PCGen v5.17.11 (alpha) Released!

Papa-DRB · Feb 19, 2012

PCGen v5.17.11 is an alpha release with a difference.

For the first time, we introduce our new user interface!

The new user interface does most of what you are used to, but we still have to get kits, familiars, companions and temporary mods working. It is important to remember that this is an alpha in the industry standard sense and will have rough edges. We are putting it out for feedback but recommend you don't pick it up for your regular game use just yet.

PCGen is an RPG character generator and maintenance program (d20 systems). All datafiles are ASCII text files so they can be modified by users for their own campaigns.
For more information about PCGen, join us at pcgen : PCGen News and Notes or visit our website at pcgen : PCGen News and Notes and our wiki at Main Page - PCGen Wiki.

Download your free copy here:
PCGen :: An RPG Character Generator - Browse /PCGen Unstable/5.17.11 Alpha at SourceForge.net

You can see all of the changes included in this release by checking out the release notes:
Release Notes for PCGen v5.17.11

Trackers (JIRA) bugs open for the New UI:
Issue Navigator - PCGen JIRA

Tharian · Feb 21, 2012

Any chance of providing screen shots of the old and new interfaces here for comparison?

Papa-DRB · Feb 21, 2012

PCGen v5.17.11 - New UI

Tharian said:
Any chance of providing screen shots of the old and new interfaces here for comparison?

Ok, lets see if I get this right.

While many of the screens changed in a minor way, the two big changes are the "Choose/Load Data Set" screen and the Main character screen. Now the Choose/Load screen is being re-designed as a lot of us really did not like the new way, but the Main screen is shown below. The old screen is "old.png" on the left, and the new screen is "new.png" on the right.

-- david
Papa.DRB

frog · Feb 22, 2012

Is it just my computer or is the latest version running a LOT faster than previous ones? There is no lag time at all when switching between tabs (unlike before when it was almost unusable at times).

Papa-DRB · Feb 22, 2012

Not just your computer. The three main observable goals for the next major release (6.0) are:

1) New UI
2) Speed
3) Lst editors to input custom data

The 1st two are being accomplished, but the lst editors will have to wait for 6.2. Part of the speed increase is the change in the base architecture of the code (don't ask me, I don't do Java).

-- david
Papa.DRB

Henry · Feb 22, 2012

The King Approves!

Definitely a lot friendlier interface -- Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the previous interface around since about 2003 or so? It was definitely time for a facelift, and you ladies and gents performed a really good one!

Nylanfs · Feb 23, 2012

Thanks Henry, keep using and abusing it and let us know things you like and don't like about it.

This is also one of the major steps in decupling the UI from the rest of the code so that people can make their own skins for PCGen.