It's been a while since I last visited Battlezone Universe, and I mostly stayed in the BZ2 unofficial 1.3 patch forum when I was here.
Anyway, I have an experimental build of BZ1 with some bug fixes that I'd like people to test. I switched over to Visual C++ 2008 and the latest DirectX SDK which required some major code changes, so I wouldn't be surprised if I broke something. There were some truly scary things in there that VS 5.0 let slide...
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to fix the rendering problems in Vista and 7. I suspect that I may have to rebuild the rendering system to fix those since D3D Execute Buffers don't seem well-supported these days. I'm not exactly looking forwards to doing that...
I have no idea if it even works properly since it crashes on startup for me in Windows 7.
Grab it here (http://ultraken.dyndns.org/www/bzone_2009_11_17.zip) if you're feeling brave.
Mirror (http://www.bzuniverse.com/~betadudes/unprotected/bzone_2009_11_17.zip)
(Note: this is just a replacement bzone.exe, a sort of proto-patch I should have started years ago.)
Things to test: stability in the single-player campaign, visual quality, performance on older computers, compatibility with various operatings systems.
Update: I forgot to mention is that it needs the Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9b2da534-3e03-4391-8a4d-074b9f2bc1bf&displaylang=en) if you don't have Visual C++ 2008 installed already.
Updated Update: The new executable is just a drop-in substitute and requires a fully-patched BZ install. I probably should have mentioned that...
Blimey Ken :P
Where's my BZ disk?
I love you ken.
At 640X480, the entire screen very rapidly flickers, like on an acid trip. or the pulterguist.
I have an NVIDIA Geforce 7600 GT
Also i had to set halftexel=1 in render.cfg.
Here's something I don't think i can fix in options though...
(http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m61/Myrodin/bz12009dust.png)
Moon dust is green and looks like it's tiled.
Also, i got a crash when i changed resolutions from 1024X768 to 640X480 and tried to return to game.
Also, when i blew up the test turrets in the training mission, the yellow flashes of the explosion didn't play. It was only the black smoke. I have Large Assets turned on. also the particle burst when you blow up a powerup, seemed to almost replay just before it dissapeared. Maybe look into how the renders are displayed to see if they tile or repeat when they're not supposed to.
:-o :-o
Quote from: General BlackDragon on November 16, 2009, 10:15:36 AM
I love you ken.
Don't love me just yet since there's a long, long way to go before this turns into anything meaningful. :-D
Many of the problems seem to originate from D3D, since modern drivers don't seem to test for things like this.
Quote from: Mr. Spock on November 16, 2009, 11:15:18 AM
TJ, AH and RD, your posts were very helpful. Like always. :roll:
As will my bans if you get cheeky again.
Back OT, i would try this out if i actually HAD BZ1. Anyone know any places it can be bought, when i finally get my job sorted i might have a few quid to spare.
Quote from: Mr. Spock on November 16, 2009, 12:11:59 PM
TJ, grow up. I couldn't care less about your silly powers here. I will be nice to you only in respect to Ultraken.
Cool off, or I might get triggerhappy. I happen to have noticed you have made less useful posts in the past. You are also speaking down to some pretty important and high-flying people around here (GBD, TJ and RD more than myself).
And this is nothing to do with lack of respect to Ultraken. The man is a genius, you're just being cheeky.
Ultraken,
This really does look beautiful. BZ1 was riddled with problems when this rig was running XP, but since so many things now run much better I'm itching to give BZ1 a proper try.
Oh, I forgot to mention that it needs the Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9b2da534-3e03-4391-8a4d-074b9f2bc1bf&displaylang=en). I'll update the first message with that link.
Rumors of my awesomeness are greatly exaggerated... :-D
Anyway, I can't claim full credit for this build. The big thing was porting the BZ v1.3 code I pulled from BZ2's source repository to VC++ 2008, which was a massive undertaking all by itself. This revealed some scary problems in the shell (how did that ever work?) and a bunch of STL iterator problems. I also fixed the half-alliance exploit (the result of a lot of AI and interface code asking "does this object think I'm a friend/enemy?" instead of "do I think this object is a friend/enemy?"). The high framerate and east/west fix were Tug's work (though I uncapped the framerate), and there's a smattering of fixes from Dx too (sliding on hills in particular).
Rumours of your godliness are certainly NOT exaggerated!!
I'll play through BZ today and see what I can find...
Ken, I love you.
Mac OS X Leopard(latest)
4 GB RAM
Nvidia 9400M
Intel core 2 duo P8600@ 2.40 GHZ
No problems at all.
Quote from: Ultraken on November 16, 2009, 01:04:20 PM
Oh, I forgot to mention that it needs the Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9b2da534-3e03-4391-8a4d-074b9f2bc1bf&displaylang=en). I'll update the first message with that link.
After installing Visual C++ I get the same DEP issue on both Vista and 7. Is there a way to force DEP off for bzone.exe? On this new exe is on by default and I can't turn it off, like I would normally do.
Not sure about the DEP thing. If it's tripping the DEP, then somethings seriously amiss.
As for importance, I consider my position here to be something like a Guest of Honor at a convention. Regardless of everyone's opinion, I'm still a guest here. :-D
Noticed this msg in the log:
Couldn't find file "nk_1sun1.map"
Perhaps you now need to set something related to DEP because you moved up to 2008?
That could very well be since it was a conversion of an older project file. I'll look through the settings.
It looks good on my computer. Noticed that some of the graphics are a little smoother without loosing the BZ1 feel. Didn't have the usual loss of mouse (which forever stays as the BZ1 mouse till I shut down and reboot.)
Didn't have any of the other issues (though minor) that I had.
This is the error I keep getting in mission 2 after about 1..2 minutes:
(http://www.bzuniverse.com/~betadudes/unprotected/BZ1_error.png)
Ooh, nasty. That memory address definitely looks bogus. I'll have to look at the map file to see where that instruction is.
Quote from: Mr. Spock on November 16, 2009, 02:39:06 PM
After installing Visual C++ I get the same DEP issue on both Vista and 7. Is there a way to force DEP off for bzone.exe? On this new exe is on by default and I can't turn it off, like I would normally (http://battlezone1.freeforums.org/post6108.html#p6108) do.
AH, only important people on this forum are Ultraken and GSH. I wasn't talking down to GBD, we know eachother very well and he would be the first to admit that he often speaks (types) faster than he thinks. It was a friendly comment and also something for everybody else who wants to try this test exe. Most of you here don't even have BZ1 (those who do will most likely come from here (http://battlezone1.freeforums.org/experimental-build-t895.html)), and if you install the game from CD it won't work properly. You can't test new exe like that.
Instead threatening me with silly ban you should try hard not to post off topic 3 times in a row. Other 2 persons I mentioned are on a 2nd try.
PM, please. Let's not clutter Ultraken's shiny thread any more than we have to.
Also, in the rare event that I may want to join a BZ1 server (few as there are) I take it this will cause an assets error? Not too hot on BZ1 modding, I haven't used it for a while.
Way to go Ultraken! An update for this game is sorely needed. Do you intend to just stick with fixing the problems generated on the more modern versions of Windows, or are you going to take things a little further and add a few new features in too, like, say, a routine to call an external dll for an IA mission built with something like DLL Scriptor? (hint hint). :-D
Red Devil, seeing (Couldn't find file "nk_1sun1.map") in the symlog.txt is normal, does look like you are getting DEP errors though. It's wierd that you can't turn that off.
The primary objective is to get BZ working in HW with more recent versions of Windows, but I'll investigate other enhancements as I have time. I already have several other projects vying for my attention so I don't want to get anyone's hopes up prematurely.
As for external mission support, have you been reading my mind? I was thinking about that very thing last night. :-D
My original thought was to migrate the mission scripts to dynamic link libraries like BZ2, though I haven't investigated what that will entail. Creating DLLs is easy; exporting everything the DLL needs is somewhat involved. There's also the issue of BZ1 BZN files not specifying what script to use, since that information is baked into the executable. The binary BZN format doesn't exactly help with that. Again, I don't want promise too much just yet.
Holy hoot.
Beautiful! Thank you.
Sorry to have to do this to you of all people Ken, but Mr Spock has been perma-banned for re-offending. If you would like to reach him to help you test this all out further, his e-mail is still on his profile.
Sorry
- TJ
Re-offending??
sounds excessive
Quote from: TheJamsh on November 17, 2009, 04:11:03 PM
Sorry to have to do this to you of all people Ken, but Mr Spock has been perma-banned for re-offending.
No need to apologize to me. I had noticed that he skirted the line almost constantly, so I guess he crossed it once too many times...
I tried out the new EXE on Windows XP SP2 and Nvidia video card with updated video drivers. I'll try it with Vista64 and 8800GTX video card next.
Everything seemed work fine, no issues so far, tried both SP and MP. I expect to have more issues with Vista64 though.
You mentioned uncapping the framerate, mine is still running right at 60fps. Vsync?
Eddy
I've noticed that every IA mission is called with Inst4XMission in the bzn, so it is hardcoded to call only those C++ routines set up for standard IA missions, while the SP missions each call their own special routines, so I imagine there would be a fair amount of fiddling involved to set up the game so it would be able to call external files and still recognize the old Inst4XMission format when needed. BTW, what was the EmptyMission used for? You get this in a bzn whenever you take a normal IA mission and try to rebuid the bzn from the terrain files without renaming then to usrmsnXX while editing, you get a mission that runs, but no odf or aip files are called and the AI does nothing, very strange.
Some other good improvements might be fixes for hacking issues, and maybe a change to the shell for launching IA missions (maybe the training missions could be moved to a button or something). It would be good to have working anims back for XP and later also.
Fresh install straight from CD, installed HEAT, applied the patch, restarted my computer, and immediately got an error upon attempting to start BZ:
bzone.exe - Entry Point Not Found
The procedure entry point dpReportCrashEx could not be located in the dynamic link library anet2.dll.
Does this have anything to do with having HEAT installed?
Specs:
Intel E8400 Core2Duo 3.0ghz
Windows XP SP3
nVidia GeForce 8800GT
2GB 675mhz Corsair RAM
Soundblaster Audigy 2
Quote from: eddywright on November 17, 2009, 05:55:00 PM
I tried out the new EXE on Windows XP SP2 and Nvidia video card with updated video drivers. I'll try it with Vista64 and 8800GTX video card next.
Everything seemed work fine, no issues so far, tried both SP and MP. I expect to have more issues with Vista64 though.
Good to know. :)
Quote
You mentioned uncapping the framerate, mine is still running right at 60fps. Vsync?
Yes. My fix was based on one Tug had done, but I just catch the zero time step case instead of restricting the frame rate to 100. If unusually high frame rates introduce simulation or networking problems, I may need to reintroduce the cap. BZ1 doesn't separate simulation from rendering the way BZ2 does.
Quote from: Ultraken on November 17, 2009, 07:52:35 PM
Good to know. :)
Yes. My fix was based on one Tug had done, but I just catch the zero time step case instead of restricting the frame rate to 100. If unusually high frame rates introduce simulation or networking problems, I may need to reintroduce the cap. BZ1 doesn't separate simulation from rendering the way BZ2 does.
The fps cap is something i asked tug for in order to prevent another bug that occured in online play.
We decided on 100 to prevent tearing and not waste the cpu processing frames you would never see.
Slow pc's with highly fluctuating frame rates cause lag online.
The current build is fluctuating on colli from 48 to a bit over 100fps on my 2.4Ghz pc.
Quote from: Dx on November 17, 2009, 08:09:15 PM
The fps cap is something i asked tug for in order to prevent another bug that occured in online play. We decided on 100 to prevent tearing and not waste the cpu processing frames you would never see. Slow pc's with highly fluctuating frame rates cause lag online.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/73/The_More_You_Know.jpg)
Well, I just learned something...
I figured it was there for a reason, but I didn't know what. I'll put it back, then.
Quote
The current build is fluctuating on colli from 48 to a bit over 100fps on my 2.4Ghz pc.
That's using the software renderer, I presume.
Hardware mode with the ATI 9800 pro 128mb
I see. What do you get with your normal executable?
I'm glad to see bz1 isn't dead. There are definately things I miss from bz1 that bz2 lacks. Mainly support for undeployable recyclers without having to edit dll files.
About 150fps in a battle or up to 350fps looking at sky or looking at a small section of map.
Wow, that's a big difference...
Quote from: Steeveeo on November 17, 2009, 07:11:20 PM
Fresh install straight from CD, installed HEAT, applied the patch, restarted my computer, and immediately got an error upon attempting to start BZ:
bzone.exe - Entry Point Not Found
The procedure entry point dpReportCrashEx could not be located in the dynamic link library anet2.dll.
Does this have anything to do with having HEAT installed?
Specs:
Intel E8400 Core2Duo 3.0ghz
Windows XP SP3
nVidia GeForce 8800GT
2GB 675mhz Corsair RAM
Soundblaster Audigy 2
Hello? Fatal error here. Any ideas?
Quote from: Steeveeo on November 17, 2009, 10:56:35 PM
Hello? Fatal error here. Any ideas?
Steveeo, did you try BZ before adding the new bzone.exe? Be sure to set the resolution to something other than 640x480.
Eddy
Sounds like you need that 'AntiLagXP'/wininet2 fix.
We don't use the old anti lag patch anymore.
Here are the other files you need:
winets2.dll (http://theoutcasts.us/dx/terrazone/WINETS2.DLL)
servers.dat (http://theoutcasts.us/dx/terrazone/servers.dat)
As for "procedure entry point dpReportCrashEx could not be located in the dynamic link library anet2.dll".
This usually means you didn't install 1.4 patch first.
Good point. The new executable is just a drop-in substitute and requires a fully-patched BZ install. I probably should have mentioned that...
Probably. :P
Hey, when I try to run this on Crossover 8.0 it gives me:
Invalid memory entry!
I did a fresh XP SP3 install on an older PC with an nvidia mx440 video card. The stock exe worked fine with a steady 60fps, the new exe held close to 75fps. The only bug I've found so far with this setup is leaving a mission and going back to the menus, the display doesn't stay at 640x480, it jumps to 1680x1050 (native resolution) with the 640x480 bz display in the upper left corner. The stock exe didn't do this.
Graphics look good, gameplay is smooth and no issues with textures so far. Glad to see the mouse pointer fixed finally :)
Eddy
I've gotten a report of markedly lower framerate on some machines, and I'm not sure why. I'd need to do some profiling, but that's hard to do remotely. :-)
I changed the mouse pointer thing (for now) because I was tired of having to set my cursors back all the time. :-D
Ok, profile sent. Hope i did it right....
Definitely a good start!
I did a fresh install of BZ on my Vista64 PC and tweaked it til the stock BZ exe ran OK. I have some graphic issues but the game plays smoothly. I dropped in the new EXE and kept everything else the same but I get the DEP error others have reported. I tried to add Bzone.exe to the exception list but Vista won't let me do it.
(http://www.wrighthobbies.net/DEPerror.jpg)
I can't get around this using the new EXE file.
Eddy
I'll try it locally, but my release build doesn't even start for me. It blows up in the application compatibility layer. The internal build is fine, though.
I finally got around DEP, I had to turn it off in the boot options. With DEP off, the new exe causes an unhandled exception regardless of the compatibility mode or render.cfg settings if hardware is enabled. Software mode works only in a window but seems to work fine. The framerate is over 300 with everything set to max. Full screen software mode will work for a few seconds then freeze.
Test system is Vista64 with 4gig of RAM and nvidia 8800GTX. Stock BZ and BZE work fine with this setup.
Eddy
OK, thanks for trying it for me. My guess is that some combination of Visual C++ 2008 and August 2009 DirectX SDK mess up both DirectDraw and Direct3D.
I created a test application based on one of the DirectX tutorials in order to learn Direct3D 9, and so far it's a lot easier to set up than previous versions of Direct3D. I have a "model" using static vertex and index buffers along with a world transform matrix, and an "effect" using dynamic vertex and index buffers in world space. I'm going to investigate texture mapping, dynamic lighting, various render states, and screen-space rendering as well. I also need to handle D3DERR_DEVICELOST and D3DERR_DEVICENOTRESET events.
Sound like a good approach, if you need any testing done with your test application on different hardware, I'm sure you'll find volunteers here.
Can you add some debug code to help isolate where the conflict is? I do a lot of embedded system programming and when I have a similar problem, I add debug logging throughout the program until I find the problem. I'm sure that's a lot more work in a program this size, but it can provide a lot of good information.
BTW - The crash occurs right at the point of launching the hardware 3D view. I didn't mention that in the previous post.
Eddy
I know exactly where the crash happens, just not why. Execution of the Execute Buffer fails deep inside the D3D library, presumably indicating a problem with D3D itself but it's certainly possible it's getting passed bad data from the application. Execute Buffers are just terrible, though, so I'm more inclined to just chop out that entire system in favor of the far-simpler D3D9.
I just noticed that a lot of people are dividing their karma by -0, so maybe that is why things are misbehaving... :-D
Quote from: Ultraken on November 22, 2009, 07:59:47 AM
I know exactly where the crash happens, just not why. Execution of the Execute Buffer fails deep inside the D3D library, presumably indicating a problem with D3D itself but it's certainly possible it's getting passed bad data from the application. Execute Buffers are just terrible, though, so I'm more inclined to just chop out that entire system in favor of the far-simpler D3D9.
Seems like D3D should provide some sort of error logging but other than the general application crashed log entries, I didn't find anything specific to D3D in the event logs.
Replacing it seems like the logical choice - fix the problem and make it more current in one move.
Eddy
I was going to enable the debug version of D3D, but it only affects D3D8 and D3D9 interfaces. That's not so useful right now, though it'll be plenty useful later.
Quote from: Red Devil on November 22, 2009, 08:35:32 AM
I just noticed that a lot of people are dividing their karma by -0, so maybe that is why things are misbehaving... :-D
:)
Also Ken, thanks, it's looking like the holiday season will be merry indeed..
Looking forward to some bomber colli with Trinity :D
I'll start tearing into the rendering system one of these days... :)
You might want to move the topic about HW vs SW rending to this forum section Ken.
I'll see if I can do that.
(I may not have the authority to move topics around.)
Ahh I see your not a mod of the BZ1 area. Thought you were.
*pokes avatar*