TA3D 0.4.2 TEST 11

[zuzuf]

It's out !!!

with lots of changes since previous TEST 10 :
* fixed crash when you only have totala1.hpi & totala2.hpi as resource files
* added entry for campaign screen in main menu (shortcut : C)
* support for campaign mode (mission, objectives and all)
* we now have a working campaign screen
* added mission briefing screen with planet animation and landscape panning
* bug fix in cTAFileParser (to allow reading all the files we want)
* fixed pause not showing the resume button when clicked
* buffer overrun bug fixed in EngineClass module (whole game should be more stable)
* some fixes for mingw32 port
* bug fix in minimap loader (now its size is detected properly)
* small bug fix in UnitEngine module (thread safety bug)
* added new lua functions to allow InitialMission to be converted to a lua script
* put -lalleg**** as the last parameter of the compiler line when building ...
* when you win in campaign mode it displays the glamour image when present
* some improvements to draw_text_adjust to make the mission orders scroll when clicked
* adding some files for a campaign main menu
* improved WEAPONS module (added a hashtable to find weapons with their name)
* added progress bar animation for WEAPONS, FBI and TDF modules
* added a small limitation in the progress bar animation update in 3DO module (do not update too often ...)
* warning fixed in hash_table.h (when used with non-pointer types)
* in FBI, TDF, GUI, 3DO modules : using hash tables to index stuffs and speed up things
* in TDF module : do not generate textures for features before we need to draw them (speeds loading!!!)
NB: with -g -O0 as compiler flags, cold start = 43 sec. (first launch because it creates the cache), normal start = 23 sec. !!!! Oo

* compilation warning fixed thanks to Doors. -1 is replaced with std::string::npos to check find failing to do the job
* improved visiblity test complexity, was O( distance from camera ), now it's O(1) with a small constant

It should load much faster !! With only totala1.hpi, totala2.hpi, totala4.hpi, rev31.gp3, ccdata.ccx, ccmiss.ccx it takes 16 sec. to load once the cache has been built (it's done the first time you start a game). Whil building the cache it took 23 sec ...

Also you'll need mission resource files if you want to play campaign mode otherwise it'll say "no campaigns". Those files are totala4.hpi for TA (CD2) and *miss.ccx files for Core Contingency and Battle Tactics. It should be able to read mods campaigns as well (I haven't done much testing with mods and campaign ...).

like for TEST 10 you have 4 packages:
TA3D 0.4.2 TEST 11 source
TA3D 0.4.2 TEST 11 win32
TA3D 0.4.2 TEST 11 linux32
TA3D 0.4.2 TEST 11 linux64

[yoshi314]

cool! when's next stable release planned for?

[zuzuf]

we have to update documentation before releasing and do some testing with new features and also update the package installer so it can install campaign data and handle all the existing TA CDs (TA, TA::BT, TA::CC).

Once it's done we'll release. Since I am on vacation next week it'll probably released next week .

But I need someone to update the documentation and some testing reports too .

There is also something lacking in campaign support : features that are described in *.ota files aren't created on the map ... it requires some new lua functions and will be implemented soon

[Wong8egg]

Hi, I just found ta3d couple days ago, and although I haven't able to play a game without cashing so far, but I would like to show my support to you guys anyways.

Thanks for bringing me back to TA, and I will look forward to your future release!

Good work. Keep it up!

[Balthazar]

Yehaa!!! We`ve got a huge celebrations in Russia - 23 feb - day of military defender. And now new release is ready I`ll try to update documentation today-tomorrow, since it looks like really ready to reach next version.

Also - Zuzuf - i require full list of console commands, since I may not have the recent ones.

[Balthazar]

Hell, it`s so FUCKING AWESOME!!!! Zuzuf, I`m crying of happiness. WOW, hella great work!!!! And trees are very pretty! We can also add animation to this trees, so it all will look really alive!
If I ever`ll go to France - I`ll buy you a good cup of beer

[zuzuf]

Trees can be animated using default animation system ... so we can simulate wind

I'll also replace the burnt trees models for our new trees (it's still using the old burnt model ... which isn't very realistic when you burn a forest ...).

here are the full list of console commands :
fps_on / fps_off : activate/deactivate fps counter
zshoot : take a screen shot of the depth buffer
video shoot : take a screen shot every 1/15th sec. (video mode )
shoot : take a single screen shot
reload shaders : reload the vertex & fragment programs used for water and details texture
show mission info : prints current mission and mission flags of the selected unit
view debug : draw on minimap the area that's computed by the renderer
ia debug : show debug info about AI
internal name : display the short name of the selected unit
internal idx : display the index of the selected unit
exit : leave the game
wireframe : toggle wireframe mode
priority n : set main thread priority to 0 (low - normal), 1 (medium) or 2 (high - might slow down the rest of the engine)
water quality n : form 0 to 4 (0 - low, 1 - normal, 2 - high, 3 - higher, 4 - extreme (3 but with reflection on water))
shadow quality n : quality of shadows (if you want them smooth)
shadow ray n : smoothness of shadows
shadow : toggle shadows
details : toggle details texture
particle : toggle particles
waves : toggle waves on coasts
show script : display scripting info about selected unit
show model : display 3D model info about selected unit
rotate light : make the sun light rotate
shake : make the screen shake like when a big weapons detonates
freecam : toggle free camera mode
fps_limit : limit the frame rate (<= 0 means no limit)
spawn UNIT player_id nb : spawns nb units of type UNIT for player_id, if UNIT isn't a correct unit type it spawns units of random type
timefactor s : set game speed
addhp h : add h hit points to selected units (can be negative)
activate/deactivate : activate or deactivate selected units
reset_script : reset selected units's script environment
unitinfo : print info about selected units to the console
kill : kill selected units
script n : start script n on selected units
pause : toggle pause/resume game
give metal/energy/both player_id amount : give amount of resources to player_id
metal : toggle infinite metal cheat
energy : toggle infinite energy cheat

I also have updated the lua_prototypes.txt file that list all the lua functions that can change or read things from the engine.

Balthazar : I would be pleased to meet you if you come to France

Wong8egg : glad to hear you want to help !! How did it crash ? Did you have an error message ? can you send us (not post) your ta3d.log file ?

NB : TEST 11 has features that are still experimental ... campaign mode isn't finished yet (a few things remaining that doesn't prevent playing) and hasn't been fully tested (If someone could test all the campaigns and check if you can lose/win every mission that would be great, because defeat/victory conditions aren't easy to implement ). But 0.4.2 should become "stable" shortly, and we'll fix all reported bugs

[Balthazar]

Thanks! But I don`t notice this thing in this release

* added progress bar animation for WEAPONS, FBI and TDF modules

I`ve thought that it`ll be something like in TA - several progressbars, that fills one after another. Is that correct?

[zuzuf]

no there is still one progress bar but it wasn't updated for those modules. It was even worse because during loading process of these modules it was flipping the buffers so it had some strange effects in full screen mode (when it really flips the buffers instead of copying the back buffer over the displayed buffer). Now the progress bar is really drawn correctly even if those modules now load quickly.

How long does it takes for you to load a game ?

PS: the resource installer now supports all the TA CDs (CD 1&2 of TA, Battle Tactics CD, Core Contingency CD), and doesn't crash when it cannot open a file.