I figure it's about time I released beta 6. It's been a few months since the last one (so much for monthly betas :P), but hey, the SVN builds should be enough to keep those most interested in development up-to-date. Many things are improved over beta5 in this version, so be sure to get it asap if you're still using 5.

New stuff? Here:

• TEXTUREx editor is fully functional (not entirely complete yet though, just needs a proper patch selector)
• Implemented proper mass rename/import/export
• Support for opening/viewing more archive and image types: Shadowcaster, Amulets & Armor
• Implemented 'recent files' (in the file menu and also in a tab in the Archive Manager)
• New Bookmark system: In a fourth tab in the Archive Manager is a list of bookmarks. You can right-click on an entry in the Entry Panel to bookmark it. Then you can quick-jump to it with a double-click
• Massively improved entry list speed
• Entzy list can now be filtered by name
• Added a basic preferences dialog
• Added a proper hex viewer
• Entry extensions are automatically updated if their type gets changed somehow (via gfx conversion, file import, etc)
• Base resource archive can now be selected from the toolbar
• MANY bugfixes, minor features and general improvements

3.0 is getting closer, gradually...

Well the SLADE website has been down for a week or so, during that time a few things have happened.

Gez has setup an SVN builds page over at DRD Team. So if you're feeling adventurous, try out the latest (win32) SVN build of SLADE while waiting on the next proper beta version :)

I've also setup a Wiki for SLADE over here, which will be added to over time with documentation, tutorials, information etc etc.

That's all for now, hopefully within the next few weeks I'll get beta6 up, if all goes well...

Well I didn't get everything I wanted finished before this release, but it's been longer than a month so it's time for beta 5.

New stuff in this release:

• The usual bugfixes and improvements (and possibly new bugs introduced :P)
• TEXTUREx editor redesigned, now is opened by double-clicking a texture related entry. The editor itself still isn't finished, though
• Basic colourisation (comments+strings) and line numbers in the text editor
• Gif support
• Detection for a bunch more entry formats
• Ability to import multiple files at once (with 'Entry->New from File')

The list isn't all that impressive I know, but a lot of the work since beta4 has been under the hood, so to speak. Anyway hopefully next beta will have the TEXTUREx editor done (finally), and perhaps the text editor too...

Well a lot sooner than I planned, here's beta 4. I would have waited longer to up the version but beta 3 had some nasty problems. So, here's what's new:

• The usual bug fixes and improvements
• Added "Convert to ANIMDEFS" function to context menu when ANIMATED and/or SWITCHES lumps are selected
• TGA and TIFF support
• Added new cvar gl_tex_enable_np2 which will completely disable non-power-of-two textures if set to false (set it in slade3.cfg)
• Fixed problem where saving an archive took much too long
• Added support for viewing BMF fonts
• Colormaps and translation tables can now be viewed (temporary, i plan to get a full colormap editor/previewer going eventually)
• Can now open embedded zips
• Several new text types recognised

Barring any real problems I'm hoping to have the TEXTUREx editor mostly complete by the next beta release :)

Well I figure it's about time to release another beta. A lot of stuff has been added since the last beta version, most of it added by Gez (a huge thanks to him, I probably would never have gotten around to putting in most of that stuff :)). So anyway, in ancient SLADE tradition, here's a list of new stuff:

• Many bug fixes and small improvements
• Support for many new graphic formats:
  • Various Doom alpha/beta gfx formats
  • AUTOPAGE
  • Planar (Hexen STARTUP)
  • ZDoom IMGZ/FON1/FON2
  • VGA-ROM
  • PCX
• TEXTUREx entries can now be viewed (still very WIP though)
• Support for Strife and Doom alpha/beta TEXTUREx entries
• Can now view all PLAYPAL palettes (instead of just the first)
• Gfx preview should now work on video cards that don't support non-power-of-two OpenGL textures
• Added ability to scroll the gfx viewer (via up/down/left/right keys or dragging right click)
• Added support for ZDoom alPh/tRNS chunks
• Added ability for 'portable' install, where all configuration files etc are stored in the application directory (currently activated by creating a file called 'portable' in the SLADE application directory)
• ANIMATED and SWITCHES entry viewer (editing coming eventually)
• Can now open/edit archives within archives (wad maps within pk3s, for example)

Perhaps I'll try to get a monthly beta release going from now on. Still a fair few things to go before the final v3.0 release...