tunnels in ra2

McPwny · Cyborg Specialist **Joined**: 29 Jan 2018

ive been working on some terrain and its time to do the much dreaded tunnels. i made the art for them, what
with the special terrain animations and z data and such things, lots of fun, but i cant seem to get them to
actually... work. i thought that changing one of the unused tunnel handles from the [general] section of the
theater file, DirtTrackTunnels=, for example, to my tileset would let me do it, but when i do the 'enter' cursor
doesnt show up. i also thought that there was a tunnel drawing logic in fa2 somewhere, but i cant seem to find it.
does anyone happen to know how to get tunnels properly working in ra2?

the tunnels:

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E1 Elite · Commander **Joined**: 28 May 2013

Terrain expansion TX has the palette corrected version of RA2 tunnels. Can check with it.

Basically the X marked cells should have the tunnel land type (5). Game moves units based on the [Tubes] coordinates in map. So when the tubes entries match the X marked coordinates, the tunnel will work fine with enter cursor.

FA2 crates wrong entries, so it is better to use - https://ppmforums.com/topic-37881/ts-ra2-tunnel-drawer/

Tunnels should be enabled in the patched FA2.

Map renderer can also show tunnel lines.

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tun1.jpg

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McPwny · Cyborg Specialist **Joined**: 29 Jan 2018

aha, you are a lifesaver e1. i had attached my tunnel art to a modified version of the tunnels in the
vanilla ra2 mix, which turn out NOT to have the tunnel terrain type on those tiles. now they display the
entry cursor properly, but i still need to hook them up in order to properly test and use them; i would
normally use the tunnel drawer you linked, but it is non-functional since the demise of flash.

im not seeing the fa2 tunnel drawer, though i am using a recent revision of ra2sp. i thought it was on the
left panel
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E1 Elite · Commander **Joined**: 28 May 2013

In FAData.ini, on top itself, [Debug] section, allow tunnels key is there.

Still suggest to use tunnel drawer - last post in that thread has the flash download.

McPwny · Cyborg Specialist **Joined**: 29 Jan 2018

i see. i found and changed it but nothing happened. it seems that fa2 doesnt read the fadata.ini from its own
folder, and i could not find which 'fadata' the thing is reading from, either
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E1 Elite · Commander **Joined**: 28 May 2013

May be original FA2 needs something else, will compare with TX later.

In the meantime, enable the sidebar takeover by FA2sp DLL in FAData along with [Debug]] AllowTunnels=yes:

[ExtConfigs]
BrowserRedraw=yes
BrowserRedraw.GuessMode=0
BrowserRedraw.CleanUp=yes

Note: FA2 puts 1 directional entry less on alternate Tubes entries, which results in infantry getting stuck at the end of the tunnel. You have to fix the entries manually or use tool to fix - https://ppmforums.com/topic-42008/finalsun-tunnel-fixer/

Also FA2 can only make straight tunnels (not curved) whereas Tunnel drawer can do that.

And get the latest FA2sp.dll from Secsome from here - https://github.com/secsome/FA2sp/releases

McPwny · Cyborg Specialist **Joined**: 29 Jan 2018

i am trying to say that editing those entries in fadata doesnt do anything. i thought it was because fa2
was reading the fadata from another installation, but after doing a search on all hard drives for the
file, deleting all traces of all fa2 installations, then re-installing fa2sp from the download in your other
post, it still doesnt read the .ini found in its own folder.

in fact, even if i delete the file, leaving no fadata.ini files at all on both hard drives, fa2 still boots up
and is unchanged
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E1 Elite · Commander **Joined**: 28 May 2013

FA2sp DLL in the patched FA2 which I posted is over 2 months old and such bugs were fixed and new features were added. So use the latest FA2sp.DLL from Secsome's github release link and overwrite.

1. Use my patched FA2
2. Replace FA2sp.dll with latest from Secsome's github release.
3. Un-comment those 4 lines in FAData.ini.

McPwny · Cyborg Specialist **Joined**: 29 Jan 2018

- delete all traces of fa2 from my computer
- download the patched fa2
- replace the fa2sp.dll with the github one
- edit the FAData.ini

nothing happens

- delete the FAData.ini

nothing happens

im baffled by it. i dont know how fa2 is even running without its .ini file, but the file
just plain does not do anything.
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E1 Elite · Commander **Joined**: 28 May 2013

Attaching with the 3 steps mentioned earlier and it works for me. Sidebar shows create and delete tunnel for generating Tubes entries.

Just unzip and run.

FA2YRPsp_20211022_FA2sp_1.3.0.7z

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FA2YRPsp_20211022_FA2sp_1.3.0.7z

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McPwny · Cyborg Specialist **Joined**: 29 Jan 2018

well thats got it working, though i am at a complete loss to explain what was happening to my
earlier versions. thanks once again e1

the tunnel drawer, however, produces absolute garbage results. i make a tunnel and the lines
intersect the map ever which way and additionally, whatever method fa2 uses to render the lines
makes my graphics card utterly disgruntled. guess i will have find another way to test the
tunnels, and in the mean time i should probably also make a mention of it on the fa2 github
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E1 Elite · Commander **Joined**: 28 May 2013

The status bar coordinates are switched in the patched FA2. Shows x - y / h now.

If you are on win10, copy the ddraw.dll and .cfg file in subfolder ForWindows10 to main folder. That might improve rendering.

Tunnel drawer is intuitive, read the Instructions page carefully. It is better than the flawed FA2 tubes entries.