More Undocumented RA Stuff (RULES.INI/REDALERT.INI)?

[Rich Nagel 0]

(Sorry to the mods/admins... wasn't sure to post a new topic, or I prolly should have added to one of my existing ones)

 

A couple of other interesting thing with RA; some of this may be "old hat" to the oldtimers to the game, but maybe not(?).

 

Heh, I discovered that the RULES.INI file does all sorts of stuff... A LOT of stuff similar to the GAME.NEW hacking of the original C&C:

 

Such as, civilian names, MCV undeploy, tree targeting, combat IQ (that I discovered in C&C would cause a harvester to run over and squash enemy grunts, etc...), enabling capture the flag mode (*even* in skirmish games), seperate helipad purchase, AI player alliances, etc...

 

Another interesting one, although the "-ATTRACT" command line parameter doesn't seem to do anything in RA (as it does in the origial C&C), even though it's contained in the "GAME.DAT" file, this entry:

 

"MovieTime=.06 ; minutes that movie recorder will record when activated (debug version only)"

 

At first glance, one would think this was originally an AVI movie recording sort of thing.

 

*BUT*... in the orignal C&C, when you would start the game with the "-ATTRACT" command line parameter, that demo sort of mode that I discovered would run; and the game would crash after about 40 seconds or so (leading me to believe that C&C's "RECORD.BIN" demo data file was only about 40 seconds in duration).

 

Hmmm... maybe ".06" equals .06 hours, and the "MovieTime" thing might be how Westwood recorded that original "RECORD.BIN" demo in the original C&C?

 

Lastly, playing around with the "Sides=#" entry in the "REDALERT.INI" file... see attached pic <grin>

Edited August 2, 2010 by Rich Nagel

[Nyerguds 102]

"Friendly" and "Enemy" are actually the good old "GoodGuy" and "BadGuy" sides from C&C1. And I'm pretty sure the Containment Team is "Special", the side added to C&C1 for the dinos.

 

As for the attract mode, I think I mentioned this before, but apparently, the Dune II Demo, which is nothing but such an actions recording, switches to recording mode when you start it with any parameter.

[Rich Nagel 0]

"Friendly" and "Enemy" are actually the good old "GoodGuy" and "BadGuy" sides from C&C1. And I'm pretty sure the Containment Team is "Special", the side added to C&C1 for the dinos.

 

Thanks for the info

 

 

As for the attract mode, I think I mentioned this before, but apparently, the Dune II Demo, which is nothing but such an actions recording, switches to recording mode when you start it with any parameter.

 

I remember that you mentioned that the Dune II Demo had an ingame demo plaback sort of thing, but I didn't remember that it could actually record the demos as well. Cool

 

[CCHyper 3]

Another interesting one, although the "-ATTRACT" command line parameter doesn't seem to do anything in RA (as it does in the origial C&C), even though it's contained in the "GAME.DAT" file, this entry:

 

"MovieTime=.06 ; minutes that movie recorder will record when activated (debug version only)"

 

At first glance, one would think this was originally an AVI movie recording sort of thing.

 

*BUT*... in the orignal C&C, when you would start the game with the "-ATTRACT" command line parameter, that demo sort of mode that I discovered would run; and the game would crash after about 40 seconds or so (leading me to believe that C&C's "RECORD.BIN" demo data file was only about 40 seconds in duration).

 

Hmmm... maybe ".06" equals .06 hours, and the "MovieTime" thing might be how Westwood recorded that original "RECORD.BIN" demo in the original C&C?

MovieTime= is used for a PCX screen capturing routine that takes the value of the INI Key and does some voodoo calculations when processing the game frames, so "0.06" might do say, "every 2 frames, take 3 snap shots for the next 3 frames".

 

Attraction Mode is not related to this, and from my testing is very hard to make it write actual BIN files, i rewrite the main loop and the best i could get was it to write the header for the file that contains the scenario and common values.

[Rich Nagel 0]

MovieTime= is used for a PCX screen capturing routine that takes the value of the INI Key and does some voodoo calculations when processing the game frames, so "0.06" might do say, "every 2 frames, take 3 snap shots for the next 3 frames".

 

Thanks for the info Is this still operational in the release version of RA, or was it one of those debug sort of things that was removed for the final release?

 

[CCHyper 3]

in RA95 it is enabled, but needs a few tweaks to work correctly.

[Nyerguds 102]

you promised me C&C95 code to make a screenshot key

[Rich Nagel 0]

in RA95 it is enabled, but needs a few tweaks to work correctly.

 

Just a-wondering... in RA95 is the screenshot/PCX key "K"? I haven't ran the W95 version of RA (only the DOS version), but I have ran the W95 version of the terrain/map editor and discovered that "K" saves a PCX screenie in the editor.

 

[Nyerguds 102]

Really? That's pretty cool... would be better if it saved a shot of the entire map as PCX though.

[Rich Nagel 0]

Really? That's pretty cool... would be better if it saved a shot of the entire map as PCX though.

 

Yeah, would have saved me a bit of stitch-n-pasting for the pics I took of my (lame) RA MP map -> http://forums.cncnz.com/index.php?showtopic=14091

[CCHyper 3]

C&C games use a clipped view port, and its hard to expand it. Ill look into this Editor having the screenshot key, never noticed...

 

And Nyer, let me get a decent computer again first

[Rich Nagel 0]

Ill look into this Editor having the screenshot key, never noticed...

 

Heh, it even makes a nice camera-type "clicky" sound effect when you take a screenie