How to report errors

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Ralf
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How to report errors

Post by Ralf »

Hi,
short question: how should I report errors?
Is there a special bugzilla database for the privateer remake?

Just two short ones:
as soon as xscreensaver kicks in, the following happens:
screen flickers
window bar get's visible
keys and mouse not working any longer.

And another one:
When I get killed, the ";" key for re-spawning does not work.

Ok, that's for now. Got to resume playing.
Zeog
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Post by Zeog »

WRT re-spawning: could it be that your ;-key isn't the same key as on a qwerty-keyboard? If you are using a german keyboard (with a different layout) you could respawn with your ö-key,
Cf.:
german keyboard layout
english keyboard layout
Spaceman Spiff
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Re: How to report errors

Post by Spaceman Spiff »

Ralf wrote:
Just two short ones:
as soon as xscreensaver kicks in, the following happens:
screen flickers
window bar get's visible
keys and mouse not working any longer.
Strange... AFAIK, the screensaver shouldn't start as long as the game runs... at least mine doesn't.
Did you try to press winkey to return to win completly and the return to the game using the taskbar?

I guess it's OK to report bugs here. There is a bug-board but AFAIK it's only used for VS.

Anyhow... knowone will be mad at you for learning about a bug;)
You are a newbie and need help? Check out the Wing Commander Universe and Privateer Remake Library Project

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Ralf
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Post by Ralf »

Hi,

Gentoo Linux, xscreensaver running. No Stupid Windows :D

Ok, the privateer start script could be exteded to cope with this, but better still the vegastrike engine could re-grab the input


And with the keys: tried ever key, just "esc" is working. A semicolon is not in the config file so I am wondering how it should ever work.

Next bugs wanted?
The Troy.system configuration file is a mess.
1. background is not displayed in the game (don't know why)
2. ambient light is much to bright (unrealistic) and I have four light definitions. One should be enough.
3. linebreak in the Troy sun definition. Strange
4. all jump points should be set to ReflectNoLight. I even have a much cooler jump point mapping made.
5. Helen looks uggly. No pole-caps, clouds are a joke, night side much to bright.
I have fixed some of this with a new texture (compared agains a space image of the earth).


Who likes to see the new textures?
MamiyaOtaru
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Post by MamiyaOtaru »

Sure, be happy to see them. How do they compare to the shots in this thread? That's how things look in the development tree ATM.
Ralf
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Post by Ralf »

Similar, although mine has a little less clouds.
hunger
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Post by hunger »

Bugs? Want some bugs? Or how about some glitches or abnormalities? Maybe some points that need improving? I'll tell you a few..

1. Slow lasers. By 'slow' I mean the travel speed of lasers. I mean fighting from the cockpit view you really have lead the target at least like 2km, often leaving the target out of sight. It's ridiculous.
2. Also Talons bouncing and spinning around doesn't really help hitting them. Truly annoying. Makes target lead indicator pretty much useless. Combine this with slow lasers to double the irritation.
3. Target lead indicator 'clips' ahead (like 5 fps) instead going smoothly. Not very enjoyable.
4. Cargo mission runs don't tell player how much cargo space the mission requires. Even worse you can actually take more than your ship's capacity should allow, consequently leading to you not getting paid once you arrive at your destination. This happened to me when I took 2 cargo missions with same destinations.
5. Once player's ship has sustained enough damage some of the displays begin to flicker with white static. Makes it as fun as watching countinuously flashing camera flash. In fact, my cousin had an epileptic seizure when we both saw this the first time. (nah.. just kidding, folks ;) )
6. I wasn't very good at physics but if spaceship travels in space, thrusters on, like 1000 km/s and then suddenly stops the thrusters, how fast will it travel after that? I say 1000 km/s until some force slows it down or alters its course since in space there's only vaccuum, no friction from air to slow the ship down. In Privateer Remake your movement will seize in seconds.
7. It was somewhat annoying also to discover the mouse hotspots in stations. Why not make a few dropdown menus through which player could access any place quickly and conveniently? Or some highlighting here and there...
8. How about GUI to key bindings?
9. Add list of keys to manual. They're quite scattered there.
10. What? Pirates let you land in their stations even if they hate your guts? They even refuel your ship? For free?! Yep.. that's right.
11. Umm.. maybe add some info about different enemy ships? At least the common ones...
12. And what's with that auto-targeting system that has to be bought separetely on all guns?! Make it one-time purchase to all guns. Put some more price there if one thinks it's too cheap then!
13. What about that 'basic repair'? Huh?! Those bastard mechanics won't even repair my ship's armor or hull. Nooo... they must repaired manually.

*Huff* *Puff* Must.. rest... now...

I have some suggestions to all those issues but I'll tell later.
ijuin
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Post by ijuin »

hunger wrote: 1. Slow lasers. By 'slow' I mean the travel speed of lasers. I mean fighting from the cockpit view you really have lead the target at least like 2km, often leaving the target out of sight. It's ridiculous.
As in the original Privateer, Lasers travel at 1400 kps (relative to the vessel firing them, I presume, or else a Demon or Stiletto would overtake its own gunfire). Other guns travel more slowly, down to Plasma cannon bolts travel at 940 kps. The upshot of all this is that if you are flying a Demon or Stiletto, you can actually outrun enemy gunfire--in fact, I reccommend fleeing on afterburner instead of fighting while using these ships except for when fighting is a mission requirement.
2. Also Talons bouncing and spinning around doesn't really help hitting them. Truly annoying. Makes target lead indicator pretty much useless. Combine this with slow lasers to double the irritation.
Demons and Dralthi are even more agile than that. Perhaps agile fighters need more acceleration and slower turning so that they're not "flying backwards" for a few seconds? On the other hand, this would reduce the effectiveness of afterburner slides...
5. Once player's ship has sustained enough damage some of the displays begin to flicker with white static. Makes it as fun as watching countinuously flashing camera flash. In fact, my cousin had an epileptic seizure when we both saw this the first time. (nah.. just kidding, folks ;) )
This seems to be an attempt to simulate cockpit damage as in the original Privateer.
6. I wasn't very good at physics but if spaceship travels in space, thrusters on, like 1000 km/s and then suddenly stops the thrusters, how fast will it travel after that? I say 1000 km/s until some force slows it down or alters its course since in space there's only vaccuum, no friction from air to slow the ship down. In Privateer Remake your movement will seize in seconds.
This is an effect of the Wing Commander flight model--in all Wing Commander games, your velocity (speed and direction) automatically adjust to whatever the player commands at a rate equal to the ship's acceleration ability. If you want to continue in a straight line while turning your ship in other directions, you should go into the vegastrike config file and un-comment the key for the Shelton Slide (autoslide) function.
7. It was somewhat annoying also to discover the mouse hotspots in stations. Why not make a few dropdown menus through which player could access any place quickly and conveniently? Or some highlighting here and there...
Again, this was done to imitate the original Privateer.
10. What? Pirates let you land in their stations even if they hate your guts? They even refuel your ship? For free?! Yep.. that's right.
See above. In the original Privateer, you could still land on a base owned by a faction that hated you.
He who lives by the sword . . . gets shot by he who lives by the gun.
hunger
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Post by hunger »

Damn... I retract the number 9 as there is quite clearly a list of hotkeys. I will now bang my head against the wall... Nah... it'd be just abusing the wall. But anyway... I thought this was a 'Remake', not 'The same game with same faults (or similar)'. But then again... one can't always get what one expects. And now that I've rigged my joystick I find controlling much easier. Tried earlier with mouse, keyboard and both.

No matter... thanks anyway. I guess I shouldn't be complaining too much, I'm still a rookie.. plus the game is free. Oh well... back to killin' and tradin' and things of that nature...
Duke Derek
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Post by Duke Derek »

most of your issues are actually kind of resolved in Vegastrike.

1: beam lasers are available
2: the physics involved is mostly real

make up your own mind but i think it makes for a slightly less playable but more immersive game (hence the fun isnt compromised but i cant just play VS for 10 minutes)

i agree that PR needs to uphold some core charachteristics of Wing Commander games and unfortunately some irritating things are part of that
Ralf
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Post by Ralf »

No,
I don't mean those. That's just space opera SF style.

What I mean is:

1. Asteroid field too complex. This slows down the game MUCH so that I now tend to avoid fighting in systems with a asteroid field.

Don't you have low polygon asteroids available.

2. Asteroids are changing their course and never hit each other.

3. When flying on afterburner I sometimes manage to fly 700 kps
And then some missions (and repaired damages later) I end up with 300 kps speed.
Then again 700 kps

4. Pirates are fighting around with tractor beam on. Looks very stupid.

5. anialiasing not activated anywhere.

6. A huge amount of error output like

Code: Select all

Destruct called. If called from C++ this is death 173465812 (0xa56e0d4)BASE Destruct called. If called from C++ this is death 173465812 (0xa56e0d4)Destruct called. If called from C++ this is death 168180644 (0xa063ba4)BASE Destruct called. If called from C++ this is death 168180644 (0xa063ba4)Destruct called. If called from C++ this is death 224925572 (0xd681784)BASE Destruct called. If called from C++ this is death 224925572 (0xd681784)WARNING: no var named BeamFadeoutLength in section graphics using default: .8
WARNING: no var named BeamFadeoutHitLength in section graphics using default: .95
yzwWARNING: no var named pierce_firewall in section audio using default: false
Nur-Ab-Sal
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Post by Nur-Ab-Sal »

Ralf wrote: 1. Asteroid field too complex. This slows down the game MUCH so that I now tend to avoid fighting in systems with a asteroid field.
Then you need a faster graphic card. ;-)
But I agree a little. The old game asteroids are looking better than the new one.
Ralf wrote: 2. Asteroids are changing their course and never hit each other.
Yes, that's quite stupid. I sometimes get overtaken by asteroids.
And with this chatoic flying the asteroid field would vanish within 10 minutes.

Shade and sweet water!

Stephan
If your life was a horse, you'd have to shoot it.
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Post by Duke Derek »

Nur-Ab-Sal wrote: Yes, that's quite stupid. I sometimes get overtaken by asteroids.
And with this chatoic flying the asteroid field would vanish within 10 minutes.
i quite agree, im peturbed immensely by the asteroid fields, the fact they are orbiting.... nothing, it makes no sense
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Post by Spaceman Spiff »

In the early days of the board there were a lot of discussions about the asteroid fields. IIRC there were also threads about physics and behaviour.
IMO they are ok as they are. Maybe they are not realistic but being realitic never meant much in wing commander games. Sure, they can give you a hard time (not too hard, IMO) sometimes, but isn't this part of the fun?

BTW. How do you think realistic asteroids should move?
You are a newbie and need help? Check out the Wing Commander Universe and Privateer Remake Library Project

---------------------------------------------------
What's mind? No matter... What's matter? Never Mind!

Insanity is just a state of mind!

That which does not kill us, makes us stranger.
Nur-Ab-Sal
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Post by Nur-Ab-Sal »

Spaceman Spiff wrote:Sure, they can give you a hard time (not too hard, IMO) sometimes, but isn't this part of the fun?
If asteroids are hitting you from behind, because they are faster as your ship with a little more than 300 kps, and you can't avoid them, because you don't see them, then I don't think, it's funny.
Spaceman Spiff wrote: BTW. How do you think realistic asteroids should move?
Good question.
If you want a field to be stable, the asteroids should not be able to move away. We have two situations:

1. Asteroids at jump points or nav points
Here is no gravitation source to keep the asteroids at a orbit, so they should be standing. I don't know if jump points or nav points are moving around the sun like a planet does. If not, the asteroid field would have to move like a planet itself and leave the point behind. If yes, both point and field must orbit at the same speed around the sun to be stable.

2. Asteroids at planets or bases
Here the asteroids must move around the planet like a moon, or they would crash at the planet/base or fly away. So the movement should not be chaotic but regular.

Shade and sweet water!

Stephan
If your life was a horse, you'd have to shoot it.
MamiyaOtaru
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Post by MamiyaOtaru »

hunger wrote:7. It was somewhat annoying also to discover the mouse hotspots in stations. Why not make a few dropdown menus through which player could access any place quickly and conveniently? Or some highlighting here and there...
Right click to cycle through available hotspots. In there for those who didn't play the original, and for whom the base layouts aren't as familiar as the back of our hand ;) That one gets overlooked. The rest have been addressed for the most part in other replies or in the devel version. Besides:
hunger wrote:I personally will put an end to the masochism (playing Privateer)
"The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long"
Duke Derek
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Post by Duke Derek »

Spaceman Spiff wrote: IMO they are ok as they are. Maybe they are not realistic but being realitic never meant much in wing commander games. Sure, they can give you a hard time (not too hard, IMO) sometimes, but isn't this part of the fun?

BTW. How do you think realistic asteroids should move?
im not suggesting they should move in any different way in PR but i just think they're pretty wrong all in all. i totally accept the unrealism of Wing Commander and it doesnt detract from my enjoyment. as i said before, if i want realistic in a space sim i play VS
Ralf
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Post by Ralf »

Ok,
my Geforce 4 was always enough. :evil:
What was this about backwards compatibility?

I mean hey, someone just make some LOD asteroids. Three intersecting polygons should be enough if they are far away.
Problem solved,
Customers happy.

I would make this myself, but I remember that you need some strange tools to convert to Vega Strike objects. As soon as you have the Ogre thing in place, I am back again with Meshes.


Next point.
I just lost my reactor. :?
Suddenly gone. Lost in Space.
How can such a thing happen?

Ok, back to the game...
MamiyaOtaru
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Post by MamiyaOtaru »

I made do with a geforce3 for quite some time, until 6 months or so ago. LOD asteroids help a little (I have some, 3 doublesided planes each). Number of polygons isn't really the issue though, it is keeping track of so many individual units.

The old asteroids were made up of only 7 or so units, but still looked like there were just as many, only they couldn't be destroyed. You can switch back to the old style by editing vegastrike.config. Edit all occurrences of <var name="asteroid_detail" value="x"/> so the value is 0.

(the value is how many new style fields there can be in a single system. Set to 0 if you want none, ie if you want the old style).
Duke Derek
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Post by Duke Derek »

i have a GeForce 2 somethingorother and i find it's fine even when i'm in the middle of asteroid fields...
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