v2.11.0-rc6

Due to major changes in the Qt Framework, the Attorney Online project is forced to drop support for Windows Vista, 7, and 8.1. If you are still running one of these versions, AO2.11 and onwards will no longer run on that system. The Attorney Online project recommends at minimum Windows 10 or a current Linux distribution instead.
Without this change some features of 2.11 would not work correctly.

What's Changed

• Update PlayerList to work more akin to WebAO
• Fix PlayerList and Slide button not showing up
• Fix outlined nameplates not obeying alignment
• Fix effects dropdown being erroneously cleared when a message is not sent
• [Feature] Add support for custom playerlist formatting, show all users when authenticated
• Fix evidence not being consistently presentable
• load aceattorney2x instead of aceattorney

Full Changelog: v2.11.0-rc4...v2.11.0-rc6

v2.11.0-rc4

Due to major changes in the Qt Framework, the Attorney Online project is forced to drop support for Windows Vista, 7, and 8.1. If you are still running one of these versions, AO2.11 and onwards will no longer run on that system. The Attorney Online project recommends at minimum Windows 10 or a current Linux distribution instead.
Without this change some features of 2.11 would not work correctly.

What's Changed

Changes from RC3

• Fixed crash due to the PlayerList system not working properly with demos sometimes
• Change the initial theme to AceAttorney
• Fix slides not respecting offsets
• Fix playerlist and slide checkbox not appearing after using an outdated theme
• Playerlist and slide checkbox will now appear in the top left if the theme is not correctly configured

Known Issues

• Layer clipping does not always work correctly with slides

Full Changelog: v2.11.0-rc3...v2.11.0-rc4

v2.11.0-rc3

Due to major changes in the Qt Framework, the Attorney Online project is forced to drop support for Windows Vista, 7, and 8.1. Please be aware that if you are still running one of these versions, AO2.11 and onwards will no longer run on that system. The Attorney Online project recommends at minimum Windows 10 or a current Linux distribution instead.
Without this change some features of 2.11 would not work correctly.

What's Changed

Changes from RC1 / RC2

• Fix preanimations not being displayed correctly
• Change ban duration to unix timestamps
• Add universal connfigure script for maintainers
• Change default theme to AceAttorney
• Send username to the server during connection
• Fix crash when playing back demo files created with RC1/RC2

Full Changelog: v2.11.0-rc.1...v2.11.0-rc3

2.11.0 - RC1

Due to major changes in the Qt Framework, the Attorney Online project is forced to drop support for Windows Vista, 7, and 8.1. Please be aware that if you are still running one of these versions, AO2.11 and onwards will no longer run on that system. The Attorney Online project recommends at minimum Windows 10 or a current Linux distribution instead.
Without this change some features of 2.11 would not work correctly.

What's Changed

Major changes

• Add AppImage support for Linux (#1005)
  Linux Clients no longer need to install Qt to run the client. Version differences between the Distro and AO2 should no longer apply. (Ubuntu 22.04 and up)
• Add showname outlines (#939)
• Add Courtroom slides (#966)
  Enables Ace Attorney style courtroom panning of the background. Only works on supported backgrounds.
• Add char.ini [Options] override for per-emote blips and displayname configuration (#953)
• Add support to restore the last window position (#1016)
  The client stores the position it was closed at and opens the window in the same position on the next start. If the position can't be found it will center the client as it currently does
• Add playerlist with minimal moderatior dialog menu (#958 , #1018)
  Adds a per-area playerlist with support for moderator actions
• Update client to Qt 6.5.3 (#991)

Minor changes

• Fix crash when the user joins a server before the serverlist is loaded (#927)
• Fix translation settings not being applied properly (#918)
• Fix typos in effects code (#921)
• Fix themes not loading correctly when stored in a mounted base folder (#922)
• Fix zooms without emote modifier defaulting to showing the desk (#925)
• Fix URL encoding for music streaming (#926)
• Change sorting of character categories to ascending, instead of by load order (#932)
• Add basic theme upscaling (#935)
• Fix client crashing when a JPEG pretends to be a PNG (#937)
• Fix frameFX on frame 0 playing twice on playback start (#945)
• Fix A/B music looping not working properly (#944)
• Improve initial load times when joining a server (#954)
• Fix secondary music-channel updating the currently playing song (#948)
• Hide pair on zoom emote (#940)
• Hide chatbox when using shouts (#933)
• Tweak missing image warning to be more visible (#994)
• Cleanup Readme and typos (#995)
• Make launch.sh for dynamic Linux clients work independently of the directory (#1011)
• Improve linespacing deduction and application (#981)
• Improve internal client and project structure (#995 , #957, #960)
• Improve character searching with searching by category (#968)
• Fix issues with UI not honoring chatbox settings (#984)
• Improve loading and playback performance of renderer
• Improve loading and playback performance of audioplayer
• Update about dialog (#1020)

Deprecations

• Remove (barely documented) MIDI Support (#1008)
• Remove side-dropdown being editable (#1009)
• Remove legacy TCP-Support (#1007 , #973)

Known Issues

• Themes need to be updated
  Use slide_enable and player_list to add it to your theme.
• Some elements are sized differently in Qt6.
• Preanimations do not play correctly.
  Fixed in RC2

2.10.1

Better late than never.

What's Changed

Major Changes
Technical Preview of AO2-QtUI Files in Lobby/Serverlist (Partial #874)

• Lobby now uses a new UI system to showcase the potential new UI System for future AO2 Releases.
• Move Demoserver into its own category on the serverlist (#834)

Minor Changes

• Add dialogue to add servers to favourites (#651)
• Add Favorite Server Edit Dialog
• Reworked Settings Dialogue to be resizable and Theme-Modifiable.
• Add direct connection dialogue.
• Sort themes dropdown according to Windows Explorer
• Playercount turns to connection message when connecting.
• Scale speedlines by default

Deprecation

• Removed Case Announcements Feature and Network Handling
• Settings options relating to case announcement will be removed from config.ini after the update
• Remove migration code and checks for legacy serverlist.txt files
• Remove Favorite Serverlist Context Menu
• Remove "chat" emote_mod
• Animated themes have been mostly removed due to performance concerns

Bugfixes

• Add logic to load a default soundfont for MIDI files. (base/soundfont.fs2 in the main mount path)
• Fix character select screen not showing all characters until page changed or reloaded (#854)
• Restore evidence selector preview under Qt5 (#890) - Caused by #824 incorrectly overwriting signature.
• Stretch speedlines by default (#895)
• Change default audio behaviour to restore audio-settings from last launch (#903 )
• Restore legacy judge button behaviour.

Full Changelog: 2.10.0...2.10.1

2.10.0

What's Changed

• Android CI by @stonedDiscord in #850
• Raise pair list after courtroom construction by @Salanto in #859
• Don't reset evidence selection on theme reload by @Salanto in #860
• Don't set selected state when evidence is on another page by @Salanto in #861
• Fix case of self_offset received without a y offset by @oldmud0 in #864
• Change some default settings by @Crystalwarrior in #839

Full Changelog: 2.10rc1...2.10.0

2.10 RC1

After nearly 18 months between releases, we are almost ready to present AO 2.10. This brings some fresh relief to various quality-of-life issues, including new master server infrastructure, along with a new asset system that allows mounting multiple base folders without the need to overwrite files.

Many thanks to @Crystal2002 for developing this changelog, along with all developers who have been working on 2.10 since March 2021.

Major Changes

• Add the ability to mount multiple base folders
• Switched to HTTP-based master server
  • Servers that have not yet switched to the new master server API will still be listed.
  • Earlier versions of the client will still be able to see servers that are publishing to the new master server.
  • The old, TCP-based master server will be supported until at least January 2023. Once it is retired, AO1 and AO2 players connecting to the master server will only receive a MOTD with a link to the website until it is fully shut down.
• Added support for connecting to servers via WebSockets (webAO style) (#696)
  • This allows servers to leverage DDoS protection through free services such as Cloudflare Tunnel
• webAO-like music streaming
  • Servers can specify a base asset URL to retrieve assets from, which is shared with webAO
  • When music is not found locally, an attempt is made to stream it instead from the asset URL
• Removed client-side waiting for IC chat to be finished before your message can be sent to the server (#620)
• Shouts no longer force preanimations from triggering (#697)
• Removed master chat from the courtroom. Long reign debug logs, which will assist the tech-savvy (or the developers) in solving tech issues!
• Character select screen now updates when the server updates its character list. No more rejoining required.
• Added music support for MIDIs and tracker formats (i.e. MIDI, MOD, XM, IT)
• Icons now appear in position, iniswap, and emote dropdowns (just like with the effects dropdown)
• Major effects system overhaul for content authors (#663) (#701)
• Blip rate can be set to 0 (meaning the blip only goes off once per message) (#659)
• Improved viewport performance, especially when loading large animations
• A "ghost" of your message is shown at the bottom of the log when your message has been sent but has not been delivered yet
• The following client-side commands have been removed as they were not useful compared to the UI:
  • /pair
  • /settings
  • /offset
  • /voffset
  • /switch_am
  • /enable_blocks
  • /non_int_pre
  • /save_chatlog - Right-click the chat log to save instead. You can also find logs in the logs folder if chat logging is enabled.
  • /load_case - Use the "Load Evidence" button in the evidence menu instead.

Minor Changes

• Remember search terms when swapping between area/music List
• Added the client version to the window title
• Added a visible countdown to the "OK" button in dialogs instead of hiding the button
• Added showname & selfname colors to courtroom_fonts.ini (#672)
  • Allows for the name attached to your messages to have a different color from the rest!
• Log timestamp format is now configurable via the settings menu
• Added ability to change the timestamps' colors in courtroom_fonts.ini (#698)
• Disabled button masking for themes (#703)
  • This was causing text to be cut off when a widget's text is supposed to take more area than its background image.
• Changed evidence buttons from a double click to a single click to edit (#660)
• Accounting for pathing differences between theme & misc when getting data for effects

Bugfixes

• Fixed losing audio permanently when the default audio device is lost/disconnected
• Fixed first server in server list not being selectable unless another server was selected first
• Fixed custom shouts not playing audio
• Fixed several bugs with pairing
  • In certain cases, Person #2 would disappear whenever Person #1 talked, and vice-versa.
  • When paired, the idle animation would play only once.
• Fixed BG Positions w/o a desk inheriting the previous position's desk.
• Fixed (c) animations not resolving into the (a) animation
  • (For those who may have missed it in 2.9, (c) are optional animations that are used for transitioning from (b) (talking) to (a) (idle) animations.)
• Fixed non-image files being loaded as images
• (what is this) Fixed custom shouts appearing on characters without the option
• Fixed freezing when a music file is being loaded
  • Was most noticeable when streaming or loading large music files.
• Fixed emote buttons sometimes scaling with nearest-neighbor (#699)
• Fixed the sound list treating the alias as the actual filename (#708)
• Fixed iniswap remove button permanently removing the entry from iniswaps.ini. (#710)
• Fixed issue where iniswap dropdown was destructive to char.ini (#712)
  • Note that for the time being, your iniswap will NOT persist. This is a side effect of fixing the error.
• Fixed some demos skipping strangely due to the max_wait parameter (#680)
• Fixed extended desk modifiers not being handled when there is no preanim (#578)
• Fixed "X" button alongside SFX dropdown hiding when the dropdown selection is changed (#612)
• Fixed background animation restarting when the background was not changed (#632)
• Fixed long game load times when there's a lot of music by removing excessive ARUP updates
• Fixed evidence (#660)

2.9.1

Some minor features and bugfixes since 2.9.0.

What's New

• Narrator chat - when the IC emote is completely blank, only text is played back on the chatbox without altering any animations or overlays.
• AUTH packet. Servers can now control programmatically whether the mod controls are shown, instead of having to send the magic string "Logged in as a moderator." See #489.
• Logs now include OOC chat
• Demos now support timers properly
• /reload command for demos
• Dropdowns elide left, allowing long names to be more readable:
  
• Deprecated /min_wait for demos
• All UI elements are now named. While this is not fully documented yet, you can obtain the full list of object names from #534. More info on CSS here: https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/stylesheet-syntax.html
• Two new ways of controlling judge buttons: judge buttons can be forced on or off depending on certain conditions. One of them is through the network, but there is also a clientside option in the design.ini of any background that can define a list of positions where the judge button should be automatically enabled (e.g. judges=jud,jud2,jud3,judX).
• You can now specify in the options menu the default scaling method for assets that do not otherwise specify a scaling method - so you can have "fast" (pixely) or "smooth" chosen as default. You should select "smooth" if you are using HD-resolution assets.
• Added default showname preference in the options menu

Fixes

• Fix evidence icons not appearing after evidence has been presented once
• Fix demos containing messages with special characters not playing back correctly
• Fix demos being recorded with incorrect timing information. When loading a demo with such an issue, you can choose to automatically have it fixed.
• Fix demos being recorded with incorrect packet data (e.g. wrong encoding for things such as evidence by recording <and> instead of &)
• Fix demos not recording evidence or timers
• Fix demo playback not appearing on favorites list if serverlist.txt is missing
• Fix demo server not sending help text if "Spectator" is selected
• Fix final message in demo not being played
• Fix timings for OOC being really busted if the max_wait option is -1 during demo playback
• Fix blankposting forcing the message queue to sleep up until another message is received
• Fix chat messages being lost to the ether if instant objection is used, or area is switched while message queue is not empty
• Fix desynchronized logs options checkbox not loading from config properly
• Fix crash selecting random track when music list contains tracks without a category
• Fix per-emote stretch settings not working
• Fix chat arrow being displayed even when blankposting
• Fix animated themes freezing the client on Linux when joining a server with (too) many characters
• Fix character-specific color list not being properly regenerated on a theme reload
• Fix ~~, ~> and <> causing tick issues
• Fix objections forcing a missingno to appear when you object to someone mid-preanim, and their preanim ends before objection shout finishes
• Fix characters being incorrectly masked to the aspect ratio of the viewport even when the aspect ratio of the pixmap differed
• Fix Cyrillic/non-Latin characters breaking configuration files
• Fix regression where direct file paths (base/misc/blank) were not recognized
• Fix shownames disappearing forever if a message is sent while the shownames checkbox is unticked
• Fix using preanims with static images just breaking everything
• Fix text_stay_time timer firing even if immediate is enabled
• Fix regression where effects in misc folders were not being detected
• Euthanize Morton
• Fix evidence

Note: The Windows zip had an old executable, due to a mishap in the manual release process. Sorry about that.

2.9.1 Homebrew Edition

Some minor features and bugfixes since 2.9.0. This is Crystalwarrior's "early access" build, after he got fed up with me never fixing the CI pipeline for releases, so you can blame him for mistakes. (lol)

What's New

• Narrator chat - when the IC emote is completely blank, only text is played back on the chatbox without altering any animations or overlays.
• AUTH packet. Servers can now control programmatically whether the mod controls are shown, instead of having to send the magic string "Logged in as a moderator." See #489.
• Logs now include OOC chat
• Demos now support timers properly
• Dropdowns elide left, allowing long names to be more readable:
  
• Deprecated /min_wait for demos
• All UI elements are now named. While this is not fully documented yet, you can obtain the full list of object names from #534. More info on CSS here: https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/stylesheet-syntax.html
• Two new ways of controlling judge buttons: judge buttons can be forced on or off depending on certain conditions. One of them is through the network, but there is also a clientside option in the design.ini of any background that can define a list of positions where the judge button should be automatically enabled (e.g. judges=jud,jud2,jud3,judX).
• You can now specify in the options menu the default scaling method for assets that do not otherwise specify a scaling method - so you can have "fast" (pixely) or "smooth" chosen as default. You should select "smooth" if you are using HD-resolution assets.

Fixes

• Fix evidence icons not appearing after evidence has been presented once
• Fix demos containing messages with special characters not playing back correctly
• Fix demos being recorded with incorrect timing information. When loading a demo with such an issue, you can choose to automatically have it fixed.
• Fix demos being recorded with incorrect packet data (e.g. wrong encoding for things such as evidence by recording <and> instead of &)
• Fix demos not recording evidence or timers
• Fix demo playback not appearing on favorites list if serverlist.txt is missing
• Fix demo server not sending help text if "Spectator" is selected
• Fix final message in demo not being played
• Fix timings for OOC being really busted if the max_wait option is -1 during demo playback
• Fix blankposting forcing the message queue to sleep up until another message is received
• Fix chat messages being lost to the ether if instant objection is used, or area is switched while message queue is not empty
• Fix desynchronized logs options checkbox not loading from config properly
• Fix crash selecting random track when music list contains tracks without a category
• Fix per-emote stretch settings not working
• Fix chat arrow being displayed even when blankposting
• Fix animated themes freezing the client on Linux when joining a server with (too) many characters
• Fix character-specific color list not being properly regenerated on a theme reload
• Fix ~~, ~> and <> causing tick issues
• Fix objections forcing a missingno to appear when you object to someone mid-preanim, and their preanim ends before objection shout finishes
• Fix characters being incorrectly masked to the aspect ratio of the viewport even when the aspect ratio of the pixmap differed
• Fix Cyrillic/non-Latin characters breaking configuration files
• Fix regression where direct file paths (base/misc/blank) were not recognized
• Fix shownames disappearing forever if a message is sent while the shownames checkbox is unticked
• Fix using preanims with static images just breaking everything
• Fix text_stay_time timer firing even if immediate is enabled
• Euthanize Morton
• Fix evidence

2.9.0 - Sunset

After six months of development, we are proud to announce the release of 2.9! This version includes various new features and internal improvements.

However, with an aging codebase and architecture that is ever increasing in complexity, this will officially be the final major release of Attorney Online 2. AO2 was designed as a backward-compatible remake of the AO1 client, and as such it has been difficult to make room for radically new features. Maintenance updates and minor features will be considered, but future development will be concentrated in Attorney Online 3.

This version also includes recompressed and fixed vanilla files, so it will appear as if it were a new vanilla. We'll consider adding to the character roster in the future independently of a client update, so you'll have to stay tuned for that.

We'll also be working on updating the docs with the new features on this list. You can also consult the linked pull requests next to some of the new features.

Most of the coding effort was undertaken by @Crystalwarrior and @in1tiate. Many thanks to both of them for pulling through, as well as some newcomers who did some real fine work (@caleb-mabry, @skyedeving). With this release, Crystal will be retiring from AO development.

What's New

Demo Recording and Playback

By default, AO preserves your game sessions as demos for playback, sorted by server.

To play back a demo, go to Favorites and click "Demo playback." A dialog will appear to open a demo. Once a demo has been opened, click "Connect." You may choose any character on the character selection screen. Type /play to start the playback. You can also type /help for more commands.

If you don't see anything in your server list, check that base/serverlist.txt exists.

Countdown Timer

10 seconds, MacGyver! BOOM! AO now comes with five real-time countdown timers that can add a sense of urgency to your roleplaying environment. If your version of tsuserver is new enough, you can use the /timer command to set a global timer as a mod and four area-specific timers as a CM.

(c) animations

The (c) animation was an old planned AO1 feature that allows transitioning from talking to idle. In effect, it acts like a "postanimation." You can use it now.

Character List Sidebar

If you thought that browsing through icons was too much clutter, there is now a list version on the side to help you browse. Character creators can also add a category option in the char.ini to categorize this list by source game.

Queued Messaging

Vanilla chaos is over, long live vanilla chaos! In-character chat is now queued with a minimum delay between messages, so all chat can be viewed asynchronously without interruptions between messages (as the server can sometimes send new messages before old ones can be finished).

Reworked Blips

To make blips more faithful to the Ace Attorney games, @Crystalwarrior decided to rework them in such a way that they disregard whitespace in their timing. See #305 for more information and images about what exactly happened. You can also fine-tune the text crawl speed.

Stickers

Characters can now have an additional portrait displayed over the chatbox when they are talking.

To use this feature, place your sticker in a directory named sticker inside the appropriate misc or theme folder. The sticker image must be named after the folder name of the character, and the image must be the size of the viewport.

Subthemes

You can add a folder inside of a theme that can replace anything inside the existing theme. Subthemes are prioritized over your current theme and work like a third layer of inheritance, so the first layer is default theme, second layer is current theme and the last layer is the subtheme. You can manually force your subtheme using the settings screen, set it to "default" to stop subthemes from changing, or "server" to allow the server to suggest which subtheme to use (meaning you can have themes for day/night cycles, different interfaces between investigation/trial segments, etc.)

For example, the fallback order for courtroom_design.ini will be as follows:

• theme/subtheme/courtroom_design.ini
• theme/courtroom_design.ini
• default_theme/courtroom_design.ini

Note that subthemes will never fall back to any subthemes belonging to the default theme.

There's also a new packet ST#{subtheme}#{force_reload}#% that allows the server to suggest a subtheme and reload the theme automatically (if player has the subtheme set to "server").

Theme reparenting

You can specify a new default theme for themes, so instead of falling back to the theme called default, you can fall back to any theme of your choice. To do this, add a default_theme= value in courtroom_design.ini. Note that it is not recursive, so if the default theme you selected has a default_theme= value as well, it won't fall back a second time, nor will it fall back to default.

Animated UI Buttons

Animated UI buttons! Gosh, y'all are awful. You can see a sample video of the feature here.

Other Features

Game

• Added scaling overrides for character and effect INIs (can now force sharp or smooth scaling)
• Added stretching overrides for character and effect INIs (can now force stretching/squashing to fill viewport)
• Added ability to override anything in misc/ with a theme-level misc/ folder
• Added ability to add additional background positions based on a design.ini in the background's folder (see #352)
• Added support for HTTP audio sources
• Added Y-offset for pairing
• Added support for non-PNG static emotes (see #276)
• Added shouts to the IC log, as well as an ability to describe custom shouts (see #356)
• Fonts will automatically load from base/fonts and its subdirectories at start time
• Server can specify custom WT/CE name in packet (SFX name and animation filename are exactly the name provided), and hide the testimony indicator by using RT#testimony1#1
• Desk mods 2-5 (see #353)

UI

• Changed position dropdown behavior to work as an override that persists across characters; use "X" button to clear the override
• Added "Nothing" option to SFX dropdown
• Added theme option to customize the indentation and animation of the music list
• UI elements are now elided when they are too long
• Added BB packet that displays a dialog with a user-defined message
• Added three-second reading delay for all dialogs
• Added "Stop Music" button (may not work if server does not have ~stop.mp3)
• Added "[MISSING]" to missing songs in "Now Playing" bar
• Added support for alpha masking to image widgets (useful for UI)
• Restore Defaults and Reload Theme button added to settings screen

Important Changes

• ~stop.mp3 and the "stop" category are now hidden. To stop music, right click the music list and hit "Stop Music," or use the "Stop Music w/ Category" setting to bring back the ability to double-click categories to "play" them.
• Judge button (WT/CE) animations are now suffixed with _bubble
• Hardcoded stylesheets have been moved into the theme stylesheets. If your theme has no need to override these stylesheets, you should remove the stylesheet files from your theme.
• The shouts option in char.ini is deprecated; use chat instead.
• The gender option in char.ini is deprecated; use blips instead.
• Moved user-defined SFX and iniswap lists from character folders to the root base folder (base/soundlist.ini, base/iniswaps.ini)
• The button autogenerator now generates both on and off variants of buttons when either one is missing
• Changed log filenames to a more standard/sortable format
• Changed name of "No Interrupt" checkbox to "Immediate"
• Changed "Play Random Song" behavior to only play expanded categories
• Separated IC log colors from chatbox colors (see #323)
• Removed "What's This" button from title bar
• Disabled maximizing and resizing of windows. You'll want to use a tiny theme instead.
• FantaCrypt is no more

Fixes

About 55 fixes (including regressions from previous RCs) included! See previous RCs for more details.

Known Issues

• Animated themes might be causing freezing issues on Linux for large character lists, so disable this first if you are experiencing problems.
• Some custom theme fonts may appear larger than usual. If you run into this issue, grab the fonts inside the theme and put them in base/fonts.

Download

Download the full release here. Again, note that vanilla files have changed substantially, so a full download is highly recommended.

An archive containing only the program (without assets) is included below as well.