as well.
• ANGLE is no longer included with the official Windows and macOS builds, since it has been replaced with the new SDL GPU backend.
• 32-bit x86 builds are no longer provided for Windows. 32-bit architectures (except WASM) are not officially supported anymore.
• Redesigned the Emscripten web UI. The game size is now always maximized to the whole page, and various fullscreen-related bugs have been fixed.
• Taisei now prefers to use mimalloc as its memory allocator if available. This generally improves memory usage. Package maintainers are encouraged to add a dependency on mimalloc.
• Worked around a potential crash in Wriggle EX's Moonlight Rocket spell card.
• Fixed the Windows taisei.exe missing an icon and other metadata.
• Fixed a crash that occurred when the window is closed during the gameover menu.
• Improved dependency lookup for libpng and libwebp/libwebpdecoder.
• Fixed some documentation issues.

v1.4.2

This is a stable maintenance release. It features some bugfixes, optimizations, and other improvements backported from the v1.5 development tree.

• Reworked gamepad input handling and configuration:
  • The free/restricted axis distinction is gone; the joystick always operates in "free" mode.
  • Added direction snapping functionality to help aid exact movement in cardinal and/or diagonal directions. The snapping angle can be adjusted from 0% (disabled) to 100% (similar to the old "restricted" mode). The snapping angle can also be biased towards cardinals or diagonals.
  • When the maximum zone is less than or equals dead zone, moving the character will always move at maximum speed (as in the old "restricted" mode).
  • Most of these settings are now visualized in the options menu and can be tested there.
• Changed the default Spell Card (Bomb) and Power Surage gamepad bindings to Left Trigger and Right Trigger respectively.
• If autorestart is enabled for spell practice, it will now try to load a quicksave if one exists.
• Added a "load quicksave" option to the pause menu in practice modes.
• Cutscenes that have been seen before can now be completely skipped.
• Added an option to reset the config to last saved values.
• Reduced some sprite batching CPU overhead.
• Optimized rendering of scenes with many lasers.
• Optimized loading of webp files.
• Optimized various math routines.
• Improved performance of some shaders.
• Due to bad OpenGL drivers, macOS releases now use ANGLE for rendering by default. This fixes serious performance issues on some Apple systems.
• Worked around broken rendering in WebGL on Apple systems with certain versions of ANGLE (see #386). The ANGLE bug has been fixed upstream, but certain systems are known to still be affected, such as iOS 18.
• Fixed crashes related to opening the pause menu.
• Fixed the cutscene text spontaneously disappearing on some systems.
• Fixed laser rendering errors during screen-shake effects.
• Fixed some minor general rendering errors.
• Fixed rendering errors specific to WebGL and ANGLE on Windows.
• Fixed ongoing asynchronous tasks (e.g. screenshot encoding) sometimes failing to finish when exiting the game.
• Fixed some erroneous build warnings when building with Clang 18+.
• Fixed pseudo-random lookup order when a resource exists in multiple locations. This allows files placed in sub-packages to override those from 00-taisei.zip reliably.
• Removed the defunct gles20 renderer backend.
• Screenshots now use asynchronous GPU downloads.
• Added --width and --height command line parameters.
• The default config can now be customized by adding a config.default file to the game's resources.
• Added documentation for previously undocumented environment variables to ENVIRON.rst.
• Added an experimental "framedump" mode that can be used to render videos; see ENVIRON.rst for details.
• Added a watchdog in kiosk mode that resets the game to the main menu and default settings after a period of inactivity.
• Added the TAISEI_KIOSK_PREVENT_QUIT environment variable to control whether Quit is available in kiosk mode.
• Added a some basic test programs for the renderer API.

v1.4.1

This is a stable maintenance release. It features some bugfixes and optimizations backported from the v1.5 development tree.

• Fixed a crash that happened after a few minutes would pass without any input if the intro cutscene had previously played (#371).
• Fixed a crash when attempting to start a stage on OpenBSD systems (#372).
• Fixed heavy audio distortion on the Switch (#374).
  • This was a matter of updating the SDK, and entailed no code changes on Taisei's side.
• On the Switch the resolution will now automatically adapt to the console's docked/undocked state.
• Threaded loading is now enabled on the Switch.
• Optimized a few hot paths in the game update loop.
• Optimized the tree branch mesh in the Stage 2 background to avoid rendering a lot of tiny triangles.
• Worked around a Meson issue that broke Emscripten builds (42a7e49).
• Enabled some "modern" WASM features for the Emscripten build. This raises the browser version requirements for the official build to Chromium 91 or Firefox 89.
• Added a gamemode build option to control whether to enable GameMode integration on Linux.

Note: Taisei's underlying coroutine library, koishi, still does not support CET/shadow stacks yet.

v1.4

This is a major release, with substantially redesigned stages and bosses, new story, new backgrounds, and heavy internal rewrites.

See the announcement at our website.

For package maintainers:

• Please review the updated list of dependencies. Some meson configuration options have also been changed.
• Taisei is currently incompatible with CET (Control-flow Enforcement Technology); see taisei-project/koishi#6
• Unfortunately, we have accidentally changed the file name format of source tarballs from taisei-v{version}.tar.xz to taisei-{version}.tar.xz as a result of switching to a new automated release pipeline. This will probably break your download scripts. It's too late to revert the change, so the new format is here to stay. Apologies for the inconvenience.

v1.4 (DoKomi 2023 preview)

This is a preview release of what is soon to become v1.4. This version of the game will be exhibited at DoKomi 2023.

The content here is not final and may change before the final v1.4 release. As such, forward replay compatibility is not guaranteed.

v1.3.2

This is a stable maintenance release. It features various bugfixes, optimizations, and minor features backported from the v1.4 development tree.

There are no gameplay changes and this version should be replay-compatible with the initial v1.3 release.

See the announcement at our website.

For package maintainers: this release no longer vendors the cglm library; it is now treated as an external dependency. We encourage you to package cglm as well. However, if you still wish to build cglm as a part of Taisei, you can checkout its repository into taisei/subprojects/cglm or let Meson's wrap mechanism handle it. Note that Taisei only uses the inline functions from cglm headers and does not require linking to the library.

The pgp key used to sign the release artifacts has been changed. You can receive the new key with gpg --keyserver hkp://pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 5F2EE4A69653CA07

v1.3.1

This is a stable maintenance release. It features some important bugfixes and a few optimizations and visual improvements backported from the v1.4 development tree, as well as new character art by @afensorm.

Other than fixing some rare game-breaking bugs, there are no gameplay changes and this version should be replay-compatible with the initial v1.3 release.

Semi-official homebrew Switch binaries are now also available, thanks to @p-sam's porting efforts. Use at your own risk.

See the announcement at our website for more information.

For package maintainers: opusfile and SDL_mixer >=2.0.4 built with opus support are now required.

Known issues:

• Contrary to the documentation, Meson >=0.49.0 is required for a successful build. 0.48.0 compatibility can be restored by backporting this patch. Older versions are not supported from now on.

v1.3

This is another major release. Includes lots of graphical updates, a completely rewritten renderer, a new playable character (guess who!), a new scoring mechanic, and lots of various other changes.

As usual, you can find the announcement at our website.

PGP signatures and sha256 sums are now provided so that you can verify the integrity of your download.

For package maintainers: The list of dependencies and some of the build flags have changed, and the repository now makes use of git submodules. You can find the new list of requirements in the README.

taisei-v1.3.tar.xz is the source code with the submodules included.

v1.2

This is a major release. There are lots of changes, including a complete all-original soundtrack, new graphics, sound effects, vast gameplay improvements, and much more!

A more detailed announcement can be found on the website.

Important for package maintainers: Taisei has switched to the Meson build system from CMake. Please familiarize yourself with the new build process and requirements. You probably want to pass --buildtype=plain to have it respect your CFLAGS. Contact us for further assistance.