Rainmeter 4.3

The following are the changes for the 4.3 beta version of Rainmeter. You can safely install the new 4.3 beta version right over top of your existing Rainmeter 4.2 or earlier installation, and nothing you have done will be lost or changed. There is never any need to uninstall earlier versions of Rainmeter to use the newest version.

Changes in Rainmeter Beta 4.3

Direct2D and Hardware Acceleration: Rainmeter 4.3 has changed entirely from using an older GDI+ graphics engine in Windows to the more modern and capable Direct2D (known as D2D for short). Not only does D2D offer additional capabilities we will be taking advantage of in the near future, but it also allows us to optionally support hardware acceleration. (known as HWA for short) This means that some of the processing, and the memory used, can be offloaded from the CPU to the GPU, and things will be rendered or "draw" significantly faster.

As of the early 4.3 betas, hardware acceleration defaults to "off". This to help us to identify general issues that might come up with the conversion from GDI+ to D2D, and isolate any problems that are strictly related to hardware acceleration. Hardware acceleration can be turned "on" in the Settings dialog, and we recommend it. Future updates will change the default to "on" in Rainmeter.

Hardware acceleration and Intel HD integrated graphics: There is a known issue with certain Intel HD integrated graphics chips, often seen on laptop computers, and hardware acceleration. This is due to a bug in the drivers for these chips from Intel, and the problem can generally be solved by updating your system to the most recent version of the graphics drivers from Intel. Details and suggestions for this issue are at: Intel HD Graphics drawing issue(s) with hardware acceleration

Reporting problems with Direct2D: For this beta, we would be very interested in anything you see that is "different" for you when using Rainmeter 4.3. Things that looked different in Rainmeter 4.2. The goal here is to first ensure that we fully protect backwards compatibility with existing skins in the change from GDI+ to D2D. Any skin you run in Rainmeter 4.2 should look and work exactly the same in Rainmeter 4.3. Please report these issues in this forum area: Rainmeter 4.3 Beta.

Additional details on important changes during the beta cycle can be found at Change Announcements.

March 7, 2019 - Revision 3296

  • RC24.3 Release Candidate 2
  • FixedLine meter: Corrected an incorrect offset which was making it appear that the first value in the progression was being skipped.

March 6, 2019 - Revision 3295

  • RC14.3 Release Candidate 1
  • ChangedAbout dialog: Corrected an inconsistency with how Measure and Variable values are "displayed" in the About/Skins dialog, and what is "copied" to the Windows clipboard when you use CTRL-C or right-click to copy string values. All string values will display up to 259 characters in the dialog window, being truncated and appended with "..." if longer. The full length of the value will always be copied to the clipboard.

February 21, 2019 - Revision 3294

  • AddedSection Variables: Added new [SomeMeter:XW] and [SomeMeter:YH] section variables to allow you to make a meter relative to the end of another meter without requiring X=([SomeMeter:X] + [SomeMeter:W]) as a formula.
  • ChangedLocalization: Updated the Swedish language.
  • FixedAudioLevel plugin: Fixed an incompatibility with the Nahimic audio driver.
  • FixedNowPlaying: Corrected an old issue with the Lyrics PlayerType option.

February 15, 2019 - Revision 3288

  • FixedContainer: Corrected an issue with meter X and Y relativity ("r" and "R") where it was possible to make a container meter relative to its own content, which would crash Rainmeter. See Container documentation for a clarification of the simple rules for the functionality.

February 8, 2019 - Revision 3283

  • FixedContainer: Corrected an issue with mouse detection when a meter was outside its container, and so not drawn, but mouse actions were still being detected on pixels made solid by other elements.
  • FixedRoundline: Fixed an issue where negative rotation angles of -6.283 radians (-360 degrees) or more would not draw correctly.
  • FixedImageTint: The alpha component of ImageTint was not being evaluated correctly if all values were zero, ImageTint=0,0,0,0.

January 21, 2019 - Revision 3279

  • FixedInlineSetting: Corrected an issue with the Shadow effect in InlineSetting when the size of the meter or skin was dynamically increased.
  • FixedInstaller: If Rainmeter was previously installed wtih "Launch Rainmeter on startup", re-installing it with that box unchecked would not remove the shortcut from the Startup folder.

January 19, 2019 - Revision 3277

  • ChangedAccurateText: When AccurateText=1 and the size of a meter was used in a dynamic way in a formula, any fractional amount of size was being rounded down, or truncated. This has been changed so fractional amounts are rounded up to the nearest whole pixel.
  • FixedImageCrop: Corrected a bug that prevented ImageCrop from displaying properly in some cases.
  • FixedImageRotate: Corrected a bug that prevented ImageRotate from displaying properly in some cases.
  • FixedUseExifOrientation: Corrected a bug that prevented UseExifOrientation from displaying properly in some cases.

January 3, 2019 - Revision 3273

  • FixedShape meter: Corrected an issue where shapes that were rotated and then combined were not being rotated properly.

December 19, 2018 - Revision 3271

  • FixedContainer: Fixed a bug in r3270 that broke the Container meter functionality.

December 19, 2018 - Revision 3270

  • FixedSkin Installer: Corrected an issue where skins and layouts that were selected to load after the installation of a .rmskin were often not being loaded.
  • FixedImage meter: Fixed a bug with ImageCrop not drawing properly.

November 30, 2018 - Revision 3266

  • AddedContainer: Added a new Container option to all meter types. This will allow you to place the contents of a meter inside another meter, acting as both a "container" and a "mask". See the documentation for important details and a .rmskin with several examples.

October 16, 2018 - Revision 3260

October 14, 2018 - Revision 3258

  • FixedLine meter: Additional fixes for the offset of the Line meter.

October 13, 2018 - Revision 3256

  • FixedLine meter: Corrected some additional issues with the offset of the Line meter.

October 9, 2018 - Revision 3255

  • FixedLine meter: Corrected an issue where the offset of the line could be off by a few pixels.
  • ChangedLocalization: Updated the Bulgarian and Czech languages.

September 28, 2018 - Revision 3253

  • FixedManage dialog: Corrected an issue where information in the dialog was not properly updated when a layout is loaded.
  • ChangedRainmeter: Using the notification area tray icon will properly restore minimized Manage, About and New skin dialogs.

September 24, 2018 - Revision 3250

  • ChangedInitial beta release with change from GDI+ to D2D and optional hardware acceleration.