Drawpile 0.9.11 released

June 1, 2015 by callaa

Due to a serious bug discovered in the previous release, here is one more release before 1.0.

Bugs fixed in this release are:

  • Freeform selections disappearing when dragged
  • Incorrect pixel compositing in video exports (especially noticable with eraser strokes)
  • Random crashes when animation export dialog is closed

There was also time to add one extra feature: animated GIF export! Both animations and session recordings can be exported as GIFs.

In other news, I will be setting up a public Drawpile server in a few weeks. In addition to helping those having firewall trouble to host sessions, it will also serve as a testbench for the server itself to see how it performs under load.

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Drawpile 0.9.10 released

May 21, 2015 by callaa

Version 0.9.10 of Drawpile is now available for download!

This release adds support for making simple animations! Related new features are:

  • New layer view modes (solo and onionskin) for working with layers as frames
  • An animation preview window
  • Animation export
  • Support for loading animated GIFs (each frame is loaded as a layer)

Other new features are:

  • Layers can now be inserted above the current layer, instead of always at the top
  • LAN server discovery using Bonjour or Avahi (not yet enabled in the Windows version)
  • Moving a selection now automatically moves the content too
  • Autosaving (works well with Krita's file-backed layers!)
  • Japanese and Russion translations

And a couple important bug fixes too:

  • Fixed loading of recordings made with older versions
  • Fixed filling of selections partially outside the canvas

Unfortunately, this release breaks protocol compatability yet again. The next version will most likely be 1.0.0 and the start of the stable branch, meaning no more protocol breakage until version 2.0!

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Drawpile 0.9.9 released

April 3, 2015 by callaa

Version 0.9.9 of Drawpile is now available for download! This release completes the feature TODO list for 1.0.0. Notable changes in this release include:

  • Improved brush cursor (crosshair is no longer shown)
  • A new Lasso selection tool
  • Selections and pasted images can now be rotated and flipped
  • Quick view flipping and mirroring
  • The color dock now has a "previously used colors" palette
  • Notification sounds
  • New bundled icon theme (Breeze)
  • Support for dark color themes

Additionally, this release includes one last major feature before 1.0.0: public session listings. If you want to announce a session open to everyone, you can now do it directly from the Host dialog. There is currently one official listing server here at drawpile.net, but a sample implementation is available if you want to run your own.

The next release will be either 0.9.10 or 1.0.0, depending on how many (if any) serious bugs are discovered in this one. The 1.0.0 version will be the start of a stable branch, which will receive only bug fixes and backwards compatible feature enhancements until the next major version (2.0) is ready.

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Drawpile 0.9.8 released

Jan. 30, 2015 by callaa

Version 0.9.8 of Drawpile is now available for download!

The previous release, while fixing important bugs, also introduces a couple of nasty regressions. Hopefully, I managed to squash them all for this release.

Important bugs fixed are:

  • Unnecessary retcon at start of new strokes (improves performance)
  • Fixed regression in annotation tool (annotation moving/resizing was broken in previous release)
  • Fixed retconning of indirect strokes

Feature enhancements include:

  • Menu bar is now shown when the cursor is brought to the top of the screen in full screen mode
  • UI language can now be selected explicitly via the settings dialog
  • Holding a tool shortcut key now switches to the tool temporarily. When the key is released, the old tool is restored.
  • A new "fill under" mode for the flood fill tool.

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Drawpile 0.9.7 released

Jan. 16, 2015 by callaa

Version 0.9.7 of Drawpile is now available for download, a bit earlier than planned.

This release fixes two major bugs discovered in the previous version:

  • The remote host selection dropdown would not work correctly if it contained more than one address
  • Drawpile would crash when reordering layers in certain circumstances

Additionally, this release adds one very interesting new feature: lag-free painting in network mode. Previously, network latency was hidden (with varying success) by painting to a temporary layer while the drawing commands were making their way to the server and back. This worked OK for the basic brushes, but poorly with certain blending modes and not at all with the new Watercolor brush.

The new version now lets local drawing happen immediately without waiting for the commands to finish their roundtrip. Of course, this open up the chance that brush strokes get applied in different order on different computers. This is where the new synchronization method comes in: when an inconsistency is detected (we draw something, but later find out someone else had drawn in the same spot earlier) the program will automatically undo the actions and then redo them in the correct order! In practice, this should happen very rarely, so this new method should actually be more efficient than the old preview based one. Those interested in the technical details can read more here.

While this new feature fixes some old bugs/problems, there is a chance that it introduces new ones. If you find any, reports are much appreciated!

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