Ok, the problems you're getting when turning sound on are down to the following reason.
In the option.ini when you put the true/false in - you must leave a space after the colon.
So it would look like
Voices: True
and not
Voices:True
Printable View
Ok, the problems you're getting when turning sound on are down to the following reason.
In the option.ini when you put the true/false in - you must leave a space after the colon.
So it would look like
Voices: True
and not
Voices:True
nice with the "p" button ;)Quote:
Originally posted by Arbiter
The first is easily fixable - I think I even know what would be causing it.
The second - I have no idea about. Type mismatch you say?
I'll have a play and get back to you.
What do you think to the cool thing when you press "p"?
(anymore of those ?)
K, will take a look at it and post ;)Quote:
Originally posted by Arbiter
Ok, the problems you're getting when turning sound on are down to the following reason.
In the option.ini when you put the true/false in - you must leave a space after the colon.
So it would look like
Voices: True
and not
Voices:True
But then; Your own writeing routine is doing it wrong if this problem is the case... (U should fix it ;))
Uhhm, the 'sound'bug is gonna take some more time...
my options.ini looks like this :
then it gives the error.Code:'Sound Options
Voices: False
SFX: False
Music: False
SFXVol: 100
MusicVol: 80
SFXBal: 50
Musicbal: 50
I changed it to :
And i still get the error.Code:'Sound Options
Voices: True
SFX: True
Music: True
SFXVol: 100
MusicVol: 80
SFXBal: 50
Musicbal: 50
So, good luck :rolleyes:
Icheb
Turn music off - there is no music.
That "p" thing is pretty funky isn't it.
That's the only one at the mo, but I'll be doing some others.... :)
K, will try again later
i need to prepare for a lanparty now. ;)
So far ...
Code:Updating files *seems* faster
New UI looks very cool
Sentience loader (resolution thingie) has .Caption = "Form1"
If you move mouse to edge of screen in main menu, the menu should snap out to you, and not slowly as it does
Menu items should highlight on mouseover
Menu shouldn't float slowly out each time you go back to screen after having visited other screens and gone back
When menu coming out, if you move the mouse over at the very right hand side of the screen, the label saying Version 1.1.87 flickers I think
Options -> Get rid of common controls (ugly)
Load game on main menu shows the .SaveAs common dialog
New Game -> Stuff all looks easier to understand and better laid out etc.
I prefer the old generating map progress bars. I dunnay like the white...
What the **** does p do in the game ?
Selection thingy that appears around a unit is very cool
Started new game, moved a unit as far right as I could (still on first go). Then pressed the apostrophe button and got an overflow. Was brought back to resolution loader thingy
Points addressed in order.
Updating files *seems* faster
*Trick of the eye - I made the progress bar smoother - less jerky... ;)
New UI looks very cool
*Yep
Sentience loader (resolution thingie) has .Caption = "Form1"
*I know - that's due to be change very shortly
If you move mouse to edge of screen in main menu, the menu should snap out to you, and not slowly as it does
*Ummm, I thought the slow appearance was nice. You want it sped up?
Menu items should highlight on mouseover
*True - not yet implemented.
Menu shouldn't float slowly out each time you go back to screen after having visited other screens and gone back
*True - will be fixed shortly
When menu coming out, if you move the mouse over at the very right hand side of the screen, the label saying Version 1.1.87 flickers I think
*Well. I'd better ditch the whole Sentience engine then hadn't I? :rolleyes:
Options -> Get rid of common controls (ugly)
*As Behemoth draws buttons, I plug them in. I prob haven't asked him for these yet
Load game on main menu shows the .SaveAs common dialog
*I'll change it.
New Game -> Stuff all looks easier to understand and better laid out etc.
*We've been listening to peoples comments... ;)
I prefer the old generating map progress bars. I dunnay like the white...
*I think we'll be going back to old ones - or at least revamping these. I don't like the white either.
What the **** does p do in the game ?
*It's a taster of the first section of the particle system to be used for the special effects. :)
Selection thingy that appears around a unit is very cool
*Glad you like it :)
Started new game, moved a unit as far right as I could (still on first go). Then pressed the apostrophe button and got an overflow. Was brought back to resolution loader thingy
*Mint! Apostrophe? Wonder what that does - I'll check that out when I get home tomorrow.
I was about to try the cheat window you see, and had just seen the @ symbol on the keyboard. So I pressed it. Then I remembed that it's the @ symbol and not the ' that was needed, so I was about to do Shift + ' when it crashed.
Next installment ;
Code:FPS + rendertime should be a debug mode/cheat thing
Anno Aurora / energy / build queue values should be in a line / column
If you click on a unit, rename it, the name doesn't update in info pane on right automatically.
Have to click on another building/unit + click back on that unit
All menus etc. in game *seem* very slow
I made a small map, was in the bottom right-hand-corner of the map, the zoom in/out
button did not work. Zoomed out completely, and when zoom back in was zoomed
in in top-left corner
Apostrophe caused overflow again
"Sun stealer" in bottom right hand corner of senlauncher.
*** is that ?
Choosing a faction very slow ...
Streaming text for describing faction in 'Pick Players' stops when you re-open
a faction-chooser-window-dooda. Can be fixed. Check latest version of Craft
for how I fixed this. Should be in the space station interface thang.
Rename unit form should be replaced by a nice graphical version instead
Added max number of players to a game, chose different factions for them, picked up a
v.small map, did generate, and got a type mismatch runtime error
After crash, launcher was still running. Selected 1024*768, game loaded into 800*600
in upper-left corner of desktop. Quit + reloaded from loader and game now
800*600 centred in black background.
Game flickers a lot between desktop + game when loaded from launcher first.
Possible fix; make a large black backdrop + make it fullscreen. Then load
game on top of that. That way never see desktop when loading etc.
Quitting launcher + going back in does not fix problem as described in bug before last
Use a higher colour depth so can use better shading on image [sentience:] in main menu ?
After quitting from game + launcher, resolution not fixed. Resolution was 1024*768
but still stuck in 800*600 mode.
Rebooted system, ran launcher, selected 1024*768, ran the game, but still loading in 800*600
Turned on sounds in options.ini, got an error couldn't find a file ;
c:\jamie\gamedev\sounds\maimnmenu.wav
But file doesnt exist anyway
The OK button on that form does nothing
Run senLauncher a second time and got an error ; "Sorry, you can only run it once..."
or something similar. I thought it was bad grammar...
There's also a Stop statement in senLauncher if senLauncher is running already
senLauncher should switch into previous copy of the launcher running like winamp does
Tried to run sentience then again and got an error missing file ; graphics\temp.bmp
MousePointer also a hourglass on form for above error
If after sencore starts loading you click on a senLauncher it steals + keeps focus
+ stays on top even after sentience is loaded.
Why are you using Crypt32.dll ?
Don't use GetSetting/SaveSetting for registry entries. 'tis gay
Settings stored in ; HKEY_U\.DEFAULT\Software\VB + VBA Program Settings\Sentience
Even though complains about not finding graphics\temp.bmp, it reads/loads the entire file
You must not be checking the error number. ie. assuming a file not found error
You using WinTrust ?
Cheers Irish!
Points addressed in order
FPS + rendertime should be a debug mode/cheat thing
*Okay dokey. I only wanted it there so peeps could report the FPS's to me.
Anno Aurora / energy / build queue values should be in a line / column
*They should be - what resolution was this at?
If you click on a unit, rename it, the name doesn't update in info pane on right automatically.
Have to click on another building/unit + click back on that unit
*Added to bug list
All menus etc. in game *seem* very slow
*Not sure I follow. Slow to load? Slow to respond to clicks?
I made a small map, was in the bottom right-hand-corner of the map, the zoom in/out
button did not work. Zoomed out completely, and when zoom back in was zoomed
in in top-left corner
*Don't follow. I made some changes to the zoom in/out button. It's behaving a little erratic at the moment.
Apostrophe caused overflow again
*Added to bug list
"Sun stealer" in bottom right hand corner of senlauncher.
*** is that ?
*3 points to Plend, he's the first to notice. Sun Stealer's a little critter that sits behind the scenes monitoring and manipulating things.
Choosing a faction very slow ...
*Which part of choosing a faction?
Streaming text for describing faction in 'Pick Players' stops when you re-open
a faction-chooser-window-dooda. Can be fixed. Check latest version of Craft
for how I fixed this. Should be in the space station interface thang.
*Hummm, ok. It should be easy to fix anyway. You want it to continue then?
Rename unit form should be replaced by a nice graphical version instead
*Eh? Oh right, the form looks pants right? It's just the logon wizard produced form if I remember... :rolleyes:
Added max number of players to a game, chose different factions for them, picked up a
v.small map, did generate, and got a type mismatch runtime error
*Wonderful. I'll try and reproduce that. Where exactly was the type mismatch? Billiseconds after you clicked the button?
After crash, launcher was still running. Selected 1024*768, game loaded into 800*600
in upper-left corner of desktop. Quit + reloaded from loader and game now
800*600 centred in black background.
*You're not, at any point, running the game manually are you? The game should always be run from the run button on the launcher.
Game flickers a lot between desktop + game when loaded from launcher first.
Possible fix; make a large black backdrop + make it fullscreen. Then load
game on top of that. That way never see desktop when loading etc.
*There is - the backdrop is set to the size that Sentience is 'supposed' to be running at.
Use a higher colour depth so can use better shading on image [sentience:] in main menu ?
*The problems not with the colour depth, the image is blitted on top of the main menu - it's a seperate image. Transparently blitting it doesn't help either. Behemoth will be drawing a new image for this at some point.
After quitting from game + launcher, resolution not fixed. Resolution was 1024*768
but still stuck in 800*600 mode.
*Oh dear. It's got confused as to what the res should be then.
Rebooted system, ran launcher, selected 1024*768, ran the game, but still loading in 800*600
*As above. I'll look into this. Rats!
Turned on sounds in options.ini, got an error couldn't find a file ;
c:\jamie\gamedev\sounds\maimnmenu.wav
But file doesnt exist anyway
*You turned on music. There is no music. Turn music back off.
The OK button on that form does nothing
*What form?
Run senLauncher a second time and got an error ; "Sorry, you can only run it once..."
or something similar. I thought it was bad grammar...
*I'm lectured on grammer by a Mick. Whatever next!?!
There's also a Stop statement in senLauncher if senLauncher is running already
*Added to bug list
senLauncher should switch into previous copy of the launcher running like winamp does
*Added to bug list
Tried to run sentience then again and got an error missing file ; graphics\temp.bmp
*Added to bug list
MousePointer also a hourglass on form for above error
*Added to bug list
If after sencore starts loading you click on a senLauncher it steals + keeps focus
+ stays on top even after sentience is loaded.
*Added to bug list
Why are you using Crypt32.dll ?
*I'm not. :confused:
Don't use GetSetting/SaveSetting for registry entries. 'tis gay
Settings stored in ; HKEY_U\.DEFAULT\Software\VB + VBA Program Settings\Sentience
*So? At least they're stored. Better than 400000 lines of code to put them somewhere else.
Even though complains about not finding graphics\temp.bmp, it reads/loads the entire file
You must not be checking the error number. ie. assuming a file not found error
*Careless.
You using WinTrust ?
*Nope. Wassat?
Some replies ;
Code:Anno Aurora thing. Same thing in 1024*768 and 1280*1024 I believe. The numeric values themselves just werent above one another...
All menus in game slow etc. They're slow to load. Like very slow.
This could have just been my laptop though ...
Zoom in/out thing.
In previous versions of sentience, when you zoom out, everything gets smaller, and the minimap box resizes ok.
In this version, when you zoom out, the minimap box went map, and there was nothing to see on the game area. When you zoom back in, it zooms back into the wrong area.
Choosing factions. Well clicking on the button and then clicking on the faction image...
I like the streaming text. I think you should fix it.
The type mismatch was after it generated the map.
Right before it was about to show it, it bombed.
"The OK button on that form does nothing
*What form? "
The form that tells you its missing mainmenu.wav or whatever
For the [sentience:] image thing I was referring to that gradient in the background. Its gradiated into chunks, not a nice smooth gradient.
For some reason SenCore was using Crypt32.dll and also the WinTrust dll.
Oh yeah and somewhere you asked if I was running game manually. No I always ran it from senLauncher.
Quote:
Originally posted by plenderj
Some replies ;
Code:Anno Aurora thing. Same thing in 1024*768 and 1280*1024 I believe. The numeric values themselves just werent above one another...
*Added to bug list
All menus in game slow etc. They're slow to load. Like very slow.
This could have just been my laptop though ...
*Slow the first time, or slow every time? What are you laptop spec's?
Zoom in/out thing.
In previous versions of sentience, when you zoom out, everything gets smaller, and the minimap box resizes ok.
In this version, when you zoom out, the minimap box went map, and there was nothing to see on the game area. When you zoom back in, it zooms back into the wrong area.
*With you now - added to bug list
Choosing factions. Well clicking on the button and then clicking on the faction image...
*First time or every time?
The type mismatch was after it generated the map.
Right before it was about to show it, it bombed.
*Added to bug list
"The OK button on that form does nothing
*What form? "
The form that tells you its missing mainmenu.wav or whatever
For the [sentience:] image thing I was referring to that gradient in the background. Its gradiated into chunks, not a nice smooth gradient.
*Is your desktop resolution set high enough?
For some reason SenCore was using Crypt32.dll and also the WinTrust dll.
*Ummm, it couldn't have been. I haven't even heard of these before - what the hell's WinToss.dll?
Oh yeah and somewhere you asked if I was running game manually. No I always ran it from senLauncher.
*Great. Added to bug list.
Ho ho, Behemoth's finally started sending me some more graphics.
When the next version goes up it should be even prettier than the current one!
nice one :)
There's also tons of new functionality going in behind the scenes.
In your extensive testing I imagine you created a spy satellite to explore with Plend - or didn't you find that?
I'm also adding an infiltration screen, tidying up the faction details screen and adding in ranged combat.
That will be the first view of the particle engine working!
Oh yeah the spy satellite. Made about ten of them... er ... ;)
They're special projects so you can only build one of each (Spy Satellite and Observation Platform).
Did you even find the special projects screen?
Before you go rushing off to play :rolleyes: - if you want to start a project then you'll need to twiddle some settings.
Right click on the Admin building and choose HQ overview.
There are two sliders there for allocating your industry and research. You'll need to play with these as nothing goes towards projects by default.
I normally manage to break it before I get into any kind of depth with the fiddling. I'll have a more in-depth fiddle-session (with sentience that is) tonight ;)
You shouldn't be able to break it completely unless there's a computer player running. If you manage to get Sentience to error so bad that it quits then point this out straight away as it shouldn't do that!!
well already pointed out the subscript out of range error
That's true - I've already attacked your bug list with gusto.
This is all that's left:
Menu mouseover buttons light
Change common controls on options
Type mismatch when all factions are selected on v.small map just before game commences
sLauncher cocking up the resolution
sLauncher should not steal focus if senCore is running
Screen not moving controls properly on res change
zoom in/out flawed
Didn't I already tell you not to name it GameDev? There's already a GameDev, and I use it... http://gamedev.sourceforge.net/
I don't like it when two freeware apps have the same name. It causes problems :P
I just tried out GameDev aka Sentience, and I have a number of bugs to report:
The game doesn't switch to the resolution you chose in the startup until you create a new game. Is that normal?
The game runs SLOW. at 1280x1024, the main map ran at 3fps. And that was before I moved anywhere... O_o I have an Athlon XP 1800 and a Kyro 2, it shouldn't be THAT slow.
The UI isn't very polished... you combine your graphical buttons with normal ones, etc... The options screen won't display anything other than sound options, the other 3 buttons do nothing.
It wasn't very obvious to me how to start playing once I got in, and I'm a civilization/civilization2/alpha centauri fanatic, so I'm used to this sort of game... but I didn't see anything obvious. Do you select units and use the arrows to move?
[edit]
I was looking through your images folder, and it looks like each button is a graphic... bad idea, why don't you make a UserControl that replicates that look instead? It'd be much smaller, you'd use less space.
[/edit]
[edit 2]
Uhh, why is the graphics folder 13mb? :eek: You should at least make some of your images GIF or JPEG files, VB can decompress them internally, and they are MUCH smaller.
And Sentience's core EXE is 2mb... you should remember that every byte of your application is loaded into memory when it is run. So if you're storing large amounts of data as resources, you may want to reconsider that...
[/edit]
Heres a very annoying bug (screenshot)
Also, Why use Windows controlls inside of DirectX mode? Or is the whole game a GDI one? I think I posted here before but forgive me if I am causing any problems... I want to try out this game, the last time i tried it, it crashed right away. I will not complain because my computer is a cheap piece of crap, but I play many games so... at least something.
Quote:
Originally posted by Janus
I just tried out GameDev aka Sentience, and I have a number of bugs to report:
The game doesn't switch to the resolution you chose in the startup until you create a new game. Is that normal?
Yep
The game runs SLOW. at 1280x1024, the main map ran at 3fps. And that was before I moved anywhere... O_o I have an Athlon XP 1800 and a Kyro 2, it shouldn't be THAT slow.
It runs at 15fps on my Athlon 700 and a 32mb Riva TNT2. It clocks about 50-60fps at 800x600. You're not running shed loads of stuff in the background are you as that will slow it down considerably. Quit all programs before running Sentience
The UI isn't very polished... you combine your graphical buttons with normal ones, etc... The options screen won't display anything other than sound options, the other 3 buttons do nothing.
I know - it's not complete yet. The bits where there are normal buttons are the bits where Behemoth hasn't done the graphics yet. Probably because I haven't asked him to :rolleyes: . Anyway, they're getting sorted over time. And the options screen is nowhere near done yet as I keep adding new options. :)
It wasn't very obvious to me how to start playing once I got in, and I'm a civilization/civilization2/alpha centauri fanatic, so I'm used to this sort of game... but I didn't see anything obvious. Do you select units and use the arrows to move?
Did you follow the tutorial? Tut tut, it tells you how to move a unit in that. I think. It's a similar concept to SMAC but it's quite a bit more complicated. Have a play around an see what you can do - we're writing some instructions for it soon
[edit]
I was looking through your images folder, and it looks like each button is a graphic... bad idea, why don't you make a UserControl that replicates that look instead? It'd be much smaller, you'd use less space.
[/edit]
It's so the game is customisable. The game can be completely changed by altering the scripts and the graphics. If we decided to make it a medieval version then we need merely replace those and it would look completely different! :)
[edit 2]
Uhh, why is the graphics folder 13mb? :eek: You should at least make some of your images GIF or JPEG files, VB can decompress them internally, and they are MUCH smaller.
And Sentience's core EXE is 2mb... you should remember that every byte of your application is loaded into memory when it is run. So if you're storing large amounts of data as resources, you may want to reconsider that...
[/edit]
Nothing is stored in a resource file. The only things included there are in the frx and that's the splash background screen and a couple of tiny 20x20 graphics on some controls. The rest is code (over 29000 lines worth). Bear in mind you will have only seen a tiny fragment of the game so far - based on your previous comments - there's bogloads to do even now but the trick is finding it... ;)
Interesting. This has never happened for me - I'll put in a blind fix for the next release...Quote:
Originally posted by Gaming_World
Heres a very annoying bug (screenshot)
Thanks for pointing it out. :)
Well, try redownloading it again and let me know what happends when you run it. If it breaks, remember to take screen shots so I can tell what's happening.Quote:
Originally posted by MoMad
Also, Why use Windows controlls inside of DirectX mode? Or is the whole game a GDI one? I think I posted here before but forgive me if I am causing any problems... I want to try out this game, the last time i tried it, it crashed right away. I will not complain because my computer is a cheap piece of crap, but I play many games so... at least something.
And the game doesn't use DirectX for the graphics, merely for the sound.
Ben, ever thought about splitting the code up into DLLs ?
Forgot to answer this - the reason is because we need the pixel perfect quality on the pictures for the transparency engine.Quote:
Originally posted by Janus
[edit 2]
Uhh, why is the graphics folder 13mb? :eek: You should at least make some of your images GIF or JPEG files, VB can decompress them internally, and they are MUCH smaller.[/edit]
If we save them as jpg then some of the 'transparent' pixels will deviate from the 'transparent' colour which will completely cack the game up.
Athlon XP 1800
768MB DDR Ram (266mhz)
Hercules 3D Prophet 4500 (64MB Kyro 2)
1280x1024: 2-4 fps
800x600: 20-35 fps
The framerate is probably because you use GDI, it's NOT designed to be high performance at that resolution ;) GDI is best for games at 800x600 and below, anything above will be far far too slow.
By the way, if you use GIF files the colors will stay the same, for the most part. Just specify your transparent color as a transparent color, and it will be preserved in the image... or mess with the palette.
PNG's are even better, but not intrinsic to VB.
Janus,
That's madness.
You have a machine there that could clearly be the next Echelon system and yet you're getting 2-3 fps.
Even on my machine I'm getting 15 at that res so there has to be something with your setup.
Like I said, did you have a million things running in the background. Sentience is designed to run on it's own from a clean boot, so if you have 6 IDE's and 22 IE's running, plus Outlook, GetRight, Morpheous and strip poker, then don't expect the world from it.
People slate the GDI something chronic, but it's really not that bad when you use it properly.
Try running Sentience on it's own and let me know how you get on - I honestly can't believe that the monster PC you have is running it slower than mine!
PS - it's moot really as you only need 5fps to actually play the game (for the animated buildings updating at 200ms intervals) - the rest is just overkill. I merely wanted to see how it performs on different machines. :)
As long as you're getting 5+ fps the game is running fine.
If they use gifs, then if they ever wish to sell the game, they have to legally pay for permission. JPG is free, but it may cause problems as Arbiter said. Therefore, bitmaps are the logical choice.
COMPUTER:
I have a P3 1ghz
255 MB memory
SPEEDS:
1280x1024 - 15 FPS
800x600 - 20 FPS
That is after my comp has been up for several days/weeks (anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 days). And with 90% of the processor free.
Also, a bug:
If I set the resolution at 1280x1024 (in the launcher), when I exit the game I am at 800x600 (out of the game), but if I set it at 800x600 (in the launcher), it changes back to 1280x1024 (out of the game).
Well, the resolution changes are damn wacky, they don't work right at all.
I could have sworn I wasn't running anything else, but I can't remember for sure... I tried it more than once.
Perhaps I should try running at a different bitdepth?
Also, the menu sliding in in the opening is excessively slow as well. Perhaps my GDI support isn't as fast as yours? (I doubt it... Fury2 gets more than 300fps blitting a 320x240 image using GDI)
[edit]
I can say for sure nothing else was on screen, and that my CPU usage would have been 5% or below. The only things i usually keep open are ICQ, AIM, and Winamp3 (all minimized), and they normally only use about 5% cpu in total, at most.
[/edit]
That was also at 32 bit color mode.
Janus, Try shutting down ICQ, as I know that has caused many problems with my comps (i never did get it to stay up for more then 1 hour at a time on any of my comps). If that doesn't work, you may want to try a reboot.
What ever happened to PNG's?? They are 100% free and the API is being released along with its source code to the world. So why not use it? It will solve everything from filesize to quality to template sollutions!
Give it a shot.
Search for "libpng" on google and see what you come up with.
I've had a couple of complaints with the res changes - I'll have to look into that.Quote:
Originally posted by Janus
Well, the resolution changes are damn wacky, they don't work right at all.
I could have sworn I wasn't running anything else, but I can't remember for sure... I tried it more than once.
Perhaps I should try running at a different bitdepth?
Also, the menu sliding in in the opening is excessively slow as well. Perhaps my GDI support isn't as fast as yours? (I doubt it... Fury2 gets more than 300fps blitting a 320x240 image using GDI)
[edit]
I can say for sure nothing else was on screen, and that my CPU usage would have been 5% or below. The only things i usually keep open are ICQ, AIM, and Winamp3 (all minimized), and they normally only use about 5% cpu in total, at most.
[/edit]
I have no idea what the problem is with the speed then, like I said, it runs fast enough on my Dev machine and that's got nothing like the specs of yours. Maybe you have a bottleneck somewhere?
Ideally, you should butcher everything else before running Sentience, but as I said - it only needs 5 fps to play properly - anything else is a bonus.
Precisely. :)Quote:
Originally posted by Gaming_World
If they use gifs, then if they ever wish to sell the game, they have to legally pay for permission. JPG is free, but it may cause problems as Arbiter said. Therefore, bitmaps are the logical choice.
One problem with my logic: Evatuatlly, the game will get to big to d/l. Then, you will have to e-mail all the testers cds so that they can test the new versons, unless you begin to use an update file again.
One more problem:
Your D/L page SUCKS. (look at the planet wars one, and it only took me 5 mins, and less then 1 for each new update [asside from uploading the update itself])