News round-up - Spring Edition

[jhxp]

The next release of our flagship mod - Multi Theft Auto: San Andreas 1.1 - is shaping up nicely with lots of work put by our developers.

Here is the summary of what happened since the last progress update:

MTA:SA code changes:

• new main menu*:
  
  • added new default GUI template
    
  • added news headlines - also available in 1.0.5
    
  • added support for custom GUI skins

  [*]new server browser*

  [*]support for unicode text - ingame and in scripts. You might have to convert the encoding in your current 1.0 scripts to 1.1 to UTF-8 BOM.

  [*]performance improvements:

  • MTASA client start up and loading times were drastically reduced (comparison available) *
    
  • improved average fps and increased glitchless fps limit from 46 to 70 - also available in 1.0.5+

  [*]new features:

  • added a possibility to change antialiasing and mipmapping setting within MTASA
    
  • Aero fix for Windows Vista/7 users - if you are bothered with the forced change of your Windows Aero scheme to Windows Basic everytime you launch MTASA, you can use an option in MTASA settings to make it stick with the Aero scheme
    
  • random player name generator - this feature picks a randomly generated player nickname upon your first MTASA 1.1 install, which should prevent people from having the same default nickname (and maybe encourage them to actually change it )

  [*]various changes in linux server compilation schemes

General news*:

• international subforums - launched last December
  
• over 1200 members in our Steam Group ( http://steamcommunity.com/groups/mta )
  
• over 120000 unique MTASA players in April
  
• new player record - 4172 concurrent players on: 2011 May Sun 1st 17:00 UTC

If you would like to find out more about the points marked with a star ( * ), please watch the video below (HD version available!):

Until the next update.

[dannyboi58]

Very nice update nice job Dev

[Delta007]

Wow Nice Good job

[Castillo]

Very nice job, keep up the good work.

P.S: Many ppl would love to see the Player DFF replacement

[SnoopCat]

wowowowow NICEEE this mta will support mta 1.0.* servers?

[Castillo]

No, this will be like DP2, when it get's released, you should update your server.

[Towncivilian]

\o/

[diegofkda]

Exelent! I now can see how 1.0.5 upgraded FPS average! Can't wait for 1.1!!!

By the way, call me "ignorant" if you want but what about UTF-8 BOM.? I didn't understand that part ^^

[Xierra]

Wow, MTA SA gets more popular now. Come on SA-MP players, look!

That new features, like the new server browser was great! It's much larger and better now.

But there are some questions I need to ask:

- Where's the "Quick Connect" option?

- Where's the search players edit box?

- Will there be an option to disable the quick loading option? I want it to be able to set outside and inside the game so I can fix it in case I can't launch MTA SA.

[Arran]

I'm just hoping that the bandwidth and CPU issues with 100+ players is fixed for 1.1 so we can have servers which can actually hold 128+ players.

[Einheit-101]

What about fixing the Custom model Stream issues which drop your Performance like hell in MTA?

And i hope that the Heat-Seeking missiles will be fixed this time because you can not avoid them, they hit everytime.

[GodFather]

Great video. Keep up the good work! I can't wait for 1.1!!

[darkdreamingdan]

Exelent! I now can see how 1.0.5 upgraded FPS average! Can't wait for 1.1!!!

By the way, call me "ignorant" if you want but what about UTF-8 BOM.? I didn't understand that part ^^

Scripts that contain non-english langauges need to be resaved in Unicode mode as part of the new unicode text support. This means proper internationalisation that is viewable for all users (meaning e.g. Arabic players joining Russian servers can read their text properly).

Almost all editors support saving in UTF-8 mode, so it should be fairly simple for scripters to do. English scripts are unaffected.

Wow, MTA SA gets more popular now. Come on SA-MP players, look!

That new features, like the new server browser was great! It's much larger and better now.

But there are some questions I need to ask:

- Where's the "Quick Connect" option?

- Where's the search players edit box?

- Will there be an option to disable the quick loading option? I want it to be able to set outside and inside the game so I can fix it in case I can't launch MTA SA.

1) Quick connect has been removed. This decision is not final, but the new server browser's address bar now facilitates the functions of quick connect. You can use the dropdown to find a history of all the servers you quick connected to.

2) There is now a dropdown just next to the search box to choose between searching for players and searching for server names, similar to a Firefox/IE/Safari search bar to save drawing space

3) No, i'm not really sure what you mean or why you'd want to do this. The quick loading option doesnt load the GTASA game on boot, it loads it on first connect as before - it's just much faster. It won't affect the launch of MTASA.

wowowowow NICEEE this mta will support mta 1.0.* servers?

The 1.1 server browser will display servers from 1.0.x, and upon connect will automatically launch 1.0.x for you. It doesn't support 1.0.x servers by itself however.

[SnoopCat]

but we will be able to use same resourses as 1.0.X?

[eAi]

but we will be able to use same resourses as 1.0.X?

It depends, some functions have been changed in 1.1, but for the most part they'll probably work or just require some minor fixes.

The wiki details changed functions.

[Xierra]

So that means the little dropdown beside the search edit box is the filter option eh?

Yeah, I was thinking at first if the server browser is somewhat familiar with either of the three popular browsers (IE, Firefox, Safari), you did designed it that way, did you?

Well, I'll get 1.1 as soon I get my new PC!

MTA SA now owns even more, the quality feels like an official multiplayer mod by now. (To me, of course)

[MahaZ]

I support the idea of quick connect as in some cases, the server browser doesn't load all servers and in some cases it doesnt load the server that you actually need to join therefore quick connect would be handy in these cases.

Despite this, you guys are doing a great job and I hope you continue this effort.

[Faw[Ful]]

If I turn off vertical sync on my video card, I get the same loading speed in MTA 1.0.5

Good work there !

[diegofkda]

Ye I downloaded last 1.1 and it was awesome, 1000 times faster than 1.0.*.

The GUI was amazing, but there should be a MTA Theme Selector: not only GUI, too BackGrounds, menu fonts, etc... it would be amazing.

¡¡¡¡¡Keep the good work!!!!!!

[SK_Styla]

It´s really nice i have downloaded the new version,

but at Switching the theme from default to classic i become a crash.

But rly nice work.

[jhxp]

Yes R3al1ty, I have noticed that too. The setting gets saved however, so once MTA restarts it will load a theme you have selected.

[Jason_Gregory]

but we will be able to use same resourses as 1.0.X?

It depends, some functions have been changed in 1.1, but for the most part they'll probably work or just require some minor fixes.

The wiki details changed functions.

so the parser is going to inform us (mtaserver shell), if he finds expired functions

and does the upgrade command works for 1.X clientside functions as well ?

gz and nice job

[J.S.]

I've noticed there's alot more lag in one of the mid-April nightlies. Has this been fixed at all?

[_______]

The quick connect has not been removed.

It's the top bar in the server browser, just enter the address, and hit the arrow.

[Timic]

Nice job! Keep it up!