Commander Keen: Galaxy Reimagined (Public Beta available)

[lestagio]

Sweet! It's out!
I'm excited to play this full game. See all of the levels and their redesigns, how everything connects, etc. The demo was promising, and so I believe this will be an awesome experience! I liked a lot of the changes to the game, like the lives that now function like a health bar, the unlockable pogo and stunner, etc. Giving this a playthrough and will report back on my experience!

Edit: getting a 404 error and I cannot download the game from the provided link. Perhaps this is just a glitch on my end, but I tried in multiple browsers, and couldn't get it to download. However, I fixed it. Removed the "demo" part from the url.
Here's the proper link: https://www.nv.wtf/GalaxyReimagined_0.9.5.0_Beta.zip

Edit 2: Namida fixed it

[namida]

Whoops, my bad. Edited the posts to fix the links.

[Syllypryde]

I feel like a fool. How do I even load this game?

Extract the ZIP and run KeenGame.exe (I need to give it a proper filename). It runs on its own engine; no need to supply a copy of any official game or use CKPatch etc.

You do need to install .NET 7.0 to run it. It's likely you already have this if you're on a modern version of Windows.

I do have .NET 7.0. It still will not load.

[namida]

Does it give any error message or does it just do nothing when you try?

Are you running this on Windows or attempting to run it on Linux? (The latter is possible to do, others have confirmed this, but I don't have the means to assist troubleshooting it right now. Hopefully someone else can, though.)

Oh - just because this has caused issues before in other projects (which I was able to fix) - is your OS set to another language? And if yes, which one?

[Syllypryde]

Does it give any error message or does it just do nothing when you try?

Are you running this on Windows or attempting to run it on Linux? (The latter is possible to do, others have confirmed this, but I don't have the means to assist troubleshooting it right now. Hopefully someone else can, though.)

Oh - just because this has caused issues before in other projects (which I was able to fix) - is your OS set to another language? And if yes, which one?

It loads for about 10 seconds and stops. Every repeated attempt it loads for 2-3 seconds and stops. I'm running it on Windows 10. My OS is set to English.

[lestagio]

Have you tried running it as admin? Running in compatibility mode?
To run in compatibility mode, right-click on the exe, open up properties and then go to the compatibility tab. Click "run the program in compatibility mode for" and try the different options.
I have been able to get it to run easily on Windows 10 and 11, and so I am just trying to come up with ideas that may fix the issue.

[namida]

I've just uploaded an update, V0.9.5.1, that attempts to save some information about what caused any crashes. Please download this version and try it out, and send me (PM or just post here, either is fine) the contents of the crashlog text files it creates (in the same folder as the EXE).

For anyone using V0.9.5.0, if it's working fine for you, there's no need to update to V0.9.5.1. The only change is the addition of this crash logging. If you are experiencing crashes though, please update and send me the logs (even if it's an entirely different crash from this one). This does not apply to bugs / glitches that don't cause the game to crash; this update will not help in any way with those.

[Syllypryde]

I've just uploaded an update, V0.9.5.1, that attempts to save some information about what caused any crashes. Please download this version and try it out, and send me (PM or just post here, either is fine) the contents of the crashlog text files it creates (in the same folder as the EXE).

For anyone using V0.9.5.0, if it's working fine for you, there's no need to update to V0.9.5.1. The only change is the addition of this crash logging. If you are experiencing crashes though, please update and send me the logs (even if it's an entirely different crash from this one). This does not apply to bugs / glitches that don't cause the game to crash; this update will not help in any way with those.

Here is the crash log:

Crashed: 2024-07-05 20:31:21

Exception class: Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics.NoSuitableGraphicsDeviceException
Exception message: Failed to create graphics device!
Exception trace: at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.GraphicsDeviceManager.CreateDevice()
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game.DoInitialize()
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game.Run(GameRunBehavior runBehavior)
at GalaxyReimagined.Program.Main(String[] args) in C:\Users\namid\Source\GalaxyReimagined\Program.cs:line 18

Exception class: System.PlatformNotSupportedException
Exception message: MonoGame requires either ARB_framebuffer_object or EXT_framebuffer_object.Try updating your graphics drivers.
Exception trace: at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics.GraphicsDevice.FramebufferHelper.Create(GraphicsDevice gd)
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics.GraphicsDevice.PlatformInitialize()
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics.GraphicsDevice.Initialize()
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.GraphicsDeviceManager.CreateDevice(GraphicsDeviceInformation gdi)
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.GraphicsDeviceManager.CreateDevice()

[namida]

Oof, that doesn't even get into my code then. That's the MonoGame framework itself having issues.

Not sure how much I can do about it. I could try a DirectX rather than OpenGL build and see if that helps, but that's the only thing that comes to mind.

Out of interest, is there anything out of the ordinary about your PC? Such as a workstation or Intel Arc GPU, or a Snapdragon CPU? Not that the answer is likely to help me solve the issue but it's something I can pass on to MonoGame devs. Will try and get a DX build up later today; luckily MonoGame makes it pretty damn simple to switch between that and OpenGL.

[namida]

I've just uploaded an update, V0.9.5.1, that attempts to save some information about what caused any crashes. Please download this version and try it out, and send me (PM or just post here, either is fine) the contents of the crashlog text files it creates (in the same folder as the EXE).

For anyone using V0.9.5.0, if it's working fine for you, there's no need to update to V0.9.5.1. The only change is the addition of this crash logging. If you are experiencing crashes though, please update and send me the logs (even if it's an entirely different crash from this one). This does not apply to bugs / glitches that don't cause the game to crash; this update will not help in any way with those.

Here is the crash log:

Crashed: 2024-07-05 20:31:21

<trimmed from quote>

As mentioned above, the only thing I can think of to try here is making a DirectX build (rather than OpenGL) and seeing if it works any better.
Give this build a try: https://nv.wtf/GalaxyReimagined_0.9.5.1-DX_Beta.zip

I only very briefly tested this build (just enough to make sure it runs, goes in-game, and plays sound fine). If there's minor issues that aren't present in the OpenGL build and it turns out this build works for people who the OpenGL build doesn't, I'll make a point of properly maintaining it; for now it's an experiment to see if it helps this specific user's issue. So anyone else - unless the normal build (linked in the first post) doesn't work for you, please stick to the normal one.

If this doesn't help I don't have any other ideas beyond narrowing down the "why" and passing it on to the MonoGame devs (and suggesting "try on another PC"), sorry.

[Nisaba]

Ooh, I very much like that! I won't give details here but it ties in very well with something in the game too... The one thing I would note is that neither of the level graphics used in it are levels that appear in Reimagined.

I'll send you images of the world map levels when I'm on PC so you can see which ones are used.

In response to your message, I have created another sketch here. Please let me know if the elements are now more suitable or what should be added before I start with the detailed work.

[namida]

I would prefer either the full title "Commander Keen: Galaxy Reimagined" (can substitute the : for the word "in" if it works better for your design) or else just "Galaxy Reimagined", but aside from that I love it!

[Nisaba]

. . . . .
"Galaxy Reimagined" it is. A more complex title might feel too crowded. I like the pink, though. Gotta toss around with the idea of resizing and recoloring the title a bit. if you have a preferred font at hand, please let me know.
anyhow, next up: shading

[namida]

Hm, can we maybe move Commander Keen to above Galaxy Reimagined? Aside from that, looks good!

[Nisaba]

let's reimagine the Galaxy font, shall well?!



next up: the energy field