PlatinumQuest 2.12.0 Update Notes

Greetings, marblers, blasters, and platinumers alike! This may or may not become a regular occurrence with every update, but, today, I'd like to start something new from the dev side of things. These "Update Notes" posts will essentially just be a longer, more detailed version of the patch notes you'll see in the launcher and the #announcements channel on Discord. This both allows for the patch notes to be shorter and more concise, while still sharing all the desired information with those outside the development sphere, and to be more specific with some notes that may have been more vague to save space. We can even credit each individual contributor who worked on additions to this update! Big or small, everyone gets credited. Finally, some of these patch notes might have some additional comments or reasoning from the developers, so you can see our insight behind some of these changes! In addition to keeping the community informed, hopefully these posts will also do good to catalogue these changes and their reasoning for future historians to look back upon with ease. Some of you who are a fan of perpetuating the endless war and bloodshed between chimps and blimps might recognize the style I'm going for here.

One other additional note to start things off: There are a small handful of notable changes that have not been included in 2.12.0, in order to get this update out before the Winter Warm-Up event on Saturday. However, these changes should be coming soon, in the form of an update 2.12.1, perhaps alongside some other additions. These important points include:

• Official multiplayer Gem Hunt levels will have the capability to have different layouts depending on whether Competitive Mode is enabled or not
• The newly added (and newly Bonus-ed) multiplayer levels will be better integrated into the level list. Currently, they're all just tacked onto the end of their respective difficulties

Spoilers for later, but, currently, all of the new "competitive" versions of maps that have been made thus far entirely replace the original levels on the level select. Once the ability for Competitive Mode to change these layouts is finalized, the original versions of each of these levels will be restored as the non-competitive version for each. A couple things just need to be spruced up with this system before we ship it out for real, in order for this to involve as little duplicate code (i.e. completely separate mission files for the different versions) and to keep as simple to read and modify as possible. This functionality will probably work for custom levels as well if creators emulate our system, but any specific support for it in the editor's GUIs and such will be for another time.

Edit: Many (but not all) of the changes listed here attributed to Jaxx may also be 2.12.1 additions instead. There was some confusion about which of the changes to be added to the final build, and I thought we had come to a conclusion on that front, but I suppose not. Look forward to some of his contributions in the next update!

Finally, though, without any further delay... Let's move on to this update's
HIGHLIGHTS

• PlatinumQuest now has a native build for Linux! [RandomityGuy]

At long last, users who don't wish to subject themselves to thousands of running background programs, or... MacOS as a whole... can be invited to jump in on the marble blasting fun as well! No more need for fussing with WINE, and way more triple digit framerates! If you're an avid Linux fan looking to play the game, you can download the new Linux launcher  right here .

• Objects attached to PathNode paths now have vastly improved physics applied to the marble. [RandomityGuy]

If you're hoping that means what I hope you hope that means, then you're right! I hope. Rotating platforms are fixed! And scaling ones too! PlatinumQuest's original roster of levels saw many tribulations and cancelled ideas due to the original implementation of these platforms' physics. But, now, level creators' wildest dreams can come true! Now we just need a Soccer gamemode, and we'll completely usurp Marble It Up once and for all, muahahahaha...

•  The level editor has been updated with visuals and features from the editors of newer versions of Torque. [RandomityGuy]
  • The scene tree (you know, that list of every object in the top right corner) now features icons for different types of items.
  • The scene tree also now allows for moving objects around within it, including moving them in and out of SimGroups at your leisure.
  • The windows for opening and saving mission files now feature a directory tree to allow scrolling through, expanding, and collapsing folders, rather than just providing one big list of every mission file in the game.
• More faithful Marble Blast Ultra graphics! [RandomityGuy]
  • Firstly, many MBU shapes now have more graphical effects applied to them, in order to more closely reflect their original appearances from MBU.
    • After a little over a year, bloom has returned to objects such as Gravity Modifiers, Ultra Blasts, bumpers, and checkpoints!
    • A new type of shine has been applied to objects like Time Travels and fans, to make them reflect the light a bit differently.
    • Certain objects such as Time Travels warp the background behind them a bit when you look through their glass, just like the original game
    • and even more! Go take a look at the new and improved MBU for yourself!
  • When finishing a level using a Marble Blast Ultra finish pad, the movements of the marble and the camera will now match Marble Blast Ultra's finish animation for these levels as well!
  • In every game style, the marble will now appear to more smoothly grow and shrink when using a Mega Marble. This animation is purely cosmetic.

In addition to all of this, a good number of changes have been made to the Marble Blast Ultra UI texture pack as well. We'll be getting to that later!

• Finally, the annual round of additions and adjustments to multiplayer Gem Hunt is here! [Jean & ShadowVisions]
  • 5 brand new custom levels have been added to the official Gem Hunt map pool on the leaderboards!
    • Fractured Islands by Connie
    • Narrows by Endy
    • Foundry by Endy
    • Stingbee Valley by Frostfire
    • Galactic Islands by Frostfire
  • Several levels have been moved to the Bonus category.
  • Many levels have had their objects moved and replaced, their durations adjusted, and their gem values altered in order to finely tune them for the benefit of competitive play.

For more information on the specifics of these changes, check out this forum post here by ShadowVisions. Seriously, if I covered everything here, this forum post would be thrice as long as it's already going to be. Plus, SV and Jean have much more insight into the inner workings of competitive Hunt than I do. So go check it out!

Now, these are what we'd consider the biggest points from this update, but there's still plenty more to go over! Almost a year of accumulated changes have gone into this big update, so don't stop reading! It's time for this update's plentiful
OTHER ADDITIONS

• Added fan-made Marble Blast Ultra-styled models for the Super Bounce and Shock Absorber [NeoTheLynx, Human Gamer, Jaxx]

More specifically, the Super Bounce model is a fairly recent, fully custom one created by NeoTheLynx, the Shock Absorber model is a much older one created by Human Gamer by reskinning Marble Blast Gold's model for the old MBU PC Port, and Jaxx implemented both of these models into PlatinumQuest as separate shapes, with all of the PowerUps' functions.

• Re-added missing colors for Marble Blast Ultra's gems [Jaxx]

These models were already in the game previously, but were removed during the huge multiplayer revert soon after the game went open source. However, there's no reason not to add these gems back into the game, even if their applications are quite niche. So here they are! (And, yes, the turquoise gem on Mogul now uses the new MBU model as well)

• Added an alert when attempting to go to the next level while it is still locked [Yoshicraft224]

I myself encountered this issue a number of times during my original playthrough of PlatinumQuest back when it released in 2017. Now, more recently, after watching some friends try the game out for the first time, I've seen this issue crop up even more. So, I decided to use my ultimate super special developer powers to finally put a stop to it. Previously, if you clicked the Next button on the end screen, and the level immediately after the one you just finished was still locked, the game would just skip to the next level you were able to play. This led to a lot of unwitting skipping of levels that players might prefer to go and unlock first to continue playing in order. Now, if the game sees that the next level is locked, it will notify you of this, and give you the option to either return to the level select, or continue on to the next available level as before.

• In Server Settings, the server's address is now hidden until a button is pressed to show it [Yoshicraft224]

The fact that this wasn't already a thing is honestly a bit concerning. But, now, you can finally sleep easy knowing you haven't accidentally leaked a server IP by streaming or recording it for everyone to see. And, just to be extra sure, you'll need to click this new button on the Server Settings screen twice in order to reveal the hidden text.

• More additions and adjustments to Discord Rich Presence [Yoshicraft224]
  • Replaced "Campaign" with "Singleplayer" when playing official levels in singleplayer
  • Messages for Co-op now follow a similar style to their singleplayer counterparts
  • Leaderboards-integrated custom levels now display which pack they're included in
  • Applicable multiplayer modes now show a different message when teams are enabled
  • "In the Level Editor" while the level editor is open is now replaced by "Editing Level" while in a level that the editor has been opened in
  • "Testing a Custom Level" and "Playing from Marbleland" have both been replaced with "Custom Level by [Author]" when playing custom levels

"Campaign" was always a slightly weird word to use to describe that area of the game, but it seemed like the best option anyone could come up with at the time. However, just saying "Marble Blast Platinum Singleplayer" to describe someone playing Marble Blast Platinum's official levels works perfectly fine, and fits with the rest of Marble Blast's established language much more cleanly.

The previous system of constantly switching between "In the Level Editor" and "Testing a Custom Level" while editing is just a holdover from the original implementation of Discord Rich Presence back when it was first added. However, it makes more sense to distinguish between "editor has been opened" and not than it does to distinguish between "editor is currently open" and not. Plus, this now also leaves room for making all custom levels say "Custom Level by [Author]" instead whenever they're being played regularly, instead of only ever claiming that a user is testing a level when playing one locally.

Which, speaking of... there's also very little reason to distinguish between playing a custom level locally vs. through Marbleland anyway. Which paves the way for including the custom level's author in the description of the level here, to give more context for exactly which custom someone is playing. This all just so happened to work out quite well, I'd say.

• Many texture and audio pack adjustments [Jaxx]
  • All texture packs with "Timer" in the name are now renamed to more accurately use "UI" instead
  • Fixed several texture packs not showing a padlock over the PowerUp box when PowerUp usage was locked
  • In the Marble Blast Gold audio pack, Blast now uses its sound from Marble Blast Ultra, and cannons firing now reuses the same sound as mines exploding
  • When using the Marble Blast Ultra UI texture pack, help text and the blast meter will now more closely resemble their appearance from that game
  • The Marble Blast Platinum audio pack now uses sounds from version 1.50, which were edited to remove a noticeable noise floor present in many of them
  • When using the MBG Xbox Shaders texture pack, Marble Blast Gold-styled arrow signs will now use their appearance from the XBOX port

These "timer" packs started back when PQ released in order to allow people to switch back to the "classic" MBP timer if they wished. However, over time, these packs grew to convert more and more of the HUD during gameplay, until most of them grew to be full conversions of PlayGUI. So, the name "Marble Blast Platinum UI" explains what the pack is much better than "Marble Blast Platinum Timer" does, or especially "Classic Timer".

While MBU Blast is obviously not an MBG sound, and the mine explosion sound effect would fit perfectly fine, it seems important to distinguish between Blast and other explosive sounds from a gameplay standpoint. But then... why not just keep PQ's Blast sound effect there like it already was? Well, MBU's Blast is definitely more "classic MB", and, going off of some things like Marble Blast XP, GarageGames probably would've done the same if Blast were ever added to some sort of Marble Blast Gold re-release in some fashion as well. If they didn't want to shell out the budget for a new Blast sound, at least.

The new Marble Blast Ultra-styled Blast meter doesn't look exactly like the original did, but Jaxx still did a fantastic job recreating Marble Blast Ultra's look through texture changes alone, and you honestly wouldn't even know the difference if you weren't intimately familiar with the specifics of MBU's appearance. Plus, you'll still by more distracted be the PowerUp inventory being waaaaay too small anyway. Especially now that I've pointed it out to you >:)c

These last two points are a bit debatable, and we're certainly open to feedback on these. Not that we're closed to feedback on everything else, but... you get what I'm saying. The old noise floors are definitely a part of MBP's identity (for better or for worse), but a lot would also argue that these newer sounds are definitely much nicer. As for the MBG Xbox Shaders pack, the arrow signs definitely lose a lot of MBG's identity and style. But it would fit in with what the pack is aiming to do, being to recreate MBG XBOX's look. But, there's probably a reason it was excluded from the original addition of this texture pack, and I don't think it was just ignorance. Don't be afraid to let us know what you think!

• In addition to the above changes, audio packs now have the capability to change the names that the game gives to PowerUps [Connie]
  • And, of course, this means that all of Marble Blast Platinum's old PowerUp names have been restored while using the Marble Blast Platinum audio pack
• Added new colored gem beams for gem colors that were previously missing them [Jaxx]
• Saving Vice runs with similar names to other saved runs will now provide an in-game option to overwrite them, instead of blocking the save entirely [Yoshicraft224]

Sheesh. This post is getting long. I suppose that's what happens when the game hasn't been updated for almost a year. But, we're nearing the end now! And this part won't have as many comments to make, either, so it'll go by much faster. It's the home stretch, comprising the part where we list out all the
BUG FIXES

• Fixed a steady performance loss caused by loading many different levels over the course of a play session [RandomityGuy]
• Fixed the Watch Top Replay feature... just not working at all [RandomityGuy]
• Pressing "Next" on the end screen in Co-op should now correctly load the next level [Yoshicraft224]
• Fixed being able to finish laps while Out of Bounds [RandomityGuy]
• Fixed Fire Blast and cannon exiting triggering when the input was released. No more half E presses! [Yoshicraft224]
• Fixed replays breaking when the marble exits a cannon in some cases (These cases are just when the release of the Blast button was used to exit the cannon, which no longer happens anyway, but... Shhhhh... Still funny that this just... wouldn't get recorded in replays, though, lol) [Yoshicraft224]
• Fixed Discord Rich Presence labeling Director's Cut as "Leaderboards Custom" while logged in [Yoshicraft224]
• Fixed all audio playing in lower quality on MacOS. Yeah, this bombshell is just sitting in the middle of the bug fixes all unassuming-like. [RandomityGuy]
• Fixed rendering spazzing out when a large number of objects were being displayed. Welcome back, Collection Citadel and Frightfest Promontory. [RandomityGuy]
• Fixed many cases where jumping and bouncing sounds would not play while watching a replay. Many cases have been resolved, but fully fixing this bug will require a full rewrite of the recording and replay system. .rrrec, anyone? [RandomityGuy]
• Fixed clouds rendering in front of certain shapes that they're not supposed to. Yes, this means gem beams, and yes, this means those weird cloud sphere shapes from MBP 1.50. [RandomityGuy]
• Fixed pause sound effects playing when attempting to pause in certain menus that don't allow pausing. Because I'm smart, I originally tied the sound playing to pressing the pause button rather than the pause menu coming up. But, I know more about how Torque handles GUIs now, so I can do this nicely  [Yoshicraft224]
• Fixed the game freezing for far longer than necessary when first opening any menu that pulls levels from Marbleland [RandomityGuy]
• Fixed significant lag when the marble is near many small, detailed objects. Was this caused by collision checks? Was this caused by rendering? Trick question. It was the marble's shadow for some reason. [RandomityGuy]
• Fixed several areas on Lost Islands where the marble could enter the foreground. Yes, this is right after the first cannon. While this technically affects the World Record, it seemed like everyone was asking for it. And we agree. So we delivered. Don't worry, though, Dangerous Development is staying how it is. [Yoshicraft224]
• Fixed the cursor constantly teleporting to the start of the entry field when attempting to name a saved run on Vice. RTA runners rejoice. [Yoshicraft224]
• Fixed the teleporter to the Easter Egg being broken on Gravity Swap [Jaxx]
• Fixed some moving platforms not appearing on Great Divide - Pass It Yourself Revisited. We are, like, 99.9% sure this won't affect the World Record at all. [Malaren]
• Fixed decorative marbles not appearing on Moving Platform Master Course [Malaren]
• Fixed two gems on Cragmire being set not to spin. This could have been argued to be an artistic choice given their locations (the two yellows next to those little rails of trim), which is why I didn't change it originally when adding this level to the game. However, I don't think anyone would actually disagree with changing this. [Jaxx]
• Fixed a misplaced Gyrocopter on the multiplayer Gem Hunt version of Citadel. This one is in the blue section, directly up the largest hill closest to the closest teleporter. [Malaren]
• Fixed some untextured areas on Good to be King. This is all on the super secret floating island you might not even know about. [Jaxx]
• Fixed King of the Rink missing the standard Winterfest clouds. My bad [Jaxx]

I'm surprised to see MB modding and reverse-engineering go so far in recent years. I had been under the impression the community was slowly dying out. It sounds like PQ is becoming the universal MB platform.

I'm glad PlatinumQuest has native Linux support now but I hate the new level editor. I can't tell which items and static shapes are which without clicking on them anymore and most of the keybindings will not work much of the time. I'll try pressing F3 to switch over to the world editor inspector or the arrow keys to rotate and nothing happens.

Thanks for reporting, what you mentioned are actually bugs and definitely not intended, and will be fixed in the next update. For keybindings not working, i think it's because the focus gets changed to the tree view and not the editor as a whole, so try clicking anywhere else on the 3d scene to change the focus back.

Okay.

If I click on the tree view at all and then I try to rotate the camera using the arrow keys even after clicking anywhere on the 3D scene, it still focuses on the tree view so up, down, and left don't work.

I also noticed pressing CTRL+S to save doesn't work at all after deleting items, and if I click on "Save Mission As", the game crashes.

After opening the file menu the WASD keys to move the camera don't work anymore, but if I click on any item in the tree menu it works again.

I haven't figured out what caused F3 not to work.

Nevermind, I figured it out. Whenever I create a new item (tested with a trigger), F3 and F11 stop working. There might be other bugs. I hope these get fixed soon.