[Forge]

Who's going to fix the DNE maps?
I remember beta-testing the 1.3 version and DanM getting all butt-hurt over the amount of things I found. He fixed a majority of the level breakers, but his ego over his work got in the way and he snubbed me.

Like 1stmarine noticed; there are still some messed up walls that are either blocking and shouldn't be - or are not blocking and should be (-among other things-)

[Danukem]

Forge, on 13 July 2016 - 08:03 PM, said:

Who's going to fix the DNE maps?
I remember beta-testing the 1.3 version and DanM getting all butt-hurt over the amount of things I found. He fixed a majority of the level breakers, but his ego over his work got in the way and he snubbed me.

Like 1stmarine noticed; there are still some messed up walls that are either blocking and shouldn't be - or are not blocking and should be (-among other things-)

As far as I know, the maps aren't broken, aside from a few trivial and easy to fix problems which won't involve altering his vision in any way. In other words, anyone could do it, and it shouldn't be any more controversial than when someone makes similarly trivial changes to include an episode in the Add-On Compilation. Heck, maybe he'll want to do it himself. I'll bring it up to him when I actually have something to show. My focus will be mainly on the code side of things (both scripting and content definition). I'm not going to even think about touching the maps until I have the episode running and I have finished my end of it.

[Forge]

Trooper Dan, on 13 July 2016 - 09:16 PM, said:

As far as I know, the maps aren't broken, aside from a few trivial and easy to fix problems

I don't recall if I played the 2.0 version, so I can't say if the issues got fixed or not.
I also wouldn't say the maps are "broken" as they are playable, but If they didn't get "repaired" there are some places where portions of maps can be skipped, and some background scenery areas can be gotten into to.

also that was rude of me to say his ego got butthurt. The initial relationship started out fine; I'd report my findings and he would respond with, "good catch, fixed". It degraded over a couple weeks to where he'd say, "I don't care about that", and finally to the point where he stopped replying entirely. Then he released it without a word to me while I was still beta-testing. I don't know what was going on in his life at the time and maybe he was having personal problems. Also I don't care that he didn't give me any credit, but I put a lot of hours in to help him out and I didn't even get a simple "Thanks". Maybe I'm the one butthurt.

[LeoD]

Trooper Dan, on 12 July 2016 - 07:34 PM, said:

Right. So here's my current plan. I'm going to work on bug fixes and making renderer neutral improvements to existing features. When I say "improvements" I'm talking mostly about easy stuff, like reducing the number of jibs to help eliminate lag spikes. That's phase 1 and it shouldn't take very long. I will release the results of that as the last "regular" version of DukePlus.
In phase 2, I'm going to make Duke Nukem Eternity an episode you can play in DukePlus -- The DukePlus Eternity Edition (or something like that). That will require putting the DNE fonts and some other assets in DukePlus, thereby eliminating what remains of 8-bit support and making it an HRP mod. That will be the version I will continue to support when PolymerNG is released, and I plan to update it to work well with the new renderer.

TenTwenty upvotes from me if only I could...

Trooper Dan, on 13 July 2016 - 10:17 AM, said:

As for Imperium: that's a good idea, but it may actually be more difficult to do. They were working on Imperium for a long time before they decided to use DukePlus with it, and it has custom art which may cause tile number conflicts. I'll look into it.

Please consider Overkill Beta as well. Its custom ART could easily dealt with using the ART-per-map feature. OK1-OK3 are like release-ready IMO, besides one of the nuke buttons being too hard to use. OK4 desperately needs more ammo in the first section, though.

Trooper Dan, on 13 July 2016 - 07:11 PM, said:

So, does anyone remember any general DukePlus bugs that haven't been mentioned so far?

Sometimes when you encounter a group of troopers, one or two of them become invisible and can only be killed by explosives. I think only the red ones are affected and maybe only if spawned instead of pre-placed. Happened to me twice when playing Sanek's DoomBOX, but it's not exactly reproducible.

[Danukem]

LeoD, on 15 July 2016 - 12:49 AM, said:

Sometimes when you encounter a group of troopers, one or two of them become invisible and can only be killed by explosives. I think only the red ones are affected and maybe only if spawned instead of pre-placed. Happened to me twice when playing Sanek's DoomBOX, but it's not exactly reproducible.

Damn, I had forgotten about that. I think it has to do with troopers cloaking, and then resuming their regular behavior without uncloaking. There is some code in the "advanced AI" block which all enemies can use, and it can change behavior -- I probably allow that to happen without checking for cstat. At least that's my theory; I definitely want to fix it.

Here is what I have done so far:

DukePlus version 2.40 update

Maintenance fixes: These are things that used to work and got broken over time
-includes "NixFix" pack from LeoD (various fixes, mostly relating to model defs from changed HRP assets)
-fixed the next/prev weapon switching bug when player had expander
-Cycloid at the end of Dukecide map is now killable again
-Gore chunks are now the correct pal again (this means, for example, that frozen enemies spawn frozen chunks)
-Decals (rocket scorches, bullet decals) will now spawn slightly away from surface to prevent flickering
-Shell casings will stop spinning a few seconds after hitting the ground

Other changes:
-Removed hiss from step sounds
-Reduced number of gore chunks (still plenty though!)
-Increased reloading speed on mp5, and startup of reload on cruizer shotgun
-Duke's jump grunts are much less frequent
-Added game speed adjuster to the Environment submenu (rename of weather menu)
-Secondary fire on FreezerPlus shoots only 2 ice shards instead of 3, but they do slightly more damage; this makes the primary fire more attractive, as it should be
-Fixed HUD position and related text position for the MonCapsules (the optional tripbomb replacement that allows capture and release of monsters, pokemon style)

[TheDragonLiner]

Nice !
Can't wait to see the release ^^

BTW the prev/next weapon bug you mention is also present in Attrition but it affects weapons 7 to 0 IIRC.

[Danukem]

TheDragonLiner, on 15 July 2016 - 01:24 AM, said:

Nice !
Can't wait to see the release ^^

BTW the prev/next weapon bug you mention is also present in Attrition but it affects weapons 7 to 0 IIRC.

The bug is caused by code that makes the player switch to weapon 0 so that the player will switch to the laser pistol (which has the mighty boot slot, normally skipped). At some point EDuke32 weapon switching was improved to go from shrinker to expander and then up to devastator etc., instead of only passing through either shrinker OR expander. But internally, this is non-sequential since the shrinker is weapon 6 and the expander is weapon 11. That improvement in EDuke32 actually broke my code. Anyway, yeah, it's exactly the same bug.

[LeoD]

- Normal / roundhouse kicks show different pants.
- Checkpoint save entries show up slightly displaced in the map load menu (could be an EDuke32 issue, though)
- One issue described via PM
- Finally, I dug up an old post of mine...

[Danukem]

LeoD, on 15 July 2016 - 04:00 AM, said:

- Normal / roundhouse kicks show different pants.
- Checkpoint save entries show up slightly displaced in the map load menu (could be an EDuke32 issue, though)
- One issue described via PM
- Finally, I dug up an old post of mine...

I checked out the old posts and made a few changes. It's hard to tell whether I actually fixed anything. As for the kicks: the HRP front kick is never going to look the same as the sidekick animation I made. Ideally, I would remake the sidekick AND the front kick so that they match, and override the HRP front kick (which has never looked very good, although it looks better than it used to).


I have updated Fissile Materials with a download of DukePlus 2.40 beta: http://fissile.duke4...e_dukeplus.html

I fully expect that there are more bugs, but I would like to give everyone access to the mod in its current state. Also, I realized that I will probably find more general things that I want to change when I get around to working on DNE inclusion. So, I'm not going to make the release of 2.40 official until both versions are ready.

[Lightning_Hunter]

Thanks for getting this out so fast! I played a bit tonight, and most of the bugs seem to have been addressed. However, something strange I noticed is that I will sometimes randomly get electrocuted while playing. For example, I will be walking through a door or under a light (or just anywhere at all), and my screen will light up as if I'm walking on a subway track, and my health will reduce a bit. Any idea what this is all about? Is there a new attack by a certain monster that causes this? If so, I have no clue how to avoid it, or what monster is carrying out this attack.

Edit: Nevermind, I guess it is some kind of new flash grenade that the pig cops fire? How do you avoid them?

[Danukem]

Lightning_Hunter, on 15 July 2016 - 10:00 PM, said:

Thanks for getting this out so fast! I played a bit tonight, and most of the bugs seem to have been addressed. However, something strange I noticed is that I will sometimes randomly get electrocuted while playing. For example, I will be walking through a door or under a light (or just anywhere at all), and my screen will light up as if I'm walking on a subway track, and my health will reduce a bit. Any idea what this is all about? Is there a new attack by a certain monster that causes this? If so, I have no clue how to avoid it, or what monster is carrying out this attack.

Edit: Nevermind, I guess it is some kind of new flash grenade that the pig cops fire? How do you avoid them?

That's not new -- it's part of the "advanced AI" option and has been around for a long time. You can disable that option in the Enemies menu. They don't throw the grenades very often.

[Lightning_Hunter]

Trooper Dan, on 15 July 2016 - 10:23 PM, said:

That's not new -- it's part of the "advanced AI" option and has been around for a long time. You can disable that option in the Enemies menu. They don't throw the grenades very often.

Well, it is new to me because I don't think this feature was in Duke Plus when I last played it. Either that, or I didn't have it enabled back then. I think the last version I downloaded was sometime in 2008 or 2009. Anyway, I am just getting used to the Smart AI.

[LeoD]

[nitpick]pre-release to-do list:
- remove all Thumbs.db
- dukeplus.def : echo correct DP version
- DUKEPLUS.CON/setgamename : insert correct DP version
[/nitpick]

[Danukem]

LeoD, on 16 July 2016 - 03:05 AM, said:

- remove all Thumbs.db

Where? I can't find any.

EDIT: Also, I plan to remove the reference to "NixFix" from the cons/defs. You are of course welcome to add them back in if future versions of NixFix are needed, but in the mean time I feel it is potentially confusing. I'll add you to the DukePlus credits, though.

EDIT2: I have DNE 2.0 integrated into DukePlus now (it was pretty easy actually), but I'm getting 10-20 fps on the first map, and that's with only 2 lights per surface. I'm trying to decide what to do about this. I don't believe that optimizing my code is going to help much. Maybe I should wait until PolymerNG is released before spending any more time on this.

[LeoD]

Trooper Dan, on 16 July 2016 - 05:09 AM, said:

Where? I can't find any

Try dir "DukePlus 240" /S /A:H from the command line. Those file have the hidden and system attributes set and get in the way when moving or deleting the DukePlus folder. I assume some file browsing or image viewing programs create them in the background. In an MSYS2 shell, find "DukePlus 240" | grep Thumbs.db gives:

Spoiler

DukePlus 240/DukePlus/dukebike/Thumbs.db
DukePlus 240/DukePlus/DUKEPLUS_RESOURCES/GRAPHICS/civilians/Civ1/Thumbs.db
DukePlus 240/DukePlus/DUKEPLUS_RESOURCES/GRAPHICS/civilians/Civ2/Thumbs.db
DukePlus 240/DukePlus/DUKEPLUS_RESOURCES/GRAPHICS/civilians/Civ3/Thumbs.db
DukePlus 240/DukePlus/DUKEPLUS_RESOURCES/GRAPHICS/civilians/Civ4/Thumbs.db
DukePlus 240/DukePlus/DUKEPLUS_RESOURCES/GRAPHICS/civilians/Civ5/Thumbs.db
DukePlus 240/DukePlus/DUKEPLUS_RESOURCES/GRAPHICS/civilians/Civ6/Thumbs.db
DukePlus 240/DukePlus/DUKEPLUS_RESOURCES/GRAPHICS/civilians/Civ7/Thumbs.db
DukePlus 240/DukePlus/DUKEPLUS_RESOURCES/GRAPHICS/damages/Thumbs.db
DukePlus 240/DukePlus/DUKEPLUS_RESOURCES/GRAPHICS/MAP_EFFECTS/models/beds/Thumbs.db
DukePlus 240/DukePlus/DUKEPLUS_RESOURCES/GRAPHICS/MAP_EFFECTS/models/black_hawk/Thumbs.db
DukePlus 240/DukePlus/DUKEPLUS_RESOURCES/GRAPHICS/MAP_EFFECTS/models/br_generator/Thumbs.db
DukePlus 240/DukePlus/DUKEPLUS_RESOURCES/GRAPHICS/MAP_EFFECTS/models/br_rubble/Thumbs.db
DukePlus 240/DukePlus/DUKEPLUS_RESOURCES/GRAPHICS/MAP_EFFECTS/models/br_worktruck/Thumbs.db
DukePlus 240/DukePlus/DUKEPLUS_RESOURCES/GRAPHICS/MAP_EFFECTS/models/couches/Thumbs.db
DukePlus 240/DukePlus/DUKEPLUS_RESOURCES/GRAPHICS/MAP_EFFECTS/models/Thumbs.db
DukePlus 240/DukePlus/DUKEPLUS_RESOURCES/GRAPHICS/MAP_EFFECTS/Thumbs.db
DukePlus 240/DukePlus/DUKEPLUS_RESOURCES/GRAPHICS/MAP_EFFECTS/water/Thumbs.db
DukePlus 240/DukePlus/DUKEPLUS_RESOURCES/GRAPHICS/new_explosions/expl1/Thumbs.db
DukePlus 240/DukePlus/DUKEPLUS_RESOURCES/GRAPHICS/new_explosions/expl2/Thumbs.db
DukePlus 240/DukePlus/DUKEPLUS_RESOURCES/GRAPHICS/Thumbs.db
DukePlus 240/DukePlus/DUKEPLUS_RESOURCES/GRAPHICS/WEAPONS/ImpGun/Thumbs.db
DukePlus 240/DukePlus/DUKEPLUS_RESOURCES/GRAPHICS/WEAPONS/Minigun/Thumbs.db
DukePlus 240/DukePlus/DUKEPLUS_RESOURCES/GRAPHICS/WEAPONS/Thumbs.db

Trooper Dan, on 16 July 2016 - 05:09 AM, said:

EDIT: Also, I plan to remove the reference to "NixFix" from the cons/defs.

Of course - that's what I meant when asking for 'correct' versions, besides incrementing to 2.4x. I put that in to remind users they aren't running the official release. Btw, a maybe useless reminder - there is a line in USERPLUS.CON which appears to reference to the version number as well (no idea if actually used) :

definequote 1013       ^7DP 231

Trooper Dan, on 16 July 2016 - 05:09 AM, said:

EDIT2: I have DNE 2.0 integrated into DukePlus now (it was pretty easy actually), but I'm getting 10-20 fps on the first map, and that's with only 2 lights per surface. I'm trying to decide what to do about this. I don't believe that optimizing my code is going to help much. Maybe I should wait until PolymerNG is released before spending any more time on this.

Agreed. (Gives me time for another look at my half-baked Eternity NixFix from last year.)

One more thing to consider for all maps made for the HRP/DukePlus: in 2013 the HRP representations of tiles #1275 and #1276 were switched. So all #1275/#1276 occurrences in maps designed with/for the HRP prior to 2013 should be switched as well.

[Danukem]

LeoD, on 16 July 2016 - 03:20 PM, said:

Try dir "DukePlus 240" /S /A:H from the command line. Those file have the hidden and system attributes set

*facepalm*

Found and removed! Thanks.

LeoD, on 16 July 2016 - 03:20 PM, said:

definequote 1013       ^7DP 231

That displays on the screen for a few seconds after starting a game. I updated it to 240.

***

In other news, I'm pretty sure that I will wait on releasing an Eternity edition until I can use PolymerNG. Below I discuss the performance issue so it's clear why that makes sense.

I am by no means anti-Polymer and it runs fine for me on some projects. But on DNE it is atrocious, and since DNE is designed for Polymer that is a deal breaker. I tried using it and the only thing that made any significant difference was the presence of dynamic lights. I played around with changing screen resolution, the presence of models, CON code, number of lights per surface, 8-bit versus HD textures, and a few other things, and nothing really made much of a difference.

My system specs are CPU i5-4200M at 2.5ghz (2 cores), GPU Geforce GT 750 (x2 with SLI). So my CPU is weak compared with GPU, which is a problem because Polymer is very CPU intensive and leaves the GPU idling a lot. This is on a lenovo laptap, which I don't use for gaming much aside from older games (I have a PS4 for newer stuff).

Anyway, for comparison here is what I get from a certain spot in Lights Camera Action (first level of DNE) using Polymer with lights on:



That's 11 fps! Terrible.

In this next shot I turn off lights.

With lights off in Polymer I get 35fps. Still pretty terrible, not to mention pointless.

Ah, but in Polymost it's a different story.

Here I get 361fps. So my framerate in Polymost is 1000% better when compared to Polymer without lights.

[Lightning_Hunter]

No idea if this is related to Duke Plus or not - but when a Battlelord dies, it becomes a sprite. Any clue why this is?

Also, is there a way to disable the Battlelords from dropping the Miniguns? Although it's a nice idea, I was trying to disable all new weapons to keep Duke3d faithful. I have a feeling it has to due with Enhanced AI, but I really don't want to disable all the Enhanced AI effects just to stop the minigun.

[Danukem]

Lightning_Hunter, on 18 July 2016 - 07:50 AM, said:

No idea if this is related to Duke Plus or not - but when a Battlelord dies, it becomes a sprite. Any clue why this is?

Also, is there a way to disable the Battlelords from dropping the Miniguns? Although it's a nice idea, I was trying to disable all new weapons to keep Duke3d faithful. I have a feeling it has to due with Enhanced AI, but I really don't want to disable all the Enhanced AI effects just to stop the minigun.

I edited the battlelord dead body sprite so that it has no minigun. That's the sprite you see when it dies and drops the minigun (otherwise there would be 2 miniguns -- one that is part of the sprite, and one you pick up).

And yes, this is associated with the advanced AI feature. Unfortunately, decoupling it from that feature would require adding yet another option to the menu which is a pain because of the way it is set up. In the next update I will have it display the dead battlelord as normal, so it will show the normal model when using the HRP. Originally I had hoped there would be a version of the model without it holding the gun, but that never happened.

[Lightning_Hunter]

Trooper Dan, on 18 July 2016 - 11:43 AM, said:

I edited the battlelord dead body sprite so that it has no minigun. That's the sprite you see when it dies and drops the minigun (otherwise there would be 2 miniguns -- one that is part of the sprite, and one you pick up).

I see. I actually don't think this is a big deal, because most games have monsters still holding a gun after dropping one as a pickup. I think the default model would be ok.

Quote

And yes, this is associated with the advanced AI feature. Unfortunately, decoupling it from that feature would require adding yet another option to the menu which is a pain because of the way it is set up. In the next update I will have it display the dead battlelord as normal, so it will show the normal model when using the HRP. Originally I had hoped there would be a version of the model without it holding the gun, but that never happened.

Is there maybe a way I can edit the CON file myself for the time being and just remove the Minigun altogether? I see this paragraph, but I don't know enough about coding to know which part to erase:

    {
	    espawn MINIGUNSPRITE
		setactorvar[RETURN].peractor4 13
		ifvarn rendmode 4
		cactor BOSS1CORPSENOGUN
		else
		cactor BOSS1CORPSE
	}

[Hendricks266]

Trooper Dan, on 18 July 2016 - 11:43 AM, said:

Originally I had hoped there would be a version of the model without it holding the gun, but that never happened.

If I still had the version of Blender with the perfectly working MD3 importer set up from when I did the "render all the pickups for the HUD" project, it would be trivial to make a separate model of the dead frame(s) for you by deleting the minigun.

Though I do know Python now...

Lightning_Hunter, on 18 July 2016 - 06:21 PM, said:

Is there maybe a way I can edit the CON file myself for the time being and just remove the Minigun altogether? I see this paragraph, but I don't know enough about coding to know which part to erase:

    {
	    // espawn MINIGUNSPRITE
		// setactorvar[RETURN].peractor4 13
		// ifvarn rendmode 4
		// cactor BOSS1CORPSENOGUN
		// else
		cactor BOSS1CORPSE
	}

[Mark]

I deleted all but the final frame and removed the gun. Is this of any use yet? Or do you need the entire animation stream with no gun?

Attached thumbnail(s)

• 

[Lightning_Hunter]

Thanks Hendricks. That also fixed the dead sprite bug. I hope there are no ill-effects with those changes though.

[Danukem]

Mark., on 18 July 2016 - 06:43 PM, said:

I deleted all but the final frame and removed the gun. Is this of any use yet? Or do you need the entire animation stream with no gun?

That should be fine, but, I'm not sure if I want to go forward with it. As Lightning pointed out, it's normal for Duke and other games to have dead enemies drop weapons and still be holding them. Also, with future HRP revisions I would be obligated to update the weaponless battlelord model, and that's not something I can be counted on to do.

Lightning_Hunter, on 18 July 2016 - 06:44 PM, said:

Thanks Hendricks. That also fixed the dead sprite bug. I hope there are no ill-effects with those changes though.

The only downside is you will have to comment out the weapon spawn again when you download an update.

[Mark]

OK. Just keep me in mind if you have a need for these minor types of things. This took only a couple of minutes to do.

[Lightning_Hunter]

Trooper Dan, on 18 July 2016 - 07:06 PM, said:

The only downside is you will have to comment out the weapon spawn again when you download an update.

No big deal. I don't mind editing it each time if nobody else cares about these issues I have brought up. It might be too much work for you to just satisfy one person.

Edit: I just noticed that the Battlelord "Boss" (found in Spin Cycle for example) still drops a Minigun and has a sprite animation at death. Does anyone know where to change this code? I think there is a normal battlelord, and a battlelord boss.

[Danukem]

Lightning_Hunter, on 18 July 2016 - 07:29 PM, said:

No big deal. I don't mind editing it each time if nobody else cares about these issues I have brought up. It might be too much work for you to just satisfy one person.

Edit: I just noticed that the Battlelord "Boss" (found in Spin Cycle for example) still drops a Minigun and has a sprite animation at death. Does anyone know where to change this code? I think there is a normal battlelord, and a battlelord boss.

Are you sure you didn't reach the boss by loading a saved game that was created before you made the edit? There is only one battlelord actor and only one place in the code where it spawns that gun.

[Lightning_Hunter]

Trooper Dan, on 18 July 2016 - 07:56 PM, said:

Are you sure you didn't reach the boss by loading a saved game that was created before you made the edit? There is only one battlelord actor and only one place in the code where it spawns that gun.

Hmm, well I killed myself at the start of Spin Cycle in order to do a pistol start, but maybe that did not reset it?

[Danukem]

Lightning_Hunter, on 18 July 2016 - 08:58 PM, said:

Hmm, well I killed myself at the start of Spin Cycle in order to do a pistol start, but maybe that did not reset it?

New CON code goes into effect only if you start a new game. Dying and resetting does not count.

[Lightning_Hunter]

Trooper Dan, on 18 July 2016 - 09:43 PM, said:

New CON code goes into effect only if you start a new game. Dying and resetting does not count.

Thanks, you are indeed correct.

The only other bug I am noticing so far is with the new Octabrain pull attack. Twice now, I have squished against the wall while they are pulling me in, causing instant death. I like a lot of the new attacks, but I don't think I am a fan of this one. Quite often, something will go really wrong while they are pulling me in, and I end up dying somehow. Is there a way to disable this attack editing cons, similar to the Battlelord?

[Danukem]

Lightning_Hunter, on 19 July 2016 - 09:55 AM, said:

Thanks, you are indeed correct.

The only other bug I am noticing so far is with the new Octabrain pull attack. Twice now, I have squished against the wall while they are pulling me in, causing instant death. I like a lot of the new attacks, but I don't think I am a fan of this one. Quite often, something will go really wrong while they are pulling me in, and I end up dying somehow. Is there a way to disable this attack editing cons, similar to the Battlelord?

That's a case where I actually need to work on it. I like the concept, but you are right -- it causes problems. If the Octabrain only does it at close range, then it's less likely to be a problem. Ideally I want it to pull the player into the Octabrain's bite, not into walls. I'll also look into the movement mechanism -- I should be using the x and y vels on the player, not using movesprite (movesprite effectively teleports sprites, which could lead to squishing). and to try prevent the player from getting squished.