Dune Dynasty

[R1per2]

In v1.07 I have with Harkonnen Trooper for level 3 (with quads), and troopers for level4 (with tanks).

Ordos has trooper first on level5 (+ no launcher), and troopers on level6 (+ no siege tank).

For Villain Ordos, it has 1 level earlier. On hark lvl4, ordos has trooper, on atr lvl5, ordos has troopers.

 

I don't see any Ornis in starport, it's high tech, IX needed unit, which can produce only in Hi-tech fac. Like Sonic tanks and deviators could only produced in heavy fac., not in starport.

[MrFlibble]

I don't see any Ornis in starport, it's high tech, IX needed unit, which can produce only in Hi-tech fac. Like Sonic tanks and deviators could only produced in heavy fac., not in starport.

Units available for purchase at the Starport are defined within individual scenario files. In fact, you can set any unit, including sandworms, to be available from the Starport. 'Thopters are present in the Starport lists (it's the [CHOAM] section in the INI files) in missions 8 and 9 in the original scenario files, but due to a spelling error ("Thoper" instead of "'Thopter") they were not available in the game.

[dynasty]

- Harkonnen can produce troopers (group) on level 4 already, not just on level 5. Why do you change it?

Thanks! I didn't intentionally change it. I must have made a mistake

when I generalised the tech tree for Dune 2 eXtended.

- Turrets don't attack fremens many times. Depends on what?

No idea. Although I thought v1.07 was meant to have fixed this.

- Why Ornis available in Starport? It's not in 1.07.

What MrFlibble said about ornithopters in the scenarios is right.

Dune Dynasty allows for some minor typos in the original campaign's

scenario files, because people just want to jump into the game after

unpacking the data files, rather than hunting for MrFlibble's fixed

scenario pack. Other examples are that some devastator reinforcements

were missing in v1.07 ("devistator"), and that the wheeled and tracked

attack teams didn't get used.

[R1per2]

Thanks! I didn't intentionally change it. I must have made a mistake

when I generalised the tech tree for Dune 2 eXtended.

 

I ment in Building of a Dynasty Harkonnen tech tree. I have old mission saved in Harkonnen lvl4, there is available Troopers, but if I start in DuneDynasty a new game on lvl4, there isn't, just trooper.

I downloaded eXtended mode yesterday, thoose new missions tech tree and units are different, cool :)

 

No idea. Although I thought v1.07 was meant to have fixed this.

 

I thought this too. Tried Atr8 in Dunedynasty with many Palaces, and not all of my fremens attacked by turrets.

 

What MrFlibble said about ornithopters in the scenarios is right. 

devastator reinforcements were missing

 wheeled and tracked attack teams didn't get used. 

 I see, thanks! Than DuneDynasty automatic fixed these bugs?

[Nyerguds]

Thought this was worth adding to the music collection for this game: remakes of the Sega music :D

Inrudiment - Trenching

Inrudiment - Command Post

Inrudiment - Lego Tune

Inrudiment - Spice Trip

Inrudiment - Turbulence

(thanks to Grand_Leo)

[Skrilax_CZ]

Great job here with the remake.

 

But I have a question: what is that "weird" sound when it plays "construction complete"? Should in table/sound.c instead of

const Feedback g_feedback[VOICEID_MAX] = {{{0x002B, 0xFFFF, 0xFFFF, 0xFFFF, 0xFFFF}, 0x33, 0x003C}, /*  0 */

be

const Feedback g_feedback[VOICEID_MAX] = {{{0x002B, 0xFFFF, 0xFFFF, 0xFFFF, 0xFFFF}, 0x33, 0xFFFF}, /*  0 */

?

 

There seems to be more "dual sounds", maybe the sound enhancement?

[dynasty]

Thanks!

 

The 0x3C is the ringing bell synth sound which Dune II used to play in

some cases (e.g. no sound blaster or something of higher priority 

playing).

 

I assume that's the "weird" sound you're referring to.  I seem to have 

both synth and digitised samples enabled by default.  I think I meant 

to change it play one or the other at random.

 

Anyway, just change the (rather clumsy looking) "sounds are both"

option to "digital".

[Skrilax_CZ]

Ah, I see, thanks. Yeah it was the ringing bell synth sound and changing from "both" to "digital" worked.

[OrdosConquerer]

Hey there!

 

Wow!

The Dune Dynasty is a really great work and more than just a game.

I think it's the ultimate modding-base.

 

 

What are you thinking about to open a own forum section for "Dune Dynasty"?

It would be easier for supportings.

 

To lead "Dune Dynasty" just in one simply forum topic make it a little bit confusing.

 

 

Really good job!

[fire_qc]

Really need help!!!

I've Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, I've FluidSynth installed and MAD.  But when I compile with cmake, tells me that I don't have those modules...

I would like to change sound with better things than AdLib..

 

Many thanks...

[dynasty]

Hi fire_qc,

 

Did you install the development packages for FluidSynth and MAD?

[Non sono Mandrake]

Hello, i've just downloaded Dune Dynasty 1.5.7, but when i try to run it i only get an error window: "Could not create display!". I'm on Windows 7 Ultimate, 32 bit. I've copied the required PAK files to \data. Any suggestion? Thank you

[Non sono Mandrake]

I got the game to work by setting driver=direct3d in the .cfg file.

 

Good work with the game!

I would suggest to raise the max unit limit in skirmishes with many players. Sometimes you can't even get the first harvester at start...

[Non sono Mandrake]

Hi, the ticket system in Sourceforge seems closed, so i'll leave a suggestion here.

 

Double-clicking on a unit should select all units of that type. It's a standard in modern games! Thanks

[funky_uncle]

How do I install this thing? I'm on linux. I downloaded it and I understand I must use Terminal. Typing "make ." or "cmake ." doesn't do anything. I obviously have to replace the dots with something, but I have no idea what.

[Nyerguds]

Um, "make" is the command for compiling it from source code, and the dot in the command just refers to "current directory" (and the double dot to "parent directory"). Unless you downloaded the source code, it's not gonna do you much good. I recommend you just get the binaries zip file from the downloads instead and unzip that somewhere.

 

Full download and install instructions: (though, specific to Windows since I got no linux to try on)

• Download the current compiled version of the program. At the moment I write this, for windows, that's dunedynasty-win32-1.5.7.zip file inside the 1.5 folder
• Extract it on some permanent location on your disk. I dunno. "C:\games\Dune Dynasty" or something? Though the game supports working with a config file outside its install folder I wouldn't recommend putting it in Program Files, personally, due to the constant need for rights elevation when manipulating files in there.
• Add the .PAK files from the EU version of the game into the "data" folder. The FILELIST.TXT will tell you which files you need.
• Add some music! Available packs and their download locations are in the subfolders of the game's "music" folder, though some of the download locations seem to have moved. For reference:
  Dune 2: The Maker music packs
  Sega megadrive music
  Recordings of the MT-32 midi music
  Recordings of the SC-55 midi music
  For any pack you install and enable (see the config stuff later on), whenever the game attempts to play a music clip for a certain screen or situation (main menu, score screen, ingame calm / battle music) it will select the correct theme randomly from one of the available sources.
• To configure the game:
  * if you want the game to use a config file in its own game folder (handy for a mobile install on a usb drive), you can rename the "dunedynasty.cfg-sample" file in the game folder to "dunedynasty.cfg". Don't do that if you did put it in Program Files, though.
  * If you want to just have a user settings file the normal way, run Dune Dynasty once, then open the Windows file explorer, type %appdata% in the address bar and press enter. You should end up in your Windows user profile's "AppData\Roaming" folder. Open the Dune Dynasty folder in there, and open dunedynasty.cfg in Notepad to tweak the game's configuration.
• The best way to run the game nowadays seems to be to run it in your native resolution, but with all controls zoomed in. In the config file, these options under [graphics] should be changed for that:

  window_mode=fullscreenwindow
  menubar_scale=3.00
  sidebar_scale=3.00
  viewport_scale=2.00

You need to own the EU version of Dune II to have these .PAK files mentioned in the third point, though. Technically the forum rules don't allow me to link to it since it's not freeware, but I can tell you that it's somewhere in my open directory. Probably under "dune"

Some extras that might interest you:

• To fix some of the original game's graphical/sound/mission issues, add the .PAK files from the Dune 2 v1.07 fix pack into the Data folder. Make sure you take the contents of the ARRAKIS folder inside the rar file.
• To re-enable some building animations that were disabled in the 1.07 version of the game, add the contents of the Repair Bay, Hi-Tech Factory and Weapons Factory fix into the Data folder as well (see this post).
• If you're interested in modding the game, you can also add the game's exe (it's in the fix pack) and the Dune II Editor, which, after making your changes, can write them to a PROFILE.INI file (press F7 in the editor) that will be read by Dune Dynasty. Add those in the main folder, though, not in the Data one.
• Interesting tweak: In the config file, under [enhancement], try enabling the "insatiable_sandworms" option. This not only makes sandworms not disappear after they made 3 kills, but also switches them from the classic Ambush behaviour to the much more interesting Area Guard behaviour, which has them moving around all the time, sometimes harmlessly, sometimes aggressively, sometimes turning aggressive when provoked. Overall this changes them from an early-game annoyance to a much more interesting gameplay element.
• Bonus fun: you can add the Frank Klepacki voices from the Megadrive version to the data/ folder to hear him saying "Dune: The Battle for Arrakis!" in the game intro. You can edit the config file and change the "subtitle_override" option under [enhancement] to "eu" to make the ingame text match the voice clips.
• Bonus silliness: Ghetto up your House selection screen by putting these voices into the data/ folder. 

Edited August 7, 2021 by Nyerguds

[MrFlibble]

I have finally tried out the port. Actually the only reason I did that is because I wanted to check out how the aspect ratio correction is implemented. I should say that this is done in a very counter-intuitive fashion. First off, although personally I'm okay with having to edit the configuration file, the absence of the aspect correction option in the menu may result in at least some of the users remaining oblivious to this issue entirely.

Secondly, the default hight multiplier in the sample configuration file is 1.1. Since the correct aspect ratio for VGA games is 4:3, one would assume that the multiplier of 1.3 would roughly do the job. However, this setting results in overdoing the correction:

It turns out that the multiplier of 1.2 gets results which are more or less similar to the intended aspect ratio:

It's still not 100% identical to what you get with the DOS version using DOSBox:

I would suggest to set aspect correction to on by default. It would also be nice if the stretching method used some smoothing like in DOSBox, and not just vertically doubling every nth row of pixels. In fact, I would much appreciate if the port was set by default to have an appearance as close as possible to the original game, i.e. with the sidebar, viewport and menubar set to their original sizes.

Another issue is that I have not been able to find an option to play in fullscreen mode on a widescreen display with the correct screen proportions (pillarboxed mode).

Also I wonder if you're going to add the option to play the early demo mission in your port?

[segra]

On 09/03/2016 at 10:09 PM, MrFlibble said:

I have finally tried out the port. Actually the only reason I did that is because I wanted to check out how the aspect ratio correction is implemented. I should say that this is done in a very counter-intuitive fashion. First off, although personally I'm okay with having to edit the configuration file, the absence of the aspect correction option in the menu may result in at least some of the users remaining oblivious to this issue entirely.

Secondly, the default hight multiplier in the sample configuration file is 1.1. Since the correct aspect ratio for VGA games is 4:3, one would assume that the multiplier of 1.3 would roughly do the job. However, this setting results in overdoing the correction:
 

It turns out that the multiplier of 1.2 gets results which are more or less similar to the intended aspect ratio:

It's still not 100% identical to what you get with the DOS version using DOSBox:

I would suggest to set aspect correction to on by default. It would also be nice if the stretching method used some smoothing like in DOSBox, and not just vertically doubling every nth row of pixels. In fact, I would much appreciate if the port was set by default to have an appearance as close as possible to the original game, i.e. with the sidebar, viewport and menubar set to their original sizes.

Another issue is that I have not been able to find an option to play in fullscreen mode on a widescreen display with the correct screen proportions (pillarboxed mode).

Also I wonder if you're going to add the option to play the early demo mission in your port?

 

Hello All,

drnovice dragged me here :)
So I'm just going to explain how this problem was solved in Open Fodder

Late last year, we spent many hours arguing about aspect ratios in Open Fodder... many long hours... In the end, we went with the original aspect ratio, too make matters even more difficult, the Amiga and Dos version have two different screen heights ( Dos: 320x200, and Amiga 320x260)... So Open Fodder, appropriately changes the Window height after you select a version

See Here: https://github.com/segrax/openfodder/blob/master/Source/Fodder.cpp#L3200

 

In the Window Class (This is all SDL2, so not sure if Dynasty is using SDL2), instead of taking the screen resolution and resizing the game to suit... we take the original game resolution, and multiply it. Keeping track of a multiplier, rather than the current window size.

https://github.com/segrax/openfodder/blob/master/Source/Window.cpp

These functions are important to how it works:

WindowIncrease, Increase the window multiplier by one if possible, if not possible, switch to full screen mode

WindowDecrease, Decrease the window multiplier by one, if we're greater than the original screen size... (or drop out of full screen mode)

CalculateFullscreenSize,Find a window multiplier which is greater than the full screen resolution, and return one less than that

RenderAt , calculate the size difference between the window, and the surface size... and draw the image in the middle

 

This allows the user to either hit F10 and full screen it, or press the + key to increase the window size, while staying true to the aspect ratio... depending on your monitor, you may get the 'black borders' once you hit full screen mode...

 

Also on startup, it calls "CalculateWindowSize"... which finds a multiplier that is roughly half the size of the current screen resolution.. we found this to be a nice window size to start with

Anyway, just my two cents

Rob

Edited March 16, 2016 by segra
Added startup window size info

[drnovice]

Thanks for the explanation segra!

Never I could describe it better :)

It could follow two ways:

1. stretching mode, if players don't like 'black borders' on left & right margins, for 16:9 similar resolutions, but original ratio isn't maintained
2. original ratio mode, if players like anyway maintain original aspect ration, multiplying/dividing only the dimensions to zoom in/out it

Edited March 17, 2016 by drnovice

[MrFlibble]

Thanks for the very detailed replies guys, but actually I did not get it if the DOS version's graphics are corrected (stretched vertically) to maintain the proper aspect ratio, and if yes, how it is accomplished. Is it something similar to how Chocolate Doom works?

BTW, does OpenFodder allow to play the DOS demo/shareware version? I don't have the full game

[drnovice]

Many DOS games have aspect ratio 1,6:1 (starting by 320x200 pixels size), so if you want maintain this ratio and put it into a modern screen like 16:9 (standard going from 4:3 to 16:9, by the advent of multimedia movie formats) the result is pillarbox (black borders on left/right margins).

Instead if you try to put same dos games ratio (1,6:1) into 4:3 screen, result is letterbox (black borders on top/bottom margins).

[Nyerguds]

On 3/9/2016 at 0:09 PM, MrFlibble said:

I have finally tried out the port. Actually the only reason I did that is because I wanted to check out how the aspect ratio correction is implemented. I should say that this is done in a very counter-intuitive fashion. First off, although personally I'm okay with having to edit the configuration file, the absence of the aspect correction option in the menu may result in at least some of the users remaining oblivious to this issue entirely.

Secondly, the default hight multiplier in the sample configuration file is 1.1. Since the correct aspect ratio for VGA games is 4:3, one would assume that the multiplier of 1.3 would roughly do the job.

Actually, Dune II is 320x200 displayed as 320x240. And 240/200 = 1.2

Edited March 25, 2016 by Nyerguds

[MrFlibble]

You're right! But the result is still slightly different from the original look.

Besides, in DOSBox you can actually get rid of the blur effect that is used to stretch the image, if you run the game in fullscreen at high resolution (typically fullresoution=desktop should suffice on modern systems) with a renderer that does nearest neighbour scaling (e.g. DirectDraw). That way, some rows of pixels will be doubled but this will be nearly unnoticeable to the user.

However, this seems to be not entirely possible with Dune Dynasty because it doesn't support running the game in fullscreen with the 4:3 ratio if the host system uses a widescreen display.

[Nyerguds]

Hey, @dynasty... dunno if you're still around, but...

I noticed that while '[' and ']' can toggle between 1x and 2x sidebar and menu bar, on modern resolutions it's really nicer to zoom them even more. I figured out that through the config you can set it to 3.00, which does the job, but 4.00 didn't work. As monitors get even larger, though, it might be a good idea to unlock that completely. Same for the battlefield zoom.

In fact, a max zoom factor setting for all three would be nice, where the [ ] keys and the scrollwheel can just keep zooming in by 100% until that maximum is reached.

This could actually be automated rather easily by taking equivalents of the original 320x200 resolution as maximum zoom levels. The sidebar's maximum zoom level would be a (rounded) factor that would make the zoomed sidebar take maximum 20% of the screen width (80 of 320 pixels in the original), the top bar would copy that same zoom factor, and the play field zoom would max out on a round factor where the actual viewed zoomed content, if no sidebar were present, would be around 320 pixels. These calculated maximum factors would be rounded to the nearest integer.

For 1920x1080 this would be:
Top/Sidebar: 1920 * (20%/80 pixel sidebar) = 1920 / 400 = 4.8 ==> 5
Play field: 1920 / 320 = 6

Though for the sidebar, an additional check would probably be needed so the full contents of the sidebar fit on the screen height, too. And, probably the same for the top bar, with the screen width.

Edited September 7, 2016 by Nyerguds

[TaxOwlbear]

Since I started Dune Dynasty today, the game no longer cover the Windows taskbar and the upper part of the top bar is cut off. I don't know what the cause is since I didn't make any changes to my interface. Auto-hiding the taskbar doesn't solve the issue (screenshot here).

Starting the game in fullscreen or fullscreen windowed mode instead of windowed solves the issue, but doesn't allow me to record the game with OBS Studio anymore. Any idea what could have caused this? before this happened, the taskbar was never visible and the game was centred correctly.