[Caleb280]

ETTiNGRiNDER, on 09 May 2015 - 05:51 PM, said:

Do the sprites just disappear visually, but they're still there (like in Doom engine games) or do they actually get removed from the game?

They disappear visually. Sprites limit is not yet reached. I will post a link to my map. But I have to find it first.

[TerminX]

Sounds like you might need to bump MAXSPRITESONSCREEN in build.h.

[Hendricks266]

TerminX, on 10 May 2015 - 05:52 PM, said:

Sounds like you might need to bump MAXSPRITESONSCREEN in build.h.

Only if he is compiling BUILD from source too (plus v5 --> v7 compatibility changes), rather than linking with the provided v5 object files.

[Corvin]

I believe EG tried updating the BUILD portion of the game, but he has to learn it more.

Where would he get the OBJ files for v7, from the Duke3D code?

[Caleb280]

Corvin, on 11 May 2015 - 10:58 AM, said:

I believe EG tried updating the BUILD portion of the game, but he has to learn it more.

Where would he get the OBJ files for v7, from the Duke3D code?

I'm waiting for updated version of Whaven2 Build. Without Sector/sprites limit. Mapster32 sorta works but It's impossible to edit in 2d mode since every sidedef/linedef/sprite/sector is in black colour.

[Hendricks266]

Corvin, on 11 May 2015 - 10:58 AM, said:

Where would he get the OBJ files for v7, from the Duke3D code?

No, he would have to start from Ken's source release and add the necessary infrastructure to compile the Witchaven game code (v5) with that version of the engine (v7). It would be similar changes to what JonoF did with JFBuild while working on JFTekWar, though not as drastic because you would still be building for DOS.

[Corvin]

Oh your talking about WH1. I think JonoF tried to compile it(WH1), but only got so far. Same with EG and WH1.
Just getting WH1 to run without crashing is a problem.

[Hendricks266]

I use "Witchaven" to refer to both games.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

Going just by the map format, Witchaven I is v6 and Witchaven II is v7. However, there were changes to BUILD after Witchaven II that are rather problematic to upgrading Witchaven II to the engine as released for KenBuild. I did at one point get an upgraded Witchaven II running on the newer BUILD, but with severe gameplay problems (collision detection was messed up such that you could walk through any sprite and couldn't hit anything with your attacks--the way to update collision checking described in the BUILD docs didn't seem to work.) However, using the .OBJ files provided in Les Bird's source dump worked fine after fixing a few small errors in the game code.
Witchaven I is a whole different problem in that the source release seems to be just plain broken, the version of BUILD that comes with that package produces an error. When I used a replacement file to get it to a state that was runnable at all, it was unplayably messed up (trying to access the menu from in game always triggered the "must be on ground" failure and entering a special sector resulted in instant death.)

I do plan to get both games working on the newer BUILD engine at some point (which will provide a good lead-in for a Windows version) but wanted to bug-fix with a working version first before having to fix new problems. There are still a few minor fixes to be addressed for the next version but as far as I know I've patched up the most severe Witchaven II bugs by now, so I might start trying to tackle bigger porting again in the version after that.

As for expanding the visible sprite limit, worst case it's a "wait for the update to the newer BUILD source" but I may be able to patch in an increase sooner with a hex edit, depending on how complex the limiting functions actually are.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

In related development, I've released a first version of some tools to pack/unpack the JOESND / SONGS / etc. type archives. You can find binaries/source on my Witchaven patches and utilities page as well as some notes on the format on the map editing and modding page. These should be at least partly applicable to Tekwar as well.

[Corvin]

I was thinking, to add the Sound Names from the WH1 or 2 src code, maybe there should be a command line switch as each game will have its own name list, including tekwar and WH1Demo. Not to mention each SND Archive.
Just throwing it out there, or just make a .h file for each from the src sound names.??

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

I will probably make it possible to specify another optional file that would have a list of the names to output to, yes.

[Caleb280]

ETTiNGRiNDER, on 25 May 2015 - 05:23 PM, said:

I will probably make it possible to specify another optional file that would have a list of the names to output to, yes.

Anything new?

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

With regards to the JOE-tools, nothing new. With regards to EGwhaven, I put in a few minor fixes about a month ago (fixed the range of jukebox shuffle, prevented gore from sticking on sky "ceilings", made automap respond to arrow keys even if you changed your movement controls) but otherwise mainly internal stuff like documenting things and cutting out code that doesn't do anything. There were still a couple more things I wanted to attempt before putting out the next release.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

After various delays, I'm finally releasing EGwhaven v0.5.
The project also has a new home and can now be found at the following location, so make sure to update your links and bookmarks accordingly: http://ettingrinder....h-egwhaven.html

New to this version:
- Potion display no longer flickers when dead in SVGA mode.
- Gore splatter no longer sticks on sky "ceilings".
- You can navigate the automap with arrow keys even if you remapped your movement.
- Jukebox "shuffle" button will now pick from all 15 levels, not just the first ten.
- Slight tweak to spell aiming to account for imps' short stature.
- You will no longer get stuck on a black screen at the end of a level if the game fails to load STAIRS.SMK.

Code-side, I have also cleaned up some clutter in the source files and started some more detailed documentation of how the game works internally, which can be found in the code release package.

As always, let me know if you encounter any previously unknown bugs. I'm thinking to make another attempt at patching the code to the latest BUILD engine source one of my next priorities.

[Corvin]

Just released is a Witchaven DeHacker Patcher program for WH1:

http://ctpax-cheater...trouble.htm#wh1


Witchaven

DeHacker for the first part Witchaven. The utility is written in collaboration with Corak the Avatar (search for new versions of the game, the adaptation of offsets under them and testing). DeHacker similar to existing PowerSlave / Exhumed (see. Article), so that confine list of features with a brief explanation.

For a start - The supported version of the game (file WH.EXE):
# Name size date
1 Witchaven from retail CD 1.0 675280 1995.09.04 00:34:18
2 Witchaven Cheat Patch 1.0 696011 1995.10.12 17:49:36
3 Witchaven Updates 1.1 621249 1995.11.08 15:21:00
4 Witchaven VFX1 Headgear 1.1 708021 1996.01.09 10:09:30
5 Witchaven for Dwango 1.1 775163 1996.01.12 11:25:10
6 Witchaven from sources 1.1 765149 1996.03.05 10:19:38

Where these versions can be taken - see. "WTCHDEHK.TXT" in the program archive.


Description patches themselves:

+Disable MSCDEX check (nocd)
Disables driver MSCDEX - the game will be thrown out if the driver is loaded and no game disc.

+Revert [Mouselook] logic
Overview of the mouse will always be included - no need to keep all the time the key "F".

+Increase mouse vertical speed
Increasing the speed of review with the mouse vertically.

+Invert mouse on vertical axis
Overview of the mouse vertically turns (inverted).

+Revert [Run] logic
The player will always run, run until the key is not pressed (the logic of this key is reversed), ie, now do not need all the time to keep this key pressed.

+Increase horizontal turn speed
Increased speed turns horizontally (useful for viewing the mouse).


The program is very simple: numbers from [1] to [X] choose the desired action.
ENTER - save and quit,
ESC - exit without saving changes.
The sign [] means that the patch is disabled (the game runs as in the original), and the sign [!] - On the contrary, that the patch included.

DeHacker v1.0 Witchaven (9780 bytes)

The archive contains the source code for TP7, and the executable file for DOS. Before starting the program it is necessary to put in the catalog of games!

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

Not strictly EGwhaven news, but I've done a couple of Witchaven-related things recently:

First, my walkthrough now covers all the levels of both games. I may have missed some secrets here and there since there's no official secret tally; let me know.
http://ettingrinder....alkthrough.html

I also got hold of a copy of the "Witchaven" tabletop RPG supplement from Wyrm Works to investigate possible relation to the video game; my findings can be seen here.
http://ettingrinder..../wh-trivia.html

I've had to move to a different e-mail address recently, so if you need to contact me, use PMs or the e-mail link from the front news page on my site; the address given on the other pages or in my downloadable files might be the defunct one.

[Daedolon]

As mentioned, was just poking to find some high res ones (no go on Death's End so far) just few weeks ago.

Death's End (1992)


Field of Fury (1977) [click for hi-res]

[Moggimus]

I'm so glad I discovered this, thank you ETTiNGRiNDER. I can finally play through WH2. I was able to complete WH1 several years ago but WH2 had too many issues for me to deal with at the time. The biggest issue I remember was the jumping being very broken, so I'm grateful for that big fix. Again I much appreciate you working on this, so thank you.

I do have a small wishlist:

- Add a toggle key for vertical mouselook ('U' by default in Duke3D)

- A new setup utility that allows changing all of the controls (I'm sure that would be a simple task... /sarcasm)

- I think the weapon ranges could be increased (at least some of them). It's easy to take a lot of hits trying to use the shorter weapons and feels a little janky in my experience. A lot of the time I feel like I'm close enough to hit an enemy (with say, the broadsword or flail) but I miss. I guess you could argue that being one of the drawbacks of using the shorter weapons but I think they could use at least a small boost.

- Windows port. I realize this is a long term goal, and for now I'm just glad the game is in a much more playable state.


Here's hoping you might also be able to get WH1 working at some point as well. Thanks for your efforts thus far.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

moggimus, on 18 July 2016 - 01:50 PM, said:

I'm so glad I discovered this, thank you ETTiNGRiNDER. I can finally play through WH2. I was able to complete WH1 several years ago but WH2 had too many issues for me to deal with at the time. The biggest issue I remember was the jumping being very broken, so I'm grateful for that big fix. Again I much appreciate you working on this, so thank you.

You're welcome!

Quote

- Add a toggle key for vertical mouselook ('U' by default in Duke3D)

Hmm. I thought there already was one, but I'll look into it.

Quote

- A new setup utility that allows changing all of the controls (I'm sure that would be a simple task... /sarcasm)

This one's on the agenda to be done ASAP.

Quote

- I think the weapon ranges could be increased (at least some of them). It's easy to take a lot of hits trying to use the shorter weapons and feels a little janky in my experience. A lot of the time I feel like I'm close enough to hit an enemy (with say, the broadsword or flail) but I miss. I guess you could argue that being one of the drawbacks of using the shorter weapons but I think they could use at least a small boost.

When/if I get some sort of stat patching for things like this that are currently hardcoded, it would be possible to mod something like that.

Quote

- Windows port. I realize this is a long term goal, and for now I'm just glad the game is in a much more playable state.

On the list, but don't hold your breath. It'll depend on how easily I can merge the code into something like JFBuild. The music and cinematics are the biggest potential problems due to the formats they use and I'm not sure yet just how much of a bitch they'll end up being.

Quote

Here's hoping you might also be able to get WH1 working at some point as well. Thanks for your efforts thus far.

I've tried a bunch of things over time, from commenting out stuff that was breaking the compile to digging up the old version of Watcom that Les Bird's page says was used, and nothing's gotten me a WH1 build that wasn't broken in some way (the closest I got was something that would load, but inexplicably crashed once the game got started). I think the only hope left for the WH1 code is in picking it apart and putting it back together again piece by piece to try to isolate the issues, in other words, it'll probably be a task on similar scale to doing a Windows version.

[sirlemonhead]

I had a quick look at the Witchaven 1 source from Les Bird's website.

I got it compiled and it seems to run OK.. Menus and everything seems to be fine? What am I missing?

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

sirlemonhead, on 21 October 2016 - 01:09 PM, said:

I had a quick look at the Witchaven 1 source from Les Bird's website.

I got it compiled and it seems to run OK.. Menus and everything seems to be fine? What am I missing?

Are you SURE that you actually compiled a new build of the EXE and didn't just use the one that came pre-built in the run directory?

[sirlemonhead]

ETTiNGRiNDER, on 23 October 2016 - 03:49 PM, said:

Are you SURE that you actually compiled a new build of the EXE and didn't just use the one that came pre-built in the run directory?

Yes. My wh.exe is 2kb smaller than the original due to me commenting out the stuff that uses the commlib library (was too lazy to go locate that)

I'll post up what I have later when I'm home from work.

What version of Watcom did Les use to compile WH1, do you know? I've some variant of version 10 - I'll check what it is later.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

According to his site, Watcom v9.5.

Did you make any other changes besides commenting out the commlib-related stuff? (I believe the relevant files for those #includes can be found in the GCL520H directory in the Witchaven II source but weren't included in the Witchaven I package for some reason).

Also make sure the game itself actually plays and doesn't freak out. Just the menu screen coming up isn't enough; I got sent some fixes by Adam Biser that go deeper into some things that were broken (like incorrect map loading, apparently).

[sirlemonhead]

You're likely right.

My .exe is actually a fair bit smaller. Can you try it and let me know if it's broken or not? https://dl.dropboxus...itchaven/wh.zip

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

I've gone ahead and released a new EGwhaven build since it's been a long time and there are some new fixes I want to push out (special thanks to Adam Biser for figuring a few of these out). Consider this release to be somewhat experimental, though, especially the Witchaven I version. There may be a few regressions in WH2 compared to v0.5 so if v0.5 was working well for you, you might want to hang onto it (old version downloads will remain on my site).
What's new:
- The project is now split into two versions: one for Witchaven I and one for Witchaven II.
- EGWH1 gets some fixes to clock speed issues and the treasure chest bug as with WH2. GAME and WARP parameters have also been backported.
- EGWH2 gets some fixes to clock speed issues and the stuttering cinematic bug should be fixed/reduced.

You can find it at the usual place:
http://ettingrinder....h-egwhaven.html

Let me know if there are any new bugs appearing that haven't previously been an issue.

sirlemonhead, on 24 October 2016 - 09:23 AM, said:

My .exe is actually a fair bit smaller. Can you try it and let me know if it's broken or not? https://dl.dropboxus...itchaven/wh.zip

Huh, on a quick look it does seem to work fine (aside from issues that were in the vanilla EXE as well.) Do you know what the exact Watcom version you used was?

[sirlemonhead]

Watcom 10.6

Here's my source archive: https://dl.dropboxus...tchaven/SRC.rar

I've dumped their makefile system. To build wh.exe and whbuild.exe (I got the editor working) just type 'wmake'.

I'd recommend running it at 320x200 as the svga stuff is a little flaky I think? (certainly in the editor..)

Just to say, the wh.exe I sent you was made with their original makefile setup. I changed things after

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

sirlemonhead, on 24 October 2016 - 02:51 PM, said:

Watcom 10.6

Here's my source archive: https://dl.dropboxus...tchaven/SRC.rar

Watcom 11.0c (what I've typically been using for building these) gets this error, so yours does seem to be reliant on the older version, barring further fixes:

Quote

whinp.def(4): Error! E1062: Inconsistent return type for function 'keytimerstuff'

[TheDragonLiner]

Hello !

I've finally managed to get the EGWhaven to work with my Whaven 2 and I have one question to ask and a remark or two ...

1_ How is the Ankh item supposed to work in the second game ?
Because in the first game it set you 250HPs if I recall correctly while in the second game it sets you to 125HPs even if you were higher.

2_ The fix about sounds being stuck into a loop in the second game seems to still be present but way less frequent and it fixes itself alone after a few minutes or another sound same type occurred. I used to just have to press Esc, wait and carry on (this technique doesn't work in EGWhaven but no need in the end)
BTW, if it may help, I got that bug after I went in an enchantment altar.

3_ I don't know if intended but it appears the annoying glitch about health potions is fixed (basically when you use a health potion and the result is any higher than your max HP you would be thrown back to 30HP or so instead of being capped at your max HP).


I tried running the first game but it tells me "program abnormally terminated", I guess I'll have to find myself a new ROM.

I'm sorry if my post feels like a "necro-bump" of some sort.

[Daedolon]

The Ankh is supposed to give you 250 health according to the manual.