OpenD2k - cross platform reimplementation of Dune 2000

[Matthias M.]

Any word on the building upgrades? I heard on Github that the "plumbing" was already done.

 

The new interface is in development for over half a year now with sadly not much progress. https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/issues/6043

[Nyerguds]

I see black-to-transparency conversion errors in that sandworm... better fix that.

[pchote]

I see black-to-transparency conversion errors in that sandworm... better fix that.

Hmm... not going to commend us for preserving this bug from the original game? I guess we will never catch a break :P

[Matthias M.]

Not sure what to do about that other than trying some blend modes.

[Matthias M.]

I helped xanax finally get this redesign of the build palette integrated:

 

 

It is making use of our improved code base that also adds the ability to scroll when you captured technology

 

 

but design wise tries to mimic the original art style:

 

[Matthias M.]

The next version will have a feature complete legacy map importer. Tiles, spice, units as well as spawns are supported.

 

 

[FunkyFr3sh]

Not sure if you already know this, but i had to find out how the game is using the production speed values you can view with e.g. tibed to calculate a score. Maybe this is of use for you:

 

int buildTimeTicks = 23040 / (boost * TibedProductionSpeedValue / 100);

 

result is the amount of GameTicks needed to build a certain unit/building

 

boost value is for different amount of factories + the handicap setting

1star handicap = 125
2star handicap = 100
3star handicap = 75

 

1Factory = 0

2Factory = 62

3Factory = 125

 

e.g. you have the handicap set to 2star and you have 3 factories of a certtain type -> boost = 100 + 125

[Nyerguds]

That sidebar is missing actual power BALANCE though... production vs usage. This balance should have an impact on how much slower production goes in low power mode, so it's kinda important.

Also, the minimap hides certain side pixels of the map. I sure hope this is just a mockup and the final one won't have these 'blind spots'.

[Matthias M.]

We now have a long-term TODO list for the mod at https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/issues/7751

 

 

Also, the minimap hides certain side pixels of the map. I sure hope this is just a mockup and the final one won't have these 'blind spots'.

 

That was added for additional polish. The blind spots don't matter for game-play.

[Nyerguds]

Right. Until players start hiding units and structures in them <_<

[Matthias M.]

The next release is drawing closer as we enter the feature freeze phase of the development cycle with this new playtest.
 
You can help our efforts to create a stable and balanced release by testing and reporting bugs or giving feedback on our various social media sites and forums, or simply in the comments section below.
 
Since the last playtest, we have continued our focus on the Dune 2000 mod, which has received a brand new sidebar. The sandworms feature has been polished, and harvester insurance has been added, so if you lose your only harvester to a sandworm, it will be replaced automatically, for free!
 
Those players that mourned the loss of the left-click orders option will be glad to hear that is has returned, better than ever. A new contributor took it upon himself to re-implement it in a way that avoided the numerous problems the earlier implementation had.
 
Other highlights include:

• In sell mode, a structure’s tooltip will show the expected refund value.
• Spy planes in Red Alert will no longer lure your anti-air capable units across the map.
• Airplanes will now fly higher and not push helicopters out of their way anymore.
• Harvester logic has been improved to make use of all available refineries and to avoid blockages.
• New missions: Allies03b and Allies05a for Red Alert, and GDI05a, Nod02a and Nod02b for Tiberian Dawn.
• More memory usage and performance improvements.
• On Linux, the .orarep file extension will be associated with OpenRA so that replays can be started from a file manager with a simple double-click.

The changelog has the full list of fixes, changes and new features.
 
Head over to our download section to find the playtest installers.
 
A note on map compatibility: already with the last playtest a new map format was introduced which is not backward-compatible with last October’s release-20141029. This means that if you have downloaded custom maps from the Resource Center or elsewhere, these maps will have been automatically updated to the new map format once you have run this or the previous playtest. If you later go back to the release version, it will not be able to parse the new map format and crash. You can avoid the problem by either deleting the contents of your map folder, or by making backups of the map folder and restoring that when you switch back to release-20141029. We should have mentioned that in the news post for the last playtest already, and apologize for any inconvenience that omission caused.
 

 

The new Dune 2000 sidebar.
 
 

[Matthias M.]

We have received lots of feedback on our last playtest, for which we are very grateful. Let me take this opportunity to thank all our testers!

 

In fact, we have received so much feedback that we felt it was worth it to do another, hopefully last, playtest before the release.

 

This new playtest addresses most of the issues that have been reported. In particular, these are:

• The balancing in the Red Alert mod, while not finalized, has received some more touch-ups.
• Quite a number of crashes and other oddities have been fixed.
• The overly enthusiastic “Enemies approaching” warning has been removed from both Red Alert and Dune 2000.
• Even more performance improvements have been made.

The full list of changes can be found on our changelog page as usual.

 

Now head on over to our download section, and go forth test some more! If all goes well, you can expect the release within a week!

 

A note on map compatibility: already with the first playtest a new map format was introduced which is not backward-compatible with last October’s release-20141029. This means that if you have downloaded custom maps from the Resource Center or elsewhere, these maps will have been automatically updated to the new map format once you have run this or one of the previous playtests. If you later go back to the release version, it will not be able to parse the new map format and crash. You can avoid the problem by either deleting the contents of your map folder, or by making backups of the map folder and restoring that when you switch back to release-20141029.

 

 

The visual effects for explosions and missile trails have been improved for the Dune 2000 mod.

[Gruntlord6]

Thanks for keeping us up to date.

[Matthias M.]

We are very pleased to announce the Spring release of OpenRA!
 
This release a huge step forward for the Dune 2000 mod in particular. It includes just shy of 1000 commits by 53 contributors, the culmination of six months of relentless work. With more than 2000 files and 210,000 changed lines it is one of our busiest development cycles to date.
 
A large development focus has been on the Dune 2000 mod, which contains the most visible changes. A new sidebar, sandworms and Carryalls are the big new features, which should make any Dune 2000 player feel more at home in our mod. Additionally, the OpenRA.Utility now supports importing maps from the original Dune 2000 game, so we hope that the number of maps and of course the number of players will increase in the near future!
 
The other mods were not neglected, though. In Red Alert, the standout feature is the support of playable factions such as Russia, England, France, Ukraine and Germany. In both Red Alert and Tiberian Dawn, new single-player missions are available that will keep you occupied.
Of course, we have not only improved the mods themselves. Here is a list of changes that affect the game in general:

• The server browser shows and allows joining games from any installed mod.
• It is now possible to disable the “short game” mode that was forced in the past.
• The player name and colour can now be set up in the settings dialog.
• When creating a server, the game informs the host about port forwarding issues.
• Left-click mouse orders have been markedly improved.
• Some missions now support difficulty levels.
• A huge number of smaller gameplay fixes and improvements, including:
  • Friendly units blocking the exit of a production building will now move out of the way if needed.
  • Units will no longer hunt cloaked units.
  • The spy plane in Red Alert will no longer lure your anti-air capable units across the map.
  • Planes will no longer collide with helicopters and push them out of the way.
  • Your faction will not be revealed to enemies when you have selected a random faction in the lobby.
  • In sell mode, the tooltip will now show the expected refund value for structures.
  • Harvesters should now no longer block themselves at refineries, and also make use of all available refineries if the nearest ones are occupied.
• A similarly massive number of performance improvements have been made in this release.
• Many race conditions and crashes have been fixed across the board.

For the complete list of changes, please visit our changelog page.
 
A note on key bindings: In the previous release, the key to toggle team chat was changed to ‘Alt’, which, looking back, was an unfortunate decision. It has been reverted to ‘Tab’ in this release, where it serves a double role: on an empty line, it toggles team chat, otherwise it auto-completes player names.
 
For modders and mappers, there have been quite a few important changes as well. We have introduced a new map format, to which maps running on this release will be updated automatically. All of the shared engine code has been moved into the OpenRA.Mods.Common project, so that third-party mods can drop their dependencies on our game mods. A lot of code has been changed to enable features that will be needed by the Tiberian Sun mod. One important change for Red Alert mappers is that the gem mine has been replaced with a new one. For more details, check out the changelog, as well as the trait and Lua API documentation.
 
Looking forward, we hope to get the next release out faster than this time around (famous last words!). Feature-wise, you can probably expect the first appearance of the in-game map editor in the next release, in addition to much of the things that are currently in our pull request queue. Beyond that, we will see… If you want to keep track of the development, keep an eye on the release milestone and the development changelog.
 
We will also try to make more use of our YouTube channel to show off new and little known existing features, provide mission walkthroughs and other content, so watch and subscribe!
 
Now enough with the talking! Head on over to our download section, grab the installer for your OS, and enjoy the game!
 

The long awaited sandworms and Carryalls have finally arrived in our Dune 2000 mod!
 

[Dr Bong]

You guys are my heros! Thanks!

[Matthias M.]

It has been a month of busy development. Time to get back to testing!

The major Dune 2000 related changes this time around include:

• A whole new in-game map editor, with many benefits over the old editor.
• Improved system integration with openra:// server join URLs. Give it a try from our live server list!
• Implemented production building upgrades that unlock additional technology for Dune 2000.
• In the Dune 2000 mod you will now be notified upon encounter of enemy units.

The refined system integration adds a lot of convenient features:

• Hardware cursors will now work more reliably on Microsoft Windows.
• On Mac the dialogs won’t hijack finder and the dock icon won’t get lost upon restarting.
• Linux AppStream compatible software centers will now show a nice preview.
• Double-clicking an .orarep file will now directly start playback of the replay.

Our new in-game map editor took over a year of development time, and it was worth it!

• It is truly cross-platform as it uses our game UI; finally a map editor on Mac OS X!
• No more rendering glitches. Almost WYSIWYG editing, because we re-use the game renderer.
• Support for all file formats, i.e. all Dune 2000 sprite actors.
• You can now keep an overview of installed custom maps and delete them in the same menu.

Click Extras - Map Editor from the main menu in any mod. To all our enthusiastic mappers out there: Your feedback is invaluable at this stage. We will remove the legacy OpenRA.Editor.exe in the nearby future.
 
More details and links to pull request can be found on our changelog page.
 
You can find the installers for a variety of supported operating systems in our download section.
 
Please report problems on our bug tracker. We plan to do a new stable release based upon these changes soon.
 

 

The on-going quest to finalize the Dune 2000 mod has reached a new milestone
with building upgrades which re-create the original tech tree.
 

[Matthias M.]

We are proud to announce the June 2015 release of OpenRA!

 

As promised, it was our goal to reduce the length of this development cycle, and we succeeded! With about 22500 changed lines in just over 300 commits by a total of 25 developers since the last release, the list of new features is naturally a bit shorter than last time around, but it contains some good ones!

 

The standout feature of this release is of course the long-awaited in-game map editor. For the first time ever, we are offering a map editing ability for all our mods, on all supported operating systems. You can access the map editor from the “Extras” sub-menu of the main menu.

The new map editor offers the following benefits and features:

• Fully cross-platform, just like the game itself. Finally, a map editor for OS X!
• Truly WYSIWYG. It uses the game renderer, so there are no more rendering glitches.
• Support for all mods. The legacy editor did not support Dune 2000 properly, and Tiberian Sun not at all.

Compared to the legacy editor, there is not yet full feature parity: the in-game editor is missing cut-and-paste operations, a display of the sum of resources on the map, and also does not show the coordinates of cells. These short-comings will be rectified in future releases. Meanwhile, they remain available in the legacy editor, which is still being shipped with this release. It will, however, be removed in the not too distant future.

 

Complementing the new editor is an improved map chooser dialog, which now separates official and custom maps. It also allows deleting one or all of your custom maps. We also took this chance to add the often-requested ability for all players to view the map chooser from the game lobby (but changing the map still remains the prerogative of the host).

 

Another new feature with a lot of potential is the added operating system integration of OpenRA. The installers will associate the game with OpenRA replay files and OpenRA server URLs. These will allow websites hosting replay archives to add one-click watching of replays, and creating alternative server browsers. As an example, our own web-based server browser has been enhanced to offer clickable links to waiting games that will automatically start OpenRA and connect you to the server. You can also create bookmarks to your favourite OpenRA servers on your desktop! These associations are available on all supported operating systems as well.

Other minor additions include:

• The Dune 2000 mod has gained building upgrades, and now matches the original game’s tech tree.
• A total of six single-player missions have been added to the Tiberian Dawn mod. Enjoy!
• The “Team health colors” option now provides a better distinction between your own and allied units.
• Support powers can now be activated using configurable hotkeys.
• A “quick placement” mode has been added which will automatically pick up a completed building for placement when the player selects the corresponding production tab.

Aside from new features, the usual number of bug fixes has found its way into the code. Among them is a fix for a high-profile bug that caused the inability to undeploy construction yards. Several graphical problems, from glitches in the menus to occasionally missing mouse cursors have been resolved as well as issues in our single-player mission scripts.

 

Take a look at the full changelog for all the gory details.

 

Grab the installer now for your operating system from our download page! We hope you’ll enjoy this newest installment of OpenRA!

 

The new map editor was almost 18 months in the making!

 

Building upgrades have been added to our Dune 2000 mod,
which now allow us to almost match the original game’s tech tree.

 

[Matthias M.]

Playtest 20150628 adds lot's of great stuff including the first Atreides single-player missions. Get the videos by re-installing the game assets from your original CD.

 

We also added more functions to the Lua API so you can make your own more interesting. 

 

This unstable release so fixes the bug where units built from the starport in D2K didn't work with the “select units by type” hotkey among others.

 

 

Use the repair cursor in D2K to signal a Carryall to transport an actor for repair!

[Matthias M.]

Release 20150919 is out which adds the first Atreides mission and the announced carryall repair service.
 

 
The next release cycle will focus on changing the unit balance to match the original Dune 2000 game.

[>Quiet Snow<]

A week ago I've tested this game.

It has a many problems such as:

1) Poor optimizations: game often is slow down, when many units receive an order.

2) Units moving unnaturally, difference in engine between dune 2000 and OpenRA is too big.

3) Last settings in multiplayer aren't saved.

4) AI as before, can not migrate to other continents. He doesnt know how to count money and how to determine a strategy in variation of facts and events (attack \ defence).

5) The map editor is too poor, map edit so hard... I can understand how difficult this programming task is, but mass space editing and tileblocks copy\paste - the easiest tasks. This can seriously simplify map creation.

6) Player color selection - just terrible.

7) Tastes, but balance is to bad for me, absolutely another game. Unit health too low, so they quickly die. Very weak control the course of battle.

8. Not work game server creation, can play just through local network(i've played via hamachi).

 

What looks good:

1) Multiplayer menu.)

2) AI not bad, well attack and presses, need strong economy and production. Play against team of AI - extremely difficult.

3) Replays, statistics - very and very good. But statistics eat many screen space.

I'm really happy, when look at how AI builds. And if he, suddenly, be able to increase the economy(If a player is too relax) - then turns into a monster.

4) Ability to make big maps(256x256).

5) Troopers from carryals ))) (bitches with parachutes  :D ), ahahaha, nice.

[Adriano]

Release 20150919 is out which adds the first Atreides mission and the announced carryall repair service.

(...)

The next release cycle will focus on changing the unit balance to match the original Dune 2000 game.

How to install this Dune2000?

I can see just one file openra_release.20150919_all.deb for Ubuntu (or a file exe for Windows).

Is THIS file for installation the game?

 

------

 

Added.

Yes, really, it needs to run this file openra_release.20150919_all.deb.

 

I don't understand, why this message appears, during installing:

 

Unknown media type in type 'all/all'Unknown media type in type 'all/allfiles'Unknown media type in type 'uri/mms'Unknown media type in type 'uri/mmst'Unknown media type in type 'uri/mmsu'Unknown media type in type 'uri/pnm'Unknown media type in type 'uri/rtspt'Unknown media type in type 'uri/rtspu'

Anyway, Dune works. And now under Linux!

Interface of the game looks unusual.

 

Can I change screen resolution and speed of game?

[Matthias M.]

You can change the screen resolution at Settings - Display.

 

Variable game speed will be added in the next release cycle alongside numerous performance improvements.

 

[Adriano]

You can change the screen resolution at Settings - Display.

First of all, thank you for the game!

 

I can change resolution only for "Mode: Windowed", right?

And pictures of buildings and units, for example, stay the same. Not bigger on the screen? There is no resizing?

Buildings and units look slightly little on full HD monitor in 1920x1080, as for me.

So I prefer to choose 1280x720 (on full screen!) in Dune2000 Gruntmod Edition, for example.

I can see your picture above near 800x600...

 

Can I stretch picture on full screen in this game? I would like to make picture elements bigger.

 

Anyway, well done!

[Matthias M.]

It is a cut out screenshot which focuses on the mission selection screenshot. The UI is optimized for modern widescreen resolutions, but we try to also make >= 1024x768 work as well:

 

[Matthias M.]

Halloween is upon us, and the latest OpenRA playtest is full of new tricks and other treats! This build includes all of the major new features and balance changes that we have planned for our Christmas release, and it is going to be one of our biggest releases yet!

We rely on your testing and feedback to make sure that our release builds are as balanced and bug-free as possible, so please let us know if you find any issues or just generally don’t like something by filing a bug or joining our IRC channel! We will try our best to fix any issues before the final release.

Grab the installer now for your operating system from our download page!

 

New chat lobby

The multiplayer server browser and game lobby have been redesigned around a new global chat channel.
This will make it easier to find and talk with other players, and to organize matches without server-hopping.

The channel is available from outside the game as well, by connecting to irc.openra.net:6667 channel #lobby using your favourite IRC client.

 

Game speed options

Do you think that our default game speed is too slow (or too fast)? We now include a game speed option in the lobby and campaign menus!

 

Overhauled Dune 2000 mod

 

A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct. This every sister of the Bene Gesserit knows.

— from "Manual of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan

One of our big focuses has been completely overhauling our Dune 2000 mod to more closely match the original game. All of the unit and building statistics have been adjusted, and we have implemented new (old) features including the thumper and spice blows.

We have made good progress towards matching the feel of the original game, but we aren't there yet. Let us know what you think, or if you find something that still doesn't match!

 

Fixes and performance

We have fixed a large number of bugs, including the well-known replay freeze bug when a player disconnects, and a memory corruption bug that would cause random crashes when starting a match on a Windows OS. We have continued our crusade for performance, and this playtest shows significant further improvements over the last release.

 

Improved map and mod support

There is a boatload of new features for modders and map authors: maps can now include custom music and define particle effects for rain, snow, or sand storms. We have made major changes to the traits that control actor rendering and targeting that make them more flexible and self-consistent. Make sure to use the automatic rule upgrader to easily port your maps and mods to the new release! You will need to manually update your mod.yaml and UI definitions for the new version.