RELEASE 3 IS OUT!!! LINUX, PC, OSX!

[tomreyn]

Congratulations to your beta release, Ishmaru. I was afraid Annex might become another Chasm and, besides its apparently high quality, might never become available for download. I'm glad I was wrong.

I did not really get around to try it, yet, since due to the way the download is packaged, it's not that easy to make it work on 64 bit Linux.
I'm also happy to see that you decided to release your work under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 - based on what I had read before I expected a more proprietary license - so this is great.
Please do, however, also take into account the GPLv3 licensing terms of the MegaGlest engine when you make releases - i.e., you need make the source code available, too.

Thanks for your many hours of work, I'm looking forward to try Annex.

[titi]

    I must try when I am at home! What version of MG does it use? And can I make a linux version of it?

[weedkiller]

Jehaa
the game reminds me of c&c, kknd
music is nice; gameplay is quite fast i will have to adapt to it, that is different from glest but not negative
units are great, i love the tracks animation of the striker..

hm, i dont have any real criticts, will have to play this longer xD

[tomreyn]

I tried it (on Linux) now, and wanted to report back my findings.

The MegaGlest binaries/windows executables included in the game are those built by Softcoder for the MegaGlest 3.5.2 release, so Linux users may download these off sourceforge via the Linux 'binaries' links provided on https://megaglest.org/download.html.
Unpack the binaries archive, then copy the executables (binaries and start scripts) to the annex directory, create an empty 'lib' directory, optionally delete the windows specific files and finally start the game:

Code: [Select]

cp ~/megaglest3.5.2_i386_64_linux_bin/megaglest{,_configurator,_editor,_g3dviewer} ~/annex_beta_v_1/
cp ~/megaglest3.5.2_i386_64_linux_bin/start_megaglest{,_configurator,_mapeditor,_g3dviewer} ~/annex_beta_v_1/
cd ~/annex_beta_v_1/
mkdir lib
rm 7z.exe annex_stable.exe megaglest_configurator.exe megaglest_editor.exe megaglest_g3dviewer.exe megaglestv3.5.2.dmp OpenAL32.dll uninstall.exe xerces-c_3_0.dll
./start_megaglest

As of now, there's an issue with blank spaces in various filenames, which whould be avoided due to incompatibilities. Linux users will therefore get a spill of error messages like the following by the time they start the game:

Code: [Select]

[2011-08-22 13:25:25] *ERROR* In [/home/softcoder/Code/megaglest/trunk/source/shared_lib/sources/graphics/model.cpp::loadMeshTexture Line: 436] Error v4 model is missing texture [/home/tomreyn/annex_beta_v_1//data/core/menu/main_model/texture_map #19.tga] textureFlags = 1 meshIndex = 0 textureIndex = 0

Due to these 'missing' files the menu doesn't look as nice as it's supposed to.

Some other files are missing (or not found?), too, as starting MegaGlest with the --validate-techtrees option would show. In fact I'm currently unable to play the game due to these errors:

(click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

In [/home/softcoder/Code/megaglest/trunk/source/shared_lib/sources/graphics/model.cpp::loadG3d] cannot load file = [/home/tomreyn/annex_beta_v_1//techs/base_battle/resources/credit/../../../../models/tileset/desert/crystal.g3d]
[2011-08-22 13:59:42] *ERROR* In [/home/softcoder/Code/megaglest/trunk/source/shared_lib/sources/graphics/model.cpp::loadG3d Line: 887] Error [Error opening g3d model file [/home/tomreyn/annex_beta_v_1//techs/base_battle/resources/credit/../../../../models/tileset/desert/crystal.g3d]]
[2011-08-22 13:59:42] *ERROR* In [/home/softcoder/Code/megaglest/trunk/source/glest_game/types/resource_type.cpp::load Line: 165] Error [Exception caught loading 3d file: /home/tomreyn/annex_beta_v_1//techs/base_battle/resources/credit/../../../../models/tileset/desert/crystal.g3d
Error opening g3d model file [/home/user1/annex_beta_v_1//techs/base_battle/resources/credit/../../../../models/tileset/desert/crystal.g3d]]
[2011-08-22 13:59:42] *ERROR* In [/home/softcoder/Code/megaglest/trunk/source/glest_game/types/tech_tree.cpp::load Line: 85] Error [Error loading resource type: /home/tomreyn/annex_beta_v_1//techs/base_battle/resources/credit/credit.xml
Exception caught loading 3d file: /home/tomreyn/annex_beta_v_1//techs/base_battle/resources/credit/../../../../models/tileset/desert/crystal.g3d
Error opening g3d model file [/home/tomreyn/annex_beta_v_1//techs/base_battle/resources/credit/../../../../models/tileset/desert/crystal.g3d]]
[2011-08-22 13:59:42] *ERROR* In [/home/softcoder/Code/megaglest/trunk/source/glest_game/main/program.cpp::setState Line: 453] Error [Error loading Resource Types in: [/home/tomreyn/annex_beta_v_1//techs/base_battle/]
Error loading resource type: /home/tomreyn/annex_beta_v_1//techs/base_battle/resources/credit/credit.xml
Exception caught loading 3d file: /home/tomreyn/annex_beta_v_1//techs/base_battle/resources/credit/../../../../models/tileset/desert/crystal.g3d
Error opening g3d model file [/home/tomreyn/annex_beta_v_1//techs/base_battle/resources/credit/../../../../models/tileset/desert/crystal.g3d]]


That's a pity, but then this is a 'just' a beta, and it was never intended to be played on Linux. I really would like to test Annex, though. So please let me know if I can help getting Annex to work on Linux, too.


Update: The issue which stops the game from working is not the blank spaces but a classic upper / lower case file name / path issue. See my next post below for how to fix it.
 

[Ishmaru]

Yes sorry guys I have no clue about linux works. So "_" is not allowed in linux? I used those because I thought it was readable. Ok, so ill remove them when I get the chance. I dont know about missing files though since i hadn't had any issues with that on my PC. There was once an issue with megaglest were looking for missing textures due to me using Sinarm's G3D hack, but that was fixed, as far as I know. Im down for a linux version if someone could do it, if I could do something let me know. Ill be away for a month so I cant do a lot but I can try some.

Btw So i did not change the source in any way, its standard 3.5.2 Megaglest, do I still need to post the source code? Could I just link to svn?

Thanks for those who played it! What settings were you guys playing at? Anyone tried multiplayer?

[titi]

Ishmaru wait a bit before starting to solve linux issues now. We will tell you what exactly has to be changed.

@tomreyn: try this: https://forum.megaglest.org/index.php?topic=3492.msg19106#msg19106

about the code license: I think a clear statement and a link is ok ( both should be distributed with the game in a readme file or something like this )

[tomreyn]

Alright, using the trick by synasthesan which titi pointed to it works perfectly.

So, in addition to the steps I explained above, to get it working on Linux, you need to also run this from within the Annex directory:

Code: [Select]

find -name "*[A-Z]*" -print0 | xargs -0 -L 1 bash -c 'mv "$0" "$(echo $0 | tr [:upper:] [:lower:])"'
This ensures all filenames which contain upper case letters are changed to all lower case. Then it works, no need to remove the blank spaces or hash/pound characters (though this would still be a good idea for the 1.0 release in my opinion).


Update: Be sure to also change glest.ini as explained by titi below.

[anonymousjim]

win7 64bit, mine crashes just before the menu (music starts though)

any idea?

this isn't a megaglest problem, megaglest works fine

[Ishmaru]

win7 64bit, mine crashes just before the menu (music starts though)

any idea?

this isn't a megaglest problem, megaglest works fine

I'm running win 7 64 bit and it runs fine. Do you get any errors messages? If you want to test try replacing annex menu with megaglest menu and see if it loads.

[anonymousjim]

tried replacing the data folder with the MG one, exactly the same only now it plays the glest music instead

no error message just the normal 'has stopped working' thing :/

[tomreyn]

no error message just the normal 'has stopped working' thing :/

See http://faq.megaglest.org/#Windows and http://faq.megaglest.org/#Something_is_wrong.2C_how_can_I_create_a_log_file.3F on how to get more information on what's going wrong. If you start the game from a command line window (cmd.exe), as explained on the first URL, you may already get enough information on what's wrong. If you don't, enable debug logging as explained on the second URL.


Unrelated to this, I think I found a minor issue while playing: some buildings do not produce units, but define a meeting point - this seems wrong.
I'm also wondering whether this faction may have too many types of units (but this can be just a first impression). This or that way, I definately must also say that I like Annex very much.

[Ishmaru]

tried replacing the data folder with the MG one, exactly the same only now it plays the glest music instead

no error message just the normal 'has stopped working' thing :/

Ok don't replace entire data folder as annex has things stored in there that is used. just delete directory and try extracting it again.

2 ideas:

1 check to see if app data is installed, it should be in the appdata/roaming folder as annex_conquer if not you can try editing glest.ini and changing this line:

Code: [Select]

UserData_Root=$APPDATA\annex_conquer\ to

Code: [Select]

UserData_Root=$APPDATA\megaglest\
this will share megaglest settings.

2 try editing glest.ini and changing resolution

technically it should crash immediately if there was an issue, but its the only two issues I can think of.

anyone else with similar issues??

Unrelated to this, I think I found a minor issue while playing: some buildings do not produce units, but define a meeting point - this seems wrong.
I'm also wondering whether this faction may have too many types of units (but this can be just a first impression). This or that way, I definately must also say that I like Annex very much.

Glad you like it! The meeting point issue was that I was told victory was recognized as destroying all structures with a meeting point, so I added meeting points to all structures, thus victory is obtained by destroying all structures. This may have changed.
The amount of units will probably be a bit overwhelming for new players, but with some practice you will get used to it. I wanted to give player lots of options, and make battles as varied as possible.

[anonymousjim]

command prompt just gave me exception code 0x6167654d (that's all it said, and the code doesn't show much on google either :/)
when I activated logging (the glestuser.ini is blank by the way ???) no log file was created either in the annex folder or the appdata annex folder
changing it to use megaglest's appdata does nothing
changing the resolution does nothing

just ran it again now and command promp came up and reffered me to source/main.cpp line 350
anyone have the source code for annex/megaglest and know what might be happening?

[Mr War]

been playing it. Love it - it works both in concept and execution. Amazed at the animations, models etc. Might borrow some ideas - call it inspiration.

In the longer term still would like to do a port to Sci-Fi pack but no rush.

 Pace is quick for idiots like me but I know that's deliberate so not a complaint. 

[wciow]

Congrats on releasing this awesome mod 

Now I'm just waiting for someone to make a Linux version 

[Ishmaru]

@anonymousjim Sorry jim I really have no idea why it wont load. I try to see if I can try things but today I'm flying to Arizona for a month so I'm not sure when ill have free time.

@mr war I'm glad u think so! How does it run on ur machine?

@wciow I think tomryn and titi posted instructions to make a Linux Version. In the previous posts. Next version will be more linux friendly. Sorry bout that.

[titi]

This is linux 32bit:
http://www.titusgames.de/annex_beta_v_1.tar.lzma
unpack somewhere and start "./start_megaglest"

If you have linux 64bit just replace the lib dir and the binaries.
lib/
megaglest
megaglest_configurator
megaglest_editor
megaglest_g3dviewer

Have fun and report all problems!!

update:
please set this in your glest.ini in the annex installation folder:
LogPath=$HOME/.annex_conquer/
UserData_Root=$HOME/.annex_conquer/

[tomreyn]

Unrelated to this, I think I found a minor issue while playing: some buildings do not produce units, but define a meeting point - this seems wrong.
I'm also wondering whether this faction may have too many types of units (but this can be just a first impression). This or that way, I definately must also say that I like Annex very much.

Glad you like it! The meeting point issue was that I was told victory was recognized as destroying all structures with a meeting point, so I added meeting points to all structures, thus victory is obtained by destroying all structures. This may have changed.

In this case you forgot the warehouse since it has no meeting point. I do not know whether the winning condition is still bound to destroying all buildings with a meeting point (but it may well be) - I bet titi knows.

One more issue: the harvesting vans have no team color, they are always red.

The amount of units will probably be a bit overwhelming for new players, but with some practice you will get used to it. I wanted to give player lots of options, and make battles as varied as possible.

Yeah I think I'm already starting to get an idea. You need both bi-paddlers (mostly but not only in the beginning) and the large units, and some are much better for distance fights than others, and against air. Looks good.

[titi]

we played it now in coop vs cpu ultra ( tomreyn and me )and it was tough and fun.
First game we lost in the end, second one was our turn :-D

So far the CPU played quite good. ( more feedback tomorow need to sleep... )

No LAG, perfect gameplay for me!

[Ishmaru]

Yes tomryn has general idea but that's not only option there are a few stradigies

Thank you titi for linux version. Ill post it on mod db later I have a flight to catch now so so gotta run
 Glad multiplayer works well. I would like to see how others play it someone mad a vid that'll b cool!

[ElimiNator]

In this case you forgot the warehouse since it has no meeting point. I do not know whether the winning condition is still bound to destroying all buildings with a meeting point (but it may well be) - I bet titi knows.

No actually the winning condition is  bound to destroying all units with be-built skill.

[will]

I really enjoy this mod!

It has the Tiberian Sun feel - which is a very positive thing - but has its own unique hectic pace!

Very playable and repeatedly playable!

[claymore]

If you have linux 64bit just replace the lib dir and the binaries.
lib/
megaglest
megaglest_configurator
megaglest_editor
megaglest_g3dviewer

Replace them with what? :/

[titi]

with the binaries of your 64bit megaglest 3.5.2 install of course!

[Ishmaru]

Has anyone tried PVP multiplayer? Or how bout the different "modes", Whats maps do you guys like/dont like? Anyone have any favorite units, or formations?

Just curious