RBGL 1.6 and RBGL Sprites 1.2 Released

RBGLSprites 1.2 is a signficant update to the RBGLSprites 2D game library for REALbasic, including a number of bug fixes and new features.

RBGLSprites is a complete re-implementation of REALbasic's now-deprecated SpriteSurface control using modern OpenGL technology. As of version 1.1 we already completely re-created all functionality of the original control and surpassed it with features such as translucency and arbitrary rotation. In this new release we've taken that even further. Highlights in the new version include:

• Significantly improved collision detection performance for large numbers of sprites by using a radix sorting algorithm to sort by group.
• New Paint event for RBGLSprite class, which can be used to draw arbitrary content into the surface on top of the sprite. This is great for drawing special effects such as lightning bolts between sprites, or drawing text labels on top of sprites.
• New CollisionMask property added to RBGLSprite class, which allows you to specify a separate image to use for collision detection. This is great if you have large translucent areas on the sprite which still need to register collisions, or decorative parts that stick out but shouldn't collide. Basically it gives you the flexibility to craft your collision regions for gameplay without affecting the look of your sprite.
• RBGLSpriteSurface now uses threads when running asyncronously on Mac OS for better performance.

In addition to the RBGLSpriteSurface improvements, RBGL itself has had a major overhaul, with dozens of optimisations and bug fixes, and a few new experimental features. Check the release notes in the download for more details.

RBGLSprites remains 100% free and open source and is written entirely using pure REALbasic code with no plugins or external libraries required. Games written in RBGLSprites will compile and run on Mac OS and Windows without modification.

We've put a lot of effort into RBGL and RBGLSprites, so if you like them, please support us by making a small donation.