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argh! i got excited and though it was going to work... the green status bar moved about a centimeter to the right, but then it crashed again :) hehe
i'm running winME, and i always run with the bare minimum of stuff to make windows work properly... if you want, my icq is 101651526
Was that after you'd redownloaded?
It was definately after installing the update wasn't it.
Well, Sentience clearly doesn't like running the sounds on your machine.
Open the options.ini in the scripts folder and ensure that all the sound options are set to false.
You could also try running the dx setup and reducing the hardware acceleration for sound. This sometimes clears up problems.
Do you have the latest drivers for your sound card?
Sorry, but your ICQ number's no good to me - I'm at work and as such do not have chat programs running.
Another (sneaky) trick is this.
Run something that makes sound in the background. Like winamp. Set it playing music. Then run Sentience.
S is smart enough to detect that and disable sound at a base level as it can't compete. This should shut off all sound and abort the sound loading, giving you a message in the process. It should then carry on with loading the rest of the game.
Try that one...
My taskbar is always on top. I never want it to auto-hide, which is really ugly in win95 (no smoonth action)
Me version of windows is Win95 4.00.950 B
I use this windows cause it's the one who use the less ram memory.
DO you have the same problem with your taskbar Arbiter?
I've download the Sentience Update and install it... and after I launch it of course :)
Surprise! This time I wasn't able to see the "full" screen of the main menu!
I was seeing only the middle of the main menu / picture, and only 4 options was visible (the load option and the 3 others below it)
Something like a picture is in 1024x768 and your seeing only the middle of it in 800x600. So all the borders of it are invisible and I wasn't able the reach the Exit Button :P
Even the "New Game" page was like that.
Now that one's baffled me as well. Where are these bugs coming from? These never existed before!
Quick question, how could you tell the new game screen was like that if you couldn't see the button (it's the top one).
The First Time, I've only download GameDev.zip and run sentience from there, even if the patch was available I didn't download it, so In that version I was able to see to whole screen (like it was suppose to be) + the taskbar bug.
After 2-3 days, I've download the patch and run the game. That time has the bug I mention earlier (the smaller view on the screen)
Am I having the wrong version them?
I would like to know (I don't want the code) how (which algo) did you use to scroll the map in the game?
The one that's moving by the 2 scrolls bars...
1- When the map move, you load each "square" of graphics from the disk and the load the with bitblt?
2- Load all graphics "square" in memory and when the map move you bitblt them?
3- Or did you use DirectDraw?
I believe it's the 2nd option, Arbiter wouldn't be so lame as to use the 1st one, right? :)
Oh and DX works the same way as BitBlt, except that it has some very strict rules and complex functions :p
Arbiter, you got me wrong: what I meant was, you would use a *general* graphic that would be used for ALL components. The real size of a component would be so small that it would look just like a small chunk of metal with some tubes on (like 8x8 pixels) :p
They would be just different pods, that's all. I mean, in my opinion it wouldn't be that hard. But if you don't wanna do it/think you can't do it, that's ok :)
Yep, the mighty Jotaf is right. I load everything into memory DC's and then throw then onto the screen when it's updated.
No, you seem to have the right version.
Is anyone else reporting this screen fault.
Jotaf, have you downloaded the patch? Do you have the same problem?
The major differance is that direct draw is much faster. And besides, direct draw offers some more advanced functions.
I got an 'error code 7, out of memory' error :)
system:
athlon 650
328mb ram
geforce2 64 mb ddr
win2k
Dunno whats wrong with the program, cant wait to play it ^_^
about directx/draw: It's not THAT hard, you just have to try it again and again and again and one day you'll understand it ^_^
Oops, sorry Arbiter but I'm too busy to download your patch :)
Maybe I'll download it later. Sorry for the inconvenience :p
Hey Arbiter, it's about the last bug I mentionned, the one where the image size was bigger than the screen... well I've tried the old one (Sentience) again and I got the same Problem! so the problem must be my system and not your game, though I don't understand why for now :/
Hey Arb, are you gonna put free components in the pods?
h00ray, it's not just me :D
Okay dokay, it's Monday morning and I've some things to answer - so here goes...
Usako, DaoK,
Try running the game from a fresh boot. Ensure the machine hasn't been on for the past 4 weeks solid without a shutdown and you're not trying to run 2000 things in the background.
That normally solves it.
Failing that, could you tell me at what point you're getting the message (screenshot as well if poss). DaoK, if that screenshot was just slightly bigger it would have been great, but you've missed off the scrollbar at the bottom so I don't know where it's up to.
Tanus has been getting this problem as well and I'm about to knock up a debug version for him. If you (Usako, DaoK) still can't get yours to work then you can try the debug version and send me the log it will produce. I'll upload that version tonight.
Megistal,
That's really odd. It was fine before - have you changed anything on your system?
Jotaf,
No probs, download the update when you get chance - it's mostly bug fixes anyway.
And yes we will be having free components in the pods. We have a list in the Comms forum of what we're including (a couple of pages from the back I think). If you can think of anything to add then I'd appreciate suggestions.
Tanus,
Did you try the trick I mentioned? Play MP3's in the background and then try running Sentience.
cant upload anything (internet connections falls out or something :( ).
Anyway, in the 'bar' thingy is 'Loading Sounds'.
And out of memory sounds a little memory since i have 328 mb ram and my video card has 64mb. And I have about 10gig of free diskspace...
Oh well ^_^
Try playing some MP3's in the background (or something else that makes noise).
Sentience should detect that the sound card is in use and bypass sound altogether.
Let me know how you get on....
Loading sound and that crash. And I had rebooted my computer like 2 hours ago so I do not think that's the problem of my computer. I tested your program with and without that patch and I got the same error message.Quote:
DaoK, if that screenshot was just slightly bigger it would have been great, but you've missed off the scrollbar at the bottom so I don't know where it's up to.
Hope that will help you :)
still crashes whether there is something taking the soundcard or not ;).
still the same error here too ^_^. I shall try it tomorrow on some of my other computers
That didn't work either?
Arrrgh, right I'll have to produce a debug version.
Unfortunately I'm going to be out of the country for the next two weeks, so I'll have to deal with it when I get back.
Sorry you couldn't get it working - everyone else seems to have been ok, and then these crop up in quick succession.
Thanks for trying anyway guys...
Hey Arbiter! I think I've found why the screen don't show up entirely, but... it's a very odd bug :/
It's about the refresh rate...
When I use the default refresh rate of my video card, everything is fine but when I use the optinal refresh rate then the bug screen appear (the one we have discuss before)
I think it's a very odd bug but it's what I've found so far. (And it's the only setting that change between the 2 tests)
My video card is an S3 Virge 2 megs
@+
I've found another bug, this time I have a screen shot :)
Of course I've use the patched version of the game.
Settings:
1 player (Me :) )
2 Computers
everyone with the paperwork settings (100% everywhere)
the first think I did was check my resources at the wearhouse and in the wearhouse I click "components" and I got that error msg: Array out of bounds
Here the pic
I've got another "Array out of bounds" while I was waiting to play my next turn (the fourth one).
Same settings as before
1 Human
2 Computers
All paperwork group
All the map was reveal (using @ menu in the game)
Here's the screen shot:
That's good stuff Megistal, thanks.
Right, the first error is a known bug. It's caused because the component screen tries to display the first six weapons available to your faction - however, at the start, you don't have six - so it crashes. Dead easy to fix, I just need to get round to doing it. It's not a particularly intersting screen anway so you're not missing much. ;)
The second one is going to be caused the by the computers AI. The AI is a bit sketchy at the moment (I'm crap at AI programming) but it seems to do the job. It does, however, crash a bit or go into infinite loops.
I need to spend several hours running against the AI and ironing out the bugs.
You know you can play the game single player and just focus on getting to grips with the interface, building mechs, exploring etc. Or play it as two human players and have a bit of a scrap...
Arbiter, solving the "infinite loops" problem is easy - just use GetTickCount to check if the loop has been running for too long!
im getting the out of memory error when it loads the sounds...
i think its on the 3rd wav file i get that error....
please fix it coz i must try this game;)
Sorry Cyborg, it seems that everyone is getting that error. Arbiter is working on it ;)
Btw, Arbiter, when you said you are making a debug version of Sentience, I remembered that I had made a program that does exactly that a while ago - it creates a copy of the project, with error handling techniques and all that kind of stuff. It can even compile the project for you too!
It has lots of features, like the option to continue executing the program anyway and custom error descriptions that you can use in critical lines of code.
Give it a try, it might help ;)
I'm going to repeat this same post in both of the Sentience forums, just to make sure.
Arbiter is away for the next two weeks, so he isn't going to be around to answer anyones posts, and you all know that I don't get the opportunity these days to spend much time in here, so it might be a bit quiet around here for a fortnight
Please, don't think we're ignoring you- all of your input is greatly appreciated. We couldn't have got as far as we have without you all helping. And please don't stop, just because we're not here. Keep posting your code, ideas graphics and bug reports. This is what is going to make Sentience great.
Remember- the more you submit, the more important we can make you look on the credits screen ;)
Thanks all. Ill see you again soon
division by zero when creating a new mech design.
when i move a building some times when i stop it for some reason it comtinues and places a duplicate somewhere else.
I get a out of mem error (see atachment).
I get it when going into the ...loading... screen when running the .exe.
It says : " Loading sounds... " and then the error appears.
It is possible that it is my comp but i have more then enough ram so that can't be the problem.
My system :
Amd K6-2 500 mgh
256 mb ram
20 gb hd
voodoo III graphics card
Ah for **** sake.
The VBForums for some reason unsubscribed me from this thread.
And here I was thinking Sentience had died.
Stupid ****ing forum.
I tried the game on another PC (p3 800) and it worked perfectly (well...it crashed after a few minutes when I wanted to build something).
Dunno whats wrong with my pc :P
it still dont work on my computer :(
when will the debug version be out?
i tried to rename the sound files and then i renamed on at the time back to the original name...when only the 3 first waves had their original names i got the error message!
i hope that will help you...;)
A couple of points I jotted down while testing last night :
Code:1) Options screen slider for changing sound volume and what not is terrible.
Create your own or change the colours or something. Looks ghastly.
2) New Game > Map Size labels dont fit when they go bold on MouseMove
3) Right Click on unit + AI Enable dropdown list looks terrible.
Use listbox instead with fonts+colours set.
4) @ cheat screen doesnt look the may west
5) Explore map cheat doenst update the minimap immediately after cheat.
Possibly call a mapDraw() function after cheat ?
6) AutoScroll when drag scroller doodle perhaps ?
7) Some way of finding your units when they wander off.
Very difficult to spot sometimes.
8) Fog-of-war should fade back from NO_FOG -> FOG
That way when a unit moves through the fog, the fog starts to come
back just behind the unit. Imagine in real life if there's a fog
and something moves through it fast. Immediately behind the unit
would be no fog, but it would start to come back. Slow this down
for Sentience.
=> (FogDensity @ some position) InverselyProportionalTo (timeSincePassedThrough)
9) When auto-destruct a unit, the "Are you sure ???" screen looks gay.
Sound it makes isnt quite realistic for a self destruct of a warbot :)
Anim doesnt look viable either. Anim does look nice though !
10)Red Box on main map is resized *before* main map itself is resized.
Therefore you get a smaller box on the normal map for some time.
11)Source of rivers (I'm assuming they're rivers) are in the middle of lakes.
River looks ****e.
Also, the river itself is not drawn at the top of the main map area.
12)Your lead tester can be referred to as plenderj, not my full name :)
13)The update.zip update file extracts to Update\
14)GameDev.zip file extracts to GameDev\
15)Good idea showing whats being loaded etc. when Sentience is being loaded.
Perhaps would look better if you put in a textbox of sorts in there,
and then status printed into it. Make it multiline, so it kind of
resembles a corner of the console from quake.
16)*** is the sentience.pdb supposed to do ?
17)There are 9Mb of bitmap images. I have an idea of how to shrink this down.
Copy ALL the images into one big image. So it should still be about 9 megs.
Then compress this ginormous file. Use Huffman Encoding, or whatever else
you want to use. So the data file would be much smaller.
Then at runtime you decompress the file, then create device contexts from
each of the images in the large image file.
Once you've created your device contexts you can delete the extracted file.
I can code this for you if you want.
18)When loading a game the diaglog should automatically point to App.Path & "\Saves\"
instead of just App.Path
Nice list you have there! But I thought I heard Arbiter saying that "the graphics of the interface are only TEMPORARY" :p
Still, you're right in about 90% of the list :) (specially the lame messageboxes :D )
Oh, and it would be a lot better to use GIF files: they're smaller than huffmann compressed BMPs, even smaller than zipped BMPs :) , and they can be loaded by VB without any problem ;)
Well then yeah perhaps one large gif file would suffice then.
One creates a DC from that, and then blits from different areas of it depending on what you're drawing.
Though that would make it difficult to maintain. You cant just update a single part of it.... unless you made a small app and just gave along the graphic part to update, and the co-ords.
The app loads in the giant gif, then blits the new piece onto it, and then uses SavePicture to get it back to the drive...
I still think individual gifs would be simpler tho :)
Hi guys, I'm back!
I've been up for 36 hours straight at the mo, I'm jetlagged to hell and I've got to go and drop my Dad off at the hospital.
When I get back I'm going to crack open a beer, p*ss on Sentience and grab a couple of hours kip before I make any salient replies.
I did glance through your list Plend, and I'll reply shortly (when I wake up). Thanks for that.
Ciaó for now peeps!
Arbiter! Where have you been? 2 weeks is a lot of time :p
Hi guys!
Right, I'm just composing a reply to Plends big post now.
(PS, I've missed you too Jotaf... )
1) Options screen slider for changing sound volume and what not is terrible.
Create your own or change the colours or something. Looks ghastly.
Moan, moan, moan. I¡¦ll try and pretty it up later. I was more concerned with it actually working. I notice you didn¡¦t comment on what a cool piece of functionality it was¡K
2) New Game > Map Size labels dont fit when they go bold on MouseMove
It¡¦s a cosmetic. I¡¦ll fix that tonight.
3) Right Click on unit + AI Enable dropdown list looks terrible.
Use listbox instead with fonts+colours set.
How do you mean ¡¥right click on unit¡¦? You mean the context menu for the units looks naff? Well, I happen to like it! And you think the screen where you select an AI looks poor as well. I¡¦ll have a look when I get home, I¡¦ve forgotten what it looks like :sheepish:
4) @ cheat screen doesnt look the may west
Shush. It¡¦s only a tool to make testing easier. It probably won¡¦t make it to the final version. And if it does it won¡¦t be attached to ¡¥@¡¦
5) Explore map cheat doenst update the minimap immediately after cheat.
Possibly call a mapDraw() function after cheat ?
Again, it¡¦s a test tool. It doesn¡¦t have to be perfect.
6) AutoScroll when drag scroller doodle perhaps ?
WHAT????
7) Some way of finding your units when they wander off.
Very difficult to spot sometimes.
Yeah, they¡¦ll show up in the minimap eventually. I¡¦m also going to implement a unit cycle (+/- keys perhaps)
8) Fog-of-war should fade back from NO_FOG -> FOG
That way when a unit moves through the fog, the fog starts to come
back just behind the unit. Imagine in real life if there's a fog
and something moves through it fast. Immediately behind the unit
would be no fog, but it would start to come back. Slow this down
for Sentience.
„Ã (FogDensity @ some position) InverselyProportionalTo (timeSincePassedThrough)
Nice idea. We don¡¦t have fog density at the moment though. It¡¦s either there, or not there. Is implementing this going to be worth the effort. How would it benefit the player (besides looking pretty).?
9) When auto-destruct a unit, the "Are you sure ???" screen looks gay.
Sound it makes isnt quite realistic for a self destruct of a warbot
Anim doesnt look viable either. Anim does look nice though !
The screen does look gay, but it¡¦s a cosmetic. The sounds are stolen. We have no decent sounds. The anims are also only placemarkers until Behemoth knocks up some funky ones.
10)Red Box on main map is resized *before* main map itself is resized.
Therefore you get a smaller box on the normal map for some time.
Eh? Not sure I follow. I¡¦ll have a play and see if I can tell what you mean.
11)Source of rivers (I'm assuming they're rivers) are in the middle of lakes.
River looks ****e.
Also, the river itself is not drawn at the top of the main map area.
Again, eh? We have no rivers (besides tiny little ones local to map squares).
12)Your lead tester can be referred to as plenderj, not my full name
Oh, right ¡V trying to hide from the authorities eh? If that¡¦s what you wish then I¡¦ll change it¡K
13)The update.zip update file extracts to Update\
So?
14)GameDev.zip file extracts to GameDev\
And?
15)Good idea showing whats being loaded etc. when Sentience is being loaded.
Perhaps would look better if you put in a textbox of sorts in there,
and then status printed into it. Make it multiline, so it kind of
resembles a corner of the console from quake.
Might make the splash screen look a little cluttered. It is only a splash and people don¡¦t bother looking at it after the first few times anyway.
16)*** is the sentience.pdb supposed to do ?
You don¡¦t need the file. Kill it.
17)There are 9Mb of bitmap images. I have an idea of how to shrink this down.
Copy ALL the images into one big image. So it should still be about 9 megs.
Then compress this ginormous file. Use Huffman Encoding, or whatever else
you want to use. So the data file would be much smaller.
Then at runtime you decompress the file, then create device contexts from
each of the images in the large image file.
Once you've created your device contexts you can delete the extracted file.
I can code this for you if you want.
The reason that all the bitmaps are separate is for modularity. Sentience can be given a whole new look simply by changing the images in the graphics directory. If someone could be arsed you could replace the map graphics with, say, a platform terrain set and the sea with a space set of graphics. The game would look completely different. If they¡¦re all in one big file, it¡¦s nigh on impossible to do that.
18)When loading a game the diaglog should automatically point to App.Path & "\Saves\"
instead of just App.Path
You¡¦re right, sorry. I¡¦ll fix that
Right, cheers for all that Plend. I¡¦ll dig Sentience out tonight and have a bit of a fiddle. I¡¦ll try and make a dubg version as well.
Jesus what the **** is up with your characters ?
Anyway a few responses :
3) The popup menu looks the bizz, but its the actual AI screen itself that doesnt.
6) When you want to scroll the map around you can do so by scrolling the scrollbar block thing. The game only updates once you've released the block into a new position. Would be nice if it scrolled as you moved the block up/down or left/right.
10) The box that appears around things you've selected etc. on the main map is a big red box. If you resize the main map, you'll end up with a smaller red box. But the smaller red box appears before the main map has been replaced with the reduced-size version.
11) I knew I should have taken a bloody screenshot.
I was playing, and there was a blue line, sortof cyan in colour, running from the middle of a lake or body of water into the land, and then up. And about 5mm from the top of the map area this line wasnt being drawn. I assumed it was a river...
13+14) Pain in the ass to move the files around.
Sorry about the characters, I copied and pasted from Word (so's I don't have my explorer pane running all the time - I am at work y'know). Blame cheap MS rubbish...
3) You're right, I think it does need a revamp. I was more concerned with functionality at the time.
6) Good idea, I'll see what I can do.
10) Oh, ok. I'll fix that.
11) Could it have been the path for the selected unit. I can't remember if it's set to draw it even if the unit's offscreen. Failing that, I haven't the foggiest... Sorry.
13) & 14) Quit whining. Be thankful you get updates rather than having to download a fresh new version every time... You know, you could always choose 'extract to' and plonk them in the Sentience Directory.../
Okay dokey, I've uploaded a debug version of Sentience for all those who were having memory problems.
When you run it, it should create and errors.txt on the hard drive which will help me narrow down the cause of the problem. The contents might seem a little cryptic to you, but they help me.
It's also more likely to run (but will still create the file) so you may sample the delights of playing it.
On the site (www.btinternet.com/~bstap) there is a debug.zip. Download this, and extract the contents over the top of the sentience.exe in wherever you put the full version.
Run and see what happens.
If it still breaks, please post the c:\errors.txt file up her.
If it works, post the file anyway, but play the game and say 'hurrah'.
For those of you for whom the game works anyway, you needn't download the debug version.
Thanks again y'all!
I think ya broke it.
Game was working for me perfectly, but now it wont with that update.
I ran it and it started loading stuff, then got to loading help, and seemed to stop after that kind of. The label went white, and there was harddisk activity.
So I checked on what sentience was doing, and it was hammering the **** out of the c:\errors.txt file, a zipped version of which is enclosed.
6 meg file it created !
****, **** and double ****!
Plend you little leprechaun you've broken Sentience!
You know where it says 'should never get here'...?
Well, it should never get there.
I wonder what on earth it's doing? How long does it hammer the **** out of the file for? Does it stop eventually and carry on? Or does it do that 'til the end of time?
What is wrong with me? Have I lost the ability to program??
Well it just keeps hammering the **** out of the file.
The game doesnt actually load. That splash screen just goes white.
What I did was as follows :
Download the 3 zip files.
Extract GameDev. Then Update, and then Debug.
Then ran the game.
And it just kept writing to that file.
I've probably missed out a single line of code or something, but it still shouldn't do that.
Pigfluff.
Well, I'll fix that when I get in tonight. I didn't get in 'till 11 last night, but due to my dedication to all the wonderful people who test Sentience for me I plugged away at it to produce that debug version.
Not my fault if it doesn't work - I was asleep when I wrote it...
Hey think about it this way, wouldnt you prefer to be programming sentience than sharing a fudge brownie with your 400 pound cell-mate Seth ?
His name's Bubba.
And it doesn't hurt so much anymore...
Not really my scene to be honest ben :eek: :)
Hehe that eek face :eek: is the perfect depiction of that :)
You being the expert and all!
Listen here mister, what I get up to at the weekends is none of your business !
Well, I'm an idiot.
In a freak accident of nature (shoddy programming) the error routine was calling the error routine.
Nice.
Anyway, the new debug.zip is online as we speak - current version is 1.1.27.
Right then guys, the debug version might even work this time and solve all the problems in the world. If not, it will produce a errors.txt on the C drive which you can post up here for me to scrutinise.
PS - Plend, you only need to download the update or debug if you already have the core files. You don't need to download everything again. Just thought that might save you a bit of bother...
Yeah well I had wiped the original core files :)
Another session of rants and raves :
Code:1) plenderj should be all lower case on credits screen
2) mispelt 'never' on credits screen
3) New Game UI not intuitive enough
Should we click on the Xs or the ?s ?
Obviously I know we should but one may not
4) On map generation screen ;
Not obvious the different bits and pieces can be clicked
Especially the Pod option
5) *** does terraform do ?
6) Should have tooltips around.
Simply give some label a caption on MouseOver of important bits and pieces
7) Mouse pointer in game menus etc.
Eg. Hourglass when generating map
8) When resigning, do we need a MsgBox saying "You Resigned" ?
I take it that it worked for you then...
Responses:
1) plenderj can go and suck my chunk!
2) As above
3) I may consider tooltips then
4) Read the manual
5) The terraform pods are the little bonus pods. If you're not sure what terraforming is, then look the word up.... ;)
6) As 3
7) It does turn to an hourglass when generating the map doesn't it?
8) Yes. It's the end of game screen (or a precursor of). It'll eventually give you info and a overview of your game (peeps killed, faction dominance etc)