Ape Apps

So the Ape Apps Launcher has again been updated, this time to v1.6.5. This release fixes some bugs and also adds some new features.

Firstly, the previous release of Ape Apps Launcher has a bug related to auto-updating on Windows. If you are using Windows and you download the update, only to have the app restart to the same version you were on before, then you are impacted by the bug. To fix it, you can either re-download the app from the Ape Market, or you can navigate to the following directory on your PC:

C:\Users\YOUR USERNAME HERE\AppData\Roaming\Ape Apps Launcher\apps

and delete the folder named updatetmp. After that, the in-app auto-update will work again as intended, and this issue will no longer be present in future releases of the Launcher. Linux and macOS are not impacted by this bug.

This release also fixes a couple of bugs related to desktop launcher icons on Linux systems.

The launcher has been upgraded to a new base-release of the Electron framework, which I hope will help with come of the CPU issues @Ansom mentioned in a prior thread.

Finally, in-launcher Live Stream viewing has been added. There is a new video camera icon at the top of the launcher, and clicking on it will show all users who are currently live-streaming their gameplay.


As of now, game clients require a patch before they will show up in the Currently Streaming list, so no games will appear until the next cross-platform updates of the 4 games that currently support the Live Streaming feature (My Colony, Antiquitas, Gone Rogue, and Hell and Back). But the viewing functionality is now there in the launcher, and more exciting live-streaming related features will be coming across the entire Ape Apps ecosystem in the coming weeks.

Also over the coming weeks, and this will be important information for some people, I am going to discontinue packaging stand-alone desktop applications for distribution through the Ape Market, and instead be directing users to use either the Ape Apps Launcher or the Progressive Web Apps available on Ape Web Apps. At this point, both the Launcher and the PWA's are becoming mature to the point where either now allows you to install and launch an app as a stand-alone window straight from the OS without having to open the Launcher or navigate to Ape Web Apps first. Standalone desktop apps are also available for most apps on the Windows Store, and some are on Steam, for those who do not like the Launcher or the PWA's.

The reason for the change is because I am running out of storage space on my server to continue packaging and hosting stand alone desktop downloads for everything, and it also takes a lot of time and bandwidth to maintain. With the Launcher and the PWA's, I am still able to serve an extremely wide range of users with a lot less time and effort. In addition, the Launcher and PWA apps allow me to make across the board updates to every application in my library and push them out immediately to users, rather than having to go back and make a ton of updates to individual packaged applications.

There might be concern for those who wish to archive certain versions of games for posterity or so that they can install them in the future without an internet connection (or so they can still install the games after I get hit by a bus or something). I am working on a solution for those scenarios, where the Ape Apps Launcher will give you the option to extract an archive of any of my apps. You will then be able to double-click on that archive and the Launcher will open and run that game independently of the latest version on the market. For example, you could archive the current version of My Colony (1.12.0 I believe) to a file called something like my-colony-1-2-0.aal (theoretical extension), and you would then be able to double click on that file at any point in the future to launch that version of My Colony, even if the current version on the launcher is 1.50.0. Even if my server is long gone and dead, as long as you still have the archive file and the Ape Apps Launcher download, you would be able to run the application without issue.

So anyway, I reccomend that users of various stand-alone Ape Apps desktop apps to migrate over to either the Ape Apps Launcher or the Ape Web App edition (all of which can be installed to your system as a PWA). Doing so will ensure that you continue to receive fast automatic updates. Keep in mind that this change applies to apps downloaded through the Ape Market. Windows Store and Steam apps will continue to be updated as usual.

Ape Apps Launcher v1.6.3 is now available for all platforms and includes continued improvements to the platform. This thread takes a look at some of the new features added to a launcher, and a glimpse at what's to come.

Firstly, the context menu for your installed apps has been revamped. Now when you right-click on one of your installed apps, you have new options available, including a shortcut to all of your apps saved data. On Windows, you can add a launcher shortcut to the desktop or start menu, and on Linux you can now create application launchers for your individual apps which should work in Gnome, KDE, XFCE, and probably others.


New settings have also been added to the Windows and Linux clients to better tie the launcher in with your operating system. You might remember a few months ago that changes were made to the Launcher and other Ape Apps desktop applications that removed the self-installer package which automatically created desktop and start menu links for the launcher. Now if you go into settings, you can manually recreate those links.


Windows users also have the option to automatically start the Ape Apps Launcher in minimized-to-tray mode when booting their PC.

Deleting an app from the launcher now gives you an additional option to clean up all app saved data from your PC.

Other changes are going to be coming to the Launcher in the months ahead, leading up to the important release of My Colony 2. When you are logged in to your Ape Apps Account, instead of being taken to the all-available apps listing screen, there will be a new personalized home screen giving you information about your entire Ape Apps account and let you see what games your friends are currently playing, with one-click join game access on supported games (such as the upcoming My Colony 2, and current multiplayer games like Epic Advanture, Colony Wars, and Death 3d).

Another feature that will be making it's way to the Launcher is the ability to view live streams. Several Ape Apps games include streaming capabilities, such as My Colony, Antiquitas, Gone Rogue, and Hell and Back, but it is difficult to know who is streaming and when. A new streaming section will be added to the Launcher showing all players who are currently live-streaming their gameplay (unless they opt out of public listing). Players will also have the option to customize their streaming channel and even add a PayPal or Bitcoin address so that people can "tip" their stream (Ape Apps will not be a "middle man" or take a cut from any tips, it will be direct from user to user).

The Launcher is also getting a new TV mode with gamepad support. Many Ape Apps games already support gamepad, but the launcher itself does not. This mode is intended for users who have PC's hooked up to their TV, so that they can easily play games like My Colony (and MC2) on the big screen. Along with the new Launcher support for Linux on ARM, this can also be used with Raspberry Pi devices. I am also looking at adding a way to link local video folders to the launcher so that you can easily view and play your personal movie collection while in TV mode. This is a feature that I personally want, which is the main reason for it's development... 🙂

Anyway, those are the plans for now. Users for the Ape Apps Launcher have probably noticed an increase in update frequency over the last few weeks, and this is probably going to continue as the Launcher continues to improve and serve as the best way to enjoy Ape Apps software on your desktop. You can find download links for Windows, Mac, and Linux below:

https://market.ape-apps.com/ape-apps-launcher.html

#apeappslauncher

The Ape Apps Launcher has just been updated to v3.11.0 and gains a handful of important fixes for specific apps, PWA shortcut support, and support for the new web+apelauncher:// uri scheme.


The main change for this update is support for the new web+apelauncher:// uri scheme, which works in a similar manner to the Steam browser protocol (if you have the Steam app installed on your computer). Right now the protocol handler only works on the PWA version of the Launcher (and may require you to uninstall/reinstall the pwa before it activates), but it will soon come to the native Desktop clients as well. I am also considering releasing an Android client for the launcher, and it would also support the protocol launch.

The purpose of the launch protocol is to be able to launch or activate the Ape Apps Launcher with specific startup instructions, to open the launcher from other apps/websites, pass launch data or instructions into the launcher, etc. It will likely be expanded in the future as use-cases arise, but here are the currently supported launch endpoints:
So those are the protocol options as of now. As you might be able to tell (particularly evidenced by the web+apelauncher://friends endpoint), one of the purposes of this is for developer programmatic control of the launcher. Since the launcher is a PWA at it's core, it needs to be able to accept incoming data the "web way," and since protocol handling is widely supported on all platforms, the same protocol can be implemented for desktop and mobile platforms as well.

If you are developing any sort of application and would like to see a way to pass data/instructions/commands into the Ape Apps Launcher, please feel free to let me know and I can expand the protocol launching to fit many scenarios.

One cool thing that uri protocol launching could allow, which I have not yet implemented, would be the ability to launch Steam games from the Ape Apps Launcher. For example, if you have Steam installed, you can launch My Colony by clicking on a steam URL like this steam://launch/964130. So the Launcher could be made so that, if there is a Steam version of an Ape App available, it can launch that instead of it's own version, if the user wanted it to do so (for Steam stats perhaps). The user could also be given the ability to add any game from their Steam library to the Ape Apps Launcher, if they wanted to do such a thing.

There are actually a lot of different applications that can be launched using different URI protocols, so if you know of any that you think could be integrated into the Ape Apps Launcher for a useful reason, feel free to let me know!

https://launcher.ape-apps.com

#apeappslauncher

This is the new support forum section dedicated to the Ape Apps Launcher, a new desktop application for managing and launching all Ape Apps desktop applications.

The Ape Apps Launcher is available for free on the Ape Market for Windows (7/8/10 32 or 64 bit), macOS, and Linux. You can find the download page here:
https://market.ape-apps.com/ape-apps-launcher.html

What is the Ape Apps Launcher?

The Ape Apps Launcher serves several purposes. First, it makes it easier to download and install all Ape Apps desktop applications. Everything is contained and can be launched from a single application, and there is only one main program to download from the Ape Market website. After the initial download, everything is automatically managed and updated from the Launcher, so basically once you download the Ape Apps Launcher, it should be the last manual download from the Ape Market that you need to make.

The Ape Apps Launcher also keeps all Ape Apps desktop programs up to date on the latest "core" code base. More popular stand-alone desktop applications like My Colony and Antiquitas are usually manually updated fairly often, but this is often not the case for the less popular programs. Using the Ape Apps Launcher shares the core code base between all apps, keeping everything automatically up to date.

Since resources are shared between apps, individual game download sizes are greatly reduced. As an example, My Colony downloaded from the Ape Market by itself clocks in at about 180mb. Through the Ape Launcher, the download is only 10mb. That is a massive reduction, and makes updating faster for the user and less bandwidth intensive for the Ape Apps server.

Finally, from my perspective, the Ape Apps Launcher is infinitely easier to maintain and support. Packaging and distributing desktop applications for all of my apps and games is a time intensive process. Because of this, I often don't keep the Desktop versions of my games up to date with the Web and Mobile versions, especially on titles with lower usage. The Ape Apps Launcher solves this by automatically packaging and installing each app based on the latest stable Web code (not in-development code). Your desktop apps will always be up to date, even if an individual package has not been distributed on the Ape Market.

The Ape Apps Launcher is still new, and more features will be added along the way. Please use this new forum section for questions and feedback, and to give suggestions on how the launcher can be expanded and improved. Ideally, I would like the launcher to replace all of the stand-alone Desktop applications, as they really do take quite a bit of time to prepare, package, and distribute. Time which can be better served working on the actual games themselves! But that will all depend on user feedback and adoption. I'm not going to force people to use something they do not like, so give it a try and let me know how I can make it better and what direction the development should take!

A couple of weeks ago, I announced that I was considering discontinuing the Ape Apps Launcher and most of my native desktop applications in favor of directing users towards the Progressive Web App (PWA) edition of my apps and games.

The Ape Apps Launcher was first released in early 2018 using Electron, and was initially created because there were a lot of capabilities required by my apps that I was just not able to deliver through the web browser. In the last 3 1/2 years though, a lot has changed. Both Microsoft and Google have gone all-in on PWA's, and between the two of them, they make PWA's installable, offline capable, with almost the entire native all feature set on nearly every platform. Because of this, it no longer makes sense to put in all of the hours and effort required to maintain the Ape Apps Launcher and the native Desktop host platform, when their entire purpose is now integrated natively into every major platform.

That said, the Launcher does offer a few things not found on my website, and also provides a nice place to access everything Ape Apps from one single desktop application. I do recognize how handy it can be for some people, so going forward I plan to "sort of" keep the launcher going, but with a bit of a twist.

The Ape Apps Launcher itself is going to become a Progressive Web App, which you will be able to install on any device, even mobile. I will still maintain the native download edition of the application, but it will basically be a wrapper for the PWA. This will allow me to continue providing the capabilities of the launcher, but without having to maintain the separate Web App Core codebase for Electron. It also means I will be able to make updates to the Launcher itself without having to upload new binaries whenever I want to publish a change.

Similar to the new PWA launcher, I will also be releasing another PWA called Ape Web Apps TV Mode, which is sort of like the launcher except built with a 10 foot interface and can be controlled entirely using a gamepad. This is designed for computers connected to a TV (like home theater PC's) and gives a console-like interface and access to all of your Ape Apps games and applications. You will even be able to use the Ape Web Apps TV Mode launcher on gaming devices like the Xbox One/Series S/X, which will be getting the new Chromium based Edge soon, along with full PWA capabilities, or on Android TV devices. Below is an early-build screenshot of the TV Mode launcher.


You can think of the TV mode launcher as basically an Ape Apps gaming console that runs as an app within existing devices/consoles, and should give you access to the entire Ape Apps library on any television (you can also just use it on a PC or Phone if you have a bluetooth gamepad connected and prefer the interface).

So that it was is in store for the Launcher. There will not be any more work going in to the current Electron build of the application, as I move all important code directly to my server. If you are currently using the Ape Apps Launcher, it will automatically be upgraded to the new PWA-hosted edition once it is ready, so there is nothing you need to do. And I will make a separate post/announcement when the TV launcher is complete and ready for use.

#apeappslauncher

I have just released a new feature update to the Ape Apps Launcher which should now be available for download. This release brings in a few new features which will be further fleshed out in the months ahead. Let's take a look.

The first thing you will notice is that the positioning and lineup of the icons at the top-right of the window have changed a bit. The current layout looks like this:

From left to right, the first button brings you back to the normal "all apps" view that the launcher normally starts out in. The next button brings you to the settings screen. The third button opens up the new integrated Ape Chat window, the fourth button brings you to the new revamped inbox. To the right of that you will see the achievements you have unlocked on your Ape Apps account. To the right of that, you will see your default Token (from the My Tokens app, if you have set one), and finally your signed-in username.

As alluded to before, the Ape Chat service is now built right in to the launcher, and opens in it's own window. Opening chat this way will let you connect to all the channels you have participated in, including your commonwealth channels for My Colony. If the chat window is open but minimized, you will receive system notifications when you get new private messages or when a new message is posted in one of your connected chat channels. This is a handy way to know when somebody in your My Colony commonwealth is asking for something in chat, without even having the game loaded. A lot more features are going to be coming to Ape Chat in the coming months, so stay tuned for more on that!

The next new feature is the revamped mail icon. Before, I just showed you a little popup with all of the Conversations that you were a part of on the Ape Apps website (this website). Now it no longer shows Conversations, but the newer Inbox messages. It also shows private messages you have got in games that use the messaging feature, such as My Colony. The messages are also opened right from within the app now. Right now you can only read the messages, but I plan on adding full mailbox controls, including replies, deleting, composing, and implementing the "Sent Messages" folder.

The next new feature pertains only to Windows and Linux users. Now when you click on the window X button to close the launcher, it will minimize to the system tray instead of quitting completely.

You can still quit the launcher completely by simply right-clicking on the tray icon and selecting Exit. This is for people who keep the app open at all times for the auto-updating features, but don't like to have the launcher icon open in there taskbar the whole time.

On top of these changes, this update rolls up a whole host of bugs that had been identified since the last release and adds a new option to the Settings screen to turn off chat notifications.

Over the next several months, more improvements will be coming to the launcher. The inbox and mail management will be fully implemented. Clicking on the achievements will bring up a list of all of the games you have played, their high scores, and other information. I might have a way to close the chat window to the system tray as well. Also, right now when you click on your username you just get a sign out option. This will be changing to open up a new account management page similar to the options you get at accounts.ape-apps.com, so you can manager your entire Ape Apps account right from within the launcher instead of having to go to a separate website.

Finally, there is another change coming not just to the launcher, but to my apps on all platforms. With the coming full release of Colony Wars and other multiplayer games I am currently working on such as Epic Adventure and Death 3D (as well as Multiplayer Regions in My Colony), I think it is time to get Friends Lists added to the Ape Apps Account system so that you can easily see when other people are playing the games that you have. This will be coming to Ape Apps across the board, but will be fully baked into the launcher as well.

So anyway, that is it for today's Ape Apps Launcher update. I really hadn't made a ton of changes to it lately beyond simple bug fixes, so I thought I would post an update today on what is new, and what is coming down the pipe. Enjoy, and if you don't have the launcher yet, get it from the Ape Market here:

https://market.ape-apps.com/ape-apps-launcher.html

I mentioned before that changes were on the way for the Ape Apps Launcher, and today the online beta is available so that you can check out what those changes are.

Ape Apps Launcher v2.0.0 is going to be released for both Desktop (as it is today) and as an installable Progressive Web App. Behind the scenes though, both editions of the Launcher are going to be based on the Progressive Web App code, which means that I will be able to make updates to the Launcher without having to rebuild and upload binaries for the actual Desktop host applications.

To check out the beta and keep up on the progress, head here:

https://www.apewebapps.com/launcher.html

The Launcher is not yet installable as a PWA, but it will be soon. This URL will be the permanent home of the Ape Apps Launcher going forward.

In addition to the standard Launcher, I am developing another launcher called Ape Web Apps TV Mode. This is designed to be used with a gamepad and on devices that are connected to a television, such as an entertainment P, an Android TV/Fire TV device or through a console web browser. Ape Web Apps TV Mode is still a ways off, but it will give you quick and easy to control access to every Ape Apps that offers full gamepad support. It is sort of like the Ape Apps Launcher version of Steam Big Picture mode. You can see the early development work here, just make sure you have a gamepad set up.

https://www.apewebapps.com/tv.html

That is all for today. I am a bit stalled on My Colony 2 updates until I can get the new version of the Launcher finished, because there is some new code coming to the next My Colony 2 release that will break the current version of the Ape Apps Launcher, so I need to get the new one done ASAP. So I hope to get the native desktop edition of the new launcher done next week some time.

Until then, enjoy!

#apeappslauncher

As mentioned before in this thread, double-clicking on the Ape Apps Launcher file in the downloaded package will sometimes result in the following error on certain Linux distributions:


If you are interested in the technical reasons this is happening, you can look here, but this thread will give you instructions on how to easily get the Launcher up and running on Ubuntu or any other distribution.

First, right-click on the 'Ape Apps Launcher' file and select Properties. On the Permissions tab, select 'Allow executing file as program.'


Next, open a terminal window at the location of your Ape Apps launcher file, and launch it the standard way using the following command:

./'Ape Apps Launcher'

Finally, to make things easier in the future, once the launcher is open, click on the Settings icon, and then click on the 'Create Entry' button under the Launcher Shortcut section.


This will add an Ape Apps Launcher icon to your activities screen/programs menu etc (depending on desktop environment used). You can then pin it to your dock of choice if you like or launch it just like any other application on your system. From this point on, the launcher will be ready to go and will auto-update itself when needed, so you never have to worry about the above steps again (until you reinstall your system, of course).

I realize it's a bit of a pain, but I think us Linux users are used to that, and it's really just a one-time thing.

Anyway, I hope this information is helpful, and if you don't have the launcher on your Linux system yet, you can get it from the link below. It is available for both x64 and ARM processors (such as Raspberry Pi devices):

https://market.ape-apps.com/ape-apps-launcher.html

#apeappslauncher

Today I have released a little different type of app than what I normal make - aaZDoom Launcher, the Ape Apps Launcher for ZDoom!


So what is this? Well a couple of months ago my son got into playing old-school Doom, and he has been playing it using GZDoom on his old Macbook Air. Often he will want to play multiplayer with me, but setting up a LAN game for him is sort of a pain since you have to set everything up using the terminal. There are launchers out there that do this automatically, but most of them are for Windows.

I remembered when I was in high school, my friends and I would set up multiplayer games (over dial up modem) using the Doom 95 launcher for Windows 95, and it was very easy to set up and use. So I looked around at launchers available, trying to find something similar and hopefully cross-platform (since he is on a Mac and I am on Windows). I really didn't find anything I like so, being a developer, I decided to just make my own. So today I present to you the aaZDoom Launcher!


The aaZDoom Launcher is modeled pretty much exactly after Doom 95, except it works with ZDoom ports (GZDoom, QZDoom, ZDoom), and it is cross platform (Windows, macOS, and Linux). To get started, all you need to do is specify the location of your ZDoom executable, the location of a folder containing your main game wad files (IWADs), and optionally, a folder containing all of your custom wad files (PWADs). Makes starting a ZDoom session nice and simple.

Since the main purpose of this project was to make playing multiplayer with my son a bit easier, I have baked in a little feature that helps with this. If you are on a local area network (WiFi or Wired LAN) and you start a multiplayer session, other aaZDoom Launcher clients will be able to automatically find your game while it is in the "waiting for players to connect" phase, so you do not have to type in any IP addresses or computer names in order to join a network game. The "server" will also transmit information about the game to the clients, such as which IWAD and PWADs are being used, so you can see before joining if you have the necessary files on your computer.

It occurs to me that it would be trivial to expand the multiplayer game setup to include online players as well, since I already own a bunch of server infrastructure that could be used for signaling, but as long as it's only my kid and I using it, I don't see the need to really implement that functionality. I thought I would make the launcher public though and see if there is any interest in this type of project before deciding if I want to spend any time adding more features to this.

So anyway, if you like playing Doom and use one of the ZDoom ports, feel free to give this a try. It works on Windows, Linux, and Mac, and you can download it for free from the Ape Market at the following URL:

https://market.ape-apps.com/aazdoom-launcher.html

If you find any bugs or have any issues or suggestions, you can let me know here. I really only spent a few hours making this, so I'm sure I overlooked something. It works good for my personal use though, but if other people are interested in using it as well, I can easily add more goodies. Just let me know. Enjoy!

The Ape Apps Launcher v3.0.0, which represents a total rewrite from scratch of the Launcher, is now available for beta testing (in PWA form) at it's new URL:

https://launcher.ape-apps.com/

The new launcher has all of the features of the original, with the addition of light/dark theme (as well as accent color customization), support for newer Ape Apps that are not hosted at apewebapps.com, support for adding third party web apps to the launcher, support for a new gamepad/tv mode interface, and more.


To get the most out of the launcher, you are going to want to install it to your system as a PWA using one of the Chromium based browsers, such as Chrome or Edge. Native desktop releases will also be coming sometime in January.

The Launcher was rewritten from scratch, so let me know of any issues you find. As of right now, My Colony 2 is unable to play from the Launcher, but this will be fixed on it's next update (which is coming soon).

Until then, check it out, update your bookmarks if you are using the current version of the PWA, and let me know what issues you find!

https://launcher.ape-apps.com/

#apeappslauncher

The title says it all, I am considering discontinuing development on the Ape Apps Launcher.

I originally created the launcher in order to fill in the missing capabilities that were not available to my apps on Ape Web Apps when run from within a browser. Since then though, the situation has changed considerably. Every app on Ape Web Apps is now fully and easily installable as a Progressive Web App (PWA) on Windows, Linux, MacOS, and even Android through either Chrome or Edge. Once installed, the apps all have native file system access for saving, and can even automatically launch by double-clicking on their associated file types (such as .vpp files) when the #file-handling-api feature is enabled in about://flags (soon to be enabled as standard). Installed PWA's also work without a live internet connection.

The only real remaining benefit on the Launcher is the system try access to friends notifications, but I do not think that by itself is enough of a reason to continue to develop the thing, and I do have an idea to replace that as well.

The bottom line is that there is a lot of work required to maintain the Ape Apps Launcher, and at the end of the day it only has about 300 active users during a given week. In addition, both Windows and macOS give out security warnings and require users to jump through extra hoops just to run the thing after downloading, since I am not paying for a signing certificate for the thing.

At the end of the day, Web Apps are becoming far more capable, and I think that the Launcher is largely obsolete at this point. My proposal is to discontinue the product, and in its place, offer a small Ape Apps browser extension for both Chrome and Edge that will help fill in the last remaining pieces, such as friends list management/notifications, account management, etc.

So anyway, I wanted to through the idea out there to make sure there wasn't going to be a public outcry over the loss of the Launcher. If everybody really loves it, then I can keep it around. But it does save me a ton of time to not have to keep the Launcher up to date, and I think installed web apps are the way of the future anyway. Basically, it's the same thing that the Launcher does anyway, and as I mentioned earlier, I think I can close the remaining functionality gap with a simple browser extension.

#apeappslauncher

Another update to the Ape Apps Launcher today. This release fixes several app-related issues, adds support for volume license activation, and makes some significant changes to the toolbar interface (on apps that use a toolbar).

Since the Launcher is starting to gain in users, I plan on adding more features to it going forward. Soon I will be adding the ability to handle your Ape Apps Conversations from right within the launcher, as well as access the Ape Apps Chatroom. Also, you will be able to read and post to the Ape Apps Launcher support forum from right within the app. These API's all need to be made for the upcoming rewrite of the RP Forums app, so I figured I would use the Launcher to test out their implementation 🙂

That's all for this update, enjoy! If you don't have the launcher yet, you can find it here:
https://market.ape-apps.com/ape-apps-launcher.html

Hello all,
For the past few days opening the Ape Apps Launcher also gives a error message each time. The error does not impact game play at all, as far as I can tell. It shows up alongside the Launcher but the software does not crash.

Here is the contents of the error log that showed up:

v1.3.0    1569682191619    C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\ape_apps_launcher\app-1.3.0\resources\electron.asar\renderer\api\remote.js: 219    Uncaught Error: Object has been destroyed

v1.3.0    1570217354847    events.js: 177    Uncaught Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Ape Apps Launcher\apps\agbemu\appdata\audio\camera-shutter-click-03.mp3'

v1.3.0    1570217354863    events.js: 177    Uncaught Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Ape Apps Launcher\apps\agbemu\appdata\default.gbc'

v1.3.0    1570217354875    events.js: 177    Uncaught Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Ape Apps Launcher\apps\agbemu\appdata\strings.js'

v1.3.0    1570217354892    events.js: 177    Uncaught Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Ape Apps Launcher\apps\agbemu\appdata\images\button.svg'

v1.3.0    1570217354903    events.js: 177    Uncaught Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Ape Apps Launcher\apps\agbemu\appdata\images\startselectbutton.svg'

v1.3.0    1570217355078    events.js: 177    Uncaught Error: Cannot call write after a stream was destroyed

v1.3.0    1570217355090    events.js: 177    Uncaught Error: Cannot call write after a stream was destroyed

v1.3.0    1570217355102    events.js: 177    Uncaught Error: Cannot call write after a stream was destroyed

v1.3.0    1570217355115    events.js: 177    Uncaught Error: Cannot call write after a stream was destroyed

v1.3.0    1570217355125    events.js: 177    Uncaught Error: Cannot call write after a stream was destroyed

v1.3.0    1570217355138    fs.js: 150    Uncaught TypeError: Callback must be a function. Received undefined

v1.3.0    1570217355148    fs.js: 150    Uncaught TypeError: Callback must be a function. Received undefined

Running Windows 7 PC with Ape Apps Launcher downloaded from Ape Market. Version 1.3.0.
Hope this helps somehow.

With Apple slated to transition it's computer processors from Intel to ARM, I have decided to add ARM CPU support across the board for the Ape Apps Launcher. When you go to the Ape Apps Launcher download page (https://market.ape-apps.com/ape-apps-launcher.html), you will now be presented with the following options:


Ironically, the one platform that pushed me to make the change, macOS ARM, is not yet available, which is because ARM based macs are not yet available, but there will be macOS builds coming in the future as well.

These new download options should let the Ape Apps Launcher (and other software/games in the months to come) run on pretty much any desktop device. This includes new Windows on ARM based laptops (like the Surface Pro X), as well as Linux ARM devices, such as the Raspberry Pi. In fact I was sort of getting an idea to add some new capabilities to the launcher that would let it serve as a media center application when connected to TV devices, allowing you to build a cheap media center PC out of a Raspberry Pi that can also play the entire Ape Apps lineup using a gamepad. But that's for another day.

Anyway, that's what's new with the Launcher. As Apple computers, and probably more Windows computers in the future start embracing both ARM and Intel architectures, I will make sure that your favorite Ape Apps games and programs work on whatever type of device you happen to be using!

For players who use more than one of the 'Native Client' versions of my games, I have a new desktop app coming soon (in both 32 and 64 bit) that should both save hard drive space and keep all of my games more organized on your system: the Ape Apps Launcher:

Here is what it does. Right now if you download a Native Client game, it is about 175-200mb in size. Most of the size it due to the fact that each game includes the Chromium engine built in. This is not a big deal if you are only playing one game like My Colony, but suppose you want to have both My Colony and Antiquitas installed. Now you are talking about 400mb of space. This is where the Ape Apps Launcher comes in.

The Ape Apps Launcher runs all of my apps and games in a shared Chromium engine, so you only need to download the overhead of the engine one time. It then allows you to download and install any game from Ape Web Apps, even games that do not have their own Native Client already.

The games are all downloaded to your PC, so after the initial install they will all work without an internet connection (unless internet is a core part of the game). You can also easily delete/uninstall anything you have downloaded. Games will also update automatically, with update sizes significantly smaller than what they are now. For example, downloading a full My Colony update for desktop is currently a 180mb download. When using the launcher though, the update size is reduced just under 11mb.

So the benefits are:

• Only one download (of any significance) for all applications
• Automatic updates for everything
• Substantially reduced update sizes
• Updates arrive faster, you do not have to wait for me to manually package a new Native Client release
• Desktop versions of apps and games that do not normally have their own desktop versions.
• All games are always up to date on the latest engine and wrapper software

The Ape Apps Launcher will be coming soon to Windows, Mac, and Linux in 32 and 64 bit flavors. The initial version simply lets you download, install, and manage all applications. If there is interest in the app I will develop it further, if not I will keep it as is.

Ideally I would just be able to have this instead of having to manually make a different Native Client download for everything and for every update, as it would certainly save me a ton of time (and server bandwidth). Of course that all depends on if people like the concept or not.

Anyway, I expect this to be released this weekend or next week sometime. Shortly after the My Colony v0.58.0 update is finished. I am almost done with the launcher code, but there are still a few minor things to button up on it.

Today I have added a couple of new features to the Ape Apps Launcher.

First, if you right-click on one of your installed apps now, you will have the option to switch to the Beta channel. Now you can run the Beta edition of Ape Apps software right from the launcher.


Next, I have started to improve the mobile interface for the Launcher, so that you can install the PWA on your Android or iOS device.


To get it, browse to https://www.apewebapps.com/launcher.html on your mobile. On Android, there will be a green Install icon in the top-left corner of the app. On iOS Safari, click on the toolbar button that looks like a rounded square with a up arrow in it, then scroll down and select Add to Home Screen.

I will continue to improve the launcher as time goes on. At this point, the installable Progressive Web App edition (same link as above) is considered to be the primary and will be getting the most development attention, although the downloadable Desktop editions will receive support as well. Given the increased restrictions on un-signed desktop apps, especially on mac, but on Windows too, non-Linux users are encouraged to switch to the PWA edition. Well, everyone is encouraged to switch!

Until next time, let me know what launcher issues you have or features you want added, and stay tuned for more!

There are two new Beta releases coming this weekend that both tie in together: Death 3d and My Tokens. Death 3d is an old school style first person shooter with built-in map editor and online multiplayer. My Tokens is a custom avatar-creation app that lets you make little characters that will appear in different Ape Apps games. Death 3d is the first game to utilize the feature. Here is a video example of My Tokens appearing in Death 3d multiplayer:

The Death 3d beta is on Web and the Ape Apps Launcher, but due to internet browser security restrictions, online and LAN multiplayer are exclusive to the Ape Apps Launcher version. The Ape Apps Launcher is free though, and you can get it here:
https://market.ape-apps.com/ape-apps-launcher.html

My Tokens is in beta, but you can access it from the web right now from here:
https://www.apewebapps.com/my-tokens/

Be sure to sign in using your Ape Apps account to be able to use your Tokens in other games. You can also use the My Tokens app to create custom avatars for the forum here.

As of this moment, Death 3d with LAN multiplayer is already live on the Ape Apps launcher with v 0.0.1. If you have two or more PC's on a local network, feel free to try our LAN multiplayer. In a few days, v0.0.2 will be arriving on the Ape Apps Launcher with My Tokens support and Online multiplayer. Both Death 3d and My Tokens betas will also be coming to Android in early April.

when I do "/home/username/Desktop/ape-apps-launcher-linux-x64-1.2.4/Ape Apps Launcher" in terminal the launcher opens

but if I open the folder on my desktop and double click on the Ape Apps Launcher file I get a pop up that says could not display "Ape Apps Launcher" there is no application installed for "shared library" files. Do you want to search for an application to open this file? and when I click the yes button I get the additional Mime types required notification.

I know some people have been waiting for information on Colony Wars, so here is an update. The first preview beta will be released this weekend on the web, the Ape Apps Launcher, and on Android.

This is an early release, and contains multiplayer LAN/Internet, vs AI skirmish, and a map editor for creating maps.

LAN and internet multiplayer requires either the Android or Ape Apps Launcher version. Playing over the internet will require TCP port forwarding on your router of port 2733.

If you don't have the Ape Apps Launcher, you can get it for Windows, macOS, or Linux from here:
https://market.ape-apps.com/ape-apps-launcher.html

Colony Wars is very much an early work in progress beta. The purpose of this release is to test the core engine mechanics and to receive feedback, and perhaps give me motivation to start putting more time into the project!

I expect the release to be ready on Saturday morning, maybe even Friday night if I am motivated. I will make a post in this forum with more info once the release is live.

The time has come for yet another My Colony update, the v0.99.0 patch, aka the Reptilian Content patch! This is a very special release, as it is the very last beta version of My Colony! It's going to be sad to see beta go, but there is a lot in store for you guys with this update. Because of some of the core changes, this update is going to take several days to push out to all platforms, with Web coming today. I actually can't even push it out to the Ape Apps Launcher yet, as the Launcher will require an update itself before this patch should go live, so please stick with me as the v0.99.0 roll-out will be a bit slower than most releases. So what's new in this patch? Let's go over it right now!

This is at it's core a Reptilian update, but there is a ton of other stuff thrown in as well. First off, and the reason for the delayed rollout, is I have taken the game-streaming option out of the core My Colony code, and transferred it to the "Web App Core" wrapper, which is the in-house wrapper I created to be able to port my games to all platforms easily. This changes the behavior by streaming your gameplay straight to your profile on the Ape Apps website, instead of to my-colony.com. I will be updating my-colony.com shortly though that will embed the stream in the same place it used to be, so for the most part it should still look the same.


I made this change for long-term planning, so that I can add streaming capabilities to my other games. The stream viewer on ape-apps.com is improved from what was available on the My Colony website. It now shows how many people are watching and lets you record the stream. It has other capabilities as well that aren't worth mentioning here, but will be implemented in other games in the future. To access your livestream page, go to your profile here on Ape Apps and click on the little video camera button on the left sidebar.

To go along with this change, the in-game streaming interface has been updated, with a new livestream control bar now appearing when you have streaming turned on.


This bar shows you how many people are watching the stream, and lets you turn either microphone or webcam on or off (previously, webcam wasn't even supported). Streaming is currently supported on Chrome, the new version of Edge, on the Desktop version, the Ape Apps Launcher, and on Android. I can't get it working right yet on iOS or Windows Store.

Moving on. Last update was the big Zolarg release, but I had accidentally forgot to make the dazzling hot-pink Etherbug buildable. This is now fixed, and you can now create the Etherbug on your Zolarg maps. Sorry about that!

A lot of people had complained about the massive gold cost on the Zolarg Unholy Pit and Unholy Tower of Stuff. I have reduced theses costs in this update to make them more reasonable. In addition, these two structures have gained storage capabilities for Charcoal, Oil, and Software.

In addition, the Zolarg Customs Processing building can now import and export Diamonds and Software.

I have made a small change to the in-game encyclopedia. Before, under each category (buildings, vehicles, etc) it said Everything you need to know... Now, it shows the number of items that are in each category (number of buildings, vehicles, etc).

I have loosened the building requirements for the Reptilian Brewmasters Den, as it was too difficult to build at the beginning, and is an essential building. I removed Helium-3 and Crystalline from the build requirements. In addition, the building now uses Ant Paste during production, instead of Helium 3.

The Powered Materials Silo has gained Software Storage, and also now acts as a drop-off point for Diamond harvesting.

I don't know if anybody had noticed, but I had inadvertently allowed Ether importing from the Reptilian Medium Range Star Gate. This has been removed. In exchange, this structure can now export Fish and Salt Water.

Speaking of Fish and Salt Water, they have both been added to the Galactic Board of Trade, and will eventually be used in other non-Water World processes. They are the two map-specific resources for the Water World.

While we are on the subject of resources, a brand new one was added to the game this update, Cobalt. Cobalt is a super-rare, because 1) it's only available on the dreaded Lava World, and 2) it only appears after a volcanic eruption.


Why Cobalt? Well, originally Obsidian was going to be the map-exclusive resource for Lava World, but I forgot and ended up adding it to everything, so that wasn't going to work. So now we have Cobalt. It's all good. Anyway, right now only the Reptilians can harvest it, but other civs will be able to after v1.0. It will be coming to the GBT on the next update as well, and will be used for new super-high-end structures on all civs. Being tied to the Lava World, I suspect it will command a pretty good price on the GBT once trading opens up.

Moving on. Since probably v0.1.0 of My Colony way back in 2016, people have been requesting to be able to move buildings once built. I haven't counted, but it's probably the top request in the game, or a close second to Mass Transit. I understand why it's been wanted. Most My Colony players are on Android, and most mobile builder games allow you to move structures. Of course, most mobile builder games are also IAP filled "diamond" (or gems or special coins) festivals that nickel and dime players by making buildings take 5 days to build unless you pay real money. My Colony isn't like that, and I never thought a move building option was realistic enough for the game, but nonetheless people still request it all the time, so for this update, I have now added an option to move buildings, with caveats.


You can now move any structure in the game, unless it is a harvest drop-off location or has it's own move function, like the Lander, Queen/Mound, or the deployed Construction Mech.

I do want to give people the option to configure and organize their base as they see fit, and I understand that as a colony grows from a small settlement to a major city, you might want to rethink the way you placed buildings at the beginning, so that is why I am allowing the move option. The reason I do not allow it on harvest drop-off spots though, should be obvious. I'm not going to let players just, for example, keep moving their Ore Refinery right next to the Ore every time a deposit is dried up. That would be lame.

Next, I have made an interface change to the mobile version of the game. Now when you are building a structure on mobile, you get the same (well, a minified) "new construction" bar that desktop players have.


This makes it easy to see what you are building will cost, and to flip structures before placing them.

So now let's talk about the meat of the update, the new Reptilian content. There are two new vehicles, the Diamond Extractor and the Cobalt Extractor (I think you can figure out what each does), and 19 new buildings, which I will list below and then talk about some of them in detail afterwards.

• Galactic Star Gate
• Radiated Crystal Farm
• Advanced Materials Silo
• Subterranean Slum
• Raw Fish Diner
• Deep Sea Drilling Platform
• Coral Radiator
• Offshore Slum
• Dracarus Mint
• Turbo Microreactor
• Diamond Cobalt Microreactor
• Basic Crystal Furnace
• Suppertime Arena
• Primitive Robotics Lab
• Advanced Chip Transporter
• Automated Software Node
• Antanium Radiator
• Ultra High Frequency Node
• Near-Infinite Materials Silo

My core of thinking with this update was to make the Reptilians more playable, or rather enjoyable to play, and reduce the sheer idling time required to play a Reptilian colony. Starting with Reptilians was so slow before, that a new colony would have to idle for hours just to get anywhere, which isn't really feasible on mobile. So a lot of this content is geared towards early to early-mid game, but there are a few later-stage items as well. Structures like the Basic Crystal Furnace, the Coral Radiator, and the Dracarus Mint should help speed along early-game a bit.

Reptilians also get a couple of new housing units, both slums (of course). The Subterranean Slum is a high-density building for all maps, and the Offshore Slum is a way to gain more space on the traditionally space-limited Water World islands.


I added a couple of new Tourism related structures for Reptilians, in the form of the new Raw Fish Diner and the Audrey II inspired Suppertime Arena, where Reptilians and tourists alike can watch an evil plant eat Insectoids.


There are new much-needed upgrades to Reptilian Storage, Power generation, increased import/export capacity, Microchip production, Software production, and Bandwidth generation. Reptilians also gain the ability to build robots with the new Primitive Robotics Lab, and the ability to build Triantanium with the Antanium Radiator.

All in all, this is a fairly large update that adds some nice QOL improvements to the game, and adds much needed content and improvements to the Reptilian race (a bit for Zolarg too).

Now, to talk a bit about the future. If you missed it, I published a new episode of the My Colony Podcast last night about the coming end of beta for My Colony. v0.99.0 is in fact the 99th feature release of My Colony (which was originally published on May 16, 2016), which will make the next update the 100th feature update of My Colony, in which it will finally be bumped up to v1.0.0.

Now to me it's just a number, but since 100 of anything is generally seen as special, I think something special should happen for the next update to the game. To help kick off the v1.0.0 release, I would like to do another classic episode of the My Colony Podcast with a community group voice chat, the way the old episodes were done a couple of years ago. I would like to host the episode on one of the federation Discord channels, possibly the NOZ channel if they will allow it, and have anybody and everybody from the community be able to participate if they want to. We will just be talking about the growth and changes of the game over the last few years and bumping suggestions and ideas off of each other for the coming updates. You can also ask me anything you want about My Colony or otherwise. I think it will be a fun episode for everybody, and I hope a lot of people participate. I just need to nail down a location, time, date, and re-figure out how to record the thing. So be looking out for more information about that.

As for the update itself, I plan on adding something of an online leader-board to the game, featuring multiple in-game challenges and awards that people can participate in if they choose to. It will be optional, so you can still play as normal without doing the leader-boards, but the purpose is to have something to do in the game after you have a million people in your colony and all buildings unlocked, but it's also going to be set up in a tiered way so that new players can also participate. I still have some things to work out with it, and so you have some time to make suggestions in the forum if you want your ideas implemented!

As for a timeframe, the next release is going to take longer than normal. I go over the reasons in the latest podcast, but basically we have Thanksgiving in the U.S. coming up soon with holiday travels, and I also need to take some time away from My Colony to get work done on my other projects before the holiday season, since December is the biggest month of the year for the app business, and with my schedule I am going to be pressed for time to get much work done later in this month. So I would shoot for early-mid December for the v1.0.0 release, although there might be a couple of platform-specific bug patches between now and then, should the need arise.

Further out, v1.1.0 and v1.2.0 will probably be performance tweak related updates, since I am getting a lot of requests for those, particularly on the Android side of things, so I will have to try to see if I can squeeze more juice out of the engine. So they will still have new content, but not like 10-20+ new items like the last few updates have had. After that, I want to add crime and law enforcement to the game, and even further out, I want to add the ability to have a map with an AI controlled faction, as I want to add a new map type that is inhabited with primitive ewok-type creatures that you have to either coexist with or... something else. So stay tuned for that...

Anyway, that's all for v0.99.0. I hope you guys enjoyed it, let me know if you did (or didn't)! Like I said at the beginning, the roll-out will take several days here, but it's live and final on the Web now. Launcher will probably be next, then Steam, then Android, then Windows, and lastly iOS. I expect to have it published to all stores by Wednesday, so stay tuned!

Development on My Colony 2 is now in full swing. I noticed this morning that a lot of players are playing the game via the Ape Apps Launcher which is great, except the Launcher version does not receive updates unless I manually increment the game's version number. So because of the number of players on the Launcher, plus the fact that I am now working on the game daily, I have decided that I will now be bumping the MC2 version number weekly (or at least on weeks that I do a lot of work on the game), and today is that first weekly version bump!


I don't know if I will bother posting full patch notes each week, but I might give some indication as to what is going on. From here on out, the somewhat-stable weekly snapshot will be available and updated each week on the Ape Apps Launcher, and the daily probably-not-stable development builds will be available on Ape Web Apps, which will require empty cache/hard reloads to refresh the build.

So go ahead, check out the latest build, let me know your feedback, and stay tuned for more, because MC2 development is going to start going quickly from here on out!

Some of you might know that Ape Web Apps supports two release channels, "stable" which is the regular URL of an app/game, and "beta" which is accessed by appending /beta/ to the end of an apps url, eg: https://www.apewebapps.com/my-colony-2/beta/.

The stable channel is the code that propagates out to installed Progressive Web Apps and to the Ape Apps Launcher, while the beta does not. The issue is that I have not been utilizing the beta channel for MC2 development, but the PWA and the Launcher only auto-update when the actual version number of the app changes. This is a problem because if your Launcher or PWA update at 3pm when I have some borked code uploaded to the server and then I upload a fix at 3:15pm, the Launcher and PWA will not update to the new code until the version number increases.

To address this, I have now broken development into the two channels, and have upgraded the "stable" channel to v0.5.0 and the "beta" channel to v0.6.0. The stable channel will only be updated once per week, while the beta channel will be updated multiple times per hour while I am working. This way, you can install My Colony 2 from either the Launcher or the PWA and your build will remain stable and consistent with other users on the stable channel, until the next weekly update is pushed out.

Regardless, do not confuse the naming convention of the two channels with the actual state of the game, that is just what my server uses. For MC2 purposes, you can consider the two to be dev/pre-alpha and alpha.

I have just updated the Ape Apps Launcher to v1.1.1. Changes include several bug fixes, new UI updates, and there is now single-sign-on for Ape Apps Accounts, so that you only need to sign in once.

I believe the auto-updater on the previous v1.0.0 does not work properly, so to update you probably have to manually re-download the launcher from the Ape Market Website:
https://market.ape-apps.com/ape-apps-launcher.html

Let me know what issues you run into!

v1.1.3 of the Ape Apps Launcher has just been posted. Includes several bug fixes as well as some networking code changes to support the upcoming Death 3d online multiplayer beta, which will be exclusive to the Ape Apps Launcher.

https://market.ape-apps.com/ape-apps-launcher.html

I have just pushed the v1.1.5 update for the Ape Apps Launcher out to all platforms.

This update fixes a couple bugs, and on some configurations offers significant performance improvements, particularly with AMD/ATI graphics cards.

Find the download links here (should auto-update if you already have it installed):
https://market.ape-apps.com/ape-apps-launcher.html

v1.1.5 is good. This post was originally about v1.1.4, which was a dud.

Today I am pleased to announce that Death 3d has been updated to v0.0.5. This beta release brings several important bug fixes, campaign progress saving, and memory usage reductions. It also brings mobile UI and improved touch screen controls. As such, Death 3d v0.0.5 has just been published to Google Play, and should be available shortly by clicking on the below link:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ape.games.death3d

Death 3d is also available for Windows 10 (find it on the Windows Store) and on the Ape Apps Launcher.

Cross-platform online multiplayer is ready to go for players using Ape Apps Launcher, Android, and Windows 10. On the Ape Apps Launcher or Windows 10, you can create your own online server for others to join. On all platforms, you can also play WiFi local multiplayer cross-platform on all versions. So tell your friends to download the game and get your deathmatch on!

Big changes were made to the resource loading and rendering engine with this release, so there may be some minor graphical glitches. There is also an issue where death animation sprites do not render correctly when using an AI opponent created using My Tokens. These are minor issues though, and should be corrected in the near future.

That's about all for this update. If the controls seem to work fine on Android and people are not having any major issues, Death 3d will be arriving on iOS in the not too distant future, so stay tuned for more!

The v1.1.18 release of the Ape Apps Launcher will be arriving shortly. This release includes the rollup fix of several bugs as well as some UI fixes.

Under the hood, the code behind the launcher starts adding preliminary support for playing on a TV device, allowing users with HTPC type systems to play with a gamepad with a similar UI and experience as users who play the various apps and games on the Xbox One or Fire TV. This support should be finalized over the coming releases. It also starts adding support for Steam. I am going to do a trial release of the next Antiquitas update to Steam and see how it goes, probably just the Windows (both x86 and x64) versions at first. If all seems to go well and the the return is worth all of the extra hassle associated with supporting Steam, I will bring My Colony to steam next.

This page is the one-stop guide to everything you need to know about Ape Chat. Ape Chat is a free standalone chat service from Ape Apps. It is available in your web browser, it is embedded into many Ape Apps games (such as My Colony), it is included in the Ape Apps Launcher, and is even embedded into the footer of this website. All of these applications and services are linked to the same Ape Chat server behind the scenes. The service allows for virtually unlimited free public chat rooms, private group chats, and even group voice chat. With this guide, you will learn all of the tricks and capabilities of the service. This guide will be updated as changes and improvements to the service are implemented.

Account Authentication
Ape Chat is tied to your Ape Apps Account, and if you do not have one, you will need to get one in order to log into the service. Your Ape Apps Account is the same account used for this website and for games such as My Colony. If you do not have one, you can sign up for free at https://accounts.ape-apps.com.

Channels
Ape Chat is organized by Channels. A channel is essentially it's own separate chat room. There are a few default channels already created, and you can also easily create your own. Channels fall into three categories - Public, Private, and Voice.

Global Channels
A Global chat channel is a basic channel that anybody can join. Examples include the general Ape Apps Chat, or the My Colony global chat. Anybody can create a global channel, and they are moderated by the developer ( @bastecklein ) and global moderator ( @cry8wolf9 ). With only a few exceptions (allowed by the developer only), Global channels are text only.

Private Channels
A Private channel can only be joined by invitation. Anybody may create a private channel, and when a user creates a new private channel, they are automatically assigned as a moderator for that channel. Private channel moderators may then invite other users to join the channel. Keep in mind that the developer and global moderators also have access to all private channels.

Voice Channels
A Voice channel retains all of the capabilities of a regular text channel, but also supports peer-to-peer voice communications. The voice chat runs in a decentralized mesh network, where each peer connects to each other without having to go through the server. This reduces server load, but it can also restrict the size of the voice chat, particularly on slow clients. For this reason, users are only allowed to enable voice chat on private channels that they are the moderator of.

Creating or Joining a Channel
Both creating and joining a chat channel are done in the same way, using the /join command. For instance, if you wanted to join the cows channel, you would type the following into the chat box:

/join cows

If the channel already exists, you will join the existing channel. Otherwise, the new cows channel will be automatically created. Channel names do not support spaces.

Creating a new private channel is similar. Suppose you wanted to create the new cows channel as private channel. The command would look like this:

/join %cows

The % symbol tells the server to create the channel in private mode. So the actual channel name would still just be cows, as the % sign only tells the server how to create the channel, and it is then discarded. If the channel already exists, nothing special will happen. If it doesn't, the new private channel cows will be created, and you will be the moderator.

If you want to leave a channel and remove it from your channel listing, you can do so with the /leave command.

/leave cows

Sharing a Channel
It is easy to share a link to your channel with others. Suppose, as in the example above, we created the cows channel. You can send anybody a direct link to your chat channel using the following URL scheme:
https://chat.ape-apps.com/?channel=cows

Simply change the word cows to whatever the name of your channel is. Even easier, you can create an automatic launcher for your chatroom here on the Ape Apps forum using the chat BBCode tag. So entering this...

[chat]cows[/chat]

...would create a chat application launcher button like this:

#cows


Private Channel Administration
Continuing the example above with our new theoretical cows private channel. Suppose you are the moderator of cows. Here are some options you can do to administer your new private channel.

Inviting Users
The command to invite a user to your private channel is /invite username to channelname. For example, to invite user nezkeys to the cows channel, you would enter the following:

/invite nezkeys to cows

In the above example, the cows channel will be then be added to nezkey's channel listing. If he is currently online, he will also get a notice that he has been added to the channel.

Channel Name
You can give your channel a display name, which can contain uppercase letters and spaces, using the /setname command. A display name makes it easier to identify a channel in a user's channel listing, and just looks nicer than the plain channel hashtag name. Suppose we wanted to call our cows channel Cow Chat. We would do this:

/setname cows Cow Chat

Technically the channel name is still cows, and to join, users would still need to type /join cows, but in the channel listing, it will now be refereed to as Cow Chat. You can use this function to give users a clearer understanding of what the channel is all about.

Enabling Voicechat
Converting your private channel into a voice-enabled channel can be easily done using the /envoice command. Below, we turn our Cow Chat channel into a fully featured voice-enabled room.

/envoice cows

Client Management
You can print an in-chat listing of commands that are available to you using the /help command.

/help

You can also use /? which does the same thing.

Ape Chat supports both a light and a dark theme mode, and you can use the /theme command to pick between the two.

/theme dark

/theme light

You can also set the default color of your messages using the /color command. The color command accepts hex color code values. For example, red is defined as #ff0000. For example:

/color #ff0000

The above example will make your text red. You can also clear out your color customization and return to the client theme default using /color null. In addition, you can set your message text color on a per-message basis using standard BBCode markup.

User Management
At times you may wish to send a private message to a particular user. You can accomplish this using the @ command. For example, suppose you want to send a private message to nezkeys. You would do so like this:

@nezkeys How are you?

Note that the message will only be delivered if the target user is currently online. If they are not, you are better off sending them a private message through the forum.

Ignoring and Muting
You have the ability to either ignore or mute a user. When you ignore somebody, their messages will be completely hidden from you, including their voice stream. When you mute them, only their voice stream will be disabled, so you will still be able to read their text messages. These actions are taken with the /ignore and /mute commands.

/ignore nezkeys

/mute nezkeys

Similarly, you can undo the above actions with the /unignore and /unmute commands.

/unignore nezkeys

/unmute nezkeys

Lastly, you can completely clear out your ignore and mute lists using the all parameter.

/unignore all

/unmute all

Today after many months for on-and-off development, I have finally released the v0.7.0 patch for Death 3d to Android and the Web.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ape.games.death3d
https://www.apewebapps.com/death-3d/

This update contains loads of changes, including a complete re-write of the multiplayer code, most of the rendering engine, the lighting engine, and remasterings of every map in the game. Let's take a look at what has changed.

Heightmaps

As I had mentioned six months ago now in this post, support for heightmaps has been added to the game engine. Prior to this release, maps could only be flat, with a fixed room height of 1 tile. This is no longer the case.


The new change introduces support for variable room heights, different floor elevations (including stairways), objects hanging from the ceilings (like vents or computer panels, etc), and movable floor platforms, like elevators. This gives maps a lot more character and dynamic.


Lighting Engine

The texture and lighting engine introduced in v0.6.0 actually looked quite nice, but it was a killer on game performance. Lights were object based, and certain light points could be placed at various locations in the map. For this release, I have moved to a more performant sector-based lighting system (similar to games like classic Doom). Admittedly, this does not look as pretty. That said, the performance is way better, and it does sort of fit in better with the overall "cartoonish" atmosphere of the game. Sectors can have different lighting intensities and colors.


Multiplayer

The multiplayer engine has been completely revamped and improved. The game now supports native online multiplayer in-browser without the need for the Ape Web Apps Desktop Bridge software. Multiplayer now works cross-platform between Web, Android, and Ape Apps Launcher, and many of the existing multiplayer bugs have been eliminated. It should now be easier than even to setup or join an online multiplayer deathmatch.

Just for good measure, here is a little bit of multiplayer footage from the latest patch, played on the Don't Fall map, which has also been remastered with new lighting and heightmaps, as well as other improvements allowed by the latest engine updates.


Weapons

The Rocket launcher has gotten a big upgrade. Before now, only a direct-hit from a rocket would drop an enemy. Now, the rocket launcher carries blast radius damage, just as it should. You basically only need to hit a rocket near somebody in order to take them down.

In addition to the rocket launcher, the brand new shotgun now joins the weapons lineup.


The shotgun packs a major punch at close range, and can take out most enemies in one shot if you are at or near point-blank.

Campaign

The last update completed the Episode 1 campaign, and this update begins the new Episode 2 campaign - The Pegasus, with three new campaign maps. Following your escape from the Lunar 3 prison in Episode 1, you find yourself stowed away on the Pegasus, a heavy cargo hauler operated by Galactic Freight. Galactic Freight is known for their brutality and lawlessness, and is able to get away with it due to their personal connections to the United Earth General Assembly. Like Episode 1, Episode 2 will also be an 8 part campaign.

Coming Next

What is on the drawing board for the coming updates? Firstly, I want to add "Capture the Flag" mode to multiplayer. I also want to allow multiplayer co-op for both packaged campaign maps, as well as user-created single player maps. I'd like to add full TV and gamepad support, as well as non-combatant NPC characters that you can either talk to or have join your party (sort of like the security guards in Half Life). I also need to finish Episode 2, and I do have an Episode 3 planned as well.

Although a full game in it's own right, Death 3d also serves as a test-bed for the development of my own 3d game engine that I can use in other projects as well, sort of like how the rendering engine for My Land eventually branched out to power games like My Colony, My Starship, Gone Rogue, and even the built-in level editor for Death 3d. Death 3d has actually spawned two new rendering engines for me, a pure raycaster Software engine that was used up until v0.3, and a WebGL based hardware rendering engine. The two are mostly interchangeable up until this update, with the added heightmap support which is only available on the WebGL hardware engine. The software raycaster does work better on older devices though, and may ultimately be utilized in some future projects that do not require different room and floor heights.

But anyway, that is all for this update to Death 3d. Stay tuned for more!

I have just published v1.3.6 of the Ape Apps Launcher which you can download now. This update is required for users of EZ Database and EZ Register, and also includes some goodies for everybody!

Firstly, you can now access your friends list from the main launcher screen. If you click on the new friends icon on the top title bar, you will be presented with the new friends list popup:


In addition, now when you click on a friends username in the friends list window or in the Ape Chat window, you will be taken to the new profile screen where you can see more information about your friend and see their achievements. You can also look at your own profile to see your own achievement details.


If you keep the friends list window open, you will see notices when your friends come online as well.

The update is live right now in the Ape Market, so get it from the auto-updater or download is manually today!

https://market.ape-apps.com/edit_app.php?app=381

The Ape Chat server has just been updated with some new content which you can now take advantage if you are using the Ape Chat web app (https://chat.ape-apps.com/) or the client that is built into the Ape Apps Launcher. Here is an overview of the new features.

Firstly, on the left chat sidebar that has the channel listing, you will now see two new sections for your Private Channels and your Private Conversations.


This helps you keep things grouped together nicely. And speaking of Private Conversations, there are private conversations now! Previously, you could send somebody a direct message using the @username switch, but the message would only be delivered if the user was currently in chat. Now, private conversations are persisted on the server as a personal one-on-one chat room. Private conversation chats can only be accessed by the two users involved, and are also voice-enabled channels for one on one voice chat.

In addition, if you right-click on a username from your private conversations list, you will see a new Private Window option. Clicking on it will open a new mini-chat window for your one-on-one conversation, so you can have multiple one-on-ones going separate from the main chat.


Eventually, if you install Ape Chat as a PWA on your system (which, by the way, you can now do in Chrome and new MS Edge), you will also receive desktop or mobile notifications when you get a new private chat message, even if you don't have Ape Chat open. This will also work by having the Ape Apps Launcher installed.

I have expanded Ape Apps Account friends list capabilities. If you open your Friends List from either the Ape Apps Launcher or clicking on the new 'Friends' icon at the top of the base Ape Web Apps website (https://www.apewebapps.com/), you will get the updated Friends List popup window, which will allow you to accept or reject friend requests, see who is online, view friends' profile, or open the private one-on-one chat window right from the friends list:


I plan on expanding Friend List management further, and also making the friends window accessible from the individual apps and games, but for now the best way to access it is by going to https://www.apewebapps.com/ and clicking on the Friends List icon.

So that's it for this Ape Chat update. I still need to push the changes out to the Ape Chat Android application, but I plan to keep improving the Ape Chat service as time goes on, integrating it further into the Friends service and into the individual apps and games!

Beginning with the release of Ape Apps Launcher v1.6.7 and all new Ape Apps native desktop and Steam applications released after March 16, 2021, playing of MIDI based music in games (such as My Colony and Antiquitas) will now require an additional one-time download of roughly 70mb in size. If you need the download, you will be prompted with a notice like this:


The reason for this change is that including MIDI soundfonts with the package adds the additional 70mb download size to the games and Launcher, and user analytics shows that a high percentage of users end up disabling the music anyway. This change will reduce the file size of all desktop applications downloaded through either the Ape Market or through Steam, while still allowing users who want the in-game music to easily obtain the additional download.

It also saves hard drive space for the user in that the music soundfonts are stored in a shared location, meaning that if you have My Colony, Antiquitas, and My Empire all installed on your system, they will all use the same shared soundfont resource, as will any game installed through the Ape Apps Launcher. This means that the additional files will only need to be downloaded once, and will then be shared across all games that use them.

If you download the additional sound files and later want to delete them from your system, they will be found in your Documents/Ape Apps folder and can simply be deleted with no harm to the game or your data.

Antiquitas v1.7.0 has just been wrapped up and it's starting to make its way to various platforms. Here is the expected release schedule:

Web: Available Now
Ape Apps Launcher: Available Now
Windows Store: Available Tomorrow
iPhone/iPad: Available Tomorrow
Android: Available Later This Week
Native Clients: Available Later This Week

The issue with the Android and Native Clients is that my main development machine is currently down and so I will be spending the next couple of days getting everything back up and running and will be unable to publish updates to Android or the Native Clients before then. My iOS and Windows development is done on different machines, so they were not impacted, and the Ape Apps Launcher is automatically self-updating and so does not require anything special on my part.

This is the second Gaul update, and includes 15 fresh new Gaul buildings straight from graphics mastermind @jova . Also included are two new premium structures and a new resource: Wheat Beer.

The Gauls are now somewhat far along and totally playable, but there is still a lot more to come. @jova is cranking out the graphics faster than I can get them added into the game. Like I mentioned earlier, I have to spend the next couple of days getting my computer working again, and then My Colony is way past due for an update, so I've absolutely got to work on that. Then, there will be yet another Gaul content update coming to Antiquitas, so stay tuned for a whole lot more!

I have been using the app launcher and have not had a problem with it keeping me signed in and it has been a few weeks now since its release and sign in was added.

The in-game sign in before would never remember for either Android or apeapp market version (win10 here).

Edit to add: The 1.1.5 update for the launcher app didn't carry the sign in to the apps until I signed out and signed back in. Not sure if it was timing (cookies/token time out) or something changed with the launcher app.

I have just posted the 1.1.6 update to the Ape Apps Launcher.

This small update fixes a couple of minor bugs related to Local (LAN) networking on macOS devices.