Version History
Table of Contents
Version 5.x
Beta v5.00.12-Windows - Linux (09/07/25)
NOTE: This is a critical update to fix a save corruption bug in 5.00.11. Update ASAP!
- Fixed a wrong number causing only half the dungeon flags to be saved. All saves created or saved in v5.00.11 are affected. They will now load, but will be missing the 2nd half of the dungeon danger flags.
Beta v5.00.11-Windows - Linux (09/02/25)
WARNING!!! DO NOT USE THIS BUILD FOR ANY RUNS! IT HAS A SAVE CORRUPTION BUG! USE 5.00.12 INSTEAD!
- Fixed missing zeroes in the timer stats.
- Streamlined the mini hints panel and removed extra text. Made minor adjustments to all UIs except Compact for this.
- Added an option to change the default file box sort order.
- Started refactoring and cleanup in the tracker objects. I VERY likely broke something in the process!
Beta v5.00.10-Windows - Linux (08/23/25)
- Added an option to choose between several OW map image styles. Also replaced the area overlay for all map types.
- Added a L1-L6 dgn. quest switch button to the item boxes.
- Fixed the weird scrollbar/mouse behavior in scrollable rooms.
- Added an 'IG' button to dungeon maps. Hovering over it will show an in-game style dgn. map preview over the color buttons.
- Added two Dual Vertical UI types, which show both the OW and another tab at the same time. The tracker UI may still have unknown issues with this! Layout is still subject to change.
- Added several new options for various things.
- More refactoring and unnecessary code removal.
- Changed the way dialog detection is done. If input gets stuck after closing a dialog, send a bug report!
Beta v5.00.09-Windows - Linux (08/18/25)
- Timeline now supports all items plus the ganon/zelda flags.
- Fixed more icon ordering-related bugs. *sigh*
- Improved the timer stats file handling. New options added.
- Added a new debug mode UI type that makes the screen huge and allows for lots of room to show debug info. Shift+LMB on the UI type button to activate it.
- More UI tweaks, improvements and bug fixes.
- Initial work on making the dynamic width system work. Needed as part of proper mobile support.
- Made the Options, Hotkeys and Theme Editor screens scrollable using a scrollbar or the mouse wheel. No more page buttons!
- Consolidated rooms so that outside of the tracker layouts, only one room is needed per type now.
Beta v5.00.08-Windows - Linux (08/15/25)
- Completely removed the old UI and replaced it with a more functional one. Existing themes still work as usual.
- Background work on co-op networking. Don't enable it yet as it is still a WIP and doesn't sync anything.
- Added a debug option to enable viewing data as JSON.
- Added all of the missing enemy sub-icons. Updated hotkeys version to 4 due to the large amount of new icons.
- The graveyard screens are no longer incorrectly dimmed before obtaining the bracelet.
- Added the new hints to the mini hint boxes in the Classic UI.
- Fixed the Delete key working on the extra hint checkboxes even when they are not visible.
v5.00.07-Windows - Linux (08/02/25)
- Added 'don't want' item box flags. Set using Shift+RMB/MMB. The existing X icon will also set it for Z-Tracker compat..
- Added checkboxes to the hints tab for the 'No feat of strength' and 'Sail not' hints. They dim affected OW screens.
- Fixed the missing use hotkeys checkbox.
v5.00.06-Windows - Linux (08/01/25)
- Added a zoomed-in view of the OW area the mouse is over. Draws in the top-right corner. Toggle using the ZM button. You can also change the default setting in the Options menu.
- Custom map images are now drawn filtered when scaled down.
- Added options for the co-op networking feature. Not used yet.
- Added heart and stair guide images to unset item boxes.
- Added a mini version of the hints tab to the Classic UI.
- Fixed the missing/incorrect labels on the hints tab.
- Fixed another default theme button skin error.
- Background work on the theme editor. You can view button skins now as well as the color palette. No editing yet.
v5.00.05-Windows - Linux (07/29/25)
- Fixed some errors in the default themes.
- Removed the MIX button. Added mixed quests to the OW: button.
- Added everything that was missing to the Compact UI. Coordinates must be off to get shops and the OW info tabs.
- Adjusted the HD small font slightly for better alignment.
- Lots of code cleanup. There is still more to do though.
- Fixed the Escape key not closing dialogs.
- Partially implemented timeline functionality. Still missing many items, but does track some as well as OW completion. May still be glitchy in certain situations as it is a WIP!
v5.00.04-Windows - Linux (07/19/25)
- Added a button to the Classic UI to cycle between info pages on the OW tab. Only OW icon counters are implemented so far!
- Changed the OW icon counters option to select a default info page instead. Config version updated to 2 due to this change.
- Fixed the <1Q 2Q> item box labels in Compact UI not toggling.
- The options to write timer stats files will now write data on the location and acquisition time of some items. This is a work in progress! More items will be added in future updates. Check the manual for details on how these work.
- Timer stats files now always include the hours even if 0.
- Added an option to toggle automatic item box highlighting.
- Added an option to dim OW screens that you don't have the required items to access.
v5.00.03-Windows - Linux (07/17/25)
- Reworked the draw order of the OW map to be more readable.
- Hovering over a triforce icon now highlights possible screens when a non-deceptive area is set on the hints tab.
- Added per-screen OW map overlay support. Used as needed.
- Fixed more reordering bugs in the tracker objects.
- Marking a dungeon on the OW brightens the triforce icon text.
- Adjusted the large rupee secret OW icon slightly.
- Partially implemented assets for the colorblind mode themes.
v5.00.02-Windows - Linux (07/14/25)
- Fixed icon reordering not being taken into account when highlighting item boxes using the L1-L9 OW hotkeys.
v5.00.01-Windows - Linux (07/13/25)
- Fixed pressing Delete on the Zelda icon stopping the timer.
- The run timer now uses delta time.
- Added an option to toggle fixed item boxes on the tracker.
- Slight UI tweaks to the tracker screen.
- Added two built-in themes for colorblindness mode. Matching assets will be added soon. Let me know if these need modified!
- Background work on OW overlays being drawn per-screen. No user-facing changes yet.
- Removed the need for the dungeon finder delay.
- Removed the 'double heart' icon from OW heart boxes.
- Cleaned up info bar messages and added some missing ones.
- Added a triforce layouts button to the hints tab.
v5.00.00-Windows - Linux (07/10/25)
Pre-5.0 Version 5 Beta Builds
NOTE: These are beta builds, and may contain bugs! Use at your own risk!
v4.99.27-Windows - Linux (07/08/25) (Release Candidate 1)
This is hopefully the final release before 5.0. If no major issues are found within a few days, this build will then get released as 5.0. If not, there may be more builds until everything is fixed.
- Fixed custom graphics loading.
- Finished updating the remaining low-res icons in the HD skin.
- Other minor graphics and UI tweaks.
v4.99.26-Windows - Linux (07/07/25)
- Added a race mode toggle button.
- The default theme now adjusts between HD and Classic UI modes. You can override this by loading them as custom themes.
- Added several new built-in themes.
- Fixed resetting the tracker setting translucency buttons to 0 instead of using the default options.
- Cleaned up the first-run dialogs a bit.
- Added a button to import a ZHelper 4 config.
- Completely revamped the default theme. The old one is still available as a built-in custom theme if you want to use it.
- Fixed some random typos and theme inconsistencies.
- Changed the button skin of the 'I Derped' button.
- Properly stopped the scale buttons in the Options screen from being clickable while a dialog is open.
v4.99.25-Windows - Linux (07/03/25)
- Updated hotkeys version to 3 due to the new dungeon icon.
- Added a 'Not a Room' dungeon room icon.
- Fixed the 'I Derped' button to work with reordering.
- Split the Options menu into multiple pages and reorganized everything to be much cleaner.
- Changed player colors from RGB values to NES palette indexes.
- Added a config file versioning system.
- Updated some of the remaining low-res icons to high-res ones.
v4.99.24-Windows - Linux (07/02/25)
- Added support for hotkey modifiers (Ctrl/Alt/Shift). Modifiers can be combined as they would in any program. I don't know how well it will handle conflicts yet so beware! The UI for this will be improved in the future.
- Added full reordering and toggling support for all types of icons that can have hotkeys set.
- Reorganized the hotkeys menu to fit new types of them.
- Made it easier to see which hotkeys are set in the menu.
- Added hotkey support for item and blocker boxes.
- Fixed inconsistent text coloring on the new data screen.
- Made the extra 1Q L1 and 2Q L4 item boxes only show up based on the L1-L6 dungeon quest setting if hidden items mode is off. Both boxes are always shown if hidden items mode is on.
- Fixed setting the OW start screen also incrementing the icon.
v4.99.23-Windows - Linux (06/30/25)
- Implemented Bogie's hotkey fixes.
- Also implemented Bogie's code for highlighting level item icons when you use the L1-L9 hotkeys. Requires the 'RMB on lvl. number sets itembox flags' option to be on!
- Made map translucency settings save between sessions. Loading already-saved tracker data will overwrite this value if you change it again! Will be fixed and added to the Options screen in a later update.
- Resetting the tracker data will now reset to the selected preset for any selection other than 'Default'.
Known Issues:
- Mouse input is broken in the current GameMaker HTML5 runtime, so HTML5 will not be updated past 4.99.21 until I can rewrite my code to work around it as my bug report was closed as 'working as intended'. Not going to keep putting this here every time at this point. Its going to be a while before it gets fixed.
v4.99.22-Windows - Linux (03/13/24)
- Added an option to change the speed of pulsing animations such as icon glows and mixed quest overlays.
- Updated GameMaker runtime to the newest version. Hopefully this fixes the Linux issues.
Known Issues:
- Mouse input is broken in the current GameMaker HTML5 runtime, so HTML5 will not be updated past 4.99.21 until Yoyo fixes their busted runtime code.
v4.99.21-Windows - Linux (02/13/24)
- Fixed the saving of dungeon icon data to the config file.
Known Issues:
- The HTML5 tracker crashes if you try to load saved tracker data due to an unknown issue in the GameMaker HTML5 runtime.
v4.99.20-Windows - Linux (02/12/24)
- Fixed a crash when shifting dungeons upwards on the L9 map.
- Improved overworld danger marker visibility when the 'Show coordinates on OW map' option is disabled.
- Added glows to a few more dungeon icons by default.
- Stopped the 'icon changes detected' message from appearing every time you start the program.
- Removed hardcoded HTML5 data filename since it didn't help.
- Added tracker preset support. Right now it has 1st and 2nd quest default caves plus support for loading custom presets from saved data. Do note that custom presets will NOT be compatible between versions until the 1st non-beta release.
Known Issues:
- The HTML5 tracker crashes if you try to load saved tracker data due to an unknown issue in the GameMaker HTML5 runtime.
- The last few dungeon rooms' icon and hotkey settings do not save to the config file.
v4.99.19-Windows - Linux (02/01/24)
- Added overworld and dungeon danger markers. Can be toggled on any overworld or dungeon screen using Ctrl+LMB.
- Added glow effects around overworld and dungeon icons. Customize them in the Hotkey and Icon Settings menu by pressing Shift+LMB on an icon.
- Minor tweaks to main menu messages.
Known Issues:
- The HTML5 tracker crashes if you try to load saved tracker data due to an unknown issue in the GameMaker HTML5 runtime.
v4.99.18-Windows - Linux (01/29/24)
WARNING!!! CHECK YOUR HOTKEY & ICON SETTINGS TO MAKE SURE BOTH HOTKEYS AND ICON ORDER ARE CORRECT BEFORE RACING FOR THE FIRST TIME WITH THIS BUILD!!! IF SOMETHING IS WRONG PLEASE REPORT IT ASAP!!!
- Fixed some incorrect corrupt data error messages.
- Fixed the hotkey update message showing upon starting ZHelper for the 2nd time.
- Added icon reordering for the remaining icons.
- Hardcoded the save filename in HTML5. Still crashes for now.
- Added a red bubble blocker icon since it was also suggested for Z-Tracker.
- Added an old man dungeon room icon.
- Mixed quest overlays have been changed slightly.
- Added red, blue and red/blue bubble dungeon room icons.
Known Issues:
- Compact UI hotkeys screen mentions using < and > to reorder icons. This is not implemented yet.
- The HTML5 tracker crashes if you try to load saved tracker data due to an unknown issue in the GameMaker HTML5 runtime.
v4.99.17-Windows - Linux (10/01/23)
- Fixed the updater causing a crash if you move off the main menu before the HTTP event fires.
v4.99.16-Windows - Linux (10/01/23)
- Adjusted window scaling to calculate the max scale in 0.25x increments. This allows for slightly larger windows on 1440p and 4k monitors.
- Added the ability to reorder item box icons. Just a test for now before I do this with everything. Must be changed in the config file until the options menu is added.
- Fixed pressing Delete on item boxes and dungeon hearts not syncing at all with heart shuffle turned off.
- Added Compact UI mode. You lose shop tracking and counters, but the window is a bit shorter. Allows for larger max scale.
- Fixed the first run update check not working properly.
v4.99.15-Windows - Linux (07/07/23)
WARNING!!!! WARNING!!! HERE BE GLEEOKS!!! This build may be unstable due to a GameMaker update causing numerous errors where things worked just fine before! It survived a test run, but use it at your own risk in races!
- Re-added the heart shuffle toggle button. It changes the first 8 item boxes into heart icons like v4 had. It will only sync between the hearts and those first 8 item boxes!
- Added an I Derped button to the OW map screen. It clears all X icons on the OW map. Useful for oopsies. YW :)
- Fixed the custom dungeon guide text being overwritten with the default text when loading a save.
- Fixed loading a custom map image causing a crash if the 'Show Coordinates' option was turned off.
- Stopped the corrupt data dialog from showing up improperly.
v4.99.14-Windows - Linux (06/13/23)
- Added an option to toggle showing certain overlays when hovering over their toggle buttons.
- Fixed the incorrect L4 hint name to now say 'GLEEOK LURKS'.
- (Hopefully) Fixed the updater crashing on startup when no Internet connection is available.
- Properly disabled the Global Hotkeys checkbox on Linux.
v4.99.13-Windows - Linux (05/30/23)
- Adjusted a couple of things that involved folder names to match the current OS.
- Made the updater link to OS-appropriate builds.
- First build that's also available for Linux. Let me know if things don't work, because this is barely tested right now.
v4.99.12 (05/30/23)
- Fixed the 1st quest L3 screen on the mixed 1st quest map.
- Changed the order of and added some new dungeon door icons. Your hotkey and icon settings will get updated automatically so they should still work as expected.
- Made some tweaks to the main menu to add a one-time hotkey/icon update message above the bug report message.
- Added the ability to use the Delete key to quickly unset most tracker data. Doesn't work globally yet.
- Added a note to the SRV screen on the tracker about it not being implemented yet.
- Added an option to make right-clicking level numbers in the navigation bar also highlight that level's item box outlines. Disabled by default.
v4.99.11 (05/22/23)
- Minor adjustments to the file select dialog. The scrollbars now work closer to how real Windows scrollbars work.
- Fixed a small reset dialog error. Also added soft-reset. Hold Shift when clicking or pressing F1 to soft-reset.
- Extra folders for themes, saves, maps and times are now created on startup if they don't exist.
- The default themes are now included internally. You can also pick from the list of built-in themes on HTML5 now.
- You can now hold Shift when clicking the exit button in the tracker to exit without saving. Shift+F9 also works.
- Made the theme version mismatch dialog only show once after a mismatched theme is loaded.
- Tint overlay is now toggled using F12, as F10 interfered with the open caves overlay. Oops.
- Fixed a crash while loading invalid save data. It now bails back to the main menu after closing the error dialog.
v4.99.10 (05/11/23)
- Fixed the mixed quest Overworld maps to match Bogie's ZHelper 4 edit. They should hopefully match now.
- Removed the 'Update check disabled' text on HTML5 and mobile.
- Added OW icon counts below the OW map. Runs on the same delay as the dungeon finder code, and doesn't work in custom quest. May be toggled in the Options menu. Off by default.
- Implemented the clear button/F1 in the tracker.
v4.99.09 (05/11/23)
- Fixed using the mouse wheel on hint buttons. Also adjusted this everywhere else where possible.
- Theme version updated to 2. Many new theme elements have been added. Mostly room background colors and more button types for finer control over certain buttons in the tracker screens. Older theme files will have some adjustments applied to hopefully make them work correctly.
- Fixed some minor issues with the update checker. The button should gray out and change properly now. Tweaked the first run dialog message along with this.
- Fixed dungeon sub-icons not working with the map shifting controls or the clear dungeon button.
- Added some additional info to the hints screen.
- Added Shift + L/R mouse controls as an alternative for middle mouse button presses for laptops that only have two buttons.
- Fixed up some mouse detection issues with item sub-icons.
v4.99.08 (05/08/23)
- Fixed the default zhtheme files having the wrong name for tracker autosave text.
- Added a few new zhtheme files with different dialog colors.
- Fixed the file dialog scrollbar disappearing if exactly 10 files are in the list.
- Fixed global dungeon hotkeys only marking L1.
- Fixed mouseover for enemy sub-icons. Was slightly off.
v4.99.07 (05/07/23)
- Graphics palette overhaul. Please give feedback on the Z1 Randomizer Discord! If there is too much negative feedback, I'll revert back to the old graphics!
- Added a flame icon next to the L9 triforce to mark game end. Also stops the timer. Thanks for the idea August40th!
- Implemented global hotkeys support. It only works with the icon hotkeys, and only on Windows. GameMaker limitation.
- Added Z-Tracker-style dungeon sub-icons for marking enemy types & item drops. They're disabled by default, and can be turned on in the Options menu.
- Added some more dungeon room and door icons.
- Added an option to disable coloring of the dungeon room & door boxes. Toggle in the Options menu.
- Fixed every theme & custom graphics loading bug I could find.
- Added an option to enable the arrow keys to move the cursor on the OW or dungeon maps. Doesn't work globally due to GameMaker limitations. TY Bogie!
v4.99.06 (05/04/23)
- Reverted all uses of the proportional font in centered text, as it caused excessive blur in the classic UI skin.
- Fixed all uses of draw_text_ext() that caused HTML5 builds to have bunched up text. Pls fix defaults on HTML5 YoYo!
- (Hopefully) Fixed OS detection & disabled all updater functions on HTML5 & mobile.
- Fixed setting OW start not working on HTML5.
- Fixed a crash with the dungeon map shifting controls.
- Tweaked the layout of things on the top part of the screen so they line up better. Thanks for the suggestion Catastrophe!
v4.99.05 (04/29/23)
- Fixed theme errors and added proportional tiny fonts.
- Added custom sprite loading. See the readme in the assets-default folder for info on how to use this feature.
- Implemented theme version checks. Any missing data from a loaded theme will just use the internal defaults.
- Added a button to change the type of tint overlay on the OW map.
- Added the 'Show Open Caves' feature from Bogie's ZHelper 4 edit.
- Added an option to output separated timer stats files as well as the combined one. Thanks BogieSmalls for these two features!
- Added the v4-style helpful hints screen.
v4.99.04 (04/28/23)
- Fixed and tweaked a bunch of random things.
- Redesigned the Options menu.
- Implemented the compact OW map, and fixed mirrored mode not mirroring screen descriptions.
- Replaced the custom map selection dialog with a proper file select dialog.
- Added v4-equivalent keyboard hotkey support, as well as the ability to enable/disable icons you don't want to use.
- Added saving/loading support for tracker data files.
Version 5 Preview Builds
NOTE: These are only preview builds, and are missing critical features such as saving and loading support, as well as hotkeys! I would not recommend using them during races yet! They are still perfectly usable for casual playthroughs.
v4.99.03 (04/23/23)
- Thickened all the borders in HD mode to be the same as classic mode to improve visibility at smaller scales.
- Rewrote most of the UI code to no longer use draw_rectangle() or draw_line(), as they cause nothing but problems anymore.
- Added custom theme support. Place .zhtheme files in %AppData%\ZHelper\themes\ and load them from the Options menu. Custom graphics like v4 had will come at a later date.
v4.99.02 (02/04/23)
- Added a basic Options menu.
- Timer function has an option to output area and total run times to a text file when it is stopped.
- Many more misc. changes and additions throughout.
v4.99.01 (02/03/23)
- Added the updater. It has both beta and stable channels now, although betas like this will be locked to the beta channel. They can still get stable updates as well if they're newer than the beta. Currently there isn't a stable update, so it makes no difference.
- More changes to the OW screen, including support for loading custom maps from programs such as Infinite Hyrule. To use it, Shift + Left click the QW:1ST button to enable custom quest, then click the load custom map image button below the blank map. Do note that because of the way GM sandboxes things, you'll have to move the image to %LocalAppData%\ZHelper\maps\ for it to work.
- Added basic dungeon tracking. Its far from complete, but hopefully enough to at least be usable right now. The entire dungeon system will likely be overhauled at some point, so I wouldn't get too used to it.
v4.99.00 (01/29/23)
- Initial preview build. Only has a barebones OW screen.
Version 4 (No longer updated!)
The following is a complete version history from 4.00 onwards. To download a particular version, click on the version number.
(NOTE: GMS2 builds are built in Gamemaker Studio 2 for better compatibility with newer versions of Windows. They are untested, and might have bugs that aren't in the GMS 1.4 builds!)
v4.45 (GMS 1.4 Build) (GMS2 Build) (01/06/20)
- Made the updater not pop up a messagebox unless clicked. It will still show the status at the bottom right of the main menu.
- Added an option to switch display of the overworld coordinates on the map to A1-H16 style instead of hexadecimal. It only changes on the map right now, and also disables the player indicators on the overworld map to make room for the longer string.
v4.44 (GMS 1.4 Build) (GMS2 Build) (01/06/20)
- Made the updater handle Gamemaker Studio 2 builds correctly. To start getting GMS2 builds in the future, be sure to manually download the 4.44 GMS2 build off Discord or the website. From this point on, it should keep you on the same GM version.
- Added the ability to shift dungeon maps around using a new set of buttons on the D maps. It only works when both network mode and auto-mapping are not active, however. This is due to the auto-syncing between D and C maps on the server, and obviously auto-mapping would never need to shift maps. Its always those old classic dungeon maps causing problems. :(
- Added an X item icon to manually mark an item box as disabled. Hold shift, and middle-click an item box to set the icon. It cannot be accessed by other means.
- Added a couple types of negative overworld color palettes to the randomizer addons, as suggested by Devan2002. It doesn't change the black color yet unfortunately. Sounds like fun times either way.
- Added dungeon icons for ladder, bow/arrow, sword/wand, and recorder blocks.
- Added in two new dungeon guides. LEVEL-? text at the bottom next to each tile picture, and item icons along the right to help align markings easier.
v4.43-GMS2 (11/01/19) (NOTE: This build is untested!)
- This release is the same as 4.43, but compiled in GM Studio 2. It is just here for (hopefully) better compatibility with newer versions of Windows. It is completely untested, so use it at your own risk during races and such! Going forward, I'll try to post a GMS2 build alongside the GMS 1.4 builds if it doesn't crash horribly. Right now it uses the same update system as the GMS 1.4 builds, so don't update it if you want to stay on GMS2 for now! It'll be a separate update channel in future builds.
v4.43 (03/01/19)
- Added a mirrored toggle for the overworld map screen. Right-click the MIX button to mirror the overworld map. It doesn't swap all the already-marked locations though.
v4.42 (08/12/18)
- Fixed the ladder & white sword item icons below their respective boxes.
v4.41 (08/12/18)
- Added a dungeon transparency setting. You can turn unmarked rooms and doors on the D1-D9 maps translucent by left clicking the TR button while on a dungeon map. The translucency amount can be adjusted in the Options menu.
v4.40 (08/12/18)
- Turned off the GM debug overlay that I accidentally left on.
v4.39 (08/11/18)
- Added support for loading custom graphics. You can replace almost anything, except for a few special graphics that need to be left alone. You can use the reload button in the options menu to reload graphics on the fly without restarting the program. Please note this feature may have a noticeable performance impact on very slow systems as it negates some of GM's built in optimizations. See the help page of the website for more details on this feature.
- Added a dungeon door icon for attempted but failed walk-through. It looks like faded horizontal/vertical lines with a ? on it. Its used when you tried to walk-through but haven't ruled out bombs yet.
- Changed the item icon order. Heart container is now the last item in the list. Just right click an empty box once to get a heart now.
- Added a button to toggle between item boxes or heart icons below the triforce. They don't sync up yet, so beware of that. You can change which one shows up by default in the options menu.
v4.38 (08/11/18)
- Changed the SRL warning screen message to reflect that SRL mode MUST be on before using the tracker during races.
- Made the SRL warning screen only show up once. No more having to keep clicking through it every single time.
- Changed the message about bug reports on the title screen to refer to the new section on the Zelda 1 Randomizer Discord server.
- Fixed a minor oops in the default value for the dungeon finder delay setting dialog. Likely won't affect the majority of users since SRL mode disables that feature anyway.
v4.37 (08/06/18)
- Minor fix for the item boxes having repeating items at the end.
- Adjusted the size of the new dungeon heart itemboxes so they look better and avoid clicking two at once.
v4.36 (08/05/18)
- Nuked what I hope are the last forgotten remenants of the old multi-seed support. Remember that mess?
- Hopefully fixed all the wrong packet sizes and such on the server. It should work again. Let me know if it still explodes.
- Changed the hearts below the triforce icons to generic item boxes to accomodate the new boss item shuffling option in the randomizer. Thanks to Azeryn for changing those boxes!
v4.35 (03/22/17)
- Fixed a bug where trying to load the backup data when it doesn't exist would crash the program. Now it just gives a nice error message instead.
- Made the updater delete the v5 update check text file when its done with it to avoid conflicts.
v4.34 (03/21/17)
- Changed the save format to a custom binary buffer format instead of using GM's data structure serialization functions. Save/load performance should increase dramatically since its now a 16KB file instead of a multi-MB file.
- Disabled some outdated/broken randomizer addons. Dungeon prefab rando & lost woods rando are out for the moment. They'll return at a later date when they're in a more complete state.
- Fixed an updater bug that's been around since v3 (yep, seriously!). If you happen to get a 404 page instead of the actual update file, ZHelper would crash from expecting a number. Now it checks to make sure it didn't get a 404 page first. I'd be surprised if that never crashed anybody up till this point.
- Made some behind-the-scenes changes to the updater to get it ready for the release of ZHelper 5. Its mainly going to be for putting up a special note on the main menu once its released instead of constantly throwing the important update message. v5 will not run on very old PCs due to being made in GameMaker Studio 2, which doesn't support DirectX 9.
v4.33 (10/05/16)
- Added quick view switch buttons to the top bar where the multiseed stuff was. Thanks to PanzerDave for the idea!
- Hotkeys can now use letters and not just numbers. This should allow for more hotkey options until a better system is finished.
- Made some major optimizations to the overworld and classic dungeon map drawing. The new dungeon maps can't be optimized much further.
- Made the transparency toggle hotkeys show messages like the button.
- Gutted multi-seed support ENTIRELY! Worst decision I ever made was to implement that considering ironman isn't a thing now. Something's bound to explode so get the bug reports ready.
- Made the player names get saved to save files. Been a bug for ZH4's entire life. Oops.
- Added player position indicators. Connected players who are using the automapping feature will show a blinking cursor on the maps of all connected players showing their current location. These are disabled completely if SRL mode is on because some people think this is a cheat and shouldn't be allowed in races.
- Added a player list to the bottom of the tracker window. It shows all the connected players' names and positions (if available).
- Made the server stream data twice as fast during full client syncs. It should be fine now with the recent OoB fix on the server side.
- Changed the update.txt format and made the updater show the important update message if an important update has been released since they last updated instead of only checking the newest version.
v4.32 (09/29/16)
- Added SRL mode. It is on by default, and disables various tracker features that some people may consider cheating during races. These features include dungeon narrowing, network mode (including the server), and the overworld automapper. To toggle SRL mode, click the button on the main menu.
v4.31 (09/28/16)
- Added a notice screen with information about the recent discussions on the ZeldaOne Discord server. Please note that certain ZHelper features may soon be banned from use on SpeedRunsLive! If need be, I will put out an update with the banned features removed once its decided.
v4.30 (09/25/16)
- Fixed an error with the white sword cave itembox tooltip. I forgot a break statement so it was drawing the I AM ERROR text on top of the tooltip.
- Added a button to quickly clear the currently selected dungeon map as suggested by PanzerDave. Useful if you just want a sort of scratchpad to work with instead of fiddling with a bunch of separate maps. Its disabled in network mode for obvious reasons.
v4.29 (09/25/16)
- Switched vertex buffer method to the 'Most Compatible' option. Hopefully this fixes the program not running at all for some. If not, or if it causes you issues, let me know and I'll just start pushing two separate builds.
- Made the server output log messages to a text file in the save directory so its easier to track down weird crap when it happens.
- Permakilled the OoB buffer read bug on the server, because it decided to show its disgusting, ugly self with less than 100 bytes of incoming data compared to the 170+ KB it took to blow up the client. Its amazing that it worked until now, and barfed with such a small amount of incoming data. If you see ANTICRASH messages on the server, it would have blown up.
- Fixed an issue where you could get stuck on screen 45 if the overworld routing rando is enabled.
- Added a 3rd setting for the overworld icon transparency toggle and settings for the overworld map tiles.
- Added hotkeys for the transparency toggle. Use F5/F6 to toggle map tile/icon transparency.
- Added an overworld automapper for use with the overworld randomizer addon. Shift-click the auto button in the tracker to learn more and enable the feature. Please note that this feature is experimental and may have bugs and/or instability issues, and does not have network support or even save/load support. It is only compatible with FCEUX 2.2.2 at the moment, and you must use an integer scale, the default palette, and no filters. It uses a custom DLL I made that reads pixels from the screen. Let me know if it doesn't work for you. More automatic tracking features will come once ZHelper 5 is done. Thanks to Kababesh & PanzerDave for all the bug testing they did on my auto-tracking beta build this stuff was ported from!
v4.28 (04/17/16)
- Added a transparency toggle button for overworld icons, so you can see the map below them if needed.
- Fixed the derp where the white sword icon below the itembox was showing as a wand. Forgot to change the subimage number when I added the shield icon.
v4.27 (04/16/16)
- Removed the B1-B4 overworld icons that were meant for drjasonkimball's auto-tracker use for shops since he's not around anymore. They'll probably be added back if he ever comes back and updates his tracker, or if someone else gets an auto-tracker running.
- Added a Rupee? icon for marking unknown rupee secrets that you haven't collected. Mainly there for those who don't use player indicators at all.
v4.26 (04/16/16)
- Added confirmation prompts to F1, F2 and F9 in the tracker window to help avoid accidents.
v4.25 (04/13/16)
- Fixed a very minor visual error on the potion shop screen north of level 3 in the overworld randomizer.
- Added a shield icon for the dungeon item boxes.
- Added a book shop icon for the overworld.
- Added a new map screen that has options for tracking the helpful hints about dungeon locations. It has network support too. Also added tooltips to the dungeon item boxes to show the hint messages as well. TY for the ideas jkoper!
v4.24 (04/06/16)
- The ultimate form of overworld madness is finally here! Added a randomizer addon that randomly opens and closes paths on the overworld. Every screen should always be accessible without having to use glitches. If not, let me know the seed and where. Its incompatible with the burn/bomb overworld rando option right now, so it'll ignore that one if its checked too. Compatibility will come once I know this beast is actually working properly.
- Fixed the error that showed when you clicked cancel when picking a ROM for the randomizer addons (finally!).
- Moved a couple large sections of the rando addons generation code to scripts, because GM:S' code editor was lagging up a storm from almost 5k lines of code in a single action.
- Added a keep-alive ping packet for the network mode. Hopefully this stops the seemingly random disconnects after inactivity.
- Added an AUTO button to the main tracker window. It doesn't do anything useful yet.
- Added critical update functionality. You'll see the update prompt every time one is available. This will get used for major bugfix updates or those that change the randomizer addons or network functionality.
v4.23 (03/16/16)
- Made the mouseover outlines draw above everything else.
- Clicking a valid classic dungeon cell will create a dungeon in the new dungeon maps if one doesn't exist and there is room for it. The color of the new dungeon map has to be set manually.
v4.22 (03/16/16)
- Added a bunch more overworld palettes.
- Fixed the bug where clicking the Reset All Data button on the server causes it to stop responding.
v4.21 (03/15/16)
- FINALLY!!! Nailed the coffin shut for good on the 'read from outside the buffer' bug on clients. I even tested it with a lag/drop/throttle simulator with settings worse than the most unreliable 28.8k modem imaginable and it still doesn't crash.
- Fixed a few other small networking bugs. The Reset All button is still broken for an unknown reason.
- Added a notification to the client when the OoB buffer read anticrash mechanism kicks in. If you see this you would have crashed before, but shouldn't anymore unless corrupt data somehow got past TCP's error checking. You'll see stuff like this pop up over the location bar with a red background.
v4.20 (03/13/16)
- Fixed the incorrect itembox coloring. It was just assuming 1-9 = 1-9 and not actually checking if they were out of order.
v4.19 (03/13/16)
- Added Tropical overworld palette.
- Corrected the Blackout overworld palette to use 0F instead of 0D.
v4.18 (03/12/16)
- Slowed down sync streaming to half its current speed to (hopefully) keep crashes from happening because GM:S networking sucks.
- Lowered the spam of full sync messages in the server.
- Added new/classic dungeon syncing. Syncing only occurs if you have a new dungeon map set to a particular level. It will auto-sync what is already entered on both maps when clicking a dungeon number, and will automatically sync everything for that dungeon after that.
- Added audio alerts to the server for certain events like a client connecting and disconnecting, and for dungeon sync conflicts. Its a configurable option in the server screen if you don't want them.
v4.17 (03/10/16)
- Network mode has (hopefully) been fixed. It shouldn't crash anymore as long as you don't spamclick the sync button. Thanks to Kababesh for helping with stability testing and making sure it all works!
- Made the dungeon item boxes colored based on the selected dungeon colors (in the new dungeon tracker, not classic). I meant to do this from the start, but never did for some reason.
v4.16 (03/07/16)
- Network mode is finally here again! Just click Start Server to start a server and then have clients connect to it by shift-clicking the net button on the main tracker window and putting in the server's ip & port. You'll still have to forward ports and all that if you're behind a router. I'm thinking of a way to solve that issue, but I need to get the existing network code stable before I try to do it. If you use multiple clients, use a different player name on each or it probably won't work properly, if at all. WARNING: There could be bugs and glitches that I've missed that could cause data loss, crashes, or other grief. I'm still a huge n00b at writing network code, so please test it thoroughly and be sure to report any problems you find! I've tested and debugged it quite a bit myself, and it seems to be stable. Just don't go spam-clicking the resync buttons and you should be alright (that would be asking for trouble anyway, right?).
- Added several new overworld palettes to the randomizer addons, including blackout/whiteout!
- Made all rooms other than the tracker 30fps again to lower CPU usage in menus and in the server.
- Lots of minor changes, fixes, adjustments, and refactoring to get network mode functioning.
- Made the coordinate text on the overworld and classic dungeon maps darker.
- Updated credits in the readme.
v4.15 (03/03/16)
- Hotfix for a bug where using the mouse in the empty black area below maps with indicators off was changing incorrect icons and/or trying to write to OoB locations, possibly causing crashes or corrupting memory since its compiled to C++ by the YYC. Updating is HIGHLY recommended.
v4.14 (03/03/16)
- Added the ability to select which icons are selectable on the tracker (as requested by caracarnvi).
- Added hotkeys that you can assign to the 0-9 keys (above the letters, not numpad), allowing you to quickly set a cell to certain icon types. Use your emulator's background input function, keep ZHelper focused, move the mouse over the cell you want to change, and press the number to set the cell.
v4.13 (03/01/16)
- Implemented a temporary workaround for filename_change_ext() not working, causing randomizer addons rom filenames to lose their original filename. Go figure, they break something that worked just fine before.
v4.12 (03/01/16)
- The program now runs at 60FPS. This should make mousewheel scrolling through icons MUCH more responsive than ever. You'll immediately notice a massive difference.
- Added a randomizer addon that lets you change the square wave instrument used for the game.
- Added a randomizer addon that lets you choose an alternate overworld palette. There are several presets defined. If you've came up with a good palette that isn't already in, send it to me and I'll add it. You should have a total of 6 hexadecimal values from 00-3F, 3 for the 'green' palette and 3 for the 'brown' palette.
- Added a map icon to the dungeon icons because I've somehow forgotten that one ever since dungeon tracking was a thing back in 3.0, just like the compass icon.
- Added a 10-rupee room dungeon icon (the yellow rupee icon).
- Made the updater ask for a filename when you choose to download an update zip. This eliminates the need to keep finding the file in the appdata folder. This is the only way I can implement this due to GM Studio's sandboxing.
- Made the overworld, dungeon, and door icon boxes automatically find how many icons there are because I got fed up with changing a bunch of numbers every time I had to add one.
v4.11 (02/28/16)
- Rewrote the existing randomizer addons generation code. It uses buffers now, making it MUCH, MUCH faster and the code is cleaner than before.
- Changed descriptions of a couple randomizer addons options.
- Added a randomizer addon that changes the columns the burn bushes and bomb tiles are in on the overworld. Its limited by the possibilities of the vanilla combos right now, but might get expanded eventually. This thing was a nightmare to make, so it needs lots of testing.
v4.10 (02/28/16)
- Made the overworld and classic dungeon maps not have black bars in between rows when player indicators are disabled.
v4.09 (02/22/16)
- Made a custom icon to replace the default GM one.
- Test build using the YoYo Compiler. Not really necessary yet since performace is very good right now, but the server will definitely benefit, so I want to make sure it works before I get that far.
- Made the randomizer addons starting seed different every time you start the program.
- Added the Start Server button to the main menu. It doesn't do anything yet though.
v4.08 (02/21/16)
- Now built with GM Studio Professional, so no more annoying splash screen on startup, and the hotkeys are in the window title again.
- Added a tooltip that shows the current dungeon assignments when the mouse is over the view button.
- Added mouseover outlines to the new dungeon maps. The existing setting affects these as well.
- Added a dungeon icon for the Grumble Grumble room.
- Made horizontal and vertical dungeon door markers have their own icon sets, to reduce amount of clicks needed.
- Added a ? door icon, which is now the default, and a solid wall icon (dark lines on sides, black in middle).
v4.07 (02/21/16)
- Band-aid fix for the updater being retarded thanks to GM Studio bugs. If your update says it failed, check %localappdata%\ZHelper for the file anyway. It most likely downloaded.
v4.06 (02/20/16)
- Fixed the updater showing message boxes upon entering the main menu after the first time.
- Added a randomizer addon that randomizes the lost woods and hills paths. It doesn't change the exits, only the first 3 directions in each. It also doesn't update the hint messages yet.
- Added a vanilla-only version of me and half-witted's room layout randomizer to the randomizer addons. This one replaces each of the 42 'rooms' the game uses with a different room that's compatible. It only uses vanilla rooms at the moment, so duplicate room layouts may occur, although that just adds to the confusion, which is the whole point of this thing anyway :). This is different from what fcoughlin's randomizer does, in that this one actually changes the room prefabs themselves, meaning custom room prefabs can be used.
v4.05 (02/19/16)
- Added the randomizer addons screen. It will be home to randomizers for a few things the existing randomizer doesn't do.
- Added the first randomizer addon, Scramble Drop Tables. It shuffles the data in the drop tables. There are still the same number of each drop overall in the tables, but they may not all be in the same group. For example, bombs could be in 2 groups instead of 1, and less likely in each group.
v4.04 (02/19/16)
- Fixed a bug where 1st quest L7 was misaligned on the dungeon layouts.
- Fixed the new-style dungeon maps (D9 in particular). All of them were actually bugged, writing and reading one map higher than they should have been.
v4.03 (02/17/16)
- Added classic dungeon mapping for those that prefer the old dungeon mapper. Select maps C1-C4 to use it. It works like ZH3's dungeon tracking, except it has the new icons and it supports player indicators. Automatic dungeon finding, doors, and other advanced features are not supported. There is and will be no interaction between the classic and new dungeon maps whatsoever.
v4.02 (02/16/16)
- Made the dungeon finder much more efficient. Startup time has increased slightly, but it gives 20x performance improvement in dungeon tracking. As a result, the default dungeon finder delay is now 5 frames instead of 30. You can change this manually in the options.
v4.01 (02/15/16)
- Fixed a bug where the 2nd quest overworld background was shown even in 1st quest.
- Added an option to disable all coordinate drawing and player indicators on the overworld and dungeons.
- Adjusted the background color of the armos icon because it was too close the overworld map background color.
- Added several new dungeon icons.
- Made the dungeon finder's guide images super dark so they're barely visible on screen now.
v4.00 (02/15/16)
- Initial release of ZHelper 4. Too many changes/additons to even think about listing them all.
- Network mode will be coming once I know the program is somewhat stable and I get everything figured out for it.
The Ancient Stuff (v1.x - v3.x)
The following are what I still have from the 1.x to 3.x releases in case you're curious how this project started over 10 years ago. These may or may not run anymore on modern Windows:
v3.07 (08/18/15)
ZHelper 3 was the first version to have networking support and proper item box icons.
v2.26 (08/14/15)
ZHelper 2 upgraded the UI massively and introduced the overworld map style still in use today. It also had extremely basic dungeon mapping (this was before shapes was really a thing)
v1.03 (03/15/15)
ZHelper 1 was literally a quick cobbled-together low-res overworld map with a handful of icons so I didn't have to keep track of things on paper when I was first starting out. A couple other people saw it and ended up using it at the time as well.
