DMT 2 in progress

[Rasmus]

Hello

Hope everybody is fine
I have been working on a project the last two weeks that I call DMT2. I don't know where it is heading, but I want to make some major diffrences from the standard Dungeon Master. You can all check it out on and play it on:
http://dmtribute.webs.com/dmt2.htm
(It's only 5 mb large.)

Here is some screenshoots on what I have done so far:

[money]

Looks great, downloading to give it a go!

[ian_scho]

Yep, looks GORGEOUS.

[money]

This worked well, got about 70 FPS, a few times trees "jumped" out at me, but otherwise looks v. nice. I also tried 1.1 of DMT, but this failed to launch :S I downloaded the source files, then extracted the 1.1 beta into the same folder as the source files - it requested to overwrite 8 files (Graphics i believe)... then when i tried to launch it said "could not find dungeon file" or something along those lines. Any ideas - sorry to take OT.

[Rasmus]

Try the version before DMT 1.1, it works better.. The problem is that you havn't downloaded the resource files. This download are on around 200 mb. Extract the resource files to a specific place, and then extract the source files over and into the same folder.. This should work.

Thank you for testing DMT2, rhe tree jumping problem accures when leaving the dungeon and entering the garden, the same problem are when leaving the garden and entering the dungeon. I know about this and are working on some smother solution. The thing is that I don't want the game rendering diffrent areas and the one you are on. I think setting diffrent max viewingdistance on all squares on the map depending on which area you are on should fix this..

[money]

Thanks Rasmus,

Just to clarify I downloaded both the source (140mb zipped) and 1.1 beta (12MB). Is there something else i need to d/l?

[Beastman666]

Hiho...get errors when starting DMT2:

Windows-Event 1000 Kategorie 100 (Running Win7 32-Bit)

Name der fehlerhaften Anwendung: DMT2.exe, Version: 0.0.0.0, Zeitstempel: 0x4bbfec08
Name des fehlerhaften Moduls: ntdll.dll, Version: 6.1.7600.16385, Zeitstempel: 0x4a5bdadb
Ausnahmecode: 0xc0000005
Fehleroffset: 0x00051f70
ID des fehlerhaften Prozesses: 0x2bc
Startzeit der fehlerhaften Anwendung: 0x01cad965cb41b850
Pfad der fehlerhaften Anwendung: D:\Downloads\DM Clones\DM Tribute 2\DMT2\DMT2.exe
Pfad des fehlerhaften Moduls: C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll
Berichtskennung: 0afeeac0-4559-11df-9e54-00a0d1ae26da

[Rasmus]

@money: Thanks for not giving up Check so that the source has a file called "dmmap.dat" in the "data/maps/" folder. That whoud be the only reason why it would complain about it.. Also check so that the "DMTv1.1(beta).exe" are in the parent folder to "data"... Every error from that point should only be that files are missing, so check downloaded "resource.zip" file after them..

@Beastman666: Hello there, I have never acounted that problem myself, but I guess it has something to do with that you have windows 7 and I have windows Vista. Can't you make some compability option to windows Vista to get rid of the problem? Anyway, I have a friend that has windows 7, I can check the game on his computer and maybe fix the problem til later..

[Beastman666]

nope, changing compatibility to vista doesn't help, nor does vista sp 2, vita sp 1, xp sp 3 or xp sp 2 compatibility....

[money]

I've Windows 7 Yltimate 64bit and it was working fine!

[Rasmus]

@Beastman666: I am not at home, so I can't check if the code has anything to do with it. But I have googled the problem and noticed that this problem are a usual problem for many games and programs that can have several sulotions.. So I can't give you any advice on how to make it work except for googleing the problem and test what thier solutions..

@money: Thanks for your replie, now I know that the problem isn't windows 7 related.. By the way, did it work with DMT 1?

[money]

Managed to get it working..but mapped the + key, but when used i get moved through the levels, causing the game to crash eventually!

[Rasmus]

Apperently the game has some problems that needs to be fixed :S if you download the v1.0 beta from the website it will work until level 5 without these problems. If you like to you can download it, or wait untill I upload a new version without those major errors.. Sorry about the problems :S

[Rasmus]

"+" and "-"?? I think I used those keys to travel between levels when creating the game, Apperently I havn't removed them :S

[Rasmus]

@Beastman666: Found some memory handling misstakes in my programming, they have been fixed now and a new DMT2 version has been uploaded. I think this will solve your problem

[Bit]

Got a Win7-Notebook now and will try. Unfortunately such devices just have a screen resolution of 1024*600 or 800*600, that's it. Will see what happens.

[Rasmus]

Otherwise the resolution is a easy fix

[Beastman666]

Tried new verson at work (Win7 32 Bit Dell XPS M1530) - worked fined. Tried at home (Win7 32 Bit Acer Aspire 6935G) and got "Editor screen" but without the level displayed (the tiled landscape) and nothing happens if I click with the mouse on any text but when I hit ESC-key the game crashes. Win-Log diplays:

Name der fehlerhaften Anwendung: DMT2v0.01.exe, Version: 0.0.0.0, Zeitstempel: 0x4bc2b82a
Name des fehlerhaften Moduls: ntdll.dll, Version: 6.1.7600.16385, Zeitstempel: 0x4a5bdadb
Ausnahmecode: 0xc0000005
Fehleroffset: 0x00051f70
ID des fehlerhaften Prozesses: 0x2bc
Startzeit der fehlerhaften Anwendung: 0x01cadb3d2776fced
Pfad der fehlerhaften Anwendung: D:\Downloads\DM Clones\DM Tribute 2\DMT2v0.01\DMT2v0.01.exe
Pfad des fehlerhaften Moduls: C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll
Berichtskennung: 9ae46340-4730-11df-9e0f-00a0d1ae26da

So, I haven to find out what's the difference betwenn both Win7 installations (both should be up to date) - perhaps grafik-card problem (both nvidia, but different models, XPS uses older grafic card driver - although Winlog clearly says its a ntdll.dll problem *mmmm*....

Wow - error happens three times. starting game a fourth time and a couple of subsequen times i now get a windows opened showing window title and only a gray windows-background (no more text)

[Rasmus]

It is posible that it has something todo with my programming, the last error got me annoyed a couple of hours because of some small detail in the game didn't behaved as it should. Then I noticed that I had allocated memory to the wrong array. What seems to be unoticable on some computer maybe causes others to crash. I have to see if I can find a option in the complier that increases the debugging sensativity...

[Hajo]

Use a language that comes with bounds checking? Or templates that have checked containers if you use C++?

I found such problems to be very ugly and despite all care still happening now and then and it finally made me quit using C for coding.

[Rasmus]

I am using c++, but I have a felling that some of my commands for creating new arrays are rather old. Like new, realloc and free. I guess there are some other commands to use that have some sort of checking, I really like working with Directx because they tell you when you haven't released a object or simular.. Maybe I have to look into this, I don't want any of these faults in the end when they are imposible to find!

[Hajo]

if you work with plain memory, I don't think you get checks in C++

It's really a long time back, since I coded C++, and I had made my own templates (= I don't know the STL well), but I assume the STL offers bounds checked array templates.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_(C%2B%2B)

Well it does, but for example the vector template has an overloaded [] operator to mimic arrays which does no bounds checking, while the at() function does. So it still needs additional care taken, but IIRC the STL was designed for low overhead, so many operations will be unchecked I assume.

Ah well. C++ is powerful and dangerous. Good luck with taming the beast

[Rasmus]

I was wondering, for meshes I use CreateVertexBuffer.. Is there some simular memory handeling that doesn't requiers locking. Or is it okey to have it unlocked thru the game, but that may affect the speed and not be as easy to reinitilize :S

[Rasmus]

After hours of work I can finally say that I have managed to use meshskinning in my project. This will make it possible for me to easiely render armour and weapons on the models. I think I also have found a solution for the NT.dll problem on windows 7 (thanks to Bit). I will upload a new version with a tempoary inventory with some items to dress the hero with and run around with. Hopefully this will go as planed without any major problems and the upload should be within a couple of days..

[Rasmus]

DMT2 version 0.02 has been uploaded. I have been working rather hard the last weak trying and succeded to make mesh skinning work. I have also recreated the memorymanagement so that it will work on windows 7 (I hope).. You are all welcome to download and check it out. (Only 4.5 mb large)

[Beastman666]

Yipiee, Version 002 now running on my home-machine. The only thing I have to "complain" is the sliding effect of downward-sloping parts of the floor, but I guess it's only a thing of getting used to to...

[Rasmus]

YES!! Then I guessed right about the memoryhandeling and windows 7
About the sliding effect.. I have tried to make the movement in the game more realistic by making the movement work more as a force than of just movements. In this way the "break" effect isn't sudden.. Think of it like a car with extrem acceleration and breaks.. But you are right about the downward-sloping part, when the "hero" goes from higher ground to lower ground he becomes airborn, and when he is airborn he can not stop or move.. I will have to fix this so that he is more attached to the ground.

[Rasmus]

DMT version 0.03 released, you are all welcome to dress your hero and swing your weapons at some walls, mostly because the monsters are yet to come

[Beastman666]

Man, I'm cursed....

Starting Version 003 immediately gets me a DMT2-Error-Message: "Failed creating rendertarget texture". Clicking OK, I then get A DMT2 - Rasmus-Error reading "The D3D device has a non-zero reference count, meaning some objects were not released". Next one is "Failed resetting Direct3D device objects". And then...nothing DMT2 closes...

[Rasmus]

Damn it! In this verison I created some texture to render to. Mostly because of the map and the blur glow effect when marking items.. Well, it seems like some computers/graphic cards only accepts some texturesformats and others don't :S I can't fix this problem until tomorrow (around 20 hours for me).