Release Notes for MacFire 0.8.2 (alpha)
7 January 2009
This is a minor feature and bug fix release. As with previous releases, it was built and primarily tested on a MacBook Pro (Intel) with Mac OS X 10.5.5. It is a Universal Binary and should work in Mac OS 10.4 and on PowerPC Macs.
New Features and Changes:
- Rewrote the game file list. Fixed a couple of issues in the existing list (incorrect games identified).
- Now respects the "Show timestamps in chat windows" preference option (thanks to Jasarien).
- You can now set the color that names appear in the chat message list via the preferences window (thanks to Jasarien).
- The username field for log-in contains a list of the last 5 user names successfully used to log in.
- The custom status text box now keeps a history of the last 10 custom messages you used (not including AFK status which is always shown).
- Added additional network packet scanning capability.
- Now tracks when any contact was last seen online (all friends and friends-of-friends that you ever see).
- The preferences window now respects the reset chat font to default button.
- Will now close the connection if the Xfire server stops responding.
- Chats are now logged to the ~/Library/Application Support/MacFire folder. There is not yet a window in MacFire to view old logs.
Fixes:
- Fixed hard-coded chat window title. It can now be localized.
- Fixed an issue that could cause the custom status message to be changed unexpectedly when changing preferences.
- The chat font set in preferences is now respected by the chat windows and stored in the Preferences folder.
- Fixed a couple of small memory leaks.
Release Notes for MacFire 0.8.1 (alpha)
14 December 2008
This is a maintenance release to fix significant issues that were present in version 0.8. As with previous releases, it was built and primarily tested on a MacBook Pro (Intel) with Mac OS X 10.5.5. It is a Universal Binary and should work in Mac OS 10.4 and on PowerPC Macs.
New Features and Changes:
- Updated to the latest Xfire game list 2008-12-11.
- Added "Call of Duty 4 Multiplayer.app" to the game list (thanks to Hardcore).
- Added expanded Mac game lists (many thanks to dirk).
Fixes:
- Fixed an issue where the friend group lists would not be displayed. (thanks to SDS)
- Slight adjustment to the chat window scrolling logic. It should fully scroll now.
- Fixed an issue affecting PowerPC Macs only (network decoding problem). (thanks to dirk)
- Fixed potential crash after closing a chat window.
Release Notes for MacFire 0.8 (alpha)
11 December 2008
This is the fifth public release. It is largely functional with a minimum of known issues. This version was built and tested using Mac OS X 10.5 on a MacBook Pro (Intel). It is a Universal Binary and should still work in 10.4 or on PowerPC Macs, but was not tested.
New Features and Changes:
- Now supports custom friend groups
- Create and remove custom friend groups
- Rename custom groups
- Add and remove friends from custom groups by dragging the friend into the group. Does not work for friends of friends.
- New user options window with Xfire network support. Some settings are managed by the Xfire server and may not work properly without it.
- This removed some options from the existing preferences window and moved them to the new window.
- Added a prompt to confirm before removing a friend.
- The Show Friend Profile menu item is now available in the user search results window.
- Changed the default icon for the friends list and Growl notifications to be the MacFire icon instead of the Xfire icon.
- Now keeps custom status when you become idle, to allow custom AFK status.
- Updated to use the latest version of the Growl client framework.
- Added Call of Duty 4 (single player) to the list of known Mac games.
- The incoming friendship request window now includes a "Show Profile" button so you can see more about who wants to be your friend.
- Revised the menu structure. A new Xfire menu contains the items previously found in the File menu, plus some new options.
- Will now display a dialog window when the session end unexpectedly.
- Improved Xfire network packet processing based on more recent understanding of the network protocol.
- Updated to latest Xfire game information (current as of 30 Nov 2008, which includes Windows Xfire version 1.101).
Fixes:
- Fixed an issue where a Friend of Friend could appear in the list more than once under some situations.
- The tooltip displayed for friends in the list now sorts common friends properly.
- Chat window text is now scrolled automatically to show the most recent message (thanks to Hardcore for the report).
- The friends list is now sorted by ignoring case.
- Now properly disconnects when instructed by the Xfire server (thanks to Jasarien for the report).
- Fixed an issue where multiple chat windows could be opened. It now brings the existing chat window forward. (Thanks to Jasarien for the report.)
- Will cleanly move a friend from Friend of Friend list to Friend list if friendship request is accepted.
- Fixed some issues related to Xfire server IP address resolution.
- Will disconnect cleanly when the Xfire server closes the connection.
- Now correctly handles multiple simultaneous incoming friendship requests.
- Context menu (right click) now uses on the proper friend or friend group. Previously you had to select the item then right click it for the menu to work.
- Fixed an issue where the friend list would not properly re-sort if a nickname change caused the list to re-sort.
- Fixed some potential crash issues when there are problems connecting to the Xfire server. This includes network errors, bad passwords, new-version notifications, and more.
- Fixed some potential crash issues when logging off but not quitting.
- Improved the internal networking code, error handling.
Fixes:
- MacFire will not fail gracefully if there is no network connection. This is due to how Mac OS X is implemented, and I have not yet figured out a good workaround. Specifically, DNS resolution for the chat server appears to hang.
Release Notes for MacFire 0.7 (alpha)
15 June 2008
This is the fourth public release. It is largely functional, and has no known issues. This version was built and tested using Mac OS X 10.5. It should still work in 10.4, but was not tested.
Changes:
- Added chat support (instant messages)
- It now has an icon
- Uses latest game icons and fixes issues with some icons
- Consistent with the latest Xfire game registry
- Changed the indicated skin from Shadow (Xfire default) to Aqua
- Added support for customizable display name style (combinations of username and nickname)
- Should now properly respect changes to idle (AFK) preferences changes
- Fixed issue when changing your nickname so it now properly updates the friends list if you have yourself as a friend
- Further refined Xfire network packet decoding logic
- Changed client network status information to be consistent with a recorded Xfire client behind a router with UPnP disabled
- Now sorts the friends list by the display name inside each group
- Improved internal handling of changes to the friends list
- Removed Ventrilo.app from the game list (Mac Games.plist); as a voice-chat program it is handled differently in the official Xfire client (not the same way as games)
- Fixed an issue where the user's status text and game information would not be correct if the user went offline and came back online
- Fixed potential crash bug while posting Growl notifications
- Posts Growl notifications for chat messages
- Fixed some memory leaks
- Should now disconnect cleanly when you log out, power off, or put your machine to sleep
- Added some context menus for the friends list
- Added tool-tip boxes on the friends list with more information
- Changed game info display on the main window to include the game port, when available
- Added license terms for a BSD-style license
What it can do:
- Log in
- Stay logged in (idle keep-alive)
- Get and display list of friends online and not online
- Track friend game status (what game they are playing)
- Display an icon for the game they are playing
- Track friend text status (e.g. AFK)
- Find your profile page
- Find friend's profile page (for friends that are online)
- Limited preferences support
- Pose as the latest Xfire client
- Track your in-game status
- Post Growl notifications when friends come online or go offline
- Track friends of friends playing games
- Set custom status text, including idle (AFK)
- Change your nickname
- Search Xfire users and send friendship invitations
- Accept or decline friendship requests coming from other users
- Chat with other users
Release Notes for MacFire 0.6 (alpha)
2 March 2008
This is the third public release. It is still not fully functional, but has several new features and bug fixes. It should work on Mac OS X 10.4 or later.
Changes:
- Added Xfire user search window with Add Friend functionality; now you can add new friends!
- Added ability to handle incoming friendship requests; you can accept, decline, or defer to decide until your next session
- Added ability to remove friends from the friend list
- Added preference to enable or disable Xfire network packet logging. Packets are logged to ~/Library/Caches/MacFire
- Added ability to change your nickname via a menu option
- Trackes changes to your nickname when the nickname is changed from the Xfire web profile page instead of the MacFire GUI
- The "Show Friend's Profile" menu item works now
- Removes the Friend of Friend from the list when that person stops playing a game
- Fixed possible issue with updated friend information
- The MacFire version number now appears in the Finder Get Info window
- Fixed an issue that could cause MacFire to crash when a new Xfire version is detected
- The Game Info column width is now properly saved
- The Xfire server name and port number is now in the preferences file; no preferences window support is provided for this developmental option
- Improved Xfire network packet decoding using information collected from Xfire 1.88
- Added the latest Xfire games list from 20080229 (xfire_games.ini), and associated icons
What it can do:
- Log in
- Stay logged in (idle keep-alive)
- Get and display list of friends online and not online
- Track friend game status (what game they are playing)
- Display an icon for the game they are playing
- Track friend text status (e.g. AFK)
- Find your profile page
- Find friend's profile page (for friends that are online)
- Limited preferences support
- Pose as the latest Xfire client
- Track your in-game status
- Post Growl notifications when friends come online or go offline
- Track friends of friends playing games
- Set custom status text, including idle (AFK)
- Change your nickname
- Search Xfire users and send friendship invitations
- Accept or decline friendship requests coming from other users
What it can't do / problems:
- Chat with friends (the chat window is mostly broken right now)
There are miscellaneous other known issues with 0.6. It is considered an alpha quality release. It is not feature complete.
Release Notes for MacFire 0.5 (alpha)
10 February 2008
This is the second public release. It is still not fully functional, but has several new features and bug fixes. It is intended to gauge interest in the project and see if it works where other solutions don't. It should work on Mac OS X 10.4 or later.
Changes:
- Added preliminary Friends of Friends Playing support
- Added display of IP addresses of games friends are playing
- Added support for custom status text; this means idle (AFK) works now
- Added new Xfire client version number to the Pose As dialog
- Improved Xfire network packet decoding using information collected from Xfire 1.87
- Rewrote some bridging code to make it easier to enhance in the future
- Added the latest Xfire games list from 20080206 (xfire_games.ini)
- Added packet logging for packets that don't decode properly (~/Library/Caches/MacFire) - for future diagnostic information
- Fixed the Log Off function
- Fixed dangling network connection when a log-in fails
- Fixed issue that caused password to be lost prior to log-in when a new client version was requested by the Xfire master server
- Fixed an issue where the game status would not be set correctly when the game is running when MacFire logs in
- Fixed a potential issue that could cause unpredictable behavior when an Xfire network packet did not decode properly
What it can do:
- Log in
- Stay logged in (idle keep-alive)
- Get and display list of friends online and not online
- Track friend game status (what game they are playing)
- Display an icon for the game they are playing
- Track friend text status (e.g. AFK)
- Find your profile page
- Find friend's profile page (for friends that are online)
- Limited preferences support
- Pose as the latest Xfire client
- Track your in-game status
- Post Growl notifications when friends come online or go offline
What it can't do / problems:
- Send friend add requests
- Search Xfire user list
- Remove friends
- Chat with friends (the chat window is mostly broken right now)
- Send status text to Xfire chat server
There are miscellaneous other known issues with 0.5. It is considered an alpha quality release. It is not feature complete.
Release Notes for MacFire 0.4 (alpha)
2 February 2008
This is the first public release. It's not fully functional, but it's a start. It is intended to gauge interest, and see if it works where other solutions don't. It should work on Mac OS X 10.4 or later.
What it can do:
- Log in
- Stay logged in (idle keep-alive)
- Get and display list of friends online and not online
- Track friend game status (what game they are playing)
- Display an icon for the game they are playing
- Track friend text status (e.g. AFK)
- Find your profile page
- Find friend's profile page (for friends that are online)
- Limited preferences support
- Pose as the latest Xfire client
- Track your in-game status
- Post Growl notifications when friends come online or go offline
What it can't do / problems:
- The Log Off menu does not work properly. Quit to log off of Xfire chat
- Send friend add requests
- Search Xfire user list
- Remove friends
- Show list of friends-of-friends
- Chat with friends (the chat window is mostly broken right now)
- Send status text to Xfire chat server
There are miscellaneous other known issues with 0.4. It is considered an alpha quality release. It is not feature complete.