Dune Dynasty

[dynasty]

 You need to run that EXE in dosbox to patch Dune II.  That will produce SCENARIO.SD2 and ENGLISH.SD2, which you can copy into the superdune2 directory.

 

I don't know if there's a simple way to only extract those files from the patch.  It would be really nice to have SCENARIO.SD2 and ENGLISH.SD2 (and IBM.PAL) outside of that patch, like how the modified PAK files are in Dune 2 eXtended.

 

BTW, I made a bug that allows Sardaukar, Fremen, and Mercenaries to produce raider trikes.  You can fix this yourself by putting this into superdune2/profile.ini:

[Availability]Raider Trike=0x04,0x000000,0

Aside: Gah!  Code blocks are invisible when editting in infinite dark.

[MrFlibble]

You need to run that EXE in dosbox to patch Dune II.  That will produce SCENARIO.SD2 and ENGLISH.SD2, which you can copy into the superdune2 directory.

If you're talking about the latest version of Super Dune II Classic, then the "patch" in question is simply a self-extracting DOS RAR archive, which you can open effortlessly in either WinRAR or 7zip (or other archive file manager of your choice that supports the RAR format) to simply extract the files.

I thought this was mentioned somewhere in the supplied readme, so that people could extract the files manually if they wanted to.

[swt83]

I was able to extract the files.  Thanks.

 

My understanding is that some of these expansions allow you to play as Mercenary and such, but none of them seem to show those options in the "Play New Game" screen.  Stefan's expansion does black out non-Atreidies houses though.

[dynasty]

Ah, that's good to know.  I tried just plain unzip but that didn't work.  Now that you mention it, it's kind of obvious with the "RSFX" string in the header.  Will update my instructions.

 

Super Dune 2 (original and classic) doesn't have a custom herald screens.  (Dune 2 eXtended does have that kind of thing though.)

 

The other thing is that the Fremen can be a little hard to distinguish from the mercenaries.  I recommend extracting IBM.PAL from DATA.SD2 with some PAK file tools (see Dune Editting forum), and dumping that into your data/ directory (i.e. where the Dune II data is located).

[Nyerguds]

I only know that IRC stands for "Internal Relay Chat" or somesuch :P

Most chat systems nowadays (msn, google talk, skype) are specific programs. irc isn't; it's just a communication protocol for making chat rooms. There are hundreds of client and server programs for hosting and using it. Since it's so general, Opera decided to build support for it into the actual browser.

The cncnet chat, for example, is just a javascript client connecting on an irc server. Pretty much all chat rooms you find online use the irc system internally. Heck, the original Westwood Online system used irc internally for its player lobby.

As an aside, I just saw this image tonight.  I think it's from "Dune2: The Maker". Somehow all the units are in 3D, which is pretty amazing.

They're not 3D. The graphics have just been smoothed and enhanced a bit.

[MrFlibble]

The other thing is that the Fremen can be a little hard to distinguish from the mercenaries.  I recommend extracting IBM.PAL from DATA.SD2 with some PAK file tools (see Dune Editting forum), and dumping that into your data/ directory (i.e. where the Dune II data is located).

That's right, the Fremen colour scheme had been made a bit lighter in Dune II v1.07 compared to v1.0, and they really have become more like the Mercenaries. That's why I decided to stick with the old palette.

Nice to know SD2 works with Dune Dynasty (I haven't been following this thread closely lately because of being busy). Perhaps I should make a separate pack specifically to work with the port. Which SD2 files does Dune Dynasty read so that the palette could be relocated?

They're not 3D. The graphics have just been smoothed and enhanced a bit.

Well, Nema Fakei did a great job manually editing the double-sized sprites to add numerous details (more noticeable on structures) while still keeping the original feel.

[dynasty]

Dune Dynasty just assumes campaign-specific data have the same names as the original files.  (PAK files and their contents need to be listed in the meta data file though.)  In cases where it can use campaign-specific data, it will try to look for data in the campaign directory.  If that fails, it will look in the main data directory.  Campaign-specific data includes scenario and region files, mentat text, most CPS backgrounds, and possibly others.

 

It won't read palettes and fonts from the campaign directory though.  However, just like in the original game, you can place loose files in the main data directory, which will take precedence over files inside PAK files.  So your data directories might look something like:

data/IBM.PAL    -- darker Fremen, from v1.0data/INTRO.FNT  -- wider letters, from v1.0data/NEW6P.FNT  -- wider letters, from v1.0data/NEW8P.FNT  -- wider letters, from v1.0data/...        -- dune 2 data filescampaign/superdune2/... -- other super dune 2 classic files

It would be better to not make a special Super Dune 2 Classic pack for Dune Dynasty, as that would require more maintenance.  Instead, I recommend just moving IBM.PAL, INTRO.FNT, NEW6P.FNT, and NEW8P.FNT out of the DATA.SD2 file.  This should still work with the current binary, and would also allow people to copy it into the main data directory easily.

[MrFlibble]

It would be better to not make a special Super Dune 2 Classic pack for Dune Dynasty, as that would require more maintenance.  Instead, I recommend just moving IBM.PAL, INTRO.FNT, NEW6P.FNT, and NEW8P.FNT out of the DATA.SD2 file.  This should still work with the current binary, and would also allow people to copy it into the main data directory easily.

Well, by the special pack I mean exactly a package where the necessary files would be in a format readable by Dune Dynasty, so that people would not have to manipulate the data like extracting some files themselves.

However, I suppose that if some way to easily switch between add-on modules were implemented in DD, that would make it more versatile and flexible.

On another note, I've finally got around to check out Dune Dynasty, and I must say you've made an excellent job! The way you've organized the port and included various information about the original game, fixes and enhancements, feels like an advanced genuine source port (like ports of the Doom engine or Build engine games for example). Which is very cool, because most other recreations of Dune II (Dune Legacy etc.) were of course written from scratch and inevitably have many deviations from the original game. All in all, you've done an excellent job! ^_^

One thing though, for some reason, while Dune Dynasty (v1.4) generally works fine for me, the mouse cursor is completely invisible, making it hard to control the game. It happens both in windowed and fullscreen modes. I have tried switching from OpenGL to Direct3D, but that resulted in graphical corruption of the font in the main menu, although a corrupted version of the cursor became visible. I did not investigate it any further. For comparison, the cursor had always worked fine for me with OpenDUNE. I'm using WinXP.

[Nyerguds]

Well, Nema Fakei did a great job manually editing the double-sized sprites to add numerous details (more noticeable on structures) while still keeping the original feel.

Oh, they definitely look great... but they're not 3D  ???

[dynasty]

Well, by the special pack I mean exactly a package where the necessary files would be in a format readable by Dune Dynasty, so that people would not have to manipulate the data like extracting some files themselves.

However, I suppose that if some way to easily switch between add-on modules were implemented in DD, that would make it more versatile and flexible.

You can switch between campaigns simply by clicking the subtitle.  It will automatically reload some of the necessary data (e.g. mentat strings).  I haven't bothered to recreate the sprites with the campaign's custom palette file, that's all.  At the moment, the way to play the game with the SD2 palette is to extract IBM.PAL from DATA.SD2 into the main data directory.

 

I was under the impression that SD2 classic would use files outside of the SD2 files, but that seems to be wrong.  If you simply leave the three fonts and IBM.PAL outside of DATA.SD2, and mark those files as "cannot be loaded from PAK file" in SUPER.EXE and TURBO.EXE, that would be great.  Then I can just tell people to copy the palette over for the time being, and copy the font if they prefer the wide font.

 

On another note, I've finally got around to check out Dune Dynasty, and I must say you've made an excellent job! The way you've organized the port and included various information about the original game, fixes and enhancements, feels like an advanced genuine source port (like ports of the Doom engine or Build engine games for example). Which is very cool, because most other recreations of Dune II (Dune Legacy etc.) were of course written from scratch and inevitably have many deviations from the original game. All in all, you've done an excellent job! ^_^

Thanks!

 

One thing though, for some reason, while Dune Dynasty (v1.4) generally works fine for me, the mouse cursor is completely invisible, making it hard to control the game. It happens both in windowed and fullscreen modes. I have tried switching from OpenGL to Direct3D, but that resulted in graphical corruption of the font in the main menu, although a corrupted version of the cursor became visible. I did not investigate it any further. For comparison, the cursor had always worked fine for me with OpenDUNE. I'm using WinXP.

I use a hardware mouse cursor.  The invisible cursor seems to be a common problem amongst Windows games which use this.  Maybe try playing around with some of Windows' mouse options, the pointer trails option in particular.  For some people, it helps to disable pointer trails, while for others, it's the other way around. 

 

Also, could you post a screenshot of the corrupted font too.  F12 should save a screenshot into the same directory as the executable.

[MrFlibble]

Oh, they definitely look great... but they're not 3D  ???

I mentioned Nema simply because I have no idea whether there is information anywhere in the documentation of D2TM giving him credit. He doesn't seem to be active anymore but back in the day Nema was one of the active Dune Editing members, and contributed a lot to various projects, including D2TM.

BTW, he used to have a link in his signature to his personal website with some Dune-related stuff (including revamped MIDI tunes from Cryo's Dune and Dune II) but it doesn't seem to be there anymore.

I use a hardware mouse cursor.  The invisible cursor seems to be a common problem amongst Windows games which use this.  Maybe try playing around with some of Windows' mouse options, the pointer trails option in particular.  For some people, it helps to disable pointer trails, while for others, it's the other way around. 

Thanks for the tip, I'll try to tweak the cursor settings (I don't have trails enabled so apparently doing the opposite might be the solution).

BTW, I remember I had a similar vanishing cursor problem in the demo of Age of Mythology, which IIRC could be solved by disabling the option to play in windowed mode. Other games also have the option to switch between the hardware and the software cursor, is this theoretically implementable in Dune Dynasty?

You can switch between campaigns simply by clicking the subtitle.  It will automatically reload some of the necessary data (e.g. mentat strings).  I haven't bothered to recreate the sprites with the campaign's custom palette file, that's all.  At the moment, the way to play the game with the SD2 palette is to extract IBM.PAL from DATA.SD2 into the main data directory.

Nice, didn't know that. (Then again, I haven't had the time to extensively try out everything yet :))

I was under the impression that SD2 classic would use files outside of the SD2 files, but that seems to be wrong.  If you simply leave the three fonts and IBM.PAL outside of DATA.SD2, and mark those files as "cannot be loaded from PAK file" in SUPER.EXE and TURBO.EXE, that would be great.  Then I can just tell people to copy the palette over for the time being, and copy the font if they prefer the wide font.

Apparently Dune II is very picky about which files to read from its directory unless the whole "load PAK into XMS" thing is completely disabled (like in EU v1.07). For example, the US version (both 1.0 and 1.07) will read DUNE.ENG from the directory, overriding the default one within ENGLISH.PAK, but will ignore INTRO.ENG or MENTAT?.ENG (not sure about TEXT?.ENG). If there is logic behind this, I have no idea what it could be.

Since I don't want to mess with the DOS installer of SD2, I think I might just make a separate package after all, with the font and palette files already extracted.

BTW, is it possible in Dune Dynasty to directly select the alternate Houses/factions? You know of course that currently the only method is to change the player's House via the settings in SCEN?001.INI. I also think that it would be nice for addons to have all data files within one PAK archive, if possible. Dune II has all those memory and internal PAK list issues that limit the options in this direction, but I fancy those can be removed in the port?

[dynasty]

Thanks for the tip, I'll try to tweak the cursor settings (I don't have trails enabled so apparently doing the opposite might be the solution).

BTW, I remember I had a similar vanishing cursor problem in the demo of Age of Mythology, which IIRC could be solved by disabling the option to play in windowed mode. Other games also have the option to switch between the hardware and the software cursor, is this theoretically implementable in Dune Dynasty?

I do rely on having a hardware cursor in some cases (e.g. only redraw the menu if something interesting happens), but it's mostly just to make it feel more responsive. I wasn't aware of this problem until you mentioned it. Let me know if it continues to be a problem.

 

BTW, is it possible in Dune Dynasty to directly select the alternate Houses/factions? You know of course that currently the only method is to change the player's House via the settings in SCEN?001.INI

Yep, no need for those duplicate first levels anymore. :)

 

I also think that it would be nice for addons to have all data files within one PAK archive, if possible. Dune II has all those memory and internal PAK list issues that limit the options in this direction, but I fancy those can be removed in the port?

It will work, and would be preferred in most cases. However, it would be better to leave things alone in this case, so that the regular Super Dune II classic package will still work.

[MrFlibble]

It will work, and would be preferred in most cases. However, it would be better to leave things alone in this case, so that the regular Super Dune II classic package will still work.

The trick here is that SD2 Classic is actually based on Dune II v1.0, and therefore it contains a number of files that are redundant in the port, such as the entire set of large animated images of units and structures in MENTAT.PAK (v1.07 uses an updated WSA format that is incompatible with v1.0).

I haven't had the time to test the cursor problem further, but I'll notify you whether the problem can be solved by enabling the cursor trail (or maybe changing other options) once I get around to test it :)

[MrFlibble]

Couldn't but notice this passage in enhancements.txt:

Mission-specific fixes

----------------------

[...]

[n] Changed the player's starting credits from 1500 to 1000 in SCENO022.

*** Could be intentional, since Ordos is meant to be a wealthy house.

I'm pretty certain that the extra 500 credits are a result of an oversight on the developers' part, and here's why. If you look closely at the SCENO022, you'll notice that it's a rather straightforward clone of SCENA022, with the Atreides and Ordos players swapped. By contrast, SCENH022, even though it uses the same map, has more differences in unit and structure placement.

On a side note, cloning existing scenarios was a tactic employed by Westwood guys, especially in later levels. This usually included some edits to the placement of units and structures, but some of the clones are near-identical except for some of the House-specific units.

Back to the SCENA022 and SCENO022 comparison. The House setup in the Atreides scenario looks like this:

[Harkonnen]Quota=0Credits=1500Brain=CPUMaxUnit=25[Atreides]Quota=2500Credits=1000Brain=HumanMaxUnit=25[Ordos]Quota=0Credits=1500Brain=CPUMaxUnit=25[Sardaukar]Quota=0Credits=2500Brain=CPUMaxUnit=25

And in the Ordos mission, it's this:

[Harkonnen]Quota=0Credits=1500Brain=CPUMaxUnit=25[Ordos]Quota=0Credits=1500Brain=HumanMaxUnit=25[Atreides]Quota=2500Credits=1000Brain=CPUMaxUnit=25[Sardaukar]Quota=0Credits=2500Brain=CPUMaxUnit=25

As you can see, the sections are identical except the Human and CPU settings were swapped between Atreides and Ordos. The developers even forgot to move the unused Quota=2500 setting to the Ordos player (in the Harkonnen scenario, the human player also has a Quota=2500, although it's useless without the proper win/lose flags). Thus, the 1500 credits for the Ordos are a leftover from the CPU player, since opposing Houses in the final scenario have 1500 starting credits except for the Sardaukar who have 2500 credits.

Balance-wise, the extra 500 credits give a very huge advantage to the player, while the Ordos campaign is supposed to represent the highest difficulty level.

[dynasty]

Thanks for the explanation.  Perhaps "could be intentional" is a little too strong.  There's nothing really wrong with the scenario file as is though, unlike, say, Atreides WOR facilities.  I put in these corrections because most people are too lazy to download your fixed scenario pack.  People really should be using the fixed scenario pack though.  If you don't, you will face three sandworms on some levels as punishment  :P

[Paar]

Hi dynasty,

 

first, I must say that your project is awesome! But I have some questions/suggestions:

 

1. Is it possible to swap new sprites (like selection borders, health bars or level selection arrows) with more pixelated ones? I'm assuming that you use vector objects that are easily scalable but they tend to be in strong contrast with the original graphics. It would be great if you could use some low resolution sprites.

2. I don't know why but everytime I finish a building I hear synthetic and digital sound, even when I choose to play only digital ones. Is this a bug or is it intentional? Tried it on two different computers (Win XP 32-bit and Win 7 32-bit).

3. Is it possible to customize the graphics so I could play the game in high resolutions while maintaing the original size of the sprites? I tried to fiddle with the config file but I didn't find out how to accomplish that.

 

Thanks!

[dynasty]

Hi dynasty,

 

first, I must say that your project is awesome! But I have some questions/suggestions:

Hi, and thanks!

 

1. Is it possible to swap new sprites (like selection borders, health bars or level selection arrows) with more pixelated ones? I'm assuming that you use vector objects that are easily scalable but they tend to be in strong contrast with the original graphics. It would be great if you could use some low resolution sprites.

For the health bars and spice meters, it's really just the black outlines and divisions between the bricks that make it look a bit weird. I originally tried having the black lines scale up with the viewport zoom level, but it didn't look that great.

 

2. I don't know why but everytime I finish a building I hear synthetic and digital sound, even when I choose to play only digital ones. Is this a bug or is it intentional? Tried it on two different computers (Win XP 32-bit and Win 7 32-bit).

That's a bug, it shouldn't play both sounds when you select digital only. This applies to other announcements such as the "our base is under attack" and "worm sign" warnings too.

 

3. Is it possible to customize the graphics so I could play the game in high resolutions while maintaing the original size of the sprites? I tried to fiddle with the config file but I didn't find out how to accomplish that.

You can try something like:

window_mode=fullscreenscreen_width=640screen_height=480menubar_scale=2.00sidebar_scale=2.00viewport_scale=2.00

Is this what you want?

[Paar]

For the health bars and spice meters, it's really just the black outlines and divisions between the bricks that make it look a bit weird. I originally tried having the black lines scale up with the viewport zoom level, but it didn't look that great.

I don't think the current sprites look bad but they just brake the retro feeling the Dune Dynasty is all about (at least for me). Maybe you could add it as an option? That would be beyond awesome.

window_mode=fullscreenscreen_width=640screen_height=480menubar_scale=2.00sidebar_scale=2.00viewport_scale=2.00

Is this what you want?

This is excatly what I want, thanks for the tip. There are two minor issues though - first, in low resolution you cannot see how much concrete blocks you need for the buildind. Second, there can be only two building options on the screen and you can scroll through them only with you mouse wheel. Maybe you could add arrows of some sort? It's a bit confusing.

[dynasty]

This is excatly what I want, thanks for the tip. There are two minor issues though - first, in low resolution you cannot see how much concrete blocks you need for the buildind. Second, there can be only two building options on the screen and you can scroll through them only with you mouse wheel. Maybe you could add arrows of some sort? It's a bit confusing.

 

I couldn't find a good way to show the structure layout.  The obvious thing is to draw it below the item cost.  However, the current sprites are slightly too tall and the grey bricks don't look good against the grey background.  I didn't dwell too long on it though, as I assumed most people probably have the structure layouts memorised anyway.

 

I do have hidden arrows on the centre right of the production panel if it is too short.  They will appear when you hover your mouse over them and if there's more than one page worth of items.  The hiding/hovering isn't very Dune II-y, but if it wasn't hidden it would obscure the cost of the items.

[fir3w0rx]

Hi, not sure if this has been asked yet as there's too much to read in this topic, plus I read slow :p, but I was just wondering if the campaign missions remain the same as the classic Dune II or are they also a "continuation" from the classic?

 

I've only had a quick look at it and it seems great so far, great mod dynasty!

[dynasty]

Hi fir3w0rx,

 

The main campaign lets you play the original missions.  However, there is also some support for custom campaigns (e.g. Super Dune II, Stefan's Atreides Campaign).

[Nyerguds]

I was just wondering if the campaign missions remain the same as the classic Dune II or are they also a "continuation" from the classic?

Since you have to add the original Dune II files to the program to make it work, it's rather obvious it'll contain the missions you add from the original game :P

[dynasty]

Version 1.5 is released. It adds a single player skirmish mode, support for Dune 2 eXtended, and a jukebox!

 

Features:

• Add skirmish mode with random map generator.
• Add Options and Extras menu, including picture gallery and juke box.
• Add support for Dune 2 eXtended campaign.

Controls and gameplay:

• Units return to guard after destroying walls and spice blooms.
• Fix units on guard command not attacking structures in range.
• Fix selection issues with left-click orders.
• If using left-click orders, right-clicking on the selected structure will now remove its rally point.
• In non-auto-scroll mode, dragging a selection box over the scrolling region will no longer cause the map to scroll.
• Fix scrolling regions when using scrolling along viewport edge.
• A saboteur can now sabotage an allied unit if it is the only unit selected and is ordered a context-sensitive command.
• Fix bug allowing Fremen, Sardaukar, and Mercenaries to build raider trikes.
• Fix carryalls spinning in circles and failing to deliver reinforcements.
• Refresh starport list when new stock arrives or prices change.
• Starport restocks items that are not delivered.
• Remove option for Ordos getting siege tanks in level 6. Ordos now receive siege tanks one level later than others, like in Dune II.
• Add Super Dune II Classic's sandworm controls.

Graphics:

• Shadows darkened and flicker to be more like in the original game.
• Improve support for the wider US fonts.
• Centre English menu text, like in the US version.
• Add options to give a more original look.
• Add option to use software mouse cursor.

Audio:

• Add support for system MIDI output (Windows, ALSA).
• Add support for rcblanke's SC-55 music pack.
• Disable interactive music if there are no attack songs, e.g. when using the Sega Mega Drive music pack only.
• Fix playing synth effects alongside announcements when using digitalised sounds only.
• Move music volume configuration out of main config file.

Other:

• Saved games no longer need to be numbered consecutively to be found.
• Add large window icon.
• Fix some compilation errors on OS X.

[swt83]

Huge!  Does this mean you support Mac now?  Very happy to see more work being put into this awesome product.

[dynasty]

At this moment, the only thing still on my wish list is for the walls and spice bloom attacks not to be seen as Attack Ground. Though that may be hard to do.

Done! Not really hard at all, I was just thinking about it in the wrong way.

 

BTW, I remember I had a similar vanishing cursor problem in the demo of Age of Mythology, which IIRC could be solved by disabling the option to play in windowed mode. Other games also have the option to switch between the hardware and the software cursor, is this theoretically implementable in Dune Dynasty?

Added software cursor. You should be able to access the software cursor setting using only the keyboard: O for options and extras menu, F5 for the options page, then scroll down and hit enter.

 

One thing though, for some reason, while Dune Dynasty (v1.4) generally works fine for me, the mouse cursor is completely invisible, making it hard to control the game. It happens both in windowed and fullscreen modes. I have tried switching from OpenGL to Direct3D, but that resulted in graphical corruption of the font in the main menu, although a corrupted version of the cursor became visible. I did not investigate it any further. For comparison, the cursor had always worked fine for me with OpenDUNE. I'm using WinXP.

I wonder what this graphical corruption was. If you find the cause, please tell me.

 

I don't think the current sprites look bad but they just brake the retro feeling the Dune Dynasty is all about (at least for me). Maybe you could add it as an option? That would be beyond awesome.

Added. It's called "hi-res overlays" in the game controls. Also, disabling smooth unit animation (includes rotated carry-all sprites) may interest some people.

 

Huge!  Does this mean you support Mac now?  Very happy to see more work being put into this awesome product.

I just merged in the changes in your gist log book thing. As I've mentioned before, I don't have a Mac to test on. Hopefully I didn't break anything.

 

 

edit: uploaded 1.5.1, made a mistake in Dune 2 Extended support in v1.5.