MonoGame 2.5 Announced : Custom shaders on all supported MonoGame platforms

The MonoGame team are pleased to announce that MonoGame v2.5 has been released. This release contains important bug fixes, implements optimisations and adds key features. MonoGame now has the capability to use OpenGLES 2.0 on Android and iOS devices, meaning it now supports custom shaders across mobile and desktop platforms. Also included in this release are native orientation animations on iOS devices and better Orientation support for Android. There have also been a lot of bug fixes since the last release especially to the SpriteBatch class.

MonoGame is an open source implementation of the XNA APIs that allows developers to build 2D games that run on Android, iPhone, iPad, Mac, Linux and Windows using the same code base, or reusing existing XNA code that runs on Xbox 360 or Windows Phone 7.

ROADMAP

This is the last major release of the 2.5.x branch. Only emergency patches and fixes will be release for this branch. All future efforts will go into v3.x, see below.
The 3.x series will extend MonoGame with support for the XNA 3D APIs as well as something we are working on, which we believe the whole MonoGame will love.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Firstly, go over to github and register. Then fork the main repo found at https://github.com/mono/MonoGame
This will allow you to make changes to your own repo and send us patches and enhancements, thus benefiting everyone.
You can also join the active community of developers on IRC at irc.gnome.org on the #monogame channel, where the day-to-day improvements are being discussed in real time.
If you release a game using MonoGame, please let us know so we can update our released games page, and mention MonoGame in your tweet.

SPECIAL THANKS TO FOR THIS RELEASE ( In no particular order)

Jalfx (for starting this project in 2010, when it was called XNATouch)
kjpou1
technomage
slygamer (Konaju Games)
Clancey (Xamarin)
Grapes
JorgeMagic (Cell SDK)
Kungfubanana
espes
Tapani
ncoder
tomspilman (Sickhead Games)
Lancej
CartBlanche

Team Xamarin for their support and continued great work on all things Mono and everyone else that submitted patches/fixes and enhancements. Without your contributions this release would not have been possible.

Extra Special thanks to Flying Development Studio, makers of Infinite Flight, for giving back their code changes that added 3D support to MonoGame. These changes will form an important part of the next v3.0 release.




FIXES AND FEATURES

All Platforms

Minor fixes to the Networking stack to make it more reliable when looking for games
SpriteBatch Fixes including making sure the matrix parameter is applied in both gles 1.1 and gles 2.0
Updated IDrawable and IUpdatable interfaces to match XNA 4.0
Fixed the Tick method
Updated VideoPlayer constructor contract to match XNA 4.0
Added Code to Lookup the Host Application Guid for Networking, the guid id is now pulled from the AssemblyInfo.cs if one is present
Uses OpenAL on all platforms except Android.
Added Dxt5 decompression support
Improves SpriteFont to conform more closely to XNA 4.0
Moved DynamicVertexBuffer and DynamicIndexBuffer into its own files.

iOS

Fixed Console.WriteLine problem
Fixed loading of @2x Retina files
Fixed Landscape Rendering
Fixed Orientations changes correctly animate
Fixed Guide.BeginShowKeyboardInput
Fixed StorageDevice AOT compile problem
Fixed SpriteBatch to respect matrices when drawn
Fixed DoubleTap, improves touches in serial Game instances
Fixed App startup in non-Portrait orientations
Fixed UnauthorizedAccessException using TitleContainer
Fixed a runtime JIT error that was occuring with List<AddJournalEntry<T>()

Android

Project Templates for MonoDevelop
Fixed a few issues with Gestures
Fixed the name of the assembly to be MonoGame.Framework.Android
Fixed a Memory Leak in Texture Loading
Force linear filter and clamp wrap on npot textures in ES2.0 on Android
Added SetData and GetData support for Texture2D
Guide.SignIn picks up the first email account on the phone

MacOS X

SoundEffectInstance.Stop now works correctly

Linux

Project Templates for Visual Studio and MonoDevelop
Fixed a bug when loading of Wav files

Windows

Project Templates for Visual Studio and MonoDevelop
Fixed a bug when loading of Wav files
Added Game.IsMouseVisible implementation for Windows
Guide.SignIn picks up the logged in user
Added a new Installer to install the MonoDevelop and / or Visual Studio Templates and binaries.

KNOWN ISSUES

iOS

Guide.ShowKeyboard is not working

App Backgrounding has regressed. A patch is already being tested in the develop branch and the fix will be rolled out as part of the v2.5.1.

Android

CatapultWars does not render correctly under gles 1.1