It features significant changes in several areas. The audio subsystem received many improvements and input handling was upgraded especially for users of controllers. The pathfinding performance was dramatically increased, some tests quantifying that as 13-161 % for short paths, 48-196 % for medium paths, 68-146 % for long paths. EE-like zoom is now available in all games, just set “Zoom Lock” to 0 in the gem-*.ini file in your game folder.

On the game support side of things this release brings many improvements for IWD2, now considered as polished as the other games, several fixes for PST and more work on compatibility with the EEs. Support for BG2EE is still experimental, but the Shadows of Amn portion is known to be completable. Our demo received a much nicer avatar and new asset creation capabilities were added (like animations not limited to 15 FPS).

Due to user feedback the SDL1 backend has not been deprecated, but provisionally updated. There is a wish to move to C++17 in the next release cycle. If this would negatively impact your platform, do let us know.

Sources and packages are available. You can get them from here.

Full changelog digest:

GemRB v0.9.5 (2026-03-23):
  New features:
    - partial audio system rewrite for better (spatial) audio and music
    - iwd2: customizable action bar, weapon set switching, item usability info
    - detect illusions, spell info on right-click, various hardcoded pst bonuses
    - smooth keyboard scrolling, in-game zoom
    - GUI enhancements are now configurable from within the game

  Improved features:
    - pathfinder and drawing speedups
    - video players, animations, controller input
    - iwd2 weapon sets, pst GUI, pst level up, ee compatibility
    - scripting, effects, projectiles
    - bugfixes

Thanks to everyone that contributed their time, including: 2play, Andrej Pancik, ArminiusTux, arosenow, Ashvith10, Balxkodehodet, BinBashBanana, Boris Kruglov, Brad Allred, Bubb13, burner1024, CalamariDetective, Clort, CodeSpartan, Dariusz Pyś, DartPower, dbojan, dolio, exhuman, Florian Piesche, HugeTaffer, Jaka Kranjc, Jens Kleine-Herzbruch, JohnSmithBH84, Juan Mathews Rebello Santos, jvgp100, Lucas Z., MarcelHB, mark-314159, markfoged, MvKord, orcutt989, packrat0x, nerifuture, Peppersawce, quangtrinhvan93, Rodrigo Santellan, rubyFeedback, Stefan Schlosser, StVitruvius, Timo Gurr, traveler-gemrb, Tugcga, Ulroxiel, Warphi.

Notes to packagers:

• There is a wish to move to C++17 in the next release. If this would negatively impact your platform, let us know.
• New config keys were added and some removed, so if you ship your own config defaults, we recommend syncing them with these changes:
  • GUIEnhancements has been removed and is now stored in the main game ini file plus configurable through the options screen
  • GamepadPointerAccel, GamepadLDeadZone, GamepadRDeadZone are keys for customizing controller input parameters
  • UseSoftKeyboard was unused and has been removed
  • EdgeScrollOffset determines when to trigger area scrolling when the cursor is close to the window edge
  • GamepadSupport replaces the compile time define USE_SDL_CONTROLLER_API

If you want to be notified of GemRB releases via email, subscribe to the gemrb-release mailing list.

What’s next?

The plan for 0.9.6 is to work on polishing, improving moddability and new game support, maybe getting bg2ee out of experimental status, deal with some postponed issues, and whatever piques the contributor’s fancy.

We’re looking for ninjas to help with replacing FreeType (with SDL_ttf) and libvlc, GLESv2 support), general Enhanced Edition compatibility and several problems unique to apple devices. Other contributions are of course welcome as well.

The community has never had a single home, being spread through numerous official and unofficial web spaces. On top of that there are many authors without any affiliation. As a result, there is no single place where one could explore all the mods that have been created so far.

The closest to a complete list of Infinity engine mods has been compiled by members of the French community of Couronne de Cuivre.

As of today, it includes a category for GemRB-only mods. While most mods for games that we support should work out of the box, a handful have been developed with GemRB in mind — they do not work in the original engines. Thanks to some joint open source efforts, these mods are now a bit easier to find and understand at a glance. A few are working proofs of concept, gemrb-tweaks automates changing some settings and the most popular, 10pp, allows for parties with sizes up to 10 fully controlable player characters.

Feel free to explore the extensive mod list and spice up your next playthrough!

It brings two exciting major developments. First, for the first time ever, one is now able to play Icewind Dale 2 from start to end. That marks the last original game to reach this status. BG2EE support has been experimental and is not yet ready for wide use, but as of this release it is now playable enough to welcome testers and power users to bug hunting adventures (manually set GameType to bg2ee). Besides that the release features several improvements to pathfinding, audio and ease-of-use for other projects.

Sources and packages are available. You can get them from here.

Full changelog digest:

GemRB v0.9.4 (2025-01-11):
New features:
  - iwd2 is now fully completable!
  - iwd2 turn undead, hybrid damage types, Heal Party on Rest
  - traditional bg2ee GUI is usable and the shaman class works
  - option to highlight learnable scrolls, draw empty containers gray
  - option to more easily use GemRB as a library
  - animfps.2da to set per-animation drawing speed

Improved features:
  - text encoding, drawing speed, drawing, (stereo) audio, GUI internals
  - feats, animations
  - scripting, projectiles, effects, movement speed, pathfinding
  - bugfixes

Thanks to everyone that contributed their time, including: Ashvith10, Bubb13, DarthRevan501st, HJ000001, MarcelHB, Mariihmp, Mingun, Peppersawce, Kassandra Pucher, arosenow, bhbuehler, burner1024, duy64, elde-n, Jan Palus, Jaka Kranjc, Sergej Alikov, rfht, Rodrigo Santellan, Tim Lancina, Tom Kidd.

Notes to packagers:

• The unmaintained SDL1 backend will be removed in next release.
• A new UseAsLibrary key has been added to the config.
• A new bit was added to the GUIEnhancements bit field, so if you ship your own configs, an update to the new higher default value is encouraged.

If you want to be notified of GemRB releases via email, subscribe to the gemrb-release mailing list.

Brave explorers can try the development builds, but do note: while the game is completable, it is not polished yet. The actionbar can’t be customized, there is a severe spell learning problem for some classes, weapon sets are not working well, a few spells have projectile problems, there are a few combat bugs etc.

The nastiest remaining problems will be addressed before the next official release. So unless you want to contribute to making the experience better, it’s best if you wait until then.

As a year’s worth of work this release brings a bunch of improvements. Players will notice pathfinder speed optimizations, better sound logic, chunking and plenty of polishing. Non-English player woes have been fully laid to rest, with any combination of game, system and filesystem encoding properly taken into account.

Sources and packages are available. You can get them from here.

Full changelog digest:

GemRB v0.9.3 (2024-07-10):
	New features:
		- full i18n (language) support, custom journal entries
		- chunking approximation
		- BMP v3 and v5 support
		- small test suite, tracy support
		- iwd2 identification variants and speed data
		- nwn-for-bg2 compatibility

	Improved features:
		- area music, creature & area sounds
		- colored logging, pathfinding, drawing
		- ee compat, effects, modals, projectiles, familiars
		- iwd2 & pst worldmap
		- switched to c++14, build system
		- bugfixes

Thanks to everyone that contributed their time, including: 11jo, akdjka, alvv-z, Andrea Cardaci, Andrea Palmatè, anijatsu, ArtemS2, blender-girl, Brad Allred, Bubb, burner1024, DarkMalex, davidagnome, DDQW, Domagoj Stolfa, Dreamkins, Fernside2, i30817, Jaka Kranjc, K1ngst0m, Rod Batten, Rodrigo Santellan, MarcelHB, mariomartinezm, Mateusz Hercuń, Matthieu Volat, Mingun, orcutt989, Piotr Kubaj, PowaBanga, SilentMRG, skellytz, Solène Rapenne, Stefan Schlosser, tomasz89, Tom Kidd, traveler-gemrb, ynorsa, zebez.

Notes to packagers:

• an optional ScaleQuality key has been added to the sample configs,
• the Fullscreen key has been removed (the in-game setting is preferred)
• the build system is now even more modular, so you can tweak more of it

If you want to be notified of GemRB releases via email, subscribe to the gemrb-release mailing list.

It brings in many improvements for Planescape: Torment, configurable AI speed, improved performance and others. Notably GemRB now also supports PVR(Z) based formats, making content creation easier, most new opcodes/actions/triggers and together with some infrastructural changes, BG2EE games can now be loaded (still not playable though!).

Sources and packages are available. You can get them from here.

Full changelog digest:

GemRB v0.9.2 (2023-07-08):
  New features:
    - PVR(Z), BAM2, MOS2 and TIS2 support
    - support for higher AI speeds ("FPS") and VSync
    - support for EE-style saves, TLK locations and many more tables
    - PST's floating text and personalized pc comments
    - optional smooth fog of war on SDL >= 2.0.18
    - 3e-style sneak attack and crippling strike from HoW/iwdee
    - Anbernic device support

  Improved features:
    - PST effect durations
    - performance, pathfinding, formations
    - combat, opcodes, EE compat, hp handling, demo
    - bugfixes

Thanks to everyone that contributed their time, including: Brad Allred, Bubb, burner1024, desecaw13, dikau, fizzet, FrElvire, Jaka Kranjc, kloptops, Konrad Klimaszewski, majcosta, MarcelHB, Mingun, Rod Batten, Rodrigo Santellan, Tomsod, Zoltan Gyokeres.

Notes to packagers:

• optional CapFPS, GameLanguagePath and GameMoviesPath keys have been added to the sample configs
• an upgrade to C++14 standard will occur after this release

If you want to be notified of GemRB releases via email, subscribe to the gemrb-release mailing list.

Do note that you currently have to have SDL2 and SDL2_mixer installed (eg. from brew). Without the first GemRB will crash on start, without the second there will be no audio. We bundle both, but something is going wrong and they don’t get used when running. Testers and developers who can improve the package creation are invited to contribute to solving this mistery and improving the CMake-backed package generation.

The porting process was quick and required only minimal changes to get GemRB running smoothly on the operating systems that use PortMaster. This was made possible due to the high compatibility and robust architecture of GemRB, which integrate seamlessly with the hardware and software of the handheld devices.

The PortMaster port was contributed by Kloptops, with support from Cebion of AmberELEC and Christian Haitian of ArkOS.

It features loads of improvements in core game systems, making Icewind Dale II almost completable, but also in the rest of the engine. Among other things this means further improved speed, better unicode support and deprecation of Python 2 support. As usual the release also comes with many smaller features, bug fixes, polishing and code cleanups.

Sources and packages are available. You can get them from here.

Full changelog digest:

GemRB v0.9.1 (2022-08-29):
  New features:
    - iwd2 can be progressed to well into chapter 5
    - faster loading and saving, faster OpenGL rendering
    - Use magic device skill, precise shot, iwd1 bard song choice
    - SDLAudio plugin now supports ambients
    - console history is now preserved, more text colors externalized
    - logging is now done via fmt (bundled headers)

  Improved features:
    - python3 support (now the only option)
    - unicode support (iconv not optional any more!)
    - spellcaster ai, effects, scripting, projectiles, weapon style customization
    - audio, drawing, appimage, ini spawns
    - bugfixes

Thanks to everyone that contributed their time, including: Adrien2002, Arc0re, Argent77, Brad Allred, Bubb, burner1024, chilvence, Clemens Tiedt, Cowcat5150, dagdha2002, Dan Church, Dariusz Okoń, Darpaek, DudeMcDude, Emwues, fizzet, FrElvire, Gabriel Sztorc, goduck777, Isso4820, jabaldwin, Jaka Kranjc, jheronimus, Laulajatar, m7600, MarcelHB, Michael Schellenberger Costa, Mingun, Northfear, reallyhairydave, Rhastor, Rodrigo Santellan, romadu, Sébastien Noel, shinra-electric, skellytz, Steamcrusher, Stephen E. Baker, Stephen Kitt, STyx2909, syzygos-mideias, Timothy Hyers, Tomsod, TotalCaesar659, Zimmermann Gyula.

If you want to be notified of GemRB releases via email, subscribe to the gemrb-release mailing list.

Notes to packagers:

• python2 support is gone
• iconv is now a required dependency (external or provided by your libc)
• minimum cmake version has been bumped to 3.11

Starting with 0.9.1, Python 3 will be the only supported version and iconv will no longer be an optional dependency.

Both are ubiquitous, so we don’t expect much trouble, except perhaps in some exotic platforms (eg. PS Vita has no working Python 3 port yet). Iconv is provided as part of libc on many platforms, but BSD and GNU also have separate libiconv implementations that are widely reusable.

Please reach out if your platform of choice requires special care.