So it’s been a long-time coming, but version 1.4.0 of Stick Nodes is finally here! Well, for Android users at least – iOS will come in about a week or so. I want to monitor the app for issues, and then upload the ported version to iOS after all is okay (and then the review process will take a few days).

Here’s the changelog:

• Background images! You can now load an image from your device to use as a background. Check under “Project Tools”.
• Improvements to gif encoding for more reliable color reduction when using more than 256 colors.
• Choose between exact (stylus) or approximate (fingers) precision under “Project Tools”.
• Bug fix: App sometimes crashed when user closed it.
• Bug fix: Individual segment scale wasn’t affected by stickfigure’s scale.
• Bug fix: Stickfigures couldn’t be unlocked after they were locked.
• Bug fix: Some devices would show “messed up” text and images after resuming the app.
• Bug fix: Some memory fixes and enhancements.
• Many other minor tweaks and fixes.

The gif-encoding needed to be re-worked for this update, as I discovered the old implementation did not gracefully handle gifs using more than 256 colors.  As a result, the new implementation takes a bit longer to encode but ensures better results. (Future updates may see even further improvements to the obvious dither artifacts as you can see above – these will only be visible when using image backgrounds, though.)

The next update will hopefully come sooner than later. I’ll be looking into app optimizations and text, since everyone seems to be requesting that (no promises, we’ll see!).