Monday, July 12, 2010

And it's out

This is Release Candidate 1, not a full stable release, so expect bugs and loads of potential "fun".

http://directq.codeplex.com/releases/view/48822

One major point to note (this is also covered in an included readme).

I had originally intended to put as many of my changes to the code into the public domain as possible. That is still the long-term intention, nothing has changed there. However, it is important to protect the community from people who use other project's code in their own work and give nothing back. On account of that, I am retaining the GPL (but using version 3) for this release.

Update

It seems that I made the right decision in putting out a "Release Candidate" first. I really did change too many parts of too many subsystems with this one, and overall stability, as well as the ability to isolate causes of problems, is suffering as a result. With hindsight releasing a "1.8.4b" after I had ported the ProQuake netcode, and then doing incremental releases as everything else came on, would have been a wiser move. Gratitude to everyone who's been brave enough to download and run this, and keep the crash and bug reports coming - we'll lick this one yet!

17 comments:

kempie said...

Only had a super quick play but had to turn pixel shaders off to render correctly. With them switched on floors and walls were pitch black.

Sorry if this is insufficient to identify the problem - I will try to provide more detail tomorrow

I'm running on an intel 945


Cheers, kempie

mhquake said...

OK, I can test an Intel 945 tomorrow. All development has been done on Intel hardware (965 and 4 series), but there may be something specific with the 945 that I need to cover.

I'd be interested if everything else was black (sky, console, menus) as absolutely everything is now rendered with pixel shaders if they're enabled. Especially sky as that's another multitextured path.

I'd also be interested in the value of your d3dx_version cvar.

gnounc said...

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4117/4788603425_ca0e614cc5_b.jpg

Same problem.
Same solution.

Oh same card..lol that might be why.

gnounc said...

d3dx_version "42"

zZaRDoZz said...

microsoft visual c++ runtime error
line 812

also some key stickiness and delay.

Coranth said...

MH,

Thanks for fixing the Shrak crash bug. I can now continue through the first level without DirectQ going down in flames. The new RC seems fine for me, so far ('cause my Ge Force Go7300 does those lovely Pixel Shaders) and no crashes... yet.

kempie said...

Firstly, I was getting exactly the same display as gnounc. Also, my d3dx version is also 42.

I had a little bit more play and was able to get a correct display using pixel shaders by chaging from the default 24bit depth buffer to 24/8. As soon as I hit the apply vid changes everything was sweet.

But when I booted up again although the changes had been saved I was looking at the same buggy display. Switching back to 24bit depth buffer (or 16bit) remedied this. After a few attempts it seems that there is something being done in applying video changes as I was also able to get a correct output by turning vsync on or off and leaving the depth buffer value alone

mhquake said...

Aaaah, the plot is thickening!

I haven't been able to test on my 945 in work yet, but it's satisfying that the problem is consistent, the fact that it goes away when you restart the video is useful info, and I have a pretty good idea what could be causing it. As soon as I do have it verified from my side I'll put a test build up for you guys and we'll see if we can knock this one on the head! :)

mhquake said...

OK, I've reproduced this on my 945 now. My first guess at the cause didn't work out, but there are a few more things to try. If the worst comes to the worst I'll just reload the shaders at some point early enough in the game to resolve this.

mhquake said...

Didn't get the chance to test further today, but if anyone would like to try something REALLY experimental, well here it is! http://www.sendspace.com/file/fos1iy

=peg= said...

Tried RC1 with Intel 965 but it crashed on me with the same assertion error as zZaRDoZz.
(line 812 of sys_win.cpp)

All appears to run fine on Nvidia however.
(tested on 5200FX and GTX 285)

I did notice something odd with r_wireframe 1 mode:
Whenever picking up an item, the engine seems to stall for a second or so.. (Not a big deal obviously, just thought I'd mention it).

Both the last test-build and RC1 still make my mouse lockup after alt-tabbing out of full-screen to desktop, but bringing down the console does indeed fix it.
(Not a big deal either, but a minor inconvenience nonetheless).

All in all, great work and much appreciated!

mhquake said...

OK, I've fixed the mouse.

Regarding the crash - as this is a debug build it's using a different version of the C runtimes to that used by release builds (the debug version instead of the release version). That's my first bet for what's causing it.

r_wireframe 1 would probably stall because it's not really intended to be a fast path and bonus flashes when picking up items are now done through render to texture, which it might not be happy with. Like I said, it's not a fast path and is more intended as a convenience feature for mappers (so that they can see how much QBSP breaks down their brushes) so I likely won't prioritise fixing it too much.

Anyone try the experimental 945 build yet? I'm massively interested in knowing if that fixed anything.

mhquake said...

Could the 965 crashers try this version and let me know what the error message tells you? http://www.sendspace.com/file/9tp3di

=peg= said...

I'd be happy to test that ^^ on a 965, however I don't have access to one any time soon.. (used my dad's laptop, but I'm back home now ;)

=peg= said...

I can confirm however that the mouse is no longer locking up after alt-tabbing, so good job on that! :D

mhquake said...

I've successfully reproduced the Intel 945 bug using VMWare's display driver; looks like I'll be able to get to the bottom of it quite soon after all. Ignore the 945 test build - it doesn't fix it.

mhquake said...

...and it's fixed!