Huzzah! We got down to the wire but we got there in the end.

The server stuff is mostly done, except for a few small tweaks. Nothing should be standing in the way of jettisoning the old server now, which is really good news.

But of course the big news to all of you is that 516 is out in beta now! I was hoping we wouldn't have a long beta for 516, and I'm sure we won't, but I didn't expect the alpha to drag out like it did. That was mostly because of the server stuff getting in the way. The alpha got a lot of testing, so hopefully that means fewer wrinkles to smooth out. There are a few bugs in the queue already: including a 515 issue I wanted to look into but ran out of time, and one that came up late in the alpha. Everything so far is on the minor side, which is good.

What's really curious, however, is that stressor games like SS13 and Eternia are reporting massive gains to performance, especially at startup, and I can't explain why. I'm kind of surprised it wasn't reported earlier in the alpha series, but then most of the hardcore testing went toward client stuff. It also could be because it seems to impact some codebases and not others. It's a total mystery. If it holds up it's a win and I'll take it, but I'm confused and still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Because the Christmas break is nearly on top of us, I don't think any bug fix releases will be going out before January. I'm gonna hit the ground running then, and have some (breaking) Byondapi changes to get to, which I detailed in the sticky post on 516's breaking changes.

Don't forget to score your last-minute points for the nice list by becoming a BYOND Member or subscribing on Patreon or SubscribeStar. It really means everything, and I'm grateful to everyone who supports BYOND.

Next week: The rare one-day work week! I'll basically be posting more news Monday that looks a lot like today's news, and that's it. Other than that, I have a lot of work to do at home to get ready for Christmas! Including a lot of wrapping. And shoot, I need to inspect some packages. See you next week, everyone—briefly!