3.6.10 Release Candidate 3 (RC3) Now Available!

[chief1983]

Announcing the immediate availability of FS2_Open 3.6.10 RC3.  This is likely the final release version and if no serious issues are discovered will be re-released as 3.6.10 final.

RC3 is based on SVN trunk 5209.

Windows builds were using Visual C++ 6.0, compressed as zip for ease of use and distribution
OS X builds were made using command line xcodebuild on a PowerMac G4 with running Leopard 10.5.7, and Xcode 3.1.2.
Linux builds were made on Ubuntu 9.04 32bit using the standard build-essential compiler installation*

This includes all previous fixes and fixes several critical bugs in RC2, including:

• Fixed voice recognition
• Fix for voice messaging code
• Bad mod data file warning system
• Mantis 1915

Windows builds were compiled to include both Text-to-Speech and Voice Recognition support (and it should work this time)**

Don't use Inferno builds unless you're playing Inferno, or TBP, or any other mod with a gargantuan amount of ships

This build probably breaks multiplayer compatibility with RC2, and definitely with RC1 or earlier.  So try to be sure to use it with other RC3 builds.  And as always, you can't mix Inferno and non-Inferno builds.

Launchers, if you don't have one already:
Windows:  Launcher 5.5d (new launcher coming soon)
OS X:  Soulstorm's OS X Launcher 3.0
Linux:  YAL or here or whatever you can figure out.

Windows
Regular
Inferno

OS X
Regular
Inferno

Linux
Regular
Inferno

This is not a one-stop shop to make your FSO the prettiest it can be!  These are only the FS2_Open executables.  If you're starting from a fresh retail or GOG install,  you probably want the MediaVPs as well, which should be stickied in a post in the Freespace Upgrade Forum.  For a full blown install it all solution, look at Turey's FSO Installer, but there have been reports of corruption with the 3.6.10 MediaVPs, so you might want to get those separately.

As always, use Mantis for any new bugs, or if you can't activate your account, post here.

See the RC1 thread for info on new features.

* - This also included using OpenAL Soft (libopenal.so.1) instead of the OpenAL SI (libopenal.so.0), so a symlink creation may be necessary in case it is reported as missing.  If you run into this issue (likely on Fedora, maybe others), cd to /usr/lib, and '(sudo) ln -s libopenal.so.0 libopenal.so.1'.  Then pester your distro to update its OpenAL package to OpenAL Soft.

** - Voice recognition seems to be working now.  I suggest testing the Experimental->Voice Recognition (-voicer) option with windowed mode enabled, which makes it easier to terminate when you have trouble.  Post any new information in Mantis and refer to #1906 Mantis report.

[Zacam]

w00t!

[Aurora Paradox]

Awesome.  Downloading Now!

[karajorma]

This build probably breaks multiplayer compatibility with RC2, and definitely with RC1 or earlier.  So try to be sure to use it with other RC3 builds.  And as always, you can't mix Inferno and non-Inferno builds.

Don't look at me if it does. As far as I'm aware RC3 and RC2 should be compatible. That said it still makes sense to update and RC1 definitely isn't compatible with RC2 or RC3. 

[FreeSpaceFreak]

[andicirk]

bows and kisses the feet of those coder ppl........

 

[MetalDestroyer]

Can we have the changelog ? What are the difference between the RC 2 and the RC 3 ?

[karajorma]

The major changes are in the first post.

Not much has changed. That's the whole point of Release Candidates.

[Aardwolf]

Is Inferno different from regular in any way other than the ship limit?

If so, why not just bump the regular limit and be done with it?

[blowfish]

Is Inferno different from regular in any way other than the ship limit?

If so, why not just bump the regular limit and be done with it?

It bumps a couple of other limits as well AFAIK, and to be safe with these changes, stores pilot files in a different place.

A major issue with bumping it would be that all current pilot files would be rendered useless, at least I think.  Also not sure how Inferno interacts with multi.

[chief1983]

It works with multi now, thanks to Karajorma and testers.  But multi pilots get their own folder too, and inferno games can't see regular games, I think.

[karajorma]

The pilot file issues are probably the biggest issues now IIRC.

[andicirk]

if the major problem would be the pilots fies issue , then would it be fair to at some point say the branches will be merged for 3.7 or another build so ppl will realise that at this point the change happens , then this would be a one build for all , maybe like the inferno build does now this could create its own folder.

this way it would make things a little easier for ppl to have the right build and stop the need to build the inf builds on each release

[Herra Tohtori]

Voice recognition works now, too. Great work. 

[Droid803]

Uhm, RC3 is throwing me "FSO Has detected X errors when starting, blah blah blah...it's not SCP's fault it's the mod's, blah blah blah." whenever I launch my mod. Is there a way to remove this? It's annoying.
I know my mod has debug errors, and if I wanted to hear about them, I'd run a debug build. Thing is, I want to complete the modpack before addressing debug errors, and the stupid thing is slowing my progress down by a fair bit by making me have to close the window every time I start FSO to make sure it still starts.

Can it be turned off? Because it's seriously annoying and non-contributive.

Some of these errors can't even be fixed by myself, and the whole thing runs fine even with the error. As such I am unable to get rid of it, and now I keep getting bugged about something that doesn't matter.

[andicirk]

im sure but some one will tell me im wrong that you can use this

- no_warn

in the command line

i may be completely wrong though
 

[chief1983]

..and the whole thing runs fine even with the error...

That's why it exists in the first place.  Coders are tired of fixing things when there's so much error-throwing data in the first place.  Assuming that it's running fine doesn't mean it's really running fine.  You could end up trying to change something later and wondering why it's not doing anything, when it's because the engine is already doing everything it can to cover for broken data.  Then there's complaints that something doesn't work, when it's really the broken data causing the feature to be masked in the first place.  I'm not saying this new alert is perfect, but that's why it's there.

[Droid803]

Oh hey. -no_warn worked.

Yeah, well, it'd help if fixing error-throwing data wasn't so aggravating. I mean, some errors mean like absolutely nothing to me - I have no clue what the message means. Most of them tell you what's wrong and where, so I fix those, but stuff like "ASSERT: COUNT < MAX_INTS" is just...not helpful...(nor is the stuff about inverted bounding boxes, whatever the hell those are).

Better error messages would probably mean that there'd be less of them showing up. Though I do admit a lot of them are very good, unlike some other games which just crash on you and never tell you a thing.

[chief1983]

Asserts aren't warnings, they're something that's actually broken.  You can't skip past one of those anyway, so that's not what that dialog is for.  And if they're not clear, you can always ask.  When you find one in specific, point it out and it can probably be clarified.

[Droid803]

Ah figured out what it was using the HARD WAY for removing stuff from the table line by line.
Turns out the game asserts with that when a ship has 4 or more banks in a single turret, not an invalid set of integers like what I found by searching the forums.

Now the modpack is bug free! Yay!

I suppose I should thank you for making me go through that necessary stuff now instead of later