Moviestorm 1.4.2

Moviestorm 1.4.2 looks like it's going to be a fairly modest release. We're mainly focusing on papercuts and making some changes to the launcher. Yeah, we know, the launcher's not a particularly exciting part of Moviestorm, but it something that we have to give some attention to every so often. The idea is that Moviestorm will start up faster and it'll be less awkward having to restart it when you make changes to settings. We're also working on a background downloader so that you can get on with making your movies while it's grabbing new content packs or updates. So, as we said, not exciting stuff, but it'll make everything feel slicker right from the get-go.

We're also working on the codec support inside Moviestorm. As anyone who's done video editing can tell you, codecs are a black art. Sometimes you render your movie and it all works just fine, other times you end up with an unholy mess that's ten times bigger than you thought it would be, full of horrible artifacts, doesn't upload to your Web site or import into your video editor, and all the faces are bright blue. We're digging into this and seeing what we can do to make it easier and give you more options. One upshot of this is that we'll probably end up giving you more options for formats Moviestorm will accept, such as Ogg/Theora, and you'll also, at long last, be able to import video clips into the cutting room. It's too early to say whether any of this will make it into 1.4.2 (or indeed when 1.4.2 will actually be shipped), but we figured you'd like to know it's on our mind.

No such thing as a free launch

The launcher is one of the least exciting and most unloved parts of Moviestorm. It's the bit that gets in between you and starting to make movies. However, it's something we need to pay attention to, because otherwise Moviestorm doesn't start up properly. We've made some small but significant changes to it for 1.1.7.

For a start, there's a lovely new logo in the style of the new user interface. More importantly, though, you now access the Modder's Workshop from the launcher, not from the main menu of Moviestorm.

We've also added a new screen, the Content Packs screen. This shows you which content packs you currently have installed, and also which content packs you don't yet own. There's a link to the online Marketplace so you can get more packs, and there are easy links to install or download addons.

So there you have it. Not very exciting, but useful.

Launch countdown to 1.1.7 continues...

Oh, if you're interested, that's my desktop background. It's a lovely 1920x1080 display, and that's a photo of sunset over Cambridge taken in August 2008 with my ancient Nikon E2100. Reminds me of home.