Leaderboard

I am looking at one of the big .bin files. This is currently a very preliminary research, as at this stage all I can do is to recreate the past discoveries by TibEd and other people, before I can break new ground. As such, this is a very preliminary research. I hope to share this here so in the future, other people can read and save on the discovery (I can also put my research on GitHub or something, but I have not put my mind into that) Here is what I guess the game executable reads the Templates.bin file and splits it into different areas. These structural divisions is fundamental to how the game interprets the bin file. For instance, the game will reserve a block of memory for Unit data, and a different memory block for Building data. With the help of TibEd and running the game, these are my guesses on what each section belongs to. ------------------------------------------------------ Text copy of above image ------------------------------------------------------ At a glance, the game appears to support up to 60 unit types, 100 building types, 64 weapon types and 64 explosion types. I attempted to change what I suspect to be the Unit and Building Count, and I have some varied responses: Decreasing the values and loading a mission where such a value is needed leads to crash on mission load. Setting Unit Count to 0x00 up to 0x19, and loading A1V1 leads to crash at mission load with error "MyVersionOfUnit didn't find a unit". Setting Unit Count to 0x1A just below the Sandworm ID (25), leads to crash to desktop (no error message) Setting Unit Count to 0x1B just equal to the Sandworm ID (25), and loading A1V1 leads to working game, with graphically maimed animations and offset build icons Haha, Construction Wind Trap Setting Building Count to 0x3B (59), and loading O9V1 leads to crash with error related to the Imperial Palace (ID 59, or the 50thbuilding in the list). Setting Building Count to 0x3C (60), and loading H5V1 leads to crash with error related to the Harkonnen Special Outpost (ID 60, or the 61st building in the list). Setting Building Count to 0x3D (61), and loading O4V1 doesn't lead to crash, but the player loses instantly (since the Ordos Special Outpost (ID 61, or the 62nd building in the list)... does not exist??). This happens on both the -spawn and normal launches of the game. I am not sure why this behavior is different from the Harkonnen version. Changing other values in the surrounding region may lead to lead to very damaging graphical glitches. Clicking on the building queue (to construct a building) may lead to crash due to 'BlitErrors' Hypothesis: Unit Count and Building Count works like what I think they do, but their DATA.r8/.r16 folders may be arranged specifically to the exact number of items. Either this could be controlled by the .bin file, or it is hardcoded and any modder working on adjusting the counts need to also pad their DATA files so that the image sequences are aligned correctly. This is the extent of my current research. More to come.

I get the quality of image out of the video. See the original ones are very contrasted so they look sharp in game, but the video ones are blurred which gives that different look compared to the others. I took this one from the Playstation cover image which was way more sharper and better contrast and in game it goes well with the original ones. Funny because the video shows Harkonnen as using heavy infantry yet in the game they had the same model. Makes you think they originally planned to have another model for the Harkonnen and then decided not to for some reason. I know Emperor has a lot more units than Dune 2000 for each house. I also made a Sardauker version since I never liked the one in the original game. And here are a couple new models using the background either could be used if one liked.