Dungeon upgrade questions (CSBwin)

Des · Post by **Des** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 12:45 am

I've just upgraded my dungeon to the latest version of CSBWin (98v78) and CSBuild (218). It was originally constructed with CSBuild 165.

1) Loading it into CSBuild I got the prompt "You have not decided whether or not to have the runtime engine discard duplicate timer entries - see Edit / Global / Databases". The Databases button gives me the options of "Object Weight" and "Delete Duplicate Timer Messages". What are the effects of choosing each of these options, or doing nothing?

2) I used to have an "orphan" I could not get rid of. This is no longer reported - does this mean it has been auto-repaired?

3) Having a quick romp through the dungeon, everything seems to work except when I jumped down a pit, the "tap on the wall" stopped making a sound, then restarted later.

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 1:30 am

What are the effects of choosing each of these options

If you do nothing it will act as it has in the past.
You can change the weight of a chest.

It has long been known that if two messages are sent
to the same cell and are to arrive at the same time then
only one of them will actually get there. We don't know
why that decision was made by the original designers.
But that is the way it is. If you do nothing, CSBuild will
continue to prompt you to make a decision. You can choose
to have it work the old way or you can choose to allow
multiple messages to arrive at identical times it the same
location. Once you make a choice, CSBuild will shut up
about it.

An orphan should not have gone away without your asking.
So I have no idea why it is no longer there. If you have
a save file that shows an orphan with an old CSBuild and
no orphan with a new CSBuild then I would be interested
in finding out why.

Des · Post by **Des** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 5:16 pm

Thanks for the explanation Paul. If you get time to have a look at the orphan and tapping problems, you can get the original dungeon here
http://www.sholing.force9.co.uk/angel.zip

"Check Everything" on CSBuild 165 reports an orphan, 218 does not. Hopefully it's nothing to worry about. The tapping thing - I made a couple of small changes to the old dungeon in 218 and saved it. Then running in 98v78 I found that if I just take any character, open the "Down Down" door and leap down the pit, walltapping is disabled.

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 6:30 pm

I cannot make anything go wrong with the wall tapping.
Jump down the pit and I hear the screams. The wall-tapping
is disabled during the scream but that is only a fraction of
a second. Did you say it starts working after a short while?
How long? Did you change any of the sounds in graphics.dat?
I see you have a custom graphics.dat.

CSBuild version 1.65? Oh, boy. I would have to go
a long way back in my backups to find anything like that.
Could you tell me EXACTLY what the 'orphan' message says?

Post by **PaulH** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 7:11 pm

I think a lot of people carry on using the same versions of your programmes from the moment they start designing. I too for a long time used CSBuild165, and only recently upgraded after my reincarnation algorithm request. Even now I am only using 206 and am quite for the time being.

The upgrades are most welcome of course, but I think problems like Des's are inevitable: I doubt many people want to downlaod the same programme 218 times!!!

Trantor · Post by **Trantor** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 7:25 pm

Concerning the "wall tapping" sound, I encountered the same phenomenon while I was playtesting Paul Hayes's new dungeon. As far as I can remember, I did not fall down any pits, though. I have no idea what kind of sound effect was responsible for this, it could have been anything from a switch to a gulp of water. After maybe 5 minutes or so, I could hear the tapping sound again. Maybe indeed this is a problem with a new graphics.dat, as Paul's dungeon also used a different one.

Des · Post by **Des** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 7:36 pm

The orphaned object message from 165 is
"Orphaned object (0) database 11"
I can supply a copy of 165 if necessary.

I did some more tests on the tapping thing. I tried it substituting the original DM and CSB graphics.dat and got the same result. After falling down the pit, the tapping is disabled, apparently permanently. It came back only after I jumped down the next pit into the Pixie Prison, where tapping on the wall next to the manacles at 02[08,12] (which is also a counter) brought it back.

Post by **Zyx** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 7:51 pm

I reported the same sound problem among the undifferentiated mass of other bugs, somewhere in the last month...
I was using the DirectX option. Some sounds were not played anymore. I sent you a playfile.log with size4 vexirks not showing their attack graphic. The sound problem was present in this log.

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 8:25 pm

The orphaned object is a bug in version 1.65. It is
corrected in recent versions. So you are reporting
a correct behaviour. (Database 11 is the content-addressable
database. Its records are not attached to anything in
the dungeon map.)

Des · Post by **Des** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 9:30 pm

Thanks Paul

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 11:52 pm

Zyx:

I played your moveie with the missing sounds. Your
email said that sometimes the 'SWING' of the Torch
did not make a sound. I played it several times with
the latest CSBwin, both the debug and the release version.
I could see 14 'SWING's and each made the proper noise
every time. I used DirectX. It also seems like I hear all
the Coatl attacks but that is not as easy to count because
some of them are from behind.

I suppose we will have to insert some debug code in
your copy of the runtime to see what is happening.

Is it always the same when you play the movie? Do
several 'SWING's fail?

Post by **Zyx** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 12:37 am

I replayed the movie and this time I heard all the sounds. However, the time I recorded it, I remember checking twice the playfile after: the sounds were missing.
Maybe it is releated to memory leak, or directX channels not closed? The only thing we can reasonnably infer, from this last sentence, is that I have no idea.

Des · Post by **Des** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 12:42 am

Regarding my tapping problem, I just discovered that it is nothing to do with jumping down the pit. In the first room the tapping noise is switched off if you stand directly in front of (facing) a square alcove, and switched back on if you stand directly in front of (facing) the fountain. Weird.

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 1:29 am

Weird.

Code: Select all

      if (   (d.FacingAlcove == 0)
          && (d.CellTypeJustAhead == 0))

Not so wierd in the light of day.