Dungeon Master Forum

Currently trying to get all kind of dungeon master platforms and custom dungeons together.
I've already added a version information to all RTC custom dungeons, since it is known that RTC has only a limited backward compatibility.

The question is, whether it makes sense at all to do something similar for the CSBWin dungeons. I haven't really played completely through old dungeons with thte latest CSBWin engine, so I just don't know whether there are compatiblity issues at all or not.

So, are there known issues?

Lunever wrote:So, are there known issues?

LOL. Even with infinite time, I don't think you would be able to document the backwards-incompatibility of Conflux 3

I´d say it is a save bet to always have the latest version of csbwin and play with that.
So any dungeon, whatever old it may be can be played with the newest csbwin. Extraordinary backwards-compatibility.

There could be some issues with max health values - there has been at some point a discussion or poll about whether to increase or cut the value to 999 or not(it is capped at 999) as well as the closed pit climbing issue.

No need for details if they get to complicated - can you explain a bit maybe what kind of problems Conflux caused? So I can estimate how save a bet it is to use the latest engine with a very old dungeon for example?

Conflux created mechanics in CSBwin. So Conflux will stop working under older engines.

While Paul S makes no guarantees, I see absolutely no reason that the latest engine would cause issues in older dungeons. The latest engine release was a while ago, and nothing seems ot have caused an issue.

Well, whether newer dungeons work in older engines isn't really of interest. No one can seriously expect forward compatibility and there is no reason to use an older engine for a newer dungeon. What didn't work in RTC is the other way round, and that's what I'd like to know about CSBWin. Generally so far most people seem to think, that there is no backward compatibility problem at all. That'd be fine because then the version info was a nice but unnecessary additional info and the focus can go to backupping.

On comparison to RTC, which had the *.rtc and *.txt files and media files (mainly sounds and bitmaps), how is CSBWin organized in regard to compiled dungeons, source files and media use? Would spare me some time if someone who already made a dungeon could comment this.

The dungeon.dat file can be encrypted, but only zyx has done this (I believe). All the files that come with the dungeon should be editedable if needed, and are distributed with the dungeon. Backwards compatibility of the CSBwin engine does seem to be robust enough that no fixes would be needed

So basically, the only one I need to ask at all about backupping source files would be Zyx?
In that case - no matter whether Zyx wants to provide source files or not - the CSBWin file collection will be a lot more easy than the RTC one.

I think so.... at worst Des might have done it aswell for his original CSB angel egg?

And agreed, the CSBwin collection should be easy. At some point, checking to ensure that altering the big->little endian of the PC DM games makes them playable under CSBwin might be helpful. I've always gone on faith that there are no issues with it.

big/little endian? Can you explain what exactly needs to be done for a dungeon to playable in PC-DM, CSBWIn, or both?

I believe (not being technical) that the only differene between the two formats of the dungeon.dat between PC and atari are that the bytes are stored in different orders. On one, least bit first, in the other, largest bit first.

Christophe created a big->little endian (as these storage types are named) converter, so that you can simply convert the dungeon.dat file from one type to the other - therefore play PC DM games under CSBwin or atari emulators. I believe Christophe's converter allows you to do this in reverse. For example, the firts time I played CSB was actually playing it under the DM engine, thanks to sphenyx using this technique.

Note that CSBuild also has this functionality. Ie, if you open a PC DM dungeon under CSBuild, then one of the comments is a question of if you wish to convert the endian. Say yes, and the file is converted into a format readable under CSBwin.


What I don't know is how amiga dungeons fit into this.

Weirdly enough, that's the third time I've seen the made up word "backupping" used on the web in the last two days. It's "backing up"

Is the difference from PCDM-files to original ones endianess only?

Yes, only endianess

Non-native speaker, always glad to improve