This release updates the existing PB1.63w2 retail release to the current retail release version of PlayBasic V1.64h. Therefore you''ll need to install patch PB1.63w2 (at least) prior to this one ! (if you haven''t already)

     The PB1.64h package includes updates of PB Compiler, Release / Debug Runtimes, IDE V1.17 & DOCS. The main changes to this release (apart from bug fixes) would be the new image loading library. This library allows you to Load BMP,TGA,PNG (with alpha channels) directly into PB. Moreover this library is also used behind LoadMapGFX command, making it a lot less picky on the image format. Other changes are to the internal rendering routines. Which should now universally support rendering of the AFX images in any pixel format. AFX images are of course FX images with Alpha Channel.

     For example, you can load a PNG/TGA or even BMP (32bit) and have PB handle everything for you using the new LoadAFXimage and loadNewAFXimage commands. These commands ensure the surface is kept 32bit, regardless of the users display depth. So it'll just work. Previously you could use the PrepareAFXimage command to convert a loaded (or created) surface. But this process would fail if the users system was running the program in a 16 or 24bit display mode, due to their video hardware hardware. Why ? - Those formats have no Alpha bits. So creating a AFX surface from them is useless.

     One short coming that comes to mind, is that if you use GETIMAGE to cut frames from a larger AFX image, this might not work correctly when the users display depth is not equal to 32bit. So for the time being, it might be better to previously split those animations into a series of files. Not ideal, but at least you don''t have to use external libraries anymore. Although you can if you need to.