Trax 5 Version History

5.14

Released 16 November, 2016
This fixes a couple of minor bugs in the FPGA plug-in used for FPGA design competition.

• FPGA module
  
  • Increases the default RS242 speed to 460800
  • Fix a bug with selecting FPGA player

5.13

Released 21 March, 2016
The main change in this version is to support the FPGA plug-in used for FPGA design competition. A few other minor bugs have been fixed and features added.

• Trax core
  
  • Timing resolution has been improved
• New: FPGA module
  
  • Provides RS232 connection to an FPGA for design challenge play
  • Extend port connections up to 255 ports
  • Game ends when FPGA player makes an illegal or invalid move

5.11

Released 14 November, 2004
The main change in this version is to support the 8x8 and Loop Trax variants. At present these variants are not supported by the Doby module, but Doby support is planned for the near future. A few other minor bugs have been fixed and features added.

• Trax core
  
  • New: 8x8 Trax and Loop Trax variants introduced.
    
    • Status field to indicate what variant is being played
    • Items in Game menu for selecting variant, and draws for 8x8 Trax
    • Loading of variants from file
  • Loading game from file no longer ignores comments before move 1
  • Table: Tile click was missing for first move after loading game from file
  • When entering long text in text boxes, sometimes the cursor wasn't visible when the text went past the end
• Network module
  
  • New: Support for the 8x8 Trax and Loop Trax variants
    
    • Allow negotiation of game type
    • Allow negotiation of draws for the 8x8 variant
  • Fixed a bug that caused crashes when could not resolve host address, or bind to port
  • Connecting to a game gives the connection sound effect.
  • If a game is already started when connecting, labels and size status weren't updated
  • Fix a bug in detecting if we are connected to a newer version
• Lobby module
  
  • Connecting the 4th time with the same name as an existing person crashed the client program. Fixed
  • The lobby relay has been fixed so that more than 5 people can join.

5.10

Released 24 July, 2004
The main change in this version is to support lobby hosting. With increased use of firewalls, players were unable to host games. A new mechanism has been put in place that allows players to host via the lobby server, regardless of their firewall (provided that they can connect out to the server). A few other minor bugs have been fixed and features added.

• Trax core
  
  • Updated the URLs in the Help utility to the new Traxgame.com layout
  • New: add a click sound when tiles are played
  • Status icons were squashed up and not completely visible. This has been fixed
• Network module
  
  • When the host changes name to an existing player, remove superflous name change messages to other players.
  • In silence mode, all players now see player entries and exits.
  • Make it clearer what colour you are, especially when the colours are swapped, but also when a person is made a player or spectator.
  • New: added sounds for player enter, exit, and confirmation request
  • A spectator with a pretyped line of text had the text appear as white on joining, rather than the blue for the spectator
  • Loading from file has been improved within network games. A "skip names" option has been added to keep the same player names. If the names are loaded, the named players become players and existing players become spectators.
  • If a player resigned out of turn, and their resign occurred at the same time their opponent played, the wrong player would win the game. That has been fixed.
  • In the Chat utility, disallow the command "PLAY WIN" for networked games.
• Lobby module
  
  • New: Hosting via the server. If a player cannot connect directly to they host, they can connect via the server
  • Entry sound is now on by default when the Trax window is not on the front.
• Doby module
  
  • When loading completed games files where DOBY was white, the first tile would sometimes flash after loading.

5.03

Released 8 November, 2003
Mainly to fix a few bugs, and to add alert sounds to the lobby.

• Trax core
  
  • Record utility:
    
    • Prevent [Enter] from playing flashing move for opponent
    • Prevent keyboard entry of moves when it is opponent's turn
  • Clock utility:
    
    • New: Added an alarm to warn of impending timeout
  • Menus:
    
    • Game menu: fixed Black/White resigns so that it works properly
    • Game menu: disable Black/White resigns when playing a network game to prevent you resigning for your opponent.
    • Clicking on the head of open menu now closes the window
  • Other bug fixes:
    
    • Loading games with no moves, the size of playing area was random
    • Utilities: [Ctrl-Tab] opened popup even when utility was not on front
    • Utilities: [RightClick] when moving or resizing a utility went through to what was below
    • Options: Players/Confirm was renamed Players/Autoconfirm
• Lobby module
  
  • New: Add an alert sound for when players enter or type.
  • Added a popup menu item to select options
  • Allow editing of the chat line before it is sent
  • When "Full size" is selected, disable the Home, Resize, and Move menus.
  • [Tab] accesses the options
• Network module
  
  • If joiner was part way through a game before joining, and host had not started host ended up with partial position. Now clears joiners game.
  • Loading from file now sends times to the other players.
  • Chat utility:
    
    • Smiley button status updates when player connects or disconnected from a game
• Doby module
  
  • If Doby was flashing its move and you undid, Doby played the move anyway.
  • Undo of 2 or more turns in succession, Doby got confused about whose turn it was.
  • Allow evaluation in network games only if spectating.
  • Under some circumstances with "auto newgame" Doby would find two first moves, giving an invalid move error for the second
  • Under some circumstances, DOBY would not play when first starting a game as white.

5.02

Released 22 July 2003.
Fixes a number of minor bugs and added some long awaited new features.

• Trax core
  
  • New: Notes utility has been added to show notes associated with a move - when loading commented games from file
  • Options bug fixes:
    
    • Fix a bug that prevented setting player names from options dialog
    • When closing options using toolbar button, do a NO (cancel)
    • Changed operation of "Default" button in options to make it more logical
    • Delay forced tiles option is working again.
    • Prevent player options opening on loaded games (when "open this on new game" is selected)
  • Other bug fixes:
    
    • When loading a game, an initial retract didn't work properly - fixed now
    • Check versions of plugins and don't load incompatible plugins.
    • When a Utility is disabled, disable its menu selection
• Network module
  
  • Added command line options -join and -host for network games.
  • Switch an incoming joiner to line mode if more than one person connected.
  • Closing an internet connection before it was established crashed the program.
  • Prevent faulty rating results being reported when analysing after a rated game.
• New: DOBY module
  
  • The DOBY V module integrates the previous DOBY program within the Trax 5 software. This plugin is available for purchase from the Trax shop
  • DOBY must be properly registered to enable its functionality.
• New: Lobby module
  
  • A new lobby plugin interfaces with the global lobby server at Traxgame.com for game matchmaking. This replaces the functionality that was lost with Trax being withdrawn from the MSN Gaming Zone.
  • The lobby utility provides chat and game launching.

5.01

Released 1 October 2002.
Primarily fixes a number of minor options related bugs with the new version.

• Trax core
  
  • Options
    
    • Font now gets loaded correctly from default.top on startup
    • Utility options pages weren't appearing properly
    • Added a global utilities "Set to current" option
    • Player options dialog now lets names to be entered properly
    • Put a "Default" button that saves options direectly to "default.top"
    • Put "Show labels" back into table options
  • Other
    
    • Fix colour of players icon
    • Allow negative numbers in number entry fields
• New: Tournament manager module
  
  • A new module added for managing tournaments on the MSN gaming zone. Available to approved tournament hosts only.
  • Includes a .TRN file type for saving tournaments

5.0

Released 24 August 2002.
A complete rewrite of the Trax 4 software, in modular form. This allows new features to be added easily using plugins. Most of the features available in V4 are available in this release, with several enhancements.