Compileable version of Alien Breed 3D II - The Killing Grounds

[Karlos]

Issue added

[Karlos]

I've forked the repo and hope to contribute fixes for things like this as PRs, but first I have to get the build working on my machine. Currently it fails immediately with the guru mentioned earlier.

[Karlos]

@pipper may I suggest adding a couple of labels so issues can be tagged, e.g. defect, enhancement etc?

[abu_the_monkey]

@Karlos

can you try this (a much older version built with devpac)
the mouse controls are like in quake, rmb = forward, lmb = fire and run is always on (hold left shift to walk) a,s,d are strafe left, back and right strafe.

I have this one working on a vanilla 3.1 install but it appears I must have set something up wrong when I switched from devpac to vasm.

[Karlos]

Not going to lie, but I use the RMB walk in all games, with cursor sidestep, backpedal and jump. I never converted to the WASD scheme. Causes no end of issues on most modern games, lol

[abu_the_monkey]

yeah, its strange that you can't change what the mouse buttons do in the controls page on the main menu.

[Karlos]

There's an enhancement request if ever there was one

[abu_the_monkey]

indeed, custom input prefs could probably do with being saved as a text file and read (if present) when you launch the executable.

[S0ulA55a551n]

Originally Posted by Karlos

Not going to lie, but I use the RMB walk in all games, with cursor sidestep, backpedal and jump. I never converted to the WASD scheme. Causes no end of issues on most modern games, lol

100% onboard with this. I am exactly the same. I had always assumed that was why I was not very good at competitive FPS. But the one thing I have learned since moving to console gaming is , its 100% me.

I am JJ on Amiga.org. Surprised you have not joined EAB sooner. Amiga.org is a shadow of it former self. never really recovered for the months and months of downtime at amiga kits hands.,

[girv]

Hey, just been made aware of this thread. Some great reversing going on here @pipper

For the record, my AB3D-RTG got as far as assembling and opening a system friendly RTG screen (IIRC with rtgmaster.library). I made a start on getting graphics output by patching the original 12-bit copperchunky rendering code to output "normal" chunky pixels instead and got as far as getting some almost recognisable shapes drawing in tiny rectangle (the original copperchunky resolution) ... but it was far, far from even being playable. Nothing like what's being done to TKG here!

Project Osiris is a great reimagining of AB3D for GZDoom, but it would indeed be cool to see a reworked original as well!

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by S0ulA55a551n

100% onboard with this. I am exactly the same. I had always assumed that was why I was not very good at competitive FPS. But the one thing I have learned since moving to console gaming is , its 100% me.

I can't tell you how much this broke Fallout 4 for me. Took me a while to realise the cursor keys are reserved for UI navigation, especially in construction mode.

I am JJ on Amiga.org. Surprised you have not joined EAB sooner. Amiga.org is a shadow of it former self. never really recovered for the months and months of downtime at amiga kits hands.,

I honestly thought I had an account that I made years ago. But when I have up and decided to register, my username was free. So either some pruning happened or I'm going senile. Probably the latter tbh.

[abu_the_monkey]

can anyone confirm if the executable I posted works?

I am lost as to what I got wrong building the latest versions with vasm where it only works on my setup . Its probably obvious but I often can't see the wood for the trees.

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by abu_the_monkey

can anyone confirm if the executable I posted works?

I am lost as to what I got wrong building the latest versions with vasm where it only works on my setup . Its probably obvious but I often can't see the wood for the trees.

I have tested and it does work (with and without JIT) However, it does also have some problems with input. Specifically, if you do try to play it with a keyboard, you seem to be out of luck. I have tried mashing all the keys and it's stuck on mouse input. Not much fun on a trackpad

[abu_the_monkey]

at least that confirms I have got something wrong when setting up vasm.

[Don_Adan]

Originally Posted by abu_the_monkey

at least that confirms I have got something wrong when setting up vasm.

At first You can try to disable all Vasm optimisations, and maybe short (word) relocations. Size of the exe file assembled with DevPac and Vasm must be same.

[abu_the_monkey]

@Don_Adan

I tried with -no-opt and without -sd -sc but the issue remains. it works with my normal config in winuae but fails under a vanilla 3.1 install. so I must have something wrong in either the libs or includes or something.

haven't tried compiling 'devpac' version with vasm yet to check the size of the exe file.

[Don_Adan]

Originally Posted by abu_the_monkey

@Don_Adan

I tried with -no-opt and without -sd -sc but the issue remains. it works with my normal config in winuae but fails under a vanilla 3.1 install. so I must have something wrong in either the libs or includes or something.

haven't tried compiling 'devpac' version with vasm yet to check the size of the exe file.

Main difference between kick 3.1 and kick 3.9 is size of the stack. You can try to use bigger stack (8000-10000 bytes) for kick 3.1 and check results. I dont remember exactly, but perhaps stack on Amiga is used for relocation tables of exe files.

[Karlos]

@abu_the_monkey

I was mistaken about the control issue, I obviously hadn't pressed K to switch back to keyboard.

[abu_the_monkey]

cool! glad I works. just need to figure out what I am doing wrong with vasm.

[pipper]

Originally Posted by girv

Hey, just been made aware of this thread. Some great reversing going on here @pipper

For the record, my AB3D-RTG got as far as assembling and opening a system friendly RTG screen (IIRC with rtgmaster.library). I made a start on getting graphics output by patching the original 12-bit copperchunky rendering code to output "normal" chunky pixels instead and got as far as getting some almost recognisable shapes drawing in tiny rectangle (the original copperchunky resolution) ... but it was far, far from even being playable. Nothing like what's being done to TKG here!

Project Osiris is a great reimagining of AB3D for GZDoom, but it would indeed be cool to see a reworked original as well!

Hi Girv! You paved the way! Hats off to you! I like the code cleanup and restructuring you did to the AB3D code and will use it in future as inspiration. I hope you're ok with what I did to you code... so far not much, barely made it compile, but I have not gotten it farther than the main menu. After that it'll hang or crash. Maybe this opportunity makes you pick it up again?!

About the poststamp sized rendering: the render size is hardcoded basically everywhere in the rendering code. If we crack this, it would be a major improvement!
Also, it would be great if we could have a 16bit rendering mode for AB3D-RTG. That would make it truly unique.