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Trying to Compile from Source in Blades of Exile
Celtic Minstrel
Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
 written Monday, December 24 2007 06:24 Profile #14
Progress! The character editor now loads its main resource file, but it's now having problems creating a new GWorld (QuickDraw error -50). I haven't figured out what the error means yet.

[ Monday, December 24, 2007 06:25: Message edited by: Celtic Minstrel ]
Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00
in Blades of Exile
Celtic Minstrel
Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
 written Saturday, December 22 2007 19:51 Profile #29
I don't know whether this matters at all to you, but Khoth has a darcs repository for the Mac source.

The only reason I say this is that it might make sense to keep them both in the same type of repository.

Also, two Google code projects have been created – one is called oboe, the other blades-of-exile. If the creators of those projects were contacted, and you had a Google account, the source could be moved to their repository. (I think it's Subversion?)

These are just suggestions. Follow them or ignore them as you please.

I'm currently trying to get the Mac character editor to work, and making very little progress. Part of my problem is that, like you, I don't really understand all the API functions (in my case, the Carbon API).

It would probably be simpler (and messier in some sense) if the Mac version switched to a file system more like the Windows version, where each graphic is in a separate file. You could make it look neater though – on the Mac these files could probably be hidden inside a file package (a folder that is treated like a file); on Windows they could perhaps be zipped or something (this would require using zlib though, or something similar).

Maybe someone should do a comparison of the Mac and Windows source to determine which parts are identical.

It would be nice if this were to finally start to progress again. :)
Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00
in Blades of Exile
Celtic Minstrel
Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
 written Saturday, December 22 2007 14:37 Profile #27
I wonder – is there anyone who has access to both a Mac and a Windows compiler? Because porting to SDL (and possibly, as someone suggested, wxWidgets?) is probably a good idea, but would ideally (I think) be done in parallel on the Mac and Windows sources.
Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00
in Blades of Exile
Celtic Minstrel
Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
 written Saturday, December 22 2007 06:31 Profile #25
Feel free to redo it. Ormus has not read my message yet, so he either doesn't check his email often or has disabled email notification of private messages. There's not much more that can be done, really. :(
Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00
Blades of Exile Source Code Released in Blades of Exile
Celtic Minstrel
Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
 written Saturday, December 22 2007 06:29 Profile #79
Still, it's probably best to stick to C/C++. As for the unregisteredness of the game, that probably has something to do with the preferences file or the registry or something like that. I don't know how to fix it though.
Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00
Geneforge Avernum link? in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
Celtic Minstrel
Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
 written Friday, December 21 2007 11:08 Profile #19
quote:
Originally written by Txgangsta:

Ok, maybe the Trakovites don't make the empire, but they still could be the ones that take out the shapers. Also, its not Averforge, Its Generum. Geneforge came first =)
No, Avernum came first, even in publication order - at least in the form of Exile. Geneforge was made third. (Nethergate was second.)

quote:
Originally written by Lucheiah:

the Geneforge and Ermariana (Avernum/Exile & Empire) worlds
The Geneforge world is called Terrestia, isn't it?

quote:
Originally written by Have a very Iffy Christmas:

Uh, no. Not right.
Teleportation isn't really mentioned at all in the Geneforge series. So they didn't have teleportation developed then.

So if there is a connection, Avernum would be second.
You're assuming culture can only progress, when in fact regression is also possible. So they could have forgotten how to teleport.

However, there is teleportation in Geneforge (apparently), so it's really a moot point.

I don't think there is a link between Avernum and Geneforge, but it's possible. Shaping is mentioned in Avernum at least once*, as something the Vahnatai do, so it's theoretically possible that humans learned from the Vahnatai and went on to create the Shaper society.

*The troglodyte's explanation of their origin in episode 3.
Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00
G5 wishlist. in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
Celtic Minstrel
Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
 written Friday, December 21 2007 09:35 Profile #242
quote:
Originally written by Mythrael:

I would want the main character to be able to buy(build) his own shaper lab, this way you could create powerful a creation by using the shaping vats(for example you could create battle gammas, charged creation's that don't dye out, add an extra attack(stun, freeze) or improving a spell, so you wouldn't spend so much essence, but you would have to spend money.
Interesting idea. It would probably be much easier to allow you to buy it rather than build it, though. Anyway, I like this idea. The duals, maybe not.

I also suspect that what we post here isn't going to have a significant effect on what he finally decides on. Oh well...

quote:
Originally written by LakiRa@:

Why not?I would love a faster way of travel somewhere behind red sections(if its previously discovered of course othervise it would be like cheating)
I just noticed this as I went through the thread. You do realize that you can warp instantly to any edge of any zone, provided that you're at the edge of the zone and there is a path of cleared zones between the current zone and the target zone?
Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00
Meep.. in Blades of Avernum
Celtic Minstrel
Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
 written Friday, December 21 2007 07:07 Profile #4
So... what is SpidWeb: The Scenario?
Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00
Exurnum in The Avernum Trilogy
Celtic Minstrel
Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
 written Friday, December 21 2007 05:01 Profile #6
There's also the party size. In Exile, you can have six party members. In Avernum, only four. Avernum also has a fraction of the number of available spells in Exile, but somewhat makes up for it by having three levels in each spell.

[ Friday, December 21, 2007 05:03: Message edited by: Celtic Minstrel ]
Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00
Trying to Compile from Source in Blades of Exile
Celtic Minstrel
Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
 written Wednesday, December 19 2007 10:41 Profile #13
Well, that doesn't seem to work. The crash no longer occurs, but I still can't debug it. :/

quote:
Originally written by Khoth:

Using darcs to record your changes:
"darcs record *.c *.h" will make it ask about your changes one by one. The changes you say yes to will be recorded into a patch. (If you don't specify the *.c *.h, then it'll ask about changes in the .xcode part, which are generally pointless)

To get the patch to me, do "darcs send -o somefilename", say yes when it asks about your patch, then email me somefilename as an attachment.
I tried to do this, but I don't think it worked properly. The "patch" seems to be almost the entire file that I added a few lines to, without my added lines, and with a hyphen in front of each line. Shouldn't there be a plus in front of some lines?
Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00
Trying to Compile from Source in Blades of Exile
Celtic Minstrel
Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
 written Wednesday, December 19 2007 06:46 Profile #11
The trouble is, even if I set a breakpoint at the top of main, it doesn't pause there so I can step through.

Anyway, here's the crash report.
Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00
Trying to Compile from Source in Blades of Exile
Celtic Minstrel
Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
 written Tuesday, December 18 2007 18:01 Profile #9
I guess I'll have to look through the entire code. :rolleyes: (Edit: Or maybe there's am error in the settings...)

Does ExitToShell() give status code 1? If yes, does anything else give the same status code?

Edit 2: Start with Performance Tool -> MallocDebug makes slight progress - instead of exiting with status 1, it quits unexpectedly. I'm not sure I'll be able to decipher the crash report to find out why, though.

[ Tuesday, December 18, 2007 18:23: Message edited by: Celtic Minstrel ]
Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00
Trying to Compile from Source in Blades of Exile
Celtic Minstrel
Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
 written Tuesday, December 18 2007 05:44 Profile #7
Is there any way to determine which bit of code is causing it to exit with status code 1? Or, for that matter, any other status code. (I'm working on the PC editor, by the way.)
Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00
Conveyor belt in Blades of Avernum Editor
Celtic Minstrel
Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
 written Monday, December 17 2007 16:42 Profile #9
quote:
Originally written by Calphrexo:

The "east" line is missing a semicolon.
Whoa – how'd I miss that?

quote:
Originally written by Calphrexo:

Maybe an SDF could be used to chart whether a belt has moved a player yet, with one for each player (6). Set them to a number after moving a player, and reset them every turn. If you want the belt to stop you can set all the SDFs to the inactive value.

Will monsters also need to walk on the belt?
Actually, for the characters I'm going to check each character in turn to see if they are on a belt, so that monsters/NPCs can be affected by them - provided they aren't blocked.

quote:
Originally written by Ishad Nha:

Edit: as it so happens the Blazing Blades produced good conveyor belt graphics.
I've seen the graphic you mean (based on the original Exile graphics), but I had already made my own at that time. However, I will likely switch at some point as mine is really bad.

quote:
Originally written by Niemand:

The maximum is 120 creatures, I think, and something like 144 items, but move_item_on_spot is probably your best bet for items.
Originally written by Niemand:
80 placed creatures + 34 summoned + 6 party members = 120 charcters in the town.
Thanks. I was assuming 250, but clearly I was wrong.

Now I just have to figure out a way to ensure a specific pile of items is only pushed once per turn... The easiest way would be to work backwards along the chain, but that would require different code for each town that uses conveyors. I'll do it if I can't think of a better way, though... I have a suspicion that this is actually the only way it could work.
Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00
Conveyor belt in Blades of Avernum Editor
Celtic Minstrel
Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
 written Monday, December 17 2007 12:01 Profile #4
Or I could use my original method - the SDF - if I simply wanted to disable all belts in the town.

By the way, what's the maximum number of creatures in a town? And the max num of items?

Edit: There's no way to iterate through all items in the town like you can do with creatures, is there? :(

Edit: It's telling me there is "syntax error [statement" (ALint) or "Bad term in expression" (Avernum) on line 39. That's the "south" line in the INIT_STATE:
variables;

short xTarget,yTarget,willPush,i,j;
// Constants
short north,east,south,west,nw,ne,se,sw;

body;

beginstate INIT_STATE;
// Set the constants
nw = 0;
ne = 0;
se = 0;
sw = 0;
north = 474;
east = 476
south = 477;
west = 475;
set_ter_script_mode(ME,3);
break;
This makes no sense at all.

[ Monday, December 17, 2007 12:26: Message edited by: Celtic Minstrel ]
Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00
in Blades of Exile
Celtic Minstrel
Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
 written Monday, December 17 2007 11:30 Profile #23
I just sent him a private message about this. If he hasn't been checking the forum recently, then hopefully he has opted to be notified by email upon recieving a PM. Really all we can do about this is wait, I think.
Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00
Trying to Compile from Source in Blades of Exile
Celtic Minstrel
Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
 written Monday, December 17 2007 07:12 Profile #5
:/ I can't quite seem to figure out how those paths work. At least, "\p::Resources:bladesofexile.rsrc" fails even though the file exists in the Resources folder within the bundle. It fails with one or three trailing colons, too.

Anyway, I increased the maximum number of scenarios listed in the Choose Scenario dialog to 50, as well as omitting the default three from said listing. The hardest part was finding where to apply the changes. :rolleyes:

Edit: I also put this number into a constant (kMaxScenarios) to make it easier to change.

[ Monday, December 17, 2007 07:16: Message edited by: Celtic Minstrel ]
Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00
in Blades of Exile
Celtic Minstrel
Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
 written Monday, December 17 2007 07:02 Profile #21
quote:
Originally written by novaalpha:

Your contribution will be much appreciated. :)
Thanks, but actually my contribution won't really help you much since I use a Mac and you use Windows. I'm not quite sure who would port the Windows character editor – maybe Ormus or Ishad Nha? Only, Ormus has vanished. :/

P.S. Way too many emoticons.
Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00
Conveyor belt in Blades of Avernum Editor
Celtic Minstrel
Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
 written Monday, December 17 2007 05:01 Profile #2
Well... I never thought of this. Only one minor problem – I wanted to be able to set an SDF to turn it off (so it stops pushing). However it's fairly unlikely I'll have two completely separate conveyor networks in the same town, so that shouldn't be a significant problem.

I actually made the terrain script be set automatically, but I still had to go through and set the direction appropriately.

I wonder... could I make this work outdoors?
Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00
Conveyor belt in Blades of Avernum Editor
Celtic Minstrel
Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
 written Sunday, December 16 2007 18:48 Profile #0
I'm trying to create a terrain script which makes a space act like a conveyor belt. It works, but there's one problem: when several conveyor spaces are chained together, you are taken instantly to the end of the chain rather than being pushed a single space. Is there any way to fix this? I thought of setting an SDF which is reset in, say, the scenario start state, but then only one belt space would operate per turn.

My code:
if (char_on_me() == -1) end();
willPush = 1;
// If hasted, the character may not be pushed.
if (get_char_status(char_on_me(),3) > get_ran(1,1,100)) willPush = 0;
// If flying or hovering feet, the character will not be pushed.
if (get_char_status(char_on_me(),25) > 0 || get_char_status(char_on_me(),27) > 0) willPush = 0;
if (willPush == 1) {
print_named_str(char_on_me()," is pushed!");
relocate_character(char_on_me(),xTarget,yTarget);
force_instant_terrain_redraw();
}
(It's in the START_STATE.)

[ Sunday, December 16, 2007 18:48: Message edited by: Celtic Minstrel ]
Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00
Trying to Compile from Source in Blades of Exile
Celtic Minstrel
Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
 written Sunday, December 16 2007 14:02 Profile #3
Thanks, it was that the resource files were not where they were expected to be.

Now, can someone explain this:

"\p::::bladesofexile.rsrc"

I know \p is the length byte, but why are there so many colons?

Edit: Oh, I'm using Khoth's source. Not the OBoE source, just the BoE source. And thanks, Niemand, for the tip.

[ Sunday, December 16, 2007 14:04: Message edited by: Celtic Minstrel ]
Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00
Trying to Compile from Source in Blades of Exile
Celtic Minstrel
Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
 written Sunday, December 16 2007 11:27 Profile #0
Okay, I'm trying to compile the BoE source code on a Mac. It compiles*, links, and runs, but instantly exits with status 1. (One time it was status 5.) There isn't even a chance to debug to find where the problem is. It's almost like it has an error before it even gets to main(). Does anyone know how I can get it to run?

*Except the scenario editor, which is missing a constant. This should be easy to fix.

Also, is there any simple way to get rid of the tons of "deprecated" warnings? Or is the only solution to hunt through the documentation? Or... is it simply because Carbon is being phased out? (At least I thought it was...)

[ Sunday, December 16, 2007 11:28: Message edited by: Celtic Minstrel ]
Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00
Code Help in Blades of Avernum Editor
Celtic Minstrel
Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
 written Sunday, December 16 2007 11:15 Profile #5
I think you'd want to put it in the SEARCH_STATE to prevent access to the contents of the container.
Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00
in Blades of Exile
Celtic Minstrel
Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
 written Friday, December 14 2007 19:16 Profile #18
quote:
Originally written by novaalpha:

So you're current maintainer of this treasure? I was hoping that Spiderweb Software is interested in opensource version of it's best game ever... Now I see that chances are slim.
No... no, I wouldn't call myself "maintainer" of the project. If anyone could have been considered "maintainer", it would have been Stareye, but he's been gone from the BoE board for quite some time. I do, however, have some coding experience, and since my exams are now over I think I would like to try working on some stuff. Carbonizing the character editor, in particular.

On the other hand, I may just play through my Avernum games now that I have both the time and the full versions. :D

(Incidentally, does anyone know why it would compile, run, and then quit without doing anything? It exited with status 5, whatever that means...)
Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00
About the compiled versions of BOE on the Spiderweb Website. in Blades of Exile
Celtic Minstrel
Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
 written Friday, December 14 2007 15:05 Profile #16
If you want to learn coding without risk of crashes (or at least greatly reduced risk), try something like Python, Logo (especially if you want to draw pictures), Perl (never tried it myself) etc. Generally speaking, these higher level programming languages have better error handling than, say, C or C++ or Pascal, and hence will be less likely to crash your computer.

You could also try a scripting language, if it is not too specialized (AvernumScript is too specialized). For example, a HyperCard clone.

Of course, none of that would help you contribute to BoE in the short run. ;) But it could help you learn principles of programming which could later be applied to a lower level language like C++.

My first "programming" was done in UCB Logo and HyperCard, and when I moved on to C++ and Python I found that I already understood some of the concepts, such as recursion. Next I have to learn Objective C or Java so I can use the Cocoa APIs... :D
Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00

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