Redux 2 is now available for download

[neonext]

[attachment archived by Gobalopper]

[vidiware]

Great Game..

But a bit low FPS... But its fully playable (you can't see lag on my computer). Very interesting/new controllers...

[neonext]

Here is the current bug list and missing/wanted features list. These will be updated as new bugs/features are pointed out, and as they are resolved. If you notice anything that you think should be on either of these lists, please post and let me know! :)

Last updated: Feb 2nd, 2003

BUG LIST v0.8:

- Gas explosions from Deviators keep reoccuring where they orriginally occured.

- Units are attackable when they are inside structures.

- Base power appears to have problems.

- Death Hands sometimes completely miss and fly off the map.

- MCV's create an explosion when deployed (this was left in for MP purposes)

- Parts of units disappear when on map edges.

- "Radar Activated" speech occurs when outpost is built but base is in low power.

- Tracked units try to avoid moving to cells occupied by enemy infantry.

- Some unit names are displayed incorrectly.

- Flags are incorrectly positioned (off by 1 pixel).

- Rockets sometimes appear back near the tank when they miss.

- In the setup menu, picking your own slot (clicking the green button) will cause you to be dropped from the game.

- In windowed mode, the window is sizable, which should not be because resizing the window will cause click locations to be inaccurate.

- Rocket flight paths aren't realistic (and look very weird).

- Sonic tanks score multiple hits on the same target, and are a bit too powerful.

- The rocket tank is too accurate at long distance.

- Sonic Tank and Deviator turrets rotate.

MISSING/WANTED FEATURES LIST v0.8:

- More carryall activity.

- Ending screens.

- More powerful, less accurate Death Hands.

- Correct use of the Starport.

- AI use of the Starport.

- AI use of the Repair Center.

- Structure limitations when base has low power (other than Radar).

- Missing units: Ornithopter, Fremen, and Sabatour.

- Infantry suicide bombing vs. structures.

- Less lag and higher FPS.

- Defend mode for units, in which they will attack any units that are attacking their base.

- For AI units that are attacking structures, the added ability to return fire to units that are attacking it, unless it is about to destroy the structure.

- A few game options, which have been planned but didn't make it in time for release.

- More sound effects and speech.

- AI construction and use of MCVs.

- More accurate locating of hit explosions.

- Concrete.

- Structure upgrading.

- Cancel construction option.

- Structure health display.

- Higher defence turret build times.

- Game speed option.

- Animated cursors (like in the original Redux).

- Map scrolling with arrow keys.

- Smoothed shroud edges.

- Loading screen (for multiplayer).

- Sand Worms.

- Craters.

- Tank tracks.

- Sand dunes.

- Mountains.

- Shimmer effect for Sonic Tank weapon.

[Cyborg]

I can add some bugs I found.

* Rockets seem to often fly a bit too far and then fly back again before they hit their target.

* The sonic tank is a bit too good against tanks

* The rocket tank is too accurate at long distance(it should fire much less accurately at targets far away)

* The sonic tank's turret shouldn't be able to rotate, it should keep the same azimut as the tank itself.

Your game is extremely good in most other ways ;)

And... The enemy seem to gather up outside your base and then attack eachother.

[stefanhendriks]

at my computer it runs very slow. Framerate is 25 at start, but drops a lot after placing 3 or 4 structures. Its a nice start!

[neonext]

Thanks for the bug report Cyborg.

Stefan, what are your specs?

I have a lot of optimizing to do, but it's hard to track down the routines that cost the most processing power. Any suggestions?

[vidiware]

the flags and other animation...

try to turn them off...

and see the difference...

[stefanhendriks]

suggestions:

i guess your game runs FPS dependant, try to build in timers to smooth out some routines. Like the game logic. If you can seperate game logic and drawing logic it is a nice performance boost.

My specs:

Pentium 3 1Ghz,

256 MB SDRAM

15 Gig HD

Win XP Home

[vidiware]

Kay... you're the programmer here...

Well it have 14-30fps on my PC

2,4Ghz

512mb-DDR

160 GB HDD

Win XP pro...

128Mb GF4 Ti4600 card

so it uses a lot of the system..

try what stefan said neo..

[neonext]

Thanks Stefan, I will give that a try.

On a side note, I finally figured out how to lock surfaces and manipulate pixel data in 16 bit color, which means I can now alpha blend and create other effects like shimmering. I've already added the shimmer effect into the game for the sonic tanks, and it works great! (Stefan, I didn't use the code you provided in the other thread for the shimmer effect, but it will probably still be of use to me because my effect is displayed in a square instead of a circle pattern like your routine states.)

This now also opens the door to the possibilty of finally adding sand worms to the game.

[Cyborg]

It seems to be buildings which slow the game down.

When I place a new building, the framerate drops, but when I build a new quad, the framerate decrease is nothing worth jotting down.

Also, I forgot to mention in my first bug report that when moving many units at once(like 5 or more), each unit's pathfindingability is very decreased.

When I moved a couple of units from the top of my base to the bottom, they used very much time and only 4 of the 6 units actually reached the desired position(the other two stopped about half-way).

[vidiware]

What did i say..

my theory is correct..

make the animations turn on/off with a key...

and make the animation in timer ticks not but prosessor speed...

it will encreast performanse

[XTF]

Thanks for the bug report Cyborg.

Stefan, what are your specs?

I have a lot of optimizing to do, but it's hard to track down the routines that cost the most processing power. Any suggestions?

Use a profiler.

[neonext]

Use a profiler.

I had not even heard of profilers before. Thank you for the suggestion.

[neonext]

What did i say..

my theory is correct..

make the animations turn on/off with a key...

and make the animation in timer ticks not but prosessor speed...

it will encreast performanse

I don't think the structure animations are responsible, however you and Cyborg's suspicions are not unfounded. The first results with using a profiler (as Olaf suggested) showed that the function used to draw the structures takes the most time to finish. I have a feeling that this is because of the drawing of text and other information onto the structures, but I will have to investigate further to be sure. In any case, I am very thankful for the help I have already gotten from all of you regarding these issues, especially from Olaf - I now have a powerful tool to use to increase performance in a easy way, something I will use for a long time to come.

[vidiware]

This is good..

Then maybe it can be possible with large dune2 battles over LAN

[neonext]

Well, lag is an entirely different issue. I already know that the size of the packets that I'm sending in multiplayer are way too big. Also, it isn't client-server based, which means that every computer has to send every packet to all the other computers instead of just the host. Until these are solved, I think the lag will be too bad to play 8 player games, especially over the internet.

[neonext]

Further profiling tests have shown more varied results. I think the structure drawing came up #1 in the first test because it was a very short test. Also because the drawing of the build menus was built into the structure function. I have seperated the functions to give more accurate information for the profiling and I have started running longer tests to make the results more accurate. Of course, the results will always be based on what is happening in the game, for example the functions that draw the units will always take longer if lots of units fill the screen.

From what I have seen lately, the structure function takes about the same time as the unit functions, but this is when no information is being drawn onto the structures (name and build info).

One thing is for sure, the function I am using to draw text to the screen takes way too long (not the tiny text, I mean the text that is used to show how many credits you have and also to show what % is done for what you are building). I am going to remove all use of this text drawing, except in menu drawing.

I will continue to find sources of slow-down and try to optimize the code as much as I can, but I want to know... what would you like to see me focus on for the first update:

Performance, Bug Fixing, or Missing Features?

Actually, just tell me what you think the priority order should be for those

[neonext]

Since Redux 2 doesn't have those high color sidebar graphics, there is also the possibility of adding 8-bit support. This would dramatically increase performance for all drawing routines. The main reason I have been ignoring 8-bit is for modding purposes. Dune 2 graphics don't use this engine's capabilities to its fullest, but if someone were to mod the game data (when that ability is added) and the graphics, the game would potentially look very very good and still have the same performance as it would with these Dune 2 graphics.

[Cyborg]

I would like you to focus on performance.

[neonext]

ok, i will focus on performance.

btw, i just made a major breakthrough now that i know how to use the profiler correctly. i know exactly why it takes so long to run the units and structures functions, and it has nothing to do with drawing the actual units or structures. if i fix this and it increases performance by a very large margin, i will release an update very soon.

once again, thank you Olaf

[neonext]

Well, if these first results are any indication, the new version is going to be much much much faster.

With the old method, running at higher resolutions was even worse. With the new method, running at higher resolutions will make almost no difference. Overall the new method is exteremly fast compared to the old.

An example:

At 1024x768, in fullscreen mode, with one unit on the screen, the old function took an average of 4.6 seconds to run.

The new function takes 0.03 seconds!

I will release the update late tomorrow night (friday, feb 7th) (or early saturday morning)

[XTF]

Well, lag is an entirely different issue. I already know that the size of the packets that I'm sending in multiplayer are way too big. Also, it isn't client-server based, which means that every computer has to send every packet to all the other computers instead of just the host. Until these are solved, I think the lag will be too bad to play 8 player games, especially over the internet.

TD, RA(2) and TS don't use client/server either. C/S doesn't reduce the amount of info that needs to be send.

[XTF]

Since Redux 2 doesn't have those high color sidebar graphics, there is also the possibility of adding 8-bit support. This would dramatically increase performance for all drawing routines. The main reason I have been ignoring 8-bit is for modding purposes. Dune 2 graphics don't use this engine's capabilities to its fullest, but if someone were to mod the game data (when that ability is added) and the graphics, the game would potentially look very very good and still have the same performance as it would with these Dune 2 graphics.

You should be able to run the game at 1600 x 1200 x 32 at decent performance if it's properly optimized.

[Cyborg]

Well, if these first results are any indication, the new version is going to be much much much faster.

With the old method, running at higher resolutions was even worse. With the new method, running at higher resolutions will make almost no difference. Overall the new method is exteremly fast compared to the old.

An example:

At 1024x768, in fullscreen mode, with one unit on the screen, the old function took an average of 4.6 seconds to run.

The new function takes 0.03 seconds!

I will release the update late tomorrow night (friday, feb 7th) (or early saturday morning)

Good work!