[EDIT 2009/3/16: Download Apophysis 2.08 JK with these features (and more) at http://sourceforge.net/projects/apo-mods-jk/.]

Other new features in this version include the ability to collapse the Editor's variables list to see just those for active variations; embedded flame parameters in PNG renders and thumbnails; plugin-directed colorization support; querying for plugin-creator-provided comments/descriptions, etc. See this journal entry for more details.

Comments and suggestions / ideas for new features are welcome. This is intended to be a testbed for new/experimental features (which may or may not make it into the official Apo releases). I can't guarantee that all suggestions will be implemented, but depending on how much free time I can work on it, the Apo 2.08 JK mod may have a faster turnaround time than official Apo releases.

Enjoy!

Jed (~Lu-Kout)

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[Original text follows:]

These screenshots illustrate a couple of minor Apo mods I made (about a year and a half ago now) but never got around to submitting for consideration for the official Apo development branch. (`DragonWinter is the only one who has seen them up to this point, and long since suggested I post them.)

The changes indicated in the screen shots include the following capabilities:

*** Custom plugin paths. ***

• Plugins may be loaded from multiple plugin folders


• Different plugin folder lists can be keyed to specific Apo versions, or applied to all supporting Apo versions.


• Folders may either be specified relative to the Apo working directory, or as absolute paths.


• Multiple folders may be specified. (If duplicated plugin names are found, these are indicated in a warning message, and the second copy is not loaded).


• The default path when starting this Apo version for the first time is .\Plugins (relative to the Apo working directory).


• Paths are persistent across Apo sessions.

NOTE: Changes in paths do not take effect until Apo is exited and restarted, since plugins are currently loaded at startup time only.

*** Variation/variable name "alias" when loading flame files. ***

• Allows exploratory substitution for variations which are not supported by the Apo version, or by loaded plugins.

NOTE: the Plugins tab in the Options dialog is not really the right place for this, but that's where it got put for initial testing and I never got around to changing it...

*** Flame "preview" capability when loading from, or saving to, existing flame files. ***

• Shows which version of Apo created the flame file


• Shows variations/variables used in the flame, and indicates which are supported with built-in and plugin variations.


• Breaks down known/unknown variations by transform. Also shows what variation/variable name aliases are being applied.


• Option to list known, unknown, or "all" (well, most) transform settings for quick review of flames.

*** Improved Shading in Variables tab in Transform Editor window ***

• Highlights the variations being used by the selected transform.


• Selecting a different transform will change the highlighted variable names to those of the "active" variations used by that transform.


• This means less chance of changing the wrong transform's variables and wondering why the changes aren't doing anything.

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Comments are welcome. If enough interest is generated, I'll post the sources and the Apo binary.

Note that the Delphi sources have been brought up to date with the Apo 2.08 sources on SourceForge.net, but are slightly modified from those versions due to the fact that I am using the free Turbo Delphi 2006 edition. This meant I had to make a couple of minor changes, since this version doesn't provide nice things like custom visual component installation (I had to move the design-time XML parsing component out of the forms, but they were nonvisual components anyway). Also, the System DCU did not provide ASM-callable System._RandInt and System._RandExt implementations (I wound up implementing my own, based on Delphi's sources).

Some of the code changes were actually made to support a layering implementation in Apo, which has since been removed (it basically worked, but I had no time to finish it) but the remaining functions worked well for previews etc. so I left them in.

The provided Apo binary (if and when I get it uploaded) was built against debug libraries, so it may run slightly slower than a version compiled against release libraries. (Oh, and I'm also using the trial version of the TMS scripting component, so you'll get a notification banner stating such when you run the provided binaries.)

Jed Kelsey, aka Lu-kout