C&C95 v1.06b released! - [14/04]: 1.06b Revision 1 online

Nyerguds · Last edited by Nyerguds on Tue Apr 14, 2009 1:11 am; edited 1 time in total

For those who haven't seen it on other sites...

I just finished the new patch for C&C95 I was working on; the new version of the 1.06 patch. The patch started as a combination of a hi-res patch and a few other hacks that fixed game crashes, but has grown to be so much more.

Download the patch here:
http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/cnc95upd/cc95p106/

New Features in 1.06b:

Full language changing is implemented: you can now play the game in English, German, French and Spanish, and even get translated mission briefing text and ingame voices
The original unused Nod-specific map and score screen music is added to the game
The Red Alert 1 snow theater has been added for mission making
The unique missions from the Playstation and Nintendo 64 versions of C&C are added to the game, and the Playstation's hidden 'PATSUX' mission even has its upgraded Orcas
No-CD controls are added to the conquer.ini configuration file, so you don't have to mess around with shortcuts with command line parameters anymore
For the people who are tired of starting each mission with the Act On Instinct theme, several music options allow you to change the way the game chooses the starting theme
Loading Funpark (dinosaur) campaign savegames no longer gives problems when continuing to the next mission
The game no longer crashes when ran in a no-cd setup without added music

Older upgrades in 1.06/1.06a:

High resolution available through CCSetup.exe
Covert Operations added, and playable with any C&C CD
Up to 6-player LAN available
Dinosaurs are always visible
Special beta options added to a new [Advanced] section in conquer.ini
Skirmish play available by starting a LAN game without human players but with AI players enabled
The ability to easily choose one of four LAN game modes by clicking on the "Bases" button

A little preview: C&C95, playing a mission ported from the Nintendo 64 version, with added RA1 snow theater, in high resolution, in Spanish, showing the new ion cannon icon.

...whew #Tongue

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Team SomeGuy · General **Joined**: 18 Aug 2006

Does this work for TFD version of TD?

OmegaBolt · Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 2:37 pm Post subject:

Maybe I'll have to start mapping with TD. #Tongue

1) Is there any way to get rid the lines generated in FMVs?
2) FMVs should be centred when in 1024 mode IMO, unless thats really hard.

Crimsonum · Seth **Joined**: 14 Jul 2005 **Location**: Fineland

Team SomeGuy wrote:

Does this work for TFD version of TD?

Fully

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Nyerguds · Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 4:12 pm Post subject:

Team SomeGuy wrote:

Does this work for TFD version of TD?

Did you click the link? There's this small piece of text right below the download that should tell you all you need to know:

Quote:

The patch is compatible with both The First Decade and the CD version of C&C95. That includes the C&C95 ISOs which EA has released.
When the patch is installed on a First Decade installation, it will automatically enable the game's ini-controlled no-CD mode.

In fact, it was developed on TFD.

This even caused a problem in the very first version of the 1.06 patch, because I never tested with CD... the side info in the savegames was corrupted which caused the game to ask the Nod CD for all savegames #Tongue

That's been fixed for months now though #Tongue

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Dutchygamer · Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 4:47 pm Post subject:

Some questions: if you have TFD TD installed, you only need 1.06b? I mean, you don't need to download 1.06a (if it's even available) right? Also, the full package download is the whole game + patch right?

Nyerguds · Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 5:43 pm Post subject:

It works on all versions of C&C95. ALL. I don't believe in cumulative patches. If it would require anything more, don't you think I'd mention it somewhere?

And the full package is exactly what it says; a stand-alone version of C&C95 v1.06b, with all music included. That means, complete game, no-CD, same version as what the patch gives you.

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Dutchygamer · Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 5:46 pm Post subject:

Okay okay, just wanted to be sure #Tongue

It's been a while since I played TD and I didn't really followed this project.

Nyerguds · Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 6:09 pm Post subject:

Ah crap, it seems I did kinda slip up by relying on nocd testing again... you need the Nod CD to load funpark savegames.

Oh well. Minor flaw. Is already fixed for the next version #Tongue

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Crimsonum · Seth **Joined**: 14 Jul 2005 **Location**: Fineland

Uh...my anti-virus program goes to full alarm when I try to run funpark.exe. It says about some virus called "Hoax.Win32.BadJoke.MovingMouse.v". As soon as I close the game however, the program can't find the virus anymore.

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OmegaBolt · Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 12:16 pm Post subject:

Another problem: the original two resolutions 640 by 400 and 640 by 480 seem to be the same. Originally x480 created black bars at the top and bottom, almost "widescreen". Now it just looks stretched downwards on either one, ive always used a normal ratio monitor aswell...

Nyerguds · Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 5:02 pm Post subject:

That's your own screen driver's fault. It has nothing to do with the patch. I had that too after upgrading my driver, and I immediately downgraded it again. I wub my 640x400 res #Tongue

The latest drivers seem to dislike non-standard resolutions, and just center them in the nearest normal resolution they know.

Crimsonum wrote:

Uh...my anti-virus program goes to full alarm when I try to run funpark.exe. It says about some virus called "Hoax.Win32.BadJoke.MovingMouse.v". As soon as I close the game however, the program can't find the virus anymore.

Bah. A lot of virus scanners seem to give false positives on generated programs. It's a result of converting a batch file to an exe.

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OmegaBolt · Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 6:12 pm Post subject:

Well actually my RA1 works fine with that resolution.

Nyerguds · Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 7:02 pm Post subject:

well I didn't touch the lower resolutions, and I always debug in 640x400, so it's not my patch doing that...

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MrFlibble · Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 8:33 pm Post subject:

How'd you make upgraded Orcas? Smile

I have also observed the effect of the 640x480 and 640x400 resolution getting the same on my PC (while I didn't change any drivers) - not with your patch, but with the older 1.05 combination you had on your site (1.05 + stealth + something else, I forgot). It would make 640x480 appear like 640x400, whereas the normal C&C Gold 1.04 + official XP patch didn't do that.

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Nyerguds · Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 11:12 pm Post subject:

Might be the 1.05 fix then... I know part of VK's patch disables some CRT-specific code. But 640x400 still works on my PC...

As for the Laser orcas, I debugged the exe before and after changing the weapon of the Orca to laser in the unit stats, and saw what differences it made in the final unit type object. These unit 'blueprints' are stored at fixed memory locations, so it's no problem to figure out where to find them and where to change stuff.

Then, I just made an ini parameter to put in a mission, and if it's enabled, a function is called that writes the changes needed to enable the Laser straight into the memory where the Orca unit type blueprint is stored (In a very similar way, the Funpark option changes the radar colour of team 'Special' to red, in the stored memory of the house object).
There's another function like it that restores the original orca data, which is called when the option is NOT found/enabled. This makes sure that the game disables the laser orcas when starting a non-patsux mission.

Of course, that's not enough; besides starting new missions, people can also load savegames. To make sure the patsux option, and a bunch of others like it, are disabled and re-enabled correctly when loading games, I made the game save the status of the options in some free space I found in the savegames. See, in the savegames, 4 bytes were reserved for storing the mission number, while the game itself handles it as a single byte, so I had 3 bytes left. Since each boolean is only one bit, I had space for up to 24 options to enable.
As with the mission start, this savegame information is checked whenever a game is loaded, and the options are enabled or disabled accordingly.

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Nyerguds · Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 11:39 pm Post subject:

Revision 1 is now online on the site. It fixes problems with the winter theater used in the Ground Zero mission, and fixes some more minor issues, like the fact that Funpark savegames always asked for the Nod CD.

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SMIFFGIG · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 12:55 am Post subject:

great work nyerguds, just playing on the PSX levels, brings back memories. Very Happy

Its weird how the old CNC games are still so fun

One thing thats annoying is that you cannot select your air units whilst they are flying (i know its like this in standard TD) but it was fixed in RA1... would you be able to fix this in TD ? Razz

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Nyerguds · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 1:09 am Post subject:

Hmm... I doubt it. Not really a priority for me either... I just fix errors in C&C95, I don't port RA code to it.

The official manual just advises you to give them team numbers with [ctrl]+[1]..[9]
(Team "0" doesn't work in C&C95... and that's a problem I AM looking into, since it DOES work in the DOS version)

[edit]

Oh, here's a fun little promotion image I put together:
Very Happy

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SMIFFGIG · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 1:19 am Post subject:

I was just playing the "GDI - PSX - Special Ops - PATSUX" mission and it froze quite far into it.... i know thats not very helpful but thats all i know

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Nyerguds · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 1:43 am Post subject:

any clue what you were doing that might've caused it?

Freezes are hard to trace in general...

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Regulus · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 4:26 am Post subject:

Epic Nyerguds. Now I can enjoy the N64 missions in their true glory.

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SMIFFGIG · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 7:11 am Post subject:

Map = SCB41EA

I built a Comm. Centre and this happened

just thought id let u know

SCB41EA.JPG

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Nyerguds · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 10:08 am Post subject:

Hm... that's Nod N64 mission 2, right? Does it keep happening, or was that only once? That kind of information is kinda important...

If it happens all the time, I got some idea what might be causing that...

When you move to the northeast of your base, do you see this tile on the map?

P04-des-n64.png

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CCHyper · Defense Minister **Joined**: 07 Apr 2005

Yea, its related to Radar drawing and Shape drawing...

Crimsonum · Seth **Joined**: 14 Jul 2005 **Location**: Fineland

Man, the DOS resolution is tiny Laughing

I didn't even remember it was THAT small Razz

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Regulus · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 8:35 pm Post subject:

on a completely semi-related subject, how do you get that tile to appear? I was recreating that N64 GDI Spec Ops Mission 1 and there was one of those, but I couldn't find it in the editor.

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OmegaBolt · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 11:04 pm Post subject:

After a little bit of...er, research, I found that the resolution problem doesnt exist in 1.06 or 1.06a r2.

Nyerguds · Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 1:00 am Post subject:

Regulus: I cheated. Since you can't add new tileset file (without extensive hacking) I added an extra frame to an existing tileset file.

In the binary map files used by C&C, every cell is 2 bytes; one is a code that corresponds to a tileset file to use, and the second is simply an indicator of which frame of that file it should use.

So what I did was, I hex edited the map and changed that cell's second byte, to make it use the extra frame I added to the tileset file #Tongue

As for Smiff's problem...

Normally this tile should be included, but if it isn't, it would indeed crash the radar minimap. The playing field can handle non-existing tiles (it just shows a black tile that doesn't refresh its graphics), but the minimap can't. It crashes when trying to display the non-existing tile.

I just tried out the patch on a new game install, and the tile worked fine though, so I don't understand what might have caused this, unless he started the mission, saved the game, then exited the game, deleted the mixfile containing the N64 missions (and that tile) and then restarted the game, loaded the mission and played on.

Note that such problems can also occur if you have the mixfile opened in XCC Mixer while running C&C; XCC Mixer keeps exclusive rights on the file while it is opened, meaning the game can't read it.

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Nyerguds · Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2009 10:23 pm Post subject:

I found some new info on the radar crash problem. Apparently, it's related to savegames. The game (not sure if it's original or somehow snuck into my patch) has a bug that can cause certain terrain objects to get saved incorrectly. Loading that savegame will then cause that object to be replaced.

If the new object happens to be from a different theater, the game won't find graphics for it, and the radar will crash when trying to draw a miniature version of the nonexisting graphics.

So yeah, if Smiff's problem only appeared after loading a savegame, that's probably the cause. I'll have to conduct some very thorough research into the way C&C saves all that data to find out what causes it. As it is, it only seems to occur with [Terrain] objects though (trees, blossom trees and rocks that can be placed on the map through the ini file)

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