The new version 8.01 is now ready for a public beta test. You can find a list of the new features here:

http://manual.3dgamestudio.net/newfeatures8.htm

Please install this version in a new folder; do not install it in your old A7 folder. Some remarks:

- This is a public beta of the free version only. However, users who already own a key file with "*.dta" extension can use it to unlock this free version to Extra, Com, or Pro. Users who purchased or upgraded A7 since March 2010, but have not yet a *.dta key, can contact Support with their purchase info and will receive the new key file.

- Some A8 features, such as shadowmapping and OpenAL, are not yet included in this beta. They will be included in the next A8 update.

- This version has three known bugs. One beta tester reported a particle error on level change in a large A6 C-Script project. It was too large for upload and we could not reproduce this bug here. So I hope we can find out more when someone encounters the same bug during the public beta test.

- The second known bug is an ominous error message when you start GED the first time. Please disregard that message.

- The third bug is that one user could not install the free version - it always installed the trial version on his PC. You can fix this as described some posts below when you encounter this problem.

Please test everything carefully and if you find a bug, please report it to the bug forum.