TA3D 0.4.1 TEST 7

[zuzuf]

So, a new test release, what does it bring ?

AI should work on windows, and all random behaviors (particles emission, ...) should be perfectly random now. Pathfinding is a lot faster (it does less useless calculations and there is a new call manager to prevent too much units to call the pathfinder at the same time and slow the game).

some GUI functions were slow, so I added a cache to speed things up. Planes shouldn't get locked out of the map. Lots of tests were assuming UNIT::flags to be 0 only when the unit doesn't exist, which is a bit more complicated, so now those tests are fixed. Code is more thread safe, should be faster too on multi CPU/cores machines. Compilation errors with Allegro 4.2.0 are fixed. I updated the FMOD version used by my win32 binaries (under Linux it fixed some sound bugs). Some code weaknesses are fixed in the weapon/unit collision mechanism. blah blah all is in the Changelog. Also menus should load less CPU and be more reactive.

download it there:
TA3D 0.4.1 TEST 7

Have fun !!

[Balthazar]

Well, you are right I`m really gona have fun RIGHT NAO!!!

[Balthazar]

Yes, now it is really looks like it should to I`ve played several games and was quite impressed.

Also - Zuzuf we should be able to set start resources above 10000. For example - 50000 max of each. At least for AI testing purposes, since it is not learned how to get metal yet.

There several annoying units stucking, but you`ve noticed it yourself, but pathfinding looks much better.

Well, i`m going to play a little more, before doing other tests.

[Balthazar]

And two more things -

1. Zuzuf, make shore waves (and ship waves) an option, so players can turn them off when they want to. Still there are many of people who don`t like waves no matter how they looks.

2. Zooming in should be changed. I suggest use fixed angle when zooming in with fixed view, something like 45 deg, and ability to get very close to unit. I`ve been complaining about it for a long time, maybe now the time to fix it come

[zuzuf]

yes, waves can easily be made an option, and I'll remove obsolete options.

Zooming mode can be made an option, but I'll have to code alternative behaviors.

Anyway you're right this must be done before official 0.4.1 release.
Since it seems stable as it is now, I'll add those few things, fix bugs you'll find this week, and code should be ready for release. But in order to release 0.4.1 we'll need updated documentation (sorry but since GUI has changed screen shots are obsolete ).

I've been thinking that we could release a video too showing how things are now.

[Balthazar]

I`ll see what I can do to improve documentation section.

About Video - it is really MUST HAVE thing
I`ve tryed to create it a few times, but my PC can`t withstang huge amount of screenshots, captured by video shoot command. Windows really not as fast as it could be sometimes

[Balthazar]

Also, about bugs - http://ta3d.sourceforge.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=376 here`s still plenty of them.
Hope we`ll have some more in different mods, since I`ve posted new thread on tauniverse.

[zuzuf]

hm, maybe I can add support for on the fly video encoding. the video recorder is slow because of hard disk write speed : 15 * 150Ko/sec = 2.25Mo/Sec. but this is random write access !! So it's much slower than writing everything into a big file. Or maybe I can tune it a bit.

Yes I still have bugs to fix with mods, some work for this week end (for now I have exams )

[Balthazar]

Yeah, maybe you can add direct video encoding to some raw format, that can be re-converted later to something more suitable for internet.

Good luck with your exams!

[zuzuf]

no it's not possible to use raw format since it would require 20Mo/sec to write all the data on the hard disk... a basic encoder can easily reduce that to a few Mb/sec.

I'll see if I can use some lib to do the job. If I find one, then it will be a compilation option because I don't want to add more dependencies.