new csb

[zel]

The git repository was updated at the end of august to be able to play custom sounds from dungeons like conflux3. Since this problem was never reported here, I guess you won't need a binary update for that, good thing. I might post one later, but I don't know when. For now only the 32 bits version was updated (for Shu).

[Kenshiro]

It's been a few months but thanks for all these updates, this is very interesting.

How did you get in contact with Shu to start working on this together by the way? I'm in Japan but I feel like I rarely ever cross paths with anyone interested in digging into the source of old games, even though I'm a software engineer.

[zel]

Why can't we quote a message for a reply here ? Sorry for the delay, been busy elsewhere and since usually this forum is dead I don't come often...

Shu is a special case, he reads this forum, but he is not a member, he contacted me by mail after seeing my 1st attempts to improve csb. He doesn't speak english, he uses google to translate everything, but it works quite well apparently, we could make some good things together.

Lately a user reported a problem and I couldn't help him : the keyboard just didn't work for him, since I had never heard of something like that I was clueless. In the end it was because he compiled his own binary, but in the end he messed the available files to the binary and if you run it without the config.linux file then you loose all keyboard shortcuts, and without any warning ! So I decided to fix this, I already added some message in git to warn if config.linux is not available, but I'd like to add the ability to change directly the inputs from the program without having to edit any file... Now there are some crazy things in this file, some keyboard shortcuts were created to emulate a mouse click so they use precise mouse coordinates in their definition, so it would be quite hard to create a new input of this kind from a gui, plus the file supports any number of keys for the same game input, another thing which would be quite crazy in a gui. But I made good progress already and hope to have something usable soon.

Use the mail next time, it's much faster !

[Gambit37]

Why can't we quote a message for a reply here ?

You can. Hit the icon that looks like a quote mark next to the post you want to reply to, that will quote the entire message for you (but that's not usually very helpful).

If you'd rather quote specific parts of a message, hit the "Full Editor and Preview" button underneath the Quick Reply panel. Then on the next screen, select some text from a message beneath the reply box, and then hit the quote icon to have a quote created for the selected text.

[zel]

If you'd rather quote specific parts of a message, hit the "Full Editor and Preview" button underneath the Quick Reply panel. Then on the next screen, select some text from a message beneath the reply box, and then hit the quote icon to have a quote created for the selected text.

Thanks for that, I had forgotten that I used an extension which blocks all javascript from unknown sites, and I had not validated this site yet, so it made all icons unusable. But I didn't know the full editor trick, so thanks !

[zel]

It's been a few months but thanks for all these updates, this is very interesting.

How did you get in contact with Shu to start working on this together by the way? I'm in Japan but I feel like I rarely ever cross paths with anyone interested in digging into the source of old games, even though I'm a software engineer.

And here is a reply from Shu that I'll forward this time since he didn't want to register to the forum!

Hi Kenshiro san. I'm just a DM freak.

I cannot read program code or foreign languages ​​at all, but I'm interested to look under the hood of DM/CSB.

My hobby is creating pixel art, and I edit graphics.dat to my liking.

https://raine.1emulation.com/archive/csb/ReDM.7z

I edited and ported graphics from the SFC/SNES version to the DMR. (zel keeps on calling this program "new csb" !)

Have fun;)


shu

[Cycl0ne]

Hi Shu,

Too bad this is Atari ST 1.x format, so i cant load it And why also dungeon and csbdungeon in the file?

Cheers
C.

[zel]

Grrr, and I am playing the postmaster here again, well guys you'll have to use email if this continues. Anyway, here is the reply from Shu:

Hi Cycl0ne.

Here are the answers to your questions.

The files included in ReDM.7z are the following three:

csbgame.dat, dungeon.dat, and graphics.dat


First, note that dungeon.dat and graphics.dat are designed for use only with CSBwin/new csb (DMR).

Operation on other platforms is not supported and cannot be guaranteed.

Also, there is no file named csbdungeon.dat.

csbgame.dat is a save file; it loads a test room where various tests can be performed.


csbgame.dat and dungeon.dat can be edited with CSBuild, developed by Paul the CSBwin Guru Stevens.

graphics.dat can be edited with DM1GDED and ADGE.


Sorry my wicked English.
https://codeberg.org/CyCl0ne

This appears to be his project, but I can't view it in my environment.

Yeah Shu's environment is an old 32 bits windows vista laptop, apparently most ssl certificates have expired and block him from a lot of sites now!

If you want to continue this conversation, his mail is shu024007 at yahoo.co.jp

[Cycl0ne]

Sorry my wicked English.
https://codeberg.org/CyCl0ne

No thats my Repo Ok, i will have a look and transform this graphics.dat.

The problem i have with the csb is, that it is based on an old version of DM, the newer Versions use LAY1 structure for placing all Graphics into the screen. Making modding easier.

[zel]

The problem i have with the csb is, that it is based on an old version of DM, the newer Versions use LAY1 structure for placing all Graphics into the screen. Making modding easier.

If you have more info about this, I am interested...

[zel]

Since Shu is quite unavailable for now because of an earth quake and a heat wave, if somebody wants to test this build:
http://raine.1emulation.com/archive/csb/csb32.7z

That's the 32 bit binary for Shu, I'll build the 64 bit one when this thing will have had some testing.
Some info about what's inside:
So config.linux is gone, and replaced by csb.cfg. It's a configuration file like those in raine, the thing I like about these is that this system preserves the comments in the file when updating it.
All the inputs can be changed from the 1st choice of the Misc menu, lots of inputs since I added those to emulate mouse clicks (but with 1 key only for those, because they are most likely underused by most people so let's try to keep this reasonable and not overdo it !).
Except that it saves a lot more things than before in the settings section of csb.cfg, previously you had only the timer setting which was apparently a very old setting because the linux version could become slow a long time ago and it was a workaround for that. Probably useless these days.
Now you have all the settings from the menus + tullscreen status and window size. I also added winx and winy which are the last size of the window before going fullscreen, so that if you save your settings in fullscreen you'll still be able to retrieve your old window size later.

It asks if you want to save your settings when you close the window, otherwise if you quit with the quit command in the menu then settings are not saved, you need to save them explicitly with the new "save params" command just before "Quit".
Most people shouldn't have to edit this file directly, but it's possible. I kept most comments from the original config.linux file but changed the syntax of everything inside, it's now automatically read and written by the program, which changes quite a lot of things.
Also a new fix for a crash if you had enabled group coordinates and tried to load a savegame from the menu.

[Cycl0ne]

The problem i have with the csb is, that it is based on an old version of DM, the newer Versions use LAY1 structure for placing all Graphics into the screen. Making modding easier.

If you have more info about this, I am interested...

This is the new format:
http://dmweb.free.fr/community/document ... rdinates/

and this is the old format CSB is using from DM V1.2:
http://dmweb.free.fr/community/document ... -item-558/

not all coordinates are implemented, most are hardcoded into the executable. LAY1 all coordinates are now outside of the executable

[zel]

This is the new format:
http://dmweb.free.fr/community/document ... rdinates/

and this is the old format CSB is using from DM V1.2:
http://dmweb.free.fr/community/document ... -item-558/

dm2 stuff... Are you working with Sphenx ? Anyway I don't really understand why you see the dm2 way of things as the best thing. The best thing would probably be to redo all that with a real 3d engine for me.
But anyway... thanks for the info anyway!

[Cycl0ne]

thats no DM2 things.. thats DM1 things. LAY1 is not existent in DM2.
LAY1 is the new Graphics-558 but much more comprehensive. As i said, with 558 alot of coordinates are still hardcoded into the exe. Starting with LAY1, you can now change everything presented in the game. So creating new wall sets etc.

DM2 is ENT1:
http://dmweb.free.fr/community/document ... iles/#ent1

and yes chatting with sphenx in discord, we are "pimping" DM1 at the moment to make it more feasable to new players:

More info in my thread.

[ChristopheF]

DM2 does use LAY1 for coordinates too. There is one such item in graphics.dat.

[zel]

Some news from Shu (it's not him on the video).
https://raine.1emulation.com/archive/csb/m71.mp4

[Cycl0ne]

DM2 does use LAY1 for coordinates too. There is one such item in graphics.dat.

Are you sure Christophe? Im working at the moment at the reDM2 Source. And i cant remember seen a lay1.. the coords where all in ENT1.

But i could be wrong, give me another 10 days and the project will be finished

[Cycl0ne]

Some news from Shu (it's not him on the video).
https://raine.1emulation.com/archive/csb/m71.mp4

Oh wow. Shu is Japanese?

[zel]

Oh wow. Shu is Japanese?

Totally, and between this and a heat wave where a gets 37°C for inside temperature even with air conditioning during the day, he has quite a hard time currently... !

[zel]

Play testing in the end game in dm, and as usual I missed a lot of attacks against the stone golems. So this time I investigated and discovered it was because my character was not fast enough, it's linked to dexterity. So I decided to add an experimental overlay text interface to be able to display some decent messages in such a case, now you get warning in the bottom left of the screen for a few seconds telling that you missed, it gives you your current speed, and what you needed. It can be improved with a dexterity potion of course, and it's also related to the current load of the character which is very mean since at the end of the game the warriors are forced to wear heavy armors.
Anyway it's in testing for now, the text is very small, and stays only for a few seconds for now.