Download Patches and Game Tests

[Jeffrey]

Samir’s idea for a new topic for the ship cameras gave me a good idea to simply create a new topic for the patch bundles and the DX8 and DX9 test games. The new malloc seems to be working well, so it is now available for all my flavors of our new compilations.

I fixed a few more text/grammar problems I found, added a missing ship name description in ERAS. I corrected an occasional error.log for when completing the deck fight for the mayor-seek-pirate quests that was found to be an issue introduced since vanilla COAS (location variable wasn’t always valid, while all other cases in quests_reaction were using loadedLocation). I recently found a misnamed music file in GOF 1.2 (had a double .ogg.ogg extension). I can’t rename yours, so it’s renamed correctly and part of the download. I’m also trying to up the channel priority of the cannon fire for when it goes silent on occasion. That’s the change in the sound_alias.ini. Not sure yet it does any good, but worth a try after looking at the sound code.

ERAS, GOF & AoP COAS files here: https://mega.nz/#F!WtMDgRxK!hbeUg86kGLlQAqvWRNwTqg

ERAS.Patch.zip = patch files for original ERAS with fixes and Orazio’s cabin models, walkfiles, and ship camera fixes
AOP2.Patch. = patch files for vanilla COAS with fixes
GOF1.2Patch = patch files for GOF 1.2 with fixes
ERAS2Test.zip = Our source compiled ERAS in DirectX 8
ERAS2TestDX9.zip = Our source compiled ERAS in DirectX 9
AoPTest.zip = Our source compiled vanilla COAS in DirectX 8
AoPTestDX9.zip = Our source compiled vanilla COAS in DirectX 9
GOF1.2Test.zip = Our source compiled GOF 1.2 in DirectX 8
GOF1.2TestDX9.zip = Our source compiled GOF 1.2 in DirectX 9

[Jeffrey]

Well, this sucks…my motherboard died. I had to dust off an ancient Dell D620 laptop to post this.

I was scheduled to upgrade my PC in the next week or so anyway, so I’ll just do that. However, it will take me awhile to configure and install everything I want, port my files over, etc.

My hard drive on the dead machine is intact. I booted from a USB dvd with Knoppix (frickin’ awesome tool that has saved me before, BTW!) and I can see everything fine, so I’ll be able to copy it all. I also had most important stuff backed up on an external HD, too. But, it might take me awhile to situate myself again. Sorry for the trouble and delay this might cause my future responses in the near term.

[modernknight1]

Jeffrey, I am still on the road. I expect to get to where I am going by the 2nd. If you need me to send you any hardware let me know. This is very much on the level. As Dennis eluded to and remembers…. Many of the old PA! modders can tell you I sent them all manner of different hardware over several years time, (even overseas) to keep them up and running. I even sent a couple of them brand new machines.

To me people should be rewarded for doing good work on my favorite game of all time. This is one of the reasons I felt so betrayed by PA! after all the loyalty I had shown for both members and mods. They love to say I never contributed to New Horizons, but the fact is that many of the capabilities they enjoyed in NH and quite a number of ships that they replaced old ones with would never have been completed, or seen the light of day – OR been ported into their own favored mod without old MK keeping the modders going.

They are deader than I’ve ever seen them right now. I get no satisfaction from that. My greatest regret is that the HOO and NH people/moderators that threw me out of the boat, never saw how popular or how large the AOP/COAS segment of the PA! population was or how much ole MK had done to make all of that work. When they rejected me, they rejected a whole segment of their population/membership that they never fully acknowledged.

If I can help you get back up and running let me know.

MK

[Jeffrey]

I must be tired…I didn’t actually try to look. Sure, I can see the drive pretending to be mounted in /media, but nothing underneath. I’m going to bed LOL Hopefully if I take the drive out and plug it into something, it will still be useful. Ugh.

[Devoidbrah]

Uhm if you`re situated in europe and have a Intel Board I could send you in a mainboard with a fitting socket. As it happens we have lots of spare used ones still intact. If yer in US/Canada, i think MK is always willing to help out.

Also we in our company use Merge-IDE to port system from any rig to another. Afterward you have to install the drivers, but other than that it works like a charm.
Procedure on how to use it:

Put Merge-IDE on a external driver or stick.
Have a Windows install cd/stick ready
Boot up the cd/stick until you can select language.
Open Command
Open Merge-ID by naming the path in the command then it is self explanatory as the script guides you through the procedure.
After that shutdown the pc and you can use your Hard disk in whichever rig you have, doesnt matter if its a laptop or a computer.
After booting up, install drivers and your done.

Cheers.

[Jeffrey]

I appreciate the offers, but shouldn’t be necessary. While I’m sure it’s frowned upon by my employer, they supply me with a machine (though relatively weak considering my computing needs are mostly for a something akin to a thin client and my ‘real’ development is on a remote server-class machine. I remote desktop to them, so I don’t have much horsepower need for my laptop.). I use this machine to install Visual Studio flavors and things locally to play with, including this game 🙂 I suppose I’m also a bit unusual in that I don’t even own a personal computer. My wife does, my kids do, but not the software developer in the household. Guess I’m a Luddite LOL.

Now for the bad news. I’m not much a hardware guy, so I took it to some experts and I was wrong. While hoping for a controller problem or something, it was actually a hard drive failure. While I occasionally plug in an external drive and copy my work to it, the last I did so was about a month ago, so lost everything I did recently. In the past, ‘we’ had some work drives fail and the data recovery specialists can do considerable magic, so I’ve sent it off for such a feat.

Which means that I probably won’t have much to contribute code-wise until it comes back, which I’m fairly confident in their abilities. The consensus is that there is a bit of rattling, so it’s probably a broken arm mechanism or something and the surface is probably fine.

Cross your fingers 🙂

[Devoidbrah]

Hard disk eh?

Sounds like another day in the office. Am I guessing right that the laptop is a bit older and/or used for some years, maybe 3+ years or so?
I would suggest that they switch to a SSD -> Solid state disk. A worthy upgrade for anything business related. Faster boot up, faster workload procession from the hard drive. Also SSD are not as prone to runtime as a HDD would be. They rarely break and if they break they break in the first 1-2 months and all the other run just fine.

Have a backup. Its very important you save your files. You never know when some shit might happen.

Use this software to port it on an external drive, its really easy to use and doesnt require installation:
http://www.drivesnapshot.de/de/

Best of luck to the HDD and hopefully it gets fixed. If they arent complete blokes you might not have any data loss at all.
But it would really be wise to directly start out with a SSD now and not continue with a dusty old HDD

[Jeffrey]

You are correct. The machine is 4 years old. Even I know that laptop HDD are fragile and prone to damaging heat that will eventually break them. I do occasionally backup stuff that I’d like to keep, but am not diligent about it because anything I work on locally is usually more personal. All my work stuff is kept on remote servers and those are automatically backed up. Since technically, nothing on my laptop is critical in a work sense, I doubt they see much need for me to have a more reliable system. Heck, speaking to some other of my team members, when we get new machines, they usually aren’t even ‘new’ but secondhand machines from people that have left/terminated.

Kind of dumb since we are considered an IT backbone, but ‘cost savings’ ya know? However, my thinking was that I’d manually back stuff up I want to preserve, and even have a copy of the source from about a month ago, thinking that if I had to, I have all the notes of changes I made during that time and if something went wrong, I’d just redo that last month. Except now, when it really happened and I’m looking at retyping those changes in both the DX8 and DX9 versions both, I have now decided I don’t want to redo them and would rather spend the $600 to see if I can get it back through data recovery, LOL

I like Orange’s idea of on online source project and versioning…might go that route. I also am kicking around the idea of just buying my own personal machine…you know, finally enter the 21st century 🙂 Might be nice to also have a machine capable of some real speed, along with a nice graphics card.

[0range]

Oh! Another solution might be to organise a SVN! I have seen the diferent modders use SVNs, make commits, and as a result, the whole work is better organised between the team members, and the simple mortal users always have the freshest version to enjoy and report bugs and stuff… The revisions have numbers, so it is possible to feedback different revisions and on the other hand to avoid the community might have different game instances, like we have at the moment (I have a release with a patch with some Jeff’s first updates… I feel it is a complete salad!). It also permits to have the updates saved in case of such an individual hardware failure, not to fall back a whole month’ work.

[Jeffrey]

This is a good idea. Though I use a similar tool at work, I’ve not actually used SVN, but it’s open, so if the learning curve to its use is not too steep, might be able to implement.

[adam torek]

I attempted installing the GOF Eras patch, but there is one major problem with my installation: The F1 button on the command panel won’t work. I can’t diagnose the reason why. I need the help of you Jeffrey.

[Devoidbrah]

Is it possible that your running that game on Windows 8/ 8.1/ 10?

Cuz it has some Major irks on those OS for whatever reason.

Also I found out that when you unzip the file in Windows 8/ 8.1/ 10 Major part of textures will go missing. They will simply not be unzipped. You have to unzip the file on a Windows 7 OS or lower to have the game in proper form. Also Compatibility mode had me have Problems with pressing f1.

As far as Frustration and stuttering issues go here is my official Statement:

“This game is not fully supported to any OS that is later than Windows 7. Expect huge Performance Problems, compatibility incompatibility and alot of mumbo Jumbo that Ends up in a heap of Frustration. Play this game on a Windows 7 OS and you will be fine.”

We might Need to add a disclaimer that as of now the later OS Versions of Windows are not optimized and the usage with this game will most likely lead to a bunch of Problems.

[Jeffrey]

I am unfamiliar with the unzipping problems in later OS, that Devoidbrah mentions, but my kids have Win 8.1 and the easiest thing that seems to eliminate many problems is to run the game outside of Program Files. Put the game in its own directory, directly under C:\. This has worked the best for my kids’ computers running this game.

Later Windows OS protect writing to Program Files, and this game needs to write in its own directory. So try that first…put the game in C:\ERAS or something similar and run from there. Also try compatibility mode for the .exe, right-click properties and set to Win 7 or Win XP.

[adam torek]

I guess that was the error. Well then, I guess I’m screwed because I use Windows 10.

[adam torek]

Actually, my game ran perfectly fine earlier. In fact, I have rarely seen these errors that the patch fixes. I don’t know why the F1 button on the command panel is not working, but I don’t think it has do to with me running Windows 10.

[adam torek]

I would like to say that the F1 button on the command panel worked fine until I updated GOF Eras with the patch Jeffrey made. I think the problem lies in the combination with the re-init feature for the textures and models of Age of Pirates 2 COAS. If there was some way I could learn how to disconnect that feature from the F1 button on the command panel, I may be able to fix the issue.

[Jeffrey]

OK, I think I understand what you’re getting at. You are using F11 to launch that debug screen with all the F1-FXX buttons that you click to do different things?

If so, yes, I was using the F1 to test/change some things. I think in the patch it re-inits items/ships. That program is Programs/Interface/debuger.c. Right now, since my primary machine with everything on it is dead, I don’t have the code in front of me. But I think if you open that file, find void CalculateInfoDataF1(), look for where I put InitItems and InitShips…just put a // in front of those two lines and I think the rest of that function, that give $50,000 and will operate as it normally did. You can also just copy that same file Programs/Interface/debuger.c from COAS to ERAS to revert that back to stock.

[adam torek]

I would liked to also make a report about two other bugs I have found while playing. They are 1: The HUD displays for my fighters don’t appear and 2: during the Kill the Beggars quest, the Dutch guards that are supposed to appear in the Keymaster’s residence never show up, locking you in his house for all eternity.

[Jeffrey]

Keymaster issue looks to be my fault. I see in reaction_functions.c I had accidentally mismatched number of parenthesis in the function for the soldier count. I fixed it and uploaded.

ERAS, GOF & AoP COAS files here: https://mega.nz/#F!WtMDgRxK!hbeUg86kGLlQAqvWRNwTqg

[modernknight1]

Sorry been REALLY busy with family over the holiday. Lots of family get togethers and people on vacation. We are going up to Yellowstone Park this week. Only about an hour from my home.

SO don’t know about the F1 issue, but I can tell you that the invisible guards issue in the Kill the Beggars quest is all my fault. SORRY!!! However, thanks for bringing it up. No one else ever has and it needs to be fixed. Its a relatively easy fix. I just need to find the appropriate quest file and replace the vanilla model names to the new Dutch guard names. Just something that fell through the cracks and I am really glad you brought it up before I release the MEGA-Patch.

Thanks and Sorry.

FYI along with the MEGA PATCH I will be releasing a new full version (1.6.0) as well with all modder(Orazio & Jeffrey) contributed enhancements, fixes as well as all of my new content.

Just got computer operations set back up here and ready to do a little more work on the patch tonight.

Before I release I will ensure everything works right.

I will also try to get the stuff bundled up tonight that I promised to Orazio and Jeffrey so they can help me with those items already discussed.

MK

[Jeffrey]

I too have been a little slow in responding trying to transition to a brand new PC. For what it’s worth, I’ve got a new PC now, but still working on installing/configuring my ‘personal’ stuff (such as AoP projects). I am also reluctant to accept my last backup of that source (from about a month prior to the HD crash), so am still awaiting news about the reconstruction of my old drive, to see if I can get my latest work from that.

[Jeffrey]

Oh, Devoidbrah, my new drive is solid-state, so yeah, I’m digging that. Super fast bootup and undoubtedly will prove better longevity without all those frail moving parts.

[Jeffrey]

I am at least back to where my project stood a month before my disk failure. I have also converted to VS 2012. I had to make a couple config changes in my VS compiler options after the upgrade, but it’s all good and compiles/runs once again. However, I would still like to recover the work I did in the month since that backup copy, so I’m still waiting for word about my HDD recovery of that source I changed after my last backup copy.

But the good news is I am at least upgraded to VS 2012 and it compiles what I had from my last source backup.

[modernknight1]

Good news Jeffrey,

I myself have a whole bunch of new stuff ready to go up including new historical articles I’ve written. I have been working on the mod a little and trying to batch up stuff to hang on line for you guys to play with, but my internet connection up here is wireless and very sketchy at best.

I am going to put an set drop dead estimate for the Mega Patch at October. I will be back to my flagship computer in August and my new legal version of Maya installed to finish up the ship work. I have my other trip to Barbados and Puerto Rico in August as well, so I need September to really jump back in full time to get the new patch and new complete updated version of the mod with everyone’s contributions (including yours) in the new version.

Family responsibilities and traveling have taken the lion’s share of my time. I want to assure our community that I have not lost interest, just have been sidetracked for a little while and will get back in the swing of things in a little time. At the least the new articles and pictures will be a little source of interest until then.

MK

[Jeffrey]

Ha! Got my old data back the other day. Data Recovery team did the job. I’ll be able to restore all the lost source from the month between last backup and when the drive crashed.

[Jeffrey]

Back in business! Restored my source, compiled under a newer Visual Studio 2012 and everything runs well. Gonna do some preliminary testing to be sure, but anticipate no problems since it’s the same code, just a slightly different compiler version.

So at this point, I’m exactly where I was prior to drive crash and ready to continue moving forward.

[Jeffrey]

Update:

Haven’t had a ton of time to look at this, but was able to test the new VS2012 compilations a little bit and there was a slight difference in how the ‘free memory’ worked and it sometimes produced an error upon game exit (this wasn’t the case before, in the VS2010 version of the same source). I identified and rectified this one error. Still plan a little more testing before releasing in my MEGA link.

Again, the source was the same, but I was concerned the newer compiler might impart some different behavior; turns out my thinking was correct, so I want to be sure as many aspects/functions of the game still work correctly with how VS2012 compiles the game.

[Orazio]

Glad you could recover your data!

I’ve taken a break lately, it’s summer + I’ve been playing other games. Also, the very little participation of other people here doesn’t help..

Anyway, I’m still waiting for MK to send me the new ships to (try to) import into the game, but I haven’t received anything yet.

[Jeffrey]

Ha! During my wait for the drive, I too took a ‘break’ and finished Assassin’s Creed III. I’m a ‘completionist’ I guess, so had to attain 100%. Then, of course, move my profile up the worldwide leaderboard stats in some of the category measurements, lol.

I’ve continued with the new compile testing and so far, they appear to function as well for me as before, except for that one ‘free memory’ glitch that I discovered VS2012 compiler dealt with different (and resolved). I’ll do a little more, then put the files out.

[modernknight1]

Indeed it is great news. Unfortunately for me my external has died and most of my stuff was on it. SO I am going to have it recovered. I have 3 ships that were outside the external that I have managed to find again that were loaded other places. I will have to get a new mega account because I have lost the password/key for the old one. The data I need to send to you is no larger than 100MG. I could probably email the files directly to you Orazio – each file separately if I could get an email from you via PM.

Anyway, it is indeed unfortunate that our interest and traffic is declining. Our average daily looks have fallen to about 40 to 150 a day. So after the next patch and version is complete and released for public consumption, I plan to dismantle the site. Links to Jeffrey’s work and the newest version can be continued on MODDB.

This will be the final version and Mod3 will stay my own private mod. I will continue to try to work on the new world map and will share my progress with you few people privately that have continued to show interest. I have to face it that people are just not interested in this stuff. I will share mod3 with you few folks that might actually want it when its ready but I am hardly working on it now with the almost non-existent interest that Orazio has just described.

2016 will likely be the final year of the Reef. We didn’t do too bad on our little 3 year run anyway. It was fun and I learned gobs of new stuff!

MK

[Jeffrey]

You’ve got to be kidding? Drive fail? Don’t follow my lead, it’s expensive! LOL The good news is those specialists know what they’re doing. You’ll undoubtedly get most everything back, recovered.

[Jeffrey]

Ugh! VS2012 compiled version is slightly unstable. A few random crashes due to memory free problems inside the DX render. I think it may be due to crossing CRT boundaries: http://siomsystems.com/mixing-visual-studio-versions/

Went back to VS2010 and so far more stable.

[Jeffrey]

Close…it’s Win7 (my new computer’s OS) and Doug Lea’s malloc within the CRT: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4090971/dlmalloc-crash-on-win7

So, I can’t try to minimize the memory fragmentation like I wanted. Reverting back to vanilla malloc has stopped the new instances of memory violations I was getting on the new machine. But I now might still have to suffer the longer-term playing problem with possible memory fragmentation still causing a problem?

[Jeffrey]

LOL, I’m not the only one with the dlmalloc idea that got bit by Win7. Starcraft problem: http://us.battle.net/forums/en/sc2/topic/2416202019

…windows xp 32 bit to windows 7 64 bit… This problem is not causing my system to crash, just the game…

Memory Usage Startup Error Current

CRT malloc
Bytes 0 0 0
Peak 0 0 0

MemAlloc
Allocated 3,418,924 855,363,788 855,667,136
Overhead 75,132 4,101,824 4,101,824
Header+Footer 0 0 0
# Blocks 18,782 1,025,298 1,025,298
Committed 3,997,696 865,468,416 865,468,416

dlmalloc Committed…

Oh well…

[Jeffrey]

Ha! I did it…finally found a lingering memory leak that had been plaguing me forever: Leak: ‘xiutil.cpp’ line 79, size 11

Tough to find the culprit because that refers to a generic DuplicateString function that is called in several places that might have been neglecting to clean their own objects up when no longer needed. But through a tedious step-through, I finally tracked it down.

That leak is gone. Still doing some testing…

[modernknight1]

You are truly awesome Jeffrey. The game just keeps playing better and better all the time.

MK

[Jeffrey]

I was running this game for several hours yesterday, and it eventually crashed, with a bunch of ‘out of memory’ errors. Which was BS. My new machine has several gb. Back on the old machine, my limit was 2 gb, but I would have to close down a bunch of stuff and run only the game for any decent performance. With the new machine, I just leave a bunch of stuff running.

This error was curious, because the OTHER things on my machine were consuming a total near 2gb of memory, and I had compiled this as 32-bit (so it can run on older machines if needed), and perhaps that was the problem, as it will not be able to handle Large Address memory addresses? I also remember mention of a .dll trick to get the old app to become Large Address Aware on machines with 2+ gb memory. So, I have now compiled the .exe to be a 32-bit, Large Address Aware app (this can be done on compile), and handle 64-bit memory capabilities; it’s now built in. That should help.

[Jeffrey]

OK, rescinding the Large Address Aware. I had one crash, looks due to some code storing a memory address in a DWORD, which is a data type constrained to 32-bit length as an integer, so it will truncate the address it refers to, if higher than 32-bit max, and when it’s reverted to a mem-pointer for retrieval, it is incorrect and can cause a crash. Also, the heap is application specific, so large addresses are not needed if the entire app consumes less than 2 gb of memory, rather than all apps combined, I have learned.

However, I have now disabled the memory pool allocation features for the release build that keep track of everything for debugging; it consumes extra memory itself and slows things down as well. I will keep it for the debug version, but it’s unnecessary for release builds. A simple preprocessor directive makes this alternative easy upon compile.

It’s snappier, the app uses less memory and less prone to error this way; so far I’m happier with it.

[Jeffrey]

In my previous release, I found I inadvertently caused some sound service issues where I made an attempt to REUSE FMOD sound channels if applicable, caused mixing 2d and 3d sounds which can sometimes cause jumbling/stutters. I noticed this and have corrected it.

[Jeffrey]

While trying out this VS2012 version, I notice that some things are a bit different, causing some occasional trouble that is ‘new’ in the sense these same issues didn’t seem to exist until now. I’m addressing them as I encounter them, but I’ve gone a bit astray with this ‘sound’ thing because of a discovery.

I have just uncovered that there is an attempt in the game to ‘manage’ different sounds with an array of sound information. For instance, the ship has properties for an ID to assign from an array of sounds/channels that was created for the appropriate sound files and what sound channel they relate to: SailsID and WaterID for sail/water sounds, when a ship is introduced on the Sea. This is where I recently found a problem. FMOD can reallocate/steal channels when it thinks it necessary due to 3d proximity and such. Since the channel is stolen/reused, the array the game uses for that ID/sound combo, that it assigned to the SailsID/WaterID, is no longer valid or applicable, yet during messages sent in Execute/Realize functions for drawing and creating the correct sounds for such, it still tries to use them, but will get an ‘invalid channel’ error.

This whole approach does not take into account that things can change during the lifetime of sounds/channels; it just doesn’t always work the way ‘they’ thought when assigning this SailsID/WaterID index without a way to know of FMOD changes, and/or recourse in the event something like that happens. Once the channel is changed by FMOD, that index is useless, but that portion of the game doesn’t take that fact into account as it continues to use the array index ID it was granted at the ship load. To rectify, would likely require rewriting the whole approach.

[Jeffrey]

I think we need to reduce the texture file size of a few more things…well, more than a few. I played for a number of hours and eventually got this:

Texture C:\Playlogic\ERAS\RESOURCE\textures\CHARACTERS\SOLD_SPA_2.TGA.tx is not created (width: 2048, height: 2048, num mips: 12, format: D3DFMT_X8R8G8B8), not loading it.
CreateTexture: Direct3D could not allocate sufficient memory to complete the call
Texture C:\Playlogic\ERAS\RESOURCE\textures\CHARACTERS\SOLD_SPA_2.TGA.tx is not created (width: 2048, height: 2048, num mips: 12, format: D3DFMT_X8R8G8B8), not loading it.

It’s not game-breaking, but you will see models/character that are flat gray, no textures loaded. What happens, is that memory needs to be allocated for those textures each time, and memory allocation needs to be in contiguous blocks. But since some of the model texture files are 20+ mb, they can’t be allocated if the memory being used by the app becomes ‘fragmented’ in a sense that there may be enough overall memory, there are no spaces in between used segments large enough to allocate 20+ mb for the texture file. Then it fails. The app, being Large Address Unaware, can only use 2 gb total, and I note the app is usually using 1.3 to 1.5 gb right now.

So, I reduced the texture file sizes of the following to about 1/4 of what they were. They are still sharp looking, as I used an option to preserve sharpness, but just slightly lower BPP and smaller dimensions, similar to what was being used for others.

SOLD_SPA_1.TGA.tx
SOLD_SPA_2.TGA.tx
SOLD_SPA_3.TGA.tx
SOLD_SPA_4.TGA.tx
SOLD_SPA_5.TGA.tx
SOLD_SPA_6.TGA.tx
SOLD_SPA_7.TGA.tx
SOLD_SPA_8.TGA.tx
Spain_mush4.TGA.tx
33_Rona21.tga.tx
33_TG5D0.tga.tx
33_TG5D1.tga.tx
50Petra0.tga.tx
50Petra1.tga.tx
Benjamin_Addington.tga.tx
Berenddevor.tga.tx
Blaze2.tga.tx
Blood1.tga.tx
bucc_1.tga.tx
Bugman.tga.tx
capita4.tga.tx
Cheval.tga.tx
Citiz52xxxxx.tga.tx
Dragoo1.tga.tx
eng_girlbody.tga.tx
engl.tga.tx
Ernandovasces.tga.tx
GovSp1.tga.tx
granie_1.tga.tx
hero_pit_heyn)07.tga.tx
hol_sold_1.tga.tx
hol_sold_2.tga.tx
hol_sold_3.tga.tx
hol_sold_4.tga.tx
hol_sold_5.tga.tx
hol_sold_6.tga.tx
hol_sold_7.tga.tx
hol_sold_8.tga.tx
hu00xxxxx.tga.tx
hu09xxxxx.tga.tx
hu13xxx.tga.tx
hugnt18.tga.tx
indian1.tga.tx
Jack.tga.tx
Lucas.tga.tx
Lukas.tga.tx
MadJackSH.tga.tx
Man6_1.tga.tx
mishele_2.tga.tx
mr16xxxx.tga.tx
mr18xxxx.tga.tx
jy_gg2.tga.tx
Navy_off.tga.tx
Nfficer_6.tga.tx
OfEng3.tga.tx
Off19f2.tga.tx
OffFra18.tga.tx
Offic_Hol_1.tga.tx
Offic_Hol_47.tga.tx
Officer_Hol1.tga.tx
Officerer_09.tga.tx
pcteach.tga.tx
Pirat9.tga.tx
Raymod_B.tga.tx
shkiper.tga.tx
Shp01xxxxxx.tga.tx
Shp09xxx.tga.tx
sold_fra_1.tga.tx
sold_fra_2.tga.tx
sold_fra_3.tga.tx
sold_fra_4.tga.tx
sold_fra_5.tga.tx
sold_fra_6.tga.tx
sold_fra_7.tga.tx
sold_fra_8.tga.tx
sold_fra_1.tga.tx
SpaOfficerr.tga.tx
TomLinch.tga.tx
trader13.tga.tx
Whore01.tga.tx
Wily1.tga.tx

[Jeffrey]

Excellent news…fixed the last of the consistent and prevalent memory leaks:

Unloading
System exit and cleanup:
Mem state: User memory: 800  MSSystem: 800  Blocks: 50
Leak: 'eras2dx9_2012\xinterface\questfilereader\..\..\common_h\templates\string.h' line 38, size 16
Leak: 'eras2dx9_2012\xinterface\questfilereader\..\..\common_h\templates\string.h' line 38, size 16
Leak: 'eras2dx9_2012\xinterface\questfilereader\..\..\common_h\templates\string.h' line 38, size 16
...
50 repeated lines

Now I get this on exit:

Unloading
System exit and cleanup:
Mem state: User memory: 0  MSSystem: 0  Blocks: 0

Zero. Which also means that this will reduce the memory fragmentation, because leaks cause fragmentation that can’t ever be resolved in a game session when those spots in memory are never freed up. So, combined with the smaller textures, and reduced fragmentation, game sessions use less memory, contain greater contiguous memory blocks and the sessions are prolonged, without error. Nice.

I also found one more problem with the pirate missions, when exiting to sea when the AISea object does not have an .Island attribute (this is a bug). Fixed that in scripts/PSHero.c.

I am probably going to release this newer version and make available in my links within a day.

[Jeffrey]

OK, one more thing…

Another new thing with the VS2012 version is that sometimes, on game quit, the app would hang/freeze up and you’d have to kill the process with Task Manager. You were quitting anyway, but still annoying.

There must be difference in how threads left hanging in this new version somehow prevent the .exe from exiting. I found that threads created for the SEA object, are stopped using TerminateThread. This is bad practice as the threads might not finish up and dispose properly. I have now incorporated a couple new events that each thread and the SEA destructor respond to that allows the threads to terminate themselves gracefully and the problem seems to be gone as I’ve not been able to replicate the game-freeze-on-exit problem after many tries now, whereas before, I could get it about 1 out of 10. So I think I’m good.

Gonna go fishing for awhile, then I’ll package things up and put them out there.

[Jeffrey]

New development…the multithread capability was actually broken in the sense that what I thought was causing the game-exit-hangup due to the thread’s inability to gracefully terminate was not really due to the SEA threads because the logic to create those threads was always disabled.

So it was due to something else, and still sometimes happens IF hypterthreading is explicitly disabled. I fixed the logic so that multi SEA threads actually do occur now, and my graceful thread termination works, but with the added bonus that you can actually get multithread now, whereas before you never could with the logic as it stood. Somehow, there is still an occasional problem on game-exit if multithread is DISABLED, but I’ve not yet narrowed the problem. However, again, it’s only when you’re terminating the game and all one has to do is QUIT, then when the Windows prompt that there is a problem comes up, simply CANCEL to terminate the app. It only happens on some save-games I load. And I’ve yet to get it when the fixed hyperthread capability is on, so that’s better.

I’ve also found that the DirectX FPS was being limited due to the instantiating call to Initialize DirectX. I’ve fixed that and the FPS is better overall. Also better to completely turn off the max_fps in the start.ini file, as it adds overhead to manually limit the FPS in a fairly unorthodox and disadvised way.

[Jeffrey]

Files uploaded.

Change some of the start.ini options. Remove max_fps (preface with semicolon), enable hyperthreading (remove semicolon):

;max_fps = 120
HyperThreading = 1

The start.ini files in the downloads show as example. Added some to the Readme.txt files for the possibility of needing the newer VCR for older OS, like WinXP.

ERAS, GOF & AoP COAS Files: https://mega.nz/#F!WtMDgRxK!hbeUg86kGLlQAqvWRNwTqg

[modernknight1]

Excellent news on the leaks Jeffrey. Very interesting on the memory block allocation and fascinating on how the sound calls behave. You are really cleaning house my friend. Can’t wait to contribute my own newest work to the project.

Awesome work as usual. I will download your newest version when I return from the Caribbean.

MK

[Jeffrey]

Did another change.

The detection of processors and whether to enable SSE and Multithread was outdated and inaccurate in the sense it only allowed multi for Intel and no other. I updated the code to determine multicore/multithread and SSE for both Intel and AMD, and also SSE and multi are now enabled by default if the processor supports multiple hardware threads. So no need to explicitly enable in the start.ini if your processor has the ability.

You can of course create multiple software threads without the processor multi-HW thread capability, but I’ve stuck with not enabling it unless the hardware supprorts multicore, as it was originally coded that way.

Granted, I’ve no AMD and not tested that part of the detection, but got the detection code from their site.

Uploading now.

ERAS, GOF & AoP COAS Files: https://mega.nz/#F!WtMDgRxK!hbeUg86kGLlQAqvWRNwTqg

[Jeffrey]

That on-game-exit sometimes problem? Could never get it to happen in VS debug mode while running the game…only a release version I can’t get break stops or step through. However, through some debug log messages I sent to the system.log file, I have now got it narrowed to a single function. Message right before the function gets written to the file, prior to the crash, but the message immediately after that function call does not get written. So now I know the culprit and will undoubtedly find the issue.

[Jeffrey]

Good news…I’ve isolated the problem to the SoundService class upon cleaning up/destroy.

In simplified terms, when the game is exiting, there is a loop to iterate the running ‘services’ and call Clear() to delete/destroy the service objects and their memory allocations.

Clear() simply does this:

delete pService;

Where pService is the SoundService pointer. When delete is called, the ‘destructor’ of the SoundService class is called and executed automatically. I put a trace message throughout the SoundService destructor method and at the very end, last statement, I put: api->Trace(“SoundService Destructor end”);

Also, in the Clear() method, I put:

api->Trace(“vmod Clear() enter”);
delete pService;
api->Trace(“vmod Clear() post delete “);
…

When things go well, I see this in the log:

FreeServices = SoundService
vmod Clear() enter
SoundService Destructor
SoundService Destroy Sounds
SoundService Post Close
fmod_system->release() Before
fmod_system->release() After
fmod_system->release() post error check
SoundService Destructor end
vmod Clear() post delete
vmod Clear() leaving
Post Clear

When it crashes, I get this:

FreeServices = SoundService
vmod Clear() enter
SoundService Destructor
SoundService Destroy Sounds
SoundService Post Close
fmod_system->release() Before
fmod_system->release() After
fmod_system->release() post error check
SoundService Destructor end

Notice I never get to the very next statement after the delete statement…the “Clear() post delete” one:

delete pService;
api->Trace(“vmod Clear() post delete “);

What happens during a delete is all ‘automagic’, the C++ compiler puts in the proper execution and the fault actually occurs in ntdll.dll:

Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 6.1.7601.23418, time stamp: 0x5708a73e
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00032a68
Faulting process id: 0x34e8
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ntdll.dll

So the actual SoundService destructor completes, but the invisible stuff that Windows does after that is failing. If not an actual bug in Windows, very likely, there could likely be some memory allocated somewhere during the SoundService object that is not properly released prior to the object being called upon to destruct. That might be causing the other ntdll ‘goo’ that happens during an object delete to crash when it tries to clean the object from internal memory.

I’ll sift through the SoundService code and see what I can figure out.

[Jeffrey]

Much better!

First, SoundService was not releasing ‘sounds’ prior to system release, per FMOD: “Make sure any sounds, channelgroups, geometry and dsp objects are released before closing the system object.” I added a routine to do so.

Also, ParticleService was failing on Clear() and I fixed that.

Also, on occasion, the Window message WM_CLOSE called DestroyWindow, but that would sometimes hang and it might have to do if another, hidden window was created by another thread. I don’t see anything explicitly creating the CDebug window in another thread, but just in case, I moved the call to Destroy the CDebug window from after the Main DestroyWindow, to prior.

This is behaving much better when I exit the game. Weird it’s suddenly so finicky as I didn’t have this in VS2010 compile, but things change from version to version of the compilers and the newer, Win7 OS I’m running might also have something to do with requiring more stringent coding methods.

Anyway, I’m uploading the revisions now.

ERAS, GOF & AoP COAS Files: https://mega.nz/#F!WtMDgRxK!hbeUg86kGLlQAqvWRNwTqg

[Jeffrey]

More news.

I have now sifted through through the code to adjust for dealing with large addresses, which would convert to a 64 bit number and if for whatever reason a program casts those memory pointers as a numerical value anywhere, it could break things. See here:

http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/technical-storm-engine-2-8-question-hyperthreading-and-sse.21946/#post-475369

…start.exe main executable (to increase the available RAM the game uses) does actually improve the game performance, however it introduces instability and potential for crashes for no apparent reason.

This program does convert some pointers to a number, as I described, in some various ‘memory service’ procedures. I found all the code that does this and adjusted it to work for large addresses as a LONG64. So now I compiled it as LARGEADDRESSAWARE, which increases the RAM available for the game. If your computer has more than 2 gb memory, the app will be able to use more if needed. Combined with the memory leak fixes, this will ensure that even if there were memory fragmentation, if your computer has 4gb or more, there is no way one should get that OUT OF MEMORY error (which I got awhile back, before the leak fixes, after a many-hour test session) because a contiguous memory allocation should almost always be possible.

I’ve also made it a simple PREPROCESSOR flag in the event this poses a problem, it will be simple to toggle off the LAA compiler option, change my preprocessor value and the code reverts exactly to how it was before.

I’m going to test a bit more, but so far, even with top-down memory allocation turned on my machine, which causes any memory request to automatically receive the highest memory values first, I have not had any problems. Given how that setting works, I should crash pretty quickly: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2555189

To enable top-down memory, add the following registry entry under the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
registry subkey:
Name: AllocationPreference
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 00100000

So far, have eliminated the memory leaks, enabled the SEA multithread (BTW, that was originally coded only for SEA calculations and I note it makes very little difference as I temporarily enabled some of the test info buried in the code to check it out during my sessions), and now capable of higher RAM allocations. This should be an improvement. I’ll give it a go for awhile, then let you know when I post the files.

ERAS, GOF & AoP COAS Files: https://mega.nz/#F!WtMDgRxK!hbeUg86kGLlQAqvWRNwTqg

[Jeffrey]

Uploading Large Address enabled. Give them a try:

ERAS.Patch.zip = patch files for original ERAS with fixes and Orazio’s cabin models, walkfiles, and ship camera fixes
AOP2.Patch. = patch files for vanilla COAS with fixes
GOF1.2Patch = patch files for GOF 1.2 with fixes
ERAS2Test.zip = Our source compiled ERAS in DirectX 8
ERAS2TestDX9.zip = Our source compiled ERAS in DirectX 9
AoPTest.zip = Our source compiled vanilla COAS in DirectX 8
AoPTestDX9.zip = Our source compiled vanilla COAS in DirectX 9
GOF1.2Test.zip = Our source compiled GOF 1.2 in DirectX 8
GOF1.2TestDX9.zip = Our source compiled GOF 1.2 in DirectX 9

ERAS, GOF & AoP COAS Files: https://mega.nz/#F!WtMDgRxK!hbeUg86kGLlQAqvWRNwTqg

[Jeffrey]

When I first tried the widescreen adjustments for the Character, Ship, Item screen, there were a few minor glitches in some of the Title Caption red background not fully covering the background of the rectangle displaying the caption. There was also a slight bit of truncation in the +/- number displayed in red/green by the skill points. As promised, I saved that low-priority tidbit for later, but now have addressed and fixed that. The files are uploading now.

ERAS.Patch.zip = patch files for original ERAS with fixes and Orazio’s cabin models, walkfiles, and ship camera fixes
AOP2.Patch. = patch files for vanilla COAS with fixes
GOF1.2Patch = patch files for GOF 1.2 with fixes
ERAS2Test.zip = Our source compiled ERAS in DirectX 8
ERAS2TestDX9.zip = Our source compiled ERAS in DirectX 9
AoPTest.zip = Our source compiled vanilla COAS in DirectX 8
AoPTestDX9.zip = Our source compiled vanilla COAS in DirectX 9
GOF1.2Test.zip = Our source compiled GOF 1.2 in DirectX 8
GOF1.2TestDX9.zip = Our source compiled GOF 1.2 in DirectX 9

ERAS, GOF & AoP COAS Files: https://mega.nz/#F!WtMDgRxK!hbeUg86kGLlQAqvWRNwTqg

[Jeffrey]

OK, OK, it’s a pain to keep re-downloading these files. But definitely do it this time!

I have great news! That app-hang-on-exit is very likely solved.

During some debugging, I noticed that the DX9 version initiates a few threads that are executing a function: wmt_CSSEShaderCode::ProcessPositionAndColors. What I noticed, is that even after exiting/releasing/destroying DX9 resources, those threads were still running and waiting by the time DestroyWindow was called. I then ran debug in DX8, and it doesn’t initiate these same thread functions. I also noticed that the DX8 version didn’t ever hang-on-close either; this freeze-on-close was a pretty new phenomenon. It struck me as possible that the DX9 difference in execution, with these thread functions, it might be constructing a hidden Window that was explained in my reading as something that could prevent DestroyWindow from ever returning.

So I fired up DirectX PIX for some tedious logging, and then noticed that several objects are never released/destroyed within DX9. And if that happens, you get both a memory leak within DX9 itself, but also prevents DX9 from properly releasing the entire device. This memory leak, if just launching and immediately exiting, was amounting to 600,000+ bytes. The unreleased resources were textures. I spent hours sifting through, looking for any missed Release calls on textures, surfaces, etc. It had looked like I found them all, but after hours of code-review and some testing, nothing done made a difference. Then I read that it can often be a case that the objects created within DirectX must also be released in the reverse order of how they were instantiated, because they can sometimes reference each other. This was daunting. But, I gave it a try, spent some hours finding and reordering the releases as best I could figure.

Holy smokes! It worked! PIX shows no more memory leaks, all objects get destroyed, and if I pause the program just before DestroyWindow call, those DX9 mystery threads no longer appear, though they did prior to the call to release the DirectX 9. I am willing to bet money this will eradicate that hang-on-close problem that would sometimes occur.

Download now, people! 🙂

ERAS.Patch.zip = patch files for original ERAS with fixes and Orazio’s cabin models, walkfiles, and ship camera fixes
AOP2.Patch. = patch files for vanilla COAS with fixes
GOF1.2Patch = patch files for GOF 1.2 with fixes
ERAS2Test.zip = Our source compiled ERAS in DirectX 8
ERAS2TestDX9.zip = Our source compiled ERAS in DirectX 9
AoPTest.zip = Our source compiled vanilla COAS in DirectX 8
AoPTestDX9.zip = Our source compiled vanilla COAS in DirectX 9
GOF1.2Test.zip = Our source compiled GOF 1.2 in DirectX 8
GOF1.2TestDX9.zip = Our source compiled GOF 1.2 in DirectX 9

ERAS, GOF & AoP COAS Files: https://mega.nz/#F!WtMDgRxK!hbeUg86kGLlQAqvWRNwTqg

[Jeffrey]

While using top-down memory allocation, I ran into a problem in the geometry procedures where the game casts some pointer values to a 32-bit number type. This does not work and results in a crash. I also encountered discovered a buffer overflow problem in that scrolling text (I was hammering on changing shot types for a long while to watch the text and see what happens…) you can see at the top right of the screen for notifications. It looks like I’ve been able to correct both.

New uploads @

ERAS, GOF & AoP COAS Files: https://mega.nz/#F!WtMDgRxK!hbeUg86kGLlQAqvWRNwTqg

[Jeffrey]

Don’t now why I didn’t think of this earlier. Most of my recent work has been to fix/adjust just the start.exe and .dll files, with no changes to other areas of the game. It seems too inconvenient to have someone download the entire set of other files that haven’t changed any time something is fixed. So in the cases where I fix or change anything in the .exe/.dll files, and you already have the other files, you can simply download the JustExecutables.zip. Those are the same for any game, but just make sure you use either DX8 or DX9 (both are contained in the one .zip), depending on which version you are using.

Just watch for any announcement I make, or check the file dates, if it becomes newer/updated. BUt it’s only 9 mb for both, so much more convenient.

ERAS, GOF & AoP COAS Files: https://mega.nz/#F!WtMDgRxK!hbeUg86kGLlQAqvWRNwTqg

[0range]

Hi, MK, Jeffrey, Orazio! Hi everyone!

Incredible to see the ammount of work you keep putting in the project despite all the obstacles! Keep it going!

Are there any plans to compile an all-in-one fresh version for download? Or to fix that SVN-type thing?

[Jeffrey]

Hey, welcome back, Orange.

I’ll eventually address your questions, but I’m a bit burnt and want a break, LOL. But, in the meantime, the reason for my crispy burnt nature today, is that I spent hours and hours trying to figure out why in some heavy, many ship battles, cannons and other sounds would go silent; this has been an ongoing problem since vanilla. I’ve even tried to tweak the sound a bit to correct, but to no avail. Today, I eventually figured out why. FMOD and virtual voices.

FMOD provides a way to specify ‘channels’ and there can be many. Supposedly, even if your hardware/software limits those channels, FMOD presumably allows many more than that and will manage it. In fact, the code of this game establishes 512 of them. Well, turns out that FMOD started to virtualize the channel sounds right around #40. So during my battle, all the sail sounds, cannon ball, ship, water, splash and cannon fire sounds, the cannon fire would get virtualized and I’d watch silent cannon fire from both myself, my squadron and my opponents. I actually set up a debug trace log to query each sound for isVirtual and output which ones were being virtualized and their ‘channel #’.

From what I read, any sound with a ‘higher’ priority, will never get virtualized instead of a lower priority sound, even if they are very distant and very low volume (‘higher’ is a bit backward as lower priority numbers are more important, and thus a higher priority, though a lower number value). Turns out, the priority set for all sail sounds in the sound_alias.ini is 10, but all cannon fire is 60. So the sail sounds, though much lower volume, and only discernible at close distances, won’t be virtualized for all those distant ships that I can’t even hear because their sails are too far away. The FMOD rule is that if a sound needs to be virtualized because you are at some sort of limit…it will eliminate the lower priority before the higher priority, and in a ship battle, the cannons get whacked before sail sounds. So, I changed all the sail priorities in the .ini.

Also, there is another feature when initializing FMOD to set all very low volume sounds (due to volume setting/distance) to automatically go virtual if they go below a certain volume. So I set that initialization up, set the ADVANCEDSETTING virtualvol to .001 and voila! My save that I was testing was full of cannon fire, whistling cannon balls, ball splashes…all the sounds that were getting whacked. About freakin’ time!

I’m going to play with it a bit to make sure in my tribulations I didn’t screw anything up. Before my testing/tweaking I kept a copy of the existing sound code for reference/fallback if needed.

I’m so glad that’s over, LOL

[Matt]

Should I install the ERAS.Patch.zip if I have already installed Patch 1 from the other thread? Would I have to start a new game if I did?

[Jeffrey]

Yes, the ERAS.Patch.zip contains further fixes, so if you are working with the regular game (not the DX8/DX9 custom source compile in my downloads), I would copy that over as a last step.

You might not have to start a new game if you do this:

Find Program\console.c and open with a text editor like notepad.exe. Copy the code below and paste over everything else, then save it with the same console.c name.

#include "Ships\Ships_init.c"
#include "Locations\init\boarding.c"
#include "ITEMS\initItems.c"

void ExecuteConsole()
{
	InitItems();
	InitShips(); // Updates ships to have the new cabins - is it really needed?
	
	// This number is needed to reinit only boarding locations, avoiding unnecessary reinit of all locations
	int n = 631; // If you have "vanilla" ERAS2 v1.5.7 don't change this number, if you added new locations on your own put the number you find in compile.log (see README)
	
	n = LocationInitBoarding(n); // Updates locations to include the new cabins models
	
	// Uncomment the next line only if your current ship got the new cabins; you must use the name the ship has in the code (for example SHIP_BRIG3)
	//pchar.Ship.Type = GenerateShip(name_of_your_ship, true);

	Log_SetStringToLog("Operation successful!");
}

Load a save game, hit F4 and look to the upper right of your game screen and you should see Operation successful! If you do, immediately save that game to an empty slot. Exit that game and reload that last save you just made. Then, try again to save that to another empty slot. If that works, then you can use that last save as normal.

Let me know how it goes for you.

ERAS, GOF & AoP COAS Files: https://mega.nz/#F!WtMDgRxK!hbeUg86kGLlQAqvWRNwTqg

[Matt]

Unfortunately this appears to have broke my save, as the engine seems to crash on load. New Game appears to work.

[Matt]

Also Mod Options button is now blank and does nothing on press.

[Matt]

Oops i actually installed the wrong patch! NVM. Ill try again.

[Matt]

Okay I did a full reinstall after my dumb mistake. The save will now load, but if I attempt to save it immediately crashes, wether or not I do the f4 trick. However, new game seems to be working as normal. No issues so far.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, there were some array size problems in the beginning game, that the patch fixes and that can cause old save games to become unusable. There might be a way to get around that with some further console.c code that I wanted to experiment with for future upgrades of ships, items and things of that nature that if changed, ruin old save games. It would be nice to have a way to preserve the old games, but add new stuff. I think it can be done, but haven’t tried.

If you are OK with starting new games, the patched version behaves better than without the patch, so hopefully that can make you feel better about things 🙂

But, if you still have that save, try the following in the console.c. Make sure you see the Operation successful message. I think only the ship and item arrays were changed…but it’s been a long time since those changes, so I might be wrong. Save to a blank spot so we don’t ruin that old game just yet.

#include "Ships\Ships_init.c"
#include "Locations\init\boarding.c"
#include "ITEMS\initItems.c"

void ExecuteConsole()
{
	SetArraySize(&Items,ITEMS_QUANTITY);
	SetArraySize(&ShipsTypes,SHIP_TYPES_QUANTITY_WITH_FORT);
	InitItems();
	InitShips(); // Updates ships to have the new cabins - is it really needed?
	
	// This number is needed to reinit only boarding locations, avoiding unnecessary reinit of all locations
	int n = 631; // If you have "vanilla" ERAS2 v1.5.7 don't change this number, if you added new locations on your own put the number you find in compile.log (see README)
	
	n = LocationInitBoarding(n); // Updates locations to include the new cabins models
	
	// Uncomment the next line only if your current ship got the new cabins; you must use the name the ship has in the code (for example SHIP_BRIG3)
	//pchar.Ship.Type = GenerateShip(name_of_your_ship, true);

	Log_SetStringToLog("Operation successful!");
}

[Jeffrey]

Ha! Anyone interested in being able to play full-screen mode and be able to alt-tab to another app, come back and not have it crash like it always has? Just for kicks, thought I’d see if I could fix that. I haven’t yet, but the major hurdle was making sure to release all DEFAULT_POOL resources…that was not done properly and that is why in the system.log during the DirectX ‘Reset’, one would see:

Device try to reset
Device reset bad

This is why it could never work. Well, I tracked them down and I just alt-tabbed and got this:

Device try to reset
Device reset successfully

There is still more work to do, but it shouldn’t be too bad…just time-consuming to make sure all the classes that try to render, need to wait in the Execute/Realize methods. Some of the work had already been done to reconstruct the DEFAULT_POOL resources during a Reset, but since they couldn’t get past the bad reset, it did no good. These don’t look complete, but might save me some time.

[0range]

Jeffrey, OMG, I just read all these details you write, all the situations you managed to figure out, and realize that you are a true master! It is such a success you are part of the team! Deep deep respect for you! I just remember the only game modding I have ever done was installing new cars made by other people into Carmageddon II and configuring races and parameters in simple txts… Ahaha! =)

Keep it rolling!

[Devoidbrah]

Yeah I agree Jeffrey really is patching up lots of holes here, I am too no coder, merely able to understand and read code but am not fluent enough to write new commands without actually having a big sheet of paper with them written down.

[Jeffrey]

Haha! Check this!

Go ahead and go to the original game, change engine.ini top line full screen mode:

full_screen = 1

Save. Launch game, alt-tab to another app window, then alt-tab back. Go ahead. I dare you. Crash, right?

Now download any of the newest DX9 versions here: ERAS, GOF & AoP COAS Files: https://mega.nz/#F!WtMDgRxK!hbeUg86kGLlQAqvWRNwTqg

AoP2TestDX9.zip
ERAS2TestDX9.zip
GOF1.2TestDX9.zip
…or the other GOF ones if you have ’em.

Change start.ini

full_screen = 1

Save. Launch game, alt-tab to another app window, then alt-tab back. Go ahead. I dare you. What? No crash?

It’s not perfect…still some glitches with some textures not always working right, and sometimes shaders. I’ve not yet figured it completely, but the hardest part to overcome looks resolved. Heckuva lot closer than it used to be!

[Jeffrey]

I found a bug in Control Activation, download the newest copies:

ERAS, GOF & AoP COAS Files: https://mega.nz/#F!WtMDgRxK!hbeUg86kGLlQAqvWRNwTqg

ERAS.Patch.zip = patch files for ERAS
AOP2.Patch. = patch files for vanilla COAS with fixes
GOF1.2Patch = patch files for GOF 1.2 with fixes
ERAS2Test.zip = Our source compiled ERAS in DirectX 8
ERAS2TestDX9.zip = Our source compiled ERAS in DirectX 9
AoPTest.zip = Our source compiled vanilla COAS in DirectX 8
AoPTestDX9.zip = Our source compiled vanilla COAS in DirectX 9
GOF1.2Test.zip = Our source compiled GOF 1.2 in DirectX 8
GOF1.2TestDX9.zip = Our source compiled GOF 1.2 in DirectX 9

[Jeffrey]

Hot off the presses! Get a new download. Fixes made. If interested about the details: https://buccaneersreef.com/forums/topic/bugs-and-fixes/#post-3368

ERAS, GOF & AoP COAS Files: https://mega.nz/#F!WtMDgRxK!hbeUg86kGLlQAqvWRNwTqg

[Jeffrey]

Well, I’ve been up to no good. A short while ago, decided to resume looking at Pirates of the Caribbean…can it run with my compilations? Soon enough, yes it can.

http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/potc-vanilla-running-in-2-8-coas-engine.28178/#post-551973

The last two days, also banged out Caribbean tales. Now my compilations can run:

POTC
AoP2: City of Abandoned Ships
AoP: Caribbean Tales
GOF 1.2
GOF 2.0
GOF 2.5
ERAS

Either DirectX 8 or DirectX 9…both work the same.

But I also don’t want 7 different copies of the same executables that are all the same, because there is no difference in the back-end code (there is a difference in DX8 and DX9, but either one can run all my versions of the game), only the Program scripts and Resources used. Wouldn’t it be handy to only have one? Took awhile, but got it done.

A command line switch will indicate which one to play. Then a simple shortcut, with start.exe -COAS for instance would play AoP COAS, start.exe -POTC…etc. Just added the following to the end of start.ini:

[POTC]
program_directory = Program.POTC
resource_directory = RESOURCE.POTC
ini_directory = RESOURCE.POTC\INI
sound path = RESOURCE.POTC\sounds
save_directory = SAVE.POTC

[COAS]
program_directory = Program.aop
resource_directory = C:\Playlogic\Age of Pirates 2\RESOURCE
ini_directory = C:\Playlogic\Age of Pirates 2\RESOURCE\INI
sound path = C:\Playlogic\Age of Pirates 2\RESOURCE\sounds
save_directory = SAVE.aop

[GOF]
program_directory = Program.GOF
resource_directory = C:\Playlogic\GOF\RESOURCE
ini_directory = C:\Playlogic\GOF\RESOURCE\INI
sound path = C:\Playlogic\GOF\RESOURCE\sounds
save_directory = SAVE.GOF

[GOF2]
program_directory = Program.GOF2
resource_directory = C:\Playlogic\GOF2\RESOURCE
ini_directory = C:\Playlogic\GOF2\RESOURCE\INI
sound path = C:\Playlogic\GOF2\RESOURCE\sounds
save_directory = SAVE.GOF2

[GOF25]
program_directory = Program.GOF25
resource_directory = C:\Playlogic\GOF25\RESOURCE
ini_directory = C:\Playlogic\GOF25\RESOURCE\INI
sound path = C:\Playlogic\GOF25\RESOURCE\sounds
save_directory = SAVE.GOF25

[ERAS]
program_directory = Program.ERAS
resource_directory = C:\Playlogic\ERAS\RESOURCE
ini_directory = C:\Playlogic\ERAS\RESOURCE\INI
sound path = C:\Playlogic\ERAS\RESOURCE\sounds
save_directory = SAVE.ERAS

[CT]
program_directory = Program.CT
resource_directory = E:\Age of Pirates - Caribbean Tales\RESOURCE
ini_directory = E:\Age of Pirates - Caribbean Tales\RESOURCE\INI
sound path = E:\Age of Pirates - Caribbean Tales\RESOURCE\sounds
save_directory = SAVE.CT

The bracketed subgroups can be whatever name you wish, as well as the program directory names, but for simplicity and so they stay grouped together, I just used Program dot names to correspond to the group name. But to get the desired result, the command switch must match whatever you make the group name. And of course the needed files are actually present where you indicate.

start.exe with nothing runs the default as normal.
start.exe -COAS runs AoP 2
start.exe -GOF runs 1.2 version
start.exe -CT runs Age of Pirates: Caribbean Tales
…etc.

The resource and sounds and save dirs were easy. However, the Program directory was a difficulty. Unfortunately, that Program path is actually stored as a data point in the game save state, and when a save is loaded, but the Program path (which in my case was always the default), was now different and if they happen to contain different code sets, then all sorts of problems… But, eventually figured a workaround and now I can get away with it.

The beat goes on…

[Orazio]

Congratulations for your successful porting of PotC onto the Storm Engine 2.8 Jeffrey!
I wonder if this will eventually lead to the New Horizon mod being moved to the new engine as well…

I’ve read that you see a greenish tint in some locations. This is also something I noticed using your recompiled executables, and I think I know what the issue is: the shadows. I’ve already written about it somewhere here.

Every model in this engine can have two separate UV coordinates, and two separate textures, usually one per UV set. The way shadows work is that there is one UV set for the diffuse texture (for example bricks, wood, grass, etc.), and another UV set for a different texture, a shadow map, a gray scale image that contains only the shadows. The UV set for the diffuse is called ‘map1’, the UV set for the shadows is called ‘bump’.

In game, the shadow texture goes “on top” of the diffuse texture, with the blending mode (like the ones in Photoshop) used in Maya when the model was exported in GM. If, for any reason, the second UV set or shadow map cannot be recognized by the engine, not only are shadows missing, but you will also see that greenish (or other colors) tint you mentioned.
I know this because when I was experimenting with shadows, at first I could not get the second UV set to be recognized by the game (I didn’t call it ‘bump’, which is mandatory for it to work), and I was getting those strange tints everywhere.

So I suppose in your code there is something that is preventing either the second UV set to be recognized, or the blending modes to work properly, overlaying one texture over another to give a two layer texture…

[Orazio]

Regarding this, there is also a folder – RESOURCE\Textures\lighting – that contains various textures with shadows for the main locations, one for each part of the day (morning, evening, etc.).

The game then swaps these textures according to the time, to give the illusion of real time shadows that change as the sun moves. There may be something in your code that is somehow disrupting this mechanism?

[Jeffrey]

Orazio, you are a star. Thank you for providing this explanation. Between you and I, with that explanation, we might be able to resolve this. At the very least, I now probably know exactly what shader to look at. I just poked around and found that the models use the Caustic_shaders.sha, and that is one that I had to change for DX9; I likely did it wrong.

Combined with your explanation, I found that the model vertex is defined with what is called a ‘fixed pipeline’ in DirectX. That part I did not change, and I see it appears to correlate with what you described. A texture set is set up: D3DFVF_TEX1, D3DFVF_TEX2, D3DFVF_TEX3, D3DFVF_TEX4. And the ‘fixed vertex format’ is set up as: D3DFVF_XYZ | D3DFVF_NORMAL | D3DFVF_DIFFUSE | D3DFVF_TEXTUREFORMAT2. These are DirectX defined constants. Since I did not have to change that part, it is probably good. Where I messed up is probably in the .sha file, where I also had to correlate that ‘pipeline’ with specific declared types, which was not required in the old way. I see it is probably not correlated properly and I will experiment with a better educated attempt now that I know a bit better about what those .sha declarations are probably supposed to be. I will let you know if I get a better result.

Thanks for the help.

[Orazio]

I forgot to specity it, but I was talking about CoAS, so Storm Engine 2.8. I don’t know how it works in previous versions of the engine…

Hope you can find a solution, those missing shadows and strange tints in some locations really bug me! If you need other info regarding models and how they are set up before being converted to GM, just ask; this is the only thing I can help you with, as I know nothing about DirectX.

[Jeffrey]

Found and fixed!

[Jeffrey]

Ugh! New strategy.

I found it has nothing to do with those Caustic shaders, as they never get called by the town models…I think it’s for storms and such.

But I have a new plan to at least determine if I did this, or it was like that when I got the code. I am going to make a copy of this project. Since I figured out definitely that it’s the models, geometry, techniques, and renderer that combine to figure the ‘technique’ for shading and causes this issue, and those four didn’t contribute to prevent the compile of the original version when I got it, I am going to overwrite everything for those pieces with the original code. Then I will compile and see if the shading look OK, or if they do the same thing. If they look right, then it’s something I changed in one of those 4 places. I can then use a tool to compare what those pieces of code look like compared to mine…tweak my changes to better fit the original until it works. If they don’t, then it was like that when I got it and I might struggle to find a fix.

Carrying on…

[Jeffrey]

Aha! Using the above-described method, replacing those 4 components, I do NOT get a green shade AND I see building shadows. So somewhere in my adjustments, something went awry. I will start comparing to find the difference that causes the problem.

I will start with techniques.

[Orazio]

Nice Jeffrey! I wasn’t expecting such a fast fix! Now everything looks correct.

I remember that there were no issues in the original exe I downloaded with ERAS, so the original code should be ok; I started noticing this in your exes, but not the early ones if I recall correctly, only the subsequent versions..

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, definitely something I did, and turned out it was a very small change that was time-consuming to find. Your explanatory help, though it started me initially at the wrong root, definitely got me on the path toward the right place for the fix, so thanks for that. Not sure it was ‘fast’ since it took me all day to find it, LOL. But fortunately for you, the wind was so strong yesterday, I had to forgo some steelhead fishing anyway, so why not sit down and fix it 🙂

Let me poke around in the game a bit to ensure my recent modifications don’t muck anything. They have been fairly innocuous, some better alerts/shutdown for some of the more common problems, for instance, but I’d like to be a little more assured they are OK. Then I will post this up so you can obtain a version that doesn’t bug you with that lack of shadow and those alien green tints 🙂 I will let you know.

[Jeffrey]

You know, this effort for Caribbean Tales and POTC was worthwhile in at least one sense. Things that don’t happen in AoP, GOF, ERAS, are sometimes called upon in those games. I have found broken pieces in the executable part of the game because of this and was able to fix them.

Also, I decided to add the Windows error message if my new ‘programs files can be in another place’ mod of the back-end has a problem manipulating the folder to make that happen. When I did this, the message exceeded the buffer size in the log messages. This is odd, because there are several places that have a 4096 byte buffer to send. But, since the messages have never even approached that size, nothing amiss. However, my new messages breached a limit on the function to actually output the message to a file and it turns out that it can only handle a buffer of 256. This is wrong since there are a couple places that try to pass that 4096 buffer. But, if the actual message is less than that, it doesn’t break. Mine did. The proper thing is for the receiving function to allow just as much space as anything that might be passed to it, which I fixed.

Also found a place with Caribbean Tales where the sky textures were being iterated, but if the script side of the game had not yet set them up during this iteration, the sky array was zero length at that point. However, one part of the code in this function tries to still assign the first array position with a texture value. Since it is zero size, this crashes the game. I fixed that too. Anyway, still checking things out, but the good news is that a few hidden problems surfaced recently with CT and POTC work. This is a good thing to make the back end more solid.

[Jeffrey]

Another beneficial change is the message pump loop. This is the main loop to intercept messages, iterate execution/draws. They were using a time tick measurement that only resolves to roughly 15 ms per tick and Sleep command to throttle it, but I thought it would be better to use a higher resolution timer, down to clock counts per second…like microseconds, then instead of Sleep, a message wait-for that times out after 3 milliseconds, but will immediately time-out if a Windows message alerts it (like a mouse-move or something), to relinquish control back. This ‘alertable’ type of sleep seemed more appropriate.

I like it better so far.

[Orazio]

You’re definitely doing a great job!
Although I have to admit I don’t really understand the details of these changes, or how they affect the game. What I understood is that they should make the game more stable, which is a good thing.

[Jeffrey]

Nearing ready…

I noticed the other day, LarryHookins over at PA! mentioned demasting CTDs. Alas! I was very glad he briefly mentioned that age-old, notorious problem, as I had almost forgotten about it. Ages ago, I had actually turned that off in my games, due to the dismasting instability causing CTDs, so the phenomenon had pretty much slipped from my memory (turn it off by assigning all damage in SHIP_MAST_TOUCH_BALL case of Ship_MastDamage() function to zero). If you make it a value of 1, anytime a shot hits the mast, it automatically demasts. I set about to debug and set the mast damage to 1 for all cases, then started rocking some action to debug this on the back-end. Got it resolved; no more crashes. The best way to debug was to launch GOF 1.2, find a Dutch merchant convoy protected by a few military ships (for some reason, the Dutch ships in GOF 1.2 are the worst offenders…something to do with the model geometry and in some cases, the lights info is actually what causes the problem). I could crash near instantaneously in every engagement. Not anymore though, so thank you LarryHookins for bringing up this forgotten tidbit 🙂

I want to run a bit more, but I will soon be able to offer Orazio an improved, missing-shadows-are-back, greenish-tint-gone, demasts-no-longer-crash-game version.

[modernknight1]

I would just like to mention what a HUGE HUGE HUGE deal this is! Jeffrey should get the coders medal of honor or some such thing for solving this. This bug is something that we have spent untold hours of mental and experimental effort on since 2010.

Jeffrey you are a hero man! No more mast crashes are going to allow us to tweak up percentage numbers again in testing and provide much more realistic battles with a much more stable environment.

The code you sent me last night which eliminates the annoying messages in the GUI as well means that we can finally play long stable battles with no crashes and no non-immersive artificialities introduced into our game play.

HUGE I say! HUGE!!!!

Thank you my friend!

MK

[Jeffrey]

LOL…Pieter can suck it! New Horizons running DX9 and 2.8 engine. Just got to launch in a couple hours.

[Jeffrey]

Ha! Look what we did with the flags yesterday. A few simple property additions and super flexible…no stupid hardcodings.

[Jeffrey]

Just a sample of the power and control to simplify and improve things now. Starting to add features now, instead of simply bug/crash fixes. Flags are treated with a slicker method. To determine pennant vs. flag, POTC New Horizons had a special group name for labels. We don’t need that…simply measure the length/width ratio and add a few properties:

rigging.ini

[FLAGS]
TextureName = flagall_ship.new2.tga.tx
TextureRows = 5
TextureCols = 10

[PENNANT]
TextureName = pennant_ship.tga.tx
TextureRows = 5
TextureCols = 2

Standard flags are in one texture, pennants are in another.

AIShip.c

object Sail, Rope, Flag, Vant, Pennant;

Flag.ratioLimit = 1;
Flag.sizeRatio = 2.5;
CreateEntity(&Flag, ”Flag”);

Pennant.ratioExceeds = 1;
Pennant.sizeRatio = 2.5;
Pennant.iniSection = ”PENNANT”;
CreateEntity(&Pennant, ”Flag”);

BattleInterface.c

ref procGetRiggingData()
{
	int n;
	int retVal = 0;

	string datName = GetEventData();
	n = GetEventData();
	n = GetEventData();
	aref chr = GetEventData();
	int factor = 0;
		
	if(datName == "FLAGS"){
	if(CheckAttribute(chr, "RealEncounterType")){
		if(sti(chr.RealEncounterType) < 9)
			factor = 5;
	}
	else { if(CheckAttribute(chr, "EncType") && chr.EncType == "trade")
		factor = 5; }
	if(factor == 5 && CheckAttribute(chr, "Ship.Type.Mode") && chr.Ship.Type.Mode != "trade") {
		factor = 0;
	}
	if(CheckAttribute(chr, "HeroParam.HeroType")){
		if(chr.HeroParam.HeroType == "Merchant" || chr.HeroParam.HeroType == "Carpenter")
			factor = 5;
	}
	
	switch (n)
	{			
		case HOLLAND: retVal = factor + rand(4); if(retVal == 0) retVal = 1; break;
		case ENGLAND: retVal = 10 + factor + rand(4); break;
		case FRANCE: retVal = 20 + factor + rand(4); break;
		case SPAIN: retVal = 30 + factor + rand(4); break;
		case PIRATE: retVal = 40 + (rand(9)); break;
		retVal = 0;
	}
	}
	else { if(datName == "PENNANT"){

		switch (n)
		{			
		case HOLLAND: retVal = rand(1); break;
		case ENGLAND: retVal = 2 + rand(1); break;
		case FRANCE: retVal = 4 + rand(1); break;
		case SPAIN: retVal = 6 + rand(1); break;
		case PIRATE: retVal = 8; break;
		retVal = 9;
		}

	} }

	return &retVal;
}

Any flag locator in the ship, less than 2.5 length vs. width is a flag and pulled from the appropriate texture, any flag locator greater/equal 2.5 length ratio is a pennant and pulled from its texture. Simple. We do similarly for merchant flags.

To accommodate POTC New Horizon’s method, for their special label group in their ship models, same .ini info, but change the Entity instantiation:

Pennant.groupName = “penn”;
Pennant.iniSection = ”PENNANT”;
CreateEntity(&Pennant, ”Flag”);

Done. Will automagically work and no need for those extra .dll files they duplicated from rigging.dll and hex-edited to look for the different labels.

With the above single property, mine will now look for “penn” labels, instead of the default “flag” labels and display them accordingly; this is what I will change in my port of New Horizons, so I can get rid of all that extra code they needed in their scripts. Same for personal/pirate flags; they were limited in that the original game presumed a one-row texture file and they needed to dupe everything up to point at a bunch of different 8 column textures. Mine supports 2D texture files and right now, our latest has 10 columns by 5 rows, so 50 different flags and no need for multiple files to get the flag variety. If we want 100, just make that one texture file 10 by 10. So again, in New Horizons I will simply combine all the flag textures into one file (maybe a couple…can do that too), do away with all that other machination in the script to send the flag delete/init calls and simply query the appropriate character attribute to determine the correct flag in the callback (which is also something I added…send the character reference back to the flag processing event callback, so I know who we’re dealing with).

Just for comparison, you see above what I do now to support this…here is what New Horizon’s had to do. Yikes:

[FLAGS]
TexShpName0 = flags\shpflg1.tga
TexShpCount0 = 8
TexPntName0 = flags\shppnt1.tga
TexPntCount0 = 8
TexMerName0 = flags\merflg1.tga
TexMerCount0 = 8
TexMePName0 = flags\merpnt1.tga
TexMePCount0 = 8
TexPiFName0 = flags\pirflg1.tga
TexPiFCount0 = 8
TexPiPName0 = flags\pirpnt1.tga
TexPiPCount0 = 8
TexPeFName0 = flags\perflg1.tga
TexPeFCount0 = 8
TexPePName0 = flags\perpnt1.tga
TexPePCount0 = 8
TexFrtName0 = flags\frtflg1.tga
TexFrtCount0 = 8
TexShpName1 = flags\shpflg2.tga
TexShpCount1 = 8
TexPntName1 = flags\shppnt2.tga
TexPntCount1 = 8
TexMerName1 = flags\merflg2.tga
TexMerCount1 = 8
TexMePName1 = flags\merpnt2.tga
TexMePCount1 = 8
TexPiFName1 = flags\pirflg2.tga
TexPiFCount1 = 8
TexPiPName1 = flags\pirpnt2.tga
TexPiPCount1 = 8
TexPeFName1 = flags\perflg2.tga
TexPeFCount1 = 8
TexPePName1 = flags\perpnt2.tga
TexPePCount1 = 8
TexFrtName1 = flags\frtflg2.tga
TexFrtCount1 = 8
TexShpName2 = flags\shpflg3.tga
TexShpCount2 = 8
TexPntName2 = flags\shppnt3.tga
TexPntCount2 = 8
TexMerName2 = flags\merflg3.tga
TexMerCount2 = 8
TexMePName2 = flags\merpnt3.tga
TexMePCount2 = 8
TexPiFName2 = flags\pirflg3.tga
TexPiFCount2 = 8
TexPiPName2 = flags\pirpnt3.tga
TexPiPCount2 = 8
TexPeFName2 = flags\perflg3.tga
TexPeFCount2 = 8
TexPePName2 = flags\perpnt3.tga
TexPePCount2 = 8
TexFrtName2 = flags\frtflg3.tga
TexFrtCount2 = 8
TexShpName3 = flags\shpflg4.tga
TexShpCount3 = 8
TexPntName3 = flags\shppnt4.tga
TexPntCount3 = 8
TexMerName3 = flags\merflg4.tga
TexMerCount3 = 8
TexMePName3 = flags\merpnt4.tga
TexMePCount3 = 8
TexPiFName3 = flags\pirflg4.tga
TexPiFCount3 = 8
TexPiPName3 = flags\pirpnt4.tga
TexPiPCount3 = 8
TexPeFName3 = flags\perflg4.tga
TexPeFCount3 = 8
TexPePName3 = flags\perpnt4.tga
TexPePCount3 = 8
TexFrtName3 = flags\frtflg4.tga
TexFrtCount3 = 8
TexShpName4 = flags\shpflg5.tga
TexShpCount4 = 8
TexPntName4 = flags\shppnt5.tga
TexPntCount4 = 8
TexMerName4 = flags\merflg5.tga
TexMerCount4 = 8
TexMePName4 = flags\merpnt5.tga
TexMePCount4 = 8
TexPiFName4 = flags\pirflg5.tga
TexPiFCount4 = 8
TexPiPName4 = flags\pirpnt5.tga
TexPiPCount4 = 8
TexPeFName4 = flags\perflg5.tga
TexPeFCount4 = 8
TexPePName4 = flags\perpnt5.tga
TexPePCount4 = 8
TexFrtName4 = flags\frtflg5.tga
TexFrtCount4 = 8
TexShpName5 = flags\shpflg6.tga
TexShpCount5 = 8
TexPntName5 = flags\shppnt6.tga
TexPntCount5 = 8
TexMerName5 = flags\merflg6.tga
TexMerCount5 = 8
TexMePName5 = flags\merpnt6.tga
TexMePCount5 = 8
TexPiFName5 = flags\pirflg6.tga
TexPiFCount5 = 8
TexPiPName5 = flags\pirpnt6.tga
TexPiPCount5 = 8
TexPeFName5 = flags\perflg6.tga
TexPeFCount5 = 8
TexPePName5 = flags\perpnt6.tga
TexPePCount5 = 8
TexFrtName5 = flags\frtflg6.tga
TexFrtCount5 = 8
TexPeFName6 = flags\perflg7.tga
TexPeFCount6 = 8
TexPePName6 = flags\perpnt7.tga
TexPePCount6 = 8
TexPeFName7 = flags\perflg8.tga
TexPeFCount7 = 8
TexPePName7 = flags\perpnt8.tga
TexPePCount7 = 8
EnglandPennonTex = 0
SpanishPennonTex = 0
FrenchPennonTex = 0
PiratePennonTex = 0
EnglishFlagTex = 1
SpanishFlagTex = 4
FrenchFlagTex = 2
PirateFlagTex = 5
PortugalFlagTex = 3
DatchFlagTex = 0
PersonalFlagTex = 7
AmericaFlagTex = 8

#define FLAG_ENSIGN    "E"
#define FLAG_PENNANT   "P"
#define FLAG_NONE      "N"

#define SHIP_FLAG      -2
#define SHIP_PENNANT   -3

int CurrentShip = 0;
int CurrentFlag = 0;
int ShipFlagsQuantity = -1;
bool bShipWithoutPennants = false;

#event_handler("GetRiggingData", "procGetRiggingData");
ref procGetRiggingData()
{
	int n;
	int retVal = 0;
	int locidx = FindLoadedLocation();
	bool PirateOverride = false;															// PB: For Pirate Flags on Forts and Ashore
	ref chr;

	string datName = GetEventData();
	if (datName == "GetFlagTexNum") {
		n = GetEventData();
		n = GetEventData();
		if (n == SHIP_FLAG || n == SHIP_PENNANT) {
			if (locidx < 0)
				chr = GetCharacter(Ships[CurrentShip]);
			else
				chr = GetCharacter(iShips[CurrentShip]);
			if (ShipFlagsQuantity == -1) {
				ShipFlagsQuantity = GetShipFlagsQuantity(chr);
				bShipWithoutPennants = ShipWithoutPennants(chr);
				if (!bShipWithoutPennants) ShipFlagsQuantity *= 2;
				CurrentFlag = 0;
			}
			int pos = CurrentFlag;
			if (n == SHIP_PENNANT) {
				pos -= (ShipFlagsQuantity / 2);
			}
			string FlagType = GetShipFlagType(chr, pos);
			if (bShipWithoutPennants) {
				if (n == SHIP_PENNANT) FlagType = FLAG_ENSIGN;
				if (FlagType == FLAG_PENNANT) {
					n = SHIP_FLAG;
					FlagType = FLAG_ENSIGN;
				}
			}
			CurrentFlag++;
			if (FlagType == FLAG_NONE) {
				retVal = FLAGS_NULL_PICTURE_TEXTURE_INDEX;
				return &retVal;
			}
			if (FlagType == FLAG_ENSIGN && n == SHIP_PENNANT) {
				retVal = FLAGS_NULL_PICTURE_TEXTURE_INDEX;
				return &retVal;
			}
			if (FlagType == FLAG_PENNANT && n == SHIP_FLAG && bShipWithoutPennants == false) {
				retVal = FLAGS_NULL_PICTURE_TEXTURE_INDEX;
				return &retVal;
			}
		} else {
			chr = GetCharacter(n);
			PirateOverride = true;															// PB: For Pirate Flags on Forts and Ashore
		}
		n = sti(chr.nation);
		switch (n)
		{
			case HOLLAND:          retVal = 0;                                break;
			case ENGLAND:          retVal = 1;                                break;
			case FRANCE:           retVal = 2;                                break;
			case PORTUGAL:         retVal = 3;                                break;
			case SPAIN:            retVal = 4;                                break;
			case PIRATE:
				if(PirateOverride) retVal = 6;												// PB: For Pirate Flags on Forts and Ashore
				else			   retVal = GetPirateFlag(chr, &n);           break;
			case GUEST1_NATION:    retVal = 5;                                break;
			case GUEST2_NATION:    retVal = 6;                                break;
			case PRIVATEER_NATION: retVal = GetPersonalFlag(chr, &n);         break;
			case UNKNOWN_NATION:   retVal = FLAGS_NULL_PICTURE_TEXTURE_INDEX; break;		//added by KAM		// changed after build 11 by KAM
			case NEUTRAL_NATION:   retVal = FLAGS_NULL_PICTURE_TEXTURE_INDEX; break;		//added by KAM
			case PERSONAL_NATION:  retVal = GetPersonalFlag(chr, &n);         break;
		}
	}
	return &retVal;
}

int GetShipFlagsQuantity(ref chr)
{
	int iShipType = GetCharacterShipType(chr);
	if (iShipType < 0 || iShipType == SHIP_NOTUSED) return 0;
	ref rShip; makeref(rShip, ShipsTypes[iShipType]);
	aref arShip; makearef(arShip, chr.Ship);
	if (!CheckAttribute(rShip, "Flags")) return 0;
	int ret = 0;
	aref arFlags; makearef(arFlags, rShip.Flags);
	int nMasts = GetAttributesNum(arFlags);
	for (int m = 0; m < nMasts; m++)
	{
		aref arFlag = GetAttributeN(arFlags, m);
		string sMast = GetAttributeName(arFlag);
		if (GetLocalShipAttrib(arShip, rShip, "Ship.Masts." +sMast) == "1") continue;
		ret += GetAttributesNum(arFlag);
	}
	return ret;
}

string GetShipFlagType(ref chr, int pos)
{
	int iShipType = GetCharacterShipType(chr);
	if (iShipType < 0 || iShipType == SHIP_NOTUSED) return FLAG_ENSIGN;
	aref arShip; makearef(arShip, chr.Ship);
	ref rShip; makeref(rShip, ShipsTypes[iShipType]);
	if (!CheckShipAttribute(arShip, rShip, "Flags")) return FLAG_ENSIGN;
	int n = 0;
	aref arMasts; makearef(arMasts, rShip.Flags);
	int nMasts = GetAttributesNum(arMasts);
	int m = 0;
	int i = 1;
	if (CheckAttribute(chr, "surrendered")) return FLAG_NONE; // Screwface: to fix the white flags
	while (i <= nMasts)
	{
		string sMast = "Mast" + m;
		if (CheckAttribute(chr, "Ship.Masts." + sMast) == true && GetLocalShipAttrib(arShip, rShip, "Ship.Masts." + sMast) == "1") {
			m++;
			continue;
		}
		if (!CheckShipAttribute(arShip, rShip, "Flags." + sMast)) {
			m++;
			continue;
		}
		i++;
		aref arFlags; makearef(arFlags, rShip.Flags.(sMast));
		int nFlags = GetAttributesNum(arFlags);
		for (int f = 1; f <= nFlags; f++)
		{
			string sFlag = "Flag" + f;
			if (!CheckShipAttribute(arShip, rShip, "Flags." + sMast + "." + sFlag)) continue;
			if (n == pos) return GetLocalShipAttrib(arShip, rShip, "Flags." + sMast + "." + sFlag);
			n++;
			m++;
		}
	}
	return FLAG_ENSIGN;
}

bool ShipWithoutPennants(ref chr)
{
	aref arShip; makearef(arShip, chr.Ship);
	ref rShip = GetShipByType(GetCharacterShipType(chr));
	if (CheckShipAttribute(arShip, rShip, "Flags.NoPennants")) return sti(GetLocalShipAttrib(arShip, rShip, "Flags.NoPennants"));
	return false;
}

void SetFortFlag(ref rModel)
{
	int i, idx, iNation;
	ref chr;
	if (!CheckAttribute(rModel, "fortcmdridx")) return;
	idx = sti(rModel.fortcmdridx);
	if (idx < 0) return;
	chr = GetCharacter(idx);
	SendMessage(&Flag, "li", MSG_FLAG_DEL_GROUP, &rModel);
	if (IsEntity(&MerchantFlag)) SendMessage(&MerchantFlag, "li", MSG_FLAG_DEL_GROUP, &rModel);
	for (i = 0; i < PIRATEFLAGS_TEXTURES_QUANTITY; i++)
	{
		if (IsEntity(&PirateFlag[i])) SendMessage(&PirateFlag[i], "li", MSG_FLAG_DEL_GROUP, &rModel);
	}
	for (i = 0; i < PERSONALFLAGS_TEXTURES_QUANTITY; i++)
	{
		if (IsEntity(&PersonalFlag[i])) SendMessage(&PersonalFlag[i], "li", MSG_FLAG_DEL_GROUP, &rModel);
	}
	SendMessage(&FortFlag, "li", MSG_FLAG_DEL_GROUP, &rModel);
	iNation = sti(chr.nation);
	switch (iNation) {
/*		case PIRATE:
			GetPirateFlag(chr, &i);
			SendMessage(&PirateFlag[i], "lil", MSG_FLAG_INIT_NOCHAR, &rModel, idx);
		break;
		case PRIVATEER_NATION:
			GetPersonalFlag(chr, &i);
			SendMessage(&PersonalFlag[i], "lil", MSG_FLAG_INIT_NOCHAR, &rModel, idx);
		break;*/
		case PERSONAL_NATION:
			GetPersonalFlag(chr, &i);
			SendMessage(&PersonalFlag[i], "lil", MSG_FLAG_INIT_NOCHAR, &rModel, idx);
		break;
		// default:
			SendMessage(&FortFlag, "lil", MSG_FLAG_INIT_NOCHAR, &rModel, idx);
	}
}

void SetShipFlag(int chridx)
{
	if (chridx < 0) return;
	ref chr = GetCharacter(chridx);
	ref Pchar = GetMaincharacter();
	if (GetShipFlagsQuantity(chr) == 0 || CharacterIsDead(chr) == true || CheckAttribute(chr, "curshipnum") == false) return;
	int i = 0;
	int shippos = sti(chr.curshipnum);
	int ship_quantity = 0;
	if (FindLoadedLocation() >= 0)
		ship_quantity = locNumShips;
	else
		ship_quantity = iNumShips;
	int model_no = ShipModelrList[shippos];
	int next_model_no = -1;
	if (shippos < ship_quantity) {
		next_model_no = ShipModelrList[shippos + 1];
		if (next_model_no == -1) next_model_no = GetCurrentModelrNumber();
	}
	aref arModel;
	CurrentShip = shippos;
	ShipFlagsQuantity = -1;
	int iNation = sti(chr.nation);
	int j;
	if (FindClass(&arModel, "modelr")) {
		i++;
		while (FindClassNext(&arModel))
		{
			if (i >= model_no && i < next_model_no) {
				SendMessage(&Flag, "li", MSG_FLAG_DEL_GROUP, &arModel);
				if (IsEntity(&Pennant)) SendMessage(&Pennant, "li", MSG_FLAG_DEL_GROUP, &arModel);
				SendMessage(&MerchantFlag, "li", MSG_FLAG_DEL_GROUP, &arModel);
				if (IsEntity(&MerchantPennant)) SendMessage(&MerchantPennant, "li", MSG_FLAG_DEL_GROUP, &arModel);
				for (j = 0; j < PIRATEFLAGS_TEXTURES_QUANTITY; j++)
				{
					if (IsEntity(&PirateFlag[j])) SendMessage(&PirateFlag[j], "li", MSG_FLAG_DEL_GROUP, &arModel);
					if (IsEntity(&PiratePennant[j])) SendMessage(&PiratePennant[j], "li", MSG_FLAG_DEL_GROUP, &arModel);
				}
				for (j = 0; j < PERSONALFLAGS_TEXTURES_QUANTITY; j++)
				{
					if (IsEntity(&PersonalFlag[j])) SendMessage(&PersonalFlag[j], "li", MSG_FLAG_DEL_GROUP, &arModel);
					if (IsEntity(&PersonalPennant[j])) SendMessage(&PersonalPennant[j], "li", MSG_FLAG_DEL_GROUP, &arModel);
				}
				SendMessage(&FortFlag, "li", MSG_FLAG_DEL_GROUP, &arModel);
				switch (iNation) {
					case PIRATE:
						GetPirateFlag(chr, &j);
						SendMessage(&PirateFlag[j], "lil", MSG_FLAG_INIT, &arModel, SHIP_FLAG);
						if (IsEntity(&PiratePennant[j])) SendMessage(&PiratePennant[j], "lil", MSG_FLAG_INIT, &arModel, SHIP_PENNANT);
					break;
					case PRIVATEER_NATION:
						GetPersonalFlag(chr, &j);
						SendMessage(&PersonalFlag[j], "lil", MSG_FLAG_INIT, &arModel, SHIP_FLAG);
						if (IsEntity(&PersonalPennant[j])) SendMessage(&PersonalPennant[j], "lil", MSG_FLAG_INIT, &arModel, SHIP_PENNANT);
					break;
					case PERSONAL_NATION:
						GetPersonalFlag(chr, &j);
						SendMessage(&PersonalFlag[j], "lil", MSG_FLAG_INIT, &arModel, SHIP_FLAG);
						if (IsEntity(&PersonalPennant[j])) SendMessage(&PersonalPennant[j], "lil", MSG_FLAG_INIT, &arModel, SHIP_PENNANT);
					break;
					case NEUTRAL_NATION:
						SendMessage(&FortFlag, "lil", MSG_FLAG_INIT, &arModel, SHIP_FLAG);
					break;
					// default:
						if (IsEntity(&MerchantFlag) && IsShipMerchant(chr)) {
							SendMessage(&MerchantFlag, "lil", MSG_FLAG_INIT, &arModel, SHIP_FLAG);
							if (IsEntity(&MerchantPennant)) SendMessage(&MerchantPennant, "lil", MSG_FLAG_INIT, &arModel, SHIP_PENNANT);
						} else {
							SendMessage(&Flag, "lil", MSG_FLAG_INIT, &arModel, SHIP_FLAG);
							if (IsEntity(&Pennant)) SendMessage(&Pennant, "lil", MSG_FLAG_INIT, &arModel, SHIP_PENNANT);
						}
				}
			}
			if (next_model_no > -1 && i >= next_model_no) return;
			i++;
		}
	}
}

void SetTownFlag(ref loc, object mdl)
{
	int i, idx, iNation;
	string town;
	ref chr;
	if (!CheckAttribute(loc, "townsack")) return;
	SendMessage(&Flag, "li", MSG_FLAG_DEL_GROUP, &mdl);
	SendMessage(&MerchantFlag, "li", MSG_FLAG_DEL_GROUP, &mdl);
	for (i = 0; i < PIRATEFLAGS_TEXTURES_QUANTITY; i++)
	{
		if (IsEntity(&PirateFlag[i])) SendMessage(&PirateFlag[i], "li", MSG_FLAG_DEL_GROUP, &mdl);
		if (IsEntity(&PiratePennant[i])) SendMessage(&PiratePennant[i], "li", MSG_FLAG_DEL_GROUP, &mdl);
	}
	for (i = 0; i < PERSONALFLAGS_TEXTURES_QUANTITY; i++)
	{
		if (IsEntity(&PersonalFlag[i])) SendMessage(&PersonalFlag[i], "li", MSG_FLAG_DEL_GROUP, &mdl);
		if (IsEntity(&PersonalPennant[i])) SendMessage(&PersonalPennant[i], "li", MSG_FLAG_DEL_GROUP, &mdl);
	}
	SendMessage(&FortFlag, "li", MSG_FLAG_DEL_GROUP, &mdl);
	town = loc.townsack;
	iNation = GetTownNation(town);
	idx = GetTownGovernorIndex(town);
	if (idx < 0) idx = GetTownFortCommanderIndex(town, 0);
	if (idx < 0) idx = GetMainCharacterIndex();
	chr = GetCharacter(idx); // PB
	switch (iNation) {
/*		case PIRATE:
			GetPirateFlag(chr, &i);
			SendMessage(&PirateFlag[i], "lil", MSG_FLAG_INIT_NOCHAR, &mdl, idx);
		break;
		case PRIVATEER_NATION:
			GetPersonalFlag(chr, &i);
			SendMessage(&PersonalFlag[i], "lil", MSG_FLAG_INIT_NOCHAR, &mdl, idx);
		break;*/
		case PERSONAL_NATION:
			GetPersonalFlag(chr, &i);
			SendMessage(&PersonalFlag[i], "lil", MSG_FLAG_INIT_NOCHAR, &mdl, idx);
		break;
		// default:
			SendMessage(&FortFlag, "lil", MSG_FLAG_INIT_NOCHAR, &mdl, idx);
	}
}

void RefreshFlags()
{
	if (FindLoadedLocation() >= 0 && locNumShips > 0) {
		SetEventHandler("frame", "BLI_SetFlags", 1);
		return;
	}
	if (bSeaActive && !bAbordageStarted) {
		SetEventHandler("frame", "BI_SetFlags", 1);
		return;
	}
}

// Screwface
void FlagsDelay()
{
	if (FindLoadedLocation() >= 0 && locNumShips > 0) {
		SetEventHandler("frame", "BLI_FlagsDelay", 1);
		return;
	}
	if (bSeaActive && !bAbordageStarted) {
		SetEventHandler("frame", "BI_FlagsDelay", 1);
		return;
	}
}

int GetPirateFlag(ref chr, int ntex)
{
	ntex = 0;
	// Use character-specific flag if available
	if (CheckAttribute(chr, "Flags.Pirate.texture")) ntex = sti(chr.Flags.Pirate.texture);
	if (CheckAttribute(chr, "Flags.Pirate")) return sti(chr.Flags.Pirate);
	if (IsCompanion(chr))
	{
		ref PChar = GetMainCharacter();
		ntex = sti(PChar.Flags.Pirate.texture);
		return sti(PChar.Flags.Pirate);
	}
	else
	{
		ref cmdr = Group_GetGroupCommander(GetGroupIDFromCharacter(chr));
		if (!CheckAttribute(cmdr, "Flags.Pirate") || !CheckAttribute(cmdr, "Flags.Pirate.texture")) {
			ntex = rand(PIRATEFLAGS_TEXTURES_QUANTITY - 2); //PW: -2 to disable last row in random encounters
			cmdr.Flags.Pirate.texture = ntex;
			cmdr.Flags.Pirate = rand(FLAGS_PICTURES_QUANTITY_PER_TEXTURE - 2); // PB: -2 to disable last column in random encounters
		}
		ntex = sti(cmdr.Flags.Pirate.texture);
		chr.Flags.Pirate.texture = ntex;
		chr.Flags.Pirate = sti(cmdr.Flags.Pirate);
		return sti(cmdr.Flags.Pirate);
	}
}

int GetPersonalFlag(ref chr, int ntex)
{
	// PB -->
	// Use character-specific flag if available
	if (CheckAttribute(chr, "Flags.Personal.texture")) ntex = sti(chr.Flags.Personal.texture);
	if (CheckAttribute(chr, "Flags.Personal")) return sti(chr.Flags.Personal);

	// Otherwise use the player's own flag
	ref PChar = GetMainCharacter();
	ntex = sti(PChar.Flags.Personal.texture);
	return sti(PChar.Flags.Personal);
	// PB <--
/*	ntex = 0;
	if(IsCompanion(chr))
	{
		ref PChar = GetMainCharacter();
		ntex = sti(PChar.Flags.Personal.texture);
		return sti(PChar.Flags.Personal);
	}
	else
	{
		if (CheckAttribute(chr, "Flags.Personal.texture")) ntex = sti(chr.Flags.Personal.texture);
		if (CheckAttribute(chr, "Flags.Personal")) return sti(chr.Flags.Personal);
		ref cmdr = Group_GetGroupCommander(GetGroupIDFromCharacter(chr));
		if (!CheckAttribute(cmdr, "Flags.Personal"))
		{
			ntex = rand(PERSONALFLAGS_TEXTURES_QUANTITY - 1);
			cmdr.Flags.Personal.texture = ntex;
			cmdr.Flags.Personal = rand(FLAGS_PICTURES_QUANTITY_PER_TEXTURE - 1);
			chr.Flags.Personal.texture = ntex;
			chr.Flags.Personal = sti(cmdr.Flags.Personal);
			return sti(chr.Flags.Personal);
		}
		ntex = sti(cmdr.Flags.Personal.texture);
		return sti(cmdr.Flags.Personal);
	}*/
}

[modernknight1]

Jeffrey, I am so glad this worked. The measuring method ended being the better way after all! I knew it could be done! You are awesome.

Question: So just as in the new 50(49) flag system we built, do I need to do the same thing on pennants so they disappear upon surrendering? Do we need to make it a three pennant per nation texture map so that I can alpha map the first texture out to be for surrender/striking flags? Like I said that first pennant texture is rough and I want to redo it anyway. I did like that the triple tailed Spanish variant looks pretty good in your screen shot. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out.

MK

[Jeffrey]

If there is one transparent spot, it would work the same the existing flag logic, as you simply just adjust the event callback procGetRiggingData to select the transparent slot upon surrender. So if you want at least 2 random choices for all, including pirate, then yes, you would have to make 3 columns and leave one of the ends of at least one row a blank/transparent, which of course means that row technically only has 2 available for the random choice.

But I think we only need one transparent, not one for each row…that’s how the current flag tex is. It just has one blank that everyone uses upon surrender. Hence Dutch only have 4 war flags, vs. everyone else has 5 war flags, because they are in the row that has the one column slot devoted to the blank/surrender. These pennants would work similarly.

[Orazio]

Impressive work Jeffrey! New Horizons in DX9 and Storm Engine 2.8? I don’t know if anybody else in PA tried it too, but you’re the first one to successfully accomplish that! I bet somebody didn’t even think it was possible. It’s a shame they were so hostile towards you. I’m curious, will you tell them?

And I really like the new flag system! With pennants now. Very cool feature. And, if I understood correctly, those flags so stretched you couldn’t see what was on them are gone now, right?

[modernknight1]

Orazio Mate! YES! No more stretching. In fact what we did was build a whole new overall texture sheet and allow MANY more flag options. Your warships will now have 5 flags per nation and merchant ships 5 flags per nation. Pirates have many more flags now.

AND… there is a separate texture for pennants. So there are 4 possibilities (at the present 2) by nation for pennants and any flag of a certain long length will be treated as a pennant.

Here’s a spoiler of the new flags you guys are getting in the new version coming out in a couple more days.

Warship flags are on the left half and merchant ship flags are on the right.

[Jeffrey]

Impressive work Jeffrey! New Horizons in DX9 and Storm Engine 2.8? I don’t know if anybody else in PA tried it too, but you’re the first one to successfully accomplish that! I bet somebody didn’t even think it was possible. It’s a shame they were so hostile towards you. I’m curious, will you tell them?

Hehe, yeah, I think there were some skeptics and naysayers. I think the bulk of the work was actually figuring POTC Vanilla. Sure, they hacked up some rigging/flag .dll files for New Horizons and I can’t work with those in my version, but I know why they did what they did (circumvent a limitation in the original back-end of the game) and what these do, so I replicated the effect in the new extensions/features I added to this flag modification to accommodate the end goal; I can replicate, but in a simpler fashion. POTC Vanilla took me about 25-30 hours of work, but so far, given I am more familiar and know what to look for and change, New Horizons was sped up and I was able to launch and get past the Nathaniel intro in just a couple hours of rework of the script code. I stopped the work for a bit, but will likely revisit and complete further in a short while.

But I would like to address your final question, “I’m curious, will you tell them?”

A couple days ago, in a separate and unrelated thread at PA!, one of their moderators directly leveled accusations that I direct an army of trolls, that I am a spammer, I attack their file site, and that I wallow in the mud as a nefarious and crude beast. Considering I am offering executable software, what effect might this have on the average reader there, to see a presumably ‘respected’ moderator state this about me, a relative unknown source? Might that deter and make a person reluctant/hesitant to download and try the game? Does this not immensely tarnish my reputation and presence there?

I volunteer my time and effort on this because I enjoy this as a hobby and pastime; I enjoy participating. But, this is not the first time a mere slip of mention has at least two different moderators there that appear to stalk my posts and if a certain site or mod is mentioned, they directly attack me; this being the most blatant and fiery one. I don’t enjoy that and it makes the experience there unpleasant.

So, being tired of this treatment, I directly messaged the head moderator, Pieter and directed him to the post, and demanded the post be stricken, a public reprimand of the moderator that leveled the unwarranted attack on me, and a public apology for the unwarranted allegation and attack.

Rather than step up and do the right thing, I instead received a response from Pieter where he actually rationalized and justified the other moderator’s post toward me, and I shouldn’t take it personally, and then asked why would I want to escalate things?

Screw that! Again, I shouldn’t have to tolerate any of that and so I simply responded, “So be it.” I conveyed the same thing I mentioned earlier to him as well…that I volunteer this time/effort because I enjoy it. My work has been solid and I’ve accomplished some things nobody else was able, notably the POTC port to 2.8. I don’t deserve the current treatment and rather than endure it, I will choose otherwise. Simply, I will leave.

I closed with a promise (warning, maybe? LOL) that my New Horizons port to 2.8 was imminent, but I will post it elsewhere. I logged off their site, left, and I won’t return Pirates Ahoy!.

I have now heard that a public apology was issued after I left, but he had his chance to do the right thing when I asked and he refused, and instead justified/explained that all was OK by him. His job from the outset should be to rein in unruly behavior no matter the source is another moderator and instead chose at the moment of my clearly evident assail, to allow my public denigration to stand; that alone tells me enough that I want no part of ‘his’ site. As for the later forthcoming apology, now that perhaps the implications of the departure are maybe becoming clearer to him, what is that saying? “A day late and a dollar short.”

[Stéphane]

” the new version coming out in a couple more days. ”

Do you mean the mega patch ?

[modernknight1]

I will put a folder out there that just has all of the new resource content on it with a very small program folder with germane files for ships, items and characters if you want to try to patch your old game. However, I would discourage people from doing that. With all of the new content from our mod team it would be better to DL a whole new version of ERAS (1.6.0).

Jeffrey is going to bundle all of the new content up together for one new master version of ERAS.

I know its a huge download and I apologize, but we have to move forward.

MK

[Stéphane]

Very good news !! when the 1.6 will be available ?

[modernknight1]

Soon. Give me a few more days. I am working as fast as I can and I am spending every spare minute I have on it getting everything finished up. I’ve put well over 200 hours on it since New Years Day.

MK

[modernknight1]

Orazio, I just sent you a PM with a link to all of the new ship files I’ve been promising.

MK

[Author]

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