A test of the new rendering engine. (settings: kfm vs. kfm720, stage0-720, 1920x1080, windowed)

Software renderer

GL renderer

* Actual results may vary on your hardware.

- R.

The project has hit a snag and is on hold.

...Just kidding!

RC6 has been slow to develop because we've been doing some long-delayed but much-needed cleanup behind the scenes. It won't have very many user-visible effects besides fixing a few obscure bugs, but it should make future engine development easier and more robust. We have also put in some testing features that may eventually form the core of replay functionality in a future update.

- R.

Hi all. My name is David and I'm one of the developers working on M.U.G.E.N. A lot of people have been wondering about the future of M.U.G.E.N itself and what features to expect in upcoming versions. Hopefully after reading this post, you'll have a better idea what we're trying to accomplish.

This is a minor update of the EX + alpha branch. It incorporates the bug fixes from RC5, and adds the following changes specific to the EX + alpha series:

• BGM loop points can now be specified in storyboards.
• loop = 0 mp3's now stop properly.

Download: M.U.G.E.N RC5 EX + alpha
Make sure to read README-ALPHA.html in the main directory for detailed changes and instructions.

This is an update of the *EXPERIMENTAL* BGM branch that began with RC3 EX + alpha. The internal architecture has been revamped, so your feedback on problems (or on lack of problems!) will once again be appreciated. Mixer parameters are now adjustable in mugen.cfg, in case you have problems at the default settings.

If you didn't know about RC3 EX + alpha, it is an alpha/testing/unstable branch of the RC series that is intended to overhaul BGM handling. It features more robust mp3 support, a plugin architecture, and loop point specification for BGMs. You can see the original blog post for more details.

This release also contains a bugfix for the problems with the HitDefAttr and Teammode triggers that have been reported in RC4.

New in RC4 EX + alpha:

• Sound effects can be muted when switching out of the M.U.G.E.N window.
• BGM can be paused or muted when switching out of the M.U.G.E.N window.
• Mixer parameters now configurable.
• BGM buffering scheme reworked to address stuttering and dropouts.
• Stage BGM is now guaranteed to start after the first tick, for compatibility with characters that assert NoMusic at the start of the round.
• Upgraded to SDL_mixer 1.2.9. This fixes crashes with WAV music and enables seamless looping for non-MP3 filetypes.

New EX + alpha bug fixes:

• Extension lists were cut off at the first semicolon. They are now comma-separated.
• Storyboard BGMs didn't play, or hanged the application.
• PlaySnd looping parameter didn't work.
• System BGMs didn't always play when loop was 0.
• mpg123 plugin sometimes left a gap with loopend = -1, even on gapless MP3s.

Download here: M.U.G.E.N RC4 EX + alpha
Make sure to read README-ALPHA.html in the distribution archive for details and instructions.

You asked for it, so here's a special invitation to preview the new M.U.G.E.N Community Wiki before we announce it more widely.

A common complaint we get from new users is that they need to scour the Internet to find tutorials and advanced docs beyond our basic documentation. Solution: here's a wiki for you to start dumping your content into. Prefer to just link to stuff that's already on another site? Go right ahead. Want to translate docs to another language? The wiki has multilingual capabilities.

So it doesn't start off empty, we've seeded the wiki with some very basic content based on the documentation from 1.0 RC2. Where it goes from here is up to the community.

Special thanks goes out to our early beta testers.

-K'Style

Music plugins are back!

OK, you can stop cringing now. The incomplete Winamp plugin support in the 2002.04.14 M.U.G.E.N beta was justly infamous for its unreliability. Since the Winamp architecture wasn't designed with a game application in mind, plugins weren't expected to handle demands like rapid seeking or looping. In some cases, it was even difficult to get low-latency notification that a song had completed. The engine could only mash "buttons" like Stop, Rewind, and Play to try to coax the plugins to cooperate, but whether this actually worked depended on factors mostly out of our control.

Music services in the 1.0RC series are being provided by SDL_mixer. Although this is much more stable than the Winamp hack was, there are some features we wanted to have but which aren't provided by the default music players, as well as some bugs we didn't want to have which *are* provided. So we figured we should just do our own BGM system instead. We decided to go with an extensible plugin format. This should allow interested community members to improve M.U.G.E.N's handling of the multifarious game-related music filetypes.

Since this is a significant change to the BGM architecture, with significant potential for significant bugs, we wanted to put out an initial alpha build to get testing and feedback. This is a "testing/unstable/development" branch off the main 1.0RC series. If you'd like to help us out, please try it and let us know what you think!

Changes you'll see, in a nutshell (see README-ALPHA.TXT inside the distribution archive for details):

*) Better MP3 support using libmpg123
*) Extensible architecture (read: "plugins")
*) Loopstart and loopend support, for compatible plugins
*) More intuitive volume settings: Master, wave/sfx, BGM
*) Volume "offsets" replaced by volume scaling factors
*) Various BGM bugfixes
*) Probably some new bugs

Download: M.U.G.E.N RC3 EX + alpha
Please leave feedback in the forums, either by post or by private message. In particular, if you experience "hiccups" in mp3 playback, please let us know how when/how frequently they occur, and what your system specs are. Thanks!

M.U.G.E.N has had an undocumented -stresstest parameter since 2002. We use it to generate a lot of game activity to test stability. It also functions as a sort of Watch mode on steroids.

If you'd like to give it a try, run M.U.G.E.N with the command line

mugen -stresstest <frameskip>

where <frameskip> is either -1, or a positive integer. -1 disables frameskipping, while a positive value causes that many frames to be skipped when drawing. This speeds up the action.

Once you're in the menu, pick a game mode (such as Team Vs.) and enjoy the chaos.

- R.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the first post on our developer blog!

There are many questions out there regarding M.U.G.E.N; some have been posed to us directly, while others come from various forums, including our own. We'd like to take this opportunity to address some of them.

Past

What does M.U.G.E.N stand for?

We no longer can recall, really. However, I can tell you how to pronounce it: it's "moo-gen" where the "ge" in "gen" is like "get".

Where does the name Elecbyte originate?

It was something we came up with when we were much younger.

Did you quit over the leak of WinMugen beta?

No, not at all. Our lives took us in different directions for some time.

Were you responsible for the F.A.Q. at elecbyte.com?

Yes.

What drove you to return to the scene after so long? Why was there no contact in the meantime?

We wanted to continue working on the the engine. We did have contact; we put up a temporary site until we had time to work on the project.

Present

How do you feel towards the 'hacks' and 'patches' the community developed?

Those are a clear signal to us that our users really wanted to see new features in M.U.G.E.N.

How do you feel towards M.U.G.E.N clone projects?

The fact that other talented people are working on similar projects validates the idea behind M.U.G.E.N; therefore, continuing to develop such projects is the right direction for us.

Would you welcome developers from the community to work with you?

Not at this time, but we'd be glad to say hello to our fellow developers.

What are you expecting from the community?

We expect to hear feedback about what does and does not work with the engine, features people would like to see. We would like to see people share their character designs and game development for all to enjoy.

Have you been following the communities' developments all these years? Are there any projects you like in particular?

Most of the team stayed in touch as much as possible over the years when we could afford the time. Each of us has our own preferences, but full original games are always impressive. Tatsu's Babel Sword, an action shooting game with innovative design and very polished feel, is one amazing example of how one can push the engine beyond its limits. Seeing projects like this motivates us, and we hope to help facilitate the creation of a lot more innovative content that everyone can enjoy.

Are you planning to accept donations?

We're coming up with ways for the community to show its support, but we certainly appreciate the sentiment. You can always show your support by being an active community member and helping out your fellow fans.

Who comprises the new team? Can you tell us more about each of you?

To address that, we've set up this developer blog where you'll learn more about each of us over time.

Future

What are your plans for new features?

We're concentrating on bug fixes and stability for 1.0, and we'll look at adding small features for a release after.

Are you planning to add an 'encryption' system to protect the content of creators?

We think everyone will appreciate it if we prioritize our time working on improvements for engine and the community. Ideology aside, DRM is technology that takes a lot of effort to build and usually requires much less to break.

Will you release or sell the source of M.U.G.E.N?

Not in the near future. However, M.U.G.E.N is open-spec, so people are free to make projects that can load assets in M.U.G.E.N's formats.

Are you planning to sell the license of M.U.G.E.N to a major company?

At this time our plans are to focus on building features.

The F.A.Q. that was previously on the site said that you planned to make one last version of M.U.G.E.N before making a new version that would not be backwards-compatible. Is that true?

Unfortunately, the F.A.Q. was not worded very well. We have ideas about the direction we want to take with our projects, but nothing is set in stone. To address the concern, we can assure you that we'd never ask people to abandon the last ten years of work, regardless of what we work on next. We are interested in the community's input, which is why we've created these forums.

Are you planning to port M.U.G.E.N to other platforms?

If there's sufficient demand, we'll consider it. However, our current goal is a stable release, followed by new features.

- Elecbyte Team