Major Improvements:

* Massive optimizations to OpenGL rendering code, especially of detail textures (2-5x speedup on modern hardware).
* A whole new rendering backend, DirectX10/11! This is likely to be the renderer of choice for users with modern AMD/ATI or Intel cards.
* New event-based input code guarantees that every character you type will be registered. This should finally fix the 'I can't type right in myth' syndrome.
* Added a preference "Autosave Films (Multiplayer)" to automatically save all multiplayer films.
* Players dropping should no longer cause an endless "Waiting for other players..." dialog and ghost players in post-game.
* Fixed two rare but annoying bugs where moving a unit could result in it being deselected instead.
* Eliminated up to two ticks of baked-in latency in the Myth netcode. (One tick = 1/30th of a second.)
* Optimized gameplay code, resulting in 30% faster save game loads.
* New high resolution icons for Mac OS X Universal and Windows builds.

Important Gameplay Fixes:

* Archers given the stab order via double click will no longer moonwalk.
* Units that are given an order at the exact moment when they are delivering a killing blow on an enemy should no longer ignore it.
* The castle gates will now open again on the TSG level Fall of Markon. (1.7.1 bug)
* Pressing T to lay a satchel charge while your dwarf is walking to attack a ground location should now work as expected.
* Clicking on ambient life while issuing a special ability attack that can only target enemies will no longer reset your selection. Instead, you will now target the ground beneath the ambient life.
* Explosions affecting a monster that is teleporting out will no longer result in incorrect scoring.
* Corrected Stampede and Hunting scoring such that a team that reached its current score earlier will now be ahead of teams that reached that score later.
* Having anti-clump enabled will no longer result in TFL-style scoring on certain game types.
* Fixed a bug where units standing knee-deep in water sometimes had their sounds skipped.
* Berserk monsters will now correctly respawn under Deathmatch. (1.7.1 bug)

Graphics/Rendering Improvements:

* Eliminated sprite/mesh flickering. (only in GL and DX11 renderers)
* Slightly improved camera smoothness (yes, even more smooth than 1.7.1!) by use of a higher resolution timer.
* Automatic guessing of optimal texture cache size.
* Overhead map blips will now fade together with the overhead itself, when it is toggled on or off.
* Models' media surfaces are no longer self-reflective. Eg. the water on a bridge model won't reflect itself.

Other Changes and Fixes:

* Chat text will now only auto-scroll for important messages, or if the current scroll position is all the way at the bottom.
* Increased metaserver/game lobby chat backlog to 1024 lines (was 256).
* Corrected error message when the wrong password is used to connect to the metaserver. (1.7.1 bug)
* Fixed several small problems with the appearance of icon popup controls (player icon selector, room selector).
* Name spoofing or use of the <> characters in the metaserver lobby will no longer prevent a player's info from being seen.
* Single-player new game dialog will now show custom plugin images again.
* Mac OS X Universal Binary build can now join LAN games hosted on Windows.
* Overhead map now defaults to a larger size on higher resolutions.
* Switching presets via the scroll wheel will now work after restoring a saved game.
* Fixed several causes of crashes and OOS.

Windows-specific Changes:

* All: Refined the choices for windowed/fullscreen: Now you can choose from windowed, automatic, and fullscreen -
       windowed: play in a window, or "fullscreen windowed" @ your desktop res (with instant alt-tab on Vista+)
       automatic: windowed if the window fits on your desktop, fullscreen otherwise.
       fullscreen: just fullscreen.
* All: In single player, myth will automatically pause and enter a reduced-CPU-use state when you switch to another app.
* All: SMACKW32.dll is no longer required for Myth to run (it's still required to play smacker cutscenes).
* All: Myth now defaults to windowed mode, and automatically fallback to windowed mode if fullscreen mode fails.
* Vista+: Possibly fixed the 'vista sound delay' bug. (We need your help to figure out if this is actually fixed)
* Vista+: Fixed fullscreen/windowed toggle.
* Vista+: Faster map restarts under OpenGL.
* XP+: Myth now respects user control panel preference for left/right mouse handedness.
* 9x: Myth no longer minimizes & maximizes itself during resolution switches.
* 95: Myth can now be launched in windows 95 again!

Mapmaking Changes:

* Allow unlimited stopping/restarting of LPGRs by script.
* Increased explosion limit to 64 from the previous value of 24.
* Increased maximum local projectiles to 768 and maximum local projectile groups to 160.
* Fixed issues with having 128 or more sequences in a collection. The maximum is now 256.