DescentBB

Ferno,

no frame rate break in with 1.2.11 on my system (multitexturing disabled).

The colored lighting isn't perfect. It's simply hacked into the shot lighting routine. That routine brightens the segments a shot passes through. With white light, that doesn't become so apparent. With colored light, you suddenly see that complete segment sides get lit. As I haven't found a way to have overbright colors, I also had to cap color values, so you will have weird color effects depending on level architecture and lighting.

Lehm told me that with multitexturing lightmaps and even vertex lighting becomes possible in D2X-W32, and I am looking forward to his results in these areas. Maybe he comes up with something really beautiful.

There's a bug that seems to cause D2x-Win32 to error message when the briefing file (txb file) is named the same thing as a level file (rl2 file). This bug is produced in most one level missions with briefings, since the author would tend to name the txb/rl2/hog files all the same thing (minus extension), whereas in multilevel missions the txb/hog tend to be in the fashion of "name.*" and the levels "name1.rl2," "name2.rl2," ... "name#.rl2."

I think the bug has something to do with D2x's ultimate aim of fully supporting the D1 data files, since D1 had seperate briefing files named after the rl2, whereas D2 has one briefing file for all levels named after the hog.

Also, the credits screen doesn't display the credits, if anyone cares about that.

Also, as a feature request, could something in D2 be implemented to unload the .hxm files after each level? D2 has always liked to keep these loaded, even in other missions where the custom robot replacements weren't supposed to occur, until D2 has been exited and restarted.

I think the ideal situation, short of a new rendering engine, would be for D2X to use RGB values for per-vertex light as opposed to simply % light. There are probably more than enough snags in the code to make changing that more difficult than it sounds though... especially if it was never designed to be extended (who does that anyway? ).

Edit: Re-checked D2 ctf... this time with, apparently, the right settings.

With a single player, returning flags works... scoring doesn't, at all, apparently.

Checked toggles menu and the zoom radio buttons don't seem to be handled properly - it treats the autoselect and zoom areas as a single radio button list... which means you can only select one option from either. Not terribly useful when you're dealing with two distinct options.

I suspect this is a limitation of the D1/2 menu system... from what tinkering I remember doing with it. More than one radio button group in a single menu might cause it trouble... (edit #2 - provided my memory is actually that good - it could be just a mistake as well)

Jeff, Sirius,

you reported the following bugs:

• D2X has problems when briefing files have the same name like level files.
• hxm files seem to not get unloaded when loading a new level.
• Autoselect and zoom option radio button groups function as a single group, making it impossible to change both settings separately. D2 supports distinct radio button groups in one menu, so this is a bug.
• CTF scoring doesn't work.

Lehm is currently working on implementing lightmaps (containing not texture, but color pixels for underlying textures) and vertex lighting.

Diedel, could you please kindly provide list of command-line switches for d2x-win32? I'd like to try it in "safe mode"..

You can try to put a semicolon before -fullscreen in d2x.ini. That's all there is about safe mode stuff. If I remember right I have posted a complete list of d2x.ini settings somewhere in this forum.

phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=6097

Right at the bottom of this page.

Thanks for helping out, MD.

Sometimes it's good to *smash* *crash* *hit* *ka-boom* the keyboard in anger and solution comes itself.
I am supposed to hit Esc twice while starting the game. Then it lets me in...
Thanks for advices.

hxm files seem to not get unloaded when loading a new level.

Thanks, and, to clarify, this problem has been around since D2 has supported .hxm files.

sir-qwerty wrote: Sometimes it's good to *smash* *crash* *hit* *ka-boom* the keyboard in anger and solution comes itself.
I am supposed to hit Esc twice while starting the game. Then it lets me in...
Thanks for advices.

Huh? lol!

That sounds like you are getting warning messages before the renderer is far enough to actually display them ...

Yes, I've got the same opinion. I know that's neither Detonators-related nor SBlive related. Tried to remove these drivers with no luck. But D2x runs perfectly after all.

I will change the warning message so that it will not wait for input when the renderer is not initialized.

On my setup- Radeon 9800 pro 128 w/ Omega latest drivers, XP pro SP2, the "adjust brightness by gamma correction" option causes the screen to flicker badly, and when I pick up power-ups it is like getting hit w/ a flash missle, the screen goes completely white for a couple seconds. If I uncheck this option, things are fine. No big deal for me b/c my brightness setting works w/o the gamma brightness option checked, but thought you should know.

Obviously gamma is ramped too much in D2X. Needs some fine tuning.

The fix you employed to stop the error with rl2's that have the same name as the hog's txb file seems to only work the first time a level is played. The second time, the same old error message appears.

Also, I've noticed that there appears to be something strange with custom model's texturing in D2x. I've created a trial:
http://home.comcast.net/~jeff250/descent/TRIAL2.HOG
http://home.comcast.net/~jeff250/descent/TRIAL2.MN2
Simply, it's a four-cubed level with a normal Class 1 drone and a mine replaced with an unmodified model of a Diamond Claw.

From what I can tell from experimentation, sometimes the custom model's textures aren't used if they don't appear in the level and rather are replaced with textures in the level. Also, that normal Class 1 Drone has to be there too for this trial to work. Or some other robot. But if it's not, the rendering mistake doesn't occur.

Another thing-- some hog's incorporated custom .pcx files to replace various background screens from the main D2 hog. For example, with traditional versions of Descent, if a custom stars.pcx and starsb.pcx is placed in the hog, then the starry post-level bonus screen is replaced with a custom picture. D2x seems to crash when the latter is done, and I don't know about other PCX examples. But the custom PCX files used in briefings seem to be OK, maybe because they add rather than replace?

Most recent version d2x-win32 doesn't require double ESC on my side. Thank you.

qwerty,

• i changed the warning function behaviour.

Jeff,

• who said I fixed the txb handling? I haven't yet. If it's not in the D2X-W32 update notes, it's not done.
  
  I know about this robot texturing problem, has something to do with D2X's somewhat faulty texture buffering. Can you post a level with the pcx problem, too?

:D!!!!! @ >900 cubes. :)

Edit: 1.3.2: CTF seems to be fully working with one player (unless there is still a player spawning issue, but I didn't notice any). Haven't tested with two yet...

With any luck this could mean my level is close to release.

Sirius,

to be able to use more than 900 cubes, either start a new level and chose "D2X-W32", or chose "convert" from DLE-XP's file menu, then your current level will be converted to a D2X-W32 level. Note that only this level format gives you access to non-standard level extensions like segment types "blue team" and "red team" (also "water" and "lava"), segment grouping and ownership, and colored lights as well, so I recommend you convert your level. You may want keep a copy of the unconverted original for compatibility and as backup.

Conversion works, I have already converted several of my levels.

Some problems in versions 12xx, 13xx.
Lower cockpit energy and afterburner bars do not respond correctly.
Colours and bar indications can disappear with lighting effects on or off.
13xx:
Will quit to the desktop if the -gl_reticle 0 (not used).
stderr says â??Fatal signal: Segmentation Fault (SDL Parachute Deployed)â?

It's your own responsibility to keep older D2X versions.

I could occasionally see the AB level not decreasing, but usually it worked, so it's hard to fix it. This problem may have existed in 1146 but for some reason not shown up. There are some blending related problems with bitmap rendering I haven't completely solved yet.

-gl_reticle 0 worked for me.

Color effects aren't perfect. Turn them off.

I cannot see how the minor issues you have listed amount to "new versions do not work".

Diedel wrote:It's your own responsibility to keep older D2X versions.

X2

Jeff,

who said I fixed the txb handling? I haven't yet. If it's not in the D2X-W32 update notes, it's not done.

I just assumed because the bug actually did get a little bit better (magically perhaps? ).

http://home.comcast.net/~jeff250/descent/TRIAL3.HOG
http://home.comcast.net/~jeff250/descent/TRIAL3.MN2

To demonstrate the originally mentioned txb error message, enter level, exit to menu, enter level.
To demonstrate the crash with the custom pcx files, enter the level and blow the reactor.

I believe that the custom pcx bug is actually related to that txb bug though, because I can only get it to crash on custom pcx files when the txb is named the same as the hog! So either renaming the rl2 (both in hog and mn2 of course) or deleting the pcx files in the hog will prevent it from crashing on bonus screen it seems.

Umm ... I think the thread name is â??bug report and suggestionsâ?

Dennis,

Actually I haven't touched the renderer since 1.1.46. The disappearing menu and bitmap rendering issue still doesn't seem to be resolved and surfaces from time to time.

I have looked into the AB and fuel gauge issue and responded to you.

Ofc I also try to keep track of minor issues and try to resolve them when I find the time.

you said however the new D2X versions weren't working. That was carrying things a bit far, wasn't it?

Bottom line: I do not really understand your reaction.

Every version of D2X-W32 I've ever used has Crashed to Desktop on startup with an NTDLL.DLL error message.

are you using windows 2000, or XP G2k?

Gregster2k wrote:Every version of D2X-W32 I've ever used has Crashed to Desktop on startup with an NTDLL.DLL error message.

Giving some details like OS, gfx & sound hardware, driver versions would have been a good idea.

I have D2X-W32 running on WinXP pro & home, Win2K pro with Radeon 9800 pro, X800 XT, GF 5200, GF2 400 MX, Soundblaster onboard, Soundblaster Audigy w/o problems.

Yeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaw!

After pondering on the lighting routines and OpenGL for days I have finally figured this vertex lighting stuff, and have built it into DLE-XP and D2X-W32, and Holy Moly: It sure does look good! No more abrupt color changes at segment boundaries!

I am currently having some color 'leaking' to segments where it doesn't belong (though it still looks good), and I have to make shots use vertex lighting and check dynamic lighting, but the basics are done!!!

I will post an update notification as usual when I am done.

Thanks Diedel

Nothing like the written word to get a sincere message across eh
You have done so much work on this code and I am sure spent countless hours of head scratching. Anything I have written was not meant as a criticism. It would be unrealistic to think you could address and fix every bug that would appear on every system.
Even if you never touched the code again I, and many others are thrilled with your accomplishments.
My concern was more with the newcomer to D2X that may not understand about ini file switches and some of the history behind getting D2X to run on so many systems out there.

So on to brighter topic. I canâ??t wait to try your latest version

I have some bad flickering when picking up powerups in the vertex lighting version. Has nothing to do with the vertex lighting; I just tried to tweak some of D2's lighting stuff. Unfortunately I cannot upload a fix right now (ftp host not responding).

Dennis,

I am always open for good propositions. If you think D2X-W32 needs some better documentation I think you are darn right.

ouch.. this version crashes right off the bat. I tried to find out what happened by using both -debug and -verbose for output to see why, but all I get is "fatal signal: Segmentation fault (SDL Parachute deployed)"

When does it crash?

At program start?

After displaying the menus?

When starting a game?

Edit: Crashed for me after a successful first run, when restarting the program. Oops?

Edit 2: Crash not reproducible. Doesn't crash any more.

Edit 3: Had the crash again and believe it's player file related. When investigating into that I found that D2X-W32 screws up player files. I have fixed that problem, and the next version will not do that anymore (which also means that you will need to delete your plr files once again and create new ones - this will be the last time though as far as I can say. ).

Curiously, if I hit the turn left or right key, and just hold it down, the ship accelerates until it turns a full 360 in very close to one second flat. I have all the ramping controls set to their defaults... and am really not sure why I'm getting this if it should be 2 seconds minimum...

If this happens in single player, check your d2x.ini for an entry named "-limitturnrate". If it exists and is not followed by a number, either remove the entry or change it to "-limitturnrate 1". That will disable high keyboard control speed. I had changed the syntax of this switch; previously it had been working w/o the extra numeric (0/1) parameter.

No Hoard:

Tried playing Hoard last night and no goal nor any green orbs. That was with version 1.3.2

Went back to ver 1.1.46 and Hoard was working.

Tested the following versions with a single player.
Tried successive versions of what I had and it seems that the last working version for Hoard is 1.2.0

Ver 1.2.3 does not have the Hoard goal. Test level is Neptune.
Version 1.3.7 does not have a Hoard goal either.

Your Power-up lighting works great in 1.3.7
Weapon lighting is great.
It also seems that the joy works a bit better around center. Did you happen to tweak that a bit?

I tried version 1.3.2. After deleting all player files and savegames, I went to start it. It crashed at startup. does the -debug switch still work, so I can see why it crashes?

Tiger,

• ummm - must have screwed it up with Entropy ...

Ferno,

• I will prepare a debug version for you. I have occasional crashes, but nothing I could get a hold on.

1.3.2 and 1.3.8 won't even start for me- blanks the screen and then goes back to the desktop.
Using -debug gives me this- "Fatal signal: Segmentation Fault (SDL Parachute Deployed)"

1.3 works fine.