Changelog

Unreleased

2026-11-06.1

Fixed Star Rod on Linux, where its map and sprite editors failed to start. (Alex)

2026-11-06

Refer to map markers in C (Alex)

A map’s code reads the markers you place in the map editor by name, with a $ in front, such as $Goomba. See the docs for more information.

A Camera Target marker sets up the camera with UseCamTarget, such as Call(UseCamTarget, CAM_DEFAULT, $Shore).

Entries are Entry markers too, and replace the enum in entrances.h. To send the player to another map’s entry, include that map’s header and pass the entry:

#include "world/area/kmr/kmr_03.h"

Call(GotoMap, $kmr_03.Front)

To update:

• Replace entry constants such as kmr_03_ENTRY_0 with entry markers such as $kmr_03.Front, including in exit macros. In dx/config.h, NEW_GAME_ENTRY replaces NEW_GAME_MAP_ID and NEW_GAME_ENTRY_ID.
• If one of your maps has no markers, open it in the map editor and add an Entry marker for each entry in its entry list, in the same order.

Each map has its own sprite shading (Alex)

Sprite shading is set for each map instead of in a shared list of profiles, and applies when the map loads. Place its lights as Light markers, then turn it on and set its colors under Lighting in the map’s settings, which show when nothing is selected. See the docs for more information.

To update:

• Replace Call(SetSpriteShading, SHADING_...) with Light markers and the map’s Lighting settings. In a battle stage, also call SetSpriteShading with MAP_SPRITE_SHADING in its pre-battle script.
• Delete Call(SetSpriteShading, SHADING_NONE).

Ref and Float are deprecated (Alex)

EVT commands take structs and decimal numbers without Ref and Float:

Call(MakeShopOwner, Owner)           // was Ref(Owner)
Call(SetNpcJumpscale, NPC_SELF, 2.5) // was Float(2.5)

Float is still needed for decimal numbers in C arrays that a script reads with UseFBuf. A variable that isn’t a struct or an array, such as an s32, passes its value, so pass its address with &, such as UseBuf(&BlowingBubbles).

OVL_DEF_MAP is deprecated (Alex)

A map needs no OVL_DEF_MAP. The game starts the map’s EVS_Main, takes its entries from its Entry markers, and takes its background, tattle, song variation, and reverb from its settings in the map editor.

The game also sets up the map’s location, camera, and fog from its settings as the map loads, before its EVS_Main starts. To see a map’s settings, open it in the map editor and select nothing. See Map settings.

A map with OVL_DEF_MAP still works, but the build warns about it. To update a map, set its background, tattle, and reverb in its settings, then delete the OVL_DEF_MAP, and rename its main EVT script to EVS_Main if it has another name. To set its location, camera, and fog in its settings too, delete the lines in EVS_Main that set them, such as EVT_SETUP_CAMERA_NO_LEAD(...).

2026-10-25

Maps and stages can use any texture (Clover and Alex)

Every texture is now in one shared pool, so a map or battle stage can use textures from any area, and each texture is in the ROM only once. The texture archives in mapfs/tex only group textures, and Star Rod’s map editor has a dropdown to pick which texture archive to browse.

To update a mod:

• Delete .texture from battle stages, .textureArchive from maps, and any code that sets wMapTexName.
• Rename any textures that share a name, even across texture archives.
• Delete the texture archive offset and size from calls to load_data_for_models and mdl_load_all_textures.
• Replace get_asset_offset with load_asset_by_name.
• Delete calls to load_texture_variants.

Map object names must be unique C identifiers (Alex)

The names of models, colliders, zones, and markers must be unique within a map and valid C identifiers. Star Rod renames any that aren’t. When two objects share a name, the last one in its tree keeps it and the others get a suffix such as _1. Spaces and other characters become underscores.

If a map had duplicate names or names with spaces, check the code that refers to them after building.

2026-10-22

Icon files replace Icons.xml (Alex)

Every PNG in icon/ is now an icon, so to add one, add a PNG there. No need to list it in an XML table.

Audio files replace the XML tables (Alex)

Each sound effect, song, ambient sound, and bank is its own file, with no need to list them in XML tables. A file’s name becomes its constant, so audio/sfx/shop_bell.xml becomes SOUND_SHOP_BELL.

If your mod adds or changes audio, update it:

• Give each sound effect its own file in audio/sfx/, and each envelope its own file in audio/sfx/envelopes/. Then delete your copies of the old XML tables.
• Rename each song and ambient sound file after its sound in snake case, such as audio/songs/meadow_theme.bgm.
• If a song’s entry had bk1, bk2, or bk3, open the song in Mamar and choose its instruments again, so that Mamar saves the banks in the .bgm file.
• Replace raw sound, song, and ambient sound numbers with their constants, and AMBIENT_SEA with AMBIENT_BEACH.

If the build then fails, Fix audio build errors explains each message.

Fixed typos in names (Alex)

Fixed some typos in enum variants and struct field names. To update your mod, open a terminal in your mod’s folder, such as with Help > Open Terminal in Diorama64, and run:

python3 tools/rename.py tools/renames/8_typos.txt

On Windows, run python instead of python3.

Fixed USE_PROFILER (Alex)

USE_PROFILER in dx/config.h had no effect: the profiler was built in whether it was 0 or 1. This is fixed, so the default of 0 turns the profiler off. To keep using the profiler, set USE_PROFILER to 1.

2026-10-15.1

Fixed build errors on some Windows machines where a broken version of tar was installed. (Alex)

2026-10-15

include/ merged into src/ (Alex)

The include/ directory has been merged into src/, so headers now sit next to the sources that use them. Move any headers in include/ into src/.

Music browser in the debug menu (Brando)

The debug menu’s Sound Player now has a Music browser that lists songs by name, with play, stop, and paging controls. Sound effect controls have moved under Sound.

Changes to the optimization level (Alex)

Code now uses -Os (optimize for size) instead of -O2, with tighter limits on inlining and loop unrolling. Smaller code fits better in the N64’s small instruction cache, which makes the engine a few percent faster per frame. Mod code is compiled the same way and might show warnings it didn’t before.

ROM space savings (Alex)

Three changes free about 3.6 MB of ROM space:

• The optimization level change makes code about 0.92 MB smaller.
• Removing leftover copies and padding near the end of the ROM frees 1.82 MB.
• Sizing each overlay directory to fit its overlays frees 0.91 MB.

Formatter corrects struct offset comments (Alex)

Formatting a file now corrects struct offset and size comments, such as /* 0x04 */ and // size = 0x0C, that no longer match the compiler.

Other changes

• In layout.yaml, a segment whose class starts at another segment’s end, through follows or vram_symbol, must now be listed after that segment. (Alex)
• snprintf is now available. (Alex)

2026-10-12.2

Fixed build errors on some Windows machines where a broken version of tar was installed. (Alex)

2026-10-12.1

Fixed Star Rod on Linux. (Alex)

2026-10-12

This is the first release of Paper Mario DX.