Thank you for your patience! the documentation page is now up-to-date with most of the new features from the update.
We’ll continue to expand the documentation over time, until the codebase is fully documented.
Out now! SMBX2 Beta 5
SMBX2b5 is here! It only took us a brisk 4 years. This update focuses mostly on polishing existing features, expanding on the versatility of various items, fixing bugs, and setting us up to implement new major features in upcoming releases. It’s a bit of a low-key update as far as flashiness is concerned, but once you try it you’ll see that it packs a punch.
We’ll be working on updating the documentation over the course of the coming weeks. Until then, you can read about the new changes in the changelog accessed from the DOWNLOAD. Please report any bugs you find either on the SMBX forums topic or directly in the codehaus discord server. Thank you!
Interested in contests? If you’re reading this close to the release of Beta 5, there’s a good chance a contest is currently being hosted. Whether you’re new to the engine or a veteran, it could be a fun opportunity to dive head-first into the new features.
But even if that’s not for you, we hope you enjoy this new update, and you’re gonna look real surprised when the next major update takes less than 5 years 👁️
Day -1
The time for spotlights has ended. Thanks for reading these past 2 weeks. Join us tomorrow, Feb 4th at 9:00AM GMT for the trailer and release of the new update!
Day 11 Spotlight – Miscellaneous Airship
The REAL winner of the upcoming patch is the Airship level. With the addition of a plethora of tiles, burner- and cannon-related NPCs, and pretty new night sky backgrounds, this aesthetic is nigh unrecognizable when compared to a vanilla airship level from any prior version.
Customizable rotation, scale, projectile and angle make every one of those elements a major threat in and of itself. But add to that the threat of being so enamored by the cuteness of the Burner Beetle, or the allure of the Step-Activated Burner, and Mario (or Luigi (or Peach (or Toad (or Link (or someone else))))) stands no chance against Bowser’s newest artillery.
Day 10 Spotlight – Boss Bass
The frightening fish that eats you whole makes a splash in SMBX2. Here to add a constant threat to your water levels, this fish comes with options for automatic respawn, similar to its friend, the Magikoopa.
Boss Bass comes with a ton of NPC config variables to help them feel just at home in your level. Don’t like instakill? Set nohurt to false. Want the player to hitch a ride? eatingkillsplayer is for you. Between jumpspeedx/y, canjump, followsplayer, eatsound, alwayseats, hitbox configurations and the ability to hold them to use them as a weapon that eats other NPCs, what might appear to be a shallow NPC on the surface ends up having a lot of depth.
Day 9 Spotlight – Clear Vase
We’re all familiar with the infinite grass generator. Especially in boss fights, it is often used to provide the player with ammunition against the foe at hand. But sometimes you want ammo without the quirks of SMBX’s generators. Sometimes, all you want is to give them as much as they want. Enter, the Clear Vase.
The replenishable stack of items held in the clear vase can be set to only show the item itself. The primary use case for this is to allow the newly added Clawgrip to pull an infinite stack of rocks from his stash. But you can put anything into clear vases, even Luigi. And I mean, honestly? You should.
Day 8 Spotlight – Line Stop
Line guides are incredibly versatile components that lend themselves well to a variety of use cases ranging from hard platforming segments to aesthetic flourishes. But what if you were able to stop things along the track…? Meet: The line stop, a new background object you can place along your line guides to stop any guided NPCs moving across the track.
With a configurable timer, this BGO makes a whole new range of line guided shenanigans possible. Offsetting NPCs on different tracks goes without saying, but if you want to park your car (NPC), you can set the timer to 0 seconds (which is interpreted as infinity), and it will stay put until something hides the line stop.
Day 7 Spotlight – Twister
One of the new NPCs coming in the new update is the Twister! First introduced in Super Mario Maker 2, and later ported to SMBX by KateBun, this NPC provides a silly new way for players and NPCs alike to get around.
Whether you use them as a makeshift wind turbine or merely a particle generator, these little guys are sure to “up” the ante in your levels.
Day 6
Added field collisionGroup – Setting this string variable causes the Block/NPC/Player to ignore collision with all other objects that share the same collisionGroup
Added verletrope as a new standard library for simulating verlet rope physics (used by Chain Chomps)
Added a data table to players, similar to NPCs and blocks
Added xscale and yscale parameters for effect txt files (default: 1, can be a range)
Added inClearPipe and inLaunchBarrel fields for players
Added: A BGO that causes NPCs on a Line Guide to pause
Starting tomorrow, the structure of these will change a little. A more focused highlight of individual additions. See you then!
Day 5
What is this whole “heavy” thing about anyway?
Added a new weight system to distinguish heaviness of players and NPCs
Added new NPC config flag: “weight” (number)
Deprecated NPC config flag: “isheavy” (boolean)
NPCs that previously set the NPC config “isheavy” now use “weight”
If isheavy is set but weight is not, weight defaults to 2
isheavy is always true when an NPC’s weight is not zero
Players now have a weight of 2, and a weight of 10 while mega
Player weight and their held NPC’s weight are added together
Players and NPCs now have getWeight(), attachWeight() and detachWeight() methods to alter their weight on the fly.
Added new Block/NPC config flags for brittle blocks and donut blocks: ignoreplayers, ignorenpcs, triggerweight. Defaults are false, false and 1 respectively
Yesterday’s little mini-quiz solution is: iselectric, nowalldeath, Small Switches, [Sparky, Power Stars], Thwomps