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Nyerguds

1.06c development topic

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Thanks :)

 

Still got some bugs to iron out... the list doesn't update the "selected map" data when first loading the list, so I did that in advance, but this kinda causes everyone's default internal "max # of players" to be set to the amount of the first map in the list... meaning that if that's (for example) a 4-player map, the player will probably not be able to join a game if there are already 4 players joined, even if it's a 5 or 6 player map, since his own game still thinks the maximum is set on 4.

 

But I'm working on that :P

 

[edit]

 

Woo, fixed.

 

By the way, do note that the amount of players thing is only a maximum for the amount of players that can join, not for the amount of possible starting positions you can put on the map. You can perfectly make a map with 8 start locations but decide there's too little open terrain to make it a 6-play map, and limit it to 4 players.

 

in 1.06c revision 2 you can put up to 12 starting positions (0-11) on the map. The rest of the waypoints will be reserved for scripting from now on. 12 should be plenty ;)

 

[edit again]

 

All maps updated. It turns out that Tiberium Garden and Monkey in the Middle are the only original C&C maps that can't handle 6 players.

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So here's my question to the translators: I need a translation of the error message for the host. The message is:

 

"Too many players! This is a #-player map."

 

French :

"Trop de joueurs ! C'est une carte pour # joueurs"

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Great, thanks :)

 

Je l'avais déjà traduit moi-même, mais je n'étais pas sûr si c'était mieux de dire "pour # joueurs" ou "à # joueurs".

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All maps updated. It turns out that Tiberium Garden and Monkey in the Middle are the only original C&C maps that can't handle 6 players.

 

Does this mean you will change "back" the default to 6?

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There is no default anymore. The game now simply supports maps from 2 to 6 players, that's all. The 'default' is whatever is set in the currently selected map. I have updated all official maps in the game to have their Players= line set to the maximum they support, meaning that all maps with 6 or more starting points are set to 6.

 

But seeing as the majority of the non-official maps created for the game is made for the original 4-player game, they usually only have 4 starting points on them. Which is why I'm defaulting maps without the Players= setting to 4. If you got a problem with that, simply ADD the Players= line into the map; it's not hard.

 

 

Hmm... actually, you know, I could look into making an actual detection system for this, so the game counts the valid waypoints and uses that value as # of players for the map. The code for that is already in the game for actually getting the start locations; copying shouldn't be hard.

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Right. Seems like that Players= tag is a silly idea if I can just count the valid waypoints. The new way is implemented.

 

You people have to do absolutely nothing to make it work; the game itself can now identify how many players a map supports :)

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What a great add-on Nyer. :) Very nice.

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I might enhance this logic to still allow setting the maximum to less than 6... not sure though. Maybe I'll do it in a way that it's only used for skirmish, so you can reduce the number of AI opponents in Skirmish.

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beautiful work. One issue though:

By the way, do note that the amount of players thing is only a maximum for the amount of players that can join, not for the amount of possible starting positions you can put on the map. You can perfectly make a map with 8 start locations but decide there's too little open terrain to make it a 6-play map, and limit it to 4 players.

Wouldn't this functionality be missing without a player tag? This could be more important if the maps made for the 4-player days had more starting points.

 

If this is at all a large amount of work it's not worth it. But I would recommend keeping the player tag to use for the default, and implant the number of players controller using the starting waypoint counter for the maximum.

 

e.g. 4 player map with 7 starting way points to mix things up. The Slider (assuming you make the controller for the number of players like the AI slider in RA)

|                         |
|              |          |
|--------------|----------|
|              |          |
|                         |
A              B          C

A=1, minimum number of players

B=4, intended number of players, or intended maximum number of players, indicated in the "Players=" ini setting

C=7, number of players the map could support by forcing all starting waypoints to be used

 

EDIT-----------------------------------------------------------

completely unrelated: could you make it so the game reads and rights ###.sav (or something like that) instead of SAVEGAME.### (and SAVG_HI.###)? I like to do group by extension in explorer, which makes for more scrolling. If this would mean all the old games had to be renamed, I'd gladly rename all mine by hand (and I guess for those less inclined to do so you could make it an option.) The old naming system has bugged me for years so this would be awesome.

Edited by Nyerguds

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Wouldn't this functionality be missing without a player tag? This could be more important if the maps made for the 4-player days had more starting points.

Yes, but if you think about it, there's really no difference between the two. Since up to 6 players can join a game channel <i>anyway</i>, the host will simply have to ask people to leave (or kick them) if he wants to play the map with less players than it allows. I do think this should be a player choice, and not a map maker's choice.

 

If this is at all a large amount of work it's not worth it. But I would recommend keeping the player tag to use for the default, and implant the number of players controller using the starting waypoint counter for the maximum.

Small note on that... I can use the game's own functions to show new message boxes, but actually adding elements to an existing user interface is horribly hard from a hacker's perspective. You have to realize that programmatically, this means

  • Reserving more memory in the function to store the new UI element, which means editing a system which is already optimized for the memory usage of the existing GUI elements
  • Researching how much memory the new element actually needs
  • Fitting it into the function's input messaging system, so it actually responds to user actions
  • Initializing it correctly when launching the multiplayer UI
  • Cleaning up its memory usage correctly when the frame closes

...and then I'm not even talking about actually physically fitting it into the user interface, which would probably require me to mess with the positions of about half a dozen more elements.

 

You might remember I avoided this problem for the Capture The Flag / Mobile Headquarters game modes simply by fitting 4 game modes on the same button (which originally only had "bases on / bases off"). Now you see the reason for that; adding elements is a horrible mess which I don't see myself getting into any time soon.

 

I do think I'll add a "# of AI players to use in skirmish" option in the game settings (conquer.ini / setup tool) though.

 

EDIT-----------------------------------------------------------

completely unrelated: could you make it so the game reads and rights ###.sav (or something like that) instead of SAVEGAME.### (and SAVG_HI.###)? I like to do group by extension in explorer, which makes for more scrolling. If this would mean all the old games had to be renamed, I'd gladly rename all mine by hand (and I guess for those less inclined to do so you could make it an option.) The old naming system has bugged me for years so this would be awesome.

The saveg_hi thing is already removed, since all savegames now work in all resolutions. What you suggest is an interesting idea though. If I change it to "save####.sav" this will also expand the amount of possible savegames from 1.000 to 10.000 :P

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Hi,

Nyerguds, this is a curiosity and a quick new issue, not related to multiplayer:

- Would it be possible to put a savegame automatic command at the moment the mission has succeeded?

 

The reason i'm asking this would be to create a special campaign mode where, after you play for one side, say like GDI, the next mission would be a counterstrike in that same base you have built in the same map, but playing it to the other side, the Nod.

 

Of course, I still have no answer on how to deal with triggers, teamtypes and the balance of the game itself, because there ain't any right after the end, but at least, we can know if we can save the structures+units+infantry data and etc in order to become a new mission.

Edited by Solo

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Sorry, that's just completely impossible. I have no idea whatsoever how to do something like that. Heck, I don't even know how RA does it.

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Hey Nyer, what you've done with the original C&C is amazing. I first got it new back when it came out in the mid-90's when I was about 5 and played it to death (my old computer was pretty much dead from all the savegames!). Nothing has quite been able to match the original Command and Conquer, and you've made it practical for me to play it once again, on Windows 7, nonetheless. For that, I commend you.

 

I got 1.06c R1 installed with the hotfix (from what I understand, R2 isn't out yet, right?) and ran through the first NOD mission, and am quite impressed (although the units may prove to be too small for me to see :D) with it. I look forward to more of your work on improving the game and definitely will be hanging around here a bit to throw in my 2 cents and any issues I encounter.

 

Cheers,

-Matt

Edited by Nyerguds

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Thanks!

 

Yes, at this moment it's a bit of a mess with the patch + hotfix thing (even more so if you use the no-cd install, which makes it "1.06b full game install" + "1.06c-r1 patch" + "1.06c-r1f1 hotfix").

 

As you might see in this thread though, I'm working hard on the next release. I hope I'll release it soon. There's still a few minor bugs I need to look into, and a few updates in the manual to finish (and get translated, but thanks to Kamikave that is no longer the annoyance it used to be. French translators are hard to find :) - so glad to have you here, Kami)

 

Oh, and if you find the units too small, then r2's 800x600 mode might be perfect for you ;)

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As you might see in this thread though, I'm working hard on the next release. I hope I'll release it soon. There's still a few minor bugs I need to look into, and a few updates in the manual to finish (and get translated, but thanks to Kamikave that is no longer the annoyance it used to be. French translators are hard to find :) - so glad to have you here, Kami)

 

No worries ! I'll hang around for a long time, until I get fed up of C&C, and that would be when hell freeze, so don't hesitate :)

Just out of curiosity, is the commando 'double answer' on your list of minor bugs ? ^^

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No... it's mostly a bug that happens when using a Reinforce trigger on a C-17 airplane. It can be used to send reinforcements (and even money) to a player in missions, but has the odd side effect that the plane starts attacking enemies.

 

The cause of this is that the weapon of the plane is set to "-1", which is technically "None", but the airstrike logic seems to ignore that, and ACTUALLY reads the data at index #-1 of the weapons list (so, whatever is right before the actual weapons start) and uses it as weapon. It's actually data related to the infantry sub-positions, but it does make a rather destructive weapon if you interpret it as weapon data.

 

I haven't found out why this error happens, but I'm experimenting with clearing the data that is there by moving it to another spot, to make sure I can at least make it a weapon that does no damage.

 

 

I've also just researched video centering with hifi , so I might implement that too, so you can choose whether you want videos centered or stretched. I think that'd be a nice feature.

 

As for the commando voice bugs... well, I'll see if I can filter out if a given command is the "sabotage" one, and prevent playing the first voice clip in that case. But audio glitches like that aren't ranked too high on my list.

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Yes, but if you think about it, there's really no difference between the two. Since up to 6 players can join a game channel <i>anyway</i>, the host will simply have to ask people to leave (or kick them) if he wants to play the map with less players than it allows. I do think this should be a player choice, and not a map maker's choice.

 

Hmm, I didn't think of that. Of course game will still randomize the spawns so that's not a problem either, and because the host picks the map, he should no how many players it's actually suited for. good point.

 

Small note on that... I can use the game's own functions to show new message boxes, but actually adding elements to an existing user interface is horribly hard from a hacker's perspective. You have to realize that programmatically, this means

  • Reserving more memory in the function to store the new UI element, which means editing a system which is already optimized for the memory usage of the existing GUI elements
  • Researching how much memory the new element actually needs
  • Fitting it into the function's input messaging system, so it actually responds to user actions
  • Initializing it correctly when launching the multiplayer UI
  • Cleaning up its memory usage correctly when the frame closes

...and then I'm not even talking about actually physically fitting it into the user interface, which would probably require me to mess with the positions of about half a dozen more elements.

 

You might remember I avoided this problem for the Capture The Flag / Mobile Headquarters game modes simply by fitting 4 game modes on the same button (which originally only had "bases on / bases off"). Now you see the reason for that; adding elements is a horrible mess which I don't see myself getting into any time soon.

 

I do think I'll add a "# of AI players to use in skirmish" option in the game settings (conquer.ini / setup tool) though.

hmm, that's probably why you can't add resources in most GUI resource editors either. No worries, I had a feeling that UI stuff would be hard, I just used the slider as an example for my idea which as you point out is worthless. Without the game worrying about the "default" most of that functionality is useless so a ini thing would not lack anything. plus with your new launcher it would be accessible to newbies too.

 

The saveg_hi thing is already removed, since all savegames now work in all resolutions. What you suggest is an interesting idea though. If I change it to "save####.sav" this will also expand the amount of possible savegames from 1.000 to 10.000 :P

and if you cut the "save" at the beginning, and make it use hexadecimal... 4,294,967,296 possible savegames! (not actually suggesting that's worth your time.) Sweet this will make me a lot happier whenever I browse the TD directory.

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Resource editors edit forms are precompiled in some special format... it's possible to add new elements into it, but they will obviously not automatically be used by the underlying program since it doesn't know them. I had to do quite some extra hacking to make the 1024x768 option in CCSetup.exe work after adding the extra radio button with a resource editor, and even that was twofold; had to do some hacking to make it save correctly, but also to make it load correctly on startup.

 

 

As for the savegames, well, it's not really a priority now tbh. I want to finish the things I'm working on right now and then finally release something.

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Thanks!

 

Yes, at this moment it's a bit of a mess with the patch + hotfix thing (even more so if you use the no-cd install, which makes it "1.06b full game install" + "1.06c-r1 patch" + "1.06c-r1f1 hotfix").

 

As you might see in this thread though, I'm working hard on the next release. I hope I'll release it soon. There's still a few minor bugs I need to look into, and a few updates in the manual to finish (and get translated, but thanks to Kamikave that is no longer the annoyance it used to be. French translators are hard to find :) - so glad to have you here, Kami)

 

Oh, and if you find the units too small, then r2's 800x600 mode might be perfect for you ;)

 

Sounds good, I read through the whole thread last night before I signed up :thumbsup:

 

I think 800x600 will work quite well as a compromise between resolution and being able to tell infantry apart. One question though, if I play a bit now in 1024x768 and when R2 is released, step down to 800x600, will it have the same loading issue I read earlier with it not being able to load the higher-resolution save files?

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"The same savegames can now be used in all game resolutions" is part of that list. It was added before full resolution control, even :P

(Which is kinda logical; I could always have added full resolution control, but the savegame bug was the main reason I didn't. So once that was out of the way, nothing was stopping me from adding it :) )

 

So yes, that issue is fixed. There's only one small issue with it now: games without an opened sidebar, that are loaded in a different resolution than they were saved in, tend to only refresh the area that was shown in the resolution thy were saved in. However, seeing as this issue is solved simply by opening the sidebar, it's not a big deal :)

 

---

 

For my translators: I'm replacing the "Game is closed" string with "Game has already started". Could you guys give me translations for those? The original strings in French and German were "Partie fermée" and "Spielrunde ist geschlossen", so keep it a bit in that short style.

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"Spiel wurde bereits gestartet", or, if it is too long, "Spiel bereits gestartet".

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The length doesn't really matter on a technical level. It's a standard message box, and those can hold quite some text :)

 

I wonder if this message box is also displayed for a full game though... in that case I might want to add another message box there, for "Game is full".

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For my translators: I'm replacing the "Game is closed" string with "Game has already started". Could you guys give me translations for those? The original strings in French and German were "Partie fermée" and "Spielrunde ist geschlossen", so keep it a bit in that short style.

 

I'm guessing it's multiplayer related so :

"La partie a déjà commancée" or "Partie déjà commencée" for the short version.

 

"Partie complète" for "Game is full" sounds good to me.

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Hm, are you sure about the "Game is full" message? It should be shown when there are already 6 players in the game channel, so no more can join. It's not really "complète", because there's always the change that 6 players is actually too much for the chosen map. It just means no more players can join the channel.

 

I'll still have to look into that code anyway before I can tell if I can actually use the message though.

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"The same savegames can now be used in all game resolutions" is part of that list. It was added before full resolution control, even :P

(Which is kinda logical; I could always have added full resolution control, but the savegame bug was the main reason I didn't. So once that was out of the way, nothing was stopping me from adding it :) )

 

So yes, that issue is fixed. There's only one small issue with it now: games without an opened sidebar, that are loaded in a different resolution than they were saved in, tend to only refresh the area that was shown in the resolution thy were saved in. However, seeing as this issue is solved simply by opening the sidebar, it's not a big deal :)

 

Awesome. I guess I can try out the new mouse I got for this laptop :)

 

 

And just to throw this in there, it's not a huge issue, but when I launch the game, the main menu shows up and the colors all wrong, like when you try to run the wrong, erm, bit-age (my specialty is in web design, not GUI). As soon as I load into a game though the colors are correct, and if I exit out back to the main menu, its colors are correct too. I don't know if it's just my machine not too happy with it or if something's up when it first loads the menu.

 

OS is Windows 7 SP1 (64-Bit). I installed from your CD-less installer, per advise I saw somewhere on installing on 64-bit machines.

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