D2X-XL Bug Reports - MS Windows

Sirius · Post by **Sirius** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 12:49 am

I'm going to try to update my display drivers in the (probably vain) hope that it'll solve the problem...

I do have a player file that causes a crash ready, but with my webhost's server down I can't upload it just now. I'll try to get it up ASAP.

It's kind of funny that D2x-W32 doesn't work with that option when D2x 0.2.6 does... although there have been quite a number of substantial changes made, some of which may somehow affect it...

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 2:39 am

Hi guys,

thanks for the feedback though its kind of discomforting ...

Crashes

These crashes are really bugging me.

Unfortunately I cannot reproduce them, although I have three different machines available (WinXP home, WinXP pro, Win2K pro with ATI and NVidia gfx hardware).

If any of you encountering crashes when trying to start a game are using Omega drivers, try Forceware/Catalyst instead. Crashes during program start might be player file related, but that's only a guess.

Clean Install

It might be a good idea to create a clean D2 install in an extra folder, delete any default player files there and only install d2x-w32 there, including the msvcr71.dll included in the zip file (this is some standard runtime dll coming with MS Visual C++ .NET).

D2X-SDL

d2x-sdl has some different rendering code than d2x-gl and d2x-w32. Actually it seems to work on systems with incomplete OpenGL icds, where neither d2x-gl nor d2x-w32 work properly. d2x-w32 is based on d2x-gl, but does some more OpenGL stuff (actually, it should do some things right that d2x-gl does wrong).

Changes in d2x-w32

I haven't touched OpenGL code in d2x-w32 in quite a while (actually it hasn't changed compared to the last known working version). d2x-w32 has however added new contents to a few data files (i.e. the new flag settings). Mixing these files with older D2 versions, or mixing d2x-w32 with older data file versions, might result in d2x-w32 crashing.

Flare Bug

I have noticed this too. It was due to my overhauling the complete input processing in d2x-w32 recently, and I have fixed it now.

Vanishing Powerups

I have tracked down and fixed this bug. A fixed version of d2x-w32 will be uploaded in a few hours, as I am currently working on delayed respawns.

New Game Modes/Features

Generally, it doesn't make any sense to enable any of the new features of d2x-w32 when mixing D2 versions in netgames, as the other game versions simply don't support them.

(Preliminary) Final Words

I am sorry that this is all I can currently say. If any of you guys were close enough I'd try and meet with you to debug d2x-w32 right on your machines.

Sirius · Post by **Sirius** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 10:10 pm

Is there a command-line (or d2x.ini) parameter to set the default socket to start netgames on?

If not, that's another thing that could be done...

zapp · Post by **zapp** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 10:23 pm

RE: my earier crash problem is fixed. Works great w/ the latest Omega drivers for Radeon 9800 pro as well.

Suggestion- Joystick sensitivity on the y axis. I have a 3Dpro, the X is set for R/L turning, Z for rotation, Y for up/down. in relation to the X and Z axis, the Y seems to be about 2X as sensitive. Decreasing the Joystick sensitivity helps the Y axis, but the X and Z then become sluggish. The -joypolled setting (off or on) in my d2x.ini file does not effect this.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 4:09 am

Please only post bug reports and suggestions here.

I wrote what I did: Compile with MSVC 6 instead MSVC .NET. See the "crash bug fixed" thread.

Sapphire Wolf · Post by **Sapphire Wolf** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 7:24 pm

When I set the FPS to the max of 120 and hit enter, it gave me this:

Tyranny · Post by **Tyranny** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 9:43 pm

You don't need it that high. Leave it at the default, which is 80fps. D1 and D2 weren't intended to be played at 100+ fps, nor is it very necessary.

Sapphire Wolf · Post by **Sapphire Wolf** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 9:47 pm

okay nevermind

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 10:09 pm

Tyranny wrote:You don't need it that high. Leave it at the default, which is 80fps. D1 and D2 weren't intended to be played at 100+ fps, nor is it very necessary.

Nor would you want to. At 120 fps there is no way to dodge homing weapons. You will have PWND yourself.

I have mine set for 80, and that's tough.

Avder · Post by **Avder** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 10:12 pm

Someone should come up with a way to make homing weapons completely independent of the framerate.

Sapphire Wolf · Post by **Sapphire Wolf** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 10:51 pm

okay, my ship's pitch(turning up/down) is still slow on the keyboard.

and one thing, when I save on a vertigo level, it crashes, for example: the actual Vertigo Campaign.

EDIT: one thing, this has nothing to do with my FPS.

My FPS is fine

Sirius · Post by **Sirius** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 11:49 pm

Avder wrote:Someone should come up with a way to make homing weapons completely independent of the framerate.

D2x already does this to my knowledge. Even at 80 fps I can dodge homers backwards.

Ferno · Post by **Ferno** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 2:04 am

I got a chuckle out of this bug: When I fire up a game under a newly created player and play for a bit, I tried out setting my deadzone to 0%. The ship started turning by itself. So I set it to 5% and it kept turning on it's own.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 3:46 am

Homing missile turn rate has been limited to 30 fps in d2x-w32 long time ago.

DarkHorse · Post by **DarkHorse** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 2:39 pm

I have the framecap set to 30.

Sapphire Wolf · Post by **Sapphire Wolf** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 5:26 pm

Let me say this one more time, okay:

Dark Falcon wrote:okay, my ship's pitch(turning up/down) is still slow on the keyboard.

and one thing, when I save on a vertigo level, it crashes, for example: the actual Vertigo Campaign.

EDIT: one thing, this has nothing to do with my FPS.

My FPS is fine

Garak · Post by **Garak** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 6:08 pm

A possibly related note on what Dark Falcon is having an issue with.

My banking (rolling) is really slow. The keys are bound to q and e. I'll redownload tonite to make sure I have the latest and see if it persists, but I thought I'd mention it.

Tyranny · Post by **Tyranny** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 6:19 pm

Did you guys turn auto-leveling off?

Garak · Post by **Garak** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 6:39 pm

That's the FIRST thing I do with a player profile.

Sapphire Wolf · Post by **Sapphire Wolf** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 6:58 pm

Even if I turned off the autoleveling, my Ship's Pitch is still slow

Ferno · Post by **Ferno** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 1:16 am

You're just used to D3 Dark Falcon. Ships in D1/D2 turned slower to begin with.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 3:34 am

Falcon,

crash on saving a Vertigo level doesn't occur on my computer(s). I simply started the D2:Vertigo campaign, level 1, and saved and loaded a few times. Nada.

Pitch, roll and heading speeds are all limited to about 2 secs for 360Â°. I have checked this, it works fine on my machines. This has been done only recently to be compatible with other D2 versions (esp. the original ones), so if you were used to fast turn speeds from earlier D2X-W32 versions, you might feel it being to slow. You can remove the parameter "-limitturnrate" from d2x.ini to have high speed turn rates in single player. There is no way to disable it in multiplayer though, as that would be a cheat.

Generally, as mentioned here already, D1/D2 are significantly slower than D3.

Garak, Falcon,

if possible please compare turn speeds to those in D2-Win95 or D2-3dfx. These Descent versions are the reference.

Garak · Post by **Garak** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 11:43 am

Never could get D2 win95 installed, so I couldnt try it.

But, the bank rate seems ok on my home machine. It was definitely slower on the school computers when I posted that last message though.

Aus-RED-5 · Post by **Aus-RED-5** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 9:35 pm

Deidel.
Was wondering if you could improve the mouse wheel for D2? Make it more sensitive. The D2 3dfx and D2win95 versions are all really slow. I'd like to us the mouse wheel for sliding up/dwn, but it moves way to slow. Though I do use a joystick.

Just would like to use the mouse if the wheel could be more sensitive.
See what you can do. If not, its no real lose.

cheers

P.S.
To improve that. Would it be considered as a cheat?
If so. never mind then.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 3:09 am

I can look into it, but the mouse wheel has a different way of working than a keyboard key, mouse or joystick button or joystick axis. These all keep their state of being pressed/tilted until released, and D2X measures the time they were pressed/tilted. For a mouse wheel, you get a distinct signal once it moves a notch, which takes a very short time. Might be fixeable, might be not.

Sirius · Post by **Sirius** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 3:35 am

True... mouse scrolling is like chain-tapping a key. Doesn't move you fast.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 7:05 am

Fast mouse wheel sliding not feasible.

Lehm · Post by **Lehm** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 4:20 am

I just started playing d2 again and just discovered d2x. Not sure if this has been brought up before, but is it possible to have the automap be the same resolution as the game? It's kind of annoying to have to wait for the screen resolution to change whenever I want to look at the map.

Sirius · Post by **Sirius** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 4:37 am

I ... think so. And I understand your pain.

Switching into option menus/automaps with that is anything but pleasant.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 5:09 am

I tried to have the menus have the same screen res as the game, but that lead to D2X crashing.

You can specify the automap resolution with a command line parameter though, so I think it should be none of a problem to have D2X use the game res for the automap.

Lehm · Post by **Lehm** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 1:24 pm

Okay that's cool. Now what is that command line? I did a search but didn't find anything.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 1:44 pm

I have managed to make menus and automap have the same res as the game. New program version online.

Garak · Post by **Garak** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 2:55 pm

Found this today.

Credits: the display area for the credits is smaller than what my resolution was set at. So it was drawn in the top left corner rather than fullscreen. This happens with levels that have credits (such as Europa Glacier Mine) and it happens if you select View Credits from the main menu.

Screenshot: http://tinypic.com/21ygxu

Anyone else see this, or is it just me?

Lehm · Post by **Lehm** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 3:55 pm

Sweet thanks for the quite update. I found another issue with the automap. This one is a problem with the original code. If you slide away from the start position and the then look back, you cannot use the forward key to move.

I beleive this stems from automap.c

1466: ViewDist -= Controls.forward_thrust_time*ZOOM_SPEED_FACTOR;

1489: if ( ViewDist < ZOOM_MIN_VALUE ) ViewDist = ZOOM_MIN_VALUE;

As far as I can tell viewdist is only set when hitting the forward/backward keys. It never bothers to check how far it actually is. Not sure if this is fixable.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 3:56 pm

Nah, that's a general problem caused by my adapting the menu and options screens to game res. There may be other screens not properly offset with game res > 640x480.

I have fixed the highscores and credits screen (credits may not be displayed properly though, but I don't really care).

Aus-RED-5 · Post by **Aus-RED-5** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 9:36 pm

Diedel wrote:Nah, that's a general problem caused by my adapting the menu and options screens to game res. There may be other screens not properly offset with game res > 640x480.

I have fixed the highscores and credits screen (credits may not be displayed properly though, but I don't really care).

This is from d2x-w32 v1.0.7 (LCD screen res set to 1280x1024)
http://img217.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img217& ... its5vd.jpg
http://img58.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img58&im ... ore5nn.jpg
I know you don't care, but it would only help to make this look right. In a way, a nice clean version of D2x-w32. hehe
BTW - You've done a hell of lot Diedel. Thanks for your time. Keep up the good work!
Cheers

Sirius · Post by **Sirius** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 10:19 pm

Typical... they can't do anything without cheap little hacks, can they...?

It seems the credits are just not coded to work with the window but rather to draw in a predefined location.

Now, one other weird thing I found; go into options -> D2x options (in-game; haven't tried this from the main menu but it may still work) and try to change the framerate.

With any luck, you'll have trouble seeing what it's doing as the text isn't being redrawn properly it seems. At least that's what I get.

I suspect the fix is simple enough. I -can- type blind, but it's probably sub-optimal to leave it this way.

Lehm · Post by **Lehm** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 3:22 am

Movies still play in the corner. It should be possible to stretch thoes rather than center them right? And the opening movie still plays at 640x480. Speaking of movies, it'd be cool if there was an option to play the movies from the menu.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 3:55 am

I know the credits sometimes (or often) aren't displayed properly. I don't know why, and I don't care. I haven written that whole gfx crap in d2x (the source code of which is a mess created by bloody amateurs), and it is extremely tedious to try to find out why sometimes things like that happen.

I have also centered movie display and added a replay option (currently for the intro movie only).

This stuff however doesn't really matter for game play, and convenient and efficient game play is what counts for me. Hence automap and menus in game res: This makes switching to them and back a matter of a flick of an eye. That's an improvement for me.

The next thing I'd really love to implement is playing via direkt UDP/IP connection (i.e. the servers makes his IP address known to all clients who enter it in their multiplayer screen and thus can connect directly to the server over the inet w/o the help of KALI).

Garak · Post by **Garak** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 5:39 am

Sirius, I'm seeing the same thing. Not sure what the deal is with it.

D2X-XL Bug Reports - MS Windows

Mouse wheel