Dune Dynasty

[vear]

I've been playing Dune Dynasty for some time, but I ran into actual problems as recently as yesterday.

Playing the last Atreides mission, having crushed both Harkonnen and Ordos, the game crashes the moment I destroy Sardaukar Construction Yard, returning "Assertion failed" error notice. No matter what I try (alternating game options, running as an administrator, using compatiblity mode etc.), it doesn't seem to help. I've found no similar issues nowhere on the Internet either. The system is Windows 10 x64.

The error message looks like this: http://imgur.com/a/ZSbqM In case the bug is hard to replicate, feel free to try it on your own, the savegame lies here: http://muzealna.org/tmp/save.zip

I'll be grateful for any ideas on how to solve the issue

[Nyerguds]

On 2/25/2017 at 4:56 PM, TaxOwlbear said:

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.

That just looks like you put your game resolution larger than the Windows UI allows...

[TaxOwlbear]

The issue fixed itself after a couple of days, but I still don't know what caused it. It worked previously, and it does wok now, but for a while, the game just wouldn't run correctly.

[Naberius Buster]

@Nyerguds Your help would be appreciated.

On 8/20/2015 at 4:36 AM, Nyerguds said:

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 2 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.

I'm actually having some issues with this.

Dune Dynasty won't work with the Profile.INI file I made (original campaign and skirmish), but it works just fine when it comes to the modded games (SD2 Classic and Extended), and I got the original Dune.EXE to work with the Profile file too.

I even put it in Dune Dynasty's main folder.

 

How did I mess this up, and how can I resolve this successfully?

[Nyerguds]

Is Dune Dynasty running in portable mode (dunedynasty.cfg in the program's own folder) or does it have its config file in the default %appdata% location? Because if it's not running as portable, chances are that the Profile.INI also needs to be put in the appdata folder.

Edited April 25, 2018 by Nyerguds

[Naberius Buster]

On 4/25/2018 at 6:33 AM, Nyerguds said:

Is Dune Dynasty running in portable mode (dunedynasty.cfg in the program's own folder) or does it have its config file in the default %appdata% location? Because if it's not running as portable, chances are that the Profile.INI also needs to be put in the appdata folder.

Thanks for responding.

The Config file spawned in the appdata under Roaming/Dune Dynasty, so it doesn't seem to be running in portable mode (can't say I know what this is).

I just copied the Profile.INI file to the same directory/folder and alas no change (no sight range buff for light vehicles).

[Nyerguds]

On 4/30/2018 at 8:13 PM, Naberius Buster said:

Thanks for responding.

The Config file spawned in the appdata under Roaming/Dune Dynasty, so it doesn't seem to be running in portable mode (can't say I know what this is).

I just copied the Profile.INI file to the same directory/folder and alas no change (no sight range buff for light vehicles).

Portable mode is activated by putting the dunedynasty.cfg file in the same folder as the dynasty exe file. This way, the program can be carried around on a usb flash drive without losing its settings, and without polluting the system you play on by putting stuff in its appdata folder. Personally I've always run it this way.

[LordDune]

Hello,

I hope this thread is still alive,

I had a great time digging into this forum with lots of valuable information, so thanks to all contributors.

I think I have found an issue with the current version of Dune Dynasty, I play the German version (incl. the v1.07 fix), and what's odd is that the unit voice speech volume (the short voice when a unit is either selected or commanded) is significantly lower in volume than the regular ingame voices (like "Unsere Basis wird angegriffen" etc.)

If I use the same data files in OpenDune or in DuneLegacy then all voices are correct, meaning the volumes of the voices do practically not differ, just as they're supposed to.

Am I the only one who has got that issue? It's true on Win XP SP3 aswell as Win7 Pro, both 32bit.

Secondly as something more nimble, the regular adlib music in Dune Legacy sounds a little bit better to my ears in terms of sound quality, I mean softer voices in the music are better distinguishable, kind of clearer or better placed. Might be related to the used audio driver?

The volume issue should be clearly audible, even for non-audiophiles. :)

[duneflorist]

hey there dune lovers!

i hope you are all doing great!

i've created a new fork of Dune Dynasty (https://github.com/gameflorist/dunedynasty) and released a new version v1.6.0 (with win32 and linux binaries).

without much further ado, here is the changelog from v1.5.7 to v1.6.0:

• Adds support for HiDPI displays
  • With seperate scaling factors of menubar, viewport and actionbar from 1-8
• Adds Multiplayer:
  • Up to 6 players
  • With 3 additional factions: Fremen, Sardaukar and Mercenaries
  • Setting for lose condition: either by losing all structures or structures plus ground-units
  • Settings for starting credits and amount of spice fields
  • Random map seeds (or enter fixed map seed)
  • Shared starport-inventory
• Adds support for new music packs (with songs sorted into attack/idle music):
  • Dune (1992) game (by Cryo) music by Stéphane Picq and Philippe Ulrich: The excellent award-winning soundtrack for Dune II's predecessor - the 1992 Dune game by Cryo. It is very atmospheric, and makes Dune II a much more relaxing and chill experience. Two versions are supported:
    • Adlib Gold recording by DOS Nostalgia
    • Spice Opera by Exxos - A remastered CD release of the soundtrack
  • Dune (1984) Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Toto and Brian Eno
  • Dune: Part One (2021) Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and "The Dune Sketchbook" soundtrack - both by Hans Zimmer
• New control enhancements:
  • LMB double click or Ctrl + LMB selects all units of the same type in current viewport
  • Ctrl + RMB sets rally points for all similar buildings
  • Ctrl shows rally points for all similar buildings
  • Tab key selects next building of the same type
  • Space key focuses viewport on selected structure
  • ESC pauses/cancels factory task
  • Added hotkeys for each type of unit/structure
• New in-game settings:
  • Resolution and window mode (requires restart)
  • Enable/Disable music sets (requires restart)
  • Sliders for seperate scaling of menubar, viewport and actionbar from 1-8 (accomodating HiDPI displays).
• Many more fixes and improvements

grab it while it's hot!

and let me know of any problems you might encounter! (it's best to post them directly as github-issues. discussions are also open.)

also, here is a little history of Dune Dynasty for a little more context - crediting all involved devs:

Dune Dynasty was initially developed by David Wang, with the source code hosted on SourceForge. Its last official version was v1.5.7 from 2013. After that David Wang added lots of new features (mainly multiplayer) up until 2015, but never released a new version. (Unfortunately i also was not able to establish contact with him 😔). Later some github-repos emerged with additional fixes and improvements (by 1oom-fork and neg3ntropy), but again no new release. This fork is intended to merge these improvements, fix further bugs, add minor features, and provide new releases (v1.6.0+) with binary download-packages for Windows and Linux (see this fork for Mac by YuriyGuts).

[Non sono Mandrake]

I still haven't tried it, but some people resumed the development of Dune Dynasty and just published a new version, after 10 years!

https://github.com/gameflorist/dunedynasty/releases

[duneflorist]

On 7/4/2023 at 11:26 PM, Non sono Mandrake said:

I still haven't tried it, but some people resumed the development of Dune Dynasty and just published a new version, after 10 years!

https://github.com/gameflorist/dunedynasty/releases

Yeah, that's me. I actually posted infos regarding it in this thread here on Sunday, but it still needs to be approved by a mod.

Edit: Comment was approved. See my comment above for details for the new version! 😊

Edited July 6 by duneflorist

[Nyerguds]

Oh, wow! Nice to see work on this continuing.

The main issue that seems to be popping up nowadays seems to be the scaling. As I put in my post:

Quote

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

However, the UI scaling is limited at the moment; there seems to be a maximum of 3 on them, so as monitor resolutions increase, this problem will become worse. I believe UI scaling is also linked to some hotkey, and the value of "3" I used is already "overclocking" the normal toggles in the game, which only go between "original" and "zoomed to double". It would be nice if there would be no limit to the maximum, and instead the config could contain the maximum zoom value that can be set by toggle hotkey before it resets to 1.00 (with higher ones possibly auto-blocked by the actual screen resolution to avoid issues).

I do see there's something about scaling in the change log, but does this apply to UI scaling too?

[edit]

Ah, just spotted "sliders for menubar/sidebar/viewport scaling to in-game control menu". Still, unless these work on "percentage of screen", sliders imply a maximum...

By the way, you forgot to add the release date of 1.6.0 in CHANGES.txt

Edited November 13 by Nyerguds

[duneflorist]

4 hours ago, Nyerguds said:

Oh, wow! Nice to see work on this continuing.

The main issue that seems to be popping up nowadays seems to be the scaling. As I put in my post:

However, the UI scaling is limited at the moment; there seems to be a maximum of 3 on them, so as monitor resolutions increase, this problem will become worse. I believe UI scaling is also linked to some hotkey, and the value of "3" I used is already "overclocking" the normal toggles in the game, which only go between "original" and "zoomed to double". It would be nice if there would be no limit to the maximum, and instead the config could contain the maximum zoom value that can be set by toggle hotkey before it resets to 1.00 (with higher ones possibly auto-blocked by the actual screen resolution to avoid issues).

I do see there's something about scaling in the change log, but does this apply to UI scaling too?

[edit]

Ah, just spotted "sliders for menubar/sidebar/viewport scaling to in-game control menu". Still, unless these work on "percentage of screen", sliders imply a maximum...

By the way, you forgot to add the release date of 1.6.0 in CHANGES.txt

Thanks for your feedback, nyerguds! Especially from such a Dune2-luminary such as you! ☺️

Yes, i upped the maximum scaling values from 3.00 to 8.00 and added sliders in the in-game controls. I think this should accommodate all modern displays.

Making the values behave relatively to the screen resolution is a good idea, but as far as i can see it would require quite a bit of code changes and i don't really see the benefit of it at the moment.

I could very easily further increase the maximum values though, if the need arises.

Thanks for the hint regarding the date in the change log! I will add that.

I'm working on v1.6.1 at the moment.

[Nyerguds]

Nice! Don't have much time these days, but I'll check this out as soon as possible

[duneflorist]

hey everyone!

i've just released v1.6.1 of Dune Dynasty. you can grab it here:
https://github.com/gameflorist/dunedynasty/releases/tag/v1.6.1

let me know of any problems you might encounter!

here is the changelog from v1.6.0 to v1.6.1:

• Provide macOS package:

  • "Now 3 operating systems fight for control of Dune."
  • Multiplayer-crossplay between Windows, Linux and Mac should be possible.
  • Only Intel x86_64 is supported.
    (See this fork for a Apple M1 Arm executable of v1.5.7.)

• Add new gameplay enhancement option for consistent directional attack damage. (thanks @gerwin!):

  • More info on this can be found in this forum post as well as the Dune II Insider's Guide (on page 279).
  • Option is named "Consistent directional damage" in the in-game gameplay options and "attack_dir_consistency" in config.
  • This enhancement is disabled by default.
  • It is always enabled in multiplayer for balancing reasons.

• Restore autoplay of introduction video on launch and add option to disable it:

  • Option is named "Skip introduction video" in the in-game gameplay options and "skip_introduction" in config.
  • This option is disabled by default.

• Further fixes and improvements:

  • Layout schematic of structures is now also displayed on high sidebar scales.
  • Size of multiplayer chat is now consistent on all resolutions.
  • Fixed Atreides superweapon-Fremen attacking Atreides in multiplayer.
    Since Fremen are their own faction in multiplayer (non-allied with Atreides),
    the Atreides palace will now spawn controllable Atreides troopers instead of Fremen.

[Nyerguds]

11 hours ago, duneflorist said:

• Fixed Atreides superweapon-Fremen attacking Atreides in multiplayer.
  Since Fremen are their own faction in multiplayer (non-allied with Atreides),
  the Atreides palace will now spawn controllable Atreides troopers instead of Fremen.

You know, I was just chatting about this with someone a few days ago, and wondering if that just gave free stuff to potentially non-allies.

How are the sandworms handled in that aspect?

[duneflorist]

On 11/18/2023 at 9:40 AM, Nyerguds said:

You know, I was just chatting about this with someone a few days ago, and wondering if that just gave free stuff to potentially non-allies.

How are the sandworms handled in that aspect?

ah, you mean because sandworms internally belong to the fremen faction? good point - that could indeed be a problem.

looking at the code, i don't think sandworms are generated in multiplayer at all at the moment. i also can't recall ever encountering them in multiplayer. they also pose a bit of a balancing problem due to their random placement. a player might have a disadvantage if he starts being haunted by a worm from the beginning. so i'm not sure, if it's so good to include them in multiplayer anyway.

in skirmish mode, 2 sandworms are generated. there is a check, if the player himself is fremen, then the sandworm becomes allied with atreides. (a rather hacky solution.)

[Nyerguds]

If only a special House would exist specifically for sandworms and the Atreides superweapon 

Is there any real point in even enabling these extra houses though besides having multiplay up to 6 players? As far as I know they're mostly just a carbon copy of the Sardaukar house with a different superweapon and deviation resistance. And Sardaukar are just Harkonnen with the ability to build sonic tanks.

Edited November 19 by Nyerguds

[duneflorist]

introducing a new seperate faction for sandworms (at least in multiplayer and skirmish) might not be that much of a hassle. i'll look into that. i just hope, that this change doesn't introduce any bugs. i'm also thinking about adding a new map generation option for the count of sandworms. any ideas, what should be the maximum?

to be honest, i'm not too sure about the intricacies of the 3 additional houses. i believe they were introduced in Dune 2 eXtended.

[Nyerguds]

I was being cheeky; the Fremen are obviously the special House added for the sandworms and the Atreides superweapon 

Not sure what you mean with "introduced"; they were always in the game. But yea, they were never really meant to be playable, so their default stats don't make much sense.

Edited November 19 by Nyerguds