HyperPatch for Dune2k - Development Topic

[D2k Sardaukar]

I meant the one below attached.  :D

In fact, I already have one. Just check my website: http://dune.lars.stonerocket.co.uk/interface/  You can copy it from there.

[CCHyper]

_

Edited November 20, 2020 by CCHyper

[athanasios]

I'm half tempted to make the first new campaign mission for Dune2k ever, to be a mission where you must secure Viagra from a Harkonnen outpost ;)

Faithful Fremen will be your first Enemy! :D

[AMIgaBot]

i kill fremens with trike

by the way when we can run game in wondowed mode?

[athanasios]

I never play games in windowed mode. It just spoils the atmosphere.

But I RUN games in windowed mode (bug testing, checking new sprites I draw...).

[D2k Sardaukar]

I think AMIgaBot meant the higher resolution that TSHyper is working on.

[CCHyper]

Running the game in a windowed mode is possible, but you must be running 16bit depth.

[D2k Sardaukar]

Anyways, news is that i cant find the code that handles the sidebar, and until i do, there is not much i can do...

Is there something we can do to help? Like running a changed .dat file and send you the log. Or changing some bytes here and there (perhaps a bit more precise) to see what happens... or?  ???

Perhaps mvi knows more about it, he is very good at the .uil files.  :)

[CCHyper]

Is the sidebar handled by the UIL format? Becuase i need to move it...

[mvi]

I had a look for it before in the UILs and I'm fairly sure that it isn't among them. The same goes for the actual map on the campaign screen (everything else on that screen including the background and scroll are UILs)

[D2k Sardaukar]

If you search in IDA Pro in DUNE2000.DAT for windtrap under strings (names window) and then go there. Next, click on data xref you see in the code, this:

mov    byte ptr [esi+5Ch], 3

and the next one, refinery, it has a 4 at the end. etc. What does that 3 or 4 mean? Is it the order at which the buildings you can build appear in sidebar or is it something else?

[Nyerguds]

Seem to be the building's ID number. Each unit is internally identified as a number, so the game doesn't have to store all of the building's basic stats (which graphics it uses, how big the foundation is, etc) for every different building on the map. It just has all the basic properties for all the different bulding types stored separately, so when the map data in its memory says "at this cell on the map is a building of type #7", then the game knows with just that number that it has to show a Light Factory there.

Don't mess with those numbers, they're also used for storing buildings in savegames.

[D2k Sardaukar]

Seem to be the unit IDs. Don't mess with those, it's what the game uses for stuff like saving a certain building in a savegame.

Is only that line for saving or the other stuff also in that 'block'? I wonder, because it does say:

test    eax, eax

jz      short loc_464A37

and that means jump if the test was zero - and it jumps to refinery, at refinery it does the same and jumps to silo, etc. Also, when that jz is not true, it jumps on the end to FREMEN BARRACKS, wtf?

It looks like some kind of long if list written original in C(++). If you got windtrap - you get refinery, if you get refinery - you get silo. Etc. Or is it something else?

[Nyerguds]

It's a string compare. eax contains the result of a compare of the string it has in memory (at the address stored in edi) and the string it takes from the exe (the ones you can read there). If the strings are equal, the test succeeds, and eax is not 0. If it's not 0 it stores the resulting ID and skips the other checks, else it continues with its next string test until it finds the right one.

This is a horribly contrived way of scanning it though... I'd have done it by looping through an array of strings like it's done in C&C1.

"Fremen Barracks" seems to be a building property rather than a building. It's not included in that list of building checks, but done AFTER it.

[darkmage]

has anyone ever tried to remake/reverse engineer dune 2000? I know that FreeCNC would have a lot of similar code.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/freecnc/

http://home.mayn.de/comrad/freecnc/?content=start

Just how much did the engines change between games? There's also FreeRA. Which reimplements Red Alert

[Nyerguds]

From what I've seen, Dune 2000 was made by a different team than the C&C games, and uses very little of the C&C engine, actually. It barely even uses any of the same file formats.

[mvi]

It barely even uses any of the same file formats.

None afaik, except for the aud and vqa formats

From what I've seen, Dune 2000 was made by a different team than the C&C games

A british based team I believe, Westwood must have outsourced development

[CCHyper]

Uses the same format, but a totally different library. where the VQA is quite similar to Tiberian Sun. The games share nothing else in common.

Open CNC/RA is messy, and that person is lazy in my opinion, not even bothering to look into the original games code.

[Gruntlord6]

Uses the same format, but a totally different library. where the VQA is quite similar to Tiberian Sun. The games share nothing else in common.

Open CNC/RA is messy, and that person is lazy in my opinion, not even bothering to look into the original games code.

ah, the joys of corporate outsourcing.

[dancho]

Hi, I hope that you are still being notified of updates on this topic, TSHyper. The link to your patch is broken, can you please fix it?

Also, have you given up development on it, or are you still working on it?

Thanks!

Iordan

[CCHyper]

The link is broke, and is of no importance, was just to make sure a few people could produce the file.

I am working on it still, im trying to find a way to move the sidebar still...

[AMIgaBot]

hyper  apply  no-cd crack too  because cant  test thhis, i downloaded it befor but cant use

[Dunenewt]

Don't forget to let me know about it, like you said before, and I'll write about it on the front page.

[CCHyper]

There will be a option hopefully to play without a CD.

Sure, once i have progress, ill be posting it here ;)

[skuallx]

Hi... i want to now if someone can re-up the patch to test it, thanks!