The move from 4.0 to 5.0 went quicker than expected, so I'm happy to anounce the release of Allegro 5.0!

What's new:
- New API
- Multiscreen/Multiwindow support
- DirectX 9 drivers
- Video playback and encoding
- Merge of FBlend, AllegroGL, DUMB, JGMOD, libnet, GNE, ppcol, AllegroMP3, AllegPeg and PMask.
- Speech synthesis/recognition
- Removed duplicate API entries (no more masked_blit nor draw_sprite or equivalent)
- DOS port was removed due to lack of support for new DirectX 9 drivers
- 4D graphics
- Ports to the X-Box and GameCube.
- PHP support
- Hardware accelerated mind control
- We're better than SDL now.
- New distribution format. To save space, we're using LZip compression. zip and tar.gz formats should follow shortly.

You can download it right here:
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/alleg/all50.lzip

Edit: posted new feature list.

How well does the X-Box port work? Did Shawn contribute to this or something.

No DOS support is a bummer though...

For some reason this new compression type doesn't work for me! Will someone please release a zip version too?

Yeah, Shawn dropped by and merged in his X-Box port that he was building the whole time.

About the compression, we know of some issues with the decompression program. Hopefully those will be resolved soon so we can fully use LZip.

Chris: You're not extracting it properly. You need to use Kazaa, or else it'll conflict with c:\pr0n and BonziBuddy. There was a feedback doc in this somewhere, but I lost it.

My pr0n folder is on my drive D (my C drive is too small...) Does this matter?

But I want Bonzi, because that is going to be my next avator. Good guess , btw.

Chris: Well, DUH. There's no 'D' in Allegro, of COURSE it won't work. And Bonzi is already too hairy to get a beard. God, he looks like the offspring of Chewbacca and the teletubbies on speed.

This is confusing. I was using mIRC to create the archive...

I thought it wasn't done till the summer? But that's cool! Is Shawn breaking contract by making an x-box port?

I can't get lzip to work. Can someone explain it to me.

lzip stole my idea! but my lossy compression works better, you just have to know how to use it Chris.

its a cool concept and i glad to see allegro supports it now.

Chris: Hm. If IRC, there was a bug in Pr0nloader that made it download teletubby pr0n all the time, thus effectively breaking down Bonzi.

The new version is quite cool.
I'm using a multi node quicktime as the menu for my current game right now, which is pretty cool, since you can now script your menus...

There seems to be a problem with the sound after using al_video_play_overlay(). After playing a short MPEG, I get some strange distortions with in game audio.

But this is just nitpicking. It's great work, and the project converter works like a breeze. After some small manual code adjustments, everything worked like a charm.
It's cool that FLI/FLCs are auto converted to MPEG2 if lame is installed.

The speech API seems not to work correctly. Do I have to install some other packages first?

4d gfx.. hm. While I think it's a cool name, it's a bit misleading. If I understand it correctly it's "just" a bone system which allows for time based modifiers. (Not sure here, I just run the demo...)

Nice work.

Well, for 4d graphics, you tend to lose a lot of the effect, since you're projecting them back into a 2D display. However, with the advent of 3D displays, 4D graphics technology will be developing. Since Allegro already supports 4D graphics, this makes it the library of choice for developing the first and best 4D games.

I dont have linux! Im running windowze, so can somebody actually make a zip file for me? Is this file an update from 4.01 to 5? If not, lzip must be hell of a compression algorithm!

Just me? or the instructions for lzip a little lacking. Someone, for THE LOVE OF GOD give me a little help here.

Either that or give me a zip. (I've had an allegro craving since the api proposal, and It must be filled!)

P.S. i hope this aint an april fools joke.

This better not be a joke, im getting really desperate to try the new allegro! SOMEBODY PLEASE MAKE A ZIP VERSION OF IT!!!!!

What EXACTLY is 4D? Width, Height, Depth... What else IS there!?

Looking at previous posts I don't see that this can be April foos.

I was sure the instructions for un-lzipping were in the LZip FAQ.

I never got it to work... I even burnned a lot of my transformers pr0n to a cd-rom.

The zipped version is rather larger. Why don't you use lzip? I simply used a single disk linux distro which I have just for exacty this purpose (running cool linux proggies).

But I think a win version of lzip is in the works.

EDIT: Dan, the 4th dimension is time. From what I've seen in the demos, it allows you to specify the modification of a model over a given time.

spellcaster: No, it's actually a fourth spacial dimention. The 4D mesh is then projected back to a 3D space, which is then projected to a 2D screen. With 3D displays, we can skip that last step and get to see all the cool stuff that 4D can bring.
I do admit that Allegro currently fakes the fourth dimention by introducing space-time relativity in the transformation equations. We think that this would better model the back-projection from 4D to 2D. Of course, there is an optional switch to revert to regular "linear" transforms, for 3D displays.

23yrold3yrold: Oh please. It's not because you were unable to unzip Allegro 5 that it doesn't exist. The fact that it was released on April 1 is purely coincidental.

That PHP support should make Synapse Jumps happy

Anycase, good jaerb, looking forward to it

nice job on the lzip faq.

I love this thread.

Someone's being very lazy this year ...

I can't believe this thread is 2 years old today. That means Allegro 5 is two years old now!

When is Allegro 6.0 due out?

What if I lick a rabbit and accidently digest a hair? Does that void the lzip liscence agreement? I doublt the non-licking clause would hold up in court.

When is NAS GUI going to be integrated into A5... think about it ... mind controlled widgets

cough*Cochrane*cough.

sad.. i didn't even get this until i looked at the first post for 20 seconds..
By seeing "lzip" that is.

[sarcasm]I really didn't expect this thread to reappear![/sarcasm]

Looks like moderator power abuse to me...hrm hrm.

Marcello

Happy birthday, 'Allegro 5 released!' thread

2nd one, even
Phipps: Were you in #allegro?

Heh, I think Allegro 5.0 will still be good as april fools joke in 10 years or so, no need for 6.0 until then

No CGamessPlay. Not been in it for months.. Why do you ask?

The sad part is that a year later, this thread could still appear as sarcasm...

Phipps: Because I wouldn't have expected a 2 year old thread to come back to life just for its birthday. I would have expected a new thread. But Bob forgot about it, it seems.

Ahh.. I wasn't very clear. I meant an Allegro 5 announcement. Not this specific thread..

Yeah, it went something like

<CGames> it's april fool's?

<CGames> where's the allegro 5 thread?

and then later I asked Bob to make one
Naturally, the above quote was never actually said, as my logs only go up 5000 lines or so, and I don't have what I did say

Interesting to see who posted in this thread two years ago and are still around now...

Maybe we should drag it g
from its grave every year and see who wants to post again

I hate this thread.

Aww

Cute jokes around the Internet though. Anyone visit Maddox? Or Homestar Runner? Or VGCats?

Whoa. 2002. That's like... years ago

wow... 2 years... and I remember this thread too...

^__^

Hey, I posted in it.

... I feel old.

Ähum, not april first, second
Nice, very nice.
But I really think 4D should be left out completely in until 3D displays are available for us mortals. Make an addon instead

sniff I believed this thread!

j00 are so wrong, it says "Posted on 04-01-2002 3:31 PM"

Marcello

Yup. thats what it says.

Haha, you people live in the wrong timezone.

Marcello

Can we not be this lazy next year? I was hoping for something new.

Anyway, there's no 1st April fool day here. (We have 28th december for this).

I read this thread, and believed it. But I wasn't registered yet here by that time.

Heh.

I've read this and the other one from http://alleg.sf.net/humor.html

Marcello:

Yes, I'm here almost as much time as this thread

Considering the most well-known gag concerning Allegro 5.0's feature list, may I propose a new mascot?

{"name":"st1.jpg","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/b\/4\/b4566087dbd371a41b102b55a2cbc11a.jpg","w":309,"h":263,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/b\/4\/b4566087dbd371a41b102b55a2cbc11a"}

What's that thing supposed to be?

BURN THE HEATHEN!!

... it's a Dark Archon. From Brood War.

Dark Archon.
Note the last ability. I only mention it because we're still on a Starcraft kick.

Isn't Starcraft like old.. like out of fashion?

Starcraft II!!1

Old != bad. It's still got a strong following.
And now, Allegro 5.0 release party!

{"name":"dark_archon.jpg","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/b\/9\/b9c011c1191d259b8849f5aca50941f2.jpg","w":640,"h":380,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/b\/9\/b9c011c1191d259b8849f5aca50941f2"}

Looks like a load of Poppies to me.

Anyway these dark archon's sound like a dark elder warhammer rip off.

23: That's just scary... looks like you could turn the tide against one of Korval's Zerling hoards. (Just kidding, you can't micro fast enough to do that).

One of these team games I want to actually try and mindcontrol a drone or SCV... You have a 600 unit cap and can build some nice combos of different unit types.

I keep forgetting to try that. But then, Random has never blessed me with Protoss. And you might run low on resources climbing the tech tree for more than one race if you aren't on an unlimited resource map.

And I keep forgetting to have my Queens infest Command Centers. I guess I'm a little too destruction-happy with my Guardians.

"Random is the best race." -- Robert Tiinus

Random doesn't last long for smart players who scout fast (which is most of the Allegro crowd). Next time I take Random, I'm going to ask the nearest partner to cover my choke point so no one can find me for as long as possible.