Bosca Ceoil Blue is getting in shape for the stable release with beta 2!

This pre-release version contains a number of fixes to stability and GUI scale, smaller QoL improvements, and a major feature! Let’s talk about them.

Performance and stability

After the release of beta 1 I’ve received a number of reports related to performance issues on Linux and some undetermined platforms, pointing to problems with the synthesizer. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to confirm these issues myself (even got a Pop! OS machine running for that!), however improving the synth had been on my agenda anyway.

Thus I dedicated some time to review the synthesizer and address a whole bunch of potential problems. A new version of GDSiON is being released alongside Bosca today!

Please let me know, with as many details as possible, if you still experience problems with the app. Slowdowns, hangs, freezes, cracks in the sound — all these can be signs of performance issues.

GUI scale and window management

Another major pain point with the first beta release was the GUI scale. Working on a high DPI display I miscalculated how the app will look on a normal one, compared to the original Bosca Ceoil. Beta 2 addresses this with a new set of scaling options, going above and below what was possible before.

If you accidentally pick a scale that doesn’t fit your actual physical screen space, there is a check for this now as well. The app will make its best attempt to fit the UI into your screen and pick a scale that works, even if it’s not a standard value. You can also input any value between 25% and 300% in the settings file, to fine-tune it to your special case.

Note that some blurriness in texts and icons can be noticeable with non-default scales. This is something that I hope to improve in a future version of the tool. From my testing, it’s not really a deal-breaker right now, but please let me know if you have any issues!

Action history, a.k.a. Undo Redo

This should’ve been on my TODO list from the very beginning, but better late than never! The original Bosca didn’t have any system to undo and redo your changes, even when destructive actions were performed. This naturally results in lost progress and time, and can be a very annoying issue. The Blue Album added a couple more destructive actions to the mix, for consistency. But that meant even more edits can be dangerous and result in annoyances. Of which I was quickly reminded by multiple people :)

This is fixed now! Bosca Ceoil Blue beta 2 allows you to press Ctrl + Z to undo your last action and Shift + Ctrl + Z to redo it. Last 40 actions are remembered, which should be sufficient to let you fix a recent mistake quickly. I am all ears for what you have to say about this change! Bigger history? Bugs? Some changes that I missed which aren’t tracked? Do let me know.

Small things

Some other minor improvements were made here and there. But you probably want to hear about another thing that I initially missed. You can once again preview notes by clicking on the left sidebar with note names! If you have instrument recording enabled, the value of the currently played position is respected when you click.

To redeem myself a bit here, Bosca Ceoil Blue, even beta 1, has a feature that aims to help you in a similar way. If you pause the playback, placing notes on a pattern also lets you preview them. In this case the note length is also respected, of course. Notes that you preview from the sidebar are played with the default length. Although, now that I think about it, should it play with the length of the note cursor instead?.. I’ll wait for your feedback!

If you experience issues, please report them as soon as you can.

Your Support

Please consider supporting the project financially by donating via Patreon! Every dollar helps, so please consider donating even if it’s a little. Thank you very much <3