TheXTech v1.3.7.1: A large pile of bugfixes with a taste of new features has arrived!
This update features a lot of platform-related improvements and stabilisation. Since this update the exclusive full-screen modes on some platforms (such as retro computers) are supported to maintain the graphics performance which is impossible with the regular configuration and windowed mode.
I just want to make a post that yesterday I released new stable versions of my software MIDI synthesizer libraries libADLMIDI (an OPL2/OPL3 FM synth based) and libOPNMIDI (an OPN2/OPNA FM synth based).
I hadn't released stable updates of them for a while, just having enough dev-version at everywhere. However, since I done several significant changes, I guess it's a time to release stable updates.
Most significant changes:
Both libraries now finally can play the same note twice in the same MIDI channel without "Device Change" workaround, this fixes playback of music like Heretic's E1M6 and some my custom remixes like this Cumbia Arabe shown in the attached video below.
I impemented support of more chip emulators, including accurate and heavy Nuked LLE emulators (however, they disabled by default since they require really powerful computer to work in real time).
Some glitchy emulators I replaced with nice YMFM emulators, however, they will be enabled when compiler supports C++14.
At libADLMIDI the experimental support for Serial-based hardware support has been implemented such as RetroWave OPL3 boards. It works right now via terminal player (adlmidiplayer) and via VLC plugin if configure properly.
The libADLMIDI now supports OPL2 chips too, before it supported OPL3 only.
Two-voice instruments might be squashed to single-voice if no enough chip channels available to increase polyphony.
At the DOS version of libADLMIDI player now allows to manually specify the hardware address, the type of chip (OPL2 or OPL3), and use Dual-OPL2 as duo-chip, but for polyphony, not for a stereo.
In recent two-three days you might already noticed that WohlSoft-Ru, Codehaus, and SMBX-38A were suddenly became unavailable. Everything on the server itself is okay, however the hosting provider (Rusonyx) received a massive continuous DDoS attack to their infrastructure that stole all the bandwidth and let several DNS servers to fail, and that of course affected my WohlSoft infrastructure too. In order to rescue the infrastructure, staff of the hosting provider decided to temporarily block entire foreign IP range (so, these servers became inacessible outside Russia). However, the server itself is absolutely fine and just works.
In order to keep the infrastructure work and being accessible to the rest of foreigners, I had to set up a reverse proxy using my second server called WohlNet (where SMBX Archive and other content is hosted), that works on independent infrastructure and is physically maintained by me.
Isincerelyapologizeforanyinconveniencecaused by myhostingprovider,andI will doeverythingtokeepresourcesavailable by alternative waysuntil the problem is fullyresolved and the main access will be fully repaired.
So, please use these mirror URLs to access the WohlSoft-hosted websites until the DDoS trouble will finally end, and please, share them to others:
Please see the detailed version of this post to see other mirror URLs were made earlier as a quick solution. They might be useful for cases when mirrors would not work.
We are announcing TheXTech's port to DSi, with a tech preview available for immediate release!
I, ds-sloth, am proud to present TheXTech's port to DSi, representing a nearly 100-fold reduction in the system requirements of SMBX 1.3. With 16 megabytes of system memory and 512 kilobytes of video memory, the DSi is truly a final frontier for TheXTech's optimization and porting, and nearly every system of the engine was rewritten or optimized in some way for this port.
TheXTech v1.3.7: The biggest New Year Gift for everybody!
This is a large update. We worked long and hard on this update, and we finally ready to present this big update for you all! This update will be the biggest in TheXTech's history and features a huge set of features, bugfixes, and improvements.
Thank you to @0lhi who served on our core development team for design and quality assurance from version v1.3.4 (2021) to v1.3.7 (2025). His contributions are much appreciated.
Most important changes
Widescreen and small-screen support, done right. No hacks, no editing luna.lua, no broken spawns. Play all of your favorite SMBX 1.3 content at your device's native resolution for a smooth and polished "remaster" experience, while the engine keeps track of which important items would have been onscreen (or offscreen!) in SMBX 1.3.
Classic playstyle for classic content. Disable TheXTech's unnecessary bugfixes and new features to play your SMBX 1.3 content the way its authors intended it, or go totally Vanilla (at your own risk).
An options overhaul. No more editing thextech.ini, every single game setting can be changed in the new in-game options menu.
Refined player select. A huge thank you to Savby for reimagining our text-based player select menus with an intuitive and colorful interface that feels right at home on your TV.
Multiple asset packs. TheXTech is good for more than just SMBX, and now you can conveniently switch between asset packs within the engine itself. Just add your extra asset packs to the assets subdirectory in your TheXTech folder, and switch by holding select at the main menu.
Beta 4P support. Ever wanted to play Battle Mode with 3 of your best frenemies? Now you can! This version introduces shared and split screen 4-player co-op and split screen 4-player battle. Please share your feedback and experiences with us so we can make it better!
The new BETA version of TheXTech 1.3.7-beta has been released!
This is a BETA version for the upcoming v1.3.7 release. We worked long and hard on this update, however, we still need additional testing before we can release a stable version. This update will be the biggest in TheXTech's history and features a huge set of features, bugfixes, and improvements.
Most important changes
Widescreen and small-screen support, done right. No hacks, no editing luna.lua, no broken spawns. Play all of your favorite SMBX 1.3 content at your device's native resolution for a smooth and polished "remaster" experience, while the engine keeps track of which important items would have been onscreen (or offscreen!) in SMBX 1.3.
Classic playstyle for classic content. Disable TheXTech's unnecessary bugfixes and new features to play your SMBX 1.3 content the way its authors intended it, or go totally Vanilla (at your own risk).
An options overhaul. No more editing `thextech.ini`, every single game setting can be changed in the new in-game options menu.
Refined player select. A huge thank you to Savby for reimagining our text-based player select menus with an intuitive and colorful interface that feels right at home on your TV.
Multiple asset packs. TheXTech is good for more than just SMBX, and now you can conveniently switch between asset packs within the engine itself. Just add your extra asset packs to the assets subdirectory in your TheXTech folder, and switch by holding select at the main menu.
Beta 4P support. Ever wanted to play Battle Mode with 3 of your best frenemies? Now you can! This version introduces shared and split screen 4-player co-op and split screen 4-player battle. Please share your feedback and experiences with us so we can make it better!
Known issues
Audio may be choppy on Old 3DS.
Texture load stutter is present on Wii.
The viewport is sometimes incorrect on Vita.
On Windows 10 when running OpenGL with some ~2006 Intel iGPU on laptop, game would crash (possibly fixed).
This release fixes several bugs that was found in the previous release of 1.3.6.5 as the possible final release of the 1.3.6.x branch. So, the next station is "1.3.7"!
Changelog for 1.3.6.6
New vanilla bugfixes:
Fix vanilla bug where vehicle could be vulnerable if player entered it during AltJump (requires frame perfect down press), guarded by compat flag "fix-vehicle-altjump-bug" (@ds-sloth)
Fix vanilla bug where vehicle could not be exited if player entered it while holding AltJump key, guarded by compat flag "fix-vehicle-altjump-lock" (@ds-sloth)
Fix vanilla bug where player can get softlocked if hit by a grabbable NPC while digging dirt, guarded by compat flag "fix-player-stuck-on-dirt" (Classic Mode) (@ds-sloth)
TheXTech bugfixes:
Fixed the problem when a touch screen is not detected on some Android devices (@Wohlstand)
Fix minor bug that caused certain configurations on macOS to crash on startup (@ds-sloth)
Fix Wii U bug where resizing the game screen could cause the game to crash (@ds-sloth)
Fix TheXTech 1.3.6.1 crash caused when a pet mount is eating the last NPC in the level and the eaten NPC is killed (@ds-sloth)
Fixed Wii U bug where game quits into the black screen instead of the Wii U's main menu when game started from the Aroma (@Wohlstand)
Fix TheXTech 1.3.6.1 inaccuracy allowing the player to dismount a vehicle when blocked by an NPC (@ds-sloth)
Fix TheXTech 1.3.6.1 bug where conveyor belts would sometimes not activate correctly (@ds-sloth)
Fix TheXTech 1.3.6.1 OpenGL bug where the shadow effect interacted inaccurately with bitmasked textures (@ds-sloth)
Fix TheXTech 1.3.6 bug where it was impossible to unpause while holding an item (@ds-sloth, thanks to SimplyMav for the report)
Fix TheXTech 1.3.6.1 bug where GIF masks for sizable block 261 were not loaded (@ds-sloth)
Fix TheXTech 1.3.6.1 bug where SMBX level version autodetection did not work for platforms (note that this logic will be fully removed in 1.3.7) (@ds-sloth)
Fix TheXTech 1.3.6.1 bug where NPCs on hidden layers were incorrectly allowed to chain-activate (The bug affected the outro scene of Dynamite Grotto in SRW2). (@ds-sloth)
Add workaround for TheXTech 1.3.6.1 Modern Mode inaccuracy where NPC clipping did not match SMBX 1.3 (This bug affected the same scene). (@ds-sloth)
Known issues
3DS and Wii ports do not run at the native system resolution.
Audio may be choppy on Old 3DS.
On Windows 10 when running OpenGL with some ~2006 Intel iGPU on laptop, game would crash (possibly fixed).
This is a minor update that adds some features, and fixes a variety of vanilla and TheXTech bugs found in the previous releases.
Changelog for 1.3.6.5
New features:
Added an experimental Sub-Hubs sub-system: it's will be possible to mark any level as a "sub-hub" where player can save the game and resume it from that level instead of the main hub (@Wohlstand)
Added the CopyVar command to the LunaScript which allows to copy value of one user variable to another (@Wohlstand)
Allow asset packs to customize Font 5 (outlined mixed-case font) (@ds-sloth)
Added automatical language detection for Vita (@Wohlstand)
Misc stability and performance improvements for the 3DS and Wii ports (@ds-sloth, @Wohlstand)
New vanilla bugfixes:
Fix vanilla bug where an incorrect frame gets shown when player attempts to enter the star-locked pipe, guarded by compat flag fix-visual-bugs (@Wohlstand)
Fix a vanilla graphical bug where an NPC emerging upwards from a block might use the wrong frame and width (@ds-sloth)
Fix the logical size of an NPC emerging downwards from a block, guarded by compat flag fix-npc-emerge-size (@ds-sloth)
Fix a vanilla bug where blocks could become intangible to NPCs after a coin switch was used (@ds-sloth)
Add a terminal velocity of 16 for lineguide platform blocks, guarded by compat flag fix-platform-acceleration (@ds-sloth)
TheXTech bugfixes:
Fix TheXTech 1.3.6 bug where auto movement on the world map was not reset when switching episodes (@ds-sloth)
Fix TheXTech 1.3.6 bug where dropping a player at the world map removed their mount (@ds-sloth)
Fix TheXTech 1.3.6.4 editor bug where NPCs could not be erased from a battle level (@ds-sloth)
The fails counter now increments whenever any player dies (not just P1) (@ds-sloth)
Add a workaround for a memory exhaustion error from lineguide platform blocks (@ds-sloth)
Fix TheXTech 1.3.6 bug where carefully-constructed single-frame wall clips would not work in TheXTech (@ds-sloth)
Fix TheXTech 1.3.6 bug where the vanilla player-filter-bounce bug was not correctly reproduced in TheXTech (@ds-sloth)
Fixed a leak of file descriptors in the translations sub-system (@Wohlstand)
Fixed the problem when anti-cheat trap will break levels in the editor (@Wohlstand)
Fixed the unexpected fade-in effect that gets played during any level quits by warps (@Wohlstand)
Fixed the incorrect work of the touch screen on PS Vita (@Wohlstand)
Known issues
3DS and Wii ports do not run at the native system resolution.
Audio may be choppy on Old 3DS.
On Wii U, can't run the WUHB-packed game via Aroma in the second time because of possible Aroma-side bug.
On Wii U, Attempt to quit the WUHB-ran game will lead a black screen when running it via Aroma.
On Windows 10 when running OpenGL with some ~2006 Intel iGPU on laptop, game would crash (possibly fixed).
Today (15'th of February, 2024) is a significant day: it has been exactly 10 years since the WohlSoft forum launched in 15'th of February, 2014. At that time, everything started with very simple researches over SMBX engine with the closed source code at that moment (you may find several related documents in the archive here).
As the founder of the forum and the entire WohlSoft team, I thank all those who are with us! And I also thank all those who have ever contributed to the development of the team's projects!
The new stable version of TheXTech 1.3.6.4 has been released!
This is a small update that fixes small a set of bugs found in the previous releases. This version includes a HOTFIX that fixes the startup crash on 32-bit Windows platforms and fixes random crashes that may happen with non-SIMD builds of the game.
Changelog for 1.3.6.4
Use OpenGL as the default renderer on supported platforms ("sdl" may be used in config.ini or at at the command line to request the SDL2 renderer)
Add ability to edit battle levels using in-game editor (@ds-sloth)
Fix bug where it was not possible to return to the main menu from an invalid battle mode level (@ds-sloth)
Fix vanilla bug where P2 could not close message box during shared screen coop (@ds-sloth)
Changed credits font id to 5 for outlines. (@0lhi)
Fix Emscripten bug where worlds created in the editor would get lost on page refresh (@ds-sloth)
Remove option "osk-fill-screen"; this behavior is now used whenever a touchscreen is active (@ds-sloth)
Fix TheXTech 1.3.6.1 crash on activating a joystick with an empty SDL name (@ds-sloth)
Fixed the TheXTech 1.3.6.3's startup crash on some 32-bit Windows systems. (@Wohlstand)
Removed config option "editor-edge-scroll" (enable by default on gamepads) (@ds-sloth)
Add ability to scroll in editor using mouse wheel or touchpad (@ds-sloth)
Fix TheXTech 1.3.6.1 bug where bitmask GIFs would sometimes be rendered incorrectly (@ds-sloth)
Fix TheXTech 1.3.6 bug where the editor could occasionally crash when placing warps (@ds-sloth)
Fix TheXTech 1.3.6 bug where the editor could not set the level name (used in battle mode) (@ds-sloth)
Fix TheXTech 1.3.6.1 bug affecting debug builds where the editor could crash when erasing objects (@ds-sloth)
Known issues
On Wii U, can't run the WUHB-packed game via Aroma in the second time because of possible Aroma-side bug.
On Wii U, Attempt to quit the WUHB-ran game will lead a black screen when running it via Aroma.
On Windows 10 when running OpenGL with some ~2006 Intel iGPU on laptop, game would crash (Possibly fixed).
On Emscripten, edited levels may be lost after closing the game.
