Prerelease 3.018 (Bugfixes, Localization-Related Sizing Changes)

[x4000]

The latest beta is available via the Updates window in version 3.000 or greater of the game.  Just open the game and you can quickly download the prerelease through the updates tab.  If you don't yet have 3.000 or greater, you can download 3.000 here.  This prerelease version is compatible with any vendor's version of the game -- Steam, Impulse, whatever.

Note:  If you have bug reports related to this release, please log them in the bug reports subforum with one bug per topic.  It makes things infinitely easier for us.  Thanks!

What's new since 3.016:
(Cumulative release notes since 3.000 are attached at the bottom)

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-Sizing updates have been made to many of the menu panels and windows to make them more localization-friendly.

-The resource bar at the top of the screen now sizes itself in a more dynamic way, so that it is more localization-friendly.

-Previously, the +/- buttons would not always respond to being pressed.  Fixed.

-Previously, tachyon warheads were enabled when cloaking was disabled.  Fixed.

-Previously, there was an issue with Zenith Traders not always going through wormholes correctly when a player planet was on the other side.  Fixed.

-It is no longer possible for players to manually attack remains, as that often led to accidental pointless clicks during the middle of battle.

-Previously, cloaked ships that were revealed by a tachyon beam could not be manually targeted by player ships.  Fixed.

-The music streaming solution has been updated again in order to hopefully provide the best possible performance on all configurations.

Updates in 3.018:

-Fixed a rare crash bug in 3.017 related to the music.

-Individual waves are now capped at a map of 2,000 AI units.  Since the AI can send up to two waves per human player, this can still be an enormous number of ships overall if players have a huge number of wave-multiplying assets on a target planet.

-If the game is for whatever reason unable to load settings.dat, it now tries to load settings.bak.  If it fails loading that as well, then it will instead launch with an empty settings file.  Previously, the game would just crash in these cases.

-DNS hostnames can now be entered into the direct connect server box, whereas previously it would only allow IP Addresses.

-Fixed a bug relating to enemy units turning into threat via chasing marauders and other minor faction ships.  This was most noticeable with core ships chasing devourer golems.

[Kalzarius]

*sigh* There seems to be a crasher bug in the new music code. I'm working on a patch, but first have to determine the precise cause.  I'd advise reverting to the previous code in the meantime so people don't get a buggy update.

[carlosjuero]

This pre-release isn't showing up in my Updates tab :/

[Kalzarius]

All right.  The problem seems to be with locking, and it occurs under high lag scenarios when the play cursor loops around into the writing sector.  It should be fixed simply by changing LockType.None to LockType.EntireBuffer (line 334 -- WriteToSecondaryBuffer).

[x4000]

This pre-release isn't showing up in my Updates tab :/

I'll check on this...

All right.  The problem seems to be with locking, and it occurs under high lag scenarios when the play cursor loops around into the writing sector.  It should be fixed simply by changing LockType.None to LockType.EntireBuffer (line 334 -- WriteToSecondaryBuffer).

Okay, will fix.  Thanks!

[carlosjuero]

This pre-release isn't showing up in my Updates tab :/

I think it may be because Steam hasn't updated to 3.016

I'll check on this...

All right.  The problem seems to be with locking, and it occurs under high lag scenarios when the play cursor loops around into the writing sector.  It should be fixed simply by changing LockType.None to LockType.EntireBuffer (line 334 -- WriteToSecondaryBuffer).

Okay, will fix.  Thanks!

[x4000]

Regarding the updates tab issue, are you sure it is finished checking?  When you go there, it says if it is still checking for updates at the top.  That can take a minute or so, sometimes.  I just ran through it updating to the official 3.016 from 3.011 beta, then to 3.017 beta from official 3.016, and it worked fine in both cases.  So my best guess is that it is still just waiting, which it tells you at the top of the update window (first button), but which doesn't have animation or anything to really draw the eye.

Oh -- even if you are on Steam, the 3.017 will still show up as a beta, even though 3.016 does not show up as official.  So should not make any difference there, anyone at 3.000 or higher can get 3.017.

[carlosjuero]

Regarding the updates tab issue, are you sure it is finished checking?  When you go there, it says if it is still checking for updates at the top.  That can take a minute or so, sometimes.  I just ran through it updating to the official 3.016 from 3.011 beta, then to 3.017 beta from official 3.016, and it worked fine in both cases.  So my best guess is that it is still just waiting, which it tells you at the top of the update window (first button), but which doesn't have animation or anything to really draw the eye.

Oh -- even if you are on Steam, the 3.017 will still show up as a beta, even though 3.016 does not show up as official.  So should not make any difference there, anyone at 3.000 or higher can get 3.017.

As I said in the other thread it showed up randomly - well, every update showed up randomly (as in 3.016+) tonight. I had previously checked the update tab when entering the game, and a few hours later. I think it may be time for a Windows Spring Cleaning - some things are going on that are irritating me and I think its Vista saying its cluttery.

[x4000]

3.018 is now out!

Updates in 3.018:

-Fixed a rare crash bug in 3.017 related to the music.

-Individual waves are now capped at a map of 2,000 AI units.  Since the AI can send up to two waves per human player, this can still be an enormous number of ships overall if players have a huge number of wave-multiplying assets on a target planet.

-If the game is for whatever reason unable to load settings.dat, it now tries to load settings.bak.  If it fails loading that as well, then it will instead launch with an empty settings file.  Previously, the game would just crash in these cases.

-DNS hostnames can now be entered into the direct connect server box, whereas previously it would only allow IP Addresses.

-Fixed a bug relating to enemy units turning into threat via chasing marauders and other minor faction ships.  This was most noticeable with core ships chasing devourer golems.

[MaxAstro]

Since upgrading to 3.018 the music stutters ~horribly~ - I get a second of music, a second of silence, a second of music, etc.  Can't say if this was introduced in 3.017 or not as I went straight from 3.016 to 3.018.

[Kalzarius]

Since upgrading to 3.018 the music stutters ~horribly~ - I get a second of music, a second of silence, a second of music, etc.  Can't say if this was introduced in 3.017 or not as I went straight from 3.016 to 3.018.

That would unfortunately be an artifact to the recent fix to the crasher bug.... I apologize, everybody.  It's difficult to make sure all of this works without being able to compile and run the code myself before it goes into an actual update.

After looking through SlimDX's source code, I have come to realize that we should not need to use any other LockFlag than None.  However, I do need to figure out what's going on that's causing the exception. X, if possible, could you compile an executable with the following code change?  It will hopefully shed some light on things.

Code: [Select]

       private void WriteToSecondaryBuffer( int writeSize )
        {
            //buffer.Write( TransferBuffer, 0, SectorSize, SecondaryBufferWritePosition, LockFlags.None );
            //SecondaryBufferWritePosition += SectorSize;
            try {
                buffer.Write( TransferBuffer, 0, writeSize, SecondaryBufferWritePosition, LockFlags.None );
                SecondaryBufferWritePosition += writeSize;
                SecondaryBufferWritePosition %= StreamBufferSize;
            }
            catch ( Exception e )
            {
                int progress = DataBytesSoFar * 100 / (int)oggStream.Length
                File.AppendAllText( Configuration.GetLocalApplicationDataFolder() +
                     "BufferWriteExceptions.txt",
                     "-----------------------------------" + Environment.NewLine +
                     DateTime.Now + Environment.NewLine +
                     "Exception: " + e.ToString() + Environment.NewLine +
                     "Song: " + this.Filename + " (" + progress.ToString() + ")" + Environment.NewLine +
                     "Play Position: " + buffer.CurrentPlayPosition.ToString() + Environment.NewLine +
                     "Write Position: " + buffer.CurrentWritePosition.ToString() + Environment.NewLine +
                     "Last Position: " + SecondaryBufferWritePosition.ToString() + Environment.NewLine +
                     "Write Size: " + writeSize.ToString() + Environment.NewLine);
            }
        }

EDIT: Fixed a typo at the end of the code.  Thanks RCIX!

[RCIX]

Got an extra plus on the end of that File.AppendAllText call .

[Kalzarius]

Got an extra plus on the end of that File.AppendAllText call .

Thanks! 

[TheDeadlyShoe]

-Fixed a bug relating to enemy units turning into threat via chasing marauders and other minor faction ships.  This was most noticeable with core ships chasing devourer golems.

Is this a fix for the 80 Core Raiders appearing out of nowhere an hour into the game?

[takerfimbul]

Since upgrading to 3.018 the music stutters ~horribly~ - I get a second of music, a second of silence, a second of music, etc.  Can't say if this was introduced in 3.017 or not as I went straight from 3.016 to 3.018.

me too, i can't listen the great music anymore


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Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad  CPU   Q9300  @ 2.50GHz (4 CPUs)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275: driver 196.21
Memory: 4096MB RAM
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
Realtek High Definition Audio 2.40
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