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Rock Star, Build 12

rockstar.gifIt's been a few days since we posted Rock StarBuild 11, but here now is build 12. Download it from the usual location (1.3 MB).

Check the longer entry for the list of changes, improvements, etc. Expected release date: February 10. Expected price: still not sure, but somewhere between $9 and $19 with an introductory pricing offer if it's the latter.

  • Gave it a significant speed boost at launch; it should now launch just as fast as any other application.
  • Slightly reduced the overall memory footprint.
  • Rewrote the code and algorithms for gathering eligible tracks and playlists from the ground up, giving it a major speed increase.
  • Added a power user feature that allows you to select a different iTunes folder as the music source by holding down the option key at launch. This should be useful for people who are serving their iTunes music over a network.
  • Did a whole bunch of funky stuff to make the aforementioned network scenario work. It is the user's responsibility to make sure the relevant AppleShare volume is mounted before launching the game, else it will revert back to the local iTunes folder. The music tracks are
    also all expected to be somewhere within the same folder as the XML file is (they can be within as many sub-folders from there as you wish). Note also that if the user did anything strange with their AFP volume mountpoints this will fail; same if Apple changes any of this in the future - hence this is an UNSUPPORTED bonus feature.
  • Implemented a volume sub-menu in the "Game" menu (commands 1 through 7 are the corresponding keyboard shortcuts).
  • Fixed a randomness issue.
  • Answer choices that are too long are now properly truncated.
  • Rolled back relevant display fade code to use the traditional gamma fading methods (this will no longer keep fading all connected displays on a multi-display setup).
  • Removed several unused graphics files from earlier builds from the app bundle; saved about 700 KB.
  • QuickTime load/play errors are now logged to the console with more information

For Build 13:

  • High Scores
  • Check if track files are readable before using them.
  • Catch QuickTime errors and indicate to user in some way that there was a problem playing the file; then the user can deal with removing problem tracks from the playlists himself
  • Provisions to drop in registration stuff, grayed out buttons, etc.
  • Resolve font issue
  • Implement party games

2 Responses to "Rock Star, Build 12"

  1. Hmm. Didn't work for me, but it may not be your fault. I'm running Panther on the unsupported PowerBook G3 292 "PDQ" with 384 MB RAM and a 20 GB hard drive. It suffers from the "must install on first 8 GB partition" problem, so I have my iTunes folder on the non-boot partition.

    The first problem was that RockStar couldn't follow the Music alias to the second partition, so I had to find it manually. I then went to the full-screen option and picked Album when asked. I then picked one of my playlists, and the screen went orange. Nothing else happened. The screen stayed orange, and eventually I had to force-quit the app.

    As I said, I'm running Panther on unsupported hardware (no native USB), so I don't know if this problem is one you should worry about too much.

  2. Rock Star Build 12 was posted awhile ago, and now b13 is here. If you want to test build 13 (or 14), IM me or email me. This build contains the party mode, so we're not going to be releasing...