Summary of Changes from 1.7.2 to to 1.8.0 Public Beta #1:

New Multi-Player Features:

* New game type: "King of the Map". This mode uses territories flags and weighted king of the hill scoring based on number of flags held.
* New "Rehost" and "Restart" buttons in the quit/pause dialog, so that it's no longer necessary to drop or suicide to restart the game.
* New hosting option for coop narrations and cutscenes.
* Multiplayer checkbox "Allow Old Clients". If unchecked, players on previous versions of the game won't be able to join.
* In-game ping display (shown below FPS in netgames).
* Improved tracking and display of damage and damage received. Damage values are now properly scaled (i.e. to unit trading cost) and consistent with metaserver scores.

Major Graphics Improvements:

* Extended zoom: up to 5x in replays and when observing (requires DX11/OpenGL).
* New "Motion Interpolation" option to make the game even smoother.
* Significant performance improvements under OpenGL and DX11 renderers.
* Eliminated many cases of sprite flickering and units heads being cut off by models.
* Improved view distance and eliminated "hall of mirrors" effect.
* Added mipmaps to all textures which eliminates flickering and shimmering with high resolution sprites viewed from a distance.
* Made the overhead map "visible region polygon" (the yellow box) more accurately reflect what is really on screen.
* Built-in screenshot support: activated by printscreen or option+f12 (saved to "screenshots" folder). Under OpenGL or DX11, hold shift to capture a "mega" screenshot 8000 pixels wide.

Other Major Features:

* Improved New Game and Multiplayer New Game dialogs, with enhanced and streamlined plugin management.
* New Auto-Save feature for single player will create save games whenever a new level is reached.
* Switching formations in place: simply double-tap the formation # key or shift-click on a formation button in the control bar.
* New resizable control and status bars allow the game to support every screen resolution. (Previous versions supported only a limited set of resolutions).
* New OpenAL audio support (available in preferences).
* New "alternate preset recall" control option:
  - Recall a preset by pressing one of the # keys (no modifiers required).
  - Assigning formations is still done by Alt+# (mappable), but holding the keys down is no longer required.
  - To change formations, first hit the F (mappable), followed by the number.
  - Shift+F + # changes formations "in place".
  - Double-tap # selects and centers the view on the preset.
  - Shift+# will add/remove a preset from the selection.

Important Gameplay Fixes:

* Fixed the vanguard formation so that the tip is right where you clicked, instead of a little bit in front.
* Fixed attack ground "stickiness"; a second normal click won't cause another ground attack.
* The "guard" command now also works with non-melee units.
* Fixed a bug which could cause random objects to detonate unexpectedly, potentially breaking the game if it was e.g. a netgame ball.
* Fixed some cases where an object could pass through a model (e.g. the ball on Venice).

User Interface and Miscellaneous Improvements:

* Several improvements to UI responsiveness make the game feel a lot more speedy.
* Chronological sorting for saved games and newly-saved time-stamped films.
* Status bar unit experience display will now switch to a number at 10 kills.
* "Rotate preset" will no longer center the camera, unless you hold shift down at the same time.
* A selected unit becoming controllable no longer needs to be re-selected to receive orders.
* All GUI "list" elements can now receive keyboard focus, and be used with the type-to-seek feature which was introduced in 1.7.2.
* Adjusting the game volume via F3/F4 will now affect sounds that have already begun playing, including narrations, intros and cutscenes.
* Shift+zoom now cycles through a few preset zoom levels. Note that most of these zoom levels are only available in replays and when observing.
* Numerous performance optimizations to improve game launch speed, save game load time, and CPU use while playing.

Windows-specific Changes:

* The Myth window can now be resized or maximized normally. Alt-enter or alt-f11 toggles between windowed mode and windowed fullscreen mode on which ever monitor the window is currently on.
* Added basic multitouch navigation support including: 1) two-finger orbit and zoom, 2) three-finger pan and 3) press-and-tap for right click.
* When "Use Multicore" is enabled, the Myth window now runs in a separate thread from the game logic. This allows the window to continue to move or resize while the game is busy.
* New function to "grab" the cursor (lock the cursor inside the window). Toggle with Ctrl+G. Mouse movement at edges of screen is disabled when grabbing is off.
* Added "32 bit" checkbox in preferences, which applies to all graphics except detail textures. 1.7.2 and earlier have always used 16 bit on Windows.
* Fixed DirectSound volume ramp. Previously, all volume levels over 60% were equal to full loudness.
* Added 'Always On Top' and 'Fullscreen' options to the window system menu.
* Multiple minor bug fixes, several small improvements to multimonitor support.

Mac-specific Changes:

* Myth's file, networking, screen and input code has been completely re-written for the Universal Binary build to use modern Mac OS X APIs.
* The Software renderer is now available on the Mac OS X Universal Binary build.
* Improved scroll-wheel and trackpad support including faster scroll-zoom and support for smooth scroll-panning (depending on prefs).
* Fear and Loathing are now built as Universal Binaries.