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its ME again!

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:29:49 +0100

hi, you probably dont remember me but i was that impatient guy way back when from the purple website, lol. The one who always asked about updates to the far-famed (and still played) purple alert!

now, its been a while since i checked in, primarily because i couldnt find this site and saw that the old one was gone; i simply assumed you had been eated by evil zombie gnomes and the project had died.

so i have to ask, what has become of the purple alert project? is it still alive? i remember you saying "after launch base is completed ill check in on it", so i was just curious. anyways, thanks for fighting off the gnomes, and its good to see you alive!

edit: after spending some time with the beloved search function i found an announcement about PA8 about 5 months ago. If it has already been released where would i find it?

New Site Design

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:22:05 +0100

Inching closer and closer on our path to a public release, I just put a completely new Ares site design online.

It's spartan and experimental in some regards, but all in all, it seems to hold up fine.
Even though the text does refer to download links, the links themselves are not visible yet, since there's nothing to download so far.

As all sites put out by Renegade Projects, it uses modern web standards and common media types for the best, most efficient user experience - since we refuse to break perfectly fine code just because Microsoft's code monkeys can't be arsed to adhere to standards, it is very most likely that the site will malfunction in most, if not all versions of Internet Explorer.
Get a real browser and you don't have that kind of problem.

The navbar styling has been recoded from ground up, and might flunk out in IE as well. I'm more inclined to fix that, but since I don't have Internet Explorer here to test it, that can only happen through feedback.

Note: As part of the site move I removed all unrelated files from Ares's domain. If that breaks existing links to certain downloads, please comment below so those particular pieces of content can be restored.

Hope you like the new design.

Happy Birthday, Aro!

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:37:14 +0100

Forums say Aro turns 19 on this lovely day - Happy Birthday!

latest ra2 deezire mod

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:33:00 +0100

hi..can anyone give me the link..thx

Is it just me or is everyone getting this?

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:32:11 +0100

Don't want to file a bug report yet, as i'm not overly sure if it's ares or just me missing something obvious, but my Allied AI seems to be in love with Pillboxes

I've tried limiting their usage with AI.BaseDefenses= and AI.BaseDefenseCounts= but the AI merrily ignores this, and continues building 'em anyway.

just wondering if anyone else is getting this behaviour.

3d modelling

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:28:07 +0100

I have been trying to make some buildings using 3DS Max, with a script that is suppose to help with RA2. I have 6 buildings made, but the size is hard to match to a proper foundation and shape is off. Pic shows a building I am using for a POW camp and shows the shp image. The image is suppose to be 4 by 4 (though I feel 3 by 3 would be better) It has no textures. Can anyone point me to a tutorial for modelling for RA2. I haven't found anything in my searches.

Updating the Bugtracker

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 05:07:16 +0100

A new major minor version of the software we use on the bugtracker has been released, so I updated the tracker.

This new update includes a number of changes and features (for example the unification of Simple and Advanced View), so don't panic if the tracker looks or behaves a little different from now on.
If any bugs or errors appear, please note them below.

(funny...we want Ares bug reports in the tracker, not the forum, but tracker bugs in the forum, not the tracker... )

Progress

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 06:40:23 +0100

So the days of endless real life work are coming to an end, and I'm coming back to Ares progress. Weee.

1. A public preview release is coming soon.
2. Lots of good things have been coded even while I was busy, all hail Renegade, the only person who's bothered to help me with the code! (Thank Marshall and the testers too, of course.)

What modding skills do you have?

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 16:12:48 +0100

I was thinking of this yesterday. I have seen people post questions and sometimes people respond to those posts with solutions. Then some of the more experienced people shoot down the responses that people with comments that the responder was no clue of what they are talking about. Do you think a stickied topic of what people have skills is a good idea? Like Aro, from what I have seen....he has the skills of terrain tiles and making a visual appealing maps. People would post their skills and if it applies a screen shot of their work. I am not knocking anyones work and Aro is the first person that popped in to my head, I know from personal experience there are people like Blade, DJBreit, Marshall, MigEater, DCoder that have contriubted to me with some really good feedback that has helped me with my work. The stickied topic could be some thing people could look at and when they see a response to their question they can see if this person has knowledge to help them. Maybe the admin could make a special tag in their profile to show this. And another thing.....when people make a map or whatever they should credit the people that have given them help. The fore mentioned people have given me some good advice and will be mentioned in my credits, along with some others. If you helped you get credit. It is only fair with out the knowledge and wisdom of others the modding world would go no where....

edit: DCider was changed due to typo

Current EMP logic

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 17:28:16 +0100

I wasn't exactly sure if this place or the bugtracker would be a better place to post this, as it's not exactly a bug, not exactly a feature request. I just want a little more info on how you guys wired up the EMP logic.

I have been testing it around and I noticed that in Ares, as opposed to RockPatch, EMP duration stacks when an EMP'd unit is fired upon by another EMP-inducing warhead. Do you currently have any way to work around/disable this? If so, that would be great because the EMP duration stacking interferes with my current EMP behaviours, as I am trying to get a weapon that continuously keeps a unit under EMP effect, but if it stops firing its EMP weapon (with a ROF of 10, EMP duration of 15; this worked perfectly in RockPatch), the EMP effect dissipates immediately on that unit.

(also please don't say make EMP duration equal to ROF value, because that has its own share of problems)
If there isn't a way to disable this, I suppose I'll post it in the bugtracker as a request.

Also, I have noticed that EMP tags do not get parsed on shrapnel projectiles. For instance, if I fire an EMP prism tank-like laserbeam that shrapnels into a bunch of smaller lasers with EMP tags on them, only the parent beam will induce EMP; the smaller beams will not. Is this by design, or accident?

Need help with chronosphere AI script controls

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 02:36:16 +0100

Hey, I'm working on some cool stuff with chronoshifting multiple loaded transports but I can't get the chronosphere controls to work how I'd like. Specifically I just want the units to wait until the chronoshpere is charged, chrono to my base, and unload the transports. The best I've done is got them to wait for the chronosphere and chrono to the base, but they don't unload. I also know it's not something to do with the multiple transports because they normally unload fine when not using the chronosphere. Here's the script actions I was using:

56,65536 - ChronoSphere to Allied Construction Yard
57,65536 - ChronoWarp to Allied Construction Yard
11,29 - Assign new mission: Move
8,2 - Unload transport

Without the Move(11,29) action they don't wait if the chronosphere isn't ready and just unload where they're at.

Does anybody know the right script to do what I want, or at least be able to better explain the differences between script actions 56 and 57 and how some of the missions in action 11 work, particularly 29 which says it's used when chrono units are moving to destination. It seems to work for making the units wait for the chronosphere, but stops anything after it from working.

Also, I can't use the regular chrono controls in the Triggers section because they cause problems with the way I'm doing the multiple transports.

Launch Base 0.99.239

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 23:02:43 +0100

Thanks to AlexB for pointing out a few issues.

Launch Base Version 0.99.239 [2010-02-16]

Fixed crash on closing Help Topics when Check-For-Updates window was open.
Right-clicking on a part of the mod list where there is no entry will no longer cause the popup menu to be shown.
Improved Help Topics load speed.
Residual File Manager window is no longer pointlessly resizable.
00000000.256, YR1.dsk, and wdt.mix will no longer be treated as residual files.
Installer no longer sets the Launch Base website link to the wrong URL.

Get it here!

LaunchBase suggestions

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:00:47 +0100

Hi Marshall,

here are some suggestions for Launch Base. Maybe you can take a look at it.

LaunchBase crashes with runtime error 5 when
1) Opening help
2) Check for updates => Main window is hidden
3) Closing help => Runtime error 5
As long as the main window is shown, no crash occurres. Maybe you are using SetFocus or any other function of frmMain that does not work while hidden.

Selecting a mod in Listview mode then right-clicking somewhere on free space of the list causes the context menu to appear in an odd place.

The help dialog loads its contents in chunks of half a KB, refreshing the text box up to 35 times for "Launch Base options". It starts fast and gets slower and slower. Loading the file all at once using LOF would fix it.

The Residual File Manager is resizable, but its controls aren't moved

YR1.dsk, wdt.mix and 00000000.256 are original files (at least in TFD), yet they are recognisied as unsafe in the Residual File Manager.

The Help\Launch Base Website menu still points to cannis.net.

Greetings,
Alex

Except Error no rock patch.

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 01:48:59 +0100

Through trials and tribulations of all my error codes I have worked through so many except error. now received this message. Its a plain map no buildings. The map contains new pieces that I have been working on for some time. Well I was remaking a map and until a few days ago it was working. Well today I got an except error ( 007CFDD0 ). I check the marble madness view the two lower corners of the map seemed to have an issue. The pic is of the same map.

Top pic is the normal view
Middle pic is what I assume is the problem piece of the map in marble madness view
Bottom pic is the fixed view

I ran the cursor around the edge of the map and found the problem tile codes are 0xe and the proper terrain type 0xd is correct. And after I saved my map, it tested it, the terrain went from pinkish to blue.

The map was started out at height zero and I used the editor to change the height to 4 and I believe this might have caused the tiles to get screwed up. Has anyone else come across this before?

Of dumb bugs and dumber gamers

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:11:09 +0100

I don't normally go to XWIS forums because I consider them to be a cesspool of failure. And something recently proved to me, once more, that that opinion was correct.

I learned of a dumb bug in the game (sure ain't the first one or the last one...) - the Guard command affects your own units... and anyone's War Miners/Slave Miners, regardless of whether you're their owner, ally, enemy or even observer.

It was being abused on XWIS, and rationalized by some users as being there by design - "it didn't work in RA2, only YR", and "the Chrono Miner is immune to it". I can not favourably compare their intelligence to that of amoebas, so I'll just say that this issue has been fixed in Ares, and it took me less than 30 minutes to do it.

Oh, and hail Westwood for leaving it there in the first place. Where would I get my intellectual challenge without their lovely code to debug?

The unofficial endorsement of YR hacking by EA Apoc

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:26:23 +0100

I just stumbled over that PM by EA Apoc at gamereplays.org which he sent me as a reply after I explained to him what I was doing and what an altered executable of Yuri's Revenge in TFD could mean to my project (that being RockPatch, back then). I asked him whether it was possible to keep the changes as little as possible (and as we all know by now, YR actually only received a few hex edits).

I was not able to find my original PM in the sent items, so I believe I mailed him via the forum software and he replied via PM.

Not that this would be of too much importance anymore, but it's still good for the history books.

EA Apoc Wrote:I will definitely get this looked into, no promises, but its definitely on my plate. I love your work, sounds very impressive, and I want to make sure this gets looked into.

Stay tuned, that is my best answer for now.

APOC

Launch Base 0.99.238

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:23:05 +0100

Further to the issues with the logging over the last couple of days, the final plans for how game/Ares logging will be handled in Launch Base have been implemented as follows:

Launch Base Version 0.99.238 [2010-02-03]

(checkbox) Capture except.txt - Launch Base will either capture any except.txt files produced or delete them.
(checkbox) Prompt For except.txt Description - As always, gives you the option to enter a description for the except.txt file produced.
(checkbox) Enable Ares Logging - tells Ares whether or not to produce a debug.log file. Launch Base will make no attempt to intercept this.
(button) Open Ares' Debug Folder - opens the Debug folder in My Computer, so that you can manually review/housekeep the files produced by Ares.
DCoder will be restoring the generation of except.txt in Ares, although the filename will include a timestamp where appropriate.

Get it here!

Launch Base 0.99.236

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:52:12 +0100

A rather useful update for Ares testers, this one.

Launch Base Version 0.99.236 [2010-02-01]

Under Update Options, you can now select whether to have Ares update using the Stable build or Nightly build (this has been approved by DCoder). Stable is the default, however it should be noted that no Stable build has yet been released.
Ares SVN URL and Paths have been de-hardcoded.
Updated logging handling to consider an Ares crash dump file as evidence of an Internal Error.
Ares crash dump files will now be processed (either moved to LaunchBase\Logs or deleted).

Get it here!

EDIT:
Shortly after releasing this I've become aware of a bug with the new log handling. Basically, anything produced by Ares will be ignored and, without Ares, even except.txt will be ignored. Apologies for this, it's due to the timings of when the Ares files are generated and how they are named (+ a coding error on my part). I know how I'm going to fix it but it will take a little while - will try to get it done in a day or so.

EDIT2:
Version 0.99.237 released. The Debug folder is, for now, ignored whilst further planning takes place.

EDIT3:
Version 0.99.238 released. Final plans implemented.

Weird IE i keep getting with my mod....

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:08:07 +0100

I've been toying around with manually converting my mod from NPatch to Ares r 286, and I did the basic conversion of prerequisite logics, etc., and I left out only 2 features... AA combat on planes and the NP superweapons, which I commented out completely (making the SW building un-buildable)...

Anyways, As soon as I finished, I loaded it up, and the game started just fine, the AI was able to deploy its MCV and make attack forces like normal, but as soon as I deployed my MCV, it bugged out, with no given reason. Considering the crash dump log is a whopping 130 MB, all i can give you is the rules file I used and the error log....

Anyways, a quick excerpt from the log:

Code:

Progress is now 98%

MessageListClass::Init(Width: 618)

Progress is now 100%

Toggle display mode to 1024 x 768

About to set video mode

Removing mouse handler

Deleting primary surface

Prep direct draw.

SetDisplayMode: 1024x768x16

Checking hardware region fill capability...OK

Checking overlapped blit capability...OK

Display mode set

Mode apparently set OK

VisibleRect: 1024x768

Deleting AlternateSurface

Deleting HiddenSurface

Deleting TileSurface

Deleting SidebarSurface

Deleting CompositeSurface

Setting new window size to 1024x768

Creating primary surface

DSurface::Create_Primary

DSurface::AllowStretchBlits = true

DSurface::AllowHWFill = true

DSurface::Create_Primary - Creating surface

CreateSurface OK

DSurface::Create_Primary done

Recalc color remap tables

Calc_Confining_Rect(0,0,1024,768)

Set_View_Dimensions(0,0,856,736)

Deleting ZBuffer

Allocating ZBuffer (856x736)

Deleting ABuffer

Allocating ABuffer (856x736)

MessageListClass::Init(Width: 842)

MessageListClass::Set_Width(848)

Set_View_Dimensions(exit)

Mode change complete.

     Releasing NEUTRAL.MIX

     Releasing NTRLMD.MIX

SoundVolume = 1.000000

VoiceVolume = 1.000000

ScoreVolume = 1.000000

ScoreRepeat is OFF

ScoreShuffle is ON

Theme::Stop(31) - Fading

IsTGrowth = 0

IsTSpread = 1

Tooltips are on.

Capture_Mouse()

Sound frame size = 11264 bytes

Sound buffer size = 45056 bytes

Sound frame size = 11264 bytes

Sound buffer size = 45056 bytes

Sound frame size = 11264 bytes

Sound buffer size = 45056 bytes

Sound frame size = 11264 bytes

Sound buffer size = 45056 bytes

Theme::AI(Next song = 1)

Theme::PlaySong(1) - Playing

Sound frame size = 11264 bytes

Sound buffer size = 45056 bytes

Adding event DEPLOY <-- I Ordered my MCV to deploy (Via the 'D' hotkey)

Sound frame size = 11264 bytes

Sound buffer size = 45056 bytes

Sound frame size = 11264 bytes

Sound buffer size = 45056 bytes

Release_Mouse() <-- Game crashes

D::EH

D::EH - Dump

Fatal Error:

The cause of this error could not be determined.

A crash dump should have been created in your game's \debug subfolder.

You can submit that to the developers (along with debug.txt and syringe.log).Default

Default

It should also be noted that i tried this on a rulesmd that i had backed up on before atempting conversion, and still got the error.

Do you guys have any ideas as to possible places to look for solutions? I know it's a problem with my rulesmd.ini file, as other mods work fine with ares r 286

Except error listing..not in modenc

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:56:21 +0100

I googled some except errors and found this post. It contains a couple of Except errors mentioned here not in the listing

List of IE Errors not in the modenc