The General BugFixing/Playtesting thread for FFED3D+mods

[Nagual]

Cheers, didn't know about the 'elite method' selection. I'll play around with it now to get it working they way I'd like. Thanks very much for your help.

On a side note, a friend was playing the other night, he came across what looked like an odd bug where Hull values were often well over 100% (250% in one case, with 6 shield generators and a bounty of 111million - in an Eagle )

 

[AndyJ]

Were you trying the Aniso mod executable perhaps?
And if so are you using the current FFED3DAJ v1.04 build as there were major issues with the Aniso mod in the initial release & v1.01 because as it turned out, the FFED3D guys had been tinkering with it. I wound up implementing it once again into the build fresh from the Aniso 0.9c mod sources due to reports of various corruption issues from players on the Russian Elite-Games forum. If you're using the Elite Forever pack then you you're probably using the original release, FFED3DAJ v1.0 so I'd encourage you to track down the patches on SCC or Elite-Games...

In other news... I've figured out where to hook into the FFE .asm to let me override the game defaults externally from the .cfg file. Tried the detail level and this takes effect straight away, so should just be a little more of leg work to add the rest of the settings.

 

[Kerrash]

Hey AndyJ, I work as a professional developer, so if there is anything I can do to help please PM me

 

[Zak Gordon]

In other news... I've figured out where to hook into the FFE .asm to let me override the game defaults externally from the .cfg file. Tried the detail level and this takes effect straight away, so should just be a little more of leg work to add the rest of the settings.

Awesome. that is all

Edit: Ok not all!

I have 'finished' my -50% texture re-size project that applies to all textures in both the 'Models' and 'Textures' folders. It wasn't across the board, not all things have been reduced in size (and thus memory usage), but a large portion of both those folders have been.

The main good news is that in game i notice no loss of quality for the games graphics (i wasn't expecting any to be honest, at the general resolution the game is based on, massive textures are not going to do much!). The other awesome news is that now the FFED3DAJ.exe is using just 930,280K (private bytes), compared to the previous 'dangerous' 1,900,000K or there abouts.

This means i have been able to load (easily) all models with all skins (10). At some point i will find a place to put the link for these changes, probably not in the main FFED3D thread as they will just get 'lost' there after a few new posts.

I'm going to play and observe some more first, just to be sure nothing 'bad' has changed, but yeah we now have lots more memory overhead, so no more worries on all that, we might even be able to add more skins for the various ships!

 

[polaris]

Hi,
It seems that FFED3DAJ is not able to display the texture of some asteroids.

JJFFE screenshot

FFED3DAJ v1.04 screenshot

Here is the scenario
http://sberinde.x10host.com/temp/test

Hope it can be fixed.

 

[Steve]

The main good news is that in game i notice no loss of quality for the games graphics (i wasn't expecting any to be honest, at the general resolution the game is based on, massive textures are not going to do much!). The other awesome news is that now the FFED3DAJ.exe is using just 930,280K (private bytes), compared to the previous 'dangerous' 1,900,000K or there abouts.

Excellent! I'm going to have a close look at this :smilie:

Hi,
It seems that FFED3DAJ is not able to display the texture of some asteroids.

Hmm. I can certainly get asteroids to appear in v1.04...

... but your save game "test" locked up the game so I was unable to investigate further

 

[Nagual]

I know I may be missing something here, but Steve and Polaris have very different cockpits in the screen shots, so my first thought would be based around what's different in the set up there?

 

[polaris]

Hmm. I can certainly get asteroids to appear in v1.04...

... but your save game "test" locked up the game so I was unable to investigate further

Thanks for your input Steve. It could be that my system is too weak: 1Gb RAM. But I have no problems with other textures. Is this asteroid texture/model too big? I am not sure what file to look for.

I know I may be missing something here, but Steve and Polaris have very different cockpits in the screen shots, so my first thought would be based around what's different in the set up there?

I think there are no problems with that. The original FFED3D displays the same problem for me.

 

[AndyJ]

I know I may be missing something here, but Steve and Polaris have very different cockpits in the screen shots, so my first thought would be based around what's different in the set up there?

Regarding the cockpit - [edit] be sure to grab the latest "full" beta 1.12 download at the SCC, otherwise the version at the Russian forum, dated 24.05.11 is the one to grab - either that or Ittiz's beta 3 pack, then add the patches over the top of that.

The asteroid issue is more serious, and it's an issue inherited from the original FFED3D by the looks of things.

At present there are only two replacement asteroid models, 112 which is in Steve's picture and 441 which is the shattered asteroid in the intro sequence. (it ought to be the same as 112 but anyway...)
This type of asteroid is a simple polygon based model in the original FFE so could be replaced.

Objects 113 thru 117 though are rounded asteroids and are meant to be drawn by the same routines as planets. The test case is trying to draw object #114, I've also found an example of asteroid object 113 that doesn't appear either, and frame rates become horrible - if not entirely unresponsive. So unfortunately there's obviously something quite wrong in the planet draw routines, or the worse, the underlying assembly code that were altered to redirect the drawing to FFED3D.
What's curious is that these asteroids should draw similarly to object 117 (asteroidal body) and that one seems OK, for example Hyperion that orbits Saturn. I doubt this is going to be easy to fix in any short amount of time as the pseudo-C code that draws the planets is an interpretation of the original .asm functions, and as such almost entirely undocumented and pretty incomprehensible!

[edit] ACTUALLY....

On a bit of a hunch, given the way performance goes through the floor - I've just tracked down where it decides the level of detail for planets, using that strange max_divide_deep value. I wondered if maybe the issue may be because FFED3D is trying to draw the asteroid, but with far too many triangle, and that's then bringing the game to its knees because it can't keep up with the draw commands that FFE is sending to it...

And what do you know - EUREKA!!! it's exactly that!

One quick change to deal with these objects differently and it's happily drawing massive asteroids again!

 

[Zak Gordon]

@ Polaris, i'm 100% sure you have not installed the full game properly. Your cockpit is a very old version of FFED3D etc.

So yeah any missing graphics will be because your install is either older versions or missing stuff that came in later updates. You might have got a bad download of the FFED3D files (happened to me)?

Edit: ok AndyJ just post so he probably has more info to help you.

 

[Steve]

The test case is trying to draw object #114, I've also found an example of asteroid object 113 that doesn't appear either, and frame rates become horrible - if not entirely unresponsive.

So what value did you set max_divide_deep to, Andy? I tried a value of 2 and the frame rate in "test" was fine but no object was drawn where I expected the asteroid. Instead, when the ship got about 0.5km of the autopilot target, it collided with something and exploded!

EDIT: And reducing that figure does have a detrimental effect on how well the planets are drawn

EDIT2: In fact, reading the last line of your post again, I'm guessing you've changed something other than max_divide_deep, so ignore my idiotic ramblings

 

[polaris]

I did further testings and I have the same asteroid issue using FFED3D-Ittiz + FFED3DAJv1.04. Of course, I used usePrimitiveModels=1 because of my low-spec computer. See the image

I confirm the AndyJ report regarding very low frame rates in this case.

 

[AndyJ]

Yes the issue dates back to the original "FFE D3D.exe" beta build - it had the same issue too.
The issue needed a small code change to treat asteroids slightly differently to planets, and which also changes the cull mode being used.
I've also added a specific 'asteroid_max_divide_deep' setting to adjust their detail level without affecting planets, with 0 drawing the original and blockier shape, up to 3 being very smooth. Above this it drops off the cliff again, but 2 is sufficient really and fixes a couple of texturing issues too.

Anyway a nice simple fix to add into the next 1.05 build. I'm not actively adding to that now and just doing some testing with the exposed game settings. I've only excluded the map detail settings as they proved problematic. (I can't see why anyone would actually turn them off anyway so it didn't really seem worth spending lots of time trying to add them in, purely for completeness!)

 

[AndyJ]

OK, I've decided to release v1.05 to the usual places. This will be useful to you polaris as there are many fixes to the drawing of the original 'primitive' polygon based models. The Cobra MkIII in my avatar is an original model from in-game v1.05...

What's New in Version v1.05:
• Changed Link options for build to indicate that the FFED3DAJ executables supports large memory addresses. This now enables the loading of textures and models beyond the normal 2GB limit on 64bit Windows systems.
• Option to Pre-load all models supported. Requires an 64bit OS with >2GB memory with everything enabled or for multiple-skins to be disabled: modelPreLoad=99.
• Option to capture the mouse in fullscreen mode so that it can't escape to another monitor. Enabled by default with setting fsCaptureMouse=1.
• Correction to window size, height was short by 2 pixels.
• Possible fix for GUI buttons not being drawn. This issue could be reproduced when switching from the Combat Computer view straight to the System menu or to the Stock market screen via the Services menu.
• Fixed the seam that was visible in the galaxy skybox.
• Added support for line circles. The Battle Target Control search recticle will now flash within the laser sight area when it has been activated and is searching for a target.
• Adverts now draw complete with their backgrounds and logos onto the TV screens. The background colour can be blended/hidden via a new .cfg setting "advertsBackgroundAlpha" where 0 = full transparency and no backgrounds are drawn, just the text/logos over a plain screen, upto 255 which draws a solid colour/textured background. Where the advert has textured backgrounds, these are visible (>0) or hidden (0) as they do not support blending.
• polygon doors and yellow dashes are now hidden when drawing the replacement Docking bay model.
• Docking bay number will be suppressed if 'notDrawText=1' is defined in the tris.ini setting of model 233.
•Orginal Polygon windows will not be drawn now when a replacement Church model is being used.
• Fallback allowing the use of a bitmap console panel and icons for users who can't see the model version. Set bitmapConsole=1 to enable. This will reset to the original click locations and use the original textures. Note that in current packages, the Status light images, textures\212.png thru 217.png are present but have been renamed with a trailing underscore, and that orange (transparent) images are in their place. These images would need to be manually reverted by the user to appear once again.
• Exposed the game settings in the .cfg file, except for the map details. These can optionally override the defaults and/or settings loaded from saved games. Map settings aren't supported as they weren't taking effect on the start of a new game. I can't see why anyone would actually want to switch these items off anyway, so I've decided that ultimately it wasn't worth spending a lot of time trying to support them.
• Large asteroids now appear in the game and aren't invisible! Their detail can also be increased by adjusting the new setting asteroid_max_divide_deep. 0=no increase, up to 3.

That's one BIG asteroid!

The following changes apply to the drawing of the primitive models which FFE originally used:

• Added support for drawing filled circles. Engines now appear on Falcon, Tiger, Boa and Lynx ships.
• Spinning double-ring antenna displays on top of the sawblade and destroyed thargon ship.
• Sidewinder and Python landing gear is drawn if replacement models are enabled, but no model exists for this ship and the primitive polygon version is being displayed.
• Bio-domes tweaked to remove 'Z-fighting' between fields and green base. (some occurs 8000->10000m altitude)
• Corrected colour/texturing of cones. Eagle MK3 side pods now correct with cyan circle at front. Lifter should always have had textured engines.
• Corrected sizes of Ball objects used on primitive models for pilots heads, distant front wheels, lifter cargo and at the power station.
• Many(!) individual tweaks to the positions of primitive squares, triangles and polygons... This fixes the display/flickering of ship engines, Id's, landing gear bays, and the shark teeth and stripe decals. Also squares, lines and texts on the various space stations. (squares suppressed on the Lave type space-stations as they proved too glitchy to display reliably)

Have fun!

 

[Zak Gordon]

Just installed 1.05 and Houston I Have A Problem!

I simply got the file 'FFED3DAJ_v1.05' (2.34MB zipped file), not the other texture files etc (as i understand you only need to download and install those other two files the one time).

the ModelPreload=99 setting no longer works.

In fact the game is also not preloading the planet side building textures, you can see them 'pop' when you start a new game, and this happens to the ships buy/view screen when in the shipyard buying screen as if the 99 setting was not set.

After my texture size reduction work my starting FFED3DAJ.exe is now only using 669,932k private bytes, so a further reduction of around 300,000k over what my texture optimizations had achieved. So stuff is not getting loaded up it seems?

Also very strangely there is now no atmospheres on planets! (you can see the difference in the intro sequence, but also you'll notice it on starting a new game on Hope (Return key at the intro screen).

I've had a look through the ffed3daj.cfg file and i can't see where the problem might be?

All shaders are set to 1 (except useglobalObjectShader) which seems normal.
Cloud textures is set to 1 (if that controls the atmosphere layers).
I really can't see anything that looks out of place in that file to cause this?

Good news is i love the new frames-per-second limiter, all games should have this kind of setting in a cfg file imho.

And all the new Game Settings being in the cfg is great too, not to mention many of the fixes in this update sound completely awesome. But yeah something is not working as intended?

Please obi-wan, your my only hope!

Or something

@Polaris, Ok if that was your latest screenshot it would appear you have a correct version of FFED3DAJ now running (based on the Ittiz build judging by the size/type of cross hairs).

You will need to reinstall my ZGtextureMod by copy/pasting over the relevant files if you so wish to get those changes back. But you got the correct dash-board skin, so that is a huge improvement for you.

 

[Steve]

Thanks for the new build Andy, really appreciate your hard work...

Interestingly, I don't get the "model pop" that Zak describes, but on first play I've spotted a couple of issues...

The game no longer picks up the alternative game font if you set one in the cfg file. Everything is in that horrible Arial font

The frame rate on planets has taken another hit, despite me copying all the settings from the v1.04 cfg file into the new one

On the plus side, the asteroids in Polaris's "test" game now render beautifully

More observations to come

 

[AndyJ]

ARRGH!
Sorry guys - my bad, I've dropped the new [GAME_SETTINGS] section into the wrong place in the .cfg file... to correct it, open up your .cfg file and highlight from the start of the text
###################
## Game Settings ##
###################

[GAME_SETTINGS]

all the way down to the end of the last music file setting and then 'Cut' this block. Then Paste it back immediately before the [TIMER] section and save - that'll fix things.
Where it was, it chopped the [VIDEO] section in half.

I'll upload a corrected patch shortly ... sorry for the inconvenience!


[EDIT] a v1.05a patch has now been uploaded with a corrected .cfg file so hopefully nobody else will need to follow these instructions!

 

[Zak Gordon]

ARRGH!
Sorry guys - my bad, I've dropped the new [GAME_SETTINGS] section into the wrong place in the .cfg file... to correct it, open up your .cfg file and highlight from the start of the text
###################
## Game Settings ##
###################

[GAME_SETTINGS]

all the way down to the end of the last music file setting and then 'Cut' this block. Then Paste it back immediately before the [TIMER] section and save - that'll fix things.

Perfectly

I'm back to my FFED3DAJ.exe running at 930,000k as it should be and the atmospheres and all models are preloaded (setting =99). Fantastic and i look forward to testing out the other fixes you mention.

I've already confirmed the Z-fighting issues as seen with the roads and fields inside the bio-domes on Merlin are gone, and the 'seam' across the nightsky if using a non-black space option has gone. Amazing. You are a magician AndyJ.

 

[Steve]

• Possible fix for GUI buttons not being drawn. This issue could be reproduced when switching from the Combat Computer view straight to the System menu or to the Stock market screen via the Services menu.

All the buttons now appear :smilie:

• Exposed the game settings in the .cfg file, except for the map details. These can optionally override the defaults and/or settings loaded from saved games.

This seems to work perfectly.

• Large asteroids now appear in the game and aren't invisible! Their detail can also be increased by adjusting the new setting asteroid_max_divide_deep. 0=no increase, up to 3.

Yep, this is all fine too...

ARRGH!
Sorry guys - my bad, I've dropped the new [GAME_SETTINGS] section into the wrong place in the .cfg file...

As per your instructions, I've rearranged the cfg file and the font now changes, as it did before. The frame rate has picked up too! Amazing what a small error in the cfg file can cause

You are a magician AndyJ.

Can't argue with that!

Now going to spend some time checking out the other changes & improvements

 

[AndyJ]

Little hint: if anyone just wants to try the game with its original polygon graphics temporarily, then you don't need to edit usePrimitiveModels in the .cfg file. This mode can also be toggled on/off with CTRL + Home with in the game.