KCD Watch v.X.X.X – What’s Coming Next?

Work is now well under way on the next proper version of KCD Watch.

It does not have a final version number yet, so for the moment it shall remain the highly informative and extremely professional v.X.X.X.

This is shaping up to be more than a small collection of fixes. Several parts of the watch face are being reworked, improved or expanded, while I am still trying very hard not to turn a medieval sundial into a spreadsheet strapped to your wrist.

Still in development: Nothing listed below should be treated as a promise carved into the walls of Rattay. Features are still being tested and may change before the final release.

What’s Being Worked On?

One of the biggest changes currently being tested is a new Buff and Debuff system.

Rather than the existing single on/off indicators, the plan is to allow buffs and debuffs to show different levels of severity using a three-stage system. This should make them more useful at a glance without having the watch constantly shouting at you because you sat down for half an hour.

There is also work going into better user control over optional features, so that more of the smaller indicators and extras can eventually be enabled or disabled depending on how much information you actually want staring back at you from your wrist.

Another important area is language and font support. Some Garmin languages use characters that were missing from the original font files, so the character set is being expanded and tidied up to make dates and other text behave properly across more languages.

There are also various visual improvements, refinements and bits of behind-the-scenes sorcery being tested. Some of these may make it into v.X.X.X, some may arrive later, and some may be quietly buried in the woods if they turn out to be terrible ideas.

A Slight Change to Watch Support

The first public release was built for a fairly large number of Garmin watches.

That was useful for getting KCD Watch out into the wild, but it also created an obvious problem: some of those builds have never actually been confirmed on real hardware.

For future full releases, I want to concentrate active support on watches that I know somebody is actually using.

That means the full v.X.X.X release is currently planned for two groups:

  • Community Confirmed watches – models where somebody has installed KCD Watch on real hardware and confirmed that it works.
  • Priority Support watches – the seven Garmin models featured in the Recommended Watches guide. These models will continue to be included in full releases regardless of whether they have yet received a community confirmation.

At the moment, the planned full-version support list is:

  • fēnix 9 43mm – Priority Support
  • Forerunner 70 – Priority Support & Community Confirmed
  • Forerunner 165 – Community Confirmed
  • Forerunner 265 – Community Confirmed
  • Forerunner 265S – Community Confirmed
  • Forerunner 570 42mm – Priority Support
  • Forerunner 965 – Community Confirmed
  • Forerunner 970 – Priority Support
  • Instinct 3 AMOLED 45mm – Priority Support & Community Confirmed
  • Venu 2 – Community Confirmed
  • Venu 3 – Community Confirmed
  • Venu 4 41mm – Priority Support
  • Venu 4 45mm – Community Confirmed
  • vívoactive 5 – Community Confirmed
  • vívoactive 6 – Priority Support & Community Confirmed
Priority Support: The seven Priority Support models are the watches currently featured in my Recommended Watches guide. These models are deliberately kept at the front of the queue when new KCD Watch versions are prepared and checked.
Using one of the other current builds? Please do not read this as an immediate execution order for your Garmin. If you are successfully using KCD Watch on one of the models still marked as Awaiting Confirmation, please leave a comment on the Compatibility page and let me know. A simple confirmation is enough to help keep that model in active full-version support.

And What About Older Watches?

There is another part of the plan too.

Some older Garmin watches simply do not have the screen resolution, memory or available resources needed to run the full KCD Watch comfortably.

Rather than trying to force the entire watch face onto hardware that was never designed for it, I intend to create a separate KCD Watch Lite version.

The Lite version will be deliberately simplified. It should retain the general KCD look and the most useful core information, but some of the more elaborate graphics, indicators and newer features will have to be removed or reduced to suit older and more limited devices.

There is no release date for KCD Watch Lite yet, and the full version remains the priority for now.

But the intention is very much to give some older Garmin watches a suitably medieval second life rather than simply leaving them face-down in a ditch outside Rattay.

When Will v.X.X.X Be Released?

When it is ready.

Which is admittedly not the most exciting release schedule ever published.

I’d rather get the new systems working properly first than announce a date and then spend several evenings being personally betrayed by Garmin Watch Face Builder.

More details will follow as development continues.

JCBP!