[Antares]

Just tried testing phreak's "skybox" build (10/23/03).  No dice.  Some change in the code is making my graphics chipset react in an adverse way.

- On startup, the screen goes black while the Launcher executes FS_Open, briefly flickers back to the desktop in a distorted resolution--something that didn't happen in the previous build--and then darkens again as the .EXE continues to load up.  I run FS2 in 640x480x32, 'cause my computer has difficulty running it any higher.

- The Ravana splash screen has some small changes, which I assume are intentional (the newly-added version number, obviously, but the Ravana itself appears to have been shifted slightly to the left, and the "code" block behind the SCP logo is now too small to read).

- The "select pilot" screen provides the first indication of major errors.  The "version line" (FS2_Open 3.5.5. D8) no longer rests at the bottom of the screen, but to the middle and far left, just under the pilot select window.  The resolution for this particular screen is really high; I can barely make out the names of my individual pilots.  Lastly, the mouse can only scroll in a limited area, roughly the size of the upper-left-hand quarter of my monitor.  I must hit "Enter" to progress to the main hall, because my cursor will not scroll over far enough to reach the "accept" button.

- Terran Main Hall graphics fluctuate in an odd way, shifting position; railings on catwalks are misaligned, there are two "elevators" instead of one, etc.  This seems to be linked to animated motion within the hall itself; the catwalk only shifts out of alignment when Terran fighters are visible making a flyby outside the observation window.  The "version line" is misplaced here as well, stuck smack in the middle and to the far left, and difficult to read.  Again, the cursor won't scroll to the extent it should; I must hit "Escape" to bring up the "Exit Game?" window (which, in itself, doesn't display properly) because I can't click on the bay doors in the main hall.

I'll try to upload some screens for you to observe.  In the meantime, here's me specs:

P4 1.8 Ghz
Windows XP Service Pack 1
128 MB "hard" RAM, 188 virtual (Windows-managed)
Intel 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics controller

None of these problems were present in the build posted earlier this month, so I'm just kinda curious as to what might be causing them.

[Antares]

These URLs are Geocities-based, so you may have to cut-and-paste them into your browser for them to work.

http://www.geocities.com/jonas_miles/Screen1.JPG

This shot shows the pilot select screen.  It's dark and difficult to make out much of anything, but you can see the "version line" pretty plainly out-of-place.  The position of the cursor there is as far as I can scroll, both down and right.

http://www.geocities.com/jonas_miles/Screen2.JPG

This shot shows the Terran main hall.  You can see the misaligned catwalk in the upper right corner, and the duplicated elevator to the left.  The screwy version number is also clearly visible.

I tried to snag screens of the messed-up input windows (i.e., "Exit Game?" and "Remove this Pilot?"), but they weren't saved to the game directory.  I suppose FS2 doesn't allow screenshots to be taken while awaiting other input from the player.

Any thoughts?

[Antares]

Crap.  I'd forgotten that file extensions were case-sensitive.  Links are fixed now, interested parties please take another look.

[Sticks]

RT, this looks like the interface art acting up. I had a similar issue when running higher than 1024x768, the same stuff he described would occur.

And the cursor has definately been acting up with the new res options code.

[Taristin]

Heh. I played his skybox build too, in open GL, and got some very strange results.  Turrets were the only thing in the correct places, the ship main hulls were flying in the opposite directin that I steered, and steering left and right were reversed.   Very freaky...

Edit: oh yeah, and there was no background shown...

[Drew]

its optomized for DX8 IIRC

[phreak]

Raa, whose build were you playing?  We've recently committed some HT&L code that worked some wonders on graphical quality and stability:rolleyes:.  If it was compiled into redmenace's build then that would be the problem

[Taristin]

Um. No. I haven't Dled redmenace's builds... I used the ones in your sig.

[phreak]

ok uh next order of buisness would be system specs
(we really need to keep a database so people don't repeat this)

[CP5670]

It seems to be running fine for me for the most part (the one in phreak's signature), although I am using the D3D8 mode. However, it is significantly slower than it was in the 3.55 release build when lots of ships are on the screen, although I at least have not gotten that annoying debris targeting bug (yet). The only other thing I noticed was that the rotating weapon ani in the selection screen seems to be jerkier than usual and is possibly dropping some frames.

On a side note, although the shinemaps look really nice, they cause some weird color-changing effects for some ships, especially Shivan ones. The Basilisk becomes green, the Azrael and Demon have tinges of orange and purple respectively and the Asmodeus, which was already sort of greenish before, now looks a very bright lime green from certain views. It might be worth having the shinemap code change the contrast along with the brightness to counter this effect.

[Taristin]

Specs, again...:

AMD Duron 600
320 megs Ram
GeForce 2 MX/MX 200 PCI  32Mb
Windows 2000

Latest nVidia drivers from their site, though that's probably not it.

[RandomTiger]

Originally posted by Sticks
RT, this looks like the interface art acting up. I had a similar issue when running higher than 1024x768, the same stuff he described would occur.

"FS2 DX8 will run under non standard modes but it is not fully support so expect bugs".

I'm not interested in bugs with non standard modes at the moment but I will look into Raa Tor'h's standard mode problem.

[RandomTiger]

OK, Raa Tor'h I'm getting some of the same stuff.
That will make it easier to fix, I'll post this thread when I've sorted it out, not sure when that will be though.

Thanks for the constructive bug report, it really makes all the difference.

[Sticks]

Sorry, I just though my input would help you locate the problem.

[RandomTiger]

It did actually, I just read it to fast before I posted.

Try this exe Raa Tor'h:

http://mysite.freeserve.com/thomaswhittaker/c_code/freespace/fs2_open_r.rar

[Taristin]

Oh no. Big problems in OpenGl... I think this picture will sum it up...


Everything was fine until I enterred the tech room, when mouse support dissapeared, and the techroom display began flickering really fast.
Edit: And the ship was rotating in all sorts of odd directions.

It appears I hit screenshot while the background was flickered out.

[phreak]

turn off ht&l and use the -nospec command to make it run at a decent speed. we are redoing a bunch of code and it may have leaked into there

[Antares]

Dunno if it'll be of any help to your bug-hunting, but the interface art appears fixed in the above build.  However, I crash to desktop with an "out of memory" error every time I try to load any mission.  I'm not running HTL--I don't think my system can--and using -nospec has no effect.

[RandomTiger]

Does your memory problem occur for OGL, D3D or both?

[Antares]

Missions in OGL will actually load as far as the mission briefing, which is further than the D3D manages to get.  However, when I commit to the mission, or as soon as the mission itself begins, the game hangs and crashes to desktop.  The first time this happened, Windows automatically increased my virtual memory paging file size, but it hasn't done so in successive crashes, leading me to believe that I have enough memory to be able to play; I just, uh, can't.  I'm not receiving an "out of memory" error as I do when trying to launch with D3D.

Here's what FS2 spouts at me when I use D3D, if it means anything:

***

Error: Out of memory.  Try closing down other applications, increasing your
virtual memory size, or installing more physical RAM.

File:H:\projects\Freespace\scp\thl\Copy of fs2_open_read_only\code\GlobalIncs\WinDebug.cpp
Line: 1161

Call stack:
------------------------------------------------------------------
    fs2_open.exe 00607519()
    fs2_open.exe 00607704()
    fs2_open.exe 00607cdd()
    fs2_open.exe 0060849b()
    fs2_open.exe 00427d41()
    fs2_open.exe 0041f553()
    fs2_open.exe 0041f6b4()
    fs2_open.exe 00424f20()
    fs2_open.exe 004d143b()
    fs2_open.exe 00423fa8()
    fs2_open.exe 004d172e()
    fs2_open.exe 004265e1()
    fs2_open.exe 00426656()
    fs2_open.exe 00618ea2()
    kernel32.dll 77e814c7()
------------------------------------------------------------------

I should note that these crashes are relatively severe; they've been doing funky things like disabling my virus protection, making my taskbar vanish, and causing my Intel graphics adapter agent thingy to crash itself out of the system tray.  It's nothing a reboot won't fix, but still.