This week life has gotten a little more back to normal, and it's been a week of SendMaps tests. Some bug fixing has been underway as well, but most of my energy has been focused on the testing and dealing with the results so far.

The good news is that over the weekend, SS13 had really amazing results with the second test build, after the first one had some issues. There were some crashes that were questionable, but it wasn't clear if they were just ordinary pushing-the-engine-too-hard issues or something more. However, once Eternia started tests, it became clear there was something else going on.

After some exhaustive searching for "thread leaks" I got a new test build out last night. In the process of that work I discovered one of the major diagnostic tools that was meant to be in the test builds all along had been inadvertently disabled. So now we have new testing underway, and time will tell what comes of that.

So begins a bit of a holding pattern now while I wait for more results and respond to those as they come in (or don't). So while that's going on I plan to look at some unrelated code, possibly some compiler issues and maybe some frontend stuff. I also have to look even harder at the thread underpinnings, because at least one user is having somewhat consistent crashes with the icon hashing threads added in an earlier release.

Speaking of compiler issues, one bug I had to work through this week turned out to be a really, really old one. The command-line compiler had a different way of handling map compilation than the UI, surprisingly, and it had some antiquated 2-byte limits in there that were causing the map to get weird when it was over about 6.5 million turfs. That was a "fun" little discovery.

I'm extremely grateful to all of you who've started this month off showing extra support for the project, and of course for all of you who've been doing so right along. Whether you're a Member or you're supporting BYOND on Patreon or SubscribeStar, it all makes a difference.

Up next week: More testing, probably more bugs, and more physical therapy. There's an outside chance at a zoo day. Keep the space clowns burning and your spell slots ready.