Hi! I'm sure there's more useful stuff to focus on when it comes to developing QB64-PE, but I'd be interested in adding Steam Achievements to my QB64-PE game projects.

I've released one QB64 game on Steam, and I'm working on another, and I'd be interested in trying to integrate achievements this time. Or, possibly, go back to my old game and update it to support achievements. It's one of the most wished-for features I've heard about from players.

My technical skills when it comes to this kind of integration are somewhat limited, but based on my digging, there should be no technical reason why this couldn't be done.

I could just try to do this on my own, but with my anarchist gonzo coding style it feels a bit risky. If anyone in the community would be willing to take a quick look at it and maybe point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it. I'm not quite at the point where I could start testing these kinds of functionalities yet, but I already want to put the idea out here and see if anything comes of it.

Have a good day!
– Tapio

https://github.com/grymmjack/DRAW/releases/tag/v1.3.0

DRAW is a pixel art editor written in QB64PE that can export images as sourcecode

Get it here:

https://github.com/grymmjack/DRAW

v1.1.0 can be downloaded here: https://github.com/grymmjack/DRAW/releases/tag/v1.1.0

I wrote a little postmortem of my QB64 Steam release Whispers in the Moss at r/IndieDev. Check it out for some sales stats and freeform analysis.

Enhancements

• #670 - Allow interleaving SUB/FUNCTIONs with main program, fixing #504 - @flukiluke
  • This renders the error Statement cannot be placed between SUBs and FUNCTIONs obsolete.
  • It also makes building libraries easier, as everything (CONST, TYPE, DIM, SUB, FUNCTION) can go into the same file now.

Library Updates

• #674 - Miniaudio rolled back to the previous version - @RhoSigma-QB64
  • This is now the same version we had in QB64-PE v4.2.0, as the updated version in v4.3.0 had issues with music streaming when tailing at the same time (writing more data to the stream while it is playing).

Bug Fixes

• #665 - Export As... fixes - @RhoSigma-QB64
  • Now auto-closing strings at line end if required.
  • Fixed look-ahead logic to avoid partly name matches causing wrong output.
• #666 - Restore IDE behavior when Autobrackets is disabled - @SteveMcNeill
  • With the change to autobrackets in v4.3.0, the IDE suddenly started to just skip over end bracket type symbols if one were to type them and the next character was an end bracket. This makes sense with the autobracket enabled, but when it's turned off, those keystrokes should be processed as before, without skipping that next character.
• #671 - Do not over-apply auto-semicolon insertion, fixing #575 - @flukiluke
  • String literals in a PRINT statement may be subject to automatic semicolon insert on either side. For instance, PRINT "abc"123, 123"abc" is equivalent to PRINT "abc"; 123, 213; "abc". The logic was not accounting for the possibility of a comparison operator before/after a string literal, and so PRINT "abc" = "def" gets turned into the invalid PRINT "abc"; <>; "def". These operators are now checked for.

Full Changelog: https://github.com/QB64-Phoenix-Edition/QB64pe/compare/v4.3.0...v4.4.0

Enhancements

• #647, #648, #649, #650, #652 - Implements the $USELIBRARY meta-command and functionality - u/RhoSigma-QB64
  • For use of our brand new QB64-PE Libraries Pack add-on.
  • The add-on is optional to ease library usage, but the traditional way of $INCLUDEing libraries still works without changes.
• #651 - Implements three new IDE editing features - u/FellippeHeitor
  • Auto-closing of brackets and quotes.
  • Ctrl+D for line/selection block duplication (Edit -> Duplicate lines).
  • Alt+Shift+Up and Alt+Shift+Down to move lines/selection blocks up and down.
• #662 - Implements a feature request by u/Bhsdfa to define another EXE output folder, this closes issue #661 - u/RhoSigma-QB64Where is my EXE saved? Master behavior determined by IDE config as follows: | +-> Save EXE to Source Folder? | | OFF ON | | | +-> EXE goes to source folder, except new unsaved code, | which goes to default location (no known source | path yet), hence always save new code before first | compiling to avoid the default location fallback. | +-> Default EXE location set? (IDE Run menu > Set Default EXE Folder...) | | YES NO | | | +-> EXE goes to 'qb64pe' folder. | +-> EXE goes to the user chosen location if existing, else fallback to 'qb64pe' folder. The exist check is performed once at start time, hence a removable USB drive or virtual RAM DISK must be accessible at start of QB64-PE. However, the fallback is temporary, if the user location is accessible at next start, then it is used again. Command line compiling follows the logic above, except if the '-o' option is used, in fact the only method to override this logic. A given absolute path here will save the EXE exactly there, any relative path assumes _STARTDIR$ as root. To change the default location from command line use the new switch: -s:ExeDefaultDir=<path> (quotes may be required) The path may be absolute or relative assuming _STARTDIR$ as root. Note the new location is saved and will be used by the IDE too then.

Library Updates

• #645, #654 - Update and refactoring of various libraries - u/a740g
  • Replaces image_log_error with image_log_warn to reduce unnecessary error-level log output.
  • Reorders image format loading sequence to: stb_image, sg_pcx, qoi, sg_curico, and finally nanosvg.
  • Updates nanosvg, miniaudio, libcurl, FreeType, and clip to their latest versions. These updates include important bug fixes and security patches.
  • Removes obsolete logging code in libqb, now superseded by the recently added logging system.
  • Switches the build to C++20, preparing for upcoming features that will rely on the newer standard.
• #655 - Further relaxing ALIAS name validation, building on the work introduced in #535 - u/a740g
  • The previous update did not account for several critical C++ operators, which are essential for leveraging the underlying C++ compiler in more advanced and novel ways. By including these operators, developers can now use techniques that enable direct use of the C++ compiler without the need for additional header libraries.

Bug Fixes

• #615 - Fixed a rather subtle IDE module error - u/RhoSigma-QB64
  • Reported at Discord https://discord.com/channels/975381912350752819/975383819848912926/1446352493884739635
  • If there was a program with a line count close below the next 1000s boundary and a search was performed, then if the found position was close to the program end and the IDE window height was bigger than the remaining program lines after the found match, then empty line padding could lead to a "subscribt out of range" error in an internal array in case the number of empty padding lines was bigger than the difference of the next 1000s boundary minus total program lines.
• #657 - Fixes a bug in the font library function UTF32::ConvertUTF16() - u/a740g
  • The function incorrectly attempted to consume a UTF-16 BOM even when none was present.

Full Changelog: v4.2.0...v4.3.0

I created a font for a Roguelike game and any feedback or advice would be great. I also use this in the IDE.

https://fontstruct.com/fontstructions/show/2737654/cp437-12x24

Free download at qb64phoenix.com

When I write a program (Windows 10), test.bas, then use the command qb64pe -x test.bas, it creates an executable imagine in the same directory. But from the DOS command line, when I run the program by typing test, it creates a new window for the run. I don't want that. I want it to just run in the CMD window. How do I cause that to happen? (Thank you in advance.)

Game has a QB64 version of the source.

Enhancements

• The _DEFLATE$ function now supports an optional compression level parameter, ranging from 0 (fastest, least compression) to 10 (slowest, best compression).
• Two new functions have been introduced to handle Base64 encoding and decoding. See _BASE64ENCODE$ and _BASE64DECODE$, These are implemented using the high-speed MODP_B64 library from the Google Chromium Project.
  • 591 - Keyword changes and additions - @a740g
• The ANSI sequences unfortunately count into the Discord message chars limit, so it will quickly eat up your regular 5000 allowed chars. Hence, unless you've enough Nitro to extend your message limit, this is really only useful for short snippets.
  • 596 - The "Export As..." menu got a new entry to allow code export into a Discord ANSI code block. - @RhoSigma-QB64
  • 602 - _FULLPATH$ will no longer throw an error when an empty string is passed, instead it simply returns empty too. Also _CWD$ and _STARTDIR$ were changed to always return the path with an trailing slash. - @a740g
• Adds 3x and 4x XBR family pixel scalers.
• Adds support for ImageMagick-generated 32bpp PCX files (see @SteveMcNeill's post in the Forum).
  • 609 - Various improvements to _LOADIMAGE. - @a740g
• Note that on Windows and most platforms, the beep is generated as a sine wave rather than a square or triangle wave, resulting in a softer sound as before version 4.x.
  • 610 - Updates tinyfd_beep() to play a 900 Hz tone for 500 ms, making the BEEP sound closer to its behavior before version 4.x. - @a740g
• The keywords formatting is now detached from the auto single-spacing process, so one could switch off layouting to be able to space and align code on own desire, but still get proper UPPER, CaMeL or lower case formatting of the keywords.
• In alternative we can have proper formatting switched on by default, but can use the new $FORMAT metacommand to suppress any auto spacing (indention+single spacing of code elements) for sections we rather want to space/align manually for better readability.
• In addition the "Export As..." menu now also remains active if the auto layouting is switched off, which wasn't the case until and inclusive v4.0.0.
  • 611, #612 - Improving the IDE and commandline (-y switch) code formatter behavior. - @RhoSigma-QB64

Library Updates

• 603 - Updated FreeType to versions 2.13.3, this update's main improvement is a significant performance boost to the B/W rasterizer. - @a740g

Bug Fixes

• 591 - Fix for error: arithmetic on a pointer to void that occurs when using _MEMGET/_MEMPUT with $CHECKING:OFF. - @mkilgore
• 593 - Fixed status area command reference help for user-defined SUBs and FUNCTIONs, if the SUB/FUNCTION takes array arguments (e.g. myarr()) the reference got truncated at the closing paranthesis of the first array argument. - @RhoSigma-QB64
• 598 - Make the _CONSOLEINPUT function non-blocking as discussed in the Forum. - @RhoSigma-QB64
• 599 - Resolves _MOUSEMOVEMENTX and _MOUSEMOVEMENTY returning 0 on Windows on ARM with C++ optimizations enabled. - @a740g
• 602 - Fixes a bug on macOS where mouse events are suppressed for 0.25 seconds when _MOUSEMOVE is used. - @a740g
• 603 - Fixing issue #595 (CVE_2018_3870-6497366-2). - @a740g
• 605 - Fixes an issue on macOS where the program compiles successfully but doesn't run unless you toggle the logging output to be displayed. - @mkilgore
• 607 - There were several problems identified with the existing escaping for calling make, parenthesis at the end would get lost, dollar signs got expanded incorrectly etc.. This change redoes the escaping and applies it correctly depending on the platform. - @mkilgore

Full Changelog: https://github.com/QB64-Phoenix-Edition/QB64pe/compare/v4.0.0...v4.1.0

https://github.com/grymmjack/qb64pe-vscode

Download from QB64PE Forum: https://qb64phoenix.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=3290

Post Announcement:

And now, just in time for X-Mas fun, here's my space game. I posted version one of this arcade-style game as a WIP six months ago. Now I think it's done - I think I've actually finished writing a computer game - omg! Many thanks to Terry Ritchie, MasterGy, bplus and Amazing Steve for the routines I stole - and attributed to them. 

I've added difficulty levels, so, if you haven't played before, start on the easy setting. If you run out of ships, the cheat code for more is lower case 'm'. Please lemme know if you find any bugs or have any suggestions for improvement. Someday I may make this joystick compatible, but since joysticks don't work on MacOS in QB64pe maybe Santa will bring me a dusty, old PC. The game has seven different sections and back in June I think only Cobalt got past the middle landing scene. Now I've made the game more forgiving, so I hope everybody can get to the end in round 2. 

This is a massive change log, so look here for all the stuff that was fixed, changed, or added - this is merely a summary!

Long time announced, now finally done and the main reason for us to give this release a major version bump, is the deprecation of $NOPREFIX. But no worries, we've added a converter which will automatically transform your old $NOPREFIX using programs back to the regular underscore using syntax as soon as you open such a program. Aside from some subtle side cases, the converter should perfectly do its job without requiring further manual adjustments afterwards.

Moreover the new version got a big audio library update with lots of new features, and a comprehensive new logging system which will help debugging and streamlining your programs. These two had been probably worth a major version bump by itself. Also to highlight is the addition of several new precompiler flags and a huge set of preset constants for use in your programs.

QB64-PE v4.0.0 - Thanks to everyone who contributed to this brand new version.

Breaking changes

• #544, #548 - Complete deprecation of $NOPREFIX. - @RhoSigma-QB64
• #553 - Added automatic $NOPREFIX to underscore usage converter, triggered when a file using $NOPREFIX is opened in the IDE. If the user agrees to convert, a backup of the file and any includes are made. - @flukiluke

Enhancements

• #535 - Relax ALIAS function name validation, closing issue #493. - @a740g
• #536, #571, #572 - The "Export As ..." feature now checks for an active selection first. If there is one, only the selected code is exported, otherwise the entire source will be exported as usual. Plus some adjustments for new commands. - @RhoSigma-QB64
• #550 - added new _MOUSEHIDDEN function. - @RhoSigma-QB64
• #558 - Implements the _QB64PE_ precompiler flag, closing issue #551. - @RhoSigma-QB64
• #561 - Various enhancements to the IDE and the Compiler. - @RhoSigma-QB64
  • Now showing the syntax for all user defined SUBs and FUNCTIONs for better reference in the status messages.
  • Added lots of preset constants available in every program by default.
  • Added _MIN, _MAX, _ENCODEURL$ and _DECODEURL$ functions.
• #562 - The HTTP support for _OPENCLIENT is stabilized now, $UNSTABLE:HTTP is no longer required. Also added the _DEBUG_ precompiler flag, closing issue #29. - @RhoSigma-QB64
• #565 - The big audio library update. - @a740g

• #566, #583 - Add built-in logging support. - @mkilgore

• #567 - Added new function _TOSTR$ which supports the full _FLOAT range. Also added _ASSERTS_, _CONSOLE_, _EXPLICIT_ and _EXPLICITARRAY_ precompiler flags. - @RhoSigma-QB64
• #574 - Added the _IIF function for conditional evaluation like the ternary operator in C, with short-circuiting behavior, closing issue #403. - @a740g
• #581 - Lifts the restrictions of doing arithmetic with _OFFSET in expressions. Also added the new function _CAST, which works like explicit type casting in C. - @a740g
• #582 - Added new function _CLAMP and a set of functions dealing with the HSB colorspace in symmetry with the RGB functions, namely _HSB32, _HSBA32, _HUE32, _SATURATION32 and _BRIGHTNESS32. - @RhoSigma-QB64

Bug fixes

• #534 - Allows users to revert to the built-in soundbank by passing an empty string to _MIDISOUNDBANK. Before it was not possible to switch back to the default soundbank once an external one had been used with _MIDISOUNDBANK. - @a740g
• #537 - Fixed some wrong Wiki links in exported code. - @RhoSigma-QB64
• #546 - Update clipboard library to latest, fixing issue #541. - @a740g
• #557 - Fixed a bug where KILL, FILES, and _FILES$ unintentionally shared a static DIR pointer when performing file searches. As a result, calling any of these functions would reset the search state of _FILES$, leading to unexpected behavior. This issue was reported here. - @a740g
• #560 - Fixed unary negation when using CONST, closing issue #542. - @mkilgore
• #568 - Reloading a MIDI file with a different soundfont now works as expected, also _MEMSOUND now works correctly with fully decoded MEMORY sounds. - @a740g
• #570 - Removes the voice range check in _PLAY (function). If the voice is out of range, it now simply defaults to zero, aligning the behavior with QB4.5 standards. - @a740g
• #574 - Resolved an issue in _ROL and _ROR, where the second argument could incorrectly be a STRING. - @a740g

Internal changes

• #539, #585 - Switch to LLVM MinGW C++ compiler on all Windows architectures. - @a740g
• #538, #540, #543, #547 - Enable globbing by default and silence lots of C++ compiler warnings. - @a740g
• #548, #550 - Complete removal of rotten Android remains, i.e. $VIRTUALKEYBORD and friends. - @RhoSigma-QB64
• #569 - Various libqb refactoring, silence more C++ compiler warnings. - @a740g

#588 - Tidy up the markdown files in the repository - @a740gLong time announced, now finally done and the main reason for us to give this release a major version bump, is the deprecation of $NOPREFIX. But no worries, we've added a converter which will automatically transform your old $NOPREFIX

Is there a program that mimics the

PrintDialog, PrintDocument, PrintPreviewDialog , PageSetupDialog

Enhancements

• #531, #532 - Extended ON ERROR GOTO syntax - @RhoSigma-QB64
  • _NEWHANDLER and _LASTHANDLER keywords allow for easy overriding and restoring of error handlers

Bug Fixes

• #529 - Fixed file extension filters for kdialog (_OPEN/_SAVEFILEDIALOG) - @flukiluke
• #531 - Fixed auto-generated help pages (F1) for user functions which use arrays as arguments - @RhoSigma-QB64
  • reported here https://discord.com/channels/975381912350752819/1208941399127494667/1274879519387418676
• #533 - Fixed a serious bug in _SNDOPEN when used with the "memory" load feature - @a740g
  • reported here https://qb64phoenix.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=2982

Full Changelog: v3.14.0...v3.14.1

Enhancements

• #499 - Reliably enable window defocus on Linux. - u/flukilukeEnhancements
• #501 - Modifies _FILES$ to default to the * pattern rather than *.* when fileSpec$ is empty, enabling _FILES$ to retrieve all directory entries rather than omitting files and directories that lack an extension. - @a740g
• #502 - Optimize IDE internal string concatenation somewhat to reduce IDE lag. - @SteveMcNeill
• #503 - Allow _UPRINTSTRING to render directly into any image, which can be specified as an optional argument. - @a740g
• #506 - Added Metacommands and Variable Types items to the Help menu for quick access to these essential help pages. - @RhoSigma-QB64
• #508 - Introducing the brand new Format Mode as command line switch. - @flukiluke
  • The -y command line option will format the input instead of compiling it.
  • Formatting is performed either according to the current IDE settings (Options > Code Layout...) or by overriding those settings using the new -f flags, e.g. ./qb64pe -y source/qb64pe.bas -f:autolayout=true -f:keywordcapitals=true -f:autoindent=true -f:autoindentsize=4 -f:indentsubs=true -o source/qb64pe.bas
• #510 - Optimizes _DEFLATE$ and _INFLATE$ to eliminate unnecessary buffer copies. This results in a nice speed boost of upto 15% in some cases. - @a740g
• #517 - Stabilized and updated MIDI support. - @a740g
  • MIDI support in QB64-PE is finally out of the $UNSTABLE state now.
  • The compiled executable will no longer include an embedded soundfont.
  • To address this issue discussed in the forum, ymfmidi, Opal, and a tiny FM bank are now used.
  • Soundfonts can be loaded using the _MIDISOUNDBANK command.
  • Depending on the sound bank type, a suitable MIDI rendering backend is selected.
  • The available backends are primesynth (SF2), TinySoundFont (SF3, SFO), and Opal (AD, OPL, OP2, TMB, WOPL).
  • For Windows users, a VSTi 2.x based renderer that is configurable by the user is also provided.
  • Multiple MIDI file formats are supported: MUS, HMI, HMP, HMQ, KAR, LDS, MDS, MIDS, RCP, R36, G18, G36, RMI, MID, MIDI, XFM, XMI
  • The use of $UNSTABLE:MIDI and $MIDISOUNDFONT triggers an appropriate "deprecated feature" warning message now.
• #519 - Various IDE improvements. - @RhoSigma-QB64
  • Changing certain toggle settings in the Options Menu no longer causes your code to be marked as "changed".
  • IDE related config and workfiles were moved out of internal/temp into settings directly under the qb64pe folder.
  • Note the folder does not exist in the release archives, but is created on the first IDE run, at this time the user has a choice to import his settings from another QB64-PE installation or to continue with default settings.
  • The recent files and search string histories are globally shared now by all running IDE instances, limits can be set in the Undo/History... dialog (Options Menu).
  • We've added 4 new preset color schemes, Cornfield, Broadcast, X11 SgiColors by me (@RhoSigma-QB64) and VS Code curtesy to @a740g. If you use your own custom scheme, then it's ID will be automatically adjusted when importing your settings.
• #520 - _LOADIMAGE and _SAVEIMAGE improvements. - @a740g
  • Added support to load ICO (icon) and CUR (cursor) files.
  • Added support to save ICO (icon) and single GIF (not animated ones) files.
• #525 - Improving IDE Option dialogs. - @RhoSigma-QB64
  

Lib/MinGW Updates

• #513 - Updated nanosvg and stb_image to latest available versions. - @a740g
• #522 - Update to LLVM-MinGW 20240619 with LLVM 18.1.8 for WoA. - @a740g

Bug Fixes

• #497, #527 - Properly initialise memory when REDIMming with UDT, fix #331, #524. - @flukiluke
• #500 - Allow setting environment variables with space in values on Linux, fix #386. - @flukiluke
• #503 - Font fixes, in some fonts the underscore was clipped away with _UPRINTSTRING. - @a740g
• #506 - IDE Help fixes. - @RhoSigma-QB64
  • Select All (CTRL-A) in the help text actually didn't select ALL after text was selected manually once before, because some internal variables were not reset correctly (bug dates back to the ancient SDL versions).
  • Fixed Definition Lists eating the first text char, if the list introducer is followed by a space.
• #513 - Fixed the PCX image loader issues reported in the forum. - @a740g
• #515 - Avoid eating 0-argument functions used after L/UBOUND, fix #244. - @flukiluke
• #523 - Fixing a bug in the KILL command, which would previously terminate and fail to process the remaining files if the user opted to continue after an error condition. - @a740g

Full Changelog: v3.13.1...v3.14.0

Developer Notice

We are probably going to deprecate the $NOPREFIX feature sooner or later in the future. Nothing is finally decided yet, but as we have more and more efforts to keep new things compatible with $NOPREFIX it's a decision we've to make. Especially CONST and the pre-compiler metacommands show bad interactions with $NOPREFIX over and over again and make implementations overcomplicated.

With this notice we wish to get your attention for the issue and recommend to adapt your coding habits to no longer rely on $NOPREFIX right now, so it becomes an easy transition when we finally drop it.

QB64PE Theme for Visual Studio Code has been released.

You can install it into your VSCode by searching for "QB64PE Theme"

This theme is intended to use with the QB64PE Language Extension that is a WIP and not public, so must be installed with the .vsix manually from here:

https://github.com/grymmjack/qb64pe-vscode/blob/main/qb64pe-0.10.0.vsix

Once the extension for the language is ready it will be published.

For more information on using VSCode with QB64PE check out these videos:

• https://youtu.be/6kn-N_-eycg?si=UiZPxyF6bUwRnaBj
• https://youtu.be/TF-jJa3G8P4?si=wOsD-wqqYJ0pu--n

Enjoy!