Tank Universal - widescreen demo test
Community Forums/Showcase/Tank Universal - widescreen demo test
| ||
| Hi all Tank Universal has been updated with support for higher resolutions including 1680 x 1050 (widescreen). Thought I'd post the new demo here for testing! Other improvements include enhanced tank models, radar display and numerous game optimisations. demo download 95.4mb http://madjack.fileburst.com/TU_DEMO_INSTALL.exe 1680 x 1050 shot  |
| ||
| Id try it, but I don't think my gfx card supports that res. |
| ||
| Terry There's also the standard resolutions - 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x960 etc... I've added a new resolution selection screen. It'd be great if 4:3 users gave it a whirl as well to see if any problems crop up. |
| ||
| So has anyone given it a go? I know I've released this demo before, but I need to upload a new build to my publishers and I'd really like the blitz community to give the demo a test first. Any takers/tankers? |
| ||
| Downloading... Good and fast download considering how large it is. Installing.. Alrighty, so it worked on all three of my computers, very nicely, Moderate speed (but their old so thats good ;D) One of the computers supported the new res, worked perfectly fine, But one bug, in 800x600, the radar doesnt show anything. Like the whole "find the target on your radar" thing, nothing. Thankfully I played the last demo through like 8 times cause it rocked, so I had everything memorized ;D Btw LOVE the aiming system, so perfectly accurate. I took out a tank in the 3 v 3 skirmish after the training level part, from where I started :) |
| ||
| Terry What's your specs? |
| ||
| Celeron(R) 2.70 ghz CPU, 248 MB ram on this one. Windows Home edit Celeron(R) 631Mhz CPU, 160 MB ram and Windows Prof on my other (edited, I was wrong before :\ what is the world coming too.) Celeron(R) 3.10 ghz CPU, 2Gb ram And Vista(bleck) on the best one. |
| ||
| Terry Thanks for giving it a go! But one bug, in 800x600, the radar doesnt show anything. You mean it's gone completely blank? No contacts plotted at all? Arrgh! If that was the case, what vid card was that bug showing up with? Was it the same on all 3 PC's at that res - or just one PC? Does the radar work in other resolutions - 1024x768 for example? |
| ||
| It was only on the Windows Home computer, same Gfx card as all the others, and ONLY in 800x600, all the others it worked in. and yah, it was just the blue circles, with nothing on em. |
| ||
| Hmm - but what is your graphics card on that machine? I don't think you've said? |
| ||
| oo its the same as the others, intel :\ I forget the specifics. |
| ||
| Terry Ok - thanks for the info. I don't think it's something to worry about - min spec for the game is 2GHZ CPU, Nvidia 6600GT 128mb, WinXP and I would expect glitches with Intel graphics. Even so, it sounds like it's still playable at 1024x768 which is good. |
| ||
| ..its working fine here, except i notice that circle scaling down while charging maximum power shot is not inside center of target hud anymore..slightly up.. |
| ||
| NA not inside center of target hud anymore..slightly up.. I've mixed a quad sprite for the target centre with SpriteCandy for the rest of the hud (don't ask me why). Spritecandy operates at 640x480 regardless of screensize, so there's a slight mismatch in absolute centering. Will see if I can tweak. But how do you like it in widescreen? I've also tweaked the glow, radar and tanks a bit - added moving treads for example. By the way, there's movement on the Steam front again - can't say much more but Simon is looking at a Steamworks wrapper again. Hopefully he had a bit of time this weekend. |
| ||
| ..I like the game and feeling, especially startup screen size selector..way better than before/by the way how you get rid of B3D small startup window without frame/..I would prefer radar on right side as it was before..yup..moving treads are nice..i notice just now that my tank got almost every hit 'reflected'..no damage, bullet just slip away..is that new settings or its random? Regarding Steamworks wrapper..is it going to be available for all of us who need it(I will, thats requirement I have already listed)? |
| ||
| NA by the way how you get rid of B3D small startup window without frame/. http://www.blitzbasic.com/codearcs/codearcs.php?code=829 I would prefer radar on right side as it was before You must be thinking of another game - the radar's never been on the right ;-) no damage, bullet just slip away..is that new settings or its random? No change from previous version - just random. Does mean bullet bounce can sometimes happen twice, even three times in a row. I'm sure if you run the demo again, you'll sucessfully give/take damage. Regarding Steamworks wrapper..is it going to be available for all of us who need it( Yes - if Simon can produce it, I'll release it for free. |
| ||
| Ah, finally a version that gives higher resolutions, just like I wanted. Thanks :) EDIT: oh? 1600x1200 not supported? Too bad. What's this 1600x900??? Clearly that resolution doesn't relate to any fullscreen mode? 1600x1200 would have been much more appreciated. Maybe if you wish to support some more standards, try 720P and 1080P also. Finally, where is this Tron-like glow switch? |
| ||
| Are you actually checking what resolutions are available? My laptop is widescreen @ 1280x800, which your game doesn't seem to recognise. |
| ||
from my code:Type gfx_info Field mode% Field width% Field height% Field depth% End Type Function Init_gfxmodes(no_16bit% = True) term\gfxmodes = 0 For mode_id% = 1 To CountGfxModes3D() If (no_16bit = True And GfxModeDepth(mode_id) = 32) Or no_16bit = False Then term\gfxmodes = term\gfxmodes + 1 term\gfx[term\gfxmodes]\mode = mode_id term\gfx[term\gfxmodes]\width = GfxModeWidth(mode_id) term\gfx[term\gfxmodes]\height = GfxModeHeight(mode_id) term\gfx[term\gfxmodes]\depth = GfxModeDepth(mode_id) EndIf Next End Function Function term_find_gfxmode(width, height, depth = 32) For mode_id% = 1 To term\gfxmodes If term\gfx[mode_id]\width = width Then If term\gfx[mode_id]\height = height Then If term\gfx[mode_id]\depth = depth Then Return mode_id EndIf EndIf EndIf Next Return term_handle_return_code(TRMRC_gfxmode_not_found, 10102222) End Function Tought I could help :) |
| ||
| Top stuff MadJack. I always enjoy trying out a new version of TU. 1680x1050 works very nicely, both in windowed and fullscreen. Just wondering; - Has the explosion radius of a fully charged shot been made bigger? Or is it my imagination? If it has been made bigger, has the splash damage radius also been increased? - I've never noticed the incline indicator in the middle of the targeting reticle. Is that new? Also, the game seems a little bit smoother on my laptop now. |
| ||
| GFK/33/Ervin Doh - that wasn't too good (regards the resolutions listed)! I've taken down the demo link, fixed the startup res picker so that all possible resolutions will be available (e.g. 1600x1200) and fixed Autolimit not being displayed on the options panel. Uploading new version now (should take an hour due to New Zealand's horrendously slow upload speed). |
| ||
| Ok - have uploaded a new version that will(should) correctly list available resolutions on startup. http://madjack.fileburst.com/TU_DEMO_INSTALL.exe 33 Finally, where is this Tron-like glow switch? It should now appear under the glow on/off switch in the options panel. ervin Has the explosion radius of a fully charged shot been made bigger? No - haven't touched that side of things. Also, the game seems a little bit smoother on my laptop now. Cool - I went through and made another round of optimisations so performance should be improved. GFK My laptop is widescreen @ 1280x800, which your game doesn't seem to recognise. It should be now - can I ask you to download and try the demo again? |
| ||
| FYI, the installer says "Select the following option if you want Tank Universal to run after exiting the installer" or words to that effect, but there is no checkbox. I'll comment on the game shortly. |
| ||
| It should be now - can I ask you to download and try the demo again? Yeah, but I'll have to do it tonight (like, 12 hours from now). On my desktop at the moment and neither of my monitors are widescreen.Also worth mentioning, its nigh on impossible to play on a laptop touchpad! |
| ||
| Yeah, but I'll have to do it tonight (like, 12 hours from now). Thanks for that. The new download should recognise 1280x800 as well. Also worth mentioning, its nigh on impossible to play on a laptop touchpad! Yeah - definitely mouse required for this game. Out of interest, is it possible to play FPS's on a touchpad? I've never tried. |
| ||
| Out of interest, is it possible to play FPS's on a touchpad? I've never tried. Its possible if you don't mind getting slaughtered every 15 seconds. |
| ||
| LOL |
| ||
| Here goes: I got a MAV when I launched it in 1280x1024 fullscreen (which works fine on my own Blitz stuff) Ran it in 1024x768 windowed. Runs a bit sluggish on my Dell Dimension 2600 w/ Intel integrated graphics (no surprise there...) I turned off all the graphics options and it picked up a bit. Good enough to play for sure. Gorgeous look and feel. I like the commentary in the tutorial; it's very well done and friendly. Is there a way to estimate the drop of the shell based on distance (other than eyeballing it?) It's ok if there isn't, I just don't know. Waiting for the lifters is a bit dull. The tanks move and turn rather slowly. I suppose the power-ups are for that, but still. The turrets seem to completely dominate the battle. Is that the intent? I've got to get some sleep. I'll try to post more tomorrow. |
| ||
| I got a MAV when I launched it in 1280x1024 fullscreen I think that'll be down to the Intel integrated graphics - the min spec is 6600GT 128mb vid card or ATI equivalent. Is there a way to estimate the drop of the shell based on distance Eyeball/practice only. It's just a matter of getting used to the range. Also, hold down firebutton to fire shots that can inflict lots of splashdamage. The tanks move and turn rather slowly. Don't forget tapping shift activates turbo boost - if you have enough powershards. In terms of tank speed/turning rate - you might have been running at less than 30fps, which would make it seem sluggish. Hit F10 for fps display - The turrets seem to completely dominate the battle. Is that the intent? Yes - they're designed to stop the player from progressing too quickly into enemy territory. Take them out from a distance. |
| ||
| I played the new demo in 1600:1200 (4:3), but the game looked like it was a western (the round target looked oval, or elliptic). But otherwise, happy to see 1600x1200 in the choices. The Glow option was there, everything else seems to work fine. |
| ||
| I get a MAV as soon as I click the Start button. I tried different resolutions and fullscreen/windowed, but it always crashes the same way. ATI X800 GTO with 256MB VRAM. |
| ||
| kragoth One thing to try, is to RMB the demo shortcut and add -safe to the end of the target. Something like; "C:\Program Files\Tank Universal Demo\TU_DEMO.exe" -safe |
| ||
| I tried a few times with the "-safe" thing. After a few MAVs it worked fine. |
| ||
| Just got around to trying it on my laptop again. Detected 1280x800 fine now. However... When I run it in 1280x800 there is a horrendous lag on the mouse, must be nearly half a second between me moving the mouse and it actually moving. Ran it in 800x600 fullscreen. Still a slight lag but nowhere near as bad. All's well in Windowed mode. Spec: Pentium Dual Core @ 1.4GHz, 2GB RAM, Intel GMA X3100 graphics, Vista Home Premium. [edit] Turned off Glow and Complex Sky, seemed to sort it. |
| ||
| Thanks for the feedback. A suggestion: I always dislike one aspect of tank games which is the coordination of the upper and lower tank parts. I never know which way I'm going. So here's a thought. Why not have a button that tells the lower tank part to turn toward the upper part. That way I can look around quickly and if I see an enemy I can start turning immediately without having to figure out which way to turn. At that point I need to focus all my attention on that enemy. I'm pretty sure all modern real tanks have something like this. Is the right mouse button available? Anyway, keep up the good work. |
| ||
| Kragoth I tried a few times with the "-safe" thing. After a few MAVs it worked fine. That's odd. If you run the game now from safe mode, does it still MAV? If it doesn't (and you've still got the demo installed), can I ask you to go into the demo dir and delete both; TU_SCR.CFG TU.CFG and re-run. And (assuming it ran before), does it now crash? |
| ||
| The game didn't crash anymore (in safe mode) after I made a clean install. |
| ||
| In that case there may have been a config file still existing from a previous version and it was causing the crash. If you have a mo' could I ask you to run the clean install in standard mode (i.e. remove the -safe from the icon's target property)? |
| ||
| I still get MAVs in standard mode. |
| ||
| Kragoth Thanks for the feedback - at least it's running in safe mode. If the initial safe mode mav was due to an old cfg file, then the standard mode mav may be due to either an incompatibility with Tom's DX7test.dll (rendertotexture) or more probably, the use of flag256 with texture operations. Safe mode avoids both of these. |
| ||
| Finally got around to downloading this (had some wireless router issues I had to fix up). Here's what's happened, as it's happening: - Run program. Rez selection screen appears. Select 1920 x 1200, Fullscreen. Hit Start. MAV. - Head into Tank Universal Demo directory, and delete TU_SCR.CFG and start again. Select same as before. MAV. :o( - Again, head into directory. No CFG file there now. Delete .SCO file out of spite and try again. Screen goes black. "w00t!" thinks I. MAV. Awwww... At least the CFG file was created this time. - Open config file with Notepad++ (highly recommended, btw). See that it has values of 1024, 768, 32, 1. Looks a lot like the default rez setting I selected away from a moment ago. Leave it as is and try again... for now... - Fire up game again. It works! As fugly as 1024 x 768 is expected to be on a 1920 x 1200 24" LCD monitor, but it's working. Exit game to try something else. Oh. "TU_DEMO.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close..." - happened when I clicked on Exit on the outro screen. I reported the problem to Microsoft. I'm sure they'll give you a call any moment... - Okay, well now we have TU.cfg and TU_DEMO.exe-up.txt in the directory. Let's see what they have to say for themselves... TU_DEMO.exe-up.txt I hope that means something to you. TU.cfg is binary - not much to see there without a hex editor (that I currently don't have). - Okay - try editing TU_SCR.cfg manually. Set it to 1920x1200. Let's see... - Farrr.... Well, it worked... almost. Came up to the rez selection screen with it preselected. Clicked on Start. Indie-Gaming logo came up. Very nice too. Just touched in to the title screen.. music starts... MAV. Three notes of music now looping over and over, begging for me to dismiss the MAV message. Click OK to MAV. "TU_DEMO.exe has encountered a problem..." Reporting it to Microsoft again gets rid of the music, at least. - Ooh - a nice new shiny TU_DEMO.exe-up.txt. Different, too. Okay, well I'll keep fiddling and see what I can get to happen from this, but so far I'm thinking it's a good thing you guinea-pigged us before you released this on your site. :o) This'll be great when it works, I'm sure, but so far... well... You're lucky you're a nice fella. :o) A faceless corporation would be getting a right tonguelashing about now... Pertinent specs: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 (@ 2.5Ghz), 4GB ram, nVidia 9800GTX 512MB, Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Fata1ity Platinum, WinXP Pro SP3. (I really should update my sig) Hope that helps... |
| ||
| Alrighty: Tried it a bit more. Tried it with -safe on the end of the shortcut. Tried it in windowed mode, and fullscreen. Got it to work in nothing but 1024x768 fullscreen (the default). No, I didn't try it in every possible combination of resolutions and fullscreen/windowed, but a few. When I could get into it, I tried turning off the glow and/or the complex sky (despite the fact neither or both should be no problem for this machine). Every time it didn't work, it would give me *two* MAVs (click OK on the first, and another would appear to be OKed), followed by a Microsoft-reportable error that TU_DEMO.exe had encountered... with the three notes of the music echoing its baneful cry until sent packing to Microsoft. When it DID work though (1024x768), it was smooth, fast(er) and the lil touches like the moving treads on the tanks were suweeet. I hope you get this sorted, because I wanna buy this. |
| ||
| Oh crap. This is why it's risky to start changing things when you've got a stable build. However, thanks for the info LO7. I've chopped out the startup code into a test routine (1.5mb) http://madjack.fileburst.com/TU_ERROR_TEST.zip Could I ask you to download, unzip with directories and run? It'll run through the resolution window and a dummy main loop and write a log file which may provide a clue to the problem. |
| ||
| Why not just code the game in a fixed (widescreen) resolution and just render in whatever destination res the end user wants? |
| ||
| Okay - TU_ERROR_TEST log (TU_LOG.txt). First run through - selecting 1920x1200, fullscreen when prompted (it defaulted to 1024x768 windowed): Note the lack of mention of 1920x1200 in that. It worked though, if by 'worked' it showed (and rotated) what I presume to be an unshaded untextured cube (kinda hard to tell). Exited without error though. Second run through, again selecting (started with 1024x768 windowed again) 1920x1200, fullscreen: Again, no mention of 1920x1200 anywhere in there, and this time when I exited, Microsoft got sent a report of the 'encounter'. I checked TU_SCR.CFG this time, and it still says (the equivalent of) 1024,768,32,1. Deleted the log, and TU_SCR.CFG and had another go with what I did above. Same thing: first time through, ignore my selection but exit cleanly; second time through, ignore my selection and crash upon exit. I imagine the third time through it would kick sand in my face and call me a loser, but I'm too fragile right now to face that kind of rejection. ...and now I must head to work to grindstone my nose, but I'll be keeping track of this throughout the long and frustrating day. And that's just yours. :o) |
| ||
| LO7 I think I might have found the problem (fingers crossed). I've set up a new test http://madjack.fileburst.com/TU_ERROR_TEST.zip 2 exes this time - GAME_DEBUGTEST.exe and GAME_DEBUGTEST2.exe (GAME_DEBUGTEST2.exe is the same as the first exe but runs in a standard bordered window, although I don't think that's the prob.) It'd be great if you could give them a run through. |
| ||
| I'd love to give them a run through, and will do exactly that. Sadly, for a meaningful and relevant test, I should run them on the same machine as the others... and I won't be back at that machine until after work (which is a steaming wad of six-and-a-half-hours away). As soon as I have anything for you though, you'll know about it. If you look in this thread, that is. |
| ||
| Thanks mate I'll check back around then. Appreciate you doing this. |
| ||
| If anybody else wants to test the demo, I've reuploaded with the crash bug hopefully fixed (kragoth?); http://madjack.fileburst.com/TU_DEMO_INSTALL.exe |
| ||
| Okies - just tried your test code. Worked like a bought one - exactly as expected. The CFG file was suitably updated each time (windowed or fullscreen), and no Microsoft notifications in sight. Downloading the new demo now. Stay tuned. ;o) ...which reminds me, it's about time I bought this. I'll get me card... ACK! Literally, credit card in hand, and I can't buy! ARRGH! :oP |
| ||
| Demo. 1920x1200. Fullscreen. Every special effect turned on. Music cranked. ... Way. Cool. Sell it to me. Now. Do it. |
| ||
| LO7 Excellent! Basically it was some latenight, sloppy coding on my part - simply not handling the user input correctly - particularly for those who's cards could handle a lot of resolutions. Regards purchase - I reckon you've earnt a copy. Let me upload the new version (full) and I'll send you a link + serial number. Thanks again. |
| ||
| o_O !! |
| ||
| Downloading now MadJ.... am just trying out the new demo, it seems like you've improved upon what was already a impressive game. I am managing to run it in 1280 x 1084 with no problems on my 1800 athlon with a 128MByte graphics card. Looking and sounding very impressive MadJack, even the tutorials are looking exceptionally polished. |
| ||
| BP I managed to go through and make another round of optimisations - there were a stack of entitydistance commands I could pull out for example) and I'm most happy about making the glow fx 'dynamic' - that really helps with keeping framerates up. |
| ||
| LO7 Got your email the other day - have you had any time to play? |
| ||
| Oh yes, I've been playing. :o) Not too far into it yet - I've been sick - but I think I've just met up with the "goodies" and am 'exploring'. I'm making a list of... niggles. In the interest of feedback, of course. I'll email you once it's more substantial. Thanks again. |
| ||
| Niggles huh? ;-) Well, you'd better hurry. I've got a week before I have to supply my publisher with a final release candidate! Gone gold! |
| ||
| Oh, well in that case, I'll give you one off the top of my head: Right at the start (not wanting to give anything away), before it *really* starts, if it's set to be on, the 'static' effect is applied before it makes sense to... ie in the bit that wouldn't have a static effect. If you know what I mean. Oh, and the sprint meter. If you use it all up, and then do something else non-gameplay-like (eg a cut scene), then when you resume the gaming - no matter how long it's taken since you last used up your sprinting - only *then* does it start/continue recharging. This would be less of a problem, except when you're out and walking around, sprinting is called for just to get around. But really, if that's all I come up with, I got nothin'. Great game. :o) |
| ||
| I'm glad to report that the updated demo works fine on my machine. Congrats for making such an immersive game with a true personality. It's also nice to see you're still updating it. Good luck! You did a great job with this one... :-) |
| ||
| LO7 I know what you mean regards the sprint thing - I'll have a think about setting the sprint meter to full on cutscene end. kragoth Thanks for running the demo. As regards updating the game, there's a reason for that - but I'll make an announcement soon - all things going to plan ;-) |
| ||
| Good to see your product has pride of place on BRL's home page, you will have an order from me around the end of august... a birthday treat. |
| ||
| BP Thanks for that. End of August will be great as there'll be an announcement before then that should be of interest to you and others in the blitz community (and no, it's not multiplayer - sorry). |
| ||
| End of August will be great as there'll be an announcement before then that should be of interest to you and others in the blitz community Steam?! |
| ||
| I'm intrigued.... Less than a month then! |
| ||
| XBox Live!?!?! It would be great to find out that was possible with BlitzMax. |
   |