Phaser v3.12.0 Beta 2 Release

FlatTintPipeline Updates

In 3.11 I overhauled the TextureTintPipeline, the WebGL batch used to render all texture based Game Objects, such as Sprites. In this release I did the same to the FlatTintPipeline. This pipeline was used exclusively by the Graphics Game Object to draw filled and stroked primitives in WebGL. It was also used by classes such as the Camera in order to draw their colored backgrounds and flash / fade effects.

When I looked closely at the shaders being used by the texture and graphics pipelines I noticed they were virtually identical. Yet if you were to mix Graphics objects and Sprites in your game, it would cause a complete batch flush as it switched between the them as it rebound the shaders, adding to both the draw calls and gl ops per frame.

The more I looked through the graphics pipeline, the more I saw the same kind of things the texture one previously had: duplicate vars, in-line matrix operations and so on. So I worked through the process of refactoring it, boiling it down to just a handful of core methods and re-using methods the texture pipeline already had. The end result is that I've been able to remove the FlatTintPipeline entirely. This saves 42.3KB (unminifed) and removes 1000 lines of code from the build. Of course, lots of the methods were added to the texture pipeline, but that only increased from 730 sloc to 1087 sloc, a fraction of the amount before! And the benefits don't end there.

If you had any custom pipelines that extended the FlatTintPipeline please update them to extend the TextureTintPipeline instead. You'll likely need to remap a few methods, but most of them remain the same. Double-check the method signatures though.

The same pipeline can now draw both graphics and sprites, with the same shader and no texture swapping either. This means you can happily mix Graphics objects alongside Sprites and it won't cost any extra overhead at all. There are more benefits too, which are outlined in the list below.

• The TextureTintPipeline now has 100% jsdoc coverage.
• The removal of the FlatTintPipeline shaves 42.3KB and 1000 sloc from the bundle size.
• The Graphics fill and line styles are now cached in the pipeline, rather than being re-calculated for every primitive drawn.
• The new batchTri method will add a triangle to the vertex batch, either textured or filled.
• drawFillRect is a new method that will add an untransformed rectangle to the batch. These are used by things like Cameras to fill in background colors.
• batchFillRect has been moved to the TextureTintPipeline and has a new much more concise method signature.
• batchFillTriangle has been moved to the TextureTintPipeline and has a new much more concise method signature.
• batchFillPath has been moved to the TextureTintPipeline and has a new much more concise method signature.
• batchLine has been moved to the TextureTintPipeline.
• When drawing Graphics paths with a line width of 1 it will no longer spend any time drawing the line joins, speeding-up the rendering of 1px lines.

WebGL Scissor Update

The process of managing scissors in the WebGLRenderer has been completely rewritten. Previously, the gl scissor was being constantly enabled and disabled for every Camera in your game, leading to pointless gl operations.

• Cameras have a new internal method updateSystem which is automatically called if you change any Camera viewport values. This in turn tells the Scene Manager if there are any cameras with custom viewports, in any Scene of your game. If there are not then the scissor is never even enabled or set, meaning zero gl ops! If your game uses full sized Cameras it now doesn't cost anything at all with regard to scissoring.
• If a new scissor is set it will now check to see if it's the same size and position as the current scissor, and if so, it'll skip setting it at all.

Render Texture New Features and Updates

The Render Texture class has been rewritten from scratch and all Game Objects have been updated to support it. Previously it was very restricted in what you could do with it. It used to have a matrix stack for internal transforms, but this has been replaced with a Camera instead. This means you have the full power of a Camera system (scrolling, zooming, rotation) but it only impacts the contents of the Render Texture.

• The biggest update is the change in what the draw method can accept. Previously you had to pass is a texture and frame reference. This has changed, as has the method signature. It can now accept any of the following:

  • Any renderable Game Object, such as a Sprite, Text, Graphics or TileSprite.
  • Dynamic and Static Tilemap Layers.
  • A Group. The contents of which will be iterated and drawn in turn.
  • A Container. The contents of which will be iterated fully, and drawn in turn.
  • A Scene. Pass in Scene.children to draw the whole display list.
  • Another Render Texture.
  • A Texture Frame instance.
  • A string. This is used to look-up a texture from the Texture Manager.

• There is a new method drawFrame which allows you to pass in a string-based texture and frame key and have it drawn to the Render Texture.

• The new method saveTexture allows you to save the Render Texture into the Texture Manager using your own key. You can then use the Render Texture for any Game Object that accepts textures as a source, such as Sprites or even Tilemap Layers. You can add frame data to a Render Texture using the RenderTexture.texture.add method.

• The new camera property is an instance of a complete 2D Camera. You can use it to change the view into your Render Texture. Scroll, rotate, zoom, just like you would with a normal Camera, except it will only influence is the objects being drawn to the Render Texture.

• All of the matrix-style methods have been removed: save, translate, restore, scale, rotate. You can now achieve the same thing by either transforming the object you want to draw to the Render Texture, or using the built-in Camera.

• You can now crop a Render Texture. Use the setCrop method to define the crop region.

See the fully complete documentation for more details and the extensive examples and tests created.

Text Game Object New Features and Updates

The Text Game Object has been given an internal overhaul to make it more flexible. Some properties have been renamed or moved and new features added:

• Text can now be cropped in WebGL and Canvas! Use the setCrop method to crop the text.
• Text now keeps a reference to the renderer in the renderer property.
• The canvasTexture property has been removed.
• Text now has internal texture and frame properties. These replace the old canvasTexture but perform the same task, while allowing for texture cropping and much smaller renderer code.

Tile Sprite Object New Features and Updates

The Tile Sprite Game Object has been given an internal overhaul to make it more flexible. Some properties have been renamed or moved and new features added:

• Tile Sprites can now be cropped in WebGL and Canvas! Use the setCrop method to crop the tile sprite.
• There is a new method setTileScale which will set the tile scale in a chainable call.
• There is a new internal canvas property. Tile Sprites work differently than before in Canvas mode: Previously they would use the fillRect command on the game canvas to draw themselves every frame, even if they hadn't changed. They now draw to an internal canvas only when their position or scale changes. This canvas is then drawn to the game canvas instead. It's faster, as it doesn't fillRect every frame and also allows you to draw them to other contexts, such as Render Textures.
• There are two new internal properties _tilePosition and _tileScale which are Vector 2s that hold the position and scale. Getters have been added, so use the same properties as before in your code.
• There are two new properties displayTexture and displayFrame. These replace the previous texture and frame properties and hold references to the source texture the Tile Sprite is using.
• The canvasPattern property has been renamed to fillPattern.
• The oldFrame property has been removed.
• The canvasBuffer property has been renamed to fillCanvas.
• The canvasBufferCtx property has been renamed to fillContext.

New Features

• Camera.resolution is a new read-only property that holds the current game config resolution that the camera is using. This is used internally for viewport calculations.
• Text.resolution and the method Text.setResolution allows you to control the resolution of a Static Text Game Object. By default it will be set to match the resolution set in the Game Config, but you can override it yourself via the TextStyle. It allows for much clearer text on High DPI devices, at the cost of larger internal Canvas textures for the Text - so please use with caution, as the more high res Text you have, the more memory it uses up. Fix #3528 (thanks @kirillbunin)
• TransformMatrix.getCSSMatrix will return a CSS transform matrix formatted string from the current matrix values.
• CacheManager now creates a new cache called html which is used to store all loaded HTML snippets.
• FileType.HTML is a new file type loader that will load an HTML snippet and store it in the new html cache. Access it via load.html (this method was previously used to load html to textures, please see load.htmlTexture for this feature now)
• TransformMatrix.getX is a new method that return the x component from the given x and y values based on the current matrix. This is used heavily in the pipelines.
• TransformMatrix.getY is a new method that return the y component from the given x and y values based on the current matrix. This is used heavily in the pipelines.
• TransformMatrix.copyToArray is a new method that will copy the matrix values to the given array. It's the counter-part of copyFromArray.
• Graphics.setTexture is a new WebGL only method that allows you to set a texture to be used when drawing the shapes on the Graphics object. You can also specify how the texture should be blended with the current fill or gradient colors. Note that the texture is not tiled, it is stretched to fit the shape being drawn.
• Graphics.fillGradientStyle is a new WebGL only method that allows you to set a gradient for the shapes being filled. You can control the colors at the 4 corners of a rectangle. The colors are then blended automatically in the shader. Use of this feature is limited. For example, you cannot gradient fill a whole path or an arc, as it's made up of lots of triangles. But for quick gradient backgrounds or buttons it's perfect.
• Graphics.lineGradientStyle is a new WebGL only method that allows you to set a gradient for the shapes being stroked. You can control the colors at the 4 corners of a rectangle. The colors are then blended automatically in the shader. Use of this feature is limited. For example, you cannot gradient stroke a whole path or an arc, as it's made up of lots of triangles. But for quick gradient lines it's perfect.
• TextureManager.getBase64 is a new method that will take a texture frame key and return a base64 encoded version of the frame. You can also provide the image type and encoder options.
• Global Plugins now have a new optional data object, the contents of which are passed to the plugins init method. This allows users to pass data directly into a plugin when added in the config: { key: 'BankPlugin', plugin: BankPluginV3, start: true, data: { gold: 5000 } } or when adding a plugin via the install method (thanks @samme)
• You can now play animations in reverse! Use the new Sprite.anims.playReverse method to play a pre-defined animation in reverse from its starting frame. Or call Sprite.anims.reverse to immediately reverse the flow of an already running animation. Animations running in reverse still count towards the repeat total and respect the yoyo flag (thanks @khaleb85)
• The ParticleEmitterManager now has the Transform component. This means you can now set the position, rotation or scale of the Emitter Manager, and it will influence every Emitter it is rendering. The Managers transform is mixed with that of the Camera. This works in both Canvas and WebGL.
• TextureManager.addRenderTexture is a new method that will add a Render Texture into the Texture Manager, allowing you to use it as the texture for Game Objects just by using the texture key. Modifying the source Render Texture will immediately modify any Game Objects using it.
• TextureSource has a new boolean property isRenderTexture which is set automatically when it's created.
• The Canvas Renderer has a new method setContext which allows it to swap the context being drawn to by all draw operations. Call the method with no arguments to reset it to the default game canvas.
• If you set window.FORCE_WEBGL or window.FORCE_CANVAS in the window in which the Phaser game is loaded it will over-ride the renderer type setting in your game config, and force either WebGL or Canvas. This is handy for quickly testing the differences between renderers without having to do a new build each time.
• TextureSource.source is a new property that contains the original source of the Texture image. It is cleared when the source is destroyed.
• TransformMatrix.copyToContext is a new method that will copy the values from the Matrix to the given Canvas Rendering Context.
• Phaser.Utils.String.UUID will return an RFC4122 complaint UUID as a string. This is used internally to avoid cache key conflicts, but is exposed for your own use as well.
• There is a new Crop Component which is used by non-texture based Game Objects, such as Text and TileSprite. You either use TextureCrop or Crop, not both together on the same object.
• TransformMatrix.setToContext is a new method that will set the values from the Matrix to the given Canvas Rendering Context using setTransform rather than transform.
• SetTransform is a new Canvas Renderer function that consolidates the process of preparing a Game Object for rendering, without actually rendering it. This is used internally by the Graphics and Bitmap Text classes.
• The Texture Manager has a new method called renameTexture which will let you rename a texture, changing the key to the new one given. All existing Game Objects will still maintain their reference, even after a rename.

Updates

• The Camera class has been split into two: BaseCamera which contains all of the core Camera functions and properties, and would serve as a great base for you to extend for your own custom Cameras, and Camera which is the same name space as previously. Camera extends the Base Camera and adds in follower support and the Special Effects. You don't need to update your code, even if currently extending a Camera, as they work the same as before.
• Camera.x and Camera.y have been turned into getters / setters, mapped to the internal private values _x and _y respectively. This is so that setting the Camera viewport position directly will now update the new internal resolution calculation vars too.
• Camera.setScene will now set the Cameras resolution property at the same time and update the internal viewport vars.
• The Cull Tiles method used by the Dynamic Tilemap Layer has had a nice and significant optimization. It will now use the cull area dimensions to restrict the amount of tile iteration that takes place per layer, resulting in dramatic reductions in processing time on large layers, or multiple layers (thanks @tarsupin)
• GameObject.willRender now takes a Camera as its only argument and uses it within the check. This has allowed me to remove 23 duplicate checks spread across the various Game Objects, all of which did the same thing, saving both KB and CPU time as the flags were being checked twice in most cases.
• The file type loader HTML has been renamed to HTMLTexture. If you were using this then please change your calls from load.html to load.htmlTexture. The arguments remain the same.
• The setBlendMode method in the WebGL Renderer now returns a boolean. True if a new blend mode was set, otherwise false. Previously in returned a reference to the renderer instance.
• The load.html method has been renamed to load.htmlTexture.
• The method batchVertices in the TextureTintPipeline has been renamed to batchQuad which more accurately describes what it does.
• In ArcadePhysics Body.setSize you can now choose to not pass width and height values to the method. If you do this it will check to see if the parent Game Object has a texture frame, and if so, it will use the frame sizes for the Body dimensions (thanks @tarsupin)
• PluginCache.destroyCorePlugins will remove all core plugins from the cache. Be very careful calling this as Phaser cannot restart or create any new Scenes once this has been called.
• PluginCache.destroyCustomPlugins will remove all custom plugins from the cache.
• PluginManager.destroy will now clear all custom plugins from the Plugin Cache. This fixes an issue with not being able to destroy a Phaser game instance and restart it if it used a custom plugin (thanks jd.joshuadavison)
• Game.destroy has a new boolean argument noReturn. If set it will remove all Core plugins when the game instance is destroyed. You cannot restart Phaser on the same web page after doing this, so only set it if you know you're done and don't need to run Phaser again.
• The MouseManager will no longer process its native events if the manager reference has been removed (i.e. you move the pointer as the game is destroying itself)
• The TouchManager will no longer process its native events if the manager reference has been removed (i.e. you move the pointer as the game is destroying itself)
• Particle.color has been removed as it's now calculated during rendering to allow for Camera alpha support.
• The Game boot event flow has changed slightly. The Game will now listen for a texturesready event, which is dispatched by the Texture Manager when the default textures have finished processing. Upon receiving this, the Game will emit the ready event, which all the other systems listen for and respond to. The difference is that the Renderer uses the texturesready event to ensure that it is the first thing to be activated, before any other system.
• The WebGLRenderer has a new property blankTexture which is a reference to an empty 32x32 transparent WebGL Texture. This is used internally for things like rendering Graphics with no texture fills and where no other texture has been set.
• The WebGLRenderer has a new method setBlankTexture which forces it to set the blank texture as the current texture. This is used after drawing a Render Texture to ensure no other object tries to draw to itself.
• The StaticTilemapLayer has had the following properties and methods added to it: skipCull, tilesDrawn, tilesTotal, cullPaddingX, cullPaddingY, cullCallback, setSkipCull and setCullPadding as these are all used by the Canvas Static Layer renderer. Static Layers in 3.11 didn't render in Canvas because the cull values were missing, but now render correctly and can also be rendered to other targets, like a Render Texture.
• The Math.Snap methods Snap.Floor, Snap.Ceil and Snap.To have all gained a new optional boolean argument divide. If set the resulting snapped value will be divided by the gap amount before returning. This is handy if you're trying to quickly snap a value into a grid or array location.
• The currentBlendMode property has been removed from the Canvas Renderer and is no longer checked by any class. Blend modes are now set directly on the context to avoid state saving invalidation.
• The currentAlpha property has been removed from the Canvas Renderer and is no longer checked by any class. Alpha values are now set directly on the context to avoid state saving invalidation.
• TextureCrop and Crop have a new method resetCropObject which generates the crop data object required by Game Objects that support cropping. This allows us to remove duplicate code from a number of Game Objects and replace it with a single function call.
• The Canvas Renderer has a new batchSprite method that consolidates the process of drawing a texture-based Game Object to the canvas. It processes the alpha, blend mode and matrix calculations in a single function and now is used by nearly all Game Object canvas renderers.
• The batchTexture method in the Texture Tint Pipeline now supports cropped Game Objects and will adjust the drawn texture frame accordingly.
• The Matrix Stack Component has been removed. It's no longer used internally and was just wasting space.
• You can now specify the lineHeight of a Retro Font in the Retro Font Config object (thanks @FelixNemis)
• When a Static Tilemap Layer is generated in WebGL it will use the Cameras roundPixels value to clamp the tile coordinates.
• The CanvasRenderer.DrawImage function has been removed, as has the associated drawImage property from the Canvas Renderer as they're no longer used.
• The CanvasRenderer.BlitImage function has been removed, as has the associated blitImage property from the Canvas Renderer as they're no longer used.
• You can now access the Game instance directly from a Scene using this.game as long as it exists in the Scene's Injection Map, which it does by default. Be very careful what you do here: there's next to nothing you should actually use this for.
• Camera.ignore can now take nested-arrays of Game Objects and also supports both Groups and Containers.

Game Config Resolution Specific Bug Fixes

Setting the resolution property in the Game Config to a value other than 1 would cause various errors in the API. The following have been fixed:

• The game canvas would be sized incorrectly, unless you had enabled auto resizing. It now scales the canvas to the size given, maintaining the resolution. Fix #3468 (thanks @Legomite)
• Cameras with background colors set would display the filled color area at the wrong size. Camera fills now respect the resolution.
• The Camera Fade Effect would display the fade fill rectangle at the wrong size. Camera fades now respect the resolution.
• The Camera Flash Effect would display the fade fill rectangle at the wrong size. Camera flashes now respect the resolution.
• The Camera Shake Effect would shake the Camera using the wrong width values. Camera Shakes now respect the resolution.
• Input calculations would not factor in the Game Resolution correctly. If a Camera viewport was not at 0x0 or not the full size, or the Camera was rotated or zoomed, the input areas would be wrong if resolution was > 1. These are now factored in correctly and changing the resolution no longer breaks input. Fix #3606 (thanks @Secretmapper)

Bug Fixes

• The setCrop method stored its crop object on the prototype chain by mistake, causing all Images or Sprites that were cropped to display the same frame. The crop data has been moved to the Game Object instance, where it should be, fixing this issue (thanks NoxBrutalis)
• If an AudioFile failed to load and throw an incomplete error, it would cause the console.log to crash JavaScript when trying to log the error. It now only logs the message if it exists. Fix #3830 (thanks @kelostrada)
• Particles using a blend mode wouldn't render correctly after the updates in 3.11. If the blend mode changes during the processing of an emitter manager it'll now correctly rebind the texture, stopping the particles from vanishing. Fix #3851 (thanks @maxailloud)
• Adding an array of children to a Group would cause it to mistakenly think you were passing a config object. Fix #3854 (thanks @pedro-w)
• Graphics paths in WebGL would not render the line join between the final and the first path if the path was closed, leaving a noticeable gap if you used particularly thick strokes. If the path is closed it will now render the final line join properly.
• If a Mesh caused a batch flush it would fail to render as its texture was lost. It's now rebound correctly after the flush.
• ArcadePhysics.closest and ArcadePhysics.furthest used the wrong tree reference, causing them to throw errors (thanks @samme)
• BlitterCanvasRenderer would fail to render a Bob in Canvas mode if it was flipped (thanks @SBCGames)
• RenderTexture.draw would fail to draw the frame in Canvas mode (thanks @SBCGames)
• ParticleEmitter would fail to draw a textured particle in Canvas mode (thanks @SBCGames)
• RenderTexture.preDestroy will now release the canvas back to the CanvasPool if running in canvas mode (thanks @SBCGames)
• The alpha value is now always set for Render Textures in canvas mode, regardless of the previous alpha value in the renderer (thanks @SBCGames)
• Zone now calls updateDisplayOrigin in its constructor, causing the displayOriginX and displayOriginY values to now be correct if you create a Zone and then don't resize it. Fix #3865 (thanks @rexrainbow)
• The CameraManager was accidentally adding extra destroy event calls when a Scene was restarted, causing an Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'events' of null when trying to destroy a game instance having swapped from a Scene to another, and back again. Fix #3878 (thanks @mbunby)
• RenderTextures in WebGL will now set the viewport size, stopping the console warning in Firefox. Fix #3823 (thanks @SBCGames)
• Particles now take the Cameras alpha value into consideration when calculating their final alpha values in WebGL. They previously ignored it. If you now alpha a Camera out all particles will change accordingly.
• The CullTiles updates from 3.11 didn't factor in the position of the Tilemap Layer to its bounds calculations, causing Static layers displayed out of the Camera viewport to never render in Canvas mode. The method has also been optimized further, with less divisions and less checks if culling is disabled.
• The Particle Emitter when running in Canvas wouldn't allow more than 1 emitter to use a blend mode (as seen in the Electric examples). The blend mode is properly set for each emitter now.
• The Blend Mode is now set directly in all Canvas Renderers without comparing it to what's stored in the Canvas Renderer. This fixes problems where the blend mode would be lost between two different Game Objects because they restored the context, but didn't update the renderer flag. Game Objects in Canvas can now mix and match blend modes across the display list.
• Matter.js has received a tiny update that prevents collisionEnd from triggering many times when it should only trigger once (thanks @mikewesthad)
• Graphics objects couldn't be set to be ignored by Cameras. Now every renderable Game Object can be ignored by a Camera, either directly or via a Container. The exception are Groups because they don't render and are non-exclusive parents.
• The Tilemap Culling function now uses the Tilemap tile dimensions for its bounds calculations, instead of the layer tile sizes, as they two don't have to match and it's the underlying grid size that takes precedence when calculating visible tiles. Fix #3893 (thanks @Zax37)
• The Arcade Physics Body.speed property is now set whenever you set the velocity via setVelocity or setVelocityX or setVelocityY which stops the body velocity being reset to zero if useDamping is enabled. Fix #3888 (thanks @samme)

Examples, Documentation and TypeScript

My thanks to the following for helping with the Phaser 3 Examples, Docs and TypeScript definitions, either by reporting errors, fixing them or helping author the docs:

@SBCGames @rgk @rook2pawn @robbintt @bguyl @halilcakarr @PhaserEditor2D @Edwin222 @tfelix @yudikubota @hexus @guzmonne @ampled @thanh-taro @dcbriccetti @Dreaded-Gnu

Thanks to @khaleb85 for fixing the super-annoying lag on the API Docs pages when it hung the browser while indexing the search field.