Commander Genius (Aka CloneKeenPlus) 0.3.0.3 Release

gerstrong · Post by **gerstrong** » Sun Jul 19, 2009 14:17

Better Mod Support in CG:

V0.3Pre6 now has the support I told of. Now it is possible to extend the code the way, the mods get more compatible.

The program now reads off the pat-file it finds in the directory and uses the %patchfile command to open the patchfile and apply it to the mod.

The system in reading the exe file has been changed a lot. There are more classes now, but with a clear structure.

- The Exe-file is read
- if compressed, it is decompressed using unlzexe
- data of it is copied into the memory
- patches are applied (.pat) if any
- Tiles are loaded from this memory

What I want to have done:
- Read text from the exefile data instead of strings.dat.

Yeah, this took me much time I wanted to spend on other things but I believe that for modders it is very important.

And yes, I wanted to push out "the Release", but there are still issues I have to check out.

Have fun with it and don't get impacient. Release is not far away to come out.

gerstrong · Post by **gerstrong** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 19:48

No, this time I have no update, but an announcement.

A new member has joined us, and he someone special. He worked with Shaw together and will help us a lot. He already has done a lot of work for the next version. It is much more stable now.

@Iv4n: I have implemented the "Reset Controls" button. No big deal. Next version you will see it!

Post by **Ceilick** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 8:13

Just tried this again; the pogo is almost there! The two things I notice are 1. Keen falls too slowly while in pogo mode; i think he should descend as fast as he does in jump mode 2. Keen is more maneuverable, but not quite perfect. I think if you make the left and right a little more touchy/sensative it'll be perfect

gerstrong · Post by **gerstrong** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 20:25

Hi there,

Pre7 of version 0.3 has been uploaded. Also the pogo physics has been improved and some classes have been added by Albert, developer of OpenLieroX. He has joined our team recently and has done a lot of stuff.

There are more things which have improved:
- Better mod support
- Controls can be resetted now
- Searchpath system

Have fun with it!

There have been a lot of changes in the team and development of the game. I promised to release v0.3 days ago, but there have been delays. We are looking for a release which is not just stable. We are looking for a good icon and we want to integrate Episode 1, so that nobody has to download it anymore. We are still checking the licenses.

DaVince · Post by **DaVince** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 21:59

If the licenses don't allow inclusion, you could have the game ask you to download (from several possible mirrors) and "install" it for usage, though that'd be some extra effort. If I remember correctly, the original Keen 1 and 4 could only be distributed in its original form, not modified in any other way (like including extra files, which is what you'd be doing now)... but maybe adding the original zip to the archive of CG could work.

gerstrong · Post by **gerstrong** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 22:03

I'm going to add an option to the main menu where it says info and it will show the shareware info of episode 1 or of ep 2 and 3 that is a registered version (identical to the dos games).

At this way I think, it is okay to have it bundled. Even better for everyone, because this option would also show the ads of the trilogy.

EDIT: Here comes another update Pre8. It is still not perfect.

gerstrong · Post by **gerstrong** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 19:26

We have been making plans and we are thinking the following for the release deadline:

- A nice Icon for CG. We already have one

Thanks to DSL!
- In the Main Menu you should be able to open the Ordering Information Scene (Why, you ask? See below)

We still don't have released the really cool 0.3 version. there are several reasons:

- More developers have joined us and brought new ideas, we had to replan a bit more
- I don't want to release a simple update. It should be a bit more than that.
- There are still some messy parts in the code I would like to remove/fix, but they are still needed and I cannot do everything at same time. Those parts bring a lot of trouble. 0.3 must be stable
- Many people still report bugs. That means the program is not ready for a release. It must be rock solid for everybody. Once again 0.3 must be stable

Now, why the Ordering Information? I want to interpret Commander Keen, and we can do it, while it is an evironment like Dosbox where you can see everything of the game. We need to show the license of the game and with the ordering information it should give some people the information that keen1 is shareware and the other 2 episodes are still sold. But that's not a reason, it is a plan.

Having the ordering information and some shareware information text, we can distribute Commander Keen 1 with CKP as a bundle together (legally), so nobody has to fiddle around with the game or at least the first Episode in future.

What do you think? If I get more help maybe we also could include an installer for windows. So just one setup, install the game and run it.

We take more time because we want to have it easy and usable for everyone. We want it nice and stable. I hope you understand that.

I personally want to go to the release, but this has to be done first. Especially we have to get out all the annoying bugs, which make the games (At least Episode 1-3) unplayable. About mods we can still enhance it. I have created a part of the source in where everybody who wants to contribute can extend the patching abilities. For now it only can read memory maps (tiles.tli) which should be patched, but that's another area and there's still a lot of work to do. The good news are that some mods can already be played and they promising. More will come!

I hope we won't spend much time anymore and release the stable 0.3 version soon. I can't wait to begin with the new games menu system (autodetectable games) and Keen 4-6 support! I already have implemented parts of the new menu system, but I don't want to use them in those versions or the stable one as it is very untested and incomplete.

Roobar · Post by **Roobar** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 19:49

What do I think? The more people on the team, the bigger the delay

. Just released it and add things later (in v0.3.1 etc). There never can be a perfect version and there always can be something that can be added or improved. So the next version is going to be 0.2.99999 or 0.3?

That was my impatient side. Don't get me wrong though. I know you're putting a lot of effort on this project, so take your time. I appreciate your work as imo it's one of the greatest keen projects ever.

As for the installer: it would be nice, though I prefer to be rar. But eventually, you may release both installer and archive (at least for the stable versions).

gerstrong · Post by **gerstrong** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 17:08

Okay, I'm about to release Pre10. If the issues are really minor I may make it a release.

Here are the changes:
- Commander Keen 1 is bundled this time. So no config is needed. Just start CG and you are straight forward! At least for Episode 1
- DSL's Icon has been added. Thanks a lot again
- Ordering Info has been added as option in the main menu due license requirements
- minor issues have been fixed. Especially mods.

Roobar · Post by **Roobar** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 18:33

In keen 1, when you open the yellow door in one of the first levels, some weird tiles appears. They may appear on other doors and keens too. I don't know yet. Otherwise I don't find much bugs.

The end of story looks weird again. It's a clean installation...

And I didn't found ordering info as an option.

gerstrong · Post by **gerstrong** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 19:19

Oh, I see, there are the wrong versions.

Those are an svn of aug 01. I'm going to change those packages.

EDIT: Okay, the right version is up

Roobar · Post by **Roobar** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 20:16

Ok the latest build...

Sorry, but there are still a lot of resolution bugs. I changed the resolution to 1600x1050 fullscreen and I wasn't able to see anything. I dunno what this resolution is anyway? Isn't it supposed to be 1680x1050 (and 1600x900)? After I changed the resolutions back, I was able to switch between only 640x480 and 1600x1050. 1600x1050 definitely not supported by my monitor. Maybe you should add some check or 5 second test time before applying a new res?

What's more funny, when I exit and started a new game, I wasn't able to change any resolutions...

KeenEmpire · Post by **KeenEmpire** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 20:56

This is probably a dumb question, but with CKP would you be able to make arbitrary mods that draw on all games' enemy/world map behavior and have as many levels as you want?

Or would it require another editor?

Genius314 · Post by **Genius314** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 22:26

KeenEmpire wrote:This is probably a dumb question, but with CKP would you be able to make arbitrary mods that draw on all games' enemy/world map behavior and have as many levels as you want?

Or would it require another editor?

I suppose technically any level limits wouldn't be there, including size and number of levels.

Sprites from other games wouldn't be possible, without using a different level format or something. The problem is that the levels store enemy data as a variable, which change in each game - for instance, sprite 1 might spawn a Yorp in Keen 1, but a Vorticon Grunt in Keen 2.

Commander Spleen · Post by **Commander Spleen** » Wed Aug 05, 2009 2:39

What Genius said.

It's theoretically possible, since the one CKP program contains the code for all sprites, so it could be made to read, say, sprites 20+ as Keen 2 and 40+ as Keen 3, then use the graphics from each of those games and their associated code. Of course, such a project would only work with CKP, and would no longer be functional as a standalone mod.