AlexB

Missions can define FillSilos=yes, which puts the starting credits into the silos, and if there aren't enough, the money is lost. If this is disabled, it stays in the bank. Harvesters unloading at the refinery add to the storage. If you build something, the storage is used first, then the bank. Refunds go to the bank. This is the reason you can spare the silos by building and cancelling units or buildings.

Red Alert uses two credits values, like bank account and ore storage. Each of these values can store up to (at least) 2 billion credits, but it is possible 2 billions (2^31 - 1) are the overall max value, due to integer overflow.

Hi Sonarpulse, most of the time the precision is not needed at all (if it is, there are libraries out there that can cope with huge numbers and great precision). The common IEEE 32 bit floating point datatype is not able to represent several finite rational numbers, like "0.2". This leads to unintuitive behavior. For example, the C function fmod calculates the remainder of a division. What would the remainder of fmod(2.0, 0.2) be? The answer is, strikingly, 0.2. And floating points are generally slow. RA uses fast integer math in most locations, that is addition, subtraction and multiplication. Division is rarely used, most of the time it is substituted by other bit shifting operations. RA uses 16bit rational numbers, which can take any number from 0 to 255.998 with a maximum error of 1/512 (=0.001953). Close enough for almost everything in the game. Additional tags for this would be of no help. Almost everything is rounded and two tags to fix it would be like putting fancy curtains in a condemned building. Chad1233: Possibly the cameo clock overlay is to blame. I'm not sure yet whether it's the only cause, but it can slow down the game. Maybe I could make it cache the darkened cameo somehow, but this is something to be investigated later.

Hi Chad1233, themes.ini is not included in Arda, it just defaults to the game's original settings. To make all tracks available to all sides, add "ThemeID=1" to [ThemeControl] in rules.ini. ThemeIDs are the filenames for the tracks without the AUD extension. The new theme IDs are WORKMREM, RADIO2RX, RELDFIRE, HELLMREM, CRUSHREM, MUDREMIX and JOURNEY. To make a theme side specific, add ",soviet" or ",allies". Thanks for the note, I'll have to check WOL yet. I couldn't get it to work either. Hi Bullet! 1) "Very impercise" may be true regarding mathematics, but don't forget this is computer science. 2) You gave no reason why somebody should be as pedantic about setting ROF= to a "percise" value. 3) The "only correct way" is not open to me, because I'm not coding something new. I have to work with what exists. 4) The rules.ini does not have to be changed. The values are bent internally to fit the intended purpose. If you want to be pedantic, see below. Do you know in how many locations in the game rounding occurs? And do you know that RA does not even have a way of using a real value of either 0.9 or 1.1? Why should I waste time trying to make something perfect that is ok (as in: not that much worse than the original) already? An example: Red Alert saves decimal values in two bytes, first one holds the number, second holds the decimals. In other words, both bytes together hold "256 times the value". 0.9 * 256 is 230.4, and 230 after rounding. 1.1 * 256 = 281.6, rounded down to 281. In other words, from an infinite set of decimal numbers from 0.0 to 2.0 (both endings included), you can only use 513 without rounding. That's quite a bad ratio, but it is neither limiting the game beyond reason nor important. It is true that the frame of reference is unintuitive for those values (but WW did it, not me) and the values are rounded for a third time, but the errors in the "0.9 <-> 1.1" conversion cases are 3/256, a deviation of about 1.17 percent points (1.3 percent in the worst case). Increased rate means "faster succession" or "more often", larger ROF= value means faster. Consistent. Increased armor means it can take more damage, larger Armor= means incoming damage is reduced, so it can take more of the same. Consistent. What is the problem? The manual says England and France get some bonuses, but they got maluses instead. I fixed it, save for rounding errors. If you use 1.11 and 0.913 respectively, the values will, due to rounding, be exactly the same as the other bonuses. (Besides, for ROF the consequences would be the same if I left reading the values the way it is and changed the way the values were applied. The rounding would happen later, but it would not vanish. Changing Armor your way would have more severe problems.)

How can such a simple thing as a multiplicative inverse be so complicated? And for what reason should i change the way the values are used and the values themselves? (Usually, I don't like to use this smiley...) 1/x is the multiplicative inverse, the reciprocal value. Kehrwert. The slash is the "division operator". If ROF is 1.1 (which is WW-wrong because it makes the reload time longer), 1/1.1 ("1/ROF") is about 0.91. Arda converts the value in the background to this and leaves the handling unchanged, thus the reload time is now multiplied by 0.91, which makes the reload time shorter. Now it is a bonus. Analoguous, the Armor: the damage a unit receives is multiplied by 0.91, which makes the armor appear stronger. Bonus. The rules does not have to be changed, and Arda does not include a new version of rules.ini. If the original values are used, the maluses now become bonuses, as they were supposed to be. Btw. BuildTime and Cost are also positively worded, but larger values do not mean better performance.

Hi all, the next release will fix the country bug. The tags are changed so ROF and Armor are actually understood as "1/ROF" and "1/Armor". It is not exactly like setting the rules.ini values to 0.9 (it is about 0.91) but I think that is closer to the intended modifiers than 1.1 . @loveu8: Thanks!

Because there are people who fixed the England and France bug in the rules already, I can't just change the way the tags are read. It would introduce the same bug for them again. Actually, I could, but would this be a good way? This means, the to-be-included rules.ini will overwrite all rules.inis in other mixes, which might not desirable for modders. Because a real modding system is not implemented yet, it will introduce conflicts. That's why I didn't favour this approach. Any more aspects to consider? If not, I'll change the way the tags are read.

Hi Chad1233, did you test with the original single player campaigns, the expansion missions or skirmish? Arda disables the expansion music for the original campaigns by default. Multiplayer modes should have the full list, except for the side-exclusive tracks Radio 2, Workmen Remix, Crush Remix and Reload Fire. If you do not like my choice there, have a look at [Hacks]►Themes.LockAddons= in arda.ini and the [ThemeID]►Owner= tag in themes.ini. If this is not the problem, I don't know. For me the themes are available when installing the new release over the old one. Hi all, I want to point your attention to hifi's Red Alert 3.03 "p" series thread, a leightweight patch for playing on (but not limited to) CnCNet. The patch is not compatible to Arda, but if it suits your needs, it is an alternative. Happy testing!

Arda dummy page - Online-Manual Arda 0.1 mini (3.3 MB) – no music, no videos Arda 0.1 standard (29.7 MB) – language support and music Arda 0.1 full (84.7 MB) – standard with movie support

Hi all, new release uploaded. If you have installed any of the packages already, just install the new mini version over the old installation. Edit: Should have mentioned what is changed... There are a bunch of new tags to control Nuke properties like the range and damage for singleplayer and multiplayer. Infantry VoiceAttack= uses the correct sound list (not the VoiceMove= one). This version has been made incompatible to 3.03 in multiplayer games. Arda users cannot join 3.03 games and vice versa. Themes loading order has been fixed and additional themes should work now. The CnCNet package with expansions will be accepted now. The SelectionBracket= tag now supports every TechnoType and you can use "width,heigth" to define a non-square rectangle. The nuke sound has been moved forward to occur before the screen shakes from crumbling buildings. Thanks, Iran and r34ch! r34ch: Some of the bugs are fixed already, some are not. And there are more things to be fixed... I'll try to remove all known cheats and game-breaking glitches. The power bar does not use a linear function and it will indeed use the maximum value if you have many power plants. I'll see how this can be changed without giving weird values for normal power output. I can't create dialogs right now, and I don't think the hotkey list feature would benefit a lot of people. sonarpulse: Depends, I use the game's function to read rules, sounds and all ingame-stuff, but for Arda.ini I wrote my own (because the game function aren't loaded when I first need them and because I wanted to support Unicode for the Title= option).

Hi Storm, not everything is working, though. There is no english language pack and censoring can't be disabled. I cannot guarantee it will work correctly. But for testing, only the ra95.dat is needed.

Yes, that would be possible. I'll have to think about a way to do this... The change to something hardcoded is quite simple, but this won't work here. Maybe I'll add a setting in Arda.ini like "Portable=", and a section like [Registry] from which all settings are read if Portable= is "yes". The longer I think about opening the source code, the more I doubt it makes sense, at least in these early stages. It would create a versioning nightmare, which is hard to impossible to control, because the game does not verify several critical functions -- it would even allow for easy cheating without risking a desync in multiplayer games. Sooner or later this would stand in my way.

Nope, NoCD is included, deinterlacing of course, movies2 is always loaded. CS and AM are enableable by the registry keys. The others are not included. If you using the redalert1.com version with expansions, the next Arda release will support it. It's hard to tell when that will be, depending on timezone. Most likely about 15h-20h from now on.

I guess you are using the package with the expansions? If you are, the next release will accept that game. (Bullet asked me to add support for it).

Hi all, the next release might come tomorrow. Nothing fancy, just bugfixes mainly. Most of the Tags are for rules.ini, aftrmath.ini, mplayer.ini and the scenario inis. To enable the wall feature, extract rules.ini from the original mixes and put GuardRange=5 on [bRIK], [sBAG], or the other "wall buildings". Use other values to allow for shorter or longer connections. The new inis like sound.ini do not exist by default, so you would have to create them in the game folder. Did you launch RA through the Launcher.exe application? If yes and it still does not work, please open up syringe.log. Is there a line like "Requires English Red Alert 3.03" near the top? If yes, Arda does not know about your game version and thus it won't start. Thanks for the typo hint. (I'm really glad. With my knowledge of the english language it could have been "I found a sentence that is not wrong!" ) Thanks! Right now this is a test version, nothing supposed to be widely used yet. I think it's to soon to answer this question, and I'm not in the position to answer it anyhow.

Hi Chad1233, I messed with the initialisation order. Now the audio file's existence is verified before the additional themes are added to the list. Will be fixed next time, maybe tomorrow.

Thanks! The exe has indeed been patched and I guess the No-CD feature is tripping. Maybe it collides with something TFD 1.04 is doing. If I'm right, the problem should go away if you enable Arda's No-CD option in the launcher, but I can't guarantee it won't just crash on the next possible collision. New versions with an updated Launcher and fixed wall placement: Mini (3.3MB) (Arda and not much more) Standard (29.7MB) (more music tracks plus language support) Full (84.7MB) (standard + French and German movies support)

Hi dodgevipergts, yes, it is possible, but I don't know what the patch changes, so I can't confirm with certainty. Can you send me the except-2012-.....log from the debug folder? There are free services like pastebin.com where you can post the contents quite easily.

If the videos don't play smoothly and they appear to hang for seconds right after playback starts or if the sound is jerky, try to set "singlecpu=false" in ddraw.ini. I'm preparing another version, with some updates to wall placement, the video dubbing and the launcher. WIll post the files this weekend. Tore: Phew, 3200 processes... Chad1233: I wanted to update the cameos for players only, that is, the ones that are "wrong" from the perspective of certain missions. Adding Longbow, Volkov, Chitzkoi, Nuke-Mig and friends is the modder's job, sorry. zizo: [POWR] Foundation.Cell0=0,0 Foundation.Cell1=0,1 Foundation.Cell2=1,1 Foundation.Update0=1,0

You can enable Hi-Res by putting this in a file called Arda.ini: [Video] Width=1024 Height=768 Adjust=yes Adjust is optional and eliminates the black borders on the bottom and on the right. At least the dll injection seems to be working. I'll upload the standard and full packages today. I'll make updates as I fix whatever problems come up. Bullet sent me a list of things already, like slow movie startup.

Thanks for testing so far! If there was an instruction error, the debug folder should contain files named "except.....log" and "debug....log". Can you upload them (and possibly syringe.log) to some free filehoster and post the link? Concerning the downloadable online version: The package does not contain a file named ra95.dat. Can you rename or copy the ra95.exe to ra95.dat and retry?

This is on my list, but I have yet to see what problems come up in testing. You can disable the CD check in a configuration file, but you will have to have all game files installed, like a TFD installation. Time for some more features I haven't mentioned yet. More stuff for modders: Because new units are not possible yet (and it will take some time to do that), you now can at least make old units appear like new units. The Image= tag was only read once and it could not be redefined in missions. Now it can. And I added a Cameo= tag so you can also change the sidebar icon. Apropos cameos. To remove the clutter, cameo lists can be auto-sorted. If you look at the Hires images, you'll see infantry, vessels and tanks don't mix up any more.This grouping is optional and you can use a new tag CameoOrder= to define the order in which a cameo in each of these groups appears in. Want to make Volkov immune by using the Iron Curtain on him? IronCurtainable=yes can do that. Want to remove the Demolition Truck limit? Use IronCurtain.Reduce=no. Want to set a user-defined duration for IC effect for a certain unit? IronCurtain.Duration=. A few more new tags can be used to enable and disable turrets and spinning turrets on units, customize their radar jamming ability, their selection bracket size, their drawing size (to reduce graphical errors), their refund value and more. Enable whether buildings show the "Fake" marker, whether Medics show their heal symbol (or enable another pip on other units) and whether the ant "units" use 32 facings. You can configure foundations for buildings now. For example, with four lines you can re-enable the old Tiberian Dawn power plant foundation. Enlarge the silo, remove the bib from the Ore Refinery without making the cells used for unloading unusable or just leave them as they are. This is quite a complex feature and it is not fully done yet. Some people think it is a bug if GNRL does not use his special voice for certain countries, but that's how the game enables them. A russian spy won't talk with a british accent. If you think this is stupid and you want to change it, you can define a set of sounds used when a unit is talking to the player. Use VoiceSelect=, VoiceMove=, VoiceAttack=, VoiceDie= and VoiceBurn= to define what sounds a unit would use. And it will use those regardless of the owner's country. You can edit the items in the New Missions menus like adding as many as you like missions, remove them and whatnot. This is controlled by a new file called missions.ini. This file can be used to set up the display name in the menus, and you can change the side name and the mission name besides some other information. You can also define a successor mission and thus build linear mini-campaigns. Or you could define a set of click zones and an animation to be used on the optional map selection screen to create non-linear mini-campaings. You could also change the original campaign progressions. Screenshots showing a special Advanced Tactical Sub cameo for the Counterstrike mission "Proving Grounds". The second shows the altered Power Plant foundation (composited image, but the foundation is real). The third image shows apparently real Tesla Tanks in the Counterstrike mission "Legacy of Tesla", but they are actually skinned radar jammers. The DLL replaces all radar jammer graphics with the real image and also moves the turrets so it's looking good again. You can do it, too, using the new turret options. Ok, I think the feature list is exhausted now. No more things to talk about. Maybe this: The DLL comes with an installer that tries to find your RA game directory. If it does not work, please point it in the right direction. There should be no file name collisions, nothing should be overwritten and files are only copied into the game directory, not anywhere else. Uninstalling should leave nothing behind the installer created. Run Launcher.exe and follow the instructions on the screen. >> Go << Requirements: English Red Alert 3.03 version. ( Nyerguds' 3.03 patch) Visual C++ 2010 Runtime libraries 6 MB free disk space For now, it is called Arda. This is the smallest possible version (about 3.3 MB). No video support, no language support, no additional music except for the fixed Voice Rhythm 2. If you want to get explanations for all the stuff, go to the folder "Arda" in your Red Alert directory. It contains the manual. The larger versions with language support will be available if this one works. Please tell me that it works . Thanks for bearing with me so far, even if this took longer than I anticipated. Have fun testing!

Another image in 1680x1024 pixels. (The image is composited to make it a bit more interesting. All changes are made to the battle field, the sidebar is unchanged.) Yesterday's graphical glitches on the tool tips are solved. Seems the clicking orgy to go to a certain item is almost over, eh? I'll try to create the installation packages the next few hours. For a start I'll only provide a mini installation, because I don't know whether there are still some stupid bugs and it would be bad to use 90MB packages just for testing that. I hope the dll works, otherwise I'd have to bury myself in the garden and the ground is frozen. The requirements will be the English 3.03 version and the Visual C++ 2010 runtime package I'll link to when posting the files. I'll include the countries Greece, Spain and Turkey in this demo. They can be used for network play, but because they don't have any advantage, they can't hurt balance now. (Actually, they are better than England or France. )

Zocom7: it is an exe patch, thus it will potentially be incompatible to my dll. I built upon hifi's code and enhanced it already. I haven't moved all the menus yet and the movies are still shown in the upper left corner, but it will be finished eventually. Yesterday I made the power bar longer, today I increased the size of the cameo lists. Works quite well even though some things aren't finished yet. The dll allows to auto-adjust the resolution on the 24x24 game grid. The sidebar will use as much space as possible as long as it is a multiple of 48 (cameo height). If there's more space the sidebar will not extend to the bottom.

Do you have a drive with a drive letter beyond C: available? Some old (or bad) software doesn't even bother to check A: and B: because they used to be used by floppy drives by default.