Release v1.2

All discussion about the Commander Genius project (a Keen interpreter + more).
gerstrong
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Release v1.2

Post by gerstrong »

Remember this?

Image

After having released Commander Genius verison 1.0 and we really worked hard on it, of course there are plans for next release.

I cannot tell much about what will come but I can tell two things that sure will be a fact:
  • 1.- The development time for this release will be much shorter
    2.- Keen 5 will be fully functional
The reasons for the long development cycle of the last version are explained in another topic here. https://pckf.rigeltechnical.com/viewtopic.php?t=2600

So what are the main things that need to be done in order to get Keen 5 into CG? Well, we have the engine that runs Keen 4 and it is improved upon. So, what is missing, are the features as follows:
  • 1.- All the enemy sprite objects and its AI
    2.- Platform improvements
    3.- Bridges improvements
    4.- Item mapping
    5.- Teleporters
    6.- Fuses
    7.- Way to finish the game in the last level
What has been done but it's not so well known:
  • 1.- Sprite objects like platforms are in fact loaded and work already, but all the enemies are missing
    2.- The platforms with tracks which Keen 4 do not have also work already. They have had some bugs, but they are fixed
    3.- Well the bridge-logic in Keen 4 is applied and seems to work somehow. Nevertheless it is very broken
    4.- Some item are correctly placed others aren't. Not a big issue
    5.- Elevators on the map work, teleporters are broken but detected
    6.- Just like normal tiles, they can't be broken yet
    7.- Well, and you cannot finish the game
While pushing release 1.0 I worked on some features to get Keen 5 so far it can at least open the game, map and all levels. They really work wonderful and thank to the engine, also music is heard and some wrong played sounds are also fixed now.

Where most of the work must be invested is on the AIs. Thanks to Lemm we have the dissassembly and some discompiled code, so we can move on, on that. Most of the code will in fact base on this.

Of course we will be fixing bugs you might encounter on the past release.


Btw. release 1.0 is out! Check out the announcement https://pckf.rigeltechnical.com/viewtopic.php?t=2569 or here the download page http://clonekeenplus.sourceforge.net/download/
Having fun developing stuff...
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Re: Release v1.2

Post by Keening_Product »

gerstrong wrote:
  • 2.- Keen 5 will be fully functional
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHcN4Gm8tzM


The new loading bars are well integrated, by the way.
Keening_Product was defeated before the game.

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gerstrong
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Post by gerstrong »

Happy New Year and let's move on.

Remember those issues I had?


1.- All the enemy sprite objects and its AI
2.- Platform improvements
3.- Bridges improvements
4.- Item mapping
5.- Teleporters
6.- Fuses
7.- Way to finish the game in the last level

What so far is done as follows:

1.- The only enemies that are missing are Spindred, Shikadi mines, Shikadi Master and Shelley. So watch out!
2.- Platforms work perfectly. Even the switchable ones.
3.- Full bridge support
4.- Item are all now correct listed and handled
5.- Elevators and teleporters work. The inlevel teleporter need to be support yet
6.- Fuses can now be broken
7.- Still you cannot finish the game

But you can play all the levels without having to cheat.

Unfortunenately you have to compile it yourself from github to test all this. When more stuff works I will publish a testing version, for those who are interested.

There is a release date for CG 1.2 but I won't tell for now :-D

Progress can be watched here:
http://github.com/gerstrong/Commander-G ... state=open

There is another surprise in that latest version, you will see it when ready.
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Post by gerstrong »

Here it goes:

Remember those issues I had?


1.- All the enemy sprite objects and its AI
2.- Teleporters
3.- Fuses
4.- Way to finish the game in the last level

What so far is done as follows:

1.- Every Sprite Enemy now fully works!
2.- All Teleporters and Elevators now fully work!
3.- Fuses can now be broken and make the level exit. Also the elevator with the fuses is being opened
4.- Well, there are still no epilogues like in Keen 4 but you can finish the game now.
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Post by Nospike »

Great to hear that!
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Post by gerstrong »

Not the surprise, because I will tell later, but here it goes some progress to see.

Image
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Post by gerstrong »

Hi, Commander Genius with Keen 5 support is finished as planned. I want to release a beta, but I'm not sure, if I manage to get it done, because I need to rework on the Build System for 32-bit and Windows builds, so cannot say. 13 days are left until the release.

When I get to build all of them I will publish them on the Webpage.

For the meantime developers can pull the new code and test it here:

http://github.com/gerstrong/Commander-Genius
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Post by gerstrong »

I have just uploaded the beta of version 1.2:

http://clonekeenplus.sourceforge.net/download/

Here is something I have to say about this version. There are good and bad news:

Bad news:
Keen 9 is not fully supported as mods. It runs pretty well on CG, but the AI of the enemies are not yet there. Problem is that CG cannot yet interpret some functions pointers of the offset given in the patch files. Hopefully I get more help on this. For testing Keen 9 it is nice, but for a full game experience I would recommend playing it on Dosbox now...

Good news: Well, those are many
- A lot of more mods now are supported
- Keen 5 finally fully works with all the secrets, levels, fuses, enemies, etc.
- Also there are collision bug fixes for Keen 4
- HQP for galaxy! In the next HQP there will be some songs for Keen 4 posted by Tomer Feiner. Thanks to him for the awesome work! You will be able to play Keen 4 with ogg music this time and can even put your own mixes. I hope you enjoy these. many of them are original Bobby Prince tunes.
- A lot of other bug fixes and crashes have been fixed.
- Keen 6! It runs and you can play already many of the levels. Nevertheless, switches do not work, there aren't any plats and most of the enemies are missing. The Bloog is already there and working as a bonus.

Enjoy our Beta of v1.2!
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Post by gerstrong »

Having fun developing stuff...
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Post by pizza2004 »

Mac version uploaded.
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Post by pizza2004 »

I made a bug fix and took a look at how you're handling resolutions. I was unable to get fullscreen to work on the Mac period for some reason, plus the list of resolutions being passed in isn't filtered to make sure they're compatible with your display, which is kind of annoying, seeing as there are so many of them. Oh, and the whole windowed vs. fullscreen thing, how it used to do different resolutions depending.

I'd just like to know what you have to say on these matters.
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Post by gerstrong »

The resolution in fact are for fullscreen only, because in window mode it only is the size of the windows, which really doesn't matter because you can resize it.

Maybe if you have problems with that you might want to limit with a #define APPLE the resolutions which are allowed mac computers only. I also did that for the Android devices as I had some issues there as well...

Ah I see you already put a define for that. Nice work!
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Post by NY00123 »

One can retrieve the current desktop resolution using SDL_GetVideoInfo() as described here, just with a minor difference: http://sdl.beuc.net/sdl.wiki/SDL_GetVideoInfo

The difference is that you should read the contents of current_w and current_h *before* any call to SDL_SetVideoMode is ever done.

Once that's done, at least if fullscreen is the default then I suggest to use the desktop resolution as the default one. That should be a good way to avoid issues with some window managers these days.
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Post by gerstrong »

That function is called anyways for the whole list, sometimes only one resolution remain. Also other tests are performed before SDL_SetVideo is called. This one can also by forced or any other, because CG never allows an empty list of resolutions.
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Post by NY00123 »

gerstrong wrote:That function is called anyways for the whole list, sometimes only one resolution remain. Also other tests are performed before SDL_SetVideo is called. This one can also by forced or any other, because CG never allows an empty list of resolutions.
Wait, does it? I've literally thought I've checked and found it doesn't...although in a revision of CG which may not be the-very-latest :foot

And, indeed, silly me! To the few who understand bash-like syntax, "find | grep VideoInfo" is not the way to find references to a string in a source tree! Should have been: "grep -r VideoInfo *" :o

EDIT: Nevertheless, after briefly checking the code, I can see that the current_w and current_h fields are currently not set as a good candidate for a fullscreen resolution. current_w is technically used once, although for a different purpose (non-fullscreen).
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