Elasto Mania update + beta

[kalmard]

Hi everyone, we have been hard at work on creating an update for Elma with the focus of making the game more streamlined and understandable for new players, as well as adding some features to improve on the game's 20+ year old technology.


We recently reached the beta status and are preparing to release the update on Steam! If you'd like to test it ahead of time, you can go to the game's properties page in the Steam client, and use the password "elmabetatest" to open the beta branch.


Please remember that these changes do not affect EOL.


HIGHLIGHTS


* the Stolen Internals level pack by Sla has been deeply integrated into the game, allowing players to play through it similar to the original internal levels, including support for leaderboards and achievements
* the platform framework has been updated from its 20+ years old roots to a more modern framework, making several improvements possible:
** native rendering without dxgl / emulation
** native game controller support with force feedback
** native windowed mode support


DETAILED CHANGES
* elma.exe is now compiled for a 64-bit environment and requires a 64 bit computer and OS to run
** if this causes an issue in the future, a legacy 32-bit version of elma will also be provided

* the menu structure of the game has been updated to make some features clearer for inexperienced players
** single/multiplayer options are now a top-level item
** it is now possible to play through the game (unlock and skip levels) in local multiplayer, the progression is associated with Player A
** a new Collections menu has been added to select between Internals, Stolen Internals and external level packs
** an explicit delete player option has been added
** some legacy options have been removed
** opening per-level leaderboards in the Steam overlay has been removed (they are still available on the Steam community website)

* platform framework update
** the game now uses a modern framework and requires no hacks/emulation to run on Windows 7/10
** dxgl/ddraw is no longer needed, but is still included in the package to ensure consistency (for the sake of EOL and other mods)
** menu and gameplay resolution calculations have been updated to provide a consistent and best-quality experience on all devices
** windowed mode has been added
** previous sound issues (conflict with background audio playback) are fixed
** the change may improve Proton/Linux support, but this hasn't been tested

* gamepad support
** one gamepad is now natively supported by the game (multiple gamepads for local multiplayer is not supported)
** force feedback has been added
** gamepad controls can be viewed in the updated Help & controls menu and follow platform standards for menu navigation
** you may have to disable Steam's gamepad emulation to use the native solution
** by default, when playing local multiplayer, gamepad will control Player B and the standard keyboard controls will control Player A - this can be changed in the options

* level pack integration
** Stolen Internals by Sla has been added to the core game
** standard Internal features are supported - Achievements, Local & Steam Leaderboards, level progression & skip
** these leaderboards are only available in-game and not on the Steam Community website
** progression is saved in a separate state file, so the original state.dat remains compatible between the updated and old version of elma (including EOL)


KNOWN ISSUES


* Stolen Internals achievements are not yet activated
* Force feedback can sometimes jitter
* windowed mode resizing causes invalid aspect ratio




If you try the beta, any and all feedback is appreciated here or on Discord in #official. We hope you find these changes enjoyable!

[ArZeNiK]

i love you

[Bludek]

stoked

I foresee great future for elma with kalmard

[trew]

Overall a pretty great update since last time I checked out steam elma. However a few small things is still keeping me from switching to the steam version:

* Not possible to force navigation map to corner
* Not possible to scale graphics/zoom out

Not having to run D3DWindower is great, so looking forward to aspect-ratio-fixed windowed version!