QUAKE2DS prerelease 1

[Cimi]

@Simon:
Few Questions (I'm not forcing you to another update I'm just asking for your opinions on what can be done in the future):
1) Is there a change to improve the rendering, gaining more framerate?
2) Is there a change to avoid the problem of the *white texture*, I mean improving the memory management or making the engine lighter...
3) New features (wifi, but do it will reduce the amount of ram available? Like in yours Quake1 build without Exram)?
4) If I will take a look at the code, which parts you think will need some work on, and which of them you're written well?

[simonjhall]

@Simon:
Few Questions (I'm not forcing you to another update I'm just asking for your opinions on what can be done in the future):

Cool, no problem. I might come back to Quake/Quake2 in a couple of months. At the moment I'm really enjoying not programming at home! (I program games for a living, so its nice not programming 24hrs a day)

1) Is there a change to improve the rendering, gaining more framerate?

Yes, totally. There was a lot of work that I could have done (taking months) but I thought that it was more important to get a release out rather than dragging it out forever.

2) Is there a change to avoid the problem of the *white texture*, I mean improving the memory management or making the engine lighter...

Not really. Could be a way to not flash white when you shoot a bad guy though.

3) New features (wifi, but do it will reduce the amount of ram available? Like in yours Quake1 build without Exram)?

Yes there are lots of things that I want to get in (I stuck a big list in a post a few pages back)
Not sure how it's going to work with the whole "RAM thing". We'll reach the bridge when we get to it. I want to avoid separate builds, though.

4) If I will take a look at the code, which parts you think will need some work on, and which of them you're written well?

I know of some crap bits, but it's really just a case of moving those optimised bits from QDS into Q2DS...
If anything was to be re-done, it'd be some of the levels. 'security.bsp' is a particular good example. Some levels are just massively CPU intensive for no reason.

[Pilot_51]

I might come back to Quake/Quake2 in a couple of months. At the moment I'm really enjoying not programming at home! (I program games for a living, so its nice not programming 24hrs a day)

I feel you. I'm sure I didn't work nearly as hard as you (because I didn't do real programming), but after spending 4 months researching for and developing a realism mod for BF1942 by myself, I wanted a couple weeks break from any developing stuff.

[sepro]

I feel you. I'm sure I didn't work nearly as hard as you (because I didn't do real programming), but after spending 4 months researching for and developing a realism mod for BF1942 by myself, I wanted a couple weeks break from any developing stuff.

Same problem here too. During the day I develop software applications (not games though but scientific software for my phd research). I'm wanting to create a 2x2x2 version of my rubik's cube program for months now but I simply don't have the strength to start programming again when I arrive at home in the evening.

[Necrotek]

First of all - thanks a lot that you changed you mind and released Q2DS It's amazing to see this game on NDS.
Second - I'd like to write some bugs and requests (sorry if somebody had already written them):
1)Zone visibility - sometimes enemies are able to see and attack me though they are too far from me to see them. And because of it I'm able to see them if I look at them under certain angle and attack, remaining invisible.
2)On the map "Torture Chamberg" (jail4) I got game freezed when I destroyed tank-looking guy - game logged that text - "couldn't load sound/7" and "failed to open sound file 7" (but I met them before and nothing was wrong). I get a photo of this if you want to see it.
3)Is it able to add jump using touchscreen (as it was in Metroid Prime Hunter)?
Well, that's all for now.

[simonjhall]

Yo,

1)And because of it I'm able to see them if I look at them under certain angle and attack, remaining invisible.

Haha, I didn't know you could do that! This visibility testing is done with a piece of the 3D hardware that isn't very well documented. It's also got other artifacts which surprisingly no-one has mentioned!

2)"couldn't load sound/7" and "failed to open sound file 7"

It's a weird bug which happens once in a blue. I can't replicate it but if I could I'd fix it...

3)Is it able to add jump using touchscreen (as it was in Metroid Prime Hunter)?

If you bind a button on the OSK or the touch buttons to jump you'll be able to jump by touching the screen.

[Pilot_51]

I'm able to see them if I look at them under certain angle and attack, remaining invisible.

Isn't that the same or similar problem that I find many modern games still have? Unreal Engine 2 is one of the engines I notice the problem in the most and I've seen it in several other popular engines/games, especially when there's dense (near) fog.

[Necrotek]

Well, I got "sound bug" 2 times more, but it was written ";" and "h" instead of "7". I found them in other maps.

And one other sound bug - when I stand near lava (and able to hear its sound), sometimes I able to hear a loop of random previous played sounds of this map. It happened in the elevator room in "Borehole" and in the end of "Lower Mines".

[Necrotek]

One more error:
When I try to return from "Toxic Waste Dump" (after appearance of barricades) to "The Reactor", during first second of loading I get this message:
"failed malloc of 3052748b
118.00 kb of heap available
about to die:
Z_Malloc failed on allocation of 3052748 bytes
==== ShutdownGame ====
writing key configuration
...done
ARM7: S_Shutdown
DS Video shutting down
...done
Sys_Error : Z_Malloc: failed on allocation of 3052748 bytes
link register is 0202a398"

After it game doesn't do anything though it seems to be still working (according to moving cross in up-left corner).

[simonjhall]

Could you zip up the saves and send them to me? Thanks.