# Changelog (Ren’Py 7.x-)

## 8.0 / 7.5

### Python 3 Support (Ren’Py 8.0)

Ren’Py 8.0 runs under Python 3, the latest major version of the Python language.

If your game uses minimal Python (for example, just storing character names and flags), it should work the same as it did before. Otherwise, please read on.

The move to Python 3 makes over a decade of Python language and library improvements available to the Ren’Py developer, as described in the What’s new in Python documentation. There are far too many changes in Python 3 to include here, so please check that and other Python websites for descriptions.

That being said, a few things made available to the Python in your Ren’Py games are:

- Functions can have keyword-only parameters. (These are also supported in parameter lists for labels, transforms, and screens.)
- The ability to annotate functions arguments and return values with type information. (This is only supported in Python.)
- Formatted string literals can now be used. These are strings like `f"characters/{character}.chr"`, where the text in braces is replaced by a formatted Python variable, similarly to the way that interpolation works in Ren’Py dialogue. This is only available in Python, however, and not in most purely Ren’Py statements.

There are a huge number of other improvements in the ten major releases of Python between 2.7 and 3.9, so be sure to read the above and other Python documentation to find out everything that’s improved.

One of the greatest advantages is that this moves Ren’Py off Python 2.7, which is no longer supported by the Python Software Foundation, and so the move to Ren’Py 8.0 helps secure Ren’Py’s future.

There are a few things that may need to be converted if you used advanced Python.

- In Python 3, division always returns a float, rather than an integer. (for example, `3 / 2` is now 1.5 rather than 1). The `//` operator divides as an integer. This change can affect Ren’Py positioning, where floats are treated differently from integers.
- In Python 3, the keys, items, and values methods of dictionaries now return views, not lists. The iterkeys, iteritems, and itervalues methods are not supported. The xrange method is gone, and range no longer returns a list.
- Except clauses now must be written like `except Exception as e:`, as the old syntax, `except Exception, e:` is not supported.
- All strings are now unicode by default (Ren’Py has been forcing this for several years), and files are opened in text mode by default. (However, `renpy.file()` opens files in binary mode. It’s been renamed to `renpy.open_file()` and can take a default encoding.)
- Many Python modules have been renamed.

This is not an exhaustive list.

Ren’Py ships with a cut-down version of the Python Standard library, so not every Python module is available in Ren’Py. Please let us know if there is something missing you have a good use for, especially if that module does not require a library dependency. While `async` and `await` are available, Ren’Py doesn’t directly support coroutines.

Ren’Py 8.0 ships with Python 3.9.10, and is available on the Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS platforms. The web platform will be supported in a future release.

When running under Ren’Py 8, Ren’Py now runs without the equivalent of the Python `-O` flag. This means that docstrings and assert statements are available.

Our experience is that many games run unchanged under Python 3, especially games that use Python primarily through the Ren’Py API, to manage game state. Ren’Py 8 has been used to run unmodified Ren’Py games going back to the year 2006.

### Continued Python 2.7 Support (Ren’Py 7.5)

Ren’Py 7.5 is being released at the same time as Ren’Py 8.0, to continue to provide a version of Ren’Py that runs on Python 2.7, as a way of supporting games in development (or being maintained after release) that still require Python 2.7.

In this release, Ren’Py 7.5 also supports the web platform, which Ren’Py 8.0 does not yet support.

For this release, Ren’Py 7.5 and Ren’Py 8.0 should support the same set of of features.

We plan to continue to support Ren’Py 7.x until we see that the community has moved to Ren’Py 8.x, or until changes to the Python ecosystem mean that supporting Ren’Py on Python 2 is no longer tenable.

Please test your games on Ren’Py 8 - for many games, few to no changes will be needed. If for some reason you can’t port your game to Ren’Py 8, please let us know what is holding you back.

### Platform Support Changes

This release adds support for the 64-bit ARM Linux (linux-aarch64) platform. While based on Ubuntu 20.04, this has been tested on Chromebooks, and should also work on the 64-bit ARM platform.

The intended way to run Ren’Py games on ARM Linux would be to download the new ARM Linux SDK package, place the game in the projects directory, and use that to launch the game. If the files from the ARM Linux SDK are present when a Linux distribution is made, they will be included, creating a game that can be launched on ARM, but this is not the default, for size reasons.

With the move to Ren’Py 8, we are removing support for the following platforms:

- 32-bit x86 Windows (i686)
- 32-bit x86 Linux (i686)

This reflects the obsolescence of 32-bit x86 computing. These platforms remain supported by Ren’Py 7.5, but will not be supported by Ren’Py 8.

### Web and ChromeOS

The web platform is currently only supported on Ren’Py 7.5.

Changes to the Safari and Chrome web browsers increased the memory Ren’Py used by about 50 times, causing RangeErrors when the web browser ran out of stack memory. Ren’Py 7.5 includes changes to reduces the amount of memory used inside web browsers. As a result, Ren’Py now runs again inside Chrome and Safari, including on iOS devices.

The new `config.webaudio_required_types` variable can be given a list of mime types of audio files used by the game. Ren’Py will only use the web browser’s Web Audio system for playback if all of the mime types are supported in the browser. If not, webasm is used for playback, which is more likely to cause skipping if the computer is slow.

The config.webaudio_required_types variable is intended to allow games using ogg or opus audio to run on Safari, and can be changed if a game only uses mp3 audio.

When importing save files into a web distribution, Ren’Py will now refresh the list of save files without a restart.

When running as an Android application on a ChromeOS device, the “chromeos” variant will be selected.

The Ren’Py SDK can be run on ARM Chromebooks.

### Android and iOS

The Android configuration once again prompts as to which store to use for in app purchases. When no store is selected, libraries to support purchasing are not included in the project. These libraries would include the billing permission, which would flag the game as supporting in-app purchases even if no purchases were used.

Due to issues in underlying libraries, the `renpy.input()` function and `input` displayable are now documented as not supporting IME-based (non-alphabetic) input on Android.

On iOS, OpenGL ES calls are translated to the native Metal graphics system. Doing this should improve compatibility with recent Apple devices, and fixes problems running applications under the iOS simulator on Apple Silicon-based devices.

### Steam, Steam Deck, and Epic Games Store

This release includes rewritten Steam support, provided by a new ctypes-based binding that gives access to the entire Steamworks API, including callbacks. While the Steam support available through the achievement module remains unchanged, this gives advanced Python programmers access to more Steam functionality.

When Steam is active, Ren’Py will now enable the “steam” variant.

This release includes built-in support for the Steam Deck hardware. The support includes the ability to automatically display the on-screen keyboard when `renpy.input()` is called. The steam deck also causes Ren’Py to enable the “steam_deck”, “steam”, “medium”, and “touch” variants.

We have a Ren’Py on Steam Deck Guide to help you get your game certified on that platform. Thanks go to Valve for supplying a Steam Deck to test on.

The “Windows, Mac, and Linux for Markets” distribution has been changed to no longer prefix the contents of the zip file created with the directory name and version number, meaning it’s no longer required to update launch configurations with each release to Steam. This may require a one-time update to the launch configuration.

Ren’Py now includes support for being launched by the Epic Games Store, by ignoring various command line arguments supplied by EGS.

### Visual Studio Code

Ren’Py now includes support for downloading and using Visual Studio Code, including downloading the Ren’Py Language extension.

The Ren’Py Language extension provides rich support for Ren’Py, including syntax highlighting, snippets, completion, color previews, documentation, go to definition, function signatures, error diagnostics, outlining, and more.

Visual Studio Code also has a large system of extensions, including spell-checkers, that can be used with with the Ren’Py Language extension.

Visual Studio Code can be activated by going to the editor preferences and choosing to download it. It’s also possible to configure Ren’Py to use a system install of Ren’Py with extensions that you choose.

### Dismiss, Nearrect, and Focus Rectangles

Two new displayables have been added to Ren’Py to help use cases like drop-down menus, pulldown menus, and tooltips.

The dismiss displayable is generally used behind a modal frame, and causes an action to run when it is activated. This allows, among other things, a behavior where if the player clicks outside the frame, the frame gets hidden.

The nearrect displayable lays out a displayable either above or below a rectangle on the screen. This can be used to display a tooltip above a button, or a drop-down menu below it. (An example of a drop-down menu is documented with nearrect, and an example of tooltip usage is with tooltips.

The rectangles aside of which the nearrect places things can be captured by the new `CaptureFocus()` action, which captures the location of the current button on the screen. After being captured, the `GetFocusRect()` function can get the focus rectangle, and the `ClearFocus()` can clear the captured focus, and the `ToggleFocus()` action captures and clears focus based on the current focus state.

### ATL and Transforms

It’s now possible to include a block as part of an ATL interpolation. This means that:

    linear 2.0:
        xalign 1.0
        yalign 1.0

is now allowed, and equivalent to:

    linear 2.0 xalign 1.0 yalign 1.0

Information about ATL Transitions and Special ATL Keyword Parameters has been added to the documentation.

The `pause 0` statement has been special-cased to always display one frame, and is the only way to guarantee at least one frame is displayed. Since 6.99.13, Ren’Py has been trying various methods to guarantee single frame display, and many of which led to visual glitches.

When an ATL image is used as one of the children of an image button, its shown time begins each time it is shown.

The default for the `crop_relative` transform property has been changed to True.

The `function` statement will now block execution only if producing a delay, which allows transforms using it to behave more naturally when catching up with an inherited timebase.

### Image Gallery

The `Gallery` class now has a new field, image_screen, that can be used to customize how gallery image are displayed.

The `Gallery.image()` and `Gallery.unlock_image()` methods now take keyword arguments beginning with show_. These arguments have the show_ prefix stripped, and are then passed to the Gallery.image_screen as additional keyword arguments. This can be used to include additional information with the images in the gallery.

### Boxes, Grids and Vpgrids

Displayables that take up no space (like key, timer or a false showif) inside a vbox or hbox will not be surrounded with `spacing`. These displayables still take up space in other layouts, such as grids.

Having an overfull vpgrid - when both `rows` and `cols` are specified - is now disallowed.

Having an underfull vpgrid now raises an error unless the warning is opted-out using either the `allow_underfull` property or `config.allow_underfull_grids`, the former taking precedence on the latter.

A vpgrid with both cols and rows specified is underfull if and when it has less than rows * cols children. A vpgrid with either cols or rows specified is underfull if and when its number of children is not a multiple of the specified value.

### Call Screen and Roll Forward

The roll forward feature has been disabled by default in the `call screen` statement, as it’s unsafe and confusing in the general case. The problem is that the only side-effect of a screen that roll-forward preserves is the return value of the screen, or the jump location if a screen jumps. Actions with other side effects, like changing variables or playing music, were not preserved through a roll forwards.

Roll forward may be safe for a particular screen, and so can be enabled on a per-screen basis by enabling the new roll_forward property on the screen. If all screens in your game support roll forward, it can be enabled with the new `config.call_screen_roll_forward` variable.

### New Features

The `show screen`, `hide screen` and `call screen` statements now take an `expression` modifier, which allows a Python expression to supply the name of the screen.

There is a new “main” volume that can be accessed through `Preferences()`. The main volume is multiplied with all the other volumes to globally reduce the volume of the game.

The new `config.preserve_volume_when_muted` variable causes Ren’Py to show the current volume when channels are muted.

A button to clean the Ren’Py temporary directory has been added to the preferences screen of the launcher. This can remove these files to reduce the space Ren’Py requires.

The new `config.choice_empty_window` variable can customize the empty window that is shown when a choice menu is displayed. The intended use is:

    define config.choice_empty_window = extend

Which repeats the last line of dialogue as the caption of the choice menu.

The key displayable now supports a capture property, which controls if the pressed key is handled further it does not end an interaction.

The new “anywhere” value of the `language` style property allows Ren’Py to break anywhere in a string, for when keeping to a fixed width is the most important aspect of breaking.

The new predict argument to `renpy.pause()` makes it possible to pause until image prediction is finished, including prediction caused by `renpy.start_predict()` and `renpy.start_predict_screen()`.

It is now possible to select a language other than the default when extracting dialogue.

The screen language `add` statement now takes an alt property, making it possible to write:

    screen test():
        add "icon.png" alt "The Icon"

The `Hide()` action now takes None for the screen name, to hide the current screen.

`Placeholder()` now takes a text argument, that overrides the automatically determined text with something the creator specifies.

The `renpy.dynamic()` function can now make variables in namespaces dynamic.

The new `config.always_shown_screens` variable allows one to define screens that are always shown (even in the main and game menus). See also the existing `config.overlay_screens`.

The location and size of the OpenGL viewport is made available to shaders as u_viewport.

The new RENPY_PATH_TO_SAVES environment variable makes it possible to control where Ren’Py places system-level saves. The RENPY_MULTIPERSISTENT variable has been documented, and controls the same thing with multipersistent data.

The new `config.at_exit_callbacks` functions are called when the game quits. This is intended to allow the game to save additional data created by the developer.

The `config.default_attribute_callbacks` variable allows a game to specify default attributes for a tag that are used when other attributes do not conflict.

### Other Changes

It is now possible to copy from `renpy.input()` with ctrl-C, and paste with ctrl-V. When text input is displayed, ctrl will no longer cause skipping to happen.

The `renpy.file()` function has been renamed to `renpy.open_file()`, with the old named retained. It has also gained an encoding parameter to open the file with an encoding.

The `focus_mask` style property now defaults to None for drag displayables. This improves performance, but means that the displayable can be dragged by transparent pixels.

When adding files to the audio namespace, Ren’Py now scans for flac files.

Say statements used as menu captions can now take permanent and temporary image attributes, just like say statements elsewhere.

All position properties can now be supplied as gui variables to buttons. For example:

    define gui.navigation_button_text_hover_yoffset = -3

now works.

The behavior of modal frames has been changed. A modal frame now blocks mouse events when inside the frame, and blocks focus from being transferred to displayables fully behind the frame, while allowing focus to be given to other displayables.

The new `config.main_menu_stop_channels` variable controls the channels that are stopped when entering the main menu.

Layered images are now offered the the full size of the screen whenever rendered. Previously, when a layered image was used inside a layout (like hbox, vbox, side, and others), the space offered to the layered image could change, and relative positions could also change. (This is unlikely, but happened at least once.) The new offer_screen property of layered images controls this behavior.

A `Character()` defined with interact false, or otherwise used in a non-interactive way will now cause an automatic voice line to play, if the relevant file exists.

When `window auto` displays the window before a say or menu-with-caption statement, Ren’Py will automatically determine if the character to speak uses NVL or ADV, and will display the correct window. Previously, the last character in a say statement was used.

The `activate_sound` plays when activating a drag displayable.

The `VariableValue()`, `FieldValue()`, and `DictValue()` Bar Values can now call `Return()`, to cause the interaction to return a specific value.

The `adjust_spacing` property is now set to False for dialogue and narration in new games. This might cause the spacing of text to change, when the game is resized, in exchange for keeping it stable when extend is used.

Playing or stopping music on a channel now unpauses that channel.

The new `preferences.audio_when_minimized` preference now enables the audio of the game to be paused when the window is minimized.

The default for `outline_scaling` is now “linear”.

The version of SDL used by Ren’Py has been upgraded to 2.0.20 on non-web platforms.

Many translations have been updated.

The jEdit editor has been removed, as the Ren’Py integration was largely obsolete. However, if the version from 7.4.0 is unpacked, it should be selectable in the launcher.

### Versioning

Ren’Py’s full version numbers are now of the form major.minor.patch.YYMMDDCCnu, where:

- YY is the two digit year of the latest commit.
- MM is the month of the commit.
- DD is the day of the commit
- CC is the commit number on that day
- n is present if this is a nightly build.
- u is present if this is an unofficial build.

## 7.4.11

### The gui.variant Decorator

A new gui.variant decorator has been added to Ren’Py. This should be used to decorate a function with the name of a variant, and causes that function to be run, if the variant is active, when the game is first started, and then each time the gui is rebuilt (which happens when `gui.rebuild()` is called, when a gui preference is changed, or when the translation changes.)

This is expected to be used like:

    init python:

        @gui.variant
        def small():

            ## Font sizes.
            gui.text_size = gui.scale(30)
            gui.name_text_size = gui.scale(36)
            # ...

as a replacement for:

    init python:

        if renpy.variant("small"):
            ## Font sizes.
            gui.text_size = gui.scale(30)
            gui.name_text_size = gui.scale(36)
            # ...

Which only runs once, and lost the changes if the gui was ever rebuilt.

### Fixes

The new `config.mouse_focus_clickthrough` variable determines if clicks that cause the game window to be focused will be processed normally.

The launcher now runs with `config.mouse_focus_clickthrough` true, which means that it will only take a single click to launch the game.

The caret_blink property of Input is now exposed through screen language.

When a Live2D motion contains a curve with a shorter duration then the motion it is part of, the last value of the curve is retained to the end of the motion.

Rare issues with a displayable being replaced by a displayable of a different type are now guarded against. This should only occur when a game is updated between saves.

Modal displayables now prevent pauses from ending.

An issue that could cause images to not display in some cases (when a displayable was invalidated) has been fixed.

Starting a movie no longer causes paused sounds to unpause.

AudioData objects are no longer stored in the persistent data. Such objects are removed when persistent data is loaded, if present.

Platform variables like renpy.android and renpy.ios are now set to follow the emulated platform, when Ren’Py is emulating ios or android.

When in the iOS and Android emulator, the mobile rollback side is used.

Ren’Py will now always run an unhovered action when a displayable (or its replacement) remains shown, and the focus changes. Previously, the unhovered action would not run when the loss of focus was caused by showing a second screen.

When `config.log` is true, the selected choice is now logged properly.

The new `gui.variant()` function makes it possible to work around an issue in the standard gui where the calling `gui.rebuild()` would cause gui variants to reset.

The web browser now checks for progressively downloaded images once per frame, allowing images to be loaded into the middle of an animation.

Live2D now uses saturation arithmetic to combine motion fadeins and fadeouts, such that if the fadein contributes 80% of a parameter value, and the fadeout contributes 20% of the value, 100% of the value comes from the two motions. (Previously, the fadein and fadeout were applied independently, such that together, the fadein and fadeout would contribute 84% of the value, with the remaining 16% taken from the default.)

When fading from one sequence of Live2D motions to another, the original sequence ends when a motion fades out.

When preserving screens in the old state for a transition, the later_at_list and camera lists are taken from the old state, preventing unexpected changes.

The `gl_depth` property now causes Ren’Py to use GL_LEQUALS, which more closely matches Ren’Py’s semantics.

The 4-component constructor for matrices has been fixed.

Ren’Py now cleans out the android build directories when producing a Android App Bundle (AAB) file, preventing problems that might be caused when packaging multiple games, or a single game where files are deleted.

Live2d now properly handles seamless animation when the same motion is repeated in a displayable. (For example, `show eileen m1 m1 m2` where `m1` is seamless.)

Mouse motion is now tracked on Chrome OS devices. This prevents the mouse cursor from being hidden between clicks.

An issue with windows partially rendering on ChromeOS has been resolved.

An issue with transcludes in screens has been fixed.

An issue that could prevent a transform with both `perspective` and `mesh` true from displaying has been fixed.

Buttons now only propagate transform state to direct children, not to children accessed through ImageReferences.

The `repeat_` modifier can now be applied to gamepad events.

A new `config.debug_prediction` variable has been split out of `config.debug_image_cache`. This controls the logging of prediction errors to the console and log.txt, making the latter variable act as documented.

### Translations

The German, Indonesian, Polish, and Russian translations have been updated.

## 7.4.10

### Fixes

This released fixes an issue that prevented large images (larger than maximum texture size, 4096x4069 on most platforms) from being displayed by the gl2 renderer.

Dialogue lines that end with the {nw} tag now do not wait for voice to finish.

Dialogue lines that contain {fast} (including those created with the `extend` character) sustain the voice from the previous statement.

These supplement a change introduced in 7.4.9 (that missed the changelog), where timed {w} and {p} text tags will no longer wait for voice to stop playing before advancing.

The `focus_mask` property can be slow, but several changes to have been included to fix pathological cases of slowness. While it’s best to avoid it if possible (the default will change to None for drags, where it’s True now, in 7.5), this should allow for some speedups where it is True.

Live2D support no longer logs to log.txt by default. That logging can be restored with `config.log_live2d_loading`.

A problem with automatically determining the Android store has been fixed.

### Translations

The Indonesian and Polish translations were updated.

## 7.4.9

### Android

This release features major changes to Ren’Py’s Android support, starting with support for the Android App Bundle format, now required for your game to be uploaded to Google Play.

As bundles use different signing keys than APKs, it will be necessary to uninstall and reinstall the game when switching from APKs to Bundles for testing.

When run on Google Play, Ren’Py will use Play Asset Delivery to deliver the game data to the player’s device. This should have the same 2 GB limit of previous versions of Ren’Py, with each file in your game automatically assigned to one of four 500 MB asset packs. If the games is started before all of the asset packs have been delivered, Ren’Py will wait for delivery to finish before starting.

A new android-downloading.jpg file is used in place of android-presplash.jpg when Play Asset Delivery is downloading the game’s assets. This screen is overlayed with a progress bar.

Ren’Py still supports building 2GB APKs that can be sideloaded onto devices, and supplied to other app stores.

Ren’Py now builds against version 30 of the Android SDK.

Ren’Py supports wireless debugging on Android 11 devices.

A number of questions have been removed from the Android configuration process, simplifying the process. Most notably, Ren’Py now automatically manages the numeric version of the package, so it’s no longer required to increment that version with each build.

Ren’Py will now look for archives in the external files directory, and automatically use the archives if found. This makes it possible to distribute patches, updates, and additional asset to users.

The inclusion of Pyjnius, a library for calling the Android API, is now documented.

The new `build.android_permissions` variable, `renpy.check_permission()` function, and `renpy.request_permission()` function provide a way to request permissions on Android beyond those that Ren’Py users itself.

When creating Android keys, Ren’Py will back them up to the same place it backs up script files. This isn’t a substitute for making your own backups.

An issue that could cause black screenshots on Android and other platforms has been (hopefully) fixed.

The permissions of saves and log.txt are now explicitly managed on Android to make these files group-readable, ensuring the player can access logs and files.

### iOS

The iOS build process has been updated create a project that is more complete after the initial generation, with the launch screen set up and no unused schemas.

As always, it’s necessary to create a new iOS project each time Ren’Py is updated.

The inclusion of Pyobjus with Ren’Py is now documented. The Pyobjus library allows games to call APIs on iOS and macOS.

### Updater

The Ren’Py updater has been improved. It is now possible to download updates over https, though doing so is less efficient, as the entire update file will need to be download rather than just the required changes.

It is possible to opt into a daily check for updates in the launcher preferences. This will cause Ren’Py to check once a day for updates, and highlight the update button if one exists.

### Camera/Perspective Improvements

Using the `camera` statement in non-trival manners, such as to apply perspective, could cause problems with several transitions, most notably the move transitions. This has been fixed, and so these transions should work.

Operations that required the taking of a subsurface (for example, the slide and wipe transitions, or the use of viewports) didn’t work when applied to a perspective transform. This has been fixed, but it does require a render to texture operation to work, leaving it up to the creator to decide if the performance penalty is desirable.

### Accessibility

The shift+A Accessibility menu now supports enabling high contrast text, which converts all text to light-on-black. This is intended to assist player who need higher contrast to experience a game.

Descriptive text (the `alt` character) no longer causes the dialogue window to fade in if the descriptive text is disabled.

The order in which self-voicing reads out layers, screens, and displayables directly on a layer has changed, such that the screen and displayables that are drawn last (closest to the player) are read out first. This does not apply to displayables within a screen or layout displayable, which are still read first to last.

Modal screens cause self-voicing to stop after the contents of the screen has been read.

### Transform Properties

The `xsize` and `ysize` transform properties have slightly changed in behavior, to match the corresponding style properties. While they used to accept only numbers of pixels, they now take “position” values, which means either a number of pixels expressed as an `int` or `absolute`, or a fraction of the available room expressed as a `float`. The old wrapper, `size`, is deprecated, and the new wrapper, `xysize`, should be used instead.

### Other

The bar screen language statement now has a new property, released, that gives an action to perform when the bar is released.

It’s now documented that the key screen language statement can take a list of keysyms.

On Linux, if Ren’Py detects the “C” locale, it will enable support for UTF-8 filesystems. This is intended to provide better compatibility with Steam Linux, which uses this locale.

A new Polish translation of the launcher has been added.

The music room has been updated to include a TogglePause button, that pauses and unpauses music.

There is now a –safe-mode flag, that starts Ren’Py in safe mode.

Mute now mutes movies.

An issue that caused analysis files to grow unconstrained, slowing down Ren’Py startup, has been fixed. The analysis file will be reduced in size when the game scripts are recompiled.

The `hover_sound` and `activate_sound` properties now apply to bars.

When dispatching events in ATL, if an event with a `selected_` prefix is not handled, the prefix is stripped and the event is matched again. This means that a `hover` handler will handle the `selected_hover` even if the `selected_hover` handler does not exist, and same thing with `selected_idle`

Ren’Py versions can now include an optional letter at the end. The `n` suffix is applied to nightly builds of Ren’Py, while the `u` suffix is applied to unofficial builds.

The `default` statement is applied after each rollback.

A regression that could prevent text in buttons from changing has been fixed.

## 7.4.8

### Fixes

This fixes a major problem that could cause rollback to corrupt lists, dictionaries, sets, and objects. Everyone that uses 7.4.7 is recommended to upgrade.

A crash that could be caused by non-integer outlines has been fixed.

The correct size of a viewport is used for edge and mouse wheel scrolling.

Game controller detection has been fixed.

### Features

It is now possible, using `PauseAction()` or `renpy.music.set_pause()`, to pause a channel that’s playing video.

The default channel for movies can now be set with `config.single_movie_channel`.

### Changes

When in developer mode, errors parameterizing an image will be reported to the developer, rather than causing a placeholder (the gray ghost girl) to appear.

The text window will not be shown before being hidden by the `centered` and `vcentered` characters.

Rolling back to a place where the shift+O console caused a change in the state of the game will not cause the effects of the console to be reverted. Rolling back one step further will.

## 7.4.7

### Web and Web Audio

The way that the web platform plays audio has been rewritten. Instead of using ffmpeg as Ren’Py does on other platform, the web version of Ren’Py will hand sound files off to the browser’s builtin audio player. This is often multithreaded, and so prevents the skipping and crackling that had been occurring with the web port.

The file formats that are supported on the web platform are now the formats supported in browsers. This is Opus, Ogg, and MP3 in modern web browsers, and just MP3 in Safari. (But see the Safari issues below.)

The new `config.audio_filename_callback` makes it possible to adjust audio filenames on play, on the web and on other platforms.

Self-voicing, with the ‘v’ key, now works on the web platform if the browser supports it.

Support for Ren’Py is limited on webkit-based browsers, due to https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=227421 . This seems to affect Safari on macOS, especially the M1, as well all web browsers on iOS. As there is no way to fix this issue in Ren’Py, the web shell has been modified to report the issue.

### iOS

The iOS build is now compiled with a more modern version of Clang, allowing it to run on the 12th generation iPhone and 2nd generation iPhone SE without the pillarboxing (or worse, both pillarboxing and letterboxing) that would otherwise be required.

Ren’Py can compile for the iOS simulator on M1 macs, but the simulator itself may cause runtime issues.

### Input

The input displayable now supports a number of new quality of life features. Specifically, the following new features now work:

- Jumping a word to the left. (Ctrl-Left, Alt-Left on Macintosh.)
- Jumping a word to the right. (Ctrl-Right, Alt-Right on Macintosh.)
- Deleting a word. (Ctrl-Backspace, Alt-Backspace on Macintosh.)
- Deleting the line. (Windows-Backspace, Command-Backspace on Macintosh.)

In addition, Command-Left and Command-Right on Macintosh now navigate to the start and end of the line, in addition to the usual Home and End keys.

The input caret now blinks to draw attention. The blink rate is controlled by the `config.input_caret_blink` variable.

### Other

The `Preferences()` function can now return actions that allow access to the renderer and accessibility menus.

The new `renpy.set_focus()` function makes it possible to set the focused displayable, though mouse motions might immediately change the focus.

In layered images, transform properties given to attributes now take precedence to those given in groups. Previously, it was possible for the attributes to conflict, such as when `align` was given to the group and `xalign` was given to the attribute.

It is now possible to roll back past variables set in the console.

The new `mark_label_seen()` and `mark_label_unseen()` make it possible to manipulate the set of seen labels.

The new `mark_audio_seen()` and `mark_audio_unseen()` make it possible to manipulate the set of seen audio files.

The new `mark_image_seen()` and `mark_image_unseen()` make it possible to manipulate the set of seen images.

ATL transforms in screens now start when first shown, rather than when the screen containing the transform is first shown.

The new `config.autosave_on_input` variabel controls if autosaving occurs on input.

Ren’Py will now report an error when a positional argument follows a keyword argument.

It is now possible to use floating point numbers for `xsize` and `ysize`, and have the result be correct. Previously, the floating point numbers would be applied twice, so a `xsize()` of .5 would represent 1/4 of the available width, rather than the correct 1/2 as it does now.

The `persistent._clear()` method, which clears persistent data, is now documented.

The Spanish translation has been updated.

Atom has been updated.

## 7.4.6

### Camera Statement

There is a new `camera` statement, intended for use with the 3D Stage system. This statement is similar to the `show layer` statement, except that the layer name is not required, and it is not cleared when a `scene` statement is run.

This statement lets you write:

    camera:
        perspective True

to enable the 3D State system.

As part of this, the `show layer` and `scene` statements have been reverted to their behavior in 7.4.4 and earlier, where the `scene` statement clears the list of transforms.

### Model Displayable

The new `Model` displayable serves as a way to create models for use with the model-based renderer. Right now, the class is able to create 2D models with multiple textures, making it possible to create custom transforms that work like some of the built-in transforms do.

This displayable doesn’t support 3D, yet, but that’s expected in the future.

### Other Improvements

The Atom text editor has been updated, and the language-renpy plugin assoicated with it has been updated to support the new keywords introduced in recent versions of Ren’Py.

Using a controller immediately hides the mouse cursor.

### Fixes

A mistake in the build process meant that a change to fix compilation on iOS that had been in the nightly didn’t make it into the Ren’Py release.

An issue where a modal screen would not block time events when the Ren’Py window lost focus has been fixed.

The number of iterations of the blur shader has been limited, which ensures that Ren’Py is compatible with more webgl devices.

Ren’Py will re-compile the Python files in the renpy/ directory, when the Force Recompile option is checked. This ensures that if those files are recompiled for some reason, the path to Ren’Py on the creator’s system will not be included.

ATL will now skip to the first frame to be displayed when using the animation timebase.

Ren’Py will no longer pauses without timeouts after a rollback.

## 7.4.5

### Model-Based Renderer

The model-based renderer is now the default for games that are released with Ren’Py 7.4.5. To disable it for your game, please set `config.gl2` to False.

When the model-based renderer is being used, Ren’Py now supports a “3D Stage”. This adds a third dimension to shown images, allowing for perspective correct zooming and motion, the rotation and translation of displayables in 3D, and many other new effects. Please see the 3D Stage documentation for more information.

To facilitate the 3D Stage, the `scene` statement no longer clears transforms applied to a layer as a whole with `show layer` or `renpy.layer_at_list()`.

The new `Swing()` transition is usable when the model-based renderer is enabled. This causes the scene to rotate around the vertical or horizontal axis, in three dimensions, and to be replaced with a previous scene.

The new `blend` transform property allows the blend function to be specified. The blend function controls how a pixel being drawn is combined to the pixel it is being drawn to.In addition to the “normal” and “add” blend functions that Ren’Py already supported, new “multiply”, “min”, and “max” functions have been added.

### Mouse

There have been a number of changes and improvements to the hardware mouse support, and it’s now documented that GPUs have limits to the size of the hardware mouse that can be supported.

A new variable `config.mouse_displayable` and displayable, `MouseDisplayable()`, now can be used to replace the hardware mouse with a software one, similar to the way it was done in Ren’Py 7.3 and earlier.

### Features

A new function, `renpy.screenshot_to_bytes()`, takes a screenshot and stores it in a bytes object that can be passed to `im.Data()`. While these objects are large, it is possible to store them in regular and persistent saves.

The new `renpy.music.get_loop()` function returns a list of sound files that are set to be looped on a channel, making it possible to store and replay them.

The `renpy.input()` function and the input displayable take a new mask parameter, that specifies a string that masks out characters that would be shown to the player. This can be used to hide the text of a password.

There is now a dark theme for the launcher.

The new `config.adjust_attributes` callback allows you to intercept image attributes when show, and replace them with a list of your own. For example, it’s possible to use this to rewrite `eileen happy` to `eileen happy_eyes happy_mouth`, which interacts well with LayeredImage.

When running lint from the command line, the `--error-code` option can be given to cause Ren’Py to return with an error code if lint fails.

Layer transitions can now persist past the end of an interaction.

Ren’Py avoids pausing right after a rollback, so that the rollback tries to finish at a more interactive statement.

When playing a sound, it is possible to sync the start time of an audio file in one channel with the time of the audio file in another channel.

### Android

Several packages that are required to build on Android are now included as part of Ren’Py. This fixes errors that are related to Bintray being shut down, that prevented new installs of Ren’Py 7.4.4 from being able to build for Android.

The way Ren’Py displays the presplash screen on Android has been changed. The presplash is now displayed by the Java bootstrap, in a new layer on top of the OpenGL layer. This is a new approach compared to Ren’Py 7.4, where the presplash was displayed using SDL’s 2D rendering. This change appears to improve compatibility with Android devices, and prevent instances of black screens on start.

As part of this change, the way Ren’Py scales the presplash image has been changed. Ren’Py will now scale-to-fit the presplash image inside the available area.

An issue that prevented blur from working properly on certain Android devices has been fixed.

An issue playing some less-used video and audio file formats on Android has been fixed.

The Android fixes will require you to regenerate your Android project, by answering the Android Configuration question “Do you want to automatically update the Java source code?” with “Yes.”

### Other Platforms

The Web Platform beta has been updated.

A regression in Mobile Safari for iOS 14.5.1 and later prevents Ren’Py from starting on that platform. As the issue is with Mobile Safari, no workaround is possible, and a message is displayed prompting the player to contact Apple. This regression affects other iOS browsers that are shells for Mobile Safari, like Chrome and Firefox.

Building for iOS has been fixed.

Support for Steam on macOS has been fixed.

Signing and Notarizing macOS applications has been fixed.

### Other Fixes

The default level-of-detail bias has been set to -0.5, and can be changed with `config.gl_lod_bias`. This is used to bias Ren’Py into scaling down, rather than scaling up, but the previous bias would cause Ren’Py to create jagged edges on images.

There have been a number of improvements to the way Ren’Py handles modal screens.

## 7.4.4

### The old-game directory

To help creators that make multiple releases of their games (as with early access or Patreon releases), Ren’Py now supports an old-game directory, which can be a copy of the game directory from the previous release. Ren’Py will use the information found in the .rpyc files in this directory when it generates .rpyc files. As the .rpyc files are used when loading games, this will tend to help Ren’Py load games created by multiple developers.

For more information, see the documentation.

### Fixes

A crash that could occur with gestures or controllers has been fixed.

A crash that occurred when generating web distributions on windows has been fixed.

The persistent backend for achievements now supports the clearing of progress.

Live2D now resets opacities with other parameters.

Ren’Py does not change the size of a maximized window when reloading.

### Other

There is a new GL property, `blend_func` that is supported by the model-based renderer. This allows the customization of the GL blend function, allowing Ren’Py to start to support new blend modes.

Live2D now supports the additive and multiply blend modes.

Using default or define with the `renpy` namespace will now produce an error.

A number of previously-undocumented methods on the preferences object <preference-variables> have been documented. These methods make it possible to get or set the current value of the volume and the current value of mute.

## 7.4.3

### Windows

The code for changing icons has been rewritten, to produce executables that do not include any extraneous data other than the software and the icons being added. This should prevent some antivirus programs from producing false positives.

Ren’Py is now linked against the Universal C Runtime on Windows. This may raise the version of Windows that Ren’Py runs on to Windows Vista with certain hotfixes. This both modernizes Ren’Py, and should prevent some antivirus programs from producing false positives.

Ren’Py will now disable Threaded Optimization on Nvidia GPUs. Threaded Optimization interacted poorly with Ren’Py, causing pauses in places where Ren’Py did not expect pauses to occur. This could manifest as audio glitches that this change fixes.

Ren’Py will automatically use the ANGLE library to emulate OpenGL ES using DirectX, if DirectX is available and OpenGL is not. This had not worked properly in Ren’Py 7.4. The window may appear and disappear multiple times as Ren’Py tries different video systems, this is expected.

### Android

The non-model-based renderer now properly deallocates textures when Android causes a render context to change. This prevents visual glitches that would randomly occur, often during Dissolves.

Ren’Py now checks that it has focus when the game actually starts. This fixes an issue where, if the player switched out of the application before the game could fully start. Now, if Ren’Py has lost focus at game start, it will save and quit, then re-launch when the player returns to the game.

In general, compatibility with Android devices has been improved.

### Features

Added `config.main_menu_music_fadein`, a way of fading in the main menu music.

The new `renpy.get_zorder_list()` and `renpy.change_zorder()` allow the zorder of images and screens to be manipulated after being shown.

Windows and frames can now take the `modal` style property. This is similar to the modal property of screens, but only applies when the mouse is within the boundaries of the window or frame. This can be used to ensure the player can’t click a button behind the window, while allowing buttons that are not obstructed to be used.

The `Live2D()` displayable now takes an update_function parameter, which makes it possible to update parameters directly.

Ren’Py now supports the display of Emoji and other characters from outside the Basic Multilingual Plane, if the fonts in use support the characters. Right now, the emoji are displayed using the font rendering system, which produces monochrome glyphs.

The `FontGroup` class can now be used to remap characters inside a font.

Displayables in the mask portion of a `AlphaMask()` are now focusable, allowing new effects.

The player can now choose to ingore image files that cannot be loaded.

The new `renpy.get_sdl_dll()` and `renpy.get_sdl_window_pointer()` functions make it possible to access the SDL DLL using ctypes. This may make it possible to implement funcitonality that is in SDL, but Ren’Py does not provide access to.

Clicking now ends a transition introduced with `renpy.transition()`, or statements that have a `with` clause.

`renpy.translate_string()` is now a documented function that provides the ability to translate a string to a selected language.

It is now possible to create a `hide_windows` label, that provides a way to customize the hiding of windows that occurs when middle-clicking or pressing the h key.

New properties, like the `mesh_pad` transform property and the `gl_pixel_perfect` gl property, make it possible to perform pixel perfect rendering after applying a shader to text.

The `renpy.input()` function now takes properties beginning with `show_`, that are passed to the `input` screen.

The `Color` class now has an rgba property, that returns an rgba tuple.

### Old Features

The `default_mouse` variable was introduced in Ren’Py 7.4, as a way to allow the mouse cursor to be changed without changing `config.mouse` at runtime, as changing config variables at runtime isn’t supported.

### Other Fixes

An issue that prevented multiple modal screens from being processed correctly has been fixed. This would manifest as focus problems.

Lint now produces files with Windows-style newlines, on Windows.

SDL error messages are decoded using the system encoding on Windows, making them more readable.

Issues with quoting unicode characters in Python have been fixed.

Values of the `blur` transform property between 0 and 1 now work properly.

The {done} text tag now works as defined.

Ren’Py is better at checking for GL load failuires and falling back to older libraries.

Apps built for macOS should enable HighDPI mode.

### Translations

The Ren’Py documentation has been translated into both Simplified and Traditional Chinese, courtesy of 被诅咒的章鱼 and 逆转咸鱼.

The French translations have been updated.

## 7.4.2

### Fixes and Changes

The new `config.context_fadeout_music` and `config.context_fadein_music` variables make it possible to fade out and in music when a game is loaded or other context changes cause the music to change.

Ren’Py now searches for Live2D motion and expression files using the extensions (.motion3.json and .exp3.json), rather than using directory names.

The new `build.include_i686` variable determines if the 32-bit versions of Ren’Py are included in the build. Not including 32-bit binaries can reduced download size and prevent overzealous antivirus programs from incorrectly reporting distributions as infected.

The new `build.change_icon_i686` will prevent the icon for the i686 version from being changed. This may prevent antivirus programs from incorrect detections.

Ren’Py will no longer disable the screen saver or prevent the system from going to sleep when a game is running.

A macOS issue with the operating system’s fullscreen (invoked using the gree button) disabling resizing, and hence preventing the window from being restored to it’s normal size, has been resolved.

A crash on raspberry pi displaying a webp image has been fixed.

This release fixes missing files caused by a mistake in the build process:

- The say.vbs file was missing, preventing self-voicing from working on Windows.
- Various files required to support ANGLE were missing, which prevented DirectX rendering from working.

### Android

There is a known issue with Samsung devices with the magnification shortcut enabled, where the game may become unresponsive. I’m working on a fix, but didn’t want to delay the release for this.

The detection of the JVM on macOS is more robust, and less likely to be confused by a browser plug-in.

Ren’Py now recommends the use of AdoptOpenJDK as a source for the JVM.

## 7.4.1

### Pause Statement Changes

The behavior of the `pause` statement with a time has changed, so that:

    pause 1.0

is now equivalent to:

    $ renpy.pause(1.0)

and not:

    with Pause(1.0)

This means that other features that expect a real pause will work during the pause statement.

Modal screens no longer block the `pause` statement, or `renpy.pause()`. this means that a pause can end even if a modal screen is displayed above it.

### Say Statement Id Clause

The say statement has now grown an `id` clause, that lets you specify the old say statement id. This is useful for changing a say statement in the original language, such as to fix an obvious typo, without needing to update all the translations.

To use it, just add `id` to the say statement, followed by the statement id:

    e "This used to have a typo." id start_61b861a2

### Live2D

Live2D support has has a default_fade argument added, which can change the default duration of fades at the start and end of motions and expressions.

An issue with Live2D that manifested as a tuple error has been fixed.

### Controller Blocklist

The Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, when connected to a computer by USB, requires an initialization sequence to be sent to cause it to act as a Joystick, and not return incorrect data.

Ren’Py 7.4.0 attempted to send this sequence, but doing so required directly accessing the USB bus, which was causing crashes and long pauses on some computer. We’ve decided that this functionality is too prone to compatibility problems to include in Ren’Py.

As a result, the Switch Pro Controller has been added to a new controller blocklist, and will not function in Ren’Py.

### macOS

The minimum supported version of macOS is now 10.10 (Yosemite). Ren’Py 7.4 did not run on this version, so this represents a restoration of support for this version.

Choosing the projects directory was broken on macOS 11.0 (Big Sur). This has been fixed.

Pyobjus is now part of the macOS build of Ren’Py, in addition to the iOS build. This library makes it possible to access Cocoa APIs.

### Android

There have been reports that prereleases of Ren’Py 7.4.1 will not run properly on older Android devices, like the Samsung Galaxy S5. We are attempting to acquire an example of a device exhibiting the problem, and will make a new release as required.

### Translations

The Spanish translation has been updated.

### Other Fixes

An issue that could cause crashes on movies of certain sizes when Ren’Py was run on a computer that supports SSE3 has been fixed.

Movie playback now uses multiple cores for video decoding, as it did in previous versions of Ren’Py.

An issue that could cause the size of the Ren’Py window to increase when run on Windows with a non-100% DPI has been fixed.

Ren’Py will no longer give a performance warning when an unsupported renderer is selected, such as when using the GL or ANGLE renderer on a game that requires gl2.

An issue that would, in some cases, prevent say attributes from being shown has been fixed.

An issue preventing MultiPersistent files from working on computers that do not use UTF-8 at the default file encoding has been fixed.

The flags for compiling Python when `rpy python 3` is enabled have been improved.

An issue that prevented triple-quoted strings (like the strings used for gui.about) from being evaluated correctly has been fixed.

Ren’Py now detects its path during certain reloads.

Ren’Py will determine of all functions a renderer requires can be dynamically loaded, and will try different renderers if this is not the case.

Timers that are created after the start of a statement now properly participate in the rollback system, and will fire if the game rolls back to a point where the timer has not fired.

Ren’Py now allows the screensaver to activate while a Ren’Py game is running.

A problem with dynamic variables not remaining dynamic during a rollback has been fixed.

When given a size, the hbox and vbox displayables now position children in the same way those children were positioned in Ren’Py 7.4.

The new `mipmap` style property applies to the `Dissolve()`, `ImageDissolve()`, and `AlphaDissolve()` transitions, the `AlphaMask()`, `Movie()`, and `Text()` displayables, and text in general. This property controls if mipmaps are generated for the textures created by these displayables. Avoiding creating mipmaps may improve rendering performance on slower computers, but can lead to artifacts when scaling down. When not specified, this property defaults to `config.mipmap_dissolves`, `config.mipmap_movies`, or `config.mipmap_text`, as appropriate.

The toggle version of self-voicing preferences have been changed to provide a better selected state.

Lint now once again reports statistics by translation.

## 7.4.0

### Model-Based Renderer

This release includes a new model-based renderer, the component of Ren’Py that is responsible for drawing text and images to the user’s display, supplementing (with the intent of eventually replacing) the original OpenGL renderer added in Ren’Py 6.10. This renderer takes better advantage of the hardware present in modern GPUS (both dedicated graphics cards and GPUs integrated into processors) to improve performance and increase capability. This renderer supports desktop computers that support either OpenGL 2.2 or DirectX 9.0c or 11, and mobile devices and embedded systems that support OpenGL ES 3.

The biggest change in the model-based renderer is that Ren’Py is no longer limited to drawing rectangular images in a 2-dimensional plane. Instead, Ren’Py has been converted to use meshes made up of triangles in a three-dimensional space. While existing rectangular sprites are displayed in the same way, this opens up Ren’Py to non-rectangular meshes, and eventually full three dimensional geometry.

In addition to mesh geometry, model-based renderering supports shaders, both shaders included with Ren’Py, and shaders specified by creators as part of their game. Shaders are small programs that run on the GPU, that can process geometry and pixel data, to allow for all sorts of graphical effects.

The model-based renderer implements a new fast texture loading system, which moves an expensive part of texture loading, alpha premultiplication, from the CPU to the GPU.

The model-based renderer also creates mipmaps for each texture that is loaded into the GPU. A mipmap is a series of smaller versions of the texture, stored on the GPU. By creating and utilizing mipmaps, Ren’Py is now able to shrink images below 50% of the original size, without the appearance of the aliasing artifacts. This is especially relevant when assets meant for 4K monitors are used on 1080P and smaller displays.

For this release, the Model-Based Renderer is opt in, with that opt-in controlled by the `config.gl2` variable. As we gain more experience with it, it is indended to be come the default Ren’Py renderer.

### Live2D

One of the features enabled by the model-based renderer is support for displaying sprites made in Live2D. Ren’Py requires you to download Live2D Cubism separately, as you’ll need to execute a contract with Live2D, Inc. before distributing a game that uses their technology.

Ren’Py supports the display of Live2D models, complete with the ability to change expression and to queue up one or more motions. This is integrated into Ren’Py’s image attribute system. Ren’Py also supports fading from one motion to another when an attribute changes.

### Matrixcolor and Blur

The model-based renderer enables new functionality in transforms, such as matrixcolor and blur.

Transforms (including ATL Transforms) now support a new `matrixcolor` property, which either a matrix or an object that creates a matrix that changes in time, and uses it to recolor everything that is a child of the transform.

While previous versions of Ren’Py supported the `im.MatrixColor()` image manipulator, the new property is much improved. The image manipulator would often take a large fraction of a second, making it too slow for real-time use, and was limited to single images. The new transform property is fast enough that it can be changed every frame if necessary, and can be applied to any displayable. It’s now possible to apply a Transform using matrixcolor to a layer, to recolor the entire layer - making it possible to push your game into sepia or black-and-white without needing a separate set of images.

There are a few difference between the image manipulator and the the transform property versions of matrixcolor, as the new version uses 4x4 matrices and premultiplied alpha color, so the new property can’t use the same matrices. Instead, there are number of new ColorMatrix objects that need to be used.

Transforms also support a new `blur` property, which blurs the child of the displayable by the given number of pixels.

### Python 2/Python 3 Compatibility Mode

While Ren’Py is not yet supported on Python 3, this release of Ren’Py includes several features to allow you to begin writing scripts that will work on both Python 2 and Python 3.

First, Ren’Py now uses future to provide standard library compatibility. It’s now possible to import modules using their Python 3 names, when a renaming has occured.

When a .rpyc file begins with the new `rpy python 3`, the file is compiled in a Python 3 compatibility mode. The two changes this causes are:

- Ren’Py will compile the file in a mode that attempts to emulate Python 3 semantics, including the change to division. In Python 3, `1/2` is equal to .5, and not 0. Since this changes the type of the expression, this can change the position of displayables. `1//2` keeps the original semantics.
- Ren’Py will change the behavior of dict so that the `items`, `keys`, and `values` methods return views, rather than lists, when called directly from that .rpy file. These match the Python 3 semantics for these methods, but need to be explicitly turned into a list before being saved or participating in rollback.

### Upgraded Libraries and Platform Support

For Ren’Py 7.4, the build system was redone, replacing the multiple build systems needed to build Ren’Py with a single build platform that handles every platform except for webasm. The change in build system also involved updating all of the libraries that Ren’Py uses to newer versions.

As a result of this, the list of platforms that Ren’Py offically supports has changed slightly. Here’s the latest list of what is supported:

Platform | CPU | Note
--- | --- | ---
Linux | x86_64 | Raised minimum version to Ubuntu 16.04
Linux | i686 | Raised minimum version to Ubuntu 16.04
Linux | i686 | Raised minimum version to Ubuntu 16.04
Linux | armv7l | Intended to support Raspberry Pi, uses Raspian Buster
Windows | x86_64 | A new port to 64-bit Windows Vista and later.
Windows | i686 | Raised minimum version to Windows Vista.
macOS | x86_64 | macOS 10.10+
Android | armv7a | Android 4.4 KitKat
Android | arm64 | Android 5.0 Lollipop
Android | x86_64 | Android 5.0 Lollipop
iOS | arm64 | All 64-bit iOS devices, iOS 11.0+
iOS | x86_64 | The 64-bit iOS simulator, iOS 11.0+
Web | webasm | Modern web browsers

The biggest new platform that Ren’Py supports is the 64-bit Windows platform, which means that Ren’Py is available in 64-bits on all major desktop and mobile platforms. The new `renpy.bits` variable can be used to determine if Ren’Py is running on a 32 or 64-bit platform, if necessary. (For example, to set `config.image_cache_size_mb` appropriately.)

The one platform that loses support in this release is 32-bit (armv7l) iOS devices. These devices are no longer supported by Apple, and do not support the level of OpenGL ES that Ren’Py requires.

### Web

Ren’Py now runs significantly faster in the browser, thanks to new compilation techniques.

A game built for the web platform can now download image and audio files from the web server as the game is played. The download begins when the image or sound is predicted. This can reduce the initial time it takes before the game begins running, as well as memory usage.

When running inside a web browser on a touch-screen device, Ren’Py will display a touch-based keyboard, to compensate for web browsers having difficulty displaying keyboard entry for wasm-based games.

The splash screen displayed while loading can use the WebP format, including animated WebP.

More Python modules are provided, making the Python environment closer to native Ren’Py ports.

Support for iOS browsers was improved.

### Steam

It is now possible to install Steam support from the Ren’Py launcher, by choosing “preferences”, “Install libraries”, “Install Steam Support”.

The new `config.steam_appid` variable automatically creates the steam_appid.txt file for you. This needs to be set by a `define` statement, or in a python early block.

### Translations

The Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Korean translations have been updated, and now use a unified font.

There is a new Simplified Chinese translation of the tutorial game, courtesy of Neoteus.

### Depreciations and Removals

As described above, Ren’Py no longer support Windows XP.

As described above, Ren’Py no longer supports 32-bit iOS devices.

The choice of downloading the Editra text editor has been removed from Ren’Py. Editra hadn’t been updated in over 5 years, and the website it was originally distributed from has disappeared.

While not completely removed, the software renderer has been simplified and removed as an option for gameplay. Its purposes is now limited to informing players about issues that prevent display of graphics with a GPU-based renderer.

### Miscellaneous

Support for controllers has been improved. Repeat is now supported on controllers, and the libraries that Ren’Py uses have been compiled to support many of the more popular game controllers.

Ren’Py now uses software playback of movies on Android and iOS devices, meaning the same files can be used on all platforms that support video playback.

Defining a mouse cursor using `config.mouse` now uses SDL2’s color cursor API, which generally results in hardware acceleration and reduced mouse movement lag.

The `define` statement can now be used to set a key in a dictionary.

    # Ren'Py was started in 2004.
    define age["eileen"] = 2020 - 2004

The `define` statement can take += and |=, to apply the appropriate update operators.

    define config.keymap['dismiss'] += [ 'K_KP_PLUS' ]

    # This assumes endings is a set.
    define endings |= { "best" }

It is now possible to specify a relative audio channel whenever an audio is file is played, using the new `volume` clause to `play` and `queue`.

The new `fit` property of transforms provides for different ways of making an image fit size with a different aspect ratio. For example, it can be scaled to be contained fully within the given size, or to make sure that it completely covers the given size.

The `xpan` and `ypan` transform properties no longer double the size of the displayable they are applied to, making them easier to combine with positioning transform properties.

The `renpy.input()` function can now take regular expressions when determining what is and is not allowed.

Grids now take `margin` style properties, that is applied outside the grid, and inside a containing viewport.

Ren’Py support an {alt} text tag, that causes the text to be spoken during self-voicing, but not displayed. It also supports a {noalt} text tag that does the opposite.

The launcher window can now be resized if necessary. A button has been added to the launcher preferences to restore the default size.

The new `build.mac_info_plist` variable makes it easier to customize the mac app.

The requests library, is bundled with Ren’Py, making accessing the web much easier.

Pressing PAUSE on your keyboard brings the player to the game menu, finally giving that key a function.

## 7.3.5

### Fixes

On desktop platforms, the presplash screen has been reworked so that it will not cause the window to become nonresponsive if clicked.

The iOS port has been updated to include modules that have been newly added to Ren’Py, allowing the compilation of iOS apps.

### Other Changes

The `audio` directory, which automatically defines names in the audio namespace, has been made visible in the launcher, and is added to newly-createrd projects.

The new `config.exception_handler` callback allows an application to replace Ren’Py’s exception handling system in its entirety.

## 7.3.4

### Fixes

This release fixes major graphics glitches that were introduced in 7.3.3.

- On Windows, textures would fail to be reloaded when switching from fullscreen to windowed mode or vice-versa. This would cause the wrong texture to be displayed.
- On all platforms, graphical glitches could occur when `Flatten()` was used.

### Other Changes

Dynamic images can now include “[prefix_]” everywhere, and especially when `add` has been used to add a dynamic image to buttons, drags, and similar focusable objects.

Creator-defined screen language statements may now take `if` statements as children.

The drag and drop system has been improved to better interact with updated screens.

## 7.3.3

### Audio

Ren’Py now supports an `audio` directory, which automatically defines names in the audio namespace. This makes it possible to have a file named `game/audio/overture.ogg`, and play it using:

    play music overture

The new `AudioData()` class allows you to provide compressed audio data to Ren’Py, either generated programatically or taken from a source other than a file. To support this, the Python wave and sunau modules are now packaged with Ren’Py.

An issue with enabling the mixing of mono sound files has been fixed. This issue caused many WAV files not to play. (We still don’t recommend the use of WAV files.)

### Platforms

Ren’Py is now distributed as a signed and notarized binary on the Mac. As this process takes a very long time to accomplish, the ability to sign macOS binaries has been removed from Ren’Py itself, in favor of external scripts that take care of the signing and notarization process.

The minimum version supported by the Android port has been lowered to Android 19 (Android 4.4 KitKat).

The web port of Ren’Py has seen a number of changes:

- Screen variants are now detected and set.
- Fullscreen support has been improved, though the user may need to click to enable fullscren.
- Leaving the web page is detected, so persistent data may be saved.
- ‘game.zip’ can now be renamed. ‘DEFAULT_GAME_FILENAME’ in index.html controls this.
- Portable HTTP requests (native+renpyweb): see https://github.com/renpy/renpyweb/blob/master/utils/asyncrequest.rpy
- Enable networking in Python web port for testing WebSockets, transparently available through the Python ‘socket’ module
- HTTP Cache-Control allows for smoother game updates.
- The pygame.draw module is now included, allowing Canvas support.
- WebGL compatibility has been improved.

### Other Changes

During profiling conducted for the GL Rewrite project, it became clear that the switch to framebuffer objects in 7.3.0 was the cause of certain performance regressions. By changing how FBOs are used, Ren’Py performance has been improved.

The `renpy.input()` function can now be given the name of a screen that is used to prompt the user for input.

The creation of list, dicts, and sets inside of screen language is now analyzed correctly. This will allow more displayables to be analyzed as constant, improving screen performance.

The notify screen is now hidden on rollback.

The NVL mode screen indicates that it shows the window, which prevents problems when `window show` is in effect.

When a `Call()` with from_current set to true occurs during a multi-part statement (like a menu with dialogue), control is restored to the first part of that multi-part statement (thus causing the dialouge to be displayed).

More functions now use a tag’s default layer.

The `renpy.is_init_phase()` function has been added.

Automatic voice now works for dialogue that is part of a menu statement.

Support for GLES1 has been dropped. (It hadn’t been used for years.)

The `SelectedIf()` and `SensitiveIf()` actions can now take other actions as arguments.

Many BarValues now take a force_step argument, which forces changes to the bar to be rounded to the nearest step value.

`Frame()` now allows the tile argument to be the string “integer”, which tiles the contents of the frame an integer number of times.

`Character()` now allows the name argument to be a function or callable object when dynamic is true.

### Translations

The Korean and Spanish translations have been updated.

## 7.3.2

### Fixes

Fix a regression in the platform variables, caused by the previous release.

### Translations

Update the spanish translation.

## 7.3.1

### Changes

Descriptive text (text that is intended to be show when self-voicing is enabled, so that scenes can be described to the vision impared) has been updated. Descriptive text is now accessed using the `alt` character (the old `sv` character has been retained as an alias.) It’s also now possible to display descriptive text using a custom character, rather than the narrator.

Ren’Py now always initializes the media playback system, so that a movie can be played even if no audio will be played.

The default property of most displayables, which is used to choose a displayable to be focused by default, has been renamed to default_focus so that it does not conflict with the `default` statement. It also now takes an integer, with the displayable with the highest focus number getting focus.

The `Flatten()` displayable now passes positions from the child.

Seeded random number generators created with renpy.random.Random now support rollback.

When emulating Android or iOS, the platform variables (like renpy.android, renpy.ios, renpy.windows, and renpy.mobile) are set properly.

Renpyweb now stores the date and time that a save file was created.

### Fixes

This release fixes a fairly major issue that could cause screens that interpolate text to not update, or update improperly.

This release properly runs the image prediction routine from the image prediction thread.

A problem with the {clear} text tag has been fixed.

The `config.end_game_transition`, which was not working properly in most circumstances, has been fixed.

### Translations

The Russian, Korean, and Spanish translations were updated.

## 7.3.0

### Renpyweb

Courtesy of Sylvain Beucler, Ren’Py now can generate distributions for the the HTML5 web platforms, capable of running on modern web browsers that support the Web Assembly standard. This is intended for small games and demonstrations of larger games, as right now the implementation downloads the full game to the web browser before running any of it.

Web support is marked as beta, as there are cases where problem with the web platform (most notably, a lack of threading) cause problems such as sound glitches if an image takes too long to load. As a result, it is possible to have a Ren’Py game that works well on all other platforms, but not in the web browser. As web browsers themselves improve, we will improve our implementation and eventually remove the beta tag.

Building a web distribution can be done from the new “Web” button on the Ren’Py launcher. The launcher now includes a small web server, that can be used to launch the game in a creator’s web browser for test purposes.

### Creator-Defined Statements

Ren’Py’s creator-defined statements, and the Lexer objects that are used by them, have been extended to improve the functionality in many ways. With respect to the Lexer:

- It is now possible to ask the Lexer object to parse a single line as a Ren’Py statement, or all the lines remaining in the block as Ren’Py statements.
- It is now possible to ask the lexer to catch errors, so as to limit the scope of errors to a part of a creator-defined statement rather than the whole statement.

The `renpy.register_statement()` function has new arguments to enable new functionality.

- Statement prediction can be controlled by the predict_all and predict_next arguments, which predict all possible next statements or take a function that determines what will run next, respectively.
- The new post_execute argument lets one specify an execute function that is run as the next statement - the one after the creator-defined statement. This allows a pattern where a statement runs, executes the block inside it, and then runs something after the block to clean it up. (For example, an event that serves as a label, and then jumps back to a dispatcher when it is done.)
- The new post_label argument lets one specify a function to supply the a label that goes after the creator-defined statement, which can function like the `from` clause to the call statement.

Ren’Py now stores the result of parsing a creator-defined statement in the .rpyc files. While this allows for more complex syntax and faster startup, it means that it may be necessary to force a recompile if you change a creator-defined statement’s parse function

### Screen Language Improvements

It is now possible to supply an `as` clause to a screen language displayable. This is especially useful with drags, as it lets the screen capture the drag object and call methods on it as necessary.

The `on` statement can now take a list of events.

A screen now takes a sensitive property, which determines if it is possible to interact with the screen at all.

Ren’Py will now produce an error when a non-constant property follows a Python statement, inside screen language. (This was very rare, and almost always a mistake.)

### Text Improvements

Ren’Py now includes support for self-closing custom text tags, which are custom text tags that do not require as closing text tag.

Ren’Py now supports three new flags that can be applied when formatting text:

- “[varname!u]” forces the text to upper-case.
- “[varname!l]” forces the text to lower-case.
- “[varname!c]” forces the first letter of the text to upper-case, capitalizing it.

### Android and iOS Improvements

Ren’Py now uses Framebuffer Objects on any device that claims to support it. As a result `focus_mask` now works on Android and iOS.

Ren’Py now produces 64-bit arm binaries for Android. These will be required by the Google Play store later this year.

Text input on Android was rewritten again, to fix problems where the user was unable to advance. Completion was eliminated, as it was the source of the problems. While languages that require input methods will need a larger rewrite to function, Ren’Py should now properly handle all direct input keyboards.

### Translations

The Ren’Py launcher and sample project have been translated into Turkish by Arda Güler.

The Ren’Py tutorial game has been translated into Spanish by Moshibit.

French, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Spanish translations have been updated for this release.

### Other Improvements

The `side` displayable now renders its children in the order they are provided in the control string.

The `say` statement, `menu` statement, and `renpy.call_screen` statements now tak a _mode argument, which specifies the mode Ren’Py goes into when these statements occur.

The `renpy.show_screen()` and `renpy.call_screen()` functions now take a zorder argument.

Ren’Py will now play a mono sound file with the same volume as a stereo sound file, rather than sending half the energy to each ear.

The new `config.load_failed_label` specifies a label that is jumped to when a load fails because Ren’Py can no longer find the current statement. This makes it possible to a game to implement its own recovery mechanism.

The new `config.notify` variable makes it possible to intercept the notification system and do your own thing.

The interface of `config.say_attribute_transition_callback` has been changed in an incompatible way, to allow sets of old and new tags to be given.

`Action` and `BarValue` now support a get_tooltip method, which allows the object to supply a default tooltip.

### Fixes

A problem that could cause Ren’Py to drop certain characters, especially accent markers in Arabic, has been fixed.

The filename of the internal copy of OpenDyslexic has been changed so as not to cause problems with copies distributed with games.

## 7.2.2

Ren’Py now supports a new Accessibility menu, which can be accessed by pressing the “a” key. This menu, which is intended to be used by players, let’s the player override the game font, change the scaling and spacing of text, and enable self-voicing.

Ren’Py will now allow files in the public game directory (/mnt/sdcard/Android/package/files/game) to override those included with the game proper. This has been listed as a feature in 7.2.0, but didn’t work right.

Ren’Py will now include temporary image attributes in the say statements generated as part of the translation process.

When uploading to itch.io, Ren’Py now downloads butler itself. This means there is no longer a dependence on the location or structure of the Itch app, as there was before.

The bar values `DictValue()`, `FieldValue()`, `VariableValue()`, and `ScreenVariableValue()` all take a new action parameter, which gives an action that is performed each time the value changes.

The rollback system has been optimized to reduce the amount of garbage that needs to be collected.

## 7.2.1

### iOS Improvements

Ren’Py will now set the version field for the iOS application when generating a project.

Ren’Py will now look for the files ios-icon.png and ios-launchimage.png, and use them to generate the icon and launch image in the sizes required for iOS.

### Other Improvements

The `renpy.in_rollback()` function returns True when in the rollback that occurs immediately after a load. This makes it possible to use:

    python:
        if not renpy.in_rollback():
            renpy.run(ShowMenu('save'))

To display a save menu during an initial playthough, but not during loading or rollback.

`config.say_attribute_transition_callback` now exists, making it possible to select the transition to use on a per-say-statement basis.

The new `RENPY_SEARCHPATH` environment variable makes it possible to override `config.searchpath` on launch.

### Fixes

Ren’Py has been audited to make sure that the semantics of == and != match, whenever == was redefined.

There was a fix to problems that might occur when a transform is added to a screen using the `add` statement.

The way `extend` processes arguments was changed to ensure that newer arguments take priority over arguments given to the statement being extended.

Ren’Py now properly considers the scope when comparing dynamic images for equality. This fixes an issue that prevented some dynamic images from updating when part of a screen.

A crash when `config.save_dump` is true on macOS has been fixed.

A crash when `config.profile` is true has been fixed.

Ren’Py now explicitly asks for text (as opposed to email, password, phone number etc) input on Android when the keyboard is displayed.

An issue has been fixed that prevented roll-forward from working through a menu statement.

Fixes a bug that prevents roll-forward through a menu.

## 7.2.0

### Menu Arguments

Ren’Py now has support for menu arguments. Arguments can be passed to a choice menu as a whole, or to the individual choices within the menu, using the syntax:

    menu ("jfk", screen="airport"):

        "Chicago, IL" (200):
            jump chicago_trip

        "Dallas, TX" (150, sale=True):
            jump dallas_trip

        "Hot Springs, AR" (300) if secret_unlocked:
            jump hot_springs_trip

Menu arguments passed to the menu itself become arguments to the screen, except the screen argument which selects the screen, and the nvl argument, which - if present - selects the NVL-mode menu. The arguments to the choices become arguments to the items passed to the menu screen.

### Temporary Say Attributes

Ren’Py now supports temporary say attributes. Just like regular say attributes, these are included as part of the say statement. However, these temporary say attributes are reverted once the dialogue has finished. For example, in the script:

    show eileen happy

    e "I'm happy."

    e @ vhappy "I'm really happy!"

    e "I'm still happy."

In the first line and last line of dialogues, Eileen is using her happy emotion. The vhappy emotion is shown before the second line of dialogue, and replaced with the previous emotion (happy in this case), before it.

### Text

There have been a number of text changes that affect text when a window is scaled to a non-default size:

- The text is now aligned on its baseline, rather than at the top of the text. This is relevant when an absolute outline offset is used.
- It is now possible to choose how the outline scales when the window is scaled. This is done with the `outline_scaling` style property.

When positioning a Text object, the `yanchor` property can be renpy.BASELINE. When it is, the anchor is set to the baseline of the first line of the text.

### Statements

The new `window auto show` and `window auto hide` statements allow automatic dialogue window management to continue while showing or hiding the dialogue window.

The `show screen` and `hide screen` statements now take a with clause, that works the same way it does with `show` and `hide`.

The screen language `use` statement now can take an `expression` clause, that makes it take an expression rather than a literal screen name. This allows a variable to be used when selecting the screen that is included. See Use for more details.

### Changes

The new `renpy.is_skipping()` function reports if Ren’Py is currently skipping.

The input displayable now takes a new copypaste property, which when true allows copying with ctrl+C and pasting with ctrl+V. This is enabled in the console and launcher.

`Preference("display", "window")` now avoids creating a window bigger than the screen, and will be selected if the current window size is the maximum window size, if the size selected with `gui.init()` is bigger than the maximum window size.

Creator defined statements now have a few more lexer methods available, making it possible to to parse arguments, image name components, labels, and delimited python.

The `renpy.force_autosave()` function takes a new argument, that causes the autosave to block until it completes.

The ctc screen now takes a number of new parameters, if required.

The new `im.Blur()` image manipulator can blur an image. Thanks to Mal Graty for contributing it.

LayeredImage groups now support a `multiple` property, which allows multiple attributes in the same group to be displayed at the same time. This is useful because it allows the auto-definition function of a group to be applied to non-conflicting images.

Ren’Py will remain fullscreen when the mouse changes desktops, and will avoid shrinking a maximized window during a reload.

The `config.allow_duplicate_labels` variable can be defined or set in an init python block to allow duplicate labels to be defined in a game.

The `Movie()` displayable can now be told not to loop, and displays the associated static image when it stops looping. It also can take an image that is displayed before the movie proper starts.

### Android Changes

The downloading of the Android SDK has been updated to fix a change in the provided tools that prevented things from downloading.

An explicit action is now given to the keyboard, to make sure the enter key works.

Ren’Py now uses the Amazon payment APIs when sideloaded onto a device made by Amazon, allowing their payment system to be tested on a dual-store APK.

Ren’Py will now allow files in the public game directory (/mnt/sdcard/Android/package/files/game) to override those included with the game proper.

### Fixes

A bug preventing Ren’Py from displaying zero or negative-width characters (such as certain diacritics) has been fixed.

An issue that prevented Ren’Py from updating a displayable that was added to a screen with transform properties has been fixed.

The order of drags within a drag group is now preserved when an interaction restart occurs.

Size-changing properties like `xysize` now apply to a Drag and not the space it can move around in.

A bug that could cause a transparent, black, or gray line to appear on the bottom line of a screen during a dissolve has been fixed.

A regression in support for imagefonts has been fixed.

Creating a new file from the navigation menu of the launcher now works.

Menu sets now work again.

Ren’Py will no longer crash if an incomparable type is given to `Function()` and other actions.

A case where rolling forward would fail is now fixed.

A problem that prevented the Steam overlay from showing up on macOS was fixed.

## 7.1.3

This was a quick re-release of 7.1.2 in order to fix a single bug, which was that a test change had been left in causing `config.default_language` to be set on initial startup.

## 7.1.2

### Improvements

Ren’Py’s screen language now support the inclusion of anonymous ATL transforms. It’s now possible to write:

    screen hello_title():
        text "Hello.":
            at transform:
                align (0.5, 0.5) alpha 0.0
                linear 0.5 alpha 1.0

The new `SetLocalVariable()` and `ToggleLocalVariable()` actions make it possible to set variables inside used screens.

The new `config.menu_include_disabled` variable determines if menus should include entries disabled by an if clause.

Shift-keybindings (like Shift+I and Shift+R) now work in the Android emulation mode.

Ren’Py now better reports errors in text tags that require a value but are not given one.

The new `_version` variable indicates the version of the game itself that was used when a new game is first created. This only stores the version at game creation - after that, it’s up to the creator to keep it updated.

The `Movie()` displayable now supports a new mode the color data and alpha mask data are placed side-by-side in the same file. This prevents issues where a main and mask movie could go out of sync.

The `FilePageNext()` and `FilePagePrevious()` functions now take arguments that control if the they can bring the player to the auto or quick save pages.

The new `config.skip_sounds` variables determines if Ren’Py will skip non-looping audio files that are played while Ren’Py is skipping.

### Translations

Ren’Py now has the ability to automatically detect the locale of the user’s system, and use it to set the language. Please see `config.enable_language_autodetect` and the Translation documentation for how this works.

The French, German, Korean, Russian, and Simplifed Chinese translations have been updated.

### Fixes

A Windows-specific bug that caused RTL (the support for languages like Arabic and Hebrew) to corrupt the second half of text strings has been fixed. This should prevent garbage characters from being displayed when rendering those languages.

Ren’Py will now report an error if a game accesses an image that does not exist, but has as a prefix an image that does exist. Before this change, if `eileen happy` exists and `eileen happy unknown` was shown, the additional attribute would be ignored.

Lint has been improved to deal with images that take attributes that are not in the image name, like layered images.

Ren’Py generates choice menu images that are suitable for use on the phone.

### Android Fixes

As Ren’Py’s new Android support only worked well on a 64-bit version of Java 8, we make that 64-bit requirement explicit.

## 7.1.1

### History Fix

This release fixes an issue with Ren’Py’s history screen. The problem occurred when a line of dialogue contained a quoted square bracket, so something like:

    "I [[think] I'm having a problem."

When this occurs, the string “I [think] I’m having a problem.” is added to the history. Ren’Py would then display that in history, substitute the `think` variable, and crash.

This is fixed by adding `substitute False` to the history screen. This is done to new projects, but for existing ones you’ll need to make the fix yourself. Here’s the new history screen:

    screen history():

        tag menu

        ## Avoid predicting this screen, as it can be very large.
        predict False

        use game_menu(_("History"), scroll=("vpgrid" if gui.history_height else "viewport"), yinitial=1.0):

            style_prefix "history"

            for h in _history_list:

                window:

                    ## This lays things out properly if history_height is None.
                    has fixed:
                        yfit True

                    if h.who:

                        label h.who:
                            style "history_name"
                            substitute False

                            ## Take the color of the who text from the Character, if set.
                            if "color" in h.who_args:
                                text_color h.who_args["color"]

                    $ what = renpy.filter_text_tags(h.what, allow=gui.history_allow_tags)
                    text what substitute False

            if not _history_list:
                label _("The dialogue history is empty.")

The new lines are the ones with `substitute False` on them. You’ll want to make this change to your history screen to prevent his problem from happening.

### Android Improvements

Ren’Py now sets the amount of memory used by the Android build tool to the Google-set default of 1536 megabytes. To change this, edit rapt/project/gradle.properties. To make sure you’re capable of building larger games, please make sure your computer has a 64-bit version of Java 8.

Ren’Py explicitly tells Android to pass the Enter key to an input.

Ren’Py now crops and sizes the icon correctly for versions of Android below Android 8 (Oreo).

Ren’Py gives a different numeric version number to the x86_64 apk. This will allow both x86_64 and armeabi-v7a builds to be uploaded to Google Play and other stores, rather than having to first created one build and then the other, manually changing the version numbers between.

### Other Improvements

Ren’Py now handles the (lack of) drawing of zero width characters itself, preventing such characters from appearing as squares in text if the font does not support the zero width character.

Ren’Py supports the use of non-breaking space and zero-width non-breaking space characters to prevent images in text from being wrapped.

Ren’Py supports the a new “nestled-close” value for the ctc_position parameter of `Character()`. This value prevents there from being a break between the click-to-continue indicator and the other lines.

Drags (in drag-and-drop) now support alternate clicks. (Right clicks on desktop and long-clicks on touch platforms.)

### Fixes

The `SetVariable()` and `ToggleVariable()` functions have been extended to accept namespaces and fields. So it’s now possible to have actions like `SetVariable("hero.strength", hero.strength + 1)` or `ToggleVariable("persistent.alternate_perspective")`.

Automatic management of the dialogue window (as enabled by the `window auto` statement) now considers if an in-game menu has a dialogue or caption associated with it, and handles that appropriately.

The source code to the embedded version of fribidi that Ren’Py is expected to build with is now included in the -source archive.

There have been a number of fixes to the voice sustain preference to make it work better with history and the voice replay action.

## 7.1

### Android

This release sees a major rewrite of Ren’Py’s support for Android to modernize it. This is required so Ren’Py games can be uploaded to the Google Play store. Some of these changes may require you to update a game’s files. Most notably, the format of icons has changed, so the icons will need to be redone.

The minimum version of Android that Ren’Py will run on has been raised to Android 19 (aka 4.4 KitKat), while it targets Android 28 (aka 9 Pie).

The x86_64 architecture has been added, while x86 has been dropped. (Some x86 devices may be able to run the arm platform version through binary translation layers.)

### Monologue Mode

It’s now possible to write multiple blocks of dialogue or narration at once, using triple-quoted strings. For example:

    e """
    This is one block of dialogue.

    And this is a second block.
    """

will create two blocks of dialogue. See Monologue Mode for more info.

There is also a new {clear} text tag that works with monologue. When the {clear} tag is part of a line by itself, it is the equivalent of the `nvl clear` statement. See NVL Monlologue Mode for more about this.

### Say-With-Attribute Change

There has been a change to the way a say-with-attributes is handled when there is not an image with the tag displaying. Previously, Ren’Py would use the attributes given in the most recent say-with-attributes statement to selected the side image to show.

Now, Ren’Py will use the provided attributes and existing attributes to resolve the side image. This makes a say-with-attributes that occurs when an image is not showing work the same way as when it is. When the attributes do not select a single side image, Ren’Py will select the image with all of the given attributes, and the most possible of the existing attributes.

The rationale for this change is to help with side images that are defined as layered images, where providing only the attributes that change makes sense.

### Updater Changes

The updater for Ren’Py itself now asks you to select the update channel each time you go to update. The purpose of this is to make it clear which channel you’re updating to each time you update, so you don’t accidentally update to a prerelease or nightly version after a release comes out.

As part of this, you might see the Prerelease channel missing for some updates. That’s normal – unlike in previous versions, the channel only appears when there are prereleases available.

### Translations

The Ren’Py launcher, template game, and The Question have been translated into the Latin script of Malay by Muhammad Nur Hidayat Yasuyoshi.

The Korean translation has been significantly updated.

It is now possible to translate the strings used by RAPT into non-English languages.

### Other

Ren’Py can now automatically save the game upon quit, in a reliable fashion. (As compared to the previous autosave, which could fail or be cycled out.) This is controlled by the `_quit_slot` variable.

File actions (like `FileSave()`, `FileLoad()`, and `FileAction()`) can now take a slot=True argument. When this is given, the action loads a named slot, without involving the page.

The developer menu (accessed through Shift+D) can now display a screen that shows the attributes associated with displayed and hidden images.

Added `renpy.transform_text()`, a function to transform text without touching text tags or interpolation.

Buttons created using the `make_buttons` method of a Gallery object now inherit from the empty style, and not button. This prevents properties from the button style from causing problems.

The code to finish displaying text is now called from the event method, as if the mouse button was clicked. This helps prevent interaction ends when menus are up.

Displayable prefixes are supported when evaluating auto images in imagebuttons and image maps.

A bug that caused an error in an NVL-mode statement if the next statement was an NVL-mode statement with an undefined character name has been fixed.

When two ATL transforms are nested, the state from both is propagated, not just the outermost.

Ren’Py now updates dynamic images that are used in windows, bars, and frames. (And derived displayables, like buttons and imagemaps.)

An issue that caused Ren’Py to consume 100% of a core when modal True was given has been fixed.

Ren’Py now includes a copy of fribidi, rather than requiring an OS-installed version.

The new `box_wrap_spacing` allows control of the spacing between rows or columns introduced by `box_wrap`.

The `adjust_spacing` style property can now take “horizontal” and “vertical” as values, causing text spacing to be adjusted in only the specified direction.

LayerdImageProxy can now take an interpolated string.

The new `config.context_callback` is called when starting the game or entering a new context, like a menu context. It can be used to stop voice or sounds from playing when entering that context.

The `Drag()` displayable (and the screen language equivalent, `drag`) have grown a new activated property. This is callback that is called when the user first clicks the mouse on a drag. (Before it starts moving.)

## 7.0

Ren’Py 7.0 marks the completion of over a decade of development since Ren’Py 6 that brought features like ATL, Screen Language, OpenGL and DirectX acceleration, support for the Android and iOS platforms, Translation, Accessibility, and so much more.

For releases between 6.0 and 7.0, see the other entries in this changelog, and the older changelog on the Ren’Py website. The rest of this entry contains the differences between 7.0 and 6.99.14.3.

### Layered Images

A layered image is a new way of defining images for use in Ren’Py. It’s intended to be used with a sprite that has been created in Photoshop or some other program as a series of layers. The layered image system can use the attributes the image was displayed with and Python conditions to determine what layers to display.

Layered images are intended to be a replacement for the use of `Composite()` and `ConditionSwitch()` to define layered images. It includes a language that makes defining such images simpler, and Ren’Py can generate portions of the definitions from appropriately named files. It also integrates better with the rest of Ren’Py, as attributes can be predicted in ways that a ConditionSwitch cannot, and layered images work with the interactive director.

### Dict Transitions

Dict Transitions makes it possible to use the with statement and certain other functions to apply transitions to one or more layers. Ren’Py will not pause for these transitions to occur. Dict transitions make it possible – and even convenient – to have a transition apply to the sprites alone while dialogue is being displayed.

### Changes

The old tutorial and old templates are no longer included with Ren’Py. They can still be used with new version of Ren’Py if copied into this or later versions.

The new `Scroll()` action makes it possible to have buttons that change the position of a viewport or the value of a bar.

The `Dissolve()`, `ImageDissolve()`, and `AlphaDissolve()` transitions now respect the alpha channels of their source displayables, as if given the `alpha=True` argument. As omitting the alpha channel is no longer an optimization, this change allows the same transitions to be used in more places.

Automatic image definitions now take place at init level 0, rather than an init level of greater than 999. This allows `renpy.has_image()` to be used in `init` blocks.

The interactive director now has a button that allows you to choose if it is displayed at the top or the bottom of the screen.

The screen language for statement now takes an index clause:

    for i index i.name in party:
        ...

When provided, it should return a unique value that can map information like button and transform state to the object it originates from.

There is now alternate ruby text, allowing two kinds of ruby text to be displayed at once (such as a translation and pronunciation guide).

The new displayable prefix system make it possible to define your own displayables that can be accessed using strings, the same way that images, image files, and solids have a string form.

Ren’Py now supports creating .zip files that have single files (such as .rpa files) that are larger than 2GB. As this requires the use of the Zip64 standard, unpacking such files may not be supported on some platforms, most notably Windows XP.

The new `renpy.get_hidden_tags()` function returns the set of tags that have attributes but or otherwise hidden, while the `renpy.get_showing_tags()` function can return a list of tags in sorted order.

Showing a movie sprite a second time will now replay the movie from the start, for consistency with ATL and other animations.

The documentation has received an editing pass, courtesy of Craig P. Donson.

### Translations

The Ren’Py tutorial and The Question now have French translations, thanks to Alexandre Tranchant.

The Japanese and Russian translations have been updated.

### Fixes

This fixes a regression that prevented screens from handling the hide or replaced events when the screen was not being shown. (This might be the case when the player is skipping through the game.)

An issue that caused the interactive director to be translated into Russian when the default (English) language was being used has been fixed.

The `Composite()`, `Crop()` and `Tile()` displayables are now actually available under their new names.

An issue that could cause Ren’Py to roll back to an incorrect place when accessing the console has been fixed. This could cause the console to display incorrect data, while in the console itself.

## Older Changelogs

The changelogs for some Ren’Py 6 versions can be found here, with older changelogs being found at:

> https://www.renpy.org/dl/6.10.2/CHANGELOG.txt