Dune Legacy News

[SpiceGuid]

Great, version 0.85b1 works fine for me (win98se).

What is really good:

* music works now and adapts to fire rate

* few slowdowns on 500mhz celeron (whaouh, you have 1000ghz!!)

* i like infantry auto-crushing, excellent

* ornis go to repair bay when pressing "r"

* units are so smart, my tanks take whole base almost without control

What (may be) can be tweaked:

* IA never builds on concrete, making IA bases really weak

* concrete 2x2 is cut when on air units

* harvesters do not auto-crush infantry

* worms greadiness seems unlimited

* ornis must be repaired (they are in yellow state)

[TonyD]

Have you made the menu system some nicer or is it the same old?

The main menu buttons are smaller, but it still looks kinda shitty. I have plans to make it look nice very soon don't worry.

[TonyD]

Great, version 0.85b1 works fine for me (win98se).

What is really good:

* music works now and adapts to fire rate

* few slowdowns on 500mhz celeron (whaouh, you have 1000ghz!!)

* i like infantry auto-crushing, excellent

* ornis go to repair bay when pressing "r"

* units are so smart, my tanks take whole base almost without control

What (may be) can be tweaked:

* IA never builds on concrete, making IA bases really weak

* concrete 2x2 is cut when on air units

* harvesters do not auto-crush infantry

* worms greadiness seems unlimited

* ornis must be repaired (they are in yellow state)

tweaks 1. I haven't done the ai for concrete required mode yet, but definately will do, probly today

2. will fix now

3. ill get attacked harvesters to automatically crush today

4. ill set it to max of 3, and random reappearance like d2k

5. oopsy, will fix

[stefanhendriks]

Tony, AWESOME! I reinstalled it into a fresh dir, doing everything from a start and it worked.

I tried an easy computer opponent in the custom map. This ROCKS. This is really cool! I don't know yet if it is possible , but an option for multiple custom maps would be great. I like the map delivered with the package, but i'd like to create my own without overwriting this map.. could you add an option so you can select a custom map?

Anyhow, nice work tony! (i am really anxious to see the source... if you ever are going to release that)

[stefanhendriks]

I tried running Dune Legacy at 1024x768 and althoug i can play, the colors look weird.

I assume the bit set is not reset correctly, or not blitted (conversed) well.

I had this problem with my engine, but i already fixed that, it can converse now any bit depth to 16 bits. So i can use 32 bit pictures, 24 bits, but also 8 bits and blitt hem on my 16 bits screen.

Anyhow, i added a screeny to my post to show you this weird blitting :) [attachment archived by Gobalopper]

[stefanhendriks]

update: Its only on fullscreen. Not due the difference between resulotions, but only on fullscreen it appears weird on my machine. (maybe it takes the desktop bits on windowed (forced by windows)) and else it takes a different bit depth on fullscreen?

[TonyD]

Tony, AWESOME! I reinstalled it into a fresh dir, doing everything from a start and it worked.

I tried an easy computer opponent in the custom map. This ROCKS. This is really cool! I don't know yet if it is possible , but an option for multiple custom maps would be great. I like the map delivered with the package, but i'd like to create my own without overwriting this map.. could you add an option so you can select a custom map?

Anyhow, nice work tony! (i am really anxious to see the source... if you ever are going to release that)

I'm very glad you like it! :D

I will be putting a select map, load map etc for the editor soon but for now you'll have to manually copy the file, rename or something like that unfortunatelly.

I am really still undersided about releasing the source, I definately won't release the source before it is finished (which won't be long at all I hope and beleive), but after that I doubt there will be any reason not to release it because I'm sure I will move onto another project.

That last problem is very strange indeed... I noticed this occuring on my bro's computer a few times, but now it has seemed to not occur. The only reason I kept it in the old 8 bit depth is for speed and because the graphics were limited to that depth, so I asumed I wouldn't need to alter this. I think it could be related to the order of my initialisation of the screen or something like that, perhaps by closing other aplications in windows first it wont happen. I definately will be looking into this problem.

Does it happen even after have resetted computer and no applications open?

Thanks for yours comments guys! :)

[TonyD]

this update may fix that problem i think, and hope.[attachment archived by Gobalopper]

[stefanhendriks]

funny: I changed my desktop bit depth from 16 to 32, then tried fullscreen and it worked ;)

I will try out your exe fix asap.

Other thing funny:

In your changelog you say: great speed improvement to path finding algorithm (no slow downs with 5 hard ai players on 1000ghz athlon).

I never knew 1000 GIGAHERTZ computers where available these days ;)

[Cyborg]

Other thing funny:

In your changelog you say: great speed improvement to path finding algorithm (no slow downs with 5 hard ai players on 1000ghz athlon).

I never knew 1000 GIGAHERTZ computers where available these days ;)

I think he meant:

You would need a 1000GHz athlon processor to avoid noticing the slowdown with 5 hard ai players ;D

[TonyD]

hehe, oopsy that would be a slow program indeed. 1000mhz machine then. ;)

[stefanhendriks]

Tony, i love this game ;) I played it 4 times straight now, 3 wins, 1 lost. 1 win by a computer friend, cool.

I made an own map, tested it a bit, i like it. Maybe you like it too, rename to map.dlm i think.

Anyhow, have fun with it.

Oh, can't wait for a release with a save/load function!! :)[attachment archived by Gobalopper]

[vidiware]

stefan...

please finnish your own game... I love your game stefan... its more dune2 feelings in that...

but the other clones are great too ;D

[stefanhendriks]

i will have a whole week time after a week! I will surely work on it then! Can't wait to finish it actually, got the whole spirit back after playing with Dune Legacy :)

I got some news btw, i will be owning www.fundynamic.com soon. With a good server, lots of space and lots of stuff i want to put on. Maybe i can help Tony with hosting files? Maybe an own website dedicated to Dune Clones? I'd like to offer my dune clone there, with source (even when its not finished) and maybe i can get Tony's (and even Redux?) version up there. SOme dude is actually making a cool 'submit your own map' website for another project of mine. Maybe he can make a site so people can actually create maps and submit them there.

It would be idealistic to have 2 different engines working together. Like, if i can read Dune Legacy files in (and otherwise) it would be cool! Actually, maybe we should agree on this:

- unit / structure etc information is in an INI file

- Map info is in a specific file format, which we have to agree about.

... think about it :)

[neonext]

i think that's a cool idea

[TonyD]

Yes, I agree, an excellent idea. It will good to finally get a good web page! :D

My map format at the moment is very simple indeed:

a int magic number,

int for number of players in map

6 ints for which players are in game

int x dimiension,

y dimension,

//all the terrain data

for allx, ally

int cell type,

cell tile

then structure info,

unit info etc

We will need to agree on many other things required by our new map format, such as a campaign or single player type map, credits for each players etc. and many other im sure.

[TonyD]

This patch addresses many issues above. The sandworm is not fixed, nor the file selection though.[attachment archived by Gobalopper]

[stefanhendriks]

will try out patch asap

About file format, true. It should not matter though how you programmed your players in your game, at the end we all should write an own 'load' function in order to 'convert' the data to our classes/structs, whatever you use.

I save my maps like this:

void c_Map::save()

{

FILE *m;

[SpiceGuid]

Yes, this patch is AWESOME.

The game is really enjoyable.

This is the first time I follow a game development.

I am surprised how little things make a big difference.

This 0.86 is essentially the same as 0.85 and yet I find it much better.

Just seeing IA concrete and defensive harvesters makes the game more complete.

One moment I felt the same feeling when playing DuneII and Dune2000 first.

Alas this kind of magic is really fragile.

The first bug you encounter and the magic vanishes (until the next patch).

The bug for me is crash when a caryall enters repair-yard.

I have read about the map file format.

Of course would be better if DuneII clones could share the same file format.

But sharing the same file format is not sufficient.

What is desirable is having both sufficient compatibility and sufficient extendibility.

As an example a game that only has required concrete should still be able to save maps without required concrete.

So the loading-storing process is not as simple as examplified above.

When loading in the map editor you have to remember all info (whatever you need it or not).

Because when saving no info should be lost (or portability is lost).

One solution is having 2 files per map, one for common info, one for game-specific info.

Another better solution is file chunks.

A chunk is a file section like this:

string: chunk name

int: chunk length

byte[length]: chunk data

The map file starts with a standard "DuneII" chunk with standard length and standard data.

Then are game-specific chunks.

Those who are recognized are converted into game structs, those who are not are skipped (but yet memorized as raw data).

When saving, the memorized raw data is written back into file, so no info is lost.

As the time goes, the games can include more and more features (scenario and campaign editors, triggers, additionnal houses/units/buildings), and more and more chunks become standards. But neither compatibility nor extendibility is lost.

SpiceGuid

[TonyD]

The bug for me is crash when a caryall enters repair-yard.

Thankyou! This is a very important find, I will fix it now.

FIXED.

Yes you also raise a very important fact, our games will have differences I'm sure, albeit they may be small ones. I think the solution to this problem maybe having just unique file format magic numbers. If its saved from stefens, or saved from mine, we will know exactly what to expect when loading. This is more complex but still relatively simple to do. If its a save from stefens, then concrete will be set to required automatically for example.

[stefanhendriks]

a version ID tag would be a sollution.

i.e. , i always save the version number so i can compare if i don't load an older map then the current one. I use this check because due the development, classes and structs change and my load functions will not work properly. This does require changing the version number to ensure it won't load older map version.

However, an ID tag of the FILE FORMAT would be better. Loading the file not directly using classes and thus able to change the classes without changing the file format would be great.

As i mentioned before, for units, structures, reinforcements, players and maybe even more; we can use INI files. Like the dune 2 scenario's. For map layout, you could save this just as a plain FIELD.

So, how could this make it work on all games? Simple, all we need to have is the exact same LOAD function for the map layout. BUT, for players, (ai) and other stuff you can easily add your own sections! You could even agree on game specific sections. I.e.:

; Instead of using Dune II's way of putting units on the map...
; UNIT TYPE, PLAYER #, CELL, FACING, ACTION
[UNITS MAKER]
Harvester, 1, 2423, 128, Guard

; Dune Legacy could save it like this for example:
; UNIT TYPE, TEAM, FACING, CELL, ACTION
[UNITS LEGACY]
Harvester, Atreides, 128, 2423, Guard

Ofcourse, our editors should be capable of saving it into the correct way. And i know, the units section aint a good example. But, it would be nice for AI specific stuff, since Tony probably has a lot of different idea's about the AI then i have, or use different vars, you could have a [LEGACY AI] section.

I recently edited my code, and i got it compilable again. However, it does not play well now. The units 'fire' invissible bullets (which still need to be determined by a GAME.INI) and thus never hit something.. no bullets exist yet...

[stefanhendriks]

bit of other news: I have mailed lois again (about the Dune 2 source). i don't seem to get any info from the actual source. But i do ask them in kind of way to 'legalize' Dune 2 gfx and such for projects as this (so Tony, you won't actually need an extractor).. and i even asked them if they where interested in supporting this idea... as it would be cool to see the Dune 2 clones be listed in gamespy eventually. Could you believe it? Dune 2 in the list of multiplayer games?! :D

[neonext]

great idea, except if they strongly disagree about it, you will be drawing attention to our projects and they might shut them down. obviously that would be a bad move for them, (actually i still can't see how that's possible), but anyways some companies are like that

[TonyD]

That would be excellent indeed! Also it will be interesting if they actually take enough notice and try out our clones. If they do get shitty, we can also just go fully legal using extractors.

Anyways, here is the next patch, this fixes two major bugs which could crash the game, and I beleive this version to be quite stable.[attachment archived by Gobalopper]

[stefanhendriks]

wow, lots of shit happened.

At first, my mail about this legal stuff is directed to another department to EA. Some person mailed me i should notice the copyright notice , as they are still owned by EA. So i asked, what is REALLY illigal? READING gfx? is that legal? Or... using an extractor (like you do Tony). And, if EA is really so funky on copyrights, why does it say everywhere on the web that it is ABANDONWARE?

My next reply was along the lines of "Your mail is at the counsel of EA. don't mail us further, we will mail you".

can't wait for a reply! :)