Beta bugs

[Blastfrog]

Woo! True M1 support! Awesome work, guys!

The machine I'm currently testing on is Windows 8 x64 (not my machine, I hate 8!), AMD E1-1200 APU w/ Radeon, driver version 9.12.6.0, renderer used was GL classic.

So far, I've found only one bug. I was on M1 level 3 single player, as I was about to exit the level via the terminal when I thought to grab some more supplies before I left. While the terminal was open, I hit the esc key, told the exit game prompt "no", and it returned to the terminal screen, but it was HUGELY zoomed in. Exiting the terminal screen itself and going back in seems to reset this.

[Zott]

I would also like to contribute a bug.

When I load sound replacements via mml using a plugin, the sounds are not replaced. (The sounds are in Plugin/NameofPlugin/Sounds )

The behavior works properly with the last stable build. (IE, the sounds are replaced fine via mml)

Windows 7 x64

[treellama]

Do non-plugin MML sound replacements work? Do you have a small example plugin we can use to test?

[Zott]

I cleared out my Aleph One Documents folder, erased the userApp/Local preference file, and made a bare minimum Aleph One folder to no noticeably change.

Non-plugin mml sound replacements work fine for the last stable 1.0 build, but not for 1.1b3.

With the attached plugin you can just run straight for a pfhor fighter on pretty much any map to see if the sounds work.

[treellama]

did you just upload a rar

[Zott]

Arrrr

Wow, tough crowd...I have attached something more suitable to your liking.

[treellama]

Haha, it's not a problem, I can find a client. But in order to generate that weird file, you had to go download a client, when to create a zip file all you have to do is right-click. Thus my surprise.

[Blastfrog]

This isn't specific to the beta, but I didn't want to bother starting a new thread for it.

There's a little problem with the shader GL renderer. When looking all the way up or down, blank corners appear when using any vertical FOV higher than the vanilla game. I understand that it kinda has to be set up like a wall because of 5D space, but perhaps it can horizontally extend as needed based on your viewpitch and FOV?

[Hopper]

The view-culling walls are extended somewhat in the current shader renderer, but as you found, different aspect ratios can make the corners pretty noticeable. The extension is done by lying about the horizontal FOV to the rest of the engine, and other problems can crop up when doing that. I no longer remember the details, so there might be more we could do to minimize the corners.

For the technically inclined: in our portal-based engine, the viewable polygons and walls are calculated separately from the actual drawing. The Shader renderer replaces the drawing half, but uses the same determination of what's in view as the other modes.

[treellama]

With the attached plugin you can just run straight for a pfhor fighter on pretty much any map to see if the sounds work.

Thanks for setting this up for us, and for the initial report. It's fixed in SVN now.

[Hugo_Pt]

There is some sort of bug in level Pfhoraphobia of Marathon which often makes that after killing the cyborg Pfhor and going to the End room (that with the window with the Marathon ship in sight), you are not teleported to the next level. After going a few times to the next level, now it seems that I can't do it anymore because of this bug. Is this a known bug? Is there any way of workaround it or prevent it from occurring, so that I can go to next level ? I'm playing with Aleph One 1.1b3.

[Hopper]

Did you clear the level out? Pfhoraphobia is an extermination level, so you can't leave if there are more than 8 enemies alive. Killing the leader is necessary but not sufficient.

[Hugo_Pt]

Hopper:
Yesterday, after killing the cyborg and going to the End room and not being teleported as supposed, I returned to the room with the dead cyborg and as I drop down in that room, I am teleported to next level!
Today, after reading your post, I wanted to confirm that this oddity had nothing to do with number of remaining enemies. This time, I made sure that I killed every single foe in the level. Then, returned to the End room, and nothing, no teleporting out of level. Then returned to the (now dead) cyborg room and dropped down several times (including close to and facing each of the 2 windows), and still nothing! At last, I dropped once more in that same room, touched some specific spot in the floor and am teleported to next level!! Isn't this a bug?

[Crater Creator]

What you're describing is exactly how exploration missions work. If Pfhoraphobia is an exploration level (I don't recall specifically, but there's a good chance it is), then all is working as intended.

[Hopper]

Pfhoraphobia is both extermination and exploration; I forgot about that. You need to have all of the yellow polygons visible on your map, and then stand on one of the black-and-green polygons to exit:

If you're sure you've met the criteria, then we'll need a cheated save file to see what's going on. Press the Console key and type "Game.save()" when you're at the exit.

[Hugo_Pt]

@Hopper:
I couldn't reproduce again the exact same occurrence I described earlier, but could verify that sometimes there is no need to go to the area below where there are all the shadowed S'pht standing over the jump pad in order to be transferred to the next level in the end, which means that not always is necessary to have (at least) one of the yellow polygons visible in the map, that middle-most yellow polygon in the lower portion of the map you posted. Another time, yes, it was required to explore that area to be able to level up. Anyway, I don't intend to pursue this any further. Thanks for the tip, though.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I just finished level 25 'Try Again' and found an oddity. Maybe it's not a bug, but rather an exploit or a trick, that's what I wish to know. Anyway, I feel it shouldn't be there, and it certainly makes the level a lot easier to finish and less challenging (I'm having lots of fun playing in 'Total Carnage' difficulty setting): There are these big air floating Pfhor tanks (an internet search revealed to me that they are called 'Juggernauts'). The homing rockets fired by them are very dangerous. However, if you come sufficiently near them, they change weapon to this bullet-firing Arm Cannons which disappointingly do you no arm! I can just draw my fusion gun and keep undisturbedly shooting at them until they die, while they bootlessly unload all the bullets on me. My shield levels stay exactly the same as long as I keep a short distance. I mean, what's the point of using a weapon which is completely useless? Was this oddity there in the original game?

[Hopper]

The Juggernaut safe spot was there in the original. Their bullets can hurt you, but not if you stand close enough that you're between the two cannons. As you say, they're like tanks; a tank can't shoot you with its turret when you climb on top of it!

That might be why they're usually floating over lava, where you can't abuse the safe spot. For the one in the lava-free "bridge" room, I like to think the Hunter was stationed in that room to guard the Juggernaut from close-range attacks.

[Crater Creator]

It creates an interesting stalemate. If you're in his face and shoot him down, you'll soon discover why this tactic is not as safe as it seems.

Oh, and while it's true all must-be-explored polygons must be visible on your map, that's really only a side effect of what actually matters: you have to step on those polygons before the level can be completed (so says page 47 of the M∞ manual).

[Hopper]

you have to step on those polygons before the level can be completed (so says page 47 of the M∞ manual).

We're discussing Marathon, not Infinity. The rules are different: visibility on the automap is actually the trigger in the first game. This difference is implemented in Aleph One's native Marathon support.

[Crater Creator]

Very well, then. It's nice that the game matches Marathon 1's behavior down to this level of detail.

[Hopper]

Replicating this change was absolutely necessary, because some of Marathon 1's unexplored polygons are in places where you can only see but not reach with your feet. M1A1 worked around these by changing which polygons are marked, but that isn't a viable option when you eventually want to support other M1 scenarios.

Incidentally, this change is also why the betas disable co-op play in Marathon 1. The automap visibility is not synced over the network, so exploration levels would go OOS. So we can't use M1's method for calculating exploration success, and as stated above, we can't use M2's method either.

I have a whole new appreciation for Marathon 2 after learning how much was overhauled from the first game. Old guard members like Hamish and John Sumner helped to uncover plenty of things Treellama and I missed. Even now, there are a handful of places where I have no clue how to recreate what Marathon did.

[Hugo_Pt]

In this page of the Marathon Spoiler Guide, you can read, regarding one of the secrets in level 25 'Try Again':

In the one room with the bridge-like structure, if you go under the bridge, you'll open the radition doors on one side of the room to reveal a invincibility powerup. This can be very helpful to finish off the Juggernaut in this level.

If the location of this secret is that marked with the letter F in the map there, what is in this spot is a transparency powerup, not a invincibility powerup. Or that text is referring to a different location in the map that I have missed?

I have a whole new appreciation for Marathon 2 after learning how much was overhauled from the first game. Old guard members like Hamish and John Sumner helped to uncover plenty of things Treellama and I missed. Even now, there are a handful of places where I have no clue how to recreate what Marathon did.

Just out of curiosity: Do you, Hopper belong to the developers team of Aleph One along with Treellama?

[Hopper]

If the location of this secret is that marked with the letter F in the map there, what is in this spot is a transparency powerup, not a invincibility powerup.

Yeah, the author probably mistyped "invisibility." There are many worse errors in the Guide. It does point out the actual invincibility powerup elsewhere.

Do you, Hopper belong to the developers team of Aleph One along with Treellama?

Yes; I'm "jeremiahmorris" on SourceForge. You'll see a lot of commits under my name, mainly because Treellama gets his changes right the first time and I don't.

[Hugo_Pt]

I'm "jeremiahmorris" on SourceForge. You'll see a lot of commits under my name, mainly because Treellama gets his changes right the first time and I don't.

I'm sorry, but my knowledge of english language has a few limitations. What are commits? In the members page of the Aleph One project in SourceForge, your name is the second in the list. Your role/position is Admin. By clicking your username, it is shown that you belong to Aleph One: Marathon Open Source and AlephModular projects and that your skills list is empty at the moment. Where are the commits?

Hopper, I'd like to try playing a network game to see the internet levels of Marathon, now that I've finished solo levels, but I never played in online multiplayer mode before. I tried the option 'Gather Network Game' in the main menu, but after configuring the options, I click the 'Play' button and nothing happens! Do I have to sign up/register in any server site before I try to do this? It is possible to play a network game in the latest beta?

[treellama]

If you are new to multiplayer, you want to click on "Join Network Game", then "Find Internet Game". Finally, you will need to wait for someone to create a game. Once you see a white game appear in the right hand column, double click on it to become eligible for the gatherer to include you.

You should use the stable release (1.0.3) Marathon Infinity for joining Internet games, unless the gatherer tells you otherwise.