Ur-quan Masters 0.6.2

[senquack]

NEW THREAD FOR VERSION 1.0 IS HERE: http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=39355
-= The Ur-Quan Masters 0.6.3 (latest CVS) =-

Ported to GP2X by Senor Quack (Dan Silsby)

Available at: http://archive.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,29,2390

PUBLIC BETA 1
-----------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to one of the greatest games ever made!

I made this port becase I was fed up with the instability
of the previous ports to the GP2X. I was getting crashes
several times an hour and other users even had data
corruption. I respect the author's efforts, UQM is a funky
program based on ancient source code.
[cut]
I have downloaded the latest CVS source, patched it up
a very tiny amount and altered the controls for the
new post-0.6.0 control system. I would have used the 0.6.2
official release but they admit messing up the source
release and it doesn't compile properly.

This is a public beta, meaning I have tested it for a
scant few hours and need your all's help testing it further.
Let me know of any bugs, or successful game completions.
I will continue to work on it if necessary.

If you have saved games from the previous port, you can copy
them into the save folder of this version, they seem to be
compatible, but no promises.

PROBLEMS FIXED:
---------------
* Smaller memory footprint. Should help increase
program stability.
* Large amount of previously unused compiler
optimizations have been applied.
* Integration of ARM ASM memory handling routines.
* Lowered default sound sample rate to 22050hz.
* The above three additions enable smoother use of the
planetary lander. I no longer overclock UQM, all I
enable is the advanced RAM timings from GMenu2X and
it is quite playable at 200mhz.
* Fixed text scrolling when using 3DO voice package.
* Added sync() on exit to avoid loss of save data.
* No more crashes, hopefully! I haven't had my version
crash yet, but it needs more testing.

INSTALLATION:
-------------
Extract the .ZIP file into the root of your SD. You need
to have "full pathnames" enabled because it will extract
into \games\uqm\

It is very important this happens, otherwise the game will
not run properly. You should see "uqm.gpe" in \games\uqm
along with several other files and a folder named "content"

I have included the 3DO music files. If you want to have
cool alien voice acting, you can download the file
"uqm-0.6.0-voice.uqm" from this website:

http://sc2.sourceforge.net/downloads.php

Place the file into the \games\uqm\content\packages folder.

If you already have the 0.5.0 version of this file from
the old Foehammer port, copy it over and rename it, it
hasn't changed since the last version.



KNOWN PROBLEMS:
---------------

* This is a public beta and the program has only been
tested a matter of hours. Additionally, this is
compiled from the latest unstable CVS snapshot, so
that is an additional source of possible problems.
I will continue to work to make this the stable,
full-featured UQM port the GP2X deserves.

* The RAM footprint of UQM is large for the GP2X -
the program comes quite close to using the entire
32MB available. Hopefully the changes I've made
will be enough for successful game completion.
If not, there's more I can do like loading
samples and songs into upper memory, but it will
take a lot of work.

* Volume controls do not work, you must adjust volume
using GMenu2X. It is not a trivial thing to add to
Ur-Quan Masters but do plan to add support in the
future.

* Due to changes in control handling, the planetary
lander is now most easily controlled using the joystick
in combination with the R trigger for thrust. Another
way to say this is that "they won't let me apply
thrust when UPLEFT and UPRIGHT are pressed, like they
used to, only UP.. use the R trigger!!"

Some screenshots for the forum post:

[/cut]

 

[imhotep]

This is very exciting. Thanks so much for this. I'm just a little confused with the version number. Is it 0.6.2 (file name and forum post title) or 0.6.3 (readme file)?

 

[Megagun]

0.6.2, as UQM v0.6.3 hasn't been released yet..
..or maybe 0.6.* as it's being compiled from the latest CVS release...

Anyways, this is great news.. I've been waiting for voice support with proper subtitles (the *one* thing the previous GP2x build of UQM was lacking) and tried fixing it myself, but I never even got the thing to compile, so...

Let's kick some major alien butt!

 

[Alex.]

Wonderful news, I'll try it as soon as possible One question, why must it be extracted in the games folder?

 

[hal9000]

Thanks a lot for your work.

Just a small comment about the news (and to many other game announcement): it would be nice to make a short description of the game itself, or to give a link to some dedicated web site. This is the most important information for those who don't know the game. Of course, it is not too hard to find it on the Web, but it is nicer to read self-explanatory news. Thanks!

 

[yodaofborg]

Nice release! Seems to work well here so far, spent about 4 hours on it, got pretty far without a single hiccup! Even the high activity lander parts run OK, with very little slowdown. Now I just have to remember how to complete it again

Thanks!

 

[rokdcasbah]

woohoo! being able to use the voice file properly should rule. this is a great game....like others i'd gotten used to the quirks of the previous port, but this makes things even better and is greatly appreciated. three cheers for quack.

 

[senquack]

OK, back from work..

Regarding the version confusion: I messed up the name of the ZIP file, it should be 0.6.3 and the forum post should have been, too. Not too important.. The important thing is it's not 0.6.0, as that had bugs that have now been fixed.

Regarding why the game must be in /games/uqm: I'm going to work on getting the game to use relative pathnames for my non-beta release. The reason is that the program gets its path set at compile-time and I just went with what is proven and people are used to with the uqm port for now.

I'm still trying to get my port to crash, even once. I bet if you left it running for more than a dozen hours, it'd run out of memory, as UQM isn't always great about freeing resources. It isn't really meant for embedded machines but if it's stable for that long, it's more than anyone would likely run UQM on the GP2X anyways so who cares.

With most games, it'd be easy to free up RAM, just make all the SDL surfaces HWSURFACEs, but UQM uses 32bpp sprite handling for everything except the final frame and GP2X HWSURFACEs can only be 8 or 16 bit. I'm looking into using a custom malloc function to push some other data up into the higher RAM region, but I'm not going to bother until it's proven necessary.

Have fun everyone, let me know if you complete the game, I'm trying to on my port, too, having a blast

 

[Rivroner]

Thank you very much for this Downloading........

 

[imhotep]

let me know if you complete the game, I'm trying to on my port, too, having a blast

It's great to have someone who ports this game test it so much. Probably why it's so stable!

I want to get in to this. I know it has a learning curve though and I am still at fairly early stages of game. Haven't seen decent combat yet.

What settings do you guys use? Do you use the alien voices pack and do you prefer 3DO or PC music?

 

[Pickle]

I had to pop in and say, that this version is much more stable than the previous build's. In fact I stopped playing because it crashed too much, I guess I can dive back into it. Also I added the voice package and it works great. Ive had to clock to 220 with RAM timings. I could go a little higher on the clock i think.

 

[senquack]

I had to pop in and say, that this version is much more stable than the previous build's. In fact I stopped playing because it crashed too much, I guess I can dive back into it. Also I added the voice package and it works great. Ive had to clock to 220 with RAM timings. I could go a little higher on the clock i think.

It is still faster than the old ports (no stuttery sound, either, even at 200mhz) and I do use it at only 200mhz with the RAM tweaks from Gmenu2X enabled.

Never fear, though: As we speak, I am using GCC 4's profiling features, along with re-written FOR loops in the sprite handling code, to get this puppy to buttery full speed at 200mhz. Note sure if I can do it, but it's a worthy goal, maybe I can get it so we could *gasp* underclock. I am also going to implement volume controls.

Also, ongoing beta testing report: NO CRASHES OF MY VERSION, EVER,, after 12 solid hours of testing (not in one continuous run, of course). Noone's reported a single crash to me, either. Bragging about a program's stability is a sure-fire way to get some bugs floating to the surface, and that is my goal here

What settings do you guys use? Do you use the alien voices pack and do you prefer 3DO or PC music?

You HAVE to use the alien voice pack, a lot of people insist it's the best voice acting in a game up until HL2, maybe on par. It's hilarious, wait until you hear the Orz One thing about the PC music is it is MOD files mostly created on an Amiga.. Problem is, the PC version would play them 30% faster apparently. Everyone got used to it, so now there's confusion as to what's proper. 3DO music pack is the definitive answer. If you want to try without 3DO, simply rename the 3DO music file in content/packages folder. The MODs should now be used, and will probably also give a significant speed boost.

 

[imhotep]

You HAVE to use the alien voice pack, a lot of people insist it's the best voice acting in a game up until HL2, maybe on par. It's hilarious, wait until you hear the Orz

Sounds fab. Can't wait to try it!

3DO music pack is the definitive answer.

The 0.5.0 Foehammer port I was using defaulted to PC music which I thought was very atmospheric and hypnotic. I have heard the 3DO music is fantastic though, so I am going to give it a shot.

Hope my saves work fine with this new version, but no one has complained so I assume they do.

 

[dannyowelch]

Excellent!! Downloading it now. Thanks for the great port. This is one of my all time favorite games, and I'm glad to see someone with some skills working on the port because mine are WEAK.

I sure hope the in-game volume control addition works out. I was looking into it, but frankly couldn't seem to get it to work. That would be the icing on the cake.

 

[Manwe]

Oh, that lovely game!

 

[rokdcasbah]

You HAVE to use the alien voice pack, a lot of people insist it's the best voice acting in a game up until HL2, maybe on par.

seconded...most video game voice acting is shameful, not here though.

 

[QuasaR]

Great port! I've never played the game before but now I can't put my GP2x out of my hands... Would love to see the volume-buttons supported sicne it's quite loud with my headset. And also an option or maybe .cfg-file to config the buttons would be really nice, since START is very unhandy on the GP2X.

 

[senquack]

Great port! I've never played the game before but now I can't put my GP2x out of my hands... Would love to see the volume-buttons supported sicne it's quite loud with my headset. And also an option or maybe .cfg-file to config the buttons would be really nice, since START is very unhandy on the GP2X.

I actually updated Ur Quan Masters 2X to v1.0 on the archive. For some reason, the update hasn't been processed just yet. The volume buttons work and the program is faster than ever, too. Keep an eye out for it, I'll make a new forum post later after work. BTW, the keys already are configurable through the setup menu and you can edit flight.cfg or keys.cfg manually if you so desire.

 

[JeanLouSchmidt]

Woww, thanks a lot !!!

 

[yodaofborg]

Played the new version at 180Mhz no ram tweaks without much slowdown on even heavy lander parts! This is great work, thanks!

Also, I have played this release for over 8 hours straight, I started from scratch to make sure a save game didnt make me crash, I got mi quasi portal device, mi cheap peoples, and disabled them probes already without one single crash, or freeze. This is great, Foehammer's port was fun, but made me not want to play much, this release has me sitting here for 8+ hours, also being able to change volumes on the fly rules.

Many thanks, and may the force be with you