What's going on with Drawpile's development. Showing off stuff that's in the works, but also ideas, thoughts and plans.
The last two weeks were spent on some extra features needed to get the first beta of 2.3.0 on the road. The only thing really missing before it can go into translations is letting you set brush size and layer limits, which currently isn’t full implemented.
The last three weeks have been extremely busy for me, hence the lapse in dev blog posts, but there’s still been a good amount of development. I’ve also gotten the chance to meet up with some other graphics software developers, such as from Krita and GIMP, which was nice.
The last two weeks were spent on getting Drawpile 2.3 ready for use with a compatibility mode for 2.2 sessions, with some extra features added.
The last week was spent on more Drawpile 2.3 features. The protocol is approaching a stable state, once that is reached, testing can commence.
The last two weeks were mostly spent on changing the way layer and selection ids work for Drawpile 2.3.0. This works towards removing layer count limits and allowing selections to mask brush strokes.
The last week had more work on the stuff to come in Drawpile version 2.3. Everything below pertains to that.
The last week have seen more developments on the next version of Drawpile. Last week’s dev update already included some new features and plans.
Drawpile 2.2.2 has been released last week and work has begun on version 2.3.0.
The last two weeks have mostly been spent fixing some bugs and last-step issues before the release of version 2.2.2. There’s also been significant work on enabling faster saving and loading of canvases, autosaving. timelapses and more through a new file format.
The last two weeks were mostly spent on making a lot of fixes and smaller features, getting ready for the release of 2.2.2. No major issues were found so far, so the final round of translations will open soon to get it ready for the final release.
The last two weeks were mostly spent fixing bugs and releasing Drawpile 2.2.2-beta.5. Unless blocking issues are found, this will effectively become the final version of Drawpile 2.2.2.
Last week translations for the next Drawpile beta were opened and one big feature has been implemented: selecting multiple layers to let you group them, move them, delete them etc. all at once.
The last week saw the addition of a sketch mode for layers, some brush slot fixes, solving mysterious browser behaviors and some server-side amendments.
The last two weeks were mostly spent on reworking the host dialog, which is now in a usable state.
The last three weeks involved a lot of holidays, but there was still some development that got in here and there.
The last two weeks have been spent mostly on rejigging the way the host dialog and session sesttings work, but there’s still a ways to go with those. But there’s also two new features, one for the client and one for the server.
The last two weeks have been mostly smaller matters, but in turn it was quite a lot of them. Which makes the “minor changes” section in this one pretty long!
Since December 1 2024, pub.drawpile.net no longer allows hosting sessions with the old version of Drawpile on it. That version was released over 3 years ago. Automatic reminders were sent to every session that was hosted with the old version for the past half year asking folks to tell us if there’s a reason they can’t update and nothing came up.
The last week has seen some further updating after the beta release, as well as fixing some issues found in it and adding some smaller features.
The last week has mostly been spent releasing Drawpile 2.2.2-beta.4, but there’s also a new color circle dock implemented.
The last week has been spent cleaning up stuff for the next beta release. Unless any issues are found, the current state will become that beta release.
The last two weeks have been pretty busy development-wise, cleaning up things and getting ready for the release of the next beta.
The last two weeks have mostly been spent on reworking the shortcuts system to let you assign shortcuts to brushes and making the settings for them more usable with regards to finding shortcuts and resolving conflicts.
The last two weeks have been spent with some new hardware in the form of a Surface tablet, which allowed several fixes and additions in regards to UI scaling and touch features.
In the last two weeks, most development work has gone into expanding on brush slots and presets. A few other fixes and features also made it in there along the way.
The last two weeks have mostly been spent on implementing streamed autoresets. This feature should get rid of those disruptive session resets by instead performing them in the background.
Drawpile 2.2.2-beta.3 has been released now. You can read more about that in the release announcement on drawpile.net. Since then, there’s been much testing and some smaller additions.
The first Drawpile 2.2.2 has been released. You can download it from the downloads section on drawpile.net.
The builds for Drawpile 2.2.2-beta.2 are now available to try out! Still gotta write a release announcement, make a Flatpak build and some other stuff, but you can grab them already.
The last two weeks have been spent on getting the 2.2.2 beta ready. Translations for it are open, if you want to contribute some: https://hosted.weblate.org/engage/drawpile/
The last two weeks have been some more work on filling and selections. I think this may be the point where no new strings are added before the next beta release, so unless something comes to me, translations will open for it soon.
This week has been some major reworking of the fill tool and some minor additions to selections and transforms.
The last two weeks had some selection- and animation-related work. There will likely be a “beta” release for 2.2.2 somewhat soon, since the selection changes could use some testing.
Last week’s development time has been mostly spent on implementing transforms on multiple layers at once, plus some ancillary things.
Last week has mostly been some additional work on selections and transforms, plus some other smaller things.
The last three weeks were pretty busy, but a lot of new stuff hapened. Selections and transforms are totally rewritten, there’s now a pixel ruler and the browser version of Drawpile now works better in standalone mode.
The last two weeks have been some designing, some fixing and the start of reworking Drawpile’s selections. The design issues in particular could use some feedback.
The “roomcode” feature will be removed in Drawpile 2.2.2. If you don’t know what this is about, you probably weren’t using it, and I doubt anybody really did anymore.
This week has been some work on organizational stuff and some usability improvements.
This week has been a bit more work on the OpenGL canvas renderer, adding a software renderer for folks that the hardware one doesn’t work for and some smaller features in the fill tool, the user pointers and layer creation.
The last two weeks have mostly been work on getting the OpenGL canvas ready, which is now generally available. As usual, the stuff here is available in the continuous development release.
This week has mostly been working on the faster OpenGL canvas view, but there’s also some new features and fixes.
The animation system in Drawpile 2.2 was basically written to serve my own purposes. My ideas on how animation ought to work is different to how it’s handled in other software, so I’ve been writing my own animation programs since a long time, well before I started working on Drawpile.
This week has been spent on two things: starting work on a a more performant canvas view and handling sessions that run out of space properly.
Session auto-resets are something that happens when using Drawpile’s dedicated server. Everything stops for a bit, then the canvas rebuilds itself and you can continue drawing.
Last week the browser version of Drawpile has been enabled on pub.drawpile.net and, since Windows Smart Screen seems to have mostly calmed down, version 2.1 will now prompt users to update. Otherwise it’s mostly been documentation work.
Last week has documenting, bugfixing and twiddling with the servers. There’ll probably be another update for pub.drawpile.net next week so that we can allow joining via web browser on it.
Last week has been getting Drawpile 2.2.1 ready, which has been released today.
Last week has mostly been more fixing going on, while banging desperately around on some Windows issues that are blocking the release of 2.0.1.
This week has been more bugfixing, some optimizing, some attention being given to the Windows installer and finally some documentation written up for how to animate in Drawpile.
This week has been bugfixing and a bunch minor features that didn’t quite make it into 2.2.0.
This week has been spent mostly with some trailing work from the 2.2.0 release, fixing up some issues that came up in it and further work on the browser version of Drawpile.
This week, Drawpile 2.2.0 has been released. It no longer carries the beta moniker. This week was mostly spent on getting that ready, but also some work happening to get the web version of Drawpile out to server owners.
Happy new year! The last two weeks have mostly been further development and testing of the browser version of Drawpile. Translation activity also seems to have slowed down by now, so the full release version of 2.2.0 will probably be coming next week.
Merry Christmas. Last week pub.drawpile.net got moved to a new home and work on a browser version of Drawpile has begun.
We’re closing in on the final release of Drawpile 2.2.0. Beta 11 was released two weeks ago and is expected to be the last beta. There’s mostly been organizational stuff these past two weeks.
Another week of bugfixes mostly, but also some work on documentation. Since there’s no relevant open bugs left, next week will probably see the release of 2.2.0-beta.11. Unless there’s further bugs found that warrant another in-between version, it’ll be the last beta release before the final 2.2.0 one.
This week has been mostly bugfixes again, encroaching further on the final release of Drawpile 2.2.0. Everything described here is, as always, available in the in the continuous development release.
Drawpile 2.2 beta 10 was released last week, shortly after beta 9, to fix a bug that caused a lock-up on startup. You can read more in the news post.
Drawpile 2.2 beta 9 has been released today! You can read more about it in the news post.
This week was a few further animation and server adjustments. Currently thinking of putting out the next beta release in the coming week.
Other than a pile of fixes, this week was spent mostly on making importing animations from Drawpile 2.1 possible, rejigging the server login flow and building stuff on Windows.
More server-side improvements this week that should help running perpetually persistent sessions easier. But there’s also been some improvements client-side and a whole pile of bugfixes.
I didn’t have too much actually finished last weekend, but now this post covers the last two weeks of what’s going on. Most of it has been rummaging around in the server backend, but there’s been a few interesting client-side changes.
This week, Drawpile 2.2.0-beta.8 has been released. All the changes are in the news post. There were still a few changes in the week leading up to it, mostly fixing stuff before getting it out the door. By the way it’s looking right now, the next beta release may be the last. So, what’s left?
This week has been work on the server-side of things. Among other things, this brings back the “host on this computer” option.
This week was mostly spent working on the command-line tools. One tool has returned from Drawpile 2.1 and another new one has been added.
I didn’t expect to get much done this week, since I was away for most of it, but that was very wrong. There’s been quite a lot of changes – most significantly, Drawpile now works on phones!
Last weekend, Drawpile 2.2.0-beta.7 was released. Since then, there’s mostly been work behind the scenes and bugfixes.
Drawpile 2.2.0-beta.7 is to be released later today, so this update comes a day early.
Update: The change proposed in this article has been accepted by Krita and should be in version 5.2.1. Drawpile will have it in version 2.2.0, starting from beta 9.
This week has been a some stuff I’ve been wanting to get to for a while: making the application not chug when big changes happen and letting you export brushes. Other than that, there’s also been some smaller additions.
First post to this blog! I thought it would be nice to have a place to share updates on what stuff is being worked on and such, rather than that information getting buried somewhere in a changelog.