Game Maker 8.0 Beta

[JoEL]

Well the Beta version for Game Maker 8 is now testable for all community members, However you cannot publish any of the games you make with it and they essentially stop running after a few minutes as it is for testing purposes.

If you haven't heard about it then: http://gm8.yoyogames.com
Register an account and Login then Download GM8 Beta

There are a few big changes that I like...such as you can choose editors for Images/Music and even Code Editors. I also like how you can customize the colour coding and what not. Also the splash images and splash webpages  and the new event being Triggers. So yeah check it out if you already haven't and tell me what you guys think?

[ARTgames]

Edit/update post:

First impressions:

Well opining it up for the first time it looks a lot like 7 or 6. First thing i did was go make a room then a object.

Everything was the same as before of those two things. So i opened up the a create event and placed code thingy. Here i see some difference.

I opened up the help manual after the code box popped up to do take a look and to remember what the functions were. the Manuel did say "GM8" but only had miner differences.

So i went back to the code box. the first thing saw is they still have the gm7 bug ware in the top bar in the middle ware you select ware the code runs it has a back box that appears behind it. it only goes away if i close and reopen or re-size the window.

So i started typing. i see now it has that free flow cursor that a lot of programing text editors have now. i like and dislike this. but the worst part is i could not find anyway to turn it off.

The next thing i saw was that they took away the recommended code box at the bottom and replaced it with this at cursor recommendation like flash, and most of the Microsoft visual studios does. Its OK and i like it but its slow. takes like 3 secs to come up after you type the first few letters of a word.

The color coding seems the same other than the x,y are brown other than blue. Also i saw a red bar next to line numberings. i thought its something like to keep brakes organized. but its not and I'm not sure what its for.

When i opened up the room it look the same. did not take much of a look. i just placed my object down and left. it worked just fine like it should.

I know this is beta software but after the first 15min of using it, it froze and had to force end it.

I would say for first  impressions its looks the same for the most part. but it works and its game maker. ill look more into later.

I made this simple game to test it out. ill place it here to help be a example so something to look at when you open gm8.

http://willhostforfood.com/?Action=download&fileid=75041

All you do is press the space-bare when the top and bottom charters match that the blue line is pointing at. if you make it you get a point. and if you miss you loose a point.

[JoEL]

The first thing i noticed was the Tips on the right, then the announcements that it downloads I'm guessing.

Well  I noticed a number of options where you could actually change the colours in File > Preferences which i Love btw.
And obviously it looks like GM7&6 but GM 7 and GM 6 around 98% the same if not more. There are alot more differences in this version then the previous (6 - 7).

[mikkelet]

I like the new coding system much better! as it shows errors in the code before pressing some button and while you're writing it. So much easier =)

[JoEL]

I've also noticed the executables are now 1.5mb instead of 2.2-2.5mb default. Awesome.

[ARTgames]

Well  I noticed a number of options where you could actually change the colours in File > Preferences which i Love btw.

colors of what? if you mean the code gm6 maby 5 already had that.

2 things new that i did not say before.

One thing you see when you first open it is that there is a tutorial panel on the right side.

Also i see that in the events there is a new "trigger" event. not sure what it does.

3 things that i think need to change.

one is that you cant change the background of the main window to say anything other than that "game maker".

You cant save the game while in object code editor.

And it still says "Written by Mark Overmars". i thought yo yo games is working on it.

3 features i wished they added.

Be able to edit and take away resource folders from the top and take away resource icons from the 2ed bare.

Add a auto save for ever X amount of minutes.

And in debug mode i would like to see ram and CPU usage.

One error that happens once in a while in gm7 that also has happen while i was in gm8 is that some times when i close the game the screen flashes black for 1/2 a sec and my cursor gets recentered.

another thing that I'm not sure about is that every gm update usually adds more arguments to there functions making updating of old games less smooth. I wondered how they handled that in gm8.

[Cactuscat222]

Trigger Events, from Mark Overmars:

These are a new type of event that you can define yourself and then use in your objects. For example, you can define events that happen when an object gets close to another object, or when you press a combination of keys, or when you reached a particular score, etc.

^ That makes me extremely happy; will make it much easier to do stuff like that instead of having to define variables when things happen and do 'if' checks for them.

Also, if you want a list of preliminary features, here is the link: http://glog.yoyogames.com/?p=537

[ARTgames]

this is more of a evolutionary update than a revolutionary update. im not saying thats a bad thing.

[JoEL]

Hey, an updates an update, and it has been a long needed update :)

[Lingus]

Is there a revision notes? If so, can someone link to it?

[Aqua]

I still sprite with GM's sprite editor, sounds awesome that it's updated! Hopefully they fixed the compatability issues, sprites made with GM and opened in Gale are really screwed up, and when uploaded, they don't loop. (I'm sure you're all aware of this >.>)
I'm drooling over the new code editor >.<.

Sounds more like a patch than a new version, though.
~Aqua

[JoEL]

You mean when you patch a game it's updated which changes the games version doesnt make it a new version? lmao nice joke.

It's defenatly a new and much needed update, I would how ever like them to remove that glitch when you drag the game window the game pauses.

[Aqua]

Glad you love it :P

Yeah, that gets really really annoying, in many different ways. I think it'd be cool to have a variable for if the window is in focus, so you can have your own custom events when the window isn't in focus, rather than freezing the game or not. (Ex. show a premade pause screen, not kill the game).
~Aqua

[ARTgames]

This being game maker and all speed is important. So to have a far way to test if gm8 is more speedy i ported over some "Mandelbrot Fractal" code i found on the internet into game maker 8 beta. I ran it and got the time it took. I did the exact same code and condition to gm7.

according to my test gm8 was about 65% faster than gm7. That is a BIG increase. This test was more cpu heavy than anything so im not sure how graphically if its been improved. But if my test are right this will make game maker games a lot more pc friendly the before.

Here is the files i made for the test.
http://willhostforfood.com/?Action=download&fileid=75401

Also i saw after uploading these that gm8 files are a lot smaller than the gm7 files.

[JoEL]

Well I heard Mark say it wasn't actually didn't have faster performance, just faster load times.