-TMA has joined the team and brings with him an exceptional modelling ability, which he has proven with a pair of beautiful starship models. Along with designing starship models for between mission movies, TMA will be constructing the movies themselves with a little help from Anders. As a last new service from TMA, he will hopefully be making almost a dozen custom Sardaukar2000 desktop backgrounds as a pre-release download.

-Andrew, a Fed2k Forum Staff member, has also joined the team, contributing wonderful concepts for missions and hopefully he will soon begin the production of a great many Sardaukar2000 avatars we hope to have loaded at the Fed2k Forums very soon.

-With the help of the team, much of the Sardaukar2000 Campaign outline has been finished, along with building and unit concepts.

I hope to see further participation from all members with access to the Sardaukar2000 Board, and I hope people will be paying attention to Dune Editing, for more updates on Sardaukar2000.

Just over 10 days ago we made our last release. And today again, we present you with proud the next release of OpenDUNE: 0.6.

A day after our last release it became clear to us that there was a critical bug in it, which under certain circumstances (bad-luck situations) could make the game unplayable. Of course this bug got quickly addressed, but right after the release of 0.5 we drifted off too far already with our main development trunk. Within a day we made some critical process, which made us hold a fix-release. Instead, today we release a new version which will be much more stable in many ways.

First off, we removed the last bits of the 16bit world, and removed LibEMU from our project. LibEMU is the library that gave us access to the 16bit world. This is a big milestone for this project, as we are now fully native for which ever system you compile, and we only depend on SDL (and asound under Linux).

The second thing we addressed, is that OpenDUNE always used 100% CPU on one core. This is because it contained many many infinite loops waiting for some time to pass. We located most of them, and made them less CPU intense. The game now uses between 4% and 20%, depending where in the game you are. It is still a lot for such a game, but we are working on it!

The other thing is sound support. Although voices and music were supported in older versions, it was often reported as buggy and often the case for deadlocks ('hanging'). We sat down and fixed all the problems related to voices and music**. So you can now all fully enjoy the beauty of the intro (remember it was made in 1991!), and play the game with all the sounds and pieces on it.

The last major milestone in this release is that we improved the speed of the video-interrupt, from several milliseconds to a few microseconds. This means that many parts of the game are much more smooth, even on slower machines.

We also spent several hours playing the game, detecting and fixing errors when we found them. We fixed issues with 1.07hs and 1.07us datafiles, and they are now fully supported. Many more fixes were made, with over 300 commits made.

And for the people who enjoy those things, OpenDUNE now also compiles with TinyC Compiler, and with that is very much ANSI-C.

So as you can understand, with proud we present you OpenDUNE 0.6. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

As usual, a complete list of enhancements can be found here and a changelog has been made, and can be viewed http://binaries.opendune.org/releases/0.6/changelog.txt.

You can download the release http://binaries.opendune.org/releases/0.6/, and here you can discuss the release on our forum. If you notice any bugs, please report them at our bugtracker at http://bugs.opendune.org/

Today we are proud to announce the release of OpenDUNE 0.5

This is the fourth release in a set of releases which concentrate in understanding and rewriting all functions of the original code, making enhancements on the way, without really changing the game in any way. A complete list of enhancements can be found here.

This release finally has all functions converted to 'real C', and we are now cleaning up stuff. A lot of functions have been named, variables have been identified, and the stability has increased a lot. Many small (and odd) bugs have been fixed and addressed.

A big welcome goes to Alberth, which joined our development team for this release. He is partly the reason we are much further along than I expected to be.

For the next release we will try to remove the libemu dependency, making that release the first 'stand alone' release.

As per usual, a changelog has been made, and can be viewed http://binaries.opendune.org/releases/0.5/changelog.txt.

Please keep in mind that until we understand more of the game, you still need to manually put the Dune2 data files in the proper directory; if you do not, the game will not start.

You can download the release http://binaries.opendune.org/releases/0.5/, and here you can discuss the release on our forum.

We strongly recommend that you download an updated scenario.pak (tnx to MrFlibble): http://forum.opendune.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=23

Special thanks:

This release wouldn't have been here if it wasn't for the following people (alphabetic order):

- MrFlibble (for his scenario.pak updates, and his endless questions and suggestions)

- tneo (for, singlehandedly, continuing finding more bugs than the entire team could solve)

The development team (alphabetic order):

Albert Hofkamp (Alberth)

Loic Guilloux (glx)

Patric Stout (TrueBrain)

Steven Noorbergen (Xaroth)

Harkonnen Devastator Mk-II

Harkonnen Signal Beacon

The latter calls in a carryall carrying the former.

And... to everyone's dismay, the Shai-Hulud Mod is still the largest Emperor: Battle For Dune Mod ever made ;)

You can download this excellent mod in the Emperor Mods section, and please post comments here.

Apollyon's Magical Mini-Patch can be downloaded here

Apollyon's AI Patch can be downloaded here

The first of the two increases Emperor's camera zoom ability, replaces some old player colors, increases the range of money in skirmish games, and the minimap FOW is now white.

The second of the two has made the Emperor AI during campaigns and skirmish games a little more difficult to beat.

Some of the new features and changes Nema plans for his "Collapse of a Dynasty" mod include:

-A library of textures that allow any unit xbf to be made to appear as a unit of any of the three houses.

-A new light factory design for each house, allowing you to build tanks and trikes/quads (quads being a new addition) at the same time. You can see some early screenshots of these new light factories here.

-Tanks are faster compared to infantry, making the general unit interactino more realistic.

Nema reports that his progress is good, and if we judge by his previous work, we can certainly expect an excellent mod. If you care to review his work, you can comment and ask questions here.

Oh, yes, and I intend to get rid of the pointless situation in emperor whereby many infantry and vehicles move at the same speed: Vehicles now go fast -but Infantry are still more than worth it - if you can get them in the right place to begin with.

If you look back in history at how Emperor modding started, and what it has turned into today, you will be amazed at how far it has progressed. There are a few modders that were truly innovative, and led to the evolution of Emperor modding. You could say that they were pioneers, that led modding into a revolution. A few of these honorary people are...

Alphabeta4000 - The Author of many excellently made mini-mods. Probably the starter of the revolution, he gave modding a new look and stood by it during its rises and falls. He helped run the Dune Editing site for ages, and was one of the original Emperor Modders.

Nema Fakei - Nema is the original texturer of Emperor mods. He was one of the first people to explore the editing of sounds, unit structures and unit and building models. Without Nema, I would never of learned how to texture, and would still be in the blue about XBF files. He has and continues to be one of the biggest helps in all of Fed2k, and deserves everbody's respect.

Edric O - The Co-Author of the Kwisatz Haderach mod. The most innovative mod of it's time, changing Emperor Modding beyond belief. Without this mod, I do not know where we would be today. Edric has been a member of the Staff at Dune Editing for a long time, and is very deserving of the title.

Ghosty_Square - The other author of the Kwisatz Haderach mod. He did most of the coding in Kwisatz Haderach, and did an excellent job. He was one of the best modders of his time and had many innovative ideas. He served as a member of the Dune Editing staff and was a great help to all modders.

Voltirus - Ghosty_Square's second half. When Ghosty returned, Emperor modding was beginning to die. He came back under a new identity and a new modder. He began work on a revolutionary project that changed Emperor Modding again. He discovered many new possibilities in modding.

Adrian_Messecar and Scorpio9a - The creator of the XBF Vertice Editor, and DuneEX, two of the most helpful programs in the entire Emperor Modding world. Without the creation of these program, we would not be able to edit Emperor models, and we wouldn't be able to mod. They don't visit much, but if you catch them, they are very helpful.

Kingpin - A truly innovative thinker. He proved to be one of the best engineers in Emperor Modding. He used the knowledge that we had of Emperor at the time and used it to create ideas that were extremely helpful to all modders.

Apollyon - When Apollyon began to mod Emperor: Battle for Dune, Emperor was half-dead. Over time, he developed a style of modding that has yet to be replicated. Being a great writer, he is one of the best people to come up with ideas for mods. He has been a part of many different projects and is a great help to anyone who knocks on his door.

Let us hope that our new generation of modders can lead Emperor Modding to Life again.

These Mod Projects should be a nice little boost also:

Kwisatz Haderach 3

Corrino's Revenge 2

Shai Hulud

You can comment on JulesG's upcoming mod here in the Dune Editing Forums: Imperial Civil War Mod

Dune: Total War: This is an extremely promising mod set in motion by Caid Ivik, for the game Medieval: Total War. A complex plan is emerging that will hopefully provide for numerous Dune houses within the mod. Along with starting a great project, Caid has posted some excellent information for modding Medieval: Total War that can be found in his Dune Editing thread, "Dune: Total War."

Reign of Shadows: An older project of Apollyon's, once abandoned, has at his report been restarted. Apollyon has promised new xbfs, textures and models for the mod that was once only a little known beta.

Minor Powers: though Dunenewt originally started the Minor Powers Mod with hopes of a full conversion, it never branched out and remained a mostly unremarkable mod, until now. Dunenewt has recently constructed his first xbf file and is working hard on new textures. Hopefully results will be quick in coming.

In unmod related news, Sardaukar2000 is progressing nicely with the wonderful support of all of Fed2k, with some great interface designs coming in. In addition to this, Anders is making some head way with the scripting side of the game, and we will hopefully soon have a private board for development at Fed2k.

Emperor's Hand Mod

Timenn made the textures for the Emperor's Hand Saboteur with a few changes by me, along with the fantastic Emperor's Hand logo, and DukeLeto made that same unit's XBF, so a big thank you to the two of them for their help.

Here are some prominent mods currently be constructed by Fed2k Members:

Kwisatz Haderach 3 - a long standing project led by Edric O, having recently gained speed, is taking suggestions for changes made to the original Kwisatz Haderach 1 and 2. Among numerous plans, the Kwisatz Haderach Team hopes to incorporate several new buildings and units into custom maps for the mod, only allowing each to be captured, rather then built.

Corrino's Revenge 2 - another long standing project, though one that has lost some of it's speed recently due to some technical difficulties on DukeLeto's part. The original Corrino's Revenge Mod converted the Ordos side of Emperor into the Corrino, with brand spanking new units and buildings. This sequel to the original will now focus on converting all the other houses and subhouses of Emperor into ones of DukeLeto's choosing.

Harmonthep Wars - this is a new project of my own devising, which I am currently teaming up with Timenn to finish up. I will be replacing the Ordos side of Emperor with House Ix, and the Ixian Subhouse with the Smugglers. I will hopefully be able to incorporate dozens of new infantry units and several new tanks, while using only original Ixian buildings found in Emperor. This means some unit slots will be left out, but others will serve multiple purposes.

Look for further updates on all these projects in the Dune Editing Board of Fed2k.

To close, I would like to thank long standing Dune Editing Staff member, Salvatore aka Frodo, for recommending me for this position.

Anders has paused work on the game project Sardaukar2000 to join a contest on modding Unreal Tournament. Please show him your support in this thread.

Major_Gilbear is back and continuing to work on his project, Red Alert 2 Dune. It is a total conversion for Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2. Check this thread for updates concerning the project.

Future updates are coming soon.

For those of you who don't know, the mod replaces House Atreides with Corrino (a whole new House, completely different from the old Atreides) and gives new units to the other 2 Houses. Each House ends up with the same number of units, btw. I think it is a very well balanced mod, but if you find any imbalances I'll easily fix them in a patch.

Kwisatz Haderach 2 comes complete with superb new graphics by Nema Fakei. Every new unit and building has its own new textures.

Also, the mod fixes some old Emperor problems. Non-spice maps are fair (at last) and you can finally be red in skirmish (you can't be pink, but who wants to be pink anyway? :) )

There's also a new intro (well, the same as in KH1) and new music. But these will be a separate download, so people with slow connections don't have to get them if they don't want to.

I've uploaded KH2 to Emp Net and you can DOWNLOAD it from that server. Due to my slow connection, I couldn't also upload it to the FED2k server, but I hope Gob will take care of that problem. :)

Update: KH2 is now available on our server. The new intro will be added when it becomes available.

Also recently added are 5 new mods by Inoculator 9. They are...

Biogenics Guild

Hourglass Beta

Elite Warriors

Corrino Expansion

Stealth

-Minor Powers by Dunenewt and Mike of Moritani

-Gaurdian of the Sietch by Inoculator9

-House Heroes by Inoculator9 and Rubrao

-Subhouse Building Mod 3 by Inoculator9

-Mercenary Mod by Inoculator9

-Suboid Rebellion by Inoculator9

-Great House Expansion by Inoculator9

-ATPowerBeta by FlyByJack76ers

Click here to download it.