GearHead1 v1.020

[SharkD]

Quoting: Question

Is it just me or some of the models got shrunk to a miniature size in 1.020? The ovaknight looks like a cute little octopus now instead of a hulking mecha.

Woops. That's my fault. I rendered some of the models at 3/4 size. I can fix it if you want.

[Question]

If possible, yea for the next release.

Wow 1.020 really crashes a lot with unhandled exceptions. Make sure to save a lot.

[SharkD]

Here's the updated sprite:



Just rename it to "btr_ovaknight.png" and place it in your "Image" directory.

[Anticheese]

I'm just wondering out loud here, but with the introduction of 3D mesh files, would it be possible for the game to keep a list of Mecha Components along with their mesh files and for the game to compile a custom sprite based on what components are installed?

Wait..let me try again.

With 3D mesh files, is it possible to get the game to generate sprites for heavily customized Mecha (I.E New limbs, removed limbs, limbs holding weapons or with weapons mounted on them, armour, etc)?

[SharkD]

Sprites are rendered in an external program (POV-Ray). The game doesn't generate them.

[Joseph Hewitt]

I'm having trouble with 1020 myself. It ran fine first when I copied it from the old laptop to here, but now that I've compiled on this computer it crashes at the start menu. The ASCII version is unaffected, so I'm thinking it's some change that was done to the graphics routines or a problem with the SDL units when I compiled them here. The worst part is, I'm not even getting decent debugging info back and I don't know why. Argh!!!

[Question]

Shark : I think cheese was asking if it was possible for the game to generate sprites based on what the mecha has, such as number of limbs corresponding to number of limbs that the mecha actually has ingame.

[palefire]

Sometimes it can go on for a long time without crashing, and usually I can repeat what I did when I crashed without crashing again. So far it has crashed at startup, when I am moving, when I telephone someone, and when changing scenes.  Fortunately, with autosave, the game is saved even if I didn't see the next scene, nor does it crash when I load it.

[Joseph Hewitt]

Anticheese- Not possible with the current setup. I tried using meshes for everything, but the game slowed right down. Maybe I'll have to look at using an engine of some type for GH3.

Weird. If I use the copy of GH that was compiled on my old computer, it runs fine. If I compile it here, it crashes... worst of all, I haven't changed anything in the program itself!

GH2 compiles and runs okay. I've been playing a lot of arena, so it's stable too. This more or less rules out compiler bugs and incorrectly compiled SDL units. GH1 uses two units that GH2 doesn't, namely the sound units that aren't actually used. I'll see if the problem lies there.

Weird! I just commented out the sound units, and the program runs fine now. There must be a problem between the JEDI-SDL headers and the latest version of FPC... either that or I didn't follow the instructions. I'll have to check to see if there are any special instructions for compiling that unit. It's been so long since I've had to compile them I don't remember.

This may have nothing to do with the frequent crashing on other computers. Then again it might. I've recompiled with the debugging code on and will try to make the game crash, and hopefully this time I'll get a meaningful message. If no crashes, then I'll release GH1v1.021 within the next few days and v1.022 when I get the Image/ directory sorted out.

Edit- No crashes after playing for a while. I wondered if SDL_Mixer might have been the reason behind the other crashes, but I don't think so. I checked my other laptop and I've been using the same version of JEDI-SDL since January 2006, so several versions of GearHead have been compiled with it and this is the first time any problems have appeared.

Have those of you playing in ASCII encountered any crashes? I hate to say it, but the only thing that seems like it might be causing the problem is the new color switcher. People have had crashes when loading the game, when starting conversations, and sometimes when just walking around. All of these are cases where a sprite could be loaded. Why doesn't it crash after restoring from a saved game, then? I don't know.