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AlexB

Looking for Testers

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@mrgreenno1: I'll see whether I can find the spot the players ally.

 

@Spyda46: I need the debug.<date>.log and except.<date>.log files from the folder "debug". The syringe logs don't mention any crash happened. Do you use ddraw.dll?

 

The NoCD-mode only works if all files (graphics, sounds, maps) are installed in the game directory. The original CD installation does not do that. At the moment, there is no easy way to fix this.

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Right OK thanks, where can i get all tho other files from ? Are they on the installation CD's ? -- Ok no worries, i'll post the correct files later when home

 

Thanks

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Ahoy there, I've been checking out Arda and am very impressed. Unfortunately mine's been crashing a fair bit too so I thought I'd upload some of the debug logs if thats helpful.

 

The installation I've been using was from the first decade with the 3.03 patch applied. Been trying to run it at 800x600. Mostly seems to crash in two ways, a hard lock up or sometimes it gives that debug error message.

xazuki debug 14thMarch.rar

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1) Without the source code, maps will not get bigger in this decade. The maximum size of maps is hardcoded in places that can't be expanded without turning the game upside down, in the data formats of foundations and cell indexes and in sanity checks all though the game. Sorry.

Seriously?? Huh. But, Aftermath added the megamaps system. Did they actually update all their terrain and building foundation grids for that? I'd have assumed for them to switch to a more... sane... format, instead, or do wraparound corrections on the original grid values :o

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@all: I'll take a look at the log files this evening.

 

Seriously?? Huh. But, Aftermath added the megamaps system. Did they actually update all their terrain and building foundation grids for that? I'd have assumed for them to switch to a more... sane... format, instead, or do wraparound corrections on the original grid values :o

Hi Nyerguds :)

The game always allocates 16384 cells, and this maximum number is hardcoded everywhere. Building foundations use seven bits for the x and y components, but the placement logic (and others) uses hardcoded offsets like -128, +1, +128 and -1 to get to the neighbour cells. Easy to miss one. Finding them all would be a pain in the lower back. And then there's the problem of classes containing fixed length fields, which would have to be replaced completely. Savegames format would have to be changed, causing incompatibilites. This also prevents me from enabling custom UnitTypes easily. The game is designed to do what it does, with very little room for expansions.

 

Finally, cell indexes are saved as 16 bit unsigned shorts. Several methods checks whether the index is valid ("index<0x4000", index can't be less than 0, larger values than 16383 are invalid). Expanding maps to 256x256 would make every index valid ("index<0x10000", but 0xFFFF is the actual maximum for the data type, so this is always true), thus possibly units would drive out of the map southward and come in from the north again.

 

And I don't think WW ever updates anything. The ore mine not spreading ore on the cell just south of it was because they used the same foundation that would fit the blossom tree from TD. And the limit of 74 cameos per sidebar list is known as Whiteboy bug in Yuri's Revenge, which makes me wonder whether the hunt command in Generals 2 will still target the most top-left unit... ^_^

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I say increase the map size and just get it over with. :P

 

Did you ever look inside RA1 1.04 to compare?

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AlexB i hope you will also check my debug files which i sent you already ;)

 

And cheers!

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...which makes me wonder whether the hunt command in Generals 2 will still target the most top-left unit... ^_^

Probably not since they're completely dropping the old engine and going to Frostbite 2, which in my opinion isn't that good of an idea, but whatever floats their boat.

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I'm still trying to figure out what some the excepts mean. I suspect this is a drawing function, but I don't know yet what it does. Was there anything special on the screen, like Tesla zap?

 

I say increase the map size and just get it over with. :P

 

Did you ever look inside RA1 1.04 to compare?

Map size cannot be increased. It's just not worth the effort.

My thoughts on map expansion are in there, they are the reason why I won't work on it and they explain the problems I know about as of this moment. But everyone is free to give it a try.

 

And no, I haven't checked 1.04. I have no knowledge of 1.04. If I start exploring that now, you could expect first results in a few months.

 

AlexB i hope you will also check my debug files which i sent you already ;)

Most likely crashes while drawing something. I'm not done with it yet.

 

Probably not since they're completely dropping the old engine and going to Frostbite 2, which in my opinion isn't that good of an idea, but whatever floats their boat.

Actually, that was just an ironic remark. But I don't think the renderer is the one who decides what a unit is doing. ;)

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It's just not worth the effort.

 

Better 8 player games come into mind. XD

 

But really try to fix the botched up ally function with the AI so I can have funner skirmish/online games!

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Hi Nyerguds :)

The game always allocates 16384 cells, and this maximum number is hardcoded everywhere. Building foundations use seven bits for the x and y components, but the placement logic (and others) uses hardcoded offsets like -128, +1, +128 and -1 to get to the neighbour cells. Easy to miss one. Finding them all would be a pain in the lower back. And then there's the problem of classes containing fixed length fields, which would have to be replaced completely. Savegames format would have to be changed, causing incompatibilites. This also prevents me from enabling custom UnitTypes easily. The game is designed to do what it does, with very little room for expansions.

Yes, that's my point exactly... 3.03 savegames ARE incompatible, so I'd expected that to be because of something like that.

 

Mind you, for C&C1 I've converted all the foundation data to ini format, making it ridiculously easy to change the wraparound value :P

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It seems my lock-up crashes were due to me not enabling win95 compatibility. My bad. I'm still getting a few Arda error message crashes so I'll keep those debug logs.

 

Oh yeah, I noticed a potential issue with regards to the being able to see enemy name tags when you hover over them, as illustrated in this screenshot:

 

2PNgB.jpg

 

I guess it kind of defeats the point of fake structures when you can just hover over them and tell that they're fake.

 

Oh and one more thing, is it possible to support strange resolutions, such as 960x600 or 800x500? I really like the size of 800x600 but am also looking to fill up my 16:10 monitor. Or am I just being greedy?

 

Cheers again for working on Arda, its good stuff.

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Map size cannot be increased. It's just not worth the effort.

 

 

I'd pay for that ;)

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I guess it kind of defeats the point of fake structures when you can just hover over them and tell that they're fake.

 

Oh and one more thing, is it possible to support strange resolutions, such as 960x600 or 800x500? I really like the size of 800x600 but am also looking to fill up my 16:10 monitor. Or am I just being greedy?

 

Cheers again for working on Arda, its good stuff.

Wonderful comic. Made me laugh. ^_^

I'll fix it in the next release, thanks! Even though I played through the campaigs, I didn't notice this.

 

These odd resolutions might work with Arda and cnc-ddraw in windowed mode already. Just try to set them and disable Adjust in Arda.ini.

 

@Spyda46 and Bullet:

You don't have to pay and I won't accept any money. If a feature is fun to code, I'll eventually do it, but from what I know at the moment, extending the map size is a bumpy path into frustration. Rewriting the entire game should be faster.

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Cool thanks for the reply! - Any feedback on my debug logs, its still crashing everytime after about 1 min into a skirmish game ? - Please also explain the files i need to copy over to play without the CD ?

 

Many Thanks !

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These odd resolutions might work with Arda and cnc-ddraw in windowed mode already. Just try to set them and disable Adjust in Arda.ini.

 

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction! Managed to get this working at 960x600 stretched to 1680x1050 with linear smoothing and locked at 60fps+vysnc. It is seriously awesome. The only minor downside is that I can't enable video resizing, it resizes the videos fine but it also resizes the main menu while also trying to center it, so a lot of the bottom and right side of the menu gets cut off.

 

Cheers again.

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Hello RA fans, i already installed the 3.03 patch version and the Visual C++ 2010, and installed the Arda mod. Now, i clicking Launcher.exe after clicking to "Play" and i got this :

 

530656679n_vtelen_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg

 

No mouse, no text. What's the problem? Please help me !

Edited by Jhonny

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I finally have been solved the text and mouse problem so now i see what's said.

 

" Please insert a Red Alert CD into the CD-ROM drive. "

 

Somebody know what's the problem ?

 

-Thanks in advance.

Edited by Jhonny

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Hey guys!

 

I really enjoy the mod, however I am not able to extend the sidebar to the full height of the screen. I've seen some screenshots showing a large sidebar, eliminating a lot of scrolling through construction options.

 

Is there an option that I've missed that enables a larger (longer) sidebar?, despite 1080p resolutions my sidebar remains at 640x480 size :(le

 

Thankful for any help with this issue!

 

/Do

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Spyda46: Because no original disk contains all the required files, you would have to build your own main.mix to enable the "full installation/no-cd" mode. I'll try to make this easier to install RA, but it will take some time.

 

Jhonny: How did you install RA (CD/TFD/some other package)? If you use the CD installation, disable NoCD mode in the launcher, if you got TFD, you can enable it.

 

dolmeus2: The bar should get larger automatically (there is no option to turn it off). Can you put your syringe.log from the game folder (and maybe debug.log from the debug folder) on pastebin.com or on one of these free one click hosters that are still in business?

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Hello, i just downloaded from here / http://redalert1.com/ .

 

I now succeeded to solve the key problem, now I want to know how to i do the remote viewing like this:

 

 

red_alert-2011-06-12-12_03_46.png

 

Because the deafult viewing is too close like this:

 

ra_800x600_linear.png

 

Thanks in advance !

Edited by Jhonny

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Open or create arda.ini in the game folder and add this section:

 

[Video]
Width=1280
Height=720
Adjust=no

 

If this does not work, can you post syringe.log on pastebin.com and give me the link?

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Wow AlexB, it's work! Thanks man. Great work, and now there is a really useful question:

 

There is some way to play with these settings cncnet.exe ?

Because when I start it (cncnet.exe) i got the picture again what request the CD. Because Arda can only Skirmish or Single Player. Or Arda can play online somehow like cncnet ?

Or is there some way to set that up to Arda start cncnet.exe with these settings? And not RA95.exe because i think Arda starts RA95.exe

 

Thanks !

Edited by Jhonny

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