Try singleplayer in the D/A5 port! v0.2.42

[Simon]

Hi folks,

This topic is outdated. Download the newest Lix at lixgame.com!

This is a test release, with singleplayer mostly complete. This port is not finished yet -- it lacks a level editor, and it lacks multiplayer. Physics are unstable and may change between bugfixes.

Minim has designed several scaled-up versions of the internal graphics. They're visible whenever the game's resolution is at least 1.5 times as big as the old 640x480. Many thanks to Minim for this work!

Levels and terrain graphics are the same as in old C++ Lix.

I'm cross-compiling to Windows from Linux now. Let me know of any problems. Report bugs here, or open issues on github.

-- Simon

[namida]

Options do not appear to save after exiting and re-starting Lix. This in turn means, it seems, that I cannot try windowed mode (I tried Alt+Enter, but it does nothing).

When playing a level that's too small to take up the full screen area, it seems to be centered horizontally, but pushed to the bottom vertically. I'm not sure how I feel about this.

Also note the glitchy fake cursors here: http://i.imgur.com/MGCFgom.png

These things aside, performance seems pretty decent, and while I didn't test extensively, it hasn't crashed yet.

[Simon]

Thanks for trying! If it runs reasonably performant and doesn't crash, awesome.

Options not saved: Right, can reproduce this here on a fresh installation. Enter a username, then it should work. This is completely unobvious right now, which is bad. Asking for username at start is the next feature, then. Windowed mode in arbitrary resolutions can also be forced with a parameter: lix --resol=1024x768

Glitchy cursors: A design mortgage from deferring changable spawnint yes/no. Agree, doesn't look too exciting in a demonstration. >_>

-- Simon

[Simon]

Resolved bug #15, basher always left relics.

Everybody: The basher starts faster by 2 frames than in C++ Lix, and the basher mask reaches further by 2 hi-res pixels = 1 lo-res pixel. What do you think? The faster it starts, the better it feels, but maybe it's getting too overpowered in multiplayer. On the other hand, the miner is absurdly strong in multiplayer still.

Note to self: Make topics from (namida's recommendations in IRC) either here, or on github.

-- Simon

[Ramon]

As anticipated, still won't work on my laptop. Same problem that I had when you were in Vienna.

[Simon]

Nonetheless, thanks for trying again. Can you describe the behavior in 2-3 sentences for posterity?

Even if it won't help much: Run lix -h from a shell. That will only describe all available command-line parameters and then exit immediately. See if this text-only output works at least. If yes, try lix -w to force windowed mode. I expect that to fail for you.

-- Simon

[Simon]

Roadmap of large features for the D port:

• Automatic replay checking. done, test it in the current releases
  
• Editor.
  
• Declare the D port to be the standard version for singleplayer. Expect level designers to build against this engine, and expect all singleplayer replays to use a recent D port version. This also means that physics should not change erratically from here, at least in the master branch.
  
• Work on stuff that level designers suddenly need/miss, to easen the switch.
  
• Netplay, including the server code.
  
• Declare the D port to be standard Lix in every regard. Retire C++ codebase for std::basic_ios::good();
  
• Continue fixing bugs. I don't strive to make the D port as well-debugged as the C++ port before making it standard overall. Migrate early, expose bugs together, and fix them quickly.
  

The idea behind this ordering is that I want people to test the port. People will test much more happily if they can accomplish real work with the D port. Automatic replay checking is both the fastest to implement, and provides real benefits, for physics are slightly different than in the C++ version. On the other hand, the C++ editor can be used to make levels for the D port for a while.

-- Simon

[Ramon]

It's hard to describe. When I start the game, a cmd window will pop up, and then there is a white window animation that repeatedly goes fullscreen (but each time it reaches fullscreen size it reverts to windowed size from one tick to another), this will keep repeating for the first 15 seconds, then the speed and frequency of the fullscreen animation approximately doubles, then after 15 more seconds the whole thing stops (and lix.exe is closed).

When doing lix -h, I do get the text output. When trying lix -w, I do get a lix program running in the taskbar, but no visible window. However, when I hover over the lix icon in the taskbar, it will show the normal Lix main menu (asking for first-time player name) in the mini-preview window.
One more peculiar thing, it seems to accept keyboard inputs, as I was able to enter my name, hit enter and then it showed the main menu.

[ccexplore]

I remember someone reporting their computer couldn't go fullscreen for anything (not just Lix), I guess that must've been you?

Sounds like a video driver problem.  Is this Windows or Linux?

[Ramon]

It wasn't me, I play lots of things fullscreen.

I'm using Windows 7, AMD Radeon HD 6630M. It's true I have minor problems with my video card, but only in very specific situations. It also doesn't seem like the drivers are being updated anymore.

[ccexplore]

Since it's a laptop, it's probably best to go to the laptop manufacturer's website for drivers.  Though I suppose it is quite likely that you already have the latest given that it's hardware from Windows 7 era (presumably).

Anyway, since this sounds more Lix-specific now, I should probably let Simon look at it first, maybe he can provide you a debug build with more verbose logging or something.

It might also be useful to collection some additional data with dxdiag, see this post.

[Simon]

<SimonN> Ramond: thanks for the description; the Windows build uses OpenGL, maybe geoo can try to build D Lix and hope to get a build using DirectX instead
<Ramond> what did the c-lix use?
<SimonN> OpenGL
<SimonN> at least the cross-build I made here
<SimonN> IIRC Allegro 4 and 5 have the ability to bind to both, and I don't know the decision is made

Thinking this through, geoo has built D Lix for Windows in August, and it didn't run for Ramond...

The game seems to run fine in the background, and fails to bring its working display to the screen. So, I'm not sure if more debugging output from Allegro would help, but could try eventually. I haven't read any Windows-specific docs in A5 yet, either. In short: I want to read more before making a diagnosis.

-- Simon

[Simon]

Version 0.2.4 uploaded (link in first post), with automatic replay verification. This must be called from the command line or a custom shortcut, like in C++ Lix. Read the C++ Lix readme for instructions, or ask in IRC.

I still don't mimic the level directory structure in the replay tree. I should implement that before I can reasonably ask people to use D Lix for serious level/replay handling.

There's an editor button in the singleplayer browser, but it doens't do anything when clicked.

-- Simon

[ccexplore]

I messed around a little in Google and while it's far from definitive, it seems like the AMD Radeon HD 6630M is often used in laptops with dual graphics card setup.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-6630M.43963.0.html  (see bottom for list of laptops reviewed, and note how many of them mentioned having two graphics cards)

So I'm starting to wonder if that's the culprit here.  dxdiag unfortunately I'm not sure checks for this setup so it may not be sufficiently informative even if you upload the logs from that tool.  It should at least tell you the manufacturer and model of the laptop, but some models may ship in both single- and dual-graphics configurations, so it may not be sufficient to determine the exact setup from those alone.

From limited reading, it sounds like in most laptops with dual graphics setup, there should be some utility you can run to assign a particular program to run specifically on one of the two graphics card.  If that's the case it may offer a workaround for the issue you are encountering?

[namida]

From limited reading, it sounds like in most laptops with dual graphics setup, there should be some utility you can run to assign a particular program to run specifically on one of the two graphics card.  If that's the case it may offer a workaround for the issue you are encountering?

You can do it in the AMD Control Center (I forget the name) if it's an AMD GPU setup. If it's an NVidia one, simply right-clicking and selecting "Run with graphics processor" then selecting the right one will work.

I messed around a little in Google and while it's far from definitive, it seems like the AMD Radeon HD 6630M is often used in laptops with dual graphics card setup.

This is generally only true for those that have AMD CPUs as well. For those with Intel CPUs (especially if their high-power graphics card is NVidia), it's usually some kind of Intel HD GPU.