HaG@HaG

HerzAusGold · Post by **HerzAusGold** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 7:42 am

RndTest have now his own website.
HerzAusGold at HorseAndGroome -- HaG@HaG

http://www.horseandgroome.de/

This topic is intended to discuss the "RndTest" features only.

Please do not write any suggestions for the website layout here.
If you have any suggestions for the website layout write a PM (Personal mail).

The website should be mainly complete now.

Any suggestions, ideas, discussion or bug reports are about the "RndTest features" any of course new ideas are welcome!

HerzAusGold · Post by **HerzAusGold** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 7:21 pm

@Martijn
Thank you for including "RndTest" into your site.
I have updated my site with some descriptions.
Like for Installation, Using and Modes.

A little bit sad that no reply about the features...

Do you like the "learn" mode? Or is it too diffycult to use?
Have you played my levels with the mouse
or at least with keyboard/joystick..

HerzAusGold · Post by **HerzAusGold** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:23 pm

Before I go on holiday -
just upload a rndTest version for RnD3.2.0.
- so you can test it.

http://www.zomis.net/rnd/download.php?id=539

There are many changes between RnD3.1.2 and RnD3.2.0.
I do my best to integrate *all* the RndTest features in the new version.
Hopefully without bugs.

@Martin + @Jannik
Maybe the "learn mode" helps to solve the levels... Try it.

> rndTest -mousemode=49

@Holger
I have to remove some reported bugs again!!
You can not give more than one "directory" argument at the command line. Like

> rocksndiamonds -basepath=X:\rnd\rnd3.2.0 -levels=X:\rndLevels

@debugging issue
In this "test candidate" there is a little resource problem, if someone
switch between the "bigger" levelsets like "BD2K3" and "SnakeBite" too often. At the moment I dont exactly know where this comes from.
To catch this, these activities are logged in stderr.txt.

Have fun!

Post by **Holger** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 10:55 pm

> I do my best to integrate *all* the RndTest features in the new version.

Cool, great work!

> Maybe the "learn mode" helps to solve the levels... Try it.

I've tested this new mode some time ago, but still had some problems with a "frozen" player (which then was released after some clicking and pressing various keys :-o ) -- maybe I got the wrong mode? But this was still the 3.1.2 based version...

> I have to remove some reported bugs again!!
> You can not give more than one "directory" argument at the command
> line. Like
>
> > rocksndiamonds -basepath=X:\rnd\rnd3.2.0 -levels=X:\rndLevels

What do you mean by "removing reported bugs"? Things that now work again (after having not worked before)?

> In this "test candidate" there is a little resource problem, if someone
> switch between the "bigger" levelsets like "BD2K3" and "SnakeBite" too
> often. At the moment I dont exactly know where this comes from.

Hmmm... Are you sure that this only happens with your modified version of R'n'D? This is something I have also noticed with the unmodified R'n'D (but maybe to a lesser degree). It always loses some memory when switching between heavy-artwork sets, although valgrind couldn't find any problems (so maybe it's a problem with some dependent libraries)... :-/

Martijn · Post by **Martijn** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:01 am

Is this RnD test 26? It says RnD test 24 in the had_readme file, but the previous version was v25... or is this only meant as a test version and will the real v26 appear soon?

HerzAusGold · Post by **HerzAusGold** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 8:59 pm

I've tested this new mode some time ago, but still had some problems with a "frozen" player (which then was released after some clicking and pressing various keys ) -- maybe I got the wrong mode? But this was still the 3.1.2 based version...

About the "mousemode=49" - It is intended that the game is in "pause mode" after you click with the mouse.
You can "virtually" click the way on the screen, snap and drop, go on - and if you toggle pause off the player run the given way.
The auto pause can be toggle by pressing the key "b".

Unfortunately the "frozen" problem always exists - a click in the "door area" should relase this.

In your last mail you suggested me that I should take the return values from DigField, MovePlayer, SnapField.
Upps. I always forgot that I am indirectly do it, as suggested.
The problem is that this routines return MV_ACTION if the "next" step is possible, but don't return "next step is never possible".
Arrgh. difficult to explain.

What do you mean by "removing reported bugs"?

e.g one bug I reported in my last german mail.
giving more than one directory argument dont work in 3.1.2 neither in 3.2.0.

> In this "test candidate" there is a little resource problem, if someone
> switch between the "bigger" levelsets like "BD2K3" and "SnakeBite" too
> often. At the moment I dont exactly know where this comes from.

Hmmm... Are you sure that this only happens with your modified version of R'n'D?

I found this bug/leak! After debugging this I found a bug in my code AND the nasty leak in the SDL lib (loading sound files) - it seems that sometime s the LOAD_WAV Routine dont free the file handle and the RWOPS memory. After writing a workaround the bug/leak is gone.

I uploaded a new version of RndTest.

HerzAusGold · Post by **HerzAusGold** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 9:05 pm

Martin wrote:
Is this RnD test 26? It says RnD test 24 in the had_readme file, but the previous version was v25... or is this only meant as a test version and will the real v26 appear soon?

rndTest25 was the last version for RnD3.1.2.

rndTest320-tc2 should be a stable version for RnD3.2.0.
and is uploaded to the "normal" place.

http://www.zomis.net/rnd/download.php?id=421

*Edit*
I have added some more easy levels.
All now with tapes - all made by my daughter (with a little help for appending the tape)

HerzAusGold · Post by **HerzAusGold** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 3:56 pm

Just uploaded a new version of "rndTest".
Based on RnD3.2.2

rndTest322-tc1 is a stable (test) version for RnD3.2.2. (hopefully without bugs) and is uploaded to the "normal" place.

http://www.zomis.net/rnd/download.php?id=421

Cause of the changes in RND3.2.2,
some little things are to do (should improved) for RnD-Test (like the "gameatwork") mode.

Hi, Holger
any chance to merge some things into RnD?
e.g. Zip/7z-Support, Download ?
May be the mouse mode?

Anyway btw Why don't you remove the bug in the option parser??
It is still in the original source code!!

Btw: If you copy the latest "EMC Levelset" as "7z" to your level folder -
to look how the zip support work - BE WARNED -
This is a new benchmark - melting your cpu. Needs lot of memory.
Game takes about 3min to load on a (3GHz,512MB) machine.

As always the source should compileable on Unix too.

Any reply/suggestions welcome.
Have fun.

*Edit* Website http://www.horseandgroome.de/ updated.

Post by **Holger** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 6:35 pm

> Just uploaded a new version of "rndTest".
> Based on RnD3.2.2

Great! Thanks a lot for your work!

> any chance to merge some things into RnD?
> e.g. Zip/7z-Support, Download ?
> May be the mouse mode?

Can't really predict anything at the moment, as there are so many R'n'D sub-projects beside the new engine integrations. Maybe it would be good to know which of these features are "most wanted" or already heavily used by current users, and would therefore always be missed in each new version before your version was also updated.

> Anyway btw Why don't you remove the bug in the option parser??
> It is still in the original source code!!

Yes, now that you mention it... :-/

I haven't removed the bug for the same reason that I still haven't removed the other ~100 reported bugs in the current version -- lack of time and because it's sometimes not worth it if nobody notices certain bugs anyway. But yes, I should fix all these bugs before adding new features... :-/

> Btw: If you copy the latest "EMC Levelset" as "7z" to your level folder -
> to look how the zip support work - BE WARNED -

Yeah, I can imagine this... :-)

I still think about a better solution to transparent archive support which causes performance problems every time it is used, like throwing the archive file into the R'n'D main window, which then could extract it to the "right" place -- essentially drag+drop support for level set archives.

Or a browsable list in the game that connects to a yet-to-be-written download server, to select, download and extract sets. (This could also be done transparently by displaying both local and remote sets, downloading them only when needed. This could be an advantage, but could also be a disadvantage -- sometimes it's not good if software tries to be smarter than the user.)

So many ideas, so many bugs, so little time... :-|

HerzAusGold · Post by **HerzAusGold** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 8:17 pm

I still think about a better solution to transparent archive support which causes performance problems every time it is used, like throwing the archive file into the R'n'D main window, which then could extract it to the "right" place -- essentially drag+drop support for level set archives.

The main problem (performance too) is that the game load all the stuff (Tree List) at the beginning - not able to extend the list at "runtime".
So your mentioned idea is very good.

The user should choose from a "Open Levelset" dialog.
Of course the loading of available levelsets should be improved.
e.g. once loaded store to a file (add a entry if the user requested).

About your lack of time - during your development - we have many EMC levels to play and Zelda of course...

HerzAusGold · Post by **HerzAusGold** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 8:28 pm

Just upload a new version "rndTest322-tc2".

-gameatwork
-home
-user
modes should now work.
cause' of the changes Holger made "gameatwork" close the windows faster.

One (easy) level added. Try it.

HerzAusGold · Post by **HerzAusGold** » Sun Sep 17, 2006 11:52 am

Just upload a new version "rndTest322-tc3".

A ugly bug can be fixed.
I disable the Next/Prev Level Gadgets and the Setup Next/Prev Player Gadgets while playing!

Level 10 and the Tape should show you the possibilities of the
mouse mode (49 = learn with autopause).
Challenge - Try to solve it faster.

Btw.: It is solveable without any trouble.

Have fun!

HerzAusGold · Post by **HerzAusGold** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 8:34 pm

Hi,
Because RnD-Jue is a great and cool release,
I want to update my rndtest version to 3.2.5.

During the last week I merge all changes.
It's playable now (even with the mouse), but when a request comes up the prog crashed.

I write a email to Holger but I only get a spam reply from a filter prog.

At least I need a new version of "create_element_defs.pl", I think.
In the meanwhile I try to catch the bug...
but it's like searching a needle in a haystack.

Btw: I can debug now, if RnD is not in fullscreen mode.

Please help.

Post by **Holger** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 3:48 pm

> I want to update my rndtest version to 3.2.5.

Cool! :-)

> I write a email to Holger but I only get a spam reply from a filter prog.

Yes, this happened several times in the last time and caused mails to be rejected. (The spam filter process had crashed on the server then.) Should not happen anymore (hopefully). Could you please resent your mail?

> At least I need a new version of "create_element_defs.pl", I think.

Sent to you by mail!

> Btw: I can debug now, if RnD is not in fullscreen mode.

Finding a crash bug should be easy then (using "gdb"), I hope!

HerzAusGold · Post by **HerzAusGold** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 10:55 pm

Hi,
I want to add a option "-rndfa", so once you can browse through Zomis File-Archiv in the levelset selection.
To do so, I need the possibility to add a levelset in runtime.
@Holger: What must be changed in code?

What do you think about this idea?