Aleph One 1.0b1

[treellama]

A beta build is available from SourceForge: https://sourceforge.net/projects/marath ... 011-02-20/

As you can see, this is a major version number increment, and we want to test it very thoroughly. Please download it and give it a try, and report any bugs you find here or on the SourceForge bug reporter.

Here is the full list of changes since the last release:
http://marathon.sourceforge.net/release-notes/20110220.html

[interion]

For the "Choose Aleph One Scenario", could you default to the folder Aleph One is launched from in Windows?

[Kurinn]

Cool, I'm going to test the grits out of this.

[Ares Ex Machina]

This is exciting stuff! The M2 film feature is a complete surprise but completely awesome! And the translucent overlay map works terrifically. Nice work!!!

I have found what appears to be a bug: in software mode, pressing F3 to switch between hi res and low res does one of two things: it either causes parts of the HUD to go completely black, or it crashes the game entirely. Should I file a report?

[herecomethej2000]

Woah! After all these years we never reached 1.0? What was it that made you want to decide that this was the big One and not say .23.3 or .23 even?

[treellama]

Should I file a report?

You don't have to--I'll try to remember to check this thread when fixing 1.0 release bugs.

[Hopper]

Woah! After all these years we never reached 1.0? What was it that made you want to decide that this was the big One and not say .23.3 or .23 even?

The main factor was Treellama's hard work on M2 film support. That piece had been missing for years; personally, I kept around the AlephModular fork just to watch old films. Now Aleph One finally does everything the original could do, as well as a whole lot more.

We've also put a good bit of work into the less sexy parts of the application, to make the entire experience smoother for modern hardware. For example, Aleph One only actually used OpenGL in-game; for the main menu and chapter screens, it would switch back to old software code. This caused a lot of unnecessary monitor switches, and the 90's-era method for fading the screen no longer works on most Windows machines. Now Aleph One can handle all drawing in OpenGL, which is much more appropriate for computers today, and provides a better base for the improvements to come in the next 11 years.

[VirtualX1]

This is most likely pure coincidence but, I'm seem to be going out of sync more often on multiplayer with this beta release. It also appears that behind some ledges (enough to cover the player sprite about bellybutton) the player sprite goes invisible, but this is probably a bug with the map as well, because I haven't been able to reproduce it. One more thing, when qutting in opengl shader mode instead of going to the main menu or scoreboard, I get the last rendered frame on my screen, this gets fixed by alt-tabbing though and is much more prevalent when quitting a multiplayer game. Maybe I'm just overreacting though.

specs are:
Windows 7 Home 64-Bit
GTX 460 1GB driver version 266.58
Aleph One 1.0b1 on Marathon Infinity
Used OpenGL (Shader)

By the way this is an epic release of Aleph One, I'm loving it.

[Hopper]

It also appears that behind some ledges (enough to cover the player sprite about bellybutton) the player sprite goes invisible, but this is probably a bug with the map as well, because I haven't been able to reproduce it.

I suspect there are still a few clipping bugs to be found in Shader. If you find a reliable spot, try it in OpenGL (Classic); if the sprite only disappears in Shader, then it's a bug on me instead of the mapmaker.

One more thing, when qutting in opengl shader mode instead of going to the main menu or scoreboard, I get the last rendered frame on my screen, this gets fixed by alt-tabbing though and is much more prevalent when quitting a multiplayer game. Maybe I'm just overreacting though.

Thanks for the report! And double thanks for posting your specs like the sticky asks. You're not overreacting, that's just the sort of thing we need to know to make 1.0 as good as possible.

[treellama]

Please keep an eye on the OOS issues. I am fairly confident that any remaining OOS issues are due to MML or shapes mismatches, either on your part or that of the host--but there's a small chance the film playback fixes could cause OOS. I think you would see it pretty consistently, if that were the case.

If you can, check out what version the host is using before joining games, and try to keep a mental note of when OOS happens, so we can figure out if there's a way to reproduce it.

[Ares Ex Machina]

The main factor was Treellama's hard work on M2 film support. That piece had been missing for years; personally, I kept around the AlephModular fork just to watch old films. Now Aleph One finally does everything the original could do, as well as a whole lot more.

We've also put a good bit of work into the less sexy parts of the application, to make the entire experience smoother for modern hardware. For example, Aleph One only actually used OpenGL in-game; for the main menu and chapter screens, it would switch back to old software code. This caused a lot of unnecessary monitor switches, and the 90's-era method for fading the screen no longer works on most Windows machines. Now Aleph One can handle all drawing in OpenGL, which is much more appropriate for computers today, and provides a better base for the improvements to come in the next 11 years.

Also, I found a few more things.

Films
I tested the M2 film feature on some original Infinity films. Some of them work, and some of them don't. For the ones that don't work, aliens are present where they weren't in the original game, and the film goes OOS. And even for the ones that do work and exclude aliens, aliens were placed on the map, so this inconsistency strikes me as odd. I realize this feature is for Marathon 2 and that M2 net maps don't even have aliens (that I can remember), but I thought I'd mention it in case there is a bug somewhere.

HUD
There's a black border going around most of the weapons as well as the life and oxygen bars, and a vertical line across the HUD just left of the radar, when Open GL (Classic or Shader) and HUD Size Largest are selected.

[attachment=4632:NeCedeMalis_0001.png]

Also, is the way the map runs off the edge of the screen intentional? I realize this isn't new, it just looks kinda funny with the translucent map overlay.

Using Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

[treellama]

Films
I tested the M2 film feature on some original Infinity films. Some of them work, and some of them don't. For the ones that don't work, aliens are present where they weren't in the original game, and the film goes OOS. And even for the ones that do work and exclude aliens, aliens were placed on the map, so this inconsistency strikes me as odd. I realize this feature is for Marathon 2 and that M2 net maps don't even have aliens (that I can remember), but I thought I'd mention it in case there is a bug somewhere.

This is not a bug; Marathon 2 film playback is designed to play back Marathon 2 films, which handled aliens differently than Marathon Infinity. Thanks for mentioning it, though.

[irons]

Treellama is leaving out some information that he might be taking for granted. Marathon Infinity handles a lot of stuff differently, and fixes some weird problems from Marathon 2, and so on. The reason we don't have Infinity support as well is because we don't have that source code, and probably never will. Treellama has done his best, but the slightest difference between the two engines means we can't really know what we're missing.

[Sharkie Lino]

Just something here, it seems to have a problem with the FloatingX HUD, though i'm not sure if that is in your control.






[attachment=4633:Screen_s...44.27_PM.jpg]

[treellama]

Can you try that with a standard shapes file, please?

[Ares Ex Machina]

Treellama is leaving out some information that he might be taking for granted. Marathon Infinity handles a lot of stuff differently, and fixes some weird problems from Marathon 2, and so on. The reason we don't have Infinity support as well is because we don't have that source code, and probably never will. Treellama has done his best, but the slightest difference between the two engines means we can't really know what we're missing.

Both source codes are so old, I can't imagine one being more valuable than the other. The red tape's too thick!!!

[Hopper]

HUD
There's a black border going around most of the weapons as well as the life and oxygen bars, and a vertical line across the HUD just left of the radar, when Open GL (Classic or Shader) and HUD Size Largest are selected.

Yeah, this is nothing new, at least on my machine. I get plenty of problems with the life and oxygen bars even when using Normal size. I've waffled between fixing the code that's there, or rewriting it as a hardcoded default Lua HUD.

Also, is the way the map runs off the edge of the screen intentional? I realize this isn't new, it just looks kinda funny with the translucent map overlay.

I'll start a separate thread for discussion of the translucent map behavior. There are some pros and cons to debate, but a separate thread will make it easier to track bugs in this thread.

Just something here, it seems to have a problem with the FloatingX HUD, though i'm not sure if that is in your control.

Sorry, I forgot to mention that earlier. It's not Aleph One's fault, it's a flaw in FloatingX. An update will be ready before 1.0 goes final.

[VirtualX1]

The beta does not work with Rubicon X at all (Doesn't seem to be reading some of the game files), but the last stable release works for it perfectly.

[Ares Ex Machina]

Yeah, this is nothing new, at least on my machine. I get plenty of problems with the life and oxygen bars even when using Normal size. I've waffled between fixing the code that's there, or rewriting it as a hardcoded default Lua HUD.

It's new on my machine, if that helps.

[brilliant]

This might not be a priority, which is okay, but when switching to OpenGL (Classic) and Software modes in full screen, navigation in the menus are a bit buggy. For example, only in OpenGL (Classic) in full screen, when choosing the Brightness in the Graphics menu, the Graphics setup screen appears and disappears when moving the mouse over to select a Brightness option. Also, when I'm in a menu such as Preferences, it will have the black background, but when I switch from full screen to windowed mode, and vice versa, it looks like this:

[attachment=4636:screen.PNG]

I also noticed that this is in the current stable build, as well. I am using Windows XP.

[Marathoner325]

How do you toggle the option for making the map transparent? I've looked through the preferences and have been unable to find no such option. Is there something rather obvious that I'm missing?

[Sharkie Lino]

Sorry, I forgot to mention that earlier. It's not Aleph One's fault, it's a flaw in FloatingX. An update will be ready before 1.0 goes final.

Alrighty, cool deal.

[treellama]

The beta does not work with Rubicon X at all (Doesn't seem to be reading some of the game files), but the last stable release works for it perfectly.

Works for me here on the Mac. Did you remove the stupid f from the Rubicon X folder name?

How do you toggle the option for making the map transparent? I've looked through the preferences and have been unable to find no such option. Is there something rather obvious that I'm missing?

Check "Overlay Map" in graphics preferences.

[TectonInd]

I haven't been doing much testing, but I've been seeing monsters through walls where I don't see them in the current stable build. For the beta I've been running Ubuntu Linux 2.4.something in Shader mode. By the way, I appreciate the shader optimization. It still lags for me in areas with lava, but it's entirely playable if I enable bloom without bump maps.

[irons]

Is that really the version you're using?