Blades of Exile Source Code Released
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| Author | Topic: Blades of Exile Source Code Released |
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Board Administrator
Member # 1
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written Friday, May 18 2007 09:03
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I just put out new versions of the Windows source, which contain all of the files. Some of them were missing. "Strange thing. There are files called LARGE.h MEDIUM.h and SMALL.h which are basically lists of towns from Exile 3. Are these files really necessary to compile BoE? I'm on Windows, BTW." Those are superfluous files from Exile 3 put in there by mistake. Phear mah organizational skillz! - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
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Apprentice
Member # 8755
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written Saturday, May 19 2007 15:27
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Hey, I'd like to say that I think it's great you've released this for your fans. I also have a couple of technical questions. Are you releasing the graphics and sounds under the CPL as well? Are you generally ok with people using the oringal exile graphics in BoE for other projects? For example, I've wanted to put together some kind of simple tile based web game for a while, and the exile tiles that BoE, which I've always liked, would let me get around my general lack of artistic skill. Has anyone set up a repository of some kind? I tried to get to khoth's page, but it looked like his site was down. Has anyone tried putting the project up on source forge? That would be pretty handy, as most people are going to at least want to be able to start with whatever changes have already been made by khoth (or at least get ahold of the xcode project). Posts: 4 | Registered: Saturday, May 19 2007 07:00 |
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Post Navel Trauma ^_^
Member # 67
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written Sunday, May 20 2007 00:25
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My connection went down for a bit, and then later I accidentally turned the computer off. It should be accessable now. -------------------- Barcoorah: I even did it to a big dorset ram. New Mac BoE Posts: 1798 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00 |
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Board Administrator
Member # 1
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written Sunday, May 20 2007 18:39
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If you have any links you do't mind being made public, let me know, and I can add them to the source code page. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
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Post Navel Trauma ^_^
Member # 67
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written Saturday, May 26 2007 07:26
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Status update: It compiles, and links, and shows the loading screen, and crashes when drawing the main menu screen. I don't know why. Edit: Got past that, but it's still not quite perfect , and can't run scenarios yet: [ Saturday, May 26, 2007 09:53: Message edited by: Khoth ] -------------------- Barcoorah: I even did it to a big dorset ram. New Mac BoE Posts: 1798 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00 |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Saturday, May 26 2007 12:04
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Looks promising! Keep up the good work and good luck getting the thing to work. :) -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
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Post Navel Trauma ^_^
Member # 67
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written Saturday, May 26 2007 12:27
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Okay, I have a version that works well enough that people might want to see it. It's still a bit rough around the edges, and also rough in the middle, though. If it doesn't work for you, let me know. If it does work for you, let me know too, because I currently don't know what the system requirements are, beyond "OS X". Get it here: http://khoth.ath.cx/~khoth/ -------------------- Barcoorah: I even did it to a big dorset ram. New Mac BoE Posts: 1798 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 6489
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written Saturday, May 26 2007 14:57
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It seems to work fine on my MacBook Pro. Is there any chance you can give it its old icon? [ Saturday, May 26, 2007 15:23: Message edited by: Tyranicus ] -------------------- "You're drinking liquor because you're thirsty? How nasty is your freaking water?" —Lazarus Spiderweb Chat Room Avernum RP • Summaries • OoC • Roster Shadow Vale - My site, home of the Spiderweb Chat Database, BoA Scenario Database, & the A1 Quest List, among other things. Posts: 1556 | Registered: Sunday, November 20 2005 08:00 |
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Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
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written Saturday, May 26 2007 15:07
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Neat! It seems to work fine with everything I've tried, with one exception: I don't think it reads old save files from the Classic app. Is it possible to make it do this? I know Jeff's games generally don't, when they get Carbonized, but I don't have any idea what the technical reasons are for that (i.e. whether it's just hard or actually impossible). -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Saturday, May 26 2007 15:25
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This is fantastic! I tested it on my Mac and it appears to work as expected. Good work Khoth! :) -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 6489
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written Saturday, May 26 2007 15:47
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Applications without icons bug me, so I resized the old BoE icon to 128x128 (OS X icon size) and pasted it onto the app. I have it available on my webspace. This archive is identical in very way to Khoth's with the exception of the old BoE icon pasted onto the app. EDIT: I found a problem. It doesn't open BoE save files, even ones that you save with this app. [ Saturday, May 26, 2007 15:58: Message edited by: Tyranicus ] -------------------- "You're drinking liquor because you're thirsty? How nasty is your freaking water?" —Lazarus Spiderweb Chat Room Avernum RP • Summaries • OoC • Roster Shadow Vale - My site, home of the Spiderweb Chat Database, BoA Scenario Database, & the A1 Quest List, among other things. Posts: 1556 | Registered: Sunday, November 20 2005 08:00 |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Saturday, May 26 2007 16:12
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For the record, I was able to get mine to work, but my testing has not been very extensive, i.e. only at the beginning of VoDT. -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 6489
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written Saturday, May 26 2007 16:43
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Nevermind. Apparently, it can't open it if you overwrite an older file, but if you create a new one, it works fine. EDIT: If it can feasibly be removed, the dialog box that pops up at the beginning asking if you want to change your graphic settings refers top problems in pre-OS X Macs, so that should be removed since it doesn't have an option to not change and never ask again. [ Saturday, May 26, 2007 17:06: Message edited by: Tyranicus ] -------------------- "You're drinking liquor because you're thirsty? How nasty is your freaking water?" —Lazarus Spiderweb Chat Room Avernum RP • Summaries • OoC • Roster Shadow Vale - My site, home of the Spiderweb Chat Database, BoA Scenario Database, & the A1 Quest List, among other things. Posts: 1556 | Registered: Sunday, November 20 2005 08:00 |
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Babelicious
Member # 39
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written Saturday, May 26 2007 22:06
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Hey, Khoth, any interest in documenting the BoE internals? Or anyone else? I'm in the process, and I see no reason to duplicate efforts. I know there are a lot of unanswered questions about stuff like the Wound spell, darkness breath, etc. -------------------- Pygmalion | Desperance | Djur Posts: 1074 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 6785
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written Saturday, May 26 2007 23:25
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quote:The save game file may be in a slightly different format in OS 9 and OS X versions. All it takes is one number saved in a different format or order to cause trouble. Posts: 4643 | Registered: Friday, February 10 2006 08:00 |
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Board Administrator
Member # 1
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written Saturday, May 26 2007 23:36
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The game format is exactly the same for Classic and OS X, and I've never had any trouble loading one of the other. It's only with Universal that you have to be careful with file loading. So this is odd. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
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Warrior
Member # 7633
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written Saturday, May 26 2007 23:52
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Khoth's Carbonized build works quite nicely on my PPC machine. It looks a little "off" in windowed mode, though - the content ends up shifted to the left a bit (maybe 16 px or so), and the splash doesn't quite draw properly. Haven't tried loading an old-style save, so no idea how that works. Issues with those are probably just a matter of a missing or an extra endian swap, though, and might not manifest on PPC anyway. Loaded its own savefiles just fine, though. And yes, the initial "i can has 256 colors plz" dialog is completely redundant under OS X. Kill it with fire. Posts: 66 | Registered: Saturday, November 4 2006 08:00 |
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Post Navel Trauma ^_^
Member # 67
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written Sunday, May 27 2007 00:02
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I've put out a second release, which adds an icon, removes the startup screen and makes savefiles compatable with the old BoE's (it was a struct alignment issue). Note that this breaks compatability with savefiles created by release 1 (which is why I wanted to get this out as quickly as possible). It'd be great if people who report it working also tell me what version of OS X they have. Currently, I don't know whether the requirements are 10.4, 10.0 or something in between. As for documenting the internals, I'm currently not that interested in digging through looking at game mechanics, although documentation of file formats would help with universalisation and making a more compiler-independent file-loading mechanism. My plans for the future are, in increasing order of time and decreasing order of probability: 1. Sort out problems in the current version and get it as good as the original BoE. 2. Carbonise the scenario editor. 3. Do some cleaning up on the code. 4. Fix longstanding bugs that can be fixed without breaking compatability with the old BoE (I'm not sure how many of these there are. Most of the "X doesn't work" are probably not in this category). 5. Add some helpful features like the ability to read PC graphics files. 6. Fix bugs that would break compatability (with notice in the scenario editor if you rely on something that woudln't work in old BoE). I'm not sure where Universalising fits into this. I don't know how much work it is, and I'm not sure about the benefits. If it's fast enough already, there doesn't seem to be all that much of a point. If Warcraft III can run fine under Rosetta, I don't see why BoE couldn't. However, speed, ease of debugging or perfectionism might tempt me to. And don't let anything stop you from making it universal, if you want to. Anyone else working on this is welcome to send me patches (ideally in darcs format), which I will apply if there's no good reason not to. [ Sunday, May 27, 2007 00:28: Message edited by: Khoth ] -------------------- Barcoorah: I even did it to a big dorset ram. New Mac BoE Posts: 1798 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00 |
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Master
Member # 5977
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written Sunday, May 27 2007 00:21
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No! God, Khoth, you can't mean this... It's just two second ago I took the trouble to make an icon and put it up on my website for other people to enjoy it. Don't take it the wrong way, I'm pleased to no end with this carbonized copy, it's just that I wasted my time on that icon, with which I'm not quite happy... Oh well. EDIT: Og hod, I see others made one as well... Come on Thralni, read... [ Sunday, May 27, 2007 00:22: Message edited by: Thralni ] -------------------- Play and rate my scenarios: Where the rivers meet View my upcoming scenario: The Nephil Search: Escape. Give us your drek! Posts: 3029 | Registered: Saturday, June 18 2005 07:00 |
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Post Navel Trauma ^_^
Member # 67
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written Sunday, May 27 2007 00:27
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You weren't wasting your time. Your icon is now the one in my release. Edit: Oh, sorry. You were wasting your time. Tyranicus wasn't. ;) [ Sunday, May 27, 2007 00:28: Message edited by: Khoth ] -------------------- Barcoorah: I even did it to a big dorset ram. New Mac BoE Posts: 1798 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00 |
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Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
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written Sunday, May 27 2007 06:49
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Cool. All that I've tried seems to function well on my non-Intel 10.3.9. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
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Board Administrator
Member # 1
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written Sunday, May 27 2007 09:37
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It sounds like you've done a super-excellent job. I'll try to take a look soon. We should discuss if/how I link to your work from the main site so a more general class of players can enjoy the game. "I'm not sure where Universalising fits into this. I don't know how much work it is, and I'm not sure about the benefits. If it's fast enough already, there doesn't seem to be all that much of a point." I think you're right. As long as Rosetta exists and your game functions properly under it, Universalizing is of questionable benefit. And it's a lot of work. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
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Infiltrator
Member # 148
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written Sunday, May 27 2007 09:40
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What would it take to add support for moving the party via the arrow keys rather than the keypad? It would help those of use with laptops. -------------------- My ego is bigger than yours. Posts: 480 | Registered: Thursday, October 11 2001 07:00 |
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Post Navel Trauma ^_^
Member # 67
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written Sunday, May 27 2007 10:24
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I've now put up release 3. Changes: Spell targeting and animations work. Uses less CPU on idle. Can read .bmp custom graphics files (it seems that the newer the computer, the harder it is to transfer a resource file over the internet without it getting lost or corrupted). There's still the odd way the main screen window is a bit too small for the content, which I haven't got to the bottom of. There are no other known issues (but lots of unknown ones - go and find them). Jeff - I should be thanking you. You've done a lot more for BoE than I ever will. As for hosting the thing, something more reliable and long-term than my personal computer would probably be good, in the long run. I'd suggest that after it's settled to a reasonably stable and polished version, you host Release 10 (or whatever it turns out to be) on spidweb.com, and provide a link to my page for updates and the repository. Dahak - I don't imagine it would be hard, but what about diagonal movement? [ Sunday, May 27, 2007 10:25: Message edited by: Khoth ] -------------------- Barcoorah: I even did it to a big dorset ram. New Mac BoE Posts: 1798 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00 |
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Board Administrator
Member # 1
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written Sunday, May 27 2007 11:09
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Re: Hosting Blades. When you have something suitably stable and tested ready, drop me an E-mail. (And, if you don't hear back from me, drop me another one. These days, spam filters eat things. This also applies, by the way, to people who submitted Blades scenarios which never appeared on our site. I'm thinking of Exodus.) Re: Arrow key movement. Wow, didn't Blades of Exile support arrow key movement? I thought I'd added that by then. It's a very good idea, even though no diagonals is a hassle. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
