This week I've been shoring up a number of 512 items as well as getting in some minor features and fixes--some of those fixes being actually quite a bit overdue, like where the map editor couldn't properly handle datum types as var values. (That one goes back as far as the map editor itself!) Some of the new operator functionality now uses new instructions as well, to make the code a heck of a lot cleaner. That had me revisiting a request to consider ||= and &&= operators, but I'm semi-reluctant about those because I'm not sure yet how they should behave--for instance, whether the shortcutting behavior of the regular || and && operators would be appropriate.

One of the big items I've been wanting to get to, resource loading, is stalled because I'm kind of stuck for ideas on how to proceed. I've had a suggestion to allow the use of a user-supplied JSON file in preload_rsc, but the more I've thought about it the less I've seen that it could really work that way. I still need more help coming up with a game plan there.

Even at this late hour I'm still considering what operator overloading might entail. It seems like it'd be pretty doable now. This is because I was looking at the parser again, and that pushed dangerous ideas into my head.

Filters are still in quasi-limbo while I consider other possibilities for them, but keep your suggestions coming. Right now I'm strongly considering leaving it at blur, outline, drop shadow, and likely a simple motion blur (directional Gaussian). It seems like the easiest way to handle this, after all. It does occur to me however that there might be a need to grab a copy of how an object looks without its filters, so that copy might be used in a separate filter. E.g., if you wanted all shadows on a single plane you'd want to combine them somehow and the way to do that would be by copying each object that has a shadow. Or a glow under a mob that used BLEND_ADD would have to be done separately on another layer rather than with a drop shadow. If something occurs to me, I'll work it into the design.

Huge thanks to everyone who's been supporting BYOND with their Membership and donations. It means everything, truly, and I'm grateful. I hope to show that gratitude as soon as possible with a killer new release chock full of features. In the meantime, keep getting your summer gaming on while the getting's good! Then when summer's over, it's time to dig in and build the next great batch of games.