PortableRA Beta

[Iran 12]

As soon as someone tests with me if the patch is still compatible with 3.03 on CnCNet v4. Maybe can test this evening.

 

I don't really have much left on my to-do list. The game essentially works and with FunkyFr3sh's CnCNet v5 client multiplayer and skirmish never was so fun and great. Essentially all hosting features from later C&C games are available.

[PurpleGaga27 39]

You can always build the patch from source, zocom7.

 

Where can I get that, and how to do it?

[Sonarpulse 1]

Red alert: https://github.com/cnc-patch/ra303p

Other Fun Stuff: https://github.com/cnc-patch

[Spyda46 1]

Hi Iran,

 

Just wanted to take the opportunity to say thanks for the hard work, really good work!

 

Please don't remove the force Aftermath online and force Aftermath online with fast build speed options from the config tool. I always play with & really happy its a feature within Portable RA. It ones of the features i was hoping Arda was going to implement. Great we have it would be a shame to remove it, please reconsider !

 

Thanks !

[Iran 12]

I'm still waiting for someone to help me test 3.03 compatibility on CnCNet v4..

 

@Spyda: Thanks, I appreciate it. The Fast AM build speed option is added to FunkyFr3sh' CnCNet v5 client for both online multiplayer and offline multiplayer (skirmish mode). If you use the Fast AM build speed option in single player you can still use a custom rules.ini file (I could easily upload one for you). Could you tell me how you're using the option, i.e. are you using it in single player, skirmish or online? I'm still gonna remove the config tool option but if you play single player or skirmish you can still use the RULES.INI file the option uses. Let me know so I can help you.

[Plok 320]

I also think the config tool plug for fast AM should stay. Who wouldn't want to have it enabled in singleplayer just when you need those extra tanks to repel the enemy from your doorstep? Changing rules.ini might be a bit of a stretch (also, isn't aftrmath.ini the file that replaces rules.ini in AM?)

[Spyda46 1]

Hi,

 

Normally its Skirmish / LAN games not online. An option would be better than an edit of rules.ini if possible - Thanks !

[Iran 12]

ATM the option already uses a RULES.INI file. The config tool does some magic to install the RULES.INI file when you enable the option. The problem is that the RULES.INI file contains the oos-fix rules.ini files (and older version) with bugs etc. To get the desired effects of fast AM build speed grab the RULES.INI file and add the special fast AM build speed key. The problem is that the oos-fix rules.ini might not be applied then.

 

I'd like to restore the fast AM build speed option but I think it would be better if it wasn't a custom RULES.INI file, but an option for skirmish and single player. You'll lose the option for LAN and CncNet v4 online. What do you guys think about that? Same Fast AM build speed option, but only works in single player and skirmish. CncNet v4 and LAN won't work unless a custom RULES.INI is used, like already is (bug the current RULES.INI files has bugs in single player).

 

Nothing final yet, I removed the option because I thought it wasn't really used (and because CnCNet v5 has it too) and it has bugs because the RULES.INI file it uses is bugged and the OOS fix isn't applied to it if I were to change it. It's good you guys told me that you guys want to keep the option.

Edited September 5, 2013 by Iran

[Plok 320]

How about I only restore the Fast AM build speed option?

That would be nice too.

[Iran 12]

BTW for all you AM lovers, I added an option so you can forced AM to be enabled in all single player missions. Normally you need to extract the missions and edit it to have AM enabled.

Edited September 5, 2013 by Iran

[Iran 12]

Okay tested 3.03 compatibility with FunkyFr3sh. Here's the download for the new installer:

 

https://app.box.com/s/89d1b2uv0qlvk5ka2bt6

 

The included ra303p patch's features list can be found here:

 

https://raw.github.com/cnc-patch/ra303p/0d925ae584058aeec73d2c903b6389de623daf69/docs/features.txt

 

I didn't keep track of the the differences since the last release.

 

Please don't make a new announcement for this release yet, I want to make sure there are no severe issues first.

Edited September 5, 2013 by Iran

[Plok 320]

135 changes, I'm impressed.

 

However, your link requires an account for that Box site.

[Iran 12]

Oops try now. BTW I haven't re-added the fast AM build speed option yet, want the RULES.INI for it temporarily before I release an update with the option in it again?

[Spyda46 1]

Hi Iran,

 

I am fine with the "Fast AM build speed option, but only works in single player and skirmish"

 

I rarely play online, skirmish & LAN games is what i normally do.

 

I'll test the new version you have uploaded, i would like the RULES.INI for it temporarily as i can do AM fast build

 

Thanks !

[Iran 12]

I figured out to extend the size of game classes, for example there's a class for every player in the game which contains data for every player. What this means is that I'm able to add more per player data without using hacks. As part of this I also had to figure out how to support this in savegames while still supporting old savegames. I'm happy to say I figured that out too. In future versions of the patch the patch will create savegames that are incompatible with older versions of the game, but you can still load 3.03 savegames with my patch.

 

What I've done is add two settings that are read from the house specific setting of the map. BuildingsGetInstantlyCaptured= (yes/no) and NoBuildingCrew= (yes/no), these settings make it so buildings of that house are instantly captured by other players and buildings of that house don't leave building crew, respectively.

 

For example you can modify [badGuy] by adding the following to your map file:

 

[badGuy]
Colour=8 ; colour = white
BuildingsGetInstantlyCaptured=yes
NoBuildingCrew=yes

@Spyda46: Give this file a try, haven't tested it. Extract the RULES.INI file in the zip and place it in the game folder and start a skirmish games and build lots of War Factories, make sure you have Aftermath enabled. In the config tool under 'extra options' there's a new option to force Aftermath units to be enabled in every single player mission.

rules.zip

[r34ch 1]

Edit: I just fixed a bug where having the Ore Truck selected and selecting an Ore patch in the minimap showed the "Can't move there" cursor instead of "Attack" cursor.

 

I'd like to restore the fast AM build speed option but I think it would be better if it wasn't a custom RULES.INI file, but an option for skirmish and single player. You'll lose the option for LAN and CncNet v4 online. What do you guys think about that? Same Fast AM build speed option, but only works in single player and skirmish. CncNet v4 and LAN won't work unless a custom RULES.INI is used, like already is (bug the current RULES.INI files has bugs in single player).

Sounds good to me. I use it for skirmish personally.

 

 

Glad to see all this progress, its much more than I imagined. Even happier to hear of the collaborations between everyone, I think that'll be the true success of all this.

 

[Iran 12]

I added a SecondaryColorScheme= option for houses which gets read from the map file, it works like the option in Nyerguds' patch and it recolors all objects except MCV, Ore Truck and buildings to this color scheme. You can use it to emulate the C&C95 Nod color scheme logic.

Edited September 6, 2013 by Iran

[Nyerguds 100]

Well the harvester remap in C&C was only done because the building contains the unit graphics in C&C for the unloading anim. It's not really needed in RA.

[Spyda46 1]

Hi Iran,

 

Been testing the skirmish save function, when i load my game up it crashes instantly - attached the crash file

Here it is, didn't attached on the previous post

ra95crash.zip

[Iran 12]

Try this EXE with that savegame:

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21865790/ra95.exe

 

Thanks for reporting the issue, it occurs with every old skirmish savegame.

Edited September 11, 2013 by Iran

[Spyda46 1]

Thanks Iran that worked, however it has a strange issue where all players / computer units are colored the same green color

[Iran 12]

@Spyda46: Oh that's quite strange. When does it happen? I just tested it and it didn't occur in my A Path Beyond skirmish games versus 3 AI players. I did a lot of hacking with the color scheme stuff so it's probably a bug in my code.

 

Thanks again for testing.

 

I wrote a parser for the stats.dmp files the patch generates. It's a dump file of the end game statistics packet the game sends to the ladder server (and C&C95 does it too). My parser is feature complete and should parse every data in the stats.dmp file correctly. FunkyFr3sh is using the code (and testing it in the meanwhile) for CnCNet v5 client.

 

His CnCNet v5 client also added support for map transfers a few days ago! Only feature that I'm missing in his CnCNet v5 client is map previews. I might start working on that in a few days, a few people have (recently) written map preview generators and FunkyFr3sh needs one written in c#.

 

First thing I will do today is fixing some spawner and Westwood bugs in the code for writing the stats.dmp file. There's some silly Westwood issues like usual. Then I'll add a few minor things including the new AM fast build speed option and re-adding the option to enable/disable multicore affinity, as it turns out on my pc if the game isn't running under multicore affinity and I'm playing with CnC-DDraw, the mouse jitters..

 

Then a few AI patches, including disabling building certain units and maybe making the soviets buy dogs. Afterwards adding a change so you can sell vehicles on service depots without them having to be repaired by service depot first.

Edited September 12, 2013 by Iran

[Spyda46 1]

Its a custom map, i'll do some more testing and let you know if its persistent.

 

Other additions mentioned above sound great, keep up the good work !

[Iran 12]

@Spyda46: Could you upload the custom map?

 

I just fixed the statistics spawner bugs I had on my to-do list and a few that FunkyFr3sh reported..which turned out be because of broken Westwood code. Took me a while to fix. I also just now added the new Fast AM Build Speed option and the re-added the option to force single CPU affinity (the game needs to run multi-core for the mouse jittery mouse issue with CnC-DDraw to disappear on my PC).

[Iran 12]

I added a minor change from Arda which makes aircraft show their max ammount of ammo as pips, instead of 5. For example the MIG would show 5 pips even though it only had an ammo count of 3.

 

I also fixed Service Depots so you can sell vehicles on them without first having the Service Depot repair the vehicle. That was a huge code change.