0.3 teaser topic

[silnarm]

There was a lull in development for a while, but much work had been done, and things are moving rapidly again now, so with 0.3 not far off, I thought I'd start a teaser topic to show off some of the things complete or in-the-works.

Multiple music tracks has oft been requested, and is in, it works like so:

Code Select Expand


  <music value="true" play-list="true">
    <music-file path="music/blew.ogg"/>
    <music-file path="music/floyd_the_barber.ogg"/>
    <music-file path="music/about_a_girl.ogg"/>
  </music>


The GUI has undergone are rather massive overhaul,

Same screenies of the New Game and Options menus:

Obviously this will look a bit different in the release, the player count hasn't been increased yet.



and the new-look Minimap and Display:


Command finished sounds for Upgrade, Produce & Morph are in, they work much like built-sounds:

Code Select Expand


<finished-sound enabled="true">
<sound-file path="sounds/initiate_morphed1.wav"/>
<sound-file path="sounds/initiate_morphed2.wav"/>
</finished-sound>


Resources are clickable:


I finally remembered to implement a few new Lua functions Omega has been after for a while,

Code Select Expand


  giveUpgrade(faction, upgrade);
  destroyUnit(unitId, clean);


Unit particle systems are in, and they can be used for effects:


Hopefully should be ready for a release within a couple of weeks.

[John.d.h]

Nice! :thumbup:

One minor nitpick: Should the zones be air and surface instead of air and ground? :look:

Otherwise, I have a feeling this is going to be awesome.  *runs off to learn particle XML*

[ultifd]

Looks cool! I bet you have much more in store...I guess. But even with this, nice  :thumbup: .

The GUI Overhaul is pretty good...

Unit particle systems are in, and they can be used for effects:

"Same system as MG" right? Looks awesome.

[Omega]

EXCELLENT! Personally, I can't wait. Unit particle systems are something I've been wishing to add to military since I saw them first appear in the megapack, as well, I can see you have unit particle effects for emanations and effects, which will be much needed, as well, multiple music tracks will have me scurrying to get more music for military. Does it randomly pick the tracks from the XML tag?

The two lua commands will also come in handy for me when I try to create some new, intuitive scenarios in the future.

While the GUI will take some getting used to, I think it looks great, to put simply! I assume those are drop down boxes on the new game screen?

Oh, and I should mention perhaps it would be a good idea to add a setting to options screen to toggle on/off unit particle effects (MG has this, apparently) that way once we can start using particle effects, the people with slower computers won't have to get boggled down in future releases.

Anyway, looks fantastic so far, and I can't wait to see what else you have in store.

So others can see, here's what's left in the tracker for 0.3.0:
#113 multi-tier produce/morph selection
#118    Area effect particle systems
#119    GUI overhaul: Glest::Widgets
#120    Enable 8 (or maybe 12) player support
#139    Glestimals
#141    Basic Transport Unit
#67    Announcer for LAN
#128    Use default resources instead of crashing

[modman]

It looks very nice.  Good job GAE Team! :thumbup:

[silnarm]

One minor nitpick: Should the zones be air and surface instead of air and ground? :look:

Indeed, xml compatibility thing... but will change that, and perhaps not have it all in upper-case!

Does it randomly pick the tracks from the XML tag?

It just plays them sequentially as listed atm, but I'll add a 'shuffle' attribute to the music tag.

I assume those are drop down boxes on the new game screen?

They are indeed :)

[Omega]

It just plays them sequentially as listed atm, but I'll add a 'shuffle' attribute to the music tag.

Oh, yeah, a shuffle tag would be completely neccessary really, otherwise its the equivilant of having one large music file that is just a few music files combined in one.

Oh, and any idea when this could be done? Possibly sometime in september?

[silnarm]

Oh, and any idea when this could be done? Possibly sometime in september?

Well, I'm actually hoping it maybe some time in August  :o

[Omega]

Oh, and any idea when this could be done? Possibly sometime in september?

Well, I'm actually hoping it maybe some time in August  :o

Ooh, that's even better! It would be nice to see it before school resumes!

[treba]

wow, that´s so awesome :)

i hope my editor will be done by that time, too.
want to see this whole lua stuff in action.

[Mukora]

*Googles Unit particle Effects*
*gets no results*

*cough* Would you mind explaining this to a dumb blond?

[Yggdrasil]

That's for authors of modifications. You can now add particle effects to normal units instead of just to projectiles and splash attacks. As you can see here at the campfire:
https://forum.megaglest.org/index.php?topic=4930.msg39527#msg39527

It's a feature from Megaglest now also added to GAE. I'm not sure if there's a wiki page or any other documentation about the XML structure.

Btw, nice thread and work silnarm.

[ultifd]

It's a feature from Megaglest now also added to GAE. I'm not sure if there's a wiki page or any other documentation about the XML structure.

Maybe here(Particle Power section)?

Again, nice work...

[modman]

Can the AI see me if there is no fog of war, or does it behave pretty much the same regardless?

I know, it's slightly off topic but not that much since Fog of War is one of the options in the game menu.

[Omega]

They can't see you no matter what, and send scouts to all four corners (the default places to look for foes) even if fog of war is OFF. Therefor, the AI is as blind as a bat, with or without fog.

[silnarm]

As of GAE 0.2.13 and MG 3.3.2 the answer is yes, previously fog-of-war was always applied for the AI.

That's not to say they make good use of that information though :|

They will still send scouts (not the the corners of the map, but to a position near a random start location) when the consider their base to be stable, and if such a scout finds something a 'massive attack' will follow.  However, with fog of war off, if they decide they have enough units to attack and a scout hasn't triggered a mass attack, then they will simply attack the nearest enemy base, and the time between when they decide their base is stable and they can launch an attack seems fairly short, so the scouts will rarely be the triggers, and most of the time they will just attack the nearest enemy base.

The AI will be getting an overhaul before too long, but I wanna add some more new features and break it a bit more first :P

[ultifd]

Here is some feedback Silnarm.

I'm using SVN head. I found a few problems that are new (at least to me).
1.) loading screen and end game stats

Unless it is supposed to be like this? Was the loading screen and end stats screen changed too? Just not sure...

2.) battlemage bug?

It says "load"

if any units/buildings are selected to it, following...etc. Then it does the "die" animation and the unit or building disappears. See? Did to all...

Code ( I also crashed once while testing this once...) Select Expand


Crash
Version: Advanced Engine svn
Time: Fri Aug 27 17:52:29 2010
Description: Access violation (Reading address 0x089BF018)
Address: 003EDDC0


[spoiler= GAE error log file. Maybe related to glestimals? or...]Glest Advanced Engine: Error log file.

Frame: 0 :: Glest::Sim::SimulationInterface::constructGameWorld
Frame: 0 :: Glest::Sim::SimulationInterface::loadWorld
No files found: tilesets/forest/glestimals/*.
Frame: 0 :: Glest::Sim::SimulationInterface::initWorld
Frame: 0 :: Faction: 0 unit added Id: 0
Frame: 0 :: Faction: 0 unit added Id: 1
Frame: 0 :: Faction: 0 unit added Id: 2
Frame: 0 :: Faction: 0 unit added Id: 3
Frame: 0 :: Faction: 0 unit added Id: 4
Frame: 0 :: Faction: 0 unit added Id: 5
Frame: 0 :: Faction: 0 unit added Id: 6
Frame: 0 :: Faction: 0 unit added Id: 7
Frame: 0 :: Faction: 0 unit added Id: 8
Frame: 0 :: Faction: 1 unit added Id: 9
Frame: 0 :: Faction: 1 unit added Id: 10
Frame: 0 :: Faction: 1 unit added Id: 11
Frame: 0 :: Faction: 1 unit added Id: 12
Frame: 0 :: Faction: 1 unit added Id: 13
Frame: 0 :: Faction: 1 unit added Id: 14
Frame: 0 :: Faction: 1 unit added Id: 15
Frame: 0 :: Faction: 1 unit added Id: 16
Frame: 0 :: Faction: 1 unit added Id: 17
Frame: 0 :: SkillCycleTable built, numEntries = 192, messageSize = 3072 (@16)
Frame: 0 :: Glest::Sim::SimulationInterface::launchGame
Frame: 636 :: Faction: 1 unit added Id: 18
Frame: 780 :: Faction: 1 unit added Id: 19
Frame: 1326 :: Faction: 1 unit added Id: 20
Frame: 1872 :: Faction: 1 unit added Id: 21
Frame: 2418 :: Faction: 1 unit added Id: 22
Frame: 2964 :: Faction: 1 unit added Id: 23
Frame: 3510 :: Faction: 1 unit added Id: 24
Frame: 3962 :: Faction: 1 unit added Id: 25
Frame: 4056 :: Faction: 1 unit added Id: 26
Frame: 4602 :: Faction: 1 unit added Id: 27
Frame: 4695 :: Faction: 1 unit added Id: 28
Frame: 5148 :: Faction: 1 unit added Id: 29
Frame: 5217 :: Faction: 1 unit added Id: 30
Frame: 5476 :: Faction: 1 unit added Id: 31
Frame: 5694 :: Faction: 1 unit added Id: 32
Frame: 6410 :: Glest::Sim::SimulationInterface::destroyGameWorld[/spoiler]
3.) language file needs to be fixed. Has
???example???...at least for end stats screen now.

4.) the selecting same units issues was fixed, so double click is ok, but now just selecting units doesn't work now. It only selects one unit now...

Thanks. I hope I did not forget anything.

EDIT: Dark forest and in the forest are the same map...right? ...

[silnarm]

Here is some feedback Silnarm.

I'm using SVN head. I found a few problems that are new (at least to me).
1.) loading screen and end game stats

Thanks, the were still using the old virtual coords, fixed.

2.) battlemage bug?

Not a bug, hailstone modified the battlemage to test the new load command, for transports... although it wasn't supposed to be able to load buildings I don't think...

Code ( I also crashed once while testing this once...) Select Expand


Crash
Version: Advanced Engine svn
Time: Fri Aug 27 17:52:29 2010
Description: Access violation (Reading address 0x089BF018)
Address: 003EDDC0


I'm madly adding the last few things for 0.3 atm, so the possibility of crashes is to be expected for now, I'll soon start stress testing and sort any out. I'll talk to you on IRC sometime and show you how you can get me better information to help locate any :thumbup:

3.) language file needs to be fixed. Has ???example???...at least for end stats screen now.

I always forget to commit the lang file... done.

4.) the selecting same units issues was fixed, so double click is ok, but now just selecting units doesn't work now. It only selects one unit now...

I'm having no problems with single clicking, double clicking or dragging a selection box... will hopefully catch you on IRC sometime soon to get some more details ;)

EDIT: Dark forest and in the forest are the same map...right? ...

They certainly are.... weird.

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated  :)

[ultifd]

Oh...thought it was a bug (#2) ...

I'm madly adding the last few things for 0.3 atm, so the possibility of crashes is to be expected for now, I'll soon start stress testing and sort any out. I'll talk to you on IRC sometime and show you how you can get me better information to help locate any :thumbup:

I'm having no problems with single clicking, double clicking or dragging a selection box... will hopefully catch you on IRC sometime soon to get some more details ;)

OK, but for dragging a selection box these days it still only selects one unit for me.
Weird. I guess we'll see...

[Omega]

Hmm, that's interesting... By the way, how's it coming along? August is nearly up, think it'll be out before September? (3 days  :-\)

[silnarm]

Hmm, that's interesting... By the way, how's it coming along? August is nearly up, think it'll be out before September? (3 days  :-\)

Well, it's Septemeber 1, at least for me, so I didn't quite make it... but at the cost a couple of extra days, you got a dedicated lua console, complete with command history :) I'm sure you of all people will agree that is worth waiting a couple more days for :thumbup:  Just got to clean up hailstone's transports and fix any obviously broken things, shouldn't be very long now...

[Omega]

I awesome! You rock silnarm! Anxity level...rising.

[silnarm]

Progress report.

I was just testing out the latest svn, on a Mac btw ;) and noticed a reserved-resources bug, which shouldn't take too long to track down, I've run a couple of stress tests, but not really with a sufficient variety of tech-trees / maps, etc.  I'm probably not going to get much more testing in though, due to time constraints, so a release should be made soon, but there likely will be bugs... Report them and they will be fixed, don't report them and they will not!

[silnarm]

I have no idea why you're getting the BSoD, this is the first time I've heard of that happening. As to the AI, it had some issues in 0.2.13, but should be working fine in svn trunk... but how could you know the AI has problems if you're can't run the game ?!?

[silnarm]

Today I compiled the code in SVN in the GAE found running game needs freetype6.dll and zlib1.dll, when I find these two controls, but when the game is up and running, I suddenly disappear, I found a compiler Game memory instruction error.

AI can not play against, I run a previous version, the previous version can support win7.

The freetype and zlib dlls can be found in the 'bin' directory of the deps package, they need to be copied to the data/game directory.