“light” changes

- each entity may now have one light attached to it, which essentially means that whenever that entity is moved, the light moves with it
- a backdrop can either be lit by the in-game lights, or have its own set of lights
- both entity and backdrop specific lights can be defined within the XML using [...]

editor and font changes

- changed the enButton default texture, as well as created a new constructor which accepts a custom texture filename
- added a “new map” button to the editor screen which clears out the current map (and increases g_saveLevelCount)
- modified the test mode for trying maps to include a “caution” border, and the ability to go back [...]

random(low,high), GameItemBox

- added the ability to use the keyword random(low number, high number) as a value for any xml number attribute
- for player controlled entities, modified the texture flipping mechanism
- GameItemBox has been fixed to work properly with the xml level structure (given a separate child under its entity root)
- GameItemBox can spawn any type of [...]

editor changes and vsync modification

- entity positioning in the editor’s entity chooser window no longer relies on x and y coordinates from the editor.xml file; positions are chosen based on a first-come first-serve basis, based on the size of the chooser window
- modified some strings with regards to the output of console messages
- added new console variable s_verticalSync which [...]

console variable changes

- added the ability to set a console variable’s value to an existing one (e.g. set g_gravity g_defaultGravity, cvar float g_lowGravity g_gravity)
- fixed the save map functionality in the editor to accommodate the new xml level structure, defaults each map to one offset light

lighting engine

- modified the engine to allow multiple lights per level, each having their own colour, intensity, and movement
- shadows are cast dynamically from each object for each light
- lighting is still entity-based (the entire entity is coloured and lit)
- added new console variable, s_lightShadowFactor, which sets how large the shadow offset is
- fixed a bug [...]

shadows, enLight, console variables

- added a new class, enLight
- added two techniques to render shadows on all entities, one that depends on the position of the light, and one that simply renders a shadow that is an offset of the actor’s position
- added four new console variables which control the rendering of shadows: r_drawActorShadows, r_drawActorMovingShadows, r_drawActorSolidShadows, r_drawActorSolidMovingShadows
- [...]

hit collision, hitbox, and xml changes

- new hit detection algorithm that relies on the position of entities, rather than checking every entity in a level
- completely redesigned how <attack>, <destroy>, <accessFromBottom>, and <friction> operate in the engine, as well as in the xml level structure; now all four are individually set for each hitbox that an entity has defined, allowing [...]

damage, xml schema updates

- added a new xml child element to <hitbox>, <damage>, which allows an entity to be destroyed when it is hit on the top, bottom, left, or right
- moved <attack> and <friction> to be a child of the <hitbox> element
- fixed a bug whereby a player jumps and hits an object, but doesn’t start falling [...]

timing and attacking

- added new functionality to the timer class (enTimer) that allows a function to be passed in that will be executed after a set delay: enTimer(functionPointer, delay)
- any solid entity (one with a hitbox) can now specify which edge causes damage by inserting <attack top=”#” bottom=”#” left=”#” right=”#”> into the entity’s xml set; the # [...]