Hello everybody,

AFter long months of preparations and testing, we are proud to present the new version of the playroom client for windows today.
Here's the greatly awaited playroom 3.0 ! Let's make the point on the many improvements made in this major upgrade.

Arcade games

After an aborted attempt during the fifth anniversary event, the arcade mode is this time coming for good.

Audiogames, very different from the games you have known up to now and as their name says, which we will be able to host from now on inside the arcade mode, will immerse you inside accessible sound universes. That's an entirely new dimension that open today on the playroom, a dimension we are of course going to enrich as the time pass.
Our first title, Magic blocks, will let you dive into action with blocks, which you will have to make skillfully explode faster and faster in order to avoid being flooded of.

Magic Blocks, this name maybe reminds you something. That's indeed a game that has originally been created in 2008 by your Aminiel, at a time when multiplayer audiogames could still be counted with the hands.
A first attempt to reintroduce it on the playroom in 2013 quickly failed due to a too big demand in server resources for the architecture present at that time.
This time, it is back for good. Multiplayer mode isn't yet available though, but it will be soon, too.

Coming back to arcade mode more globally, it wasn't an easy task to put it in place ! After several failed attempts, though, we finally arrived today to an important milestone after 7 years of development.
Arcade mode is using a specific programming language inspired by BGT, a well known audiogame development toolkit for blind developers. The objective of this integration is eventually to allow external contributions.
You are developer and you would like to see your own game available on the playroom ? This isn't possible yet, but our efforts are actively going toward that direction.

We hope that you will enjoy arcade mode !

Bots in Chess and Go game

Version 3.0 comes with the possibility to play chess with bots. It wasn't possible in the old version because it required too much server resource to make an artificial intelligence play a so complex game. It's always the case.
However, there's something we didn't thought about: the option to make you download an external game engine, so that the robot can play locally, using the power of your own machine.
When you request to play for the first time in chess with a bot, a game engine will thus be downloaded. WE chosen Stockfish engine, because it is free to use, not too hard to set up, and can play to a configurable difficulty level.
Warning though, that's apretty difficult opponent, even at minimum level !

We also have added another quite well known strategy game with the same idea, the game of Go. Originating from Asia and several thousends of years old, it comes to the occidental world a little more than one century ago.
These few last years, its name came back out again from darkness, because Google managed to create an artificial intelligence able to beat the world champion only recently, while machines perfectly master chess since at least 35 years. Go is thus quite more complex than chess.
We chosen the engine GNU Go to play it with bots. Like Stockfish, it's a free to use engine with configurable difficulty level. It is relatively old and didn't got the latest progresses from Google, thus it is said to be much less intelligent. This is far more than enough for it to largely beat the simple little amateur that we are, though.

We hope that these progresses will give you mood to play chess and discover the game of Go !

Security is back

You probably remember that sad day of January, where you were many to think that the playroom was no longer working. WE have been required to temporarily abandon all the security we started to put in place since version 2.2.8.
With version 3.0, all that security is back, and we have even enforced it more !

Network communications will from now on entirely use SSL/TLS. Encryption is ensured from end to end from your machine to our servers.
You don't have to worry any longer. You, and you alone, are allowed to access your private discussions.

However, please bear in mind that, even if end to end encryption is back again, the greatest danger for security stays the password of your account. Human beings are always the weakest link of security.
Never give your password to anyone, and especially not to people in which you have trust today but may harm you tomorrow. Check that it is complex enough by mixing uppercase and lower case letters, numbers and special characters.
Finally, if you have any tiny doubt that anyone could have got access to your account without your knowledge, change it immediately !

Even more simplicity

The client 3.0 also includes a serie of small new features, totally optional but so essential !

• Auto login: the login dialog box is annoying ? You can now get definitely rid of it and join the playroom easier and quickier !
• Reduce to taskbar: you want to stay online all the day without always having the playroom window open ? This feature is for you !
• Integrated browser: you have forgotten the rules of a game ? Ctrl+F1 now opens an integrated web browser. That's easier, simpler, and when you have finished reading, you can go back to what you were doing without being intimidated by the browser of the system.
• Improved graphics: the games which had graphics have been improved slightly.
• Service status: connection to the playroom don't work ? Don't panic ! A web page now allows you to quickly and simply know if the problem is coming from you or from us, and to stay informed of what's going on.

The way to set volume of sounds and streams has changed, by the way. Press F6 to select what kind of volume to change, F7 to lower it and F8 to raise it.

Abandonning Windows XP and Vista

The arrival of client 3.0 sadly cannot come without bad news: it isn't compatible with Windows XP and Vista.
If you are still using these legacy systems, you simply won't be able to upgrade; you will have to stay to version 2.2.8.

Now that version 3.0 is available, the old 2.2.8 is doomed to disappear soon. IN this perspective, we suggest you to switch at least to Windows 7.
The 3.0 update will very soon be mandatory for all those who can do it, and version 2.2.8 will progressively become more and more restrained before being definitely put out of circuit. It will be completely unusable at most in a few months.

We remind you that Windows XP no longer receive any update, including critical security ones since 2014, and Windows Vista since 2016. Even active support for Windows 7 ceased in 2020 for individuals.
According to Microsoft, you should already have upgraded since then, but it's never too late to do it now.
Note that the playroom remains quite conservative by continuing to accept Windows 7 !

Wrapping up

With the whole work we put in this new 3.0 client, we hope that it will bring you its deserved satisfaction.
If development took so much time, that's because we bet on an intensive beta-test phase, with the goal to solve many kinds of problems without impacting all regular players that don't have the time or the knowledge to help us.
Some players have hard time to update, despite all what we do to make them as transparent and painless as possible, that's why we always try to limit them to the minimum.
All players will progressively get a proposition to update in the next few days.

By the way, we warmly thank all those who participated in beta-test. If the new client is stable and works well, that's thank to all the points you reported to us since a couple of months.
This is a crowning achievement after 3 years of work. We ourselves tested 4 technologies and 3 programming languages for arcade mode before definitely choosing the right one. And more than 500 users participated in the beta-test !

We wish you to greatly enjoy the new client 3.0. Long live the playroom !

Hi Aminiel how can I download the stable version of Playroom 3.0? Thanks, Pierpaolo Tieri

Hi.

Can't download it from the website, it isn't updated there.

Hello,
first of all, thank you very much for your time with the development.
It was a pleasure to test this version and make it as stable as possible for everyone.

The update from 2.2.8 to V3 went without problems here, other than the issue we already talked about in the beta topic with disconnections during the update, so I had to try it a few times, but finally after it was downloaded everything works as expected.

A few remarks:

• For everybody, as said, the V3 will roll out progressively as an update.
It indeed currently isn't on the quick links section of the website, not sure when that will be updated, but for now, you can download the latest V3 at http://qcsalon.net/autodl/qcgc-setup.exe
keep in mind that this version will replace your existing V2, and that you will have to configure your client settings again, such as channels and views.

• A small remark about the forum post, the link to the magic blocks rules is incorrect.
Instead of /magicblocks, it should rather be /en/magicblocks
too much work probably made you tired when writing :)

• Finally, also maybe make one more heading to mention improvements in Chess, the possibility to play with bots and the new GO game, it could be useful for those who didn't participate in the testing and especially to make it clear to look for the rules online as it's a complex game.

Looking forward to seeing how multiplayer will be implemented in Arcade games, and in general which new and interesting audiogames we will get!

Good luck!

Hi,
I know this is a small problem, but I think it is worth commenting (I also did it in the forum of the Spanish Playroom).
I use a braille display. In version 2.8 stable, when I scroll through the messages with page up and down, I can read them with the display normally. However, this does not happen with betas, I can only read them from the history (of course, bypassing the screen reader at all times).
On the other hand, and this may have been said before, I have noticed that the history no longer scrolls to the bottom automatically when new messages appear. As a suggestion, would it be possible to add an option in the settings to enable or disable it to the user's liking?
Congratulations on all the work done :)
Thanks and regards.

Hi,
I can't answer the first problem since I don't have a braille display, but for the second one, there is a way to always make the history scroll to the bottom.
After you are done reading the history, make sure to leave the cursor on the last blank line, basically just press CTRL end in the history edit field.
Now, if you perform some actions, the history edit field will remain at the bottom so you can read.

hi today playroom ask me to update and after update it i find it heavy strange for example when press q it not make me go out of table many problem in this update why?

Congratulations on the new game update

some short keys not works such as q for go out b to add bot what is solve ?

After I updated, Playroom seems to revert back to the default sounds. How can I get the custom sounds working again?

hi aminuel. Thanks and congrats for the update. i wish you great success. I'm gunna download the update and see the great stuff. Thanks again

Playroom a bit slow for me, but that could be dew to my internet connection. Otherwise, it's fine so far.

Hi,
at this very moment it's slow for me too, and very, very unstable.

On the positive side, I don't think this is client related, I think it's an issue with OVH - the Playroom's hosting provider since I also have trouble accessing some other websites hosted with them.
Hopefully it's solved soon.

Edit: Here at least, everything seems to now be back to normal.

hello guys!

see news for mobile devices or the web version?

Thanks so much for adding Braille support to the client. Although I must ask why it wasn't included in the release notes? I think people will want to know about it.

omg i love this this is ausom bit complicated with magicblocks

Hello,
@Aminiel when you have some time, please check the Playroom email.

Unfortunately, there is a really serious security flaw in arcade games at the moment. I described it there in greater detail.

Hi! First of all, thanks for all the work that developing this has involved.
Secondly, I want to report the message that, at least for people who have our PlayRoom in Spanish, is appearing when the update is offered from the 2.2.8 client.
diálogo DwnlMsg1
DwnlAuto botón
And the options are:
DwnlAuto botón
DwnlManu botón
DwnlLater botón
I know what they mean, because I had the beta version and it is well-translated there, but I have read some people at forum wondering what's going on with their clients and I think it is worth to let you know it.
Regards!

Hi,
Congratulations for the new release! The 3.0 version is very snappy. I really like it since the beta version.

@Lieta:
Thank you very much for your report.
However, I'm afraid I won't be able to do anything. The translations were probably missing when 2.2.8 came out years ago, and nobody ever noticed it until today.

Congratulations. Nice work. Can you also add the help for
go?

I have a problem where the title of the game window is QCGCWX30 and then my username
What is the solution?
greetings

Hi,
that sounds like a missing translation.
Are you using the client in English?

When you press F10 to go to options, and then, for example, general, do you get options displayed normally or as strange, string names?
If the latter, try going to your user folder\AppData\roaming\QCGCWX30\lang and seeing if the file named client_en.tm exists.

At worst, reinstalling the client should fix it.

Hi,
Something I failed to request when this was in Beta. Could you add an option to show the about dialog while logged in somewhere? Thanks!

Hello,
it already exists.
You can access it either by pressing the Alt key to open the system menu, and then activating the about option, or via applications key on the system tray icon.

Oh, I didn't know that, thanks! Well thought!

thank you Nikola the problem has been resolved after reinstalling it again

I know this is a stupid question, but where can I see what's new in 3.0?

Hello,
the major changes are listed right in the first post of this topic.

I want to suggest something, but don't know how can I contact the developer. Page offers two versions of the playroom, one for XP and Vista (2.2.8) and another for 7/8/10 (3.0). Theoretically, the 3.0 client don't support Vista, but I used it in that system without any kind of bug! I just suggest to add Vista in the list of supported Operating Systems of 3.0 client because it works very well there. It's true that it don't work in Windows XP, and I'm prety sure that it don't work in XP because it is compiled with Visual Studio 2019. Visual Studio 2019 just don't allow you to compile programs for XP, but it can compile for Vista and newer. Another example where the same happens is the game Constant Battle. It is programmed in BGT, so it should work in XP. But it don't work in XP giving you some dll errors, but surprisingly work on Vista! The developer of Constant Battle once told me that it can't compile for XP with Visual Studio Code 2019. I probably won't post or read here in the English forum, so if Aminiel or someone here wants more information you can send me a pm using the playroom.