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1.06c development topic

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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.

Good work makings it work then. I remember taking a look at w3d level edit. There was an alternate menu scheme with way more features but if I tried to add one thing to the menu the program wouldn't start. UI stuff is a pain.

 

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.

No worries, It doesn't really effect gameplay (outside the 10x more saves thing) and I'm sure most fan (myself included) would rather get the rest of 1.06D sooner.

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@MM54 there a real fix on Nyergud's website, I think. But just so you know: this is pallet issue, caused by the game using non-standard color pallet. in recent years Microsoft broke pallet support leading to bugs like this in many old games. In general they can be fixed by A ) killing windows explorer before you play and/or B ) alt-tab-ing a lot and other similar actions to refresh various display-related settings.

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@MM54 there a real fix on Nyergud's website, I think. But just so you know: this is pallet issue, caused by the game using non-standard color pallet. in recent years Microsoft broke pallet support leading to bugs like this in many old games. In general they can be fixed by A ) killing windows explorer before you play and/or B ) alt-tab-ing a lot and other similar actions to refresh various display-related settings.

 

Makes sense. Like I said, other than when it first loads the main menu,the colors are fine, so I'm not too worried about it, thanks though :)

 

Cheers!

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@MM54 there a real fix on Nyergud's website, I think. But just so you know: this is pallet issue, caused by the game using non-standard color pallet.

There's no such thing as 256-colour games using the 'standard' (windows) colour palette anyway. If you only got 256 colours it's only logical to optimize it to what you need.

 

and yes, CnC-DDraw fixes this. Incidentally, as I also mentioned in the changes list, this will be included in 1.06c rev2, with full inbuilt support for its windowed mode and stretching functions in the new setup tool.

 

in recent years Microsoft broke pallet support leading to bugs like this in many old games. In general they can be fixed by A ) killing windows explorer before you play and/or B ) alt-tab-ing a lot and other similar actions to refresh various display-related settings.

In win7 only killing explorer or disabing the Aero theme still works, since Aero messes it up within the second.

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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.

 

Actually, I never played in multiplayer, so I don't know how it works. But if it's some kind of lobby before launching the game, then "complète" means that lobby cannot take more players. But you're right, it may not be the better choice... "Partie pleine" is more litteral.

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There's no such thing as 256-colour games using the 'standard' (windows) colour palette anyway. If you only got 256 colours it's only logical to optimize it to what you need.

 

In win7 only killing explorer or disabing the Aero theme still works, since Aero messes it up within the second.

learning new things everyday...

 

1.06c rev2

Oh, the new patch is looking pretty impressive so I just assumed it was 1.06d. Do you know at this point whether it will be a patch or full game?

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I'm definitely releasing a full game pack too this time. Last time I just kinda didn't have enough time, and with the bugs popping up and the hotfixing it became more and more of a mess to release a full game pack of it.

 

 

btw, about the colour issue, 1.06c already does a registry edit to put C&C95 in a DirectX compatibility mode that kind of fixes it. As MM54's explanation already showed, the fix works fine, but not right after the game started. CnC-DDraw fixes it completely though, so that's obviously better.

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I've started looking into the airplane reinforcing bug... basically, it's possible to reinforce units by C17 if you got an airstrip, but for some reason, from the moment any enemies are visible, the plane starts attacking enemies and then flying off the map, which gives you a refund of the money, but no unit. This is also usable as money trigger if you simply have no airstrip, but the "C17 attacking stuff" behaviour is really annoying in that aspect, especially if some units return fire and destroy the plane, and even more if you consider the fact the plane HAS NO WEAPON.

 

Right now it attacks with a nonexistant weapon composed of whatever data happens to be just before the weapons list, and that's just plain wrong. (Since the general code for "none" is -1, it uses "item at index -1" in the weapons list. It should do boundary checks on it, but WW seems to suck at those)

 

So far I've noticed that this is due to the fact reinforced planes are always using the "Hunt" command, probably to accommodate A-10 airstrikes. Exactly how it manages to switch to the Unload command is a complete mystery, but I'm guessing it just tries to Hunt and switches to some sort of default command if it finds no targets; after all, a loaded chinook's default command is also Unload, even if you just set it to Move to a point. So once I figure out where this switch happens, I can hopefully make it skip the Hunt command if the unit has no weapon.

 

[edit]

 

lol, damn, seems the issue is already almost completely fixed just by specifying the "Unload" command in the teamtype.

 

Still, I want to see if I can fix this more thoroughly, because it's just plain wrong that weapon boundaries are not checked on a more basic level.

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I'm definitely releasing a full game pack too this time. Last time I just kinda didn't have enough time, and with the bugs popping up and the hotfixing it became more and more of a mess to release a full game pack of it.

 

Oh good, I have 40-some mix files in my TD directory, from who knows how many over installs, and a never-completed attempt to get the movies and whatever else was still on the CD, would be nice to start over.

 

btw, about the colour issue, 1.06c already does a registry edit to put C&C95 in a DirectX compatibility mode that kind of fixes it. As MM54's explanation already showed, the fix works fine, but not right after the game started. CnC-DDraw fixes it completely though, so that's obviously better.

Aha! that's what I'm thinking of. CnC-DDraw definitely is the more comprehensive solution. Those reg fixes never worked well for any old pallet game.

 

Good luck with the cargo plane. I hve vague memories of seeing this in sp and being very confused.

Edited by Nyerguds

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Here are a few things I noticed while playing some C&C yesterday that could possibly be worked out sometime.

 

-You can't select your helicopters while they're in-flight.

-Aforementioned helicopters don't uncover when they fly through part of the map that's still 'shrouded' (this may be intentional, I'm not sure)

-When you have a group of units selected, and tell them to load into the Chinook transport helicopter, only one goes in per click.

-Buildings randomly will take one click of repair

-The scroll speed, even when turned the whole way down in settings, is REALLY, REALLY fast.

 

Just some ideas, thanks :)

Edited by Nyerguds

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-You can't select your helicopters while they're in-flight.

-Aforementioned helicopters don't uncover when they fly through part of the map that's still 'shrouded' (this may be intentional, I'm not sure)

Even in red alert, the select method is quite primitive. It's only with Tiberian Sun that you can properly select flying units. Your only way to select flying unit in C&C 1 is to use CTRL + 1 to 0 shortcuts.

As for the sight, it is intentional that air units don't reveal the fog of war, and it stays that way until C&C 3 if my memory is correct.

I once tried to modifiy that in red alert using the rules.ini file. It never worked correctly, so I gave up. Maybe the game engine just can't handle flying units that reveal the fog

 

-When you have a group of units selected, and tell them to load into the Chinook transport helicopter, only one goes in per click.

Same as air units, it is a primitive system, that has been improved in red alert. I don't think it's something that can be easily modified in C&C 1.

 

-Buildings randomly will take one click of repair

That usually happens because you had your power down at some point. Just like in Dune 2, when your buildings are underpowered, they tend to damage themselves (slightly).

 

-The scroll speed, even when turned the whole way down in settings, is REALLY, REALLY fast.

That's something you'll have to get used to, I guess. I don't think it can be modified either.

 

Well, if I'm wrong, Nyerguds will correct me :)

Edited by Nyerguds

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-You can't select your helicopters while they're in-flight.

-When you have a group of units selected, and tell them to load into the Chinook transport helicopter, only one goes in per click.

Those aren't simple bugs I can solve, they're entirely new features. I'm not exactly programming this in an environment that makes it easy to add new features. As for not being able to select helicopters in flight, I think the solution Kamikave gave is even advised in the original game manual.

 

-Aforementioned helicopters don't uncover when they fly through part of the map that's still 'shrouded' (this may be intentional, I'm not sure)

As Kamikave already said, that one is definitely intentional. It's the same reason why you aren't allowed to move them into shroud. I tried giving them sight once, and it made uncovering shroud WAY too easy.

 

-Buildings randomly will take one click of repair

If you mean they need repairing from time to time, then you just have to remember to build power plants BEFORE you run out of power, because buildings slowly decay (down to 50%) when you have low power. If you first run out of power, and only then build a new power plant to compensate, all your buildings will indeed have taken some damage from that. It's not random :P

 

-The scroll speed, even when turned the whole way down in settings, is REALLY, REALLY fast.

This is a bug that can be fixed by using CnC-DDraw. Which will be built into the next version. The download link is on the patch website.

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Those aren't simple bugs I can solve, they're entirely new features. I'm not exactly programming this in an environment that makes it easy to add new features. As for not being able to select helicopters in flight, I think the solution Kamikave gave is even advised in the original game manual.

 

Does this answer also apply for how infantry only load into the APC once per click as well as how vehicles only go onto the repair bay once per click?

 

EDIT:

Also I know you aren't implementing new features but would it be too much of a stretch to put in a "select all units on screen" button?

Or allow the player to skip over the "isolating operational theatre" video that plays before the map to select which way to attack?

 

And was the ability to skip over the score calculations restored from the DOS version or was it always in C&C95?

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If you mean they need repairing from time to time, then you just have to remember to build power plants BEFORE you run out of power, because buildings slowly decay (down to 50%) when you have low power. If you first run out of power, and only then build a new power plant to compensate, all your buildings will indeed have taken some damage from that. It's not random :P

 

 

:o And all these years I thought buildings would randomly be losing one click of health. I never put that together hahahah

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Well to be fair, they DID randomly lose health in Dune II. But there it was due to "harsh weather conditions" :P

 

Does this answer also apply for how infantry only load into the APC once per click as well as how vehicles only go onto the repair bay once per click?

Yes. I'd have to implement a load of queueing commands on the selected units, and I got no idea how I'd do that since the game doesn't contain anything of the kind. Action listeners and waiting threads are an incredibly complex mess even in more advanced programming languages, so don't expect me to implement them in raw bytes.

 

Also I know you aren't implementing new features but would it be too much of a stretch to put in a "select all units on screen" button?

Again, not a clue how to do that. I've never dealt with the unit selecting or commands giving parts of the game before; I have no idea how they work. Heck, I've never dealt with live units before (only the "blueprints" objects with the initial unit stats), so I don't even know how to request their map position.

 

Though from the radar drawing functions I'm looking into now it might be possible to go over the cells, check if there's a unit on them, and do that for the currently visible viewport, and then just repeat the action it does when shift+clicking a unit. It still won't be for the next patch though, since I'm only beginning to touch this map-related stuff, and have never looked into the mouse clicking before.

 

 

Or allow the player to skip over the "isolating operational theatre" video that plays before the map to select which way to attack?

Hmm... The problem there is that the whole thing is built up BY the animation, making it impossible to skip it all. Overall, I'm afraid that the WSA animation drawing function (soundless animation format, used for the GDI/Nod/multi score screen buildup and the map screens) simply has no support for skipping it.

 

And was the ability to skip over the score calculations restored from the DOS version or was it always in C&C95?

Always been there. Besides the hi-res and its new layout graphics, nothing was really changed between DOS C&C and C&C95.

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Always been there. Besides the hi-res and its new layout graphics, nothing was really changed between DOS C&C and C&C95.

 

Just tested that in regular C&C off the disk and it does work. I swear it didn't before, must've been my compatibility settings or something. I hope I'm not annoying you with these questions, it's just that C&C95 seems awfully basic for an RTS, though it is brilliantly simple and fun.

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Well you know, I don't really want to change it too much either, especially because of that. It is aged, sure, but that has its charm. If you want tons of fancy new features... play the newer games :P

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Well you know, I don't really want to change it too much either, especially because of that. It is aged, sure, but that has its charm. If you want tons of fancy new features... play the newer games :P

I agree. Most of these improvements can be found in Red Alert and lastest C&C (If you forget about C&C 4, I know I did lol), but adding them here, it wouldn't be C&C 1 anymore. Maybe that's why I always prefered C&C 1 to Red Alert :P

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Just for you know, Nyerguds: The Setup tool need Microsoft .NET framework 2.0 , and Linux do not suport it :P Just put a note in the patch to remember the linux users to edit the conquer.ini file :P

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So? 64-bit windows also doesn't support the CD installer. Linux users can use mono :P

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Though from the radar drawing functions I'm looking into now it might be possible to go over the cells, check if there's a unit on them, and do that for the currently visible viewport, and then just repeat the action it does when shift+clicking a unit. It still won't be for the next patch though, since I'm only beginning to touch this map-related stuff, and have never looked into the mouse clicking before.

 

Perhaps while you're there, maybe make the health bars show when hovering over the units. (I realize that's probably a major pain int he ass, if it's even possible, but if you're looking around in the functions for it, keep it in mind if you see a way to stick it in there!)

 

Thanks again for all your hard work man cheers.gif (We needed a 'cheers' smiley here :P)

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Really, no. Just no. I'm not going to bother with such things.

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Nyerguds, I want to ask why the icon for your 1.06 exe is different from the default 1.04 exe. That always bothered me a little because the icon seems to have a strange white outline around it and it looks kind of shod- I just found out that your icon is acutally better than the default one, since when I set my icon size to large it is infact a higher resolution, but the problem is my desktop has regular-sized icons. I was originally going to request you change it, but I figured I could just extract the original 1.04 icon and apply it to the desktop shortcut. I attached the .ico to this post just in case anyone else wants it.

C_C95_1.ico

Edited by KevinLancaster

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The exe I use was edited by CCHyper to give me more space to add my new programming. He added the different icons; remaking C&C logos is kind of his hobby.

 

I already restored the originals into it, but only those that actually looked better.

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hmm, according to my resource editor, some of the icons in the exe are corrupt. Anyways, some of the 4-bit icons I could see were just dithered versions of the 32-bit version, IMHO inferior to westwood's separately made 4-bit icons.

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