Our ReVolt Pub

i generally dont post here all that often because i honestly have no idea what you guys are talking about. no coding knowledge doesnt help much. im still in high school you know (maybe you didnt ). i hope to understand you guys soon. i am taking some computer classes this year including flash 8 and video game design and programming. unfortunately i think that i still wont be able to grasp all that is said here because these classes wont teach me much c++ or java or whatnot.
cheers,
ZR


ps: my pc went kaboom and wont turn on anymore, so dont expect much from me.

Zipper
Use a volt meter and check your power supply.
You should get 12V. and 5V. from the output.
Fix your cpu you wild and crazy guy.

hey jiggie jig,
please dont be disappointed, you are creating a cornerstone here, your work is highly appreciated. i have been running up and down in the last few days (including weekend) and i had no time to log in here. you know i care!
its a great news that wolfie is ready for an alpha/beta version! i will be in the first row when you throw a few copies off the stage!
please just carry on as time permits and polish it. your 512 patch has already open new doors to make better tracks, and with this tool we can really step up one level in track creation!
(i pm-ed you with my test results on bugatux)

@human
I got your PM. Too bad (in a sort a way) that you don't have bugatux anymore, because my try for a fix has still not been tested. Aylown said he will try, but I have no answer yet...


Well, I was not at home today, but yesterday before I leave I made the fisrt tests for custom models support in WolfR4, and it seems to be working now.

I tried with Jailhouse Rock, and I had to add some new values to support it fully. For example, I add the possibility to have a track with a '.fin' and '.fob' file without custom models, and to use another extension (eg. '.fi_' and '.fo_') for the same files but when launched with WolfR4, that would include the custom models (explaination may not be very clear, but I think track maker will understand).

I may release soon the promised beta test version, and I was thinking about including Jailhouse Rock as an custom track example, but I need the agreement from Human.

Didn't know if I've already said it, but I've also added the MAKEITGOOD mode enabled from a checkbox in WolfR4.

Very exciting.

Would you like someone to build an NSIS installer for it?

Do you have a logo yet, have you any art concept in mind.. need any help?

rickyd @ Feb 22 2010, 07:22 PM wrote: Zipper
Use a volt meter and check your power supply.
You should get 12V. and 5V. from the output.
Fix your cpu you wild and crazy guy. 

no it just fried on a power spike, thanks though. i ended up buying some new parts for it and it turns out my hd died on me too. so i had to reformat and i lost all my cool unrealeased rv stuff

jig,
if you do need a nsis installer i can make one for you. also if you need a logo or some art thing i can try my best but i would need to know what the actual name is going to be (since you were tossing around some ideas in that other topic.)

great news jig,
of course, you can include jailhouse in alpha wolfie, i feel honored actually, thanks.

i hope ayl will get back with tuxie results or you will find someone who can help testing. alternatively i can check how many parts do i still have from that computer which had the bug and put it together again for testing revolt, but its uncertain when that can happen, im so short of time nowadays.

@antimorph & zipperrulez.
Thanks, guys, for the installer and logo proposition. Well, for the beta version, no installer is needed, it will just be an archive to decompress in the revolt directory. But later, why not.
For the logo, if you feel like trying something, do it. But don't waste your time on it, as I can do it later, it's just that it's not my priority, so don't expect any logo or any cosmetic effort in the beta version .

@human
Thanks, human, about jailhouse. I was waiting for this to relase the first beta version of WolfR4.
About the bugatux, don't rebuild a computer just to test. Aylown will probably answer one day, and, well, if nobody has the bug, then there is no need for testing the fix...

---

So, I'm releasing the promised WolfR4 beta version.
This first release is dedicated to the return of antimorph here (he's the one who made the first car limit fix).
I just have to compile it and create the archive and everything... The custom model support is working, I will include the Human's track Jailhouse as an example. For other features, check the first post to see the current state.
If you want to try it, to help me knowing who is interested, I'm just asking that you send me a PM to get the file.
Of course, keep in mind that it's a beta version, so it's far from being finished, and it's not just for you to have fun with it: feedback is awaited...

jigebren @ Feb 20 2010, 09:06 PM wrote:I'm a bit disappointed by this lack of reaction. As for the carfix topic: a lot of work, and not a simple thanks.
The real fact is that I had no much time today, but don't expect some release in the coming days, I don't really fell like working for such a thanklessness.

You shouldn't feel bad about it. The work you are doing is monumental. And the appreciation will come. But the way people are, they come to appreciate things when they've been using them for a while.

I put years and years into RV House and RVZT. I never did it to get reaction or excitement, but for my own pleasure and to provide something useful for the community. The biggest price for me has been that they have been used and been useful for Re-Volters. If I had quit for lack of feedback neither of them would be here now. The way things are in this community (or maybe even in general), the feedback will come after release.

I'm quite sure if you achieve all you're set to do, WolfR4 or whatever it will be called, will be widely used and the excitement for what you've done will be wide. Don't let the lack of response drag you down. It's just a bit too abstract for most people at the moment, until they get their hands on it and see it for themself.

I must admit I'm disappointed on the lag of tuxabug testers who should have a very real incentive to make some noise. I can only assume it is because the hard core players that periodically read this forum have already switched to other CPUs that don't have this bug, or quit RV because of it. In anyway I think it is quite important bug to fix, I do see it in RV House time to time. If there was a fix to it maybe more people would stay.

i have crashed it on my first run
i set it on full screen and typed into the resolution box '1024 768' and it just crashes at start. i also tried '1024x768' but i get the same effect.
other than that i love it, nice job

edit:
any combination of the buttons on the run make my game crash on start, except for things regarding -window, that works fine. fullscreen = crash :/
i have a widescreen monitor, maybe my drivers arn't letting me?

I get an error when I try to launch revolt, 'Can't set process Affinity Mask!'
Do I need to select certain values or input the revolt directory ?

jigebren wrote:Ok, good to have someone with an old system, even if I wasn't expecting for an issue with that.
Deactivate the bugatux fix. That should be good like that.
And feel free to post issues in the wolfr4 topic...

The bugatux fix was not checked in the first place, but I deactivated/unchecked everything else.
I got the same error message except Revolt actually launched after selecting the OK on the error.
Just to clarify, the error the first time caused a crash of WolfR4 with the message :
"Wolfr4 caused an error in WOLFR4.EXE"
"Wolfr4 will now close"
After selecting OK would return to Windows Desktop.

It maybe my OS that is the problem rather than Wolfr4, please don't make it a priority to solve if no one else has a similar problem.

@arto
Well, the fact is that it's a bit out of context now. But thank for your post, and don't worry, I agree with what you said. I could explain in more details what's boring me sometime, but writting it in english would be too long for me, and it doesn't really matter after all...


@zipperrulez

i have crashed it on my first run tongue.gif

It's normal. You have used '1024 768' for the resolution but the syntax is '1024 768 32'. That's the command line of revolt, it's not linked to WolfR4 at all .


@Manmountain

I get an error when I try to launch revolt, 'Can't set process Affinity Mask!'

I think I have fixed it in the last beta version. Can you try it?

- - -

WolfR4 beta has been updated.

And I have added the ghost car support.

* Release notes:
Add: Ghost car enabled
Add: Settings are now saved when you close WolfR4
Fix: error message when Bugatux fix is enabled on Win98
Removed: Jailhouse Rock example is now in a separate archive

- - -

@all wolfR4 beta testers
Sending all PM from here is a bit boring/inefficient...
It would be better that you send me a PM with your email, and I will use it to send you every WolfR4 update. Thanks.

Well after trying for hours to break yesterdays alpha and failing, something occurred with the new one. Still early days of course. Not sure how we want to store these reports, maybe Tiddlywiki would be a good idea because it's so easy to pass around.

Unhandled exception at 0x2111cd14 in revolt.exe: 0xC0000005: Access violoation reading location 0x03b2ae70.

About 1 minute into a single race in simulation mode, on the splendid 'Foggy morning' lego track with the Race Debates Magma Car. Session history: Played half a dozen laps on Botgarden 1 in timetrial enjoying the ghost. Returned to the Frontend and tried to find custom tracks in timetrial mode . Changed instead to the Talon BX car and ran some additional laps on Bot Garden 1 in timetrial without overwriting the Magma ghost (you try controlling the Talon!). Switched to single race 'Foggy morning' with Magma, and this crash occurred after about a minute.

Restarting Revolt and running Foggy Morning from the start yielded no problems. I'll try and replicate the session above tomorrow and see if anything there gives reproducibility.

Just noting that cars sound like they're overrevving a lot on this machine.

Incidentally this is the first time I've run with Fix Go go bug and Fix BugATux. I'm using Win98 Compatibility mode. revolt is using the default affinity mode (CPU1)

Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.091208-2036)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Apple Computer, Inc.
System Model: MacPro1,1
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: Intel® Xeon® CPU 150 @ 2.66GHz (4 CPUs)
Memory: 2042MB RAM
Page File: 512MB used, 3422MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.5512 32bit Unicode

Call Stack


> mss32.dll!2111cd14()
[Frames below may be incorrect and/or missing, no symbols loaded for mss32.dll]
mss32.dll!21111b9e()
mss32.dll!21103c91()
revolt.exe!00489429()
revolt.exe!00489837()
revolt.exe!0040515b()
revolt.exe!004010bf()
kernel32.dll!7c80bd6f()
kernel32.dll!7c80a294()
kernel32.dll!7c802015()
revolt.exe!0048f72e()
revolt.exe!004aab0e()
revolt.exe!0044004e()

If you're curious to see disassembly of the memory contents immediately surrounding 2111cd14 then I have that to hand.


WolfR4.ini
----------
fullscreen_res_val = 800 600 32
fullscreen_res = 0
windowed = 1
window_res = 0
window_res_val = 800 600 32
aspect_ratio = 0
setdir = 0
setdir_val =
target_file_path = revolt.exe
panel = 3
alpharef_val = 0
monitor_custom_tracks = 1
go_go_bug_val = 6
device_val = 0
noforce = 0
nostars = 0
sli = 0
nomip = 0
gamegauge = 0
tex = 0
tex_val =
doublebuffer = 0
device = 0
gogodemo = 0
gazzasroute = 0
gazzasaiinfo = 0
gazzasaicar = 0
nouser = 0
alpharef = 0
mmx = 0
rgb = 0
editoffset = 0
editoffset_z =
editoffset_y =
editoffset_x =
editscale = 0
editscale_val =
cubevisi = 0
nogamma = 0
carinfo = 0
noeax = 0
no3Dsound = 1
nosound = 0
nhood_exception_on_load = 1
nhood1_battle_on_load = 1
go_go_bug = 1
bugatux_bug = 1
intro1_skip = 1
register_lobby_launcher = 1
patch_sleep = 1
loadlevel_thread_priority = 1
carfix = 1
allow_editors = 0
allow_ghost = 1

What a precise report, antimorph. Good job.

antimorph @ Feb 26 2010, 02:07 AM wrote:Not sure how we want to store these reports, maybe Tiddlywiki would be a good idea because it's so easy to pass around.

Sorry, I just don't know Tiddlywiki.

Unhandled exception at 0x2111cd14 in revolt.exe: 0xC0000005: Access violoation reading location 0x03b2ae70.

No idea for now. My only guess is: maybe something with the sound...

If you're curious to see disassembly of the memory contents immediately surrounding 2111cd14 then I have that to hand.

It could help me indeed.

Well, I'm sorry it seems that I don't have it to hand after all. I'm still habituated to life in OSX and I think I may have done something a bit stupid in notepad... I think I will begin to use TiddlyWiki to keep my own notes from now on. If this crash is at all significant I'll make it happen again.

antimorph wrote:  Well, I'm sorry it seems that I don't have it to hand after all

Well, that doesn't really matter. After looking better at your report, I saw:

Call Stack


> mss32.dll!2111cd14()

So, it's quite clear that this bug is linked to the sound. So it is possible that it has nothing to do with WolfR4 in itself, but that you have found another revolt bug...

Yep, that was my feeling also but I thought I'd run this past you anyway I'll mention it again if I succeed in narrowing its etiology significantly

antimorph @ Feb 26 2010, 03:27 AM wrote: I'll mention it again if I succeed in narrowing its etiology significantly

Ok.
And if you achieve to make this bug reproducible, the best is to try also without WolfR4 to see if it linked to its usage (but I'm quite sure you would have thought about it ).

i saw the ghost car and my jaw dropped. amazing.
i have not found any more bugs in the program yet.

great job jig,
everything seems to be working fine on my pc.
the ghost car is brilliant.

i tried jainhouse as well. works fine, although i saw plain white instead of a custom sky map. i may have messed it up im not sure, because i saw plain white before uninstalling the original jailhouse, but if i remember right the version thats downloadable from rvzt shows the normal nhood (or ship1?) skymap when the custom elements are not installed with the batch file. is that right? do you people see the normal skymap when custom models are not installed? ( i mean with the "standard custom" version that is on rvzt)

apart from this all works fine, nice little program.
although i dont have bugatux, i ticked the fix go go bug box, wolfie recommends value 17 on my system, which i have set, and toyeca was faster and harder to control than normally when i unticked the box, everything was normal in the race.

EDIT: can somebody copy a good link for learning more about those command line words, i have no clue what they are

oh and jig, i tried the gamegauge option. what it shows, (among other parameters) i think as last in the list, is it my maximum fps that can be achieved with the current settings on my pc? it says 725 i think, sounds pretty good

human @ Feb 26 2010, 09:44 PM wrote:i tried jainhouse as well. works fine, although i saw plain white instead of a custom sky map.

Weird. I have no time for testing this now, but it has to be deepened.

although i dont have bugatux, i ticked the fix go go bug box, wolfie recommends value 17 on my system, which i have set, and toyeca was faster and harder to control than normally smile.gif when i unticked the box, everything was normal in the race.

Value 17! what a beast, mine is just 8... I have to think a little more about it to be sure I'm not mistaken, but it is likely that using the go go bug fix, you are closer to the way cars were designed.
That could explain why I find the toyeca quite hard to drive in jailhouse, compared to you without the fix...

can somebody copy a good link for learning more about those command line words, i have no clue what they are

ADX (I think) has sent this to me lately:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key= ... AI5t-SbIKw

oh and jig, i tried the gamegauge option. what it shows, (among other parameters) i think as last in the list, is it my maximum fps that can be achieved with the current settings on my pc? it says 725 i think, sounds pretty good

I said it, your PC is a beast, I think I can just reach 150...

Sorry, but I installed the latest version you gave me a link to, and still crashes.
I can not select anything, if I uncheck everything I get the basic error message I stated and then Revolt launches.
If I select just the ghost car wolfr4 crashes and quits.

????

although i dont have bugatux, i ticked the fix go go bug box, wolfie recommends value 17 on my system, which i have set, and toyeca was faster and harder to control than normally smile.gif when i unticked the box, everything was normal in the race.

This happend to me also just now. There was a big step up in perceived acceleration and top speed (like lightning) when I restarted with the recommened value (17) ticked, and then, a slowmo slow motion (actually pretty cool) effect when I restarted with the Go go and bugatux unticked.

Something strange and wonderful but a bit wrong going on. Is this some additive growth effect that becomes much more noticable at the higher values of tux? The default 6 seemed normal, 17 super fast and unticked (0) slow? I will test more tomorrow (dog tired now). Is there any harm in specifying intermediate or higher values than 17 there? I can hardly resist putting some negative numbers in there in search of super slowmo mode.

Well I tried with -10 just for fun and nothing, so I'm beginning to wonder if I actually imagined the slowmo effect. Take anything I've said above with a pinch of salt, tiredness is winning the battle today.


PS. nothing replicated the sound related issue of yesterday.

Manmountain @ Feb 26 2010, 11:10 PM wrote:Sorry, but I installed the latest version you gave me a link to, and still crashes.
I can not select anything, if I uncheck everything I get the basic error message I stated and then Revolt launches.
If I select just the ghost car wolfr4 crashes and quits.

????

Sorry, I have forgotten a half of the fix I had to add for your issue . I now have added a better check to deactivate the bugatux fix for Win < Win2k. It should at least prevent the message about "Affinity Mask".
But I'm not sure it will prevent other crashes. I think I'll have to document myself about differences between WinME and following Win.

I hope I'll release an update soon. I have also fixed other minor stuffs in available command line options.


EDIT:

antimorph wrote: There was a big step up in perceived acceleration and top speed (like lightning) when I restarted with the recommened value (17) ticked, and then, a slowmo slow motion (actually pretty cool) effect when I restarted with the Go go and bugatux unticked.

It seems that I have things to check.
When you say that you restart, do you mean you restart: the race, re-volt or wolfR4?

Is there any harm in specifying intermediate or higher values than 17 there?

Too high value can hang some system (as yours is quite powerful, I don't know) and you will lose timer accuracy. Lower value will probably make bugatux more noticeable.

I can hardly resist putting some negative numbers in there in search of super slowmo mode.

Normally you can't get a slow mode, but during my tests, I tried it (half or quarter speed), and it was quite fun...
Don't try negative values, I'm 99% sure they won't work.

There was a big step up in perceived acceleration and top speed (like lightning) when I restarted with the recommened value (17) ticked, and then, a slowmo slow motion (actually pretty cool) effect when I restarted with the Go go and bugatux unticked.

Same thing happening here. my recommended value is 8.

jigebren wrote: When you say that you restart, do you mean you restart: the race, re-volt or wolfR4?

Re-volt. The super speed appears to be invoked when you start revolt with a value of (say 6 or 0) close re-volt, then increase the value of tux to say 17 without restarting Wolf, and then launching re-volt again.

If you start WolfR4 and Revolt the first time with the value of 17, things seem normal.

If you start initially with 17, and then close revolt and change the value to 0 you and restart re-volt but not WolfR4 you see slowdown. If you then close down revolt (but not WolfR4) and return the value to 17, things seem normal again.

There seems to be a pattern emerging.

human @ Feb 26 2010, 09:44 PM wrote:although i dont have bugatux, i ticked the fix go go bug box, wolfie recommends value 17 on my system, which i have set, and toyeca was faster and harder to control than normally when i unticked the box, everything was normal in the race.

I have tested it. It seems to do the same of my system with a high value like 17. For me, it's quite normal, as from some calculations I did, 17 is too high for my system. What I can't understand is why you obtain a recommended value of 17, and then it don't work on your system...
For now, the best you can do is set it to a lower value (try to decrease it from 17 until it works, then substract again 1 or 2 to the value).

Antimorph, can you please just confirm that in the post above, you're using the last WIP version (WolfR4 beta WIP10-02-26).

Just a little update.
Manmountain, can you tell me is it changes something for you. I hope so, but I'm not sure at all.

* Updates

* beta WIP:10-02-27
Mod: some code rewritten, some minor bugs fixed.
Add: Display the 'Current Track' detected by WolfR4
Fix: deactivate go go bug fix for older Windows version
Fix: some incorrectly used command line options

Antimorph, can you please just confirm that in the post above, you're using the last WIP version (WolfR4 beta WIP10-02-26).

Yes, for the post above I was using WIP10-02-26.
I'll aim to confirm whether this behaviour continues with WIP10-02-27+ .

jigebren @ Feb 27 2010, 05:06 PM wrote: Just a little update.
Manmountain, can you tell me is it changes something for you. I hope so, but I'm not sure at all.

Sorry, no !

No change, also you ask me to remove the old wolfr4.ini but I don't have one at all ?

Sorry, manmountain, I don't know what happens on your system. Do you feel like creating a new topic about this bug? with a summary of when it happens and the message you get, and the version of WolfR4 used...
(I'm sorry to ask you to write everything again but I'm working on a lot of different things at the same time, so I tend to forget the details, and the informations are a bit scattered)
About the .ini file, it is created when you quit WolfR4. Maybe you don't have it because it crashes before?

@antimorph, zipper, human, etc.
And for things related to bugatux and go go bug, may be we could switch back to the bugatux topic (sorry, I haven't found anything new about it for now).

It would help to prevent this topic from growing indefinitely. And following several bugs at the same time in the same topic is not easy .

I did a little testing, and here's a preliminary report:

- With Re-Volt launched from Wolf4R, it is very slow loading the level data. All those screen where it is showing the progress of loading (the blue bar) are quite slow.
- When I get into race, the lap counter shows something like 10 seconds had gone already. I do not see the "1 - 2 - 3 - GO" thing, the race just starts with the race time already showing 10+ seconds.

The only option I changed from Wolf4R was the Fix Go Go Bug, the value was 6 but the recommended value was 8. So I put it into 8. To try figuring out the weird race start time I put it into 32. Then the race time was already 15 seconds or something when I got into the race. I put it to 0, and the start time was again about 10 seconds when I got into the game.

This was what I had time to test today, and I did not repeat these tests too many times. What is sure though, is that the loading of levels is much slower and that when I get into the race the race time is already many seconds. It might be related to the slow start time, I don't know...

What other people report about the slowing or speeding of the game... I did not experience any of that regardless of the value I put in the box.

arto @ Feb 27 2010, 11:56 PM wrote: - With Re-Volt launched from Wolf4R, it is very slow loading the level data. All those screen where it is showing the progress of loading (the blue bar) are quite slow.

It's strange. On my system it does the opposite. You can try to play with the options 'loadlevel_thread_priority' and 'patch_sleep' to see if it changes something (and the Win98 compatibility mode also).
Normally these 2 options can be changed in realtime, so you don't even have to restart revolt.

- When I get into race, the lap counter shows something like 10 seconds had gone already. I do not see the "1 - 2 - 3 - GO" thing, the race just starts with the race time already showing 10+ seconds.

I know I have noticed that also sometimes, but I didn't noticed it was linked to the use of WolfR4. I can't be sure, but I think I saw it also without WolfR4, maybe when Win98 comp. mode is deactivated?


And I'm just realizing how far harder it is to work on bugs that occurs on other's system, compared to one's own.

I'm working on a lot of different things at the same time, so I tend to forget the details, and the informations are a bit scattered

Whilst a beginner myself I think that TiddlyWiki offers one way to tag and collect the various disparate sources of information into a coherent repository. It may be a valuable collateral project to pause for long enough to appreciate its usefulness. http://www.blogjones.com/TiddlyWikiTutorial.html

ps. On my system level loading is fast

jigebren @ Feb 28 2010, 01:16 AM wrote:

arto @ Feb 27 2010, 11:56 PM wrote: - With Re-Volt launched from Wolf4R, it is very slow loading the level data. All those screen where it is showing the progress of loading (the blue bar) are quite slow.

It's strange. On my system it does the opposite. You can try to play with the options 'loadlevel_thread_priority' and 'patch_sleep' to see if it changes something (and the Win98 compatibility mode also).
Normally these 2 options can be changed in realtime, so you don't even have to restart revolt.

- When I get into race, the lap counter shows something like 10 seconds had gone already. I do not see the "1 - 2 - 3 - GO" thing, the race just starts with the race time already showing 10+ seconds.

I know I have noticed that also sometimes, but I didn't noticed it was linked to the use of WolfR4. I can't be sure, but I think I saw it also without WolfR4, maybe when Win98 comp. mode is deactivated?


And I'm just realizing how far harder it is to work on bugs that occurs on other's system, compared to one's own.

Sorry about these... disregard what I wrote there.

I noticed just now when testing it more that my RV exe was one of the test patches you had sent earlier :-P. When I put the real RV exe in it's place none of these bugs happened.

I don't know if it's any relevance, but with your earlier patched RV the level slowing and the 10+ thing happened only if the "Fix tugabux" option was selected.

Anyway, my bad, sorry if it took any of your time. Didn't have any troubles with my short test using Wolf + the real RV exe. But I intend to try some more extensive racing online and also without compatibility mode.

Thanks for the great work!

Well, arto, I rather like it, when bug is solved by itself like that. And don't worry, I know what it is to make that sort of mistake...

I can't exactly remember wich patched test version I sent to you, so at first sight I have no idea why this version does what you reported with bugatux fix.
And I have already see 'bugatux' and 'tuxabug', but you're adding a new one to the list with 'tugabux'.

About the compatibility mode, I can deactivate it without noticeable issue when I'm playing offline (with the corresponding options set in WolfR4). But it is quite possible that it won't be the same when playing online. Let's wait to see your tests result.

EDIT: Oh, and sorry antimorph, I forgot your post. Well, TiddlyWiki may be interesting, I don't know, but I won't have time to discover/learn it for now.

I'm in the process to add the support for modified camera in custom track to WolfR4 (see 'Camera Positioning ' topic). It means that some tracks will can be designed to use a different point of view than the usual camera behind the car.

I had to rewrite some part of code to add this, and it's not tested a lot yet, but I'll try to release a new beta version quite soon (I'll just wait a bit for feedback, to see if there is things to fix).

Wow, what a lot of work you all have managed to do in just a week, here!


I'll support you as much as I can and I hope you aleready know that. Some of thoose who may haven't been showing their faces might also just have been on vacation this week, just like I was previous week. Test results & references to others test results from me will come soon.

Great work! Some feedback from me, as promised:

The first thing I noticed before running WolfR4 was just a little detail I felt was missing. It isn't really important, but I think It could be a good idea to write version number into WolfR4, so I in the future can go back to earlier versions and use them for bug comparison without getting confused about what version is which (I am in that situation with the 512patches right now ).

I ran Re-Volt (512 patched) twice, but forgot to patch it to 1207 instead of 0916 - both ran fine (of course). Enough about that time for running WolfR4.

Errors & Bugs using WolfR4:


- DirectSound3D error using -window

The only error I got was this DirectSound3D error after trying to launch WolfR4 in windowed mode at the standard settings. At first I thought the error came because I enabled 3D Sounds inside Re-Volt before launching with WolfR4, but as I succeded in launching Re-Volt from WolfR4 with the full screen setting while the 3D sounds was enabled, I excluded that reason. The DirectSound3D error occurs in window mode, no matter if Re-Volt was launched using WolfR4 or not.

Maybe the error could have something to do with what you said earlier in another post related to the 3D Sounds:

Jig &#045;> Differences Between Patch 0916 And 1207? wrote:I believe it's more a lack of feature willingly introduced by Vista's 5hit than really an audio card bug (audio hardware support has been removed, EAX too, etc).

(Find the topic here)

I can back this argument up with that I am totally unable to turn EAX on, in the Audio Settings of Re-Volt. But I am wondering why I am only getting the error in -window mode. I only tested window mode & full screen mode with and without -sli enabled at both.

Conclusion: The DirectSound3D error is not related to WolfR4 (as first expected).

- Jailhouse-backup showed in Custom Tracks Support List

This is definetly not an error, and might not be a bug neither, but I just thought I would take that up. I backed up my Jailhouse folder by renaming it to Jailhouse_Org before unzipping the one you've sent me, because I had some manual re-sized textures in it. After the installation both folders appeared to be on the list, which could become confusing for track makers in the future as JailHouse_ORG appear to be invalid according to Re-Volt (revolt.log: Loading: levels&#092;jailhouse_org&#092;jailhouse_org.inf: Not Found) so it therefore won't show up when launching.


Bug reconstructions:


- Antimorph's Unhandled Exception
I tried to reproduce this bug, not with the exact same cars nor tracks, but with something chronollically similar. I was unable to get the error tho.


Comparisons:


- Arto: When I get into race, the lap counter shows something like 10 seconds had gone already. I do not see the "1 - 2 - 3 - GO" thing, the race just starts with the race time already showing 10+ seconds.
I didn't have this problem myself and never had as of what I can remember.

- Human: Although i dont have bugatux, i ticked the fix go go bug box, wolfie recommends value 17 on my system, which i have set, and toyeca was faster and harder to control than normally.
I experienced the same using value 17 here. But I also had alot of lagg, both in the frontend and in JungleVolt. The FPS was at it's highest at all time though. My recommended value is 10, which seem to work very normally.


That was all from me right now. Until now I only tested the basic functions of WolfR4, I will test Jailhouse and more of the functions in WolfR4 tomorrow. Oh, and I don't remember seeing the ghost lightening the vertex colors blue while driving in Time Trial when I had Phoenix R3. Looks like you've come a whole step further than rst on that point! =P

Glad to see you back, urne. Your report are getting more and more professional .

About the 3D sound issue in windowed mode, I have no idea. As you said, I suspect it to be linked to Vista. But why does it occurs only in windowed mode? No idea...

Maybe the 'noeax' and 'no3Dsound' command line options can help you.

It could be a good idea to write version number into WolfR4

Do you mean, append it to the WolfR4.exe name? Because the compilation date is already available in the title bar, eg. 'WIP:10-03-02' (and keep in mind that these versions are time limited, so old version won't run for ever).

- Jailhouse-backup showed in Custom Tracks Support List
Are you sure that there is no 'custom.ini' file in your 'jailhouse_org' directory?

about bugatux
There is definitely someting that I have to check about the recommmended value. I tried lately, but I still can't find what's wrong. Maybe I will have to make another little tool like arto's one that can display usefull informations, but I need time.

Thanks for the reply jig. Related to Jailhouse Rock_ORG, yea I just found the *.ini being placed in the ORG folder as well. But I still suggest that we maybe mark invalid custom tracks with a grey color, so the user can have a better overview over the tracks installed and tracks that won't show up in Re-Volt. This isn't any issue I think we should take into bigger consideration than you to decide if you want to put time into make it user-friendly that way or not.

EAX & 3D Sounds
I tried the Commandlines out you pointed out could make a difference to the previous result and you can see the results below.

-window -sli -no3dsound: The DirectSound3D error didn't occur, but Re-Volt neither launched succesfully. It just stayed at the progress bar (or what is it called?). Take a look at this video to see what I mean and what I think "Re-Volt really is doing".
-window -no3Dsound: The exactly same as above.

-window -sli -noeax: I am getting the same DirectSound3D error as here.
-window -noeax: The same result as with -sli enabled (above).

-window -sli -no3Dsound -noeax: The result is similar to using -No3Dsound in window mode only.
-window -no3Dsound -noeax: Same result as above, no difference.


Conclusion: I only managed to get one new result we might have to investigate further. Appearently -sli and -noeax doesn't make any difference to the result.

The next step on this point would probably be testing the 3D Sound feature Re-Volt offer. If I understood right, this might affect your soundexperience if you have a surround system or similar, but if you know better, please inform me.

Test of Jailhouse Rock
The Jailhouse Rock example you sent me loaded fine and I couldn't see anything not looking right or working incorrectly. Unfortunately I am pestered by a constant 20FPS drop-down when using this version of Jailhouse, but I am pretty sure that this has nothing to do with WolfR4. I experience the same by using normal Re-Volt where Jailhouse Rock has been installed using the bat files that came along the track in the original zip.

Anti-Alias suggestion
I changed my Anti-Alias Settings from x4 to x2 in my graphics card settings, so I thought I could run Jailhouse with full FPS. That gave me an idea I think could be interesting to implement into WolfR4. What about being able to control the Anti-Alias level? This option is also inside Re-Volt's Render Options, but appearently it doesn't work (or at least doesn't make any difference).

Oh, and not to stress you Jig, but I saw in the Jailhouse zip that the textures haven't been through your 512size-blender yet? Well, right now you can try out mine. The textures inside each bitmap is re-sized manually to avoid overwriting, but other than that they cannot beat your program in quality or anything else. Download the textures here (Please note that only the skymap and the level's textures has been re-sized).

Bugs with Jailhouse Rock

- Totally White Skymap *Fixed*
I found out that I have the same problem human is having, the skymap is showing up totally white. I was running with 256res textures, so I suspected in the start that the bug occur because the textures aren't in 512res.

After loading the track again with 512bmp's I saw that it unfortunately didn't help. I tried switching skymap in Objects edit mode, and appearently only Toytanic Day is totally white in Jailhouse (Toytanic Day displays normal on Toytanic 1).

Conclusion: I think this problem is either related to the custom.ini or WolfR4 itself. Did it work on your own comp, Jig?


- Transperancy disappearance when getting dialog
Just a minor issue I suppose could be fixed (I don't know how easy that is tho). I saw this bug while driving on Jailhouse Rock because Human has created a cool transperant "dirt-layer". But when being in MAKEITGOOD Instance mode and saving something this dirt-layer becomes temporarily invisible while the box dialog is showing up. Take a look at theese pictures to see what I am descriping:

Before saving
While dialog is open

Conclusion: This is not a big deal, but personally I think it's better to report the bug than totally ingore it. The bug has certainly not anything to do with WolfR4, I just experienced it during the tests.


- FPS Dropdown on Jailhouse Rock in Instances MAKEITGOOD mode
You probably read under "Anti-Alias Suggestion" that I changed the level of antialias to prevent FPS dropdown. Later I found out that the FPS Dropdown actually is related to the MAKEITGOOD mode, because I saw FPS dropdown in Instance and Objects mode, but Full FPS with "None".

I tested Bone Island in Instances MAKEITGOOD Mode as well as without, but I never experienced the same constant FPS Dropdown as in Jailhouse Rock. I only noticed that at first enter the FPS drops down to 23-24 and afterwards stay at 59-60. The FPS dropdown I experience on Jailhouse Rock in Instances or Objects mode could of course have something to do with the size of the *.fin file, but it's actually only 940 byte, so I doubt that's the problem.

Conclusion: I don't know if this is a bug, I just get a dropdown when entering Instances mode on Jailhouse Rock, but for some reason I never experienced anything like that on other tracks as high-poly as it. Perhaps it's the track, perhaps it's Re-Volt, but it has definetly not anything to do with WolfR4.


Other than that I really didn't notice anything that shouldn't work properly. I didn't make any fully comparison, only compared to what I can remember seeing on Jailhouse Rock in custom mode, when it's installed using bat files. If you need me to check up on anything specific in WolfR4 just tell, I'll gladly give more feedback.

Few minor notes (requests) while I remember:

- When launched by lobby, Wolf4R should launch RV right away (can you detect that?).
- I like the Kill button .
- It'd be quite nice if you could patch the default number of cars to be 12 instead of 8. Right now, when started from lobby, it is impossible to host 12 people races. There's supposed to be a registry entry for the number of cars, but RV does not seem to load values from there. Patching it to load would probably be quite hard, but making the default be 12 instead of 8 I'd imagine should be much easier.

I said it everytime, but it really deserve it: thanks for your nice report, urnemanden.

urnemanden wrote:Related to Jailhouse Rock_ORG

Ok, I think I will fix that (skipping level without correct .ini and .inf files).

EAX & 3D Sounds

-window -sli -no3dsound: The DirectSound3D error didn't occur, but Re-Volt neither launched succesfully. It just stayed at the progress bar (or what is it called?)

Well, I have not a lot of idea .
I think I have seen the same thing sometime, but when???
Can you just check that you have no other revolt.exe process still running in the background?

Notice about the -sli option
From my investigation, I can tell that this option just modify the display buffers flipping, and only during a level loading (frontend included), and only in fullscreen. That's all, at least I think.
So in windowed mode, this option just won't do anything...

Sorry, about the 3Dsound, I can't really help. I have a stereo system/soundcard only, and no specific knowledges about all this thing...

Jailhouse rock
Maybe the FPS drop is due to the nice animated (rotating) models used by human in jailhouse. If you don't use the custom install, they are not used, that may be why there is no fps drop in that case.

Anti-Alias suggestion
Well, the idea may sound simple at first sight, but as I think it deals with the graphic card setting, it's likely that I can't do that so easily. I don't even know if it can be set by windows API, or by directX, or by graphic card brand's API...
And that's the same on my system. I don't see any difference using it in Re-Volt's Render Options. Maybe my graphic card doesn't support it?

As you said, I didn't release the 512*512 version of the jailhouse textures. It's to keep thing simple in the beginning. (and it's a question of time also ).

The Totally White Skymap was a mistake in 'custom.ini' file. I have fixed it.

- Transperancy disappearance when getting dialog
I think you have put the same 2 images here .

arto wrote:- When launched by lobby, Wolf4R should launch RV right away (can you detect that?).

I don't know if I can. But it was on purpose, to let the possibility to modify some setting before re-volt is started.

- It'd be quite nice if you could patch the default number of cars to be 12 instead of 8

I think it on the TODO list already. Unfortunately, I have no much time for this now. But I'll try to do it.

Snip - Deleted for the sake of accuracy - snip.

jigebren @ Mar 2 2010, 06:43 PM wrote:

arto wrote:- When launched by lobby, Wolf4R should launch RV right away (can you detect that?).

I don't know if I can. But it was on purpose, to let the possibility to modify some setting before re-volt is started.

Yes, I guessed that was the reason, and if one doesn't much race online it might be hard to see why it's an annoyance. When you're playing online you go to a room and wait for the host to launch. You expect RV to launch when the host is ready. You might even do something else and not pay attention to what is happening in the room. At least for me, now that just Wolf4R was launched instead, I didn't even notice the host had launched the game and I'm supposed to manually launch from Wolf.

If you'd want to change Wolf4R settings prior to online game, you'd launch Wolf4R, change the settings before hand and then quit.

I'm not sure if I explained it well why it would be nice. Maybe some other online racers can give their opinion how they'd like it to behave. I might of course be in minority with my preference.

EDIT: of course this is a minor gripe, and all the real improvements you're making are much more important. I just added it here while I remembered, when there is time for polishing...

Jig &#045;> Jailhouse ORG wrote: I think I will fix that (skipping level without correct .ini and .inf files).

...Which gave me another idea. What about a list over invalid tracks aside to the list over Custom tracks? Maybe some statistics too (How many tracks/cars installed etc.) - of course all that is just "eye-candy" no necessary at all.

Jig &#045;> EAX & 3D Sounds wrote:Can you just check that you have no other revolt.exe process still running in the background?

I just tried to re-produce what I am getting with the -window -nosound3D combination and the exactly same happens - this time I am 100% sure I didn't have any revolt.exe's running in background.

Jig &#045;> FPS Drop at Jailhouse Rock wrote:Maybe the FPS drop is due to the nice animated (rotating) models used by human in jailhouse. If you don't use the custom install, they are not used, that may be why there is no fps drop in that case.

That what was I thought in the start too, but since the FPS is 100% alright when I drive without MAKEITGOOD Instances mode I doubt that's my problem. The FPS is 100% alright in both the custom and basic version of Jailhouse Rock

Jig &#045;> Invisibilty at dialog wrote:I think you have put the same 2 images here .

Oh, sorry! I edited the previous post to have the correct link(s), but if you don't feel like scrolling, just see the images below:

Arto &#045;> WolfR4 online wrote:If you'd want to change Wolf4R settings prior to online game, you'd launch Wolf4R, change the settings before hand and then quit.

Maybe a check/uncheck box where you can choose to start Re-Volt directly or start the wolf first and go through 'da settings first.

urnemanden wrote:QUOTE (Jig -> Jailhouse ORG)
I think I will fix that (skipping level without correct .ini and .inf files).

...Which gave me another idea. What about a list over invalid tracks aside to the list over Custom tracks? Maybe some statistics too (How many tracks/cars installed etc.) - of course all that is just "eye-candy" no necessary at all.

I have added that fix. For simplicity's sake, I just skip incorrect levels. Statistics or more complete info can be good, but I try to avoid superfluous work for now .

urnemanden wrote:

(Arto &#045;> WolfR4 online) wrote: If you'd want to change Wolf4R settings prior to online game, you'd launch Wolf4R, change the settings before hand and then quit.

Maybe a check/uncheck box where you can choose to start Re-Volt directly or start the wolf first and go through 'da settings first.

Ok, arto, I understood your reason of asking that. I've added this lobby launcher detection function to WolfR4, with a popup window displaying a countdown (3 or 5 seconds, see screenshot below) during while one could skip auto-launching (but it's done in a quick/dirty way for now).


Do you think this can be good?

urnemanden wrote:- Transperancy disappearance when getting dialog

I think I won't spend time on this bug, because if I understood correctly, it is not really annoying. But I fully support that you report each bug you find anyhow.
I still think it would be nice to index every bugs in a dedicated place, but where, and how? If someone has an idea...

Last update changelog.

* beta WIP:10-03-03
Add: New entries in custom.ini (eg. gfx&#092;loadlevel1.bmp).
Add: Default 'custom.ini' generator.
Mod: custom.ini content has been reworked, clarified and documented.
Add: Custom race camera support. (asked by Skitch2)
Add: Auto-launching after ~3 seconds when called by a lobby launcher
(eg. RVHouse). Can be skipped to set options in WolfR4 before. (asked by
arto)
Fix: Only levels with proper custom.ini and .inf files are added to custom
list. (asked by urnemanden)
Mod: Little other stuffs, as usual (eg. some interface items/tooltips updated)


I have modified the lobby auto-launching message (see post above). It's not using a popup window to display the countdown anymore, but this is integrated to the launching button.

jigebren @ Mar 3 2010, 12:43 AM wrote:

urnemanden wrote:

(Arto &#045;> WolfR4 online) wrote: If you'd want to change Wolf4R settings prior to online game, you'd launch Wolf4R, change the settings before hand and then quit.

Maybe a check/uncheck box where you can choose to start Re-Volt directly or start the wolf first and go through 'da settings first.

Ok, arto, I understood your reason of asking that. I've added this lobby launcher detection function to WolfR4, with a popup window displaying a countdown (3 or 5 seconds, see screenshot below) during while one could skip auto-launching (but it's done in a quick/dirty way for now).


Do you think this can be good?

Thanks,

that'll help to not miss races.

I also took some time today to go through the new update you've sent to the test members.

Trying JungleVolt in Wolf-mode
- Moving bug, 3 bmps for 1
After getting the new Jailhouse Rock Zip, I decided to try create my own custom.ini for JungleVolt. I tried to wolf the JungleVolt GFX Theme into JungleVolt, but when running the first time, I had a weird bug. Everything on thoose gfx pages was invisible, which actually created a pretty cool effect, like you see on the picture below.

Later I found out that the mistake was my own, since I the 3 lines I had in the custom.ini said instead of Because of the mistakes in the first code, I think WolfR4 was unable to copy the 3 bmp's into the gfx folder, because they had to be named all the same. And as there were no bmp's in the folder, because the original was backed up or renamed, the pickup and everything else mapped to thoose bmp's became invisible. I don't know if this should be categorized as a bug, but I think it would be ideal that WolfR4 notices the user if there is an error in the custom.ini and then moves the original bmp's back to &#092;gfx, so this won't show up as a bug. In this case, the bug only appear visually and could actually be usefull in a halloween track, but what if it was a case where it was very hard to tell clearly what caused the bug?

- Error: "Can't load mipmap texture Fx1.bmpmp"

First I thought that this error came because I didn't create any mipmap textures for fxpage1.bmp etc., but after testing Jailhouse Rock I saw that this error doesn't come, even though it also misses a matching bmq to fxpage1.bmp. In JungleVolt's case it could perhaps have been because of a mistake in the custom.ini file, but I checked it and cannot find anything that seems unnormal - of course I could have overseen something, so I would recommend that you check the ini file too. Read it here.

If you want the whole track, just send me an e-mail.

- Bug: The Re-Volt Menu without text and spru
I got this bug, when minimizing Re-Volt and maximizing it again, while the Fx1.bmpmp error is open. After pressing OK, the spru and text will disappear from the loading screen and after the Frontend is loaded, it's without spru and text as well.

By pressing the above picture, you can watch a video of what I am doing. Sorry for the quality of the video, but people appearently CamStudio (or the microsoft video codec) is better at recording from dekstop than from inside a game like Re-Volt.

I don't know what could be the reason to that Re-Volt acts like it does. But you know what Wolf actually does when it gives an error (perhaps pausing Re-Volt?) better than I, so I am sure you might be able to fix this bug. I believe that the same will happen, no matter what error or button you use to minimize Re-Volt.


I don't got time for more work on wolfing JungleVolt nor testing WolfR4 & Jailhouse Rock (Updated) this evening, but I most likely got time for that tomorrow. Thanks for a wonderful application!