Our ReVolt Pub

Re-Volt v1.2 is the next update for the game Re-Volt. The new version is aimed at fixing most bugs, adding new features, modifying existing features and making Re-Volt fully compatible with all systems.

Due to the large gap between v1.2 and the previous Re-Volt update (released in 1999), the new version will probably be the largest update released for a video game.

For more information, downloads and help visit The Re-Volt v1.2 Webpage.

The project has just begun and is in Beta phase, so be sure to frequently check for updates and bug fixes.

You can contact us by replying to this thread, by PM'ing me or jigebren in ORP or by email to subsribe as a beta-tester to receive the latest updates, and get involved in the development. Feel free to use this thread for any questions, suggestions or comments relevant to this project.

Great work Huki!

I'm currently re-reading the sources and fixing any mistakes I made. So it might be a little long before the next build comes. But I'm sure that most of the documented bugs will be fixed in the next build.
Feel free to report new bugs. For example, you might notice that this build is very crash happy at the loading screen.

I can't help you in programming, sorry.
Either way, good luck!

Huki wrote:

arto @ Sep 26 2010, 01:05 AM wrote:

Huki @ Sep 25 2010, 12:06 AM wrote: As a side note, lately i was working on compiling the xbox code we have for pc (trying to bring back compilable release version of re-volt). Once i got it compiled i checked these 2 problems re-volt had with my win7.

How'd you manage that, or did you just disable the networking code? I remember way back I took a look at compiling it, but the networking code was so much changed that I gave up on it.

The network code we find in Xbox\Src folder is network.h and network.cpp. I'm sure that this file is not from acclaim (created by xbox developers) and it is not needed. The network code i compiled is from Xbox\FrontendSrc\ play_TEMP.h and play_TEMP.cpp. It seems to be the latest aug99 network code. Maybe i included parts of play.h and play.cpp from the PC dev source too.
Right now, i get "can't set session description" when trying to host. But i can reach the waiting room and start race, but i don't think anyone can join yet.

Ah nice, I hadn't noticed it's there. During my conversion I just took a look at the networking code, decided it's too much changed to be convertable in realistic time. I'm looking forward to what happens!

@arto: the errors were fixed and it is now possible to create/join sessions and chat in waiting room. A small bug now: client's game doesn't start when host presses TAB. But it can be fixed easily and we can even allow late joining (after host started)!

Anyway, I just fixed a graphics bug that worried me a lot (God, it was fixed just by changing a value from false to true!). Also it is nice to have Jigebren to help. I hope arto can check the network code once we are finished proof-reading all files.

Now the controls seem to be a little different (the steering is more sensitive). This would have to be fixed too. Once all bugs are fixed, we can make the AIs even better than the original, teach them how to turn better and recover from crashes faster.

One more thing, this topic is not reserved for programmers. There is always something in which everyone's help is valuable. For example, soon we would need the size of text, size and position of spru boxes in different places in the game, etc. Just stay tuned!

You guys are doing great, hope ADX can join in!

Looking forward to see how this project evolves as well!

Huki wrote:For example, soon we would need the size of text, size and position of spru boxes in different places in the game, etc.

How does Re-Volt create the Spru boxes? Shall I tell you the cordinates (in pixels) or how many times things repeat?

I will gladly help with anything

Citywalker wrote:

Jig wrote:And the car refresh option could probably be added as a keyboard shortcut (I think it was already the case in a special re-volt version used by devellopers/car designers).

This means that Re-Volt v1.2 will be a sort of "developer's version", too. Or maybe a setting could be added to the options menu for activating the developer features (like on-the-fly car refreshing or e.g. hull visualisation or whatever-someone-thinks-of).

Yep, we could enable MAKEITGOOD and dev options when a commandline is used (-devcon for example).

@Urne: Thanks. I'll post how to get the coordinates when working on the menus.

@zach: Oh, yes. I posted about this in rvdev forum and he seems to have replied. I asked him to join the project in ORP. Waiting for reply..

---

I'll upload the new build with most bugs fixed soon (probably in a day or two). The only mysterious problem now is crashes at load screen. The pc dev version is very stable because it has no load screen.

Summary of the Test Report
Since the log inside the Test Report is a little bit long, I just thought I would write up all issues I had (minor as well).

Issues found on Computer 1
I had the following bugs on my Windows 7 computer:

Electro Pulse Warning
The warning below occurred after every activated electro pulse ended with 4 or 5 exceptions where it showed up randomly.


Alt+Tab Bug
While loading back to Frontend, I Alt+Tab'ed to write status in the Log of the Test Report. Opening Re-Volt again just caused a black screen, where the music still was playing and the menu SFX could be heard if I pressed enter or similar.

A notice from Windows
Windows claimed that revoltH.exe didn't function right because it was missing a "d3drm.dll".


Unable to Change Name
As the title says, I could not add or remove any letters of my player name inside Re-Volt. This also prevented me from trying any of the stock tracks in MAKEITGOOD mode or similar.

Stunt Arena Crash
After launching revoltH.exe I went straight to Stunt Arena, but it crashed while loading.


Issues found on Computer 2
The results below is from my older Windows XP Media Center Edition.

(Minor!) Music issuee
If loading the frontend takes a lot of time, you will miss a part of the music soundtrack.

Race started too soon
Again, if loading a track takes a lot of time, the race will begin without the countdown, not even GO!

Electro Pulse Warnings
Same reason as described at Computer 1, still with a few exceptions tho.

(Minor) Could not load Nhood1.bmp & bmq errors
These two errors only occured after launching revoltH.exe. The Nhood1 gfx picture did not show up on the track selection screen after the error had occured.

Stunt Arena Crash while loading
Although I was able to enter Stunt Arena once, Stunt Arena always crashed if I tried loading a track in Single Race first.


The full Test Report can be downloaded here.

Wow, very professional. Thanks for taking the trouble urne.

Electropulse warning: The warning message was written by xbox developers, so i'm sure the bug (harmless), already exists in revolt 1207. It only occurs after an activated electro pulse ends. (when you saw it randomly, an electropulse ended for an AI car out of sight). I'll disable the warning and all will be fine.

Alt + Tab Black screen: Only occurs in frontend + fullscreen because menu code isn't finished yet.

d3drm: Thanks for reporting it. It should be fixed now. I'll send you a new exe to test.

Unable to Change Name: Like I said, menu code isn't finished. But you can change name by manually turning the name wheel using arrow keys and enter.

Stunt Arena Crash: This revolt seems to be very crash happy in all PCs except mine. So we have to wait till all other bugs are fixed to see if this goes away. For now, try win98 compatibility mode.

Music/Race bad start: The counterpart of our famous multiplayer bug. Also, offline replay mode will lag like replay of online race. Fixing these 3 bugs will probably also fix their multiplayer parts which has never been done before.

Nhood1.bmp error: Only happened in Jig's and your pc, not mine. Very strange. But the revoltH.exe was compiled with visual studio 2008. Let's see what happens with VS6...

The first post was updated with a new build. Check the readme for fixed and already known bugs.
When testing for loading crashes, use win98 compatibility. Without win98 comp. mode, both this build and original 1207 revolt crash in the same way (for example when loading stunt arena in win7). With win98 compatibility, only Frontend will crash (because menu code is not fixed yet). For now, you can bypass the frontend and test all track loading (with win98 comp. mode) using -gogodemo commandline.

EDIT: The car steering bug and replay bug were fixed by Jigebren. I'll update the link again soon.

New build with replay and steering bugs fixed was updated. Check the first post. Also some Frontend related bugs were fixed. It will be sometime before menus are fixed and the next update comes. Meanwhile, test all tracks except frontend for crashes guys.

Just wanted to inform everyone that the loading crashes are fully fixed. Now our re-volt is as crash-proof as original re-volt. Also, now it is fully playable - online and offline. I haven't uploaded the new build yet. I'll wait to fix the menus (and maybe wait till there is some interest in the project? ). I don't believe this myself, but the next update maybe as well the last Alpha release (in just under 2 weeks ).

Anyway, a new Wolf version is comming up, which gives me time to fix everything.

interested but no time sorry :/
yeah, speaking of which, the latest build failed at launching any single race here (JIT exception shows)

if I'm not wrong,I believe they're centered but acclaim dudes forgot something, which is "minus Height/2 and minus Width/2"

keep up the good work, and good luck

@Kay: Hmm, i haven't uploaded the latest "crash-proof" build yet. Because a lot of bugs were fixed along with the crash and I didn't have time to update everything in the readme yet. Maybe I can send you the latest build by email if you are interested..


EDIT: the first post was updated with a temporary link to the latest build. With win98 compatibility it should not crash anymore.

I have to say that is a good work I've tested on XP and works amazing (lots of things to fix, but it's a working build!!)
However, the code is not so much maintainable...
I'm doing a big rework on the game engine. My aim is to do some low-level librares (physics, file handling...), in standard C.

If someone is interested, I will start coding again these weeks, cause first I'm reading some interesting books about creating c libraries in an efficient way.

Keep up the good work guys!

Fixed a nasty multiplayer bug which I accidentally discovered while testing online with nuc. I was half-way down in fixing the menu code, but I updated the download link (in first post) with the multiplayer fix so everyone can test it.
Be sure to download the small blue link instead of the big one (which is a very old build that I can't update just yet). Can everyone confirm if multiplayer works correctly now? (I mean the gameplay, some menu text will be out of place).
Thanks.


@ADX: Good to see you here. About "a lot of things remaining to fix", the only remaining fixes are text sizes and position. (The cars might spin a little faster. Can you confirm this by testing the updated binary?).
About code not maintainable, can you say why exactly we would want maintainable code? (I am understanding you are talking about the Xbox code and not the PC Dev Demo ). I mean.. it would be very nice to do low-level libraries from revolt's code if many games are going to use revolt's engine. But there is going to be just one game using revolt's engine, that is Re-Volt. So I don't think we need libraries just yet.

The cars are a bit fast, if that's what you mean.
And for example, configuration isn't saved (at least not for me) so I can only play at 640x480 res.

About the code, I would like to port it to UNIX systems, so low-level C libraries would be a good idea. Also, we can handle in a more efficient way things like the timer (very buggy), and things related to hyperthreading and 64 bit systems.

Also, we could implement an external "track editor", using the same libraries (just as the actual MAKEITGOOD but delivered in another application)

EDIT: I'm on a Mac, and I don't think I'm going back to Windows in a long time... so it's a priority for me to do it . And remember that you're compiling the executable with old programming frameworks (dx 5, optimized for win95 and win98, the project file was designed for visualstudio 5.0...), so it would be such a bad idea to use the actual revisions.

Glad to se you here, ADX.

Just some quick personal thoughts...
We could of course try right now to make everything from scratch in the perfect way, but chances are that it will simply never get finished...
But by choosing more attainable target, we can progress step by step, without being discouraged by the amount of work to do.
For now, the goal is only to get a version similar to the last binary one, working on PC, and using an old directX sdk. That, we know it can be done in a reasonable amount of time.
Only once this get done, then we can decided to work on a more elaborated target.


So, about making multi-platforms code, trying to get rid of directX code, etc., I'm totally in favor of this, but only eventually.
About buggy timer, maybe we can just use a 64 bits variable when needed, unless of course it's not that easy in C++, or if it would slow down calcuations too much... (on 32bits systems).
Having external libary could indeed be a good idea, to get re-used by external tools, but it would be a secondary objective IMO.

-About cars running faster, I haven't noticed anything yet but we will check it, thanks for informing.
-About revolt always starting up at 640x480x16, i think it happens with original rv too, in most vista/7 computers when win98 compatibility is not on.
-About buggy timer, as far as I can see, they simply use a hardware timer so all we do is make sure the counter value is always around 1 million. (currently timer_shift is 6, later it can be calculated at runtime depending upon frequency value). Also i have seen absolutely no tuxabug cases (only gogo bug). I am starting to believe that even Tuxator had just another form of gogo bug.
-About ripping revolt off into libraries, that won't be done in v1.2. We will stick true to the original code for this release. I can understand your(ADX) point about a new TrackEditor and that it needs to share code with rv engine. But there is a simple solution. Run revolt v1.2 with -dev commandline for the new trackeditor.
-About porting to OpenGL, Mac, Linux, Xbox, PSP, blablabla, we just ported the code to Windows PC. Please no more ports. To say the truth, there will be lot of fixes/updates in v1.2. We can't support many such versions at once.
Also as far as I can see, re-volt was built in VS6 with dx7 sdk (uses legacy code from dx6.1). It is very stable on the latest PCs, especially with wolf bugfixes.



And letme clarify this: Re-Volt v1.2 will be the next revolt update after 1.1. It will not be a "next generation" version totally converted to opengl, using classes, templates and all that (i just don't see the point of those just yet). I'll remember to update the aging info in the first post soon.

Thanks.

I'm not saying to start the project right now. Of course, it's hard to rewrite from scratch such thing, and we are not enough people to work on that. I encourage people to keep the good work on the actual bug fixing task on the actual compilable project. It's a good thing to see all this progress here.

About porting to UNIX, such thing will be done if we decide to start rewriting the libraries, but NOT from the actual project. Will be a complete mess if we do that... and I'm aware of it.

My point is what do you thing about rewriting the library as a long term project, not as a thing to do right now...

Keep up the good work guys

ADX @ Oct 16 2010, 05:03 PM wrote:My point is what do you think about rewriting the library as a long term project, not as a thing to do right now...

I totally agree with you. Once the 1.2 version is finished, we will rewrite the code for sure. Then it will also be easily possible for unix and other ports, update the game engine and create a next generation version in the future (i guess we will be doing Throwback's work then ). I think this 1.2 version will serve as a gateway to all future work on the source. Thanks for your interest and involvement in all this..

As long as you don't completely remove all the cuteness of Re-Volt, I'm fine with thinking that far in the future. I just think that some old features like for example the principal about using vertex points as shadows should be kept, while other things like the ENV limit could be nice to have expanded. I hope you get what I mean

urnemanden @ Oct 16 2010, 05:36 PM wrote: As long as you don't completely remove all the cuteness of Re-Volt, I'm fine with thinking that far in the future. I just think that some old features like for example the principal about using vertex points as shadows should be kept, while other things like the ENV limit could be nice to have expanded. I hope you get what I mean

The aim is to do Re-Volt, not another racing game so I hope we get the "cuteness" of the original one!

The first post was updated with the latest build.

I'm happy to announce that there is just one more bug to fix before we can get the exact 1.00 re-volt: fix text sizes and some menu-box positions. If anyone finds any other bugs, please report here. For example Urne had reported a seemingly unimportant camera bug which was now fixed. Pic here...
We want the exact replica of the 0916 version before we can start on the actual v1.2 work.

Anyway, there has already been some "original" bugfixes, which are listed below.

Original Bugfixes wrote: Display Buffers error: Fixed "Can't flip display buffers" error at the end of level load in Vista/7.
Loadfront/Loadlevel images not displayed: Loading images can now be seen in Vista/7.
Frontend music not played after minimize: When Re-Volt is minimized at frontend and maximized back, music in Frontend is not played anymore. The bug is fixed.
[Multiplayer] Cars going under the floor/disappearing: It was fixed with a quick hack by Xbox developers.
Unhandled Newline characters: Some very long lines in the language files (in Re-Volt\Strings\ folder) have the newline characters '\n\r' which is never processed by re-volt. As a result these lines overflow out of the menu-box. The new line characters are now processed and these lines are displayed correctly.
Car Transmission swap fix: Car drive trains (FWD and RWD) were swapped in re-volt, both in the language string files and the source code. It was fixed directly in the source. Later it should be fixed in the string files instead.

Modifications wrote: Dev mode Cheat: The cheat code to enable Dev mode was enabled.
Multiplayer Chat Key: Pressing F12 enables chat in re-volt. Pressing F12 again should disable chat in this release. Also it is now possible to chat when waiting for players.
Version string: Modified version string displayed in Frontend.
CD Check: CD Check and Redbook are temporarily disabled.
Intro wait: Pause over the first intro image was removed. The whole intro is not skipped.

Additions wrote: Commandline -nosli: Added -nosli commandline for testing purposes.

I have a rather important bug to report (at least more important than the camera bug). Since I wasn't home yesterday, I decided to use some of the time to test the offline features of 1.2A (Build 10.1016).

Championship won bug
Tested in Bronze, Silver & Gold Cup. After winning all theese three cups, the "You won" dialog box shows up at the end of the loading screen and a weird kind of lagg happens when the 3rd, 2nd and 1st place numbers shows up. The screenshot below should describe it better than me.


I'll test the latest build once I have internet connection to my own laptop again.

The Champ Won bug was fixed. It happened because the WinLose scene was never rendered. Once again, thanks for the report Urne

It's finally done! The first post is updated with the final Alpha release. This build is the same as 0916. This is a nice occasion to celebrate Urne's birthday. Thanks for all your help urne.

The source code we have is for v1.00 and the two v1.1 (0916) updates: Hosting custom tracks in multiplayer and -nomip commandline, were added by me. -sli is not needed anymore and so it is not added. If you think anything is missing or find any bugs, feel free to report them.

Before there is any more development, I need to confirm that this release is the same as 0916 re-volt. So I will wait till there are sufficient test reports from everyone, before the next release. I hope everyone would spend some time testing all parts of the game and confirm that everything is alright.

Meanwhile, I think I'll work on re-writing the first post and the readme, try my hand at a new icon and minor stuff like that.

If you have any new feature (not already in Wolf) to request or a better way to implement any Wolf features, let me know. Or are you just wondering what the hell this project is about? Just ask here and everything will be explained. Any doubts, suggestions, feedback? Again, this is the place to post them.

Also, it would be nice if anyone can give server space to host the new version. The release is just about 600KB.

Finally, I ask everyone to let the word spread(or rather, advertise ) that a new Re-Volt version is comming up. I expect atleast a little involvement from everyone here. I don't know if we have legal rights to do this, or if this version will really become an "official" re-volt update one day, but I do know that it's finally time to take over from where Acclaim left.

What happend with Throwback Ent? They still own the Re-Volt rights, isn't?

That's why I said I don't know if we have legal rights to do this..

But well, as long as re-volt is downloadable from abandonia, we are in the clear. Anyway, is Throwback actually alive? And if so, do they own rights to the xbox source code? I don't think so..

Can't get it working. I'm on XP with Win98 compatibility mode. Downloaded from Abandonia and then the 1.2 version overwritten.

Someone at abandonia had the same problem. Can you try the revoltrace installer instead? Uninstall the abandonia one.

http://www.revoltrace.net/downloads/rev ... taller.rar

Ok I'll try. However, I wanted you to know that I've created a google group to report bugs, releases, fixes, and other kind of discussions.

What do you think?

http://groups.google.com/group/revolt-development

Hey that is fantastic. Thanks. Now users don't have to wait several months for the orp admins to activate them before reporting bugs and contacting us.

I'll add this info to the first post during the next release.

Good. All my testings and suggestions will be done there

PD: I've granted permissions for file uploading and those things. Check it out.

Fantastic! Great work

Suggestion: Multi-Player over a Bluetooth PAN Network
As you may know, many mobile devices supports multi-player over Bluetooth. And since even many laptops today supports PAN, it would be really nice if Re-Volt supported it as well. It would in that case no longer be necessary to be connected to the same router as long as you have Bluetooth (which nowadays many laptops have).

Of course this won't happen before we get a properly working Re-Volt, but all suggestions are welcome, are they not? (:

Re: Multi-Player over a Bluetooth PAN Network: It could be possible, the only problem is, I don't know network programming (yet!). Anyway, I'm sure it will not be possible as long a re-volt uses DirectPlay. Our only hope is to replace DirectPlay with a full featured network API (winsock?), and I don't know if we should do that in v1.2 (completely replacing existing technology in re-volt can only happen after 1.2).

For now, can you just see if you can browse the internet and also, if rvhouse works in Bluetooth PAN? For v1.2, the only thing that is possible is adding rvhouse's network code along with re-volt's existing directplay code. This way, if directplay doesn't work (because of port or wireless problem or whatever), it can use rvhouse's code which obviously works in those conditions.

Of course this won't happen before we get a properly working Re-Volt, but all suggestions are welcome, are they not?

Well, I think we already have a properly working and fully functional 0916 re-volt. And sure, all suggestions are welcome.

Not many testers flowing through here.. come on guys, i can assure you that the new patch won't blow up your computers..

We need all Windows XP users to test this in their systems since two xp users reported that it crashed right at the beginning, while it worked fine for 4 xp users. Even if you don't have time, just launch this patch and make sure it loads and report back.. that shouldn't take more than 2 minutes.


Also, Zach has agreed to host our releases and also a webpage which he would help design too! (thanks zach). If you have any suggestions on how the webpage should be structured, tell us. For now the idea is to do a wolf-like page (with a little more eye candy from zach and adx ).


Thanks in advance guys and gals.

PS: If you are just registered in ORP and are waiting for activation, you can contact me by email instead (address in first post).

First, I want to thanks Zach for his help about hosting files and webpage for this project...

Huki @ Oct 24 2010, 01:25 PM wrote:For now the idea is to do a wolf-like page (with a little more eye candy from zach and adx ).

Hey, do I have to understand that wolf page has not enough eye candy?

About reporting feedback for the 1.2 version, if you are running widows XP and the new re-volt crashes, a Dr. Watson log file should be created. This log file may help us to locate the crash source (not sure, it was far more helpful for WolfR4 devellopment than it is for the 1.2 version). Anyway, the Dr. watson log file can easily be found on your system at this location:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Dr Watson
Just send us the drwtsn32.log file after a re-volt crash occured.

And don't forget to tell when the crash occured: before the intro images are drawn, before launching the frontend, when a track is loaded, when racing, etc.

I don't have time for precise testing now, but I tried it, raced against some ai and there were no crashes or glitches. Everything is ok so far

I've reported some bugs on the google group. Check it out. I'm going to upload the log file.

EDIT: Watson files wasn't created, cause I'm in a shared computer at university, and maybe it tries to create the file for administrator (but I'm not).

The battle tag bug was fixed. Also, multiplayer is fully fixed thanks to jigebren. Download the unofficial release here: http://www.mediafire.com/?adt1mbf227fr6o4

Also, I hope zach can finish the upload script soon so we can move to zackattackgames and start this up soon.

Great job, dudes!

The final Alpha build was updated! Check first post.

We will soon move to revolt.zackattackgames.com/rv12/ domain before releasing the first Beta release. So that's it guys: our version is already worth updating over v1.1! If you are going to race online anytime soon, try the new v1.2 and confirm that everything is alright. It would also be nice if some players use the new version and some use older versions, to check for backward compatibility.

The only known problem now is that Joystick menu inputs use the joystick's actual X and Y axes and not the configured axes. It will be fixed along with some most asked for original fixes.

Settings are not saved when I quit the game. I remember that it was something related to audio, because when I checked -nosound in WolfR4 everything became alright.
Can you fix this, please?

UPD: Who cares about credits.. but anyway. I have garbage instead of the normal font there

Ahah, the credit stuff is fixed.

About settings not saved, how did you use wolf's -nosound for running 1.2? Or do you mean it's an original bug that happens with all versions of re-volt for you?

Thanks.

This bug happens with all versions of revolt for me. I used wolf's -nosound for original exe's to make settings save.
I told about the issue here - http://z3.invisionfree.com/Our_ReVolt_P ... topic=1390

I had some strange problems yesterday, while playing online. I got VPU recover error and this message when Botanical Garden was loading:

After I pressed OK, the level continued to load, but what I got was:

Then we played on some other tracks and everything was fine, but I got the problem again when Ghost Town 2 was loading..


I am not sure whether this was the problem with my graphics card or revolt, though
But I never had this ^ before
All other games are working correctly, I don't think it's overheating