Dune Legacy 0.96 released

[bluehappybyte]

Singleplayer is now much more similar to Dune 2 and playable.

Changes in version 0.96:

* Cutscenes are now integrated

* Score at the end of each mission

* Decoding music on the fly

* Capturing buildings is now possible again

* Fixes for gcc 4 (Thanks to David Geier)

* Structures are degrading

* Fix: Carryalls bring badly damaged units to the repair yard

* Packaging deb-files (Ubuntu/Debian)

* spec-files for packaging rpms (Fedora, Mandriva, SuSE)

* NSIS Installer Script (Windows)

* Prepared dmg (Mac OS X)

* Check for missing PAK-files

* Begin of chating system

Have a look at http://dunelegacy.sourceforge.net/

[MrFlibble]

* Structures are degrading

Only when not built on concrete, I hope? :)

[dvalin]

Any plans on adopting libeastwood?

The library should be more mature(/less nasty;) for such than when we discussed it in the past. :O)

I also plan on merging most of the code I pick up from OD2 into libeastwood (ie. the EMC interpreter),

so I'd think this should make it more interesting to you as well, you were the first one suggesting to me

implementing support for authentic Dune 2 AI after all. ;)

I think the more we're able to separate game components and make them as generic and reusable

as possible, it would make it easier for us to progress towards a merge in the future, or at least share

efforts as much as possible.

Since you don't seem to want to use launchpad and bzr, I could after all open for svn access on sourceforge

if you'd like.. I still have some concerns about the possibility for trademark issues etc., especially since

Paramount already has slammed some cease & decists against some second life communities etc. after

they bought all the rights for Dune related to their upcoming movie...

Since you're doing pretty much the same as I do to avoid copyright issues, it would kinda be in vain unless

you resolve trademark issues as well...

I'm still looking for a new name though, "Doon Lunacy" is just a working name for now, I'd like some name

with "dynasty" (as in "Dune 2: The building of a dynasty" ;) in it. "Dynasty" is such a fancy word. ;p

[MrFlibble]

Judging by screenshots, walls are not shown correctly, and Carryalls still lack shadows.

I'm still looking for a new name though, "Doon Lunacy" is just a working name for now, I'd like some name

with "dynasty" (as in "Dune 2: The building of a dynasty" ;) in it. "Dynasty" is such a fancy word. ;p

"Clash of the Dynasties"? "The Battle of the Dynasties"? "Ascension of a Dynasty"? "Conflict of the Dynasties"? "The Battling Dynasties"? (The (unofficial) Russian translation of Dune II was called "Dune: The Battle of the Ancient Dynasties") "Legacy of the Dynasty"?

BTW guys, maybe anyone could get interested in this Dune-inspired RTS project that never came to fruition? The graphics pack is downloadable and free for use, so maybe it could find a new life as a mod or something?

[bluehappybyte]

Only when not built on concrete, I hope? :)

For now I keep with the original. And there is this "bug" that they always will degrade.

Any plans on adopting libeastwood?

The library should be more mature(/less nasty;) for such than when we discussed it in the past. :O)

I also plan on merging most of the code I pick up from OD2 into libeastwood (ie. the EMC interpreter),

so I'd think this should make it more interesting to you as well, you were the first one suggesting to me

implementing support for authentic Dune 2 AI after all. ;)

Currently not because I currently focus on getting multiplayer ready. But I thought about a map editor written in QT or wxWidgets. Therefore I would use your library.

For EMCs it might be interesting as well. I will keep that in mind.

I'm still looking for a new name though, "Doon Lunacy" is just a working name for now, I'd like some name

with "dynasty" (as in "Dune 2: The building of a dynasty" ;) in it. "Dynasty" is such a fancy word. ;p

I think "Dynasty" is not Dune specific enough.

Judging by screenshots, walls are not shown correctly, and Carryalls still lack shadows.

Regarding the walls I first thought you have spotted a bug. But it is only on the screenshot because the screenshot was taken from an old savegame where wall directions were not saved correctly. I uploaded a new screenshot. Thanks

Do you know where the shadows for the air units are stored or how they are computed?

<b>Edit:</b>

Actually the walls are really a bug. Just found out that saving and reloading the game will "destroy" their "orientation". It is only a cosmetic bug and will be fixed in the next version.

[dvalin]

Judging by screenshots, walls are not shown correctly, and Carryalls still lack shadows.

"Clash of the Dynasties"? "The Battle of the Dynasties"? "Ascension of a Dynasty"? "Conflict of the Dynasties"? "The Battling Dynasties"? (The (unofficial) Russian translation of Dune II was called "Dune: The Battle of the Ancient Dynasties") "Legacy of the Dynasty"?

BTW guys, maybe anyone could get interested in this Dune-inspired RTS project that never came to fruition? The graphics pack is downloadable and free for use, so maybe it could find a new life as a mod or something?

Hm, I thought about "Spice Dynasties" earlier myself as something that would sound Dune specific enough, but I don't think

it would sound classy enough.. ;p

For the graphics, yeah, I certainly have some interest in it (given that it's not only redistributable, but truly *free* wrt license as well),

it would make the engine usable without the non-free data.

Some Linux distributions won't ship packages which depend on non-free stuff, since having the game

shipped by vendors is important to gain some popularity etc., this data would be very nice helping this.

As I intend on making my engine as generic as possible to support multiple games, separating the engine

from the game and all, it would also be nice helping out on this.

Hopefully I'll get some help from others that have greater interest in this sometime in the future.. :P

[MrFlibble]

Do you know where the shadows for the air units are stored or how they are computed?

There are no sprites for aircraft shadows in Dune 2, the shadow is actually a dark transparent double of the aircraft unit's sprite. I do not know anything about the algorithm that is responsible for creating such shadows though. All I know is that in DUNE2.EXE there is a special bit flag in the unit properties that can turn the shadow on or off.

Hm, I thought about "Spice Dynasties" earlier myself as something that would sound Dune specific enough, but I don't think

it would sound classy enough.. ;p

Maybe "The Triumph of a Dynasty" or something like that?

For the graphics, yeah, I certainly have some interest in it (given that it's not only redistributable, but truly *free* wrt license as well),

it would make the engine usable without the non-free data.

Some Linux distributions won't ship packages which depend on non-free stuff, since having the game

shipped by vendors is important to gain some popularity etc., this data would be very nice helping this.

It's absolutely free, as the author himself says, "use them, abuse them". The game also had some cool concepts that could have influenced the development of the RTS genre if it were completed.

[MrFlibble]

I've just tried the latest version of DL (0.96.1), and for some reason it did not work for me. When I run the programme, it crashes immediately, without even writing anything into stderr.log (even though both stdout.log and stderr.olg are generated, they are empty). I've got WinXP.

[bluehappybyte]

I've just tried the latest version of DL (0.96.1), and for some reason it did not work for me. When I run the programme, it crashes immediately, without even writing anything into stderr.log (even though both stdout.log and stderr.olg are generated, they are empty). I've got WinXP.

The actual log file is located in C:\Document and Settings\Your Username\Application Data\dunelegacy\Dune Legacy.log, but I just noticed a bug in version 0.96.1 that causes all log data to be written to stderr.log and stdout.log on Windows. If all three files are empty the crash must occur very early in the game setup. What crash report do you get? Are there any missing DLL-Files mentioned in it?

I tested the release on a german WinXP myself but could not reproduce the crash. Do you have anythiny special, e.g. a limited/restricted rights user account?

Yet another question: What Dune II version are the PAK-Files from?

[MrFlibble]

The actual log file is located in C:\Document and Settings\Your Username\Application Data\dunelegacy\Dune Legacy.log, but I just noticed a bug in version 0.96.1 that causes all log data to be written to stderr.log and stdout.log on Windows. If all three files are empty the crash must occur very early in the game setup. What crash report do you get? Are there any missing DLL-Files mentioned in it?

I've checked the Dune Legacy.log file too, it's also empty. The crash report does not mention any DLLs, it's just the standard Windows notification that offers you to file a crash report to Microsoft, which happens whenever a programme crashes unexpectedly.

I tested the release on a german WinXP myself but could not reproduce the crash. Do you have anythiny special, e.g. a limited/restricted rights user account?

Except my WinXP is in Russian, there's nothing special. I've tested DL from an admin account, so no rights restrictions there. Just don't tell me it's because I use SP1 :P

Yet another question: What Dune II version are the PAK-Files from?

I tried both the HS v1.07 and the patched US v1.07 files, with the same result.

[Edit] Here's exactly what the crash report says:

AppName: dunelegacy.exe AppVer: 0.0.0.0 ModName: dunelegacy.exe

ModVer: 0.0.0.0 Offset: 0016e568

[bluehappybyte]

Maybe it is related to SP1 but I don't know. I created a new pre-release for version 0.96.2 which should log some more information. Before testing please uninstall the old version and remove also the folder with the log file in it (C:\Document and Settings\Your Username\Application Data\dunelegacy\).

EDIT: Links removed. For a newer pre-release see post #18

Now you should not have stderr.txt and stdout.txt any more but Dune Legacy.log should contain at least one line.

[MrFlibble]

Thanks! :) I'll check it out ASAP.

[MrFlibble]

Nope, still crashes. The crash report now says this:

AppName: dunelegacy.exe AppVer: 0.0.0.0 ModName: dunelegacy.exe

ModVer: 0.0.0.0 Offset: 001aa4d0

The log file is generated as it should, but it only has the line "Starting Dune Legacy 0.96.2..."

[bluehappybyte]

The log file is generated as it should, but it only has the line "Starting Dune Legacy 0.96.2..."

I tried it on an fresh (German) WinXP SP1 installation and could not reproduce the problem; maybe it is related to the language. Dune Legacy creates an ini-file in the same directory as the log file. Is the crash before the Dune Legacy.ini is created? In any case you can try to use the attached ini-file.

Another thing I'm interested in is as follows: Dune Legacy checks for the presents of all the needed pak-files. If it could not find all the needed pak-files it will report that in the log. Could you try to delete (or move somewhere else) all the pak-files? It should report about the missing files in the log.

[MrFlibble]

The crash happens before the INI file is generated. I'll try removing the PAK files from the installation and see what happens.

[bluehappybyte]

The crash happens before the INI file is generated. I'll try removing the PAK files from the installation and see what happens.

Ok, I have found the bug. It always happens when the user name contains any non-ascii characters (and only on windows). The reason are SDL and fnkdat having different encodings for filename/paths: fnkdat returns paths in the local charset (e.g. 28595 for russians) and SDL expecting UTF-8 paths. This causes everything to fail which operates on this directory (except logging which is done without SDL): loading/saving a game, loading a custom map, ...

I will be able to fix this hopefully until weekend.

[MrFlibble]

Ahh, that's what it is! Thanks for tracking down the bug! :)

[bluehappybyte]

Ahh, that's what it is! Thanks for tracking down the bug! :)

The bug should be fixed now. Thank you for your help.

Link to the new pre-release:

Source Code: dunelegacy-0.96.2-pre3.tar.bz2

Windows: Dune Legacy 0.96.2 pre3 Setup.exe

64-bit Debian/Ubuntu: dunelegacy_0.96.2~pre3_amd64.deb

Mac OS X (PPC/Intel): Dune Legacy 0.96.2 pre3.dmg.zip

[MrFlibble]

Thanks!

BTW, noticed a few things here and there. First off, when playing the first Atreides mission, I sent a soldier into a spice bloom, and it got destroyed, but did not trigger the spice bloom transformation. Only when I sent a trike, the bloom spawned a spice field, destroying the trike in the process.

When playing as the Sardaukar, the announcer still says "Harkonnen", e.g. "Harkonnen harvester deployed".

When you start a campaign or skirmish game, the briefing theme keeps playing after you exit the briefing room and start the actual game. Also, if you quit a game and go back to the main menu, the in-game music keeps playing instead of switching to the main menu theme.

Basically, the music quality is rather low, is it possible for the game to use Windows MIDI synth emulation for music tracks?

Not all original terrain effects on unit speed are present right now, e.g. units should slow down when crossing the sand/rock border, and different movement types are affected in a different way by sand and rock: tracked vehicles move faster on rocks and slow down on sand, while wheeled vehicles do just the opposite.

[stefanhendriks]

Ah encoding issues are such a pain. I'll try this new version as soon as I can :) (not now, I am working from a Mac... )

[bluehappybyte]

Thanks!

BTW, noticed a few things here and there. First off, when playing the first Atreides mission, I sent a soldier into a spice bloom, and it got destroyed, but did not trigger the spice bloom transformation. Only when I sent a trike, the bloom spawned a spice field, destroying the trike in the process.

Thanks, fixed!

When playing as the Sardaukar, the announcer still says "Harkonnen", e.g. "Harkonnen harvester deployed".

Super Dune is only partially implemented atm. Currently the 3 "other" Houses are mapped to the corresponding "normal" Houses and the differ only slightly. How is this solved in Super Dune?

When you start a campaign or skirmish game, the briefing theme keeps playing after you exit the briefing room and start the actual game. Also, if you quit a game and go back to the main menu, the in-game music keeps playing instead of switching to the main menu theme.

Questionable if it is better to switch the music that often. Can be quite disruptive when finishing one mission, seeing the debriefing screen, going on to the score screen, map selection, briefing of the next mission, starting the next mission and the music is always changing. But I note it down.

Basically, the music quality is rather low, is it possible for the game to use Windows MIDI synth emulation for music tracks?

Yes, could be better. Dune Legacy can either use the ADL Sounds (default) or the XMI Sounds. ADL is done by emulating the OPL chip found on e.g. SoundBlaster cards. XMI is done with converting to MIDI and then using the SDL MIDI playback method which is based on timidity afaik. Neither the OPL emulation nor the XMI to MIDI conversion is written by me but taken from other open source projects. If there is someone interested in implementing another sound output method (e.g. using Windows MIDI synth directly) or improve the music playback I would be very happy. Anyone interested?

Not all original terrain effects on unit speed are present right now, e.g. units should slow down when crossing the sand/rock border, and different movement types are affected in a different way by sand and rock: tracked vehicles move faster on rocks and slow down on sand, while wheeled vehicles do just the opposite.

This is exactly the cause why I need more testers. Did not even know that is was this way in Dune II. Is there any more detailed description on this?

Ah encoding issues are such a pain.

Yea, especially on Windows which does not allow UTF-8 filenames. SDL does all the conversion for you but as soon as you do something outside SDL (e.g. directory listings) you have to do all the conversion yourself.

I'll try this new version as soon as I can :) (not now, I am working from a Mac... )

It's just a pre-release. A real release gets much more testing. I streamlined the whole building process very much. Building for any supported platform is now a matter of about 15 min. Testing is what takes much more time. If I know there is interest in testing for a particular platform I can provide test builds: I added a 0.96.2 pre3-version for Mac OS X in post #18.

[Nyerguds]

Super Dune is only partially implemented atm. Currently the 3 "other" Houses are mapped to the corresponding "normal" Houses and the differ only slightly. How is this solved in Super Dune?

Eh, all 6 houses are completely different in the original anyway.

Lots of logics that were only available for the 3 normal houses were severely hacked for SD2 though. I mean, it's not like SD2 was ever meant to still allow the normal campaigns too anyway :P

But as far as I know the house announcement voices always worked... I could be wrong though.

(By the way... don't know if you noticed, but I implemented non-F-key shortcuts for all functions in my Dune II editor, as you requested ;) )

[bluehappybyte]

Eh, all 6 houses are completely different in the original anyway.

Lots of logics that were only available for the 3 normal houses were severely hacked for SD2 though. I mean, it's not like SD2 was ever meant to still allow the normal campaigns too anyway :P

Is there any documentation of all the differences between Dune II and Super Dune?

But as far as I know the house announcement voices always worked... I could be wrong though.

I was wrong. There are sound files for every house. Fixed!

(By the way... don't know if you noticed, but I implemented non-F-key shortcuts for all functions in my Dune II editor, as you requested ;) )

Yes, I noticed it back then. Thanks

[Nyerguds]

Is there any documentation of all the differences between Dune II and Super Dune?

Oh boy... MrFlibble, segra and I hacked together a ton of fixes and changes, but they're spread over the exe editing and SD2 threads... not to mention the whole thing started with a 1.07 port of the original 1.00 SD2, so I don't know how much of the internal changes were already copied there.

If anyone has, or can make, a full changes list, it's MrFlibble.

[MrFlibble]

This is exactly the cause why I need more testers. Did not even know that is was this way in Dune II. Is there any more detailed description on this?

I suppose the most accurate information can be found in the engine recreation projects based on original code analysis - OD2 and OpenDUNE. By mere observation of game behaviour, you can tell that:

• All units move at their fastest (I guess it's safe to say at 100% speed) on concrete.
  
• Rocks slow down wheeled vehicles, and also they get "bumpy" movement (the frame moves up and down one (?) pixel, which is especially visible if a unit moves horizontally, as if the vehicle moves across rough, uneven terrain).
  
• Conversely, wheeled vehicles move faster on plain sand, although probably not as fast as over concrete.
  
• Sand dunes also slow down wheeled vehicles, although I don't remember if the "bumpy" movement effect is present there.
  
• I'm not sure, but spice sand and spice sand dunes seem to work the same as normal sand and normal dunes.
  
• Tracked vehicles behave in exactly the opposite way: they move noticeably faster over rock and dunes, and slow down on sand.
  [*[Harvesters seem to behave a bit differently than other tracked vehicles (they have a separate movement type class anyway), and don't slow down on sand as noticeably (if at all).
  
• Infantry units slow down when moving over mountains ("infantry rock"). I'm not sure if they slow down even more when crossing the rock/mountain border (i.e. "climbing" the mountain).
  
• All units slow down when crossing the sand/rock border. I'm not sure if there's a difference between moving from rock onto sand and vice versa (would be kind of logical if it were, as rock is supposedly elevated over sand, but probably hard to implement).
  
• Sandworms seem to move at equal speed under both sand and sand dunes, and they can pass beneath spice blooms without triggering them.
  

Super Dune is only partially implemented atm. Currently the 3 "other" Houses are mapped to the corresponding "normal" Houses and the differ only slightly. How is this solved in Super Dune?

Eh, all 6 houses are completely different in the original anyway.

That is correct. The unplayable houses have the same tech tree though (except the palace superweapons), which includes all units and structures with the exception of the Ordos Deviator and Raider Trike.

But as far as I know the house announcement voices always worked... I could be wrong though.

All soundbites for house/faction announcements work in Dune II, but originally the Mercenary soundbite was deliberately disabled by replacing its string in the EXE with FILLER.VOC, and empty file. This is easily fixed though.

Is there any documentation of all the differences between Dune II and Super Dune?

Well, the original Super Dune 2 used an idiosyncrasy of the game that allowed to play as the originally non-playable houses, with quite a few things not working properly, though: the Starport wouldn't work at all, concrete placement was only possible next to existing buildings and not next to concrete (only for the Mercenaries and Sardaukar), the Mentat facial animations were all screwed up, the regions that are controlled by the Fremen and the Mercenaries wouldn't show up on the conquest map, and so on. Eventually, Segra helped sort out most of the hard-coded bugs and glitches with the "new" houses, while Nyer's editor handily allows to change the tech trees (among other things) to a great extent.