Axmol 2.8.0 has been released

[halx99]

The 2.8.0 release is a minor LTS release for bugfixes and improvements, release date: Sep.1 2025

🙏Thanks to all contributers of axmol include financial sponsors: @scorewarrior,@peterkharitonov,@duong,@thienphuoc, @bingsoo, @asnagni, @paulocoutinhox and Past sponsors

Bug fixes

• Fix Windows Univesal App not work #2669: Windows UWP not running on Windows 11 due to DriverGL initialization failure by @halx99
• Fix [2.x/3.x][Android] cpp-tests 52. MultiTouch is not working #2655: Multi-touch not work on android scene contains imgui layer by @halx99
• Fix HTTP yasio client doesn't link with openssl #2674: OpenSSL not linkage for final app on Linux by @halx99 in Fix #2674 ssl not link by final app automatically #2675
• Fix incorrect FontAtlas when switching label rendering mode from normal to SDF by @halx99 in Fix incorrect FontAtlas when switching label rendering mode from normal to SDF #2629
• Fix wasm Device::getTextureDataForText will report exception when process whitespace text by @halx99
• Fix linux label color incorrect when LabelType is STRING_TEXTURE by @halx99
• Fix incorrect fmt::format_to use case by @halx99 in 🛠 Fix incorrect fmt::format_to use case #2612
• Fix llvm ver trim in genbindings.ps1 by @halx99
• Fix Label SDF rendering issues with font resizing and other bugs by @halx99 in fix Label render and add test case #2625
• Fix compile error when project contains swift code by @halx99 in Fix compile error when project contains swift code #2632
• Fix wasm Downloader open file with wrong permision (Fix wasm Downloader wrong rights #2666) by @AlexandreK38 in Fix wasm Downloader wrong rights #2666
• Fix failure in CMake 4.1 when targeting Windows: assembler not found by @halx99

Improvements

• Improve apple ios platform render view creation by @halx99 in Improve apple ios platform render view creation #2600
• Rename GLView to RenderView by @halx99 in Rename GLView to RenderView #2602
• Mention emsdk downgrading notice in version 2.6.0 release notes by @halx99
• Improve wasm dev setup notice by @halx99
• Rename GLContextAttrs to GfxContextAttrs by @halx99
• Update pull_request_template.md by @aismann in Update pull_request_template.md #2609
• Improve utf8 chars counting, remove strlen call by @halx99 in Improve utf8 chars counting, remove strlen call #2614
• Improve utf8 text processing by @halx99
• Remove sprintf/snprintf stubs by @halx99 in 🛠 Remove sprintf/snprintf stubs #2615
• Improve android sdk setup, axmol spec android sdk dir priority: android project local properties > ANDROID_HOME > ANDROID_SDK_ROOT > axmol/tools/external/adt/sdk by @halx99
• Use pragma once for more header files by @halx99 in Use pragma once for more header files #2616
• Add support set window size limits by @NgVThangBz in Add support set window size limits #2618
• Renamed cpp-tests "Node: Label - New API" to "Node: Label" by @aismann in Update controller.cpp (Renamed "Node: Label - New API" to "Node: Label") #2627
• Update ImGui mult-viewports hint message by @halx99
• Improve tests (Naming of menu entries on cpp-/lua- tests) by @aismann in Improve tests (Naming of menu entries on cpp-/lua- tests) #2640
• Move SIMD availability detection into its own CMake file by @j-jorge in Move SIMD availability detection into its own CMake file. #2642
• Setting CMAKE_MSVC_DEBUG_INFORMATION_FORMAT to Embedded to resolve pdb too large problem by @halx99
• Improve NuGet package management by @halx99 in Improve NuGet package management #2671

SDK & Tools updates

• agp: 8.11.0 => 8.11.1
• gradle: 8.14.3 => 9.0.0
• cmake: 4.0.3 => 4.1.1

3rdparty updates

• curl: 8.13.0 => 8.15.0

MD5 Hash of the release artifacts

• axmol-2.8.0.zip: 0100b8b0a73d25b0fb020590fc2e8a54
• axmol-bs-2.8.0.zip: 114afdb56e2f507c831163e6cd6385e8

Highlights of This Release

• NuGet Package Management Optimization
  This version improves NuGet package management: the Microsoft Edge WebView2 and CppWinRT packages required by Axmol will now be downloaded during the CMake configuration stage into the <AX_ROOT>/cache/packages directory.
  This means that even if you delete the build directory, these dependency packages will not need to be re-downloaded. In previous versions, dependencies were downloaded into the CMAKE_BINARY_DIR, which caused them to be lost when cleaning the build directory.

Latest Updates in the Axmol Project

• Branch Management Optimization
  To help developers more easily choose the right branch for production, the repository branch structure has been adjusted:

  • The former dev branch has been renamed to release/2.x, serving as the 2.x LTS stable maintenance and release branch.
  • The former wip-v3 branch has been renamed to dev/v3 and set as the default development branch (not yet officially released; although still in development, CI ensures it remains buildable and runnable at all times).

• Directory Structure Optimization (dev/v3)
  The engine's core code directory core has been renamed to axmol, and all include statements in the engine code have been updated to use #include "axmol/xxx/xxx.h" to simplify header file paths.
  This change not only makes the code structure clearer but also makes it easier to integrate with other codebases without worrying about header file naming conflicts.

• Rendering Backend Refactor (dev/v3)
  The dev/v3 branch has refactored the rendering backend and added D3D11 rendering support. On Windows, this delivers approximately 13.6% performance improvement compared to the original GLES API.
  In addition, the axmol/renderer/backend directory has been renamed and moved to axmol/rhi. For more details, see About-RHI-in-axmol-v3.

• clang-format Enhancements (dev/v3)
  To maintain consistent and standardized formatting of the engine's core code, the clang-format Lint CI has been enhanced to automatically check the code style of every PR.
  A new /clang-format bot comment command has been added: by posting this command in a PR comment, the bot will automatically fix the code formatting and push the changes to the PR's original branch (ensure that the "Allow edits by maintainers" option is checked when submitting the PR).

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This discussion was created from the release v2.8.0.