Boulder Dash Forum

Hi

I uploaded 20081218.
What about this one?
Check the timing please!
It worked for me on Linux, and two different Windows machines.

bye

cirix wrote:Check the timing please!

The timing is working fine now for me, at least. (WinXP SP2)

I tested 200081218 on MacOS X first - just to see if something changed. I always test it with cave 1 of CWS Boulder Dash 2 as it's a really fast cave with perfect timing. With the latest version it seems to run a little bit slower than with 20081216 (but this time almost as fast as on C64, so new speed is good). Timing seems ok as far as I can say at the moment. I've to make further tests but it seems all right. I've tested the same cave on C64 and it seems the same speed. But I will make more tests with other caves soon.

I'll test the PC version this evening.

I installed 20081218 on my PC with Windows XP SP2 - no problems here. Timing is as always and it's the same as on Unix. At least as I can tell. It occured that sound is a little bit stuttering on Windows and once the walking sound was suddenly gone - but that's Windows. What a wonderful OS...

Are there any further deeper tests I should do? Any special caves or something else with which differences or lags can be spotted?

Can you please better describe the replay option? I still do not know how load save them? I played a cave, saw the replay in the replay window, saved the game - but at next startup the replay was not there anymore. I really do not understand this. This should be better described in the help section.

I have tested the new version: Windows, atari timing in BD1

The preferences bug is gone.

The smoothness is very good. It still seems a little less than perfect, but I am having a hard time telling if it's the sound replay or the framerate that's causing the very slight unsmoothness.

Thanks. Ben.

CWS wrote:but at next startup the replay was not there anymore.

You have to open the replay window, and every replay has a check box next to it. You have to tick those replays you want to save.
I will explain it in the help more thoroughly!

BadDog73 wrote:The smoothness is very good. It still seems a little less than perfect,

There is some level of intentional un-smoothness in the game.
On the C64, many events were synchronized to the drawing on the TV. On a PAL set, the TV draws 50 pictures a second, so the timing in the game has an 1/50Hz=20ms granularity. On an NTSC set, this is 16ms. So if you played a cave, in which the time needed to process one game frame is 152ms, the actual time was something like 140,140,160,140,160,160ms/frame, so it alternated. On NTSC, the fluctuation is only a little less. I don't know the Atari version well, but i think that one was also synchronized.
Only BD1 caves are affected by this, as BD2, construction kit etc. only allow setting frame times which are n*20ms already.
And this was, answering the question of CWS, too: these timing issues were not related to the caves, but GDash itself. You cannot loose a second in the cave if GDash runs slow - the timers slow down, too.

I'm really liking 20081218!
Just one question: Is there a way to create your own custom C64 palette without using the RGB colors? I only ask because there's a palette that's very close to how I have my emulator colors set, but there are a few that are just a bit off and I'd like to alter them, while preserving the original.

Perfect, this version works on my Win xp, too! Thanks for fixing!

Hi,
unfortunately I have got a new problem with the latest version. If I want to change the properties of mazes and therefore click on the object, I get an application error immediately and Gdash is closed. Only mazes are concerned; I've checked the other objects, too.

cirix wrote:There is some level of intentional un-smoothness in the game.

Thanks for explaining. That makes sense.

Dustin wrote:Hi,
unfortunately I have got a new problem with the latest version. If I want to change the properties of mazes and therefore click on the object, I get an application error immediately and Gdash is closed. Only mazes are concerned; I've checked the other objects, too.

No problems here on MacOS X...

CWS wrote:No problems here on MacOS X...

Yes, these problems seem to concern Win systems only...

Concerning replays: I would recommend to add a note at the bottom of the replays window that once you click on "saved" that this option does not save the game. I played several games and always clicked "saved" in the replays window. But as soon as I quit GDash and started it again all replays were gone. I simply forgot to save the game!

BUT: This savings only work with *.bd files correctly - it saves the replays into these BDCFF file. If I loaded a *.gds and I go to "Save game" after I made some replays it wants to save it to a *.bd file istead of a separate *.bdr file.

Maybe a button in the replays windows "Save to *.bdr" would be the best solution to this problem?

hi

i uploaded a new version which solves the problem with maze dialogs.
it is now downloadable from http://biztosan.hu/~cirix/gdash/ as the other server is unfortunately down.

cws: i don't know which version i coded it in (maybe this one), but if you select a replay for saving (ticking the checkbox or pressing s in sdash), the caveset will be treated as edited. and then if you try to open another file or quit the game, you will be asked if you want to save the old one first - with the replays. (the *.bdr files were only in the translation file, and are now gone. that was an idea which i started implementing but it really did not make any sense so i removed it. everything is saved in the *.bd files, always.)

by