It’s 2.1-ception! When will it end?!?! We know you love us more than Smash Bros., so have a shiny new release on our backs!

Major impact changes:

• New default controls: We revised our default controls so that our new players may play more effectively. They default to first-person style movement controls using the W-A-S-D keys, while the camera is controlled using the mouse or arrow keys. Read How to Play for a short explanation of these controls.

  If you are upgrading from an existing SRB2 installation, you will keep your old controls.

• Improved Gamepad Support: It is now entirely possible to operate SRB2 on a gamepad alone. Analog sticks are now active on the menu. We improved their sensitivity to be less slippery in-game. We also allow you to map any button to pop up the system menu, take a screenshot, or make a GIF. Just don’t forget to set your button controls in the Options.
• PK3 addons: SRB2 now supports PK3-format addons! PK3 is a compressed format that allows addon authors to use a folder structure that organizes graphics, Lua, SOCs, maps, and everything else into one package. Now addons can be smaller, more organized, and more future-proof for later requirements.
• First 64-bit release: We are now releasing SRB2 in both 32-bit and 64-bit formats. For the most demanding content, you may enjoy up to a 64% performance boost! Netgaming is compatible between 32-bit and 64-bit players. Most, if not all addons will work with the two versions.

  If you have a computer built after 2004, you can most likely run the 64-bit release.

• Linux and macOS releases: Cross-platform is back in style! We have an APT repository link for Ubuntu and Debian users, while macOS users can download a DMG install package. Again, these versions are netgame-compatible and 99% of addons should work as intended.

  However, these are experimental releases and we may not provide them in the future. Please give us feedback and submit bugs!

Minor impact changes:

• OpenGL performance: OpenGL has been made more performant and has received a few visual fixes. Large maps (such as Aerial Garden) now render more reliably. Screenshots and wipes now work correctly on non-native resolutions.
• Lua additions: Lua now has support for slopes, including P_GetZAt() to get the Z position of a sloped point. You can use searchBlockmap to look for objects within proximity. For HUD, hud.enabled() and v.getLocalTransFlag() are added. There is now a PlayerQuit hook, as well as a variable to check for Ultimate Mode.
• No more SRB2DD: As of this release, we are dumping the old srb2dd.exe. We have kept it for compatibility reasons in the past, but we did not support it. A significant bug has now prevented us from releasing it further. Please use srb2win.exe from now on — it is more stable and it has the newest fixes.

This release has a large collection of individual bug fixes, so go after the jump to read them!

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We have a very important announcement for you all:

Netgames are stable once again. (Thanks to Mr. Mystery for taking these screenshots of almost 32 players in a single netgame!)

Now now, before you go too crazy, keep in mind that things still aren’t perfect. There may be unexpected issues stemming solely from the fact that some parts of our game hasn’t had proper testing in years, due to the instability of netgames. But it’s safe to say that things are back to a level of stability around that of version 2.0, if not a little better than that. Special shoutouts go to LJSonik, who was the one to discover and fix the majority of these problems that had been difficult to find.

Though the stability of netgames is a huge part of this update, it’s not the only thing featured in it. See below for the full patch notes…

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2.1.16 is here! There is one very important thing we need to state up front – in order to make the online SRB2 experience more stable and reduce the number of desynchronisations that may occur, we have decided to make the difficult decision of disabling netgame capabilities in Direct Draw (srb2dd.exe) builds. It will be a long road, but this first consolidating step will help us understand and potentially solve the problems with the netcode.  We’ll give you the patch notes at the end of the post, don’t you worry.

In case you haven’t been paying attention to the forums, there’s been an interesting group project that’s been going on – and it’s out now! It’s called Shut Up and Get On It, or SUGOI, and with 29 unique levels it’s one of the biggest map packs in the history of SRB2. Pretty much the whole community has come together to work on this thing and, thanks to the magic of slopes, it’s really amazing.  We encourage you to go play that map pack after downloading the 2.1.16 update.

Also in exciting news, we don’t usually get attention from the wider world… but a couple months ago we got three separate sites reporting on us at once!

1) – Dorkly mentioned us in their list of cool pop culture DooM mods. We’re mentioned alongside ancient greats like Ghostbusters DooM as well as the relatively modern Mega Man 8-Bit Deathmatch.

2) – IGN went into our game wanting to hate it, but realised they couldn’t!  Someone should tell them we have mediocre support for controllers.

3) – Last but not least, Gizmodo interviewed us devs about the history of the game! We gave ’em a few 2.2 screenshots to pick from for their header image as gratitude for their thoughtfulness.

We did give them a few more images than they had space for, so here’s the other two – featuring the new versions of Tails, GFZ1 and CEZ1! It also features our new Sonic, although he’s now available on the message board with some custom abilities for fun here.

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Oh, you were expecting version 2.1.13? Sorry, we decided to skip that number because of how unlucky it is. Totally. Trust us.

Anyway, folks… it’s been a wild ride, but we’ve finally reached the end of “The Year of 2.1”. We hope all of the included modding features that have been introduced with 2.1 and all of its patches will help tide you over until our next major release comes out to give you new content to play with.

This is the last planned 2.1 release. Unless a major bug is found that requires an immediate patch, the next release of the game will be version 2.2.0. Due to the number of changed files in this release, there is no patch download; the only download available is the full installer. To upgrade from a previous version, just install the new version into the same directory; your game data, save files, and the like should all remain intact.

Note: We are aware of an issue with OpenGL exhibiting odd effects in some resolutions, such as overlaying the screen on top of itself, or “ghosting”-like effects. If you encounter these issues, use the DirectDraw executable (srb2dd.exe) for playing in OpenGL mode.

• Vertical and horizontal mouse sensitivity can now be changed separately.
• Walls and sprites should now stay the same brightness in Software mode regardless of resolution.
• Fixed major rendering issues in Aerial Garden Zone and possibly other excessively large maps.
• Fixed some issues where the player could become partially embedded in walls and/or continue running against the wall as if it didn’t exist.
• Fixed crashes related to polyobject floors.
• Fixed crashes related to joining a netgame in maps containing a laser. (e.g.: Noxious Factory Zone)
• Fixed CTF flags doing stupid things for what is hopefully the last time.
• Various minor level design fixes.
• Many fixes and improvements were made to the SDL2 version of the game, as reported on the forums.

Note: If you downloaded the patch within the first few hours or so and are having problems playing online or with music not working, redownload the patch.

It’s been a while since our last patch, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy. The primary change in this patch is that the game is now running under the SDL2 audio and video libraries. This means that people on modern operating systems, especially Windows 8 and 8.1, should get far better framerate.

The changes in the patch are as follows:

• srb2win.exe is now running under SDL2. Should you have problems with the new version, srb2dd.exe uses the old behavior, but please report any issues you may have so we can fix them for later versions.
• Improved polyobject rendering and physics. Polyobjects can now render flats, and players will experience proper preservation of momentum when jumping onto or off of one.
• Because of the above fix, conveyor belts no longer make players rocket forward when spinning. RIP best bug ever. You will be missed. ;_;
• NiGHTS Attack now has support for replays and ghosts like Record Attack.
• Several rings embedded in the ceiling have been fixed.
• FOFs, polyobjects and the replay in ERZ3 properly synchronize in netgames.
• Analog mode works in netgames.
• Sky walls no longer draw objects located behind them in OpenGL mode.
• Portals are now properly functional, but only in software mode.
• Added a couple new linedef types.
• Fixed crash involving Lua scripts performing modulo by 0.
• FOF side textures with holes no longer bug out in the software renderer.
• Lua’s HUD library supports patch colormapping.
• Tons of little bugfixes we’ve since forgotten.

I ran out of witty things to say. Sorry. Just have an update that is — hopefully — stable for the foreseeable future.

This release is being provided both in the form of an installer for those new to the game, and a patch for those who have already installed the game. The patch works with any previous version of 2.1.

This release fixes the following issues:

• Fixed game state becoming indeterminate if a player leaves while resynching, often causing crashes or game freezes.
• Monitors on moving/bouncing platforms are no longer deadly to touch.
• Fixed an exploit where characters could be changed while continuing in Single Player.
• Fixed game freeze on Egg Satellite Zone in OpenGL.
• Fixed missing emblem on Flooded Cove Zone.
• Minor optimization/speed related improvements.
• Minor level design fixes.
• Fixed patches wrapping from the right side to the left side even when they weren’t supposed to.
• Detons no longer murder their resident animals if they strike a wall or object.

On a side note, the Soundtrack was also updated as well; a few missing tracks were added and the tracks were re-tagged and organized into two “CDs” of tracks. If you have the time, you should go check it out.

We said 2.1.10 was the next version to be released and we weren’t kidding around. Though this patch may not look like it contains much, it makes modifications (especially Lua-based ones) much less prone to breaking in unusual and frustrating ways.

• Longstanding issues with Lua’s stability have been fixed.
  • Lua can tolerate large scripts much better.
  • Lua can handle multiple separate scripts running at the same time much better than before; you should no longer have to fiddle around with adding WAD files in different orders to make the game stable.
  • The game no longer crashes if scripts are added via the command line (-file) that replace commands normally present in the game.
• The game no longer crashes if you try to host your own server after failing to join someone else’s server due to not being able to download WAD files.
• The game no longer crashes at the end of the last special stage, and the shrink ray section now works again.
• A few minor level design fixes.

It’s been a while since the last patch, but this one is a little larger than the last few patches. The main fix in this patch is that netplay should at least mostly work now. Also, no, the next patch is not 2.2, it’s 2.1.10. Don’t even get us started.

• The netcode is dramatically more stable, especially when new players are joining. This of course doesn’t mean it’s perfect, but it should be much better than before.
• Late joiners in Special Stages in Co-op now spectate until the end of the map instead of interfering with other players and/or exiting the map early.
• Many bugs in the engine and level design that were reported on the forums were fixed.
• Egg Rock Zone 3 now supports the Competition and Race game modes.
• Lots of new functionality has been added to Lua scripting for use in modifications. Additions include (but are not limited to):
  • Hooks for player skin abilities and multiplayer chat events.
  • Custom map header options.
  • Many sorely-needed functions in the game’s code were opened up for use in Lua.

One last patch before I fly off to Vegas. No, not to gamble over Easter, you fools.

This patch works with Version 2.1.7 only — please make sure you have Version 2.1.7 installed before downloading. This patch addresses the following problems:

• Fixed an exploit in netplay that would crash the game for all connected players.
• Fixed an issue with the GIF movie code that would occasionally output corrupt files.
• Fixed a few more issues with OpenGL rendering (and included the proper r_opengl.dll this time).
• Fixed a few Lua hooks that completely stopped working in 2.1.7.