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[weinerschnitzel]

Would you be able to add software filters for scaled textures like the HUD and other text to make the higher resolutions more pleasant? I don't know how you be able to apply them to the 3d environment or even if the xbox could handle that.

[Hyper_Eye]

QUOTE(weinerschnitzel @ Apr 15 2010, 02:31 PM)

Would you be able to add software filters for scaled textures like the HUD and other text to make the higher resolutions more pleasant? I don't know how you be able to apply them to the 3d environment or even if the xbox could handle that.

I think the best way to have the HUD in HD is to make the game screen large enough that you get icons instead of the bar. Then turn on high-res text scaling (Display Options->Messages->Scale Text In High Res Mode) and hud scaling (find it in the config file as it is not in the menus atm... just set hud_scale to 1.) Then you get big text and nice big icons. You could leave the scaling off but the text and icons will be very small at that resolution... especially the keys which are almost impossible to see in the top-right corner without scaling. The hud scaling will be added to the menu soon.

In the game code and options the hud and bar are actually considered two different things... when you have just icons it is called the hud and when you have the bar it is a status bar. There are options for both of those... including the ability to turn the scaling of the status bar off. Try the options I mentioned above and see if that doesn't look good to you in HD.

[Hyper_Eye]

I haven't tried Odamex on an SDTV yet but trust that I will. As for what direction we are going to go with the save slots we are discussing it but no consensus has been reached yet.

Yesterday I dropped the heap size for our zone memory allocator to 8MB. By default it is 32MB and that is half the memory available on the Xbox. That is why memory was running out when trying to switch to 1080i and between certain maps with 720p. With the new heap size you can switch to 1080i and you shouldn't run out of memory with 720p. The consequence of that is if you load a wad that has a very large map (I'm talking pretty darn big) the game may quit if there is no memory available on the heap. This does not mean these large maps will not be playable on Xbox. It means that extra measures will have to be taken when trying to play them. Basically the game resolution will have to be lowered to 480p and the heap size increased. The heap size can be passed in on the command-line so I will be able to make it configurable in the launcher. My idea is to have advanced settings in the configuration dialog of the launcher and the heap size will be adjustable from there. The Xbox simply doesn't have enough memory to maintain such a large heap while still having enough memory to play at such high resolutions. That is especially true considering it is only in rare circumstances that a heap larger than 8MB is needed for our zone memory allocator. I think it is an appropriate trade-off that for a few incredibly large maps (for an idea the map I was testing with is Arcadia.wad) you might have to use a special setting in order for all the levels of the retail games to run without crashing when using options that are in the game. Using the new heap size I was able to play regular Doom 1 levels that crashed before. I also loaded up the AvP dehacked wad and played it for a bit. Still, this new setting needs a lot of testing. If someone finds a crash situation a report would be greatly helpful.

As for the playability of 1080i. You can play in that resolution but you will find it to be choppy. I am going to do my best to find every opportunity to optimize and hopefully I can get it to be fluid. I am pretty happy with the performance of 720p with the exception of the screen wipe between levels.

[Hyper_Eye]

This is in progress:





Also, while 1080i will be in the list of resolutions for people who have it enabled on their console I do not intend to support it for the first release. It is not smooth and currently there is not enough memory to make it run all the stock maps while maintaining a large enough heap for our zone memory allocator. If I do support it in the future I will either have to reduce memory usage or it will only be supported on consoles with memory mods. 720p is very playable and it will be supported at release. Another thing to note is that I am not going to develop the launcher using guichan. I am switching to libAgar which has a lot more to offer. In the development section of this board I have screenshots of example programs running with Agar in the "SDL GUI Library" thread.

[weinerschnitzel]

I see that you are also working on a wii port. How far have you come with the launcher? It appeared that you have already successfully ported AGAR.

[Hyper_Eye]

QUOTE(weinerschnitzel @ Apr 29 2010, 11:05 PM)

I see that you are also working on a wii port. How far have you come with the launcher? It appeared that you have already successfully ported AGAR.

The launcher is much higher on the priority list than the Wii is. The Wii is pissing me off. I'm leaving it alone for now.

[Hyper_Eye]

I haven't set a release date. I hope to have the port in a releasable state by the time Odamex 0.5 is ready for release but I am not guaranteeing that. Even then there is no release date for 0.5. As matter of fact, Odamex never sets release dates or even announces releases before making them. When we are ready we make a release and the site reflects it. Most people figure it out when they realize all the game servers have updated. I wish I could provide something more solid for you guys but there is just no way to tell at the moment. The big thing really is the launcher interface. Besides that the game is playable in single-player and online on SDTV and HDTV (with up to 720p resolution.) So a lot of the necessary goals have already been achieved.

[cheema201]

QUOTE(Clockface @ May 10 2010, 11:23 PM)

 "A delayed game is delayed for a short time, but a bad game is bad forever".

Try telling that to the people that are still waiting for duke forever hahaha.

But I agree.

The main thing is that there actually is a release, when it is doesn't really matter that much. I mean it seems that this is far enough advanced to actually warrant a release, pending a few more tasks. usually when a port is this far complete then a release is almost certain.

There is nothing worse than starting a project and never finishing.

I can't really talk though, I am still working on a mod for FF7 that I started a few years ago haha. But I will finish it eventually.

Best of luck with your launcher Hyper. And let me say that the launcher is so important in my opinion. It is not something that should be rushed, and I think it often is.

[Rygrass]

Wow this seems like a really cool project. As i  been with Zdaemon for a few years now ( Think 5th year ) Seems really cool that there is a port will to be ported over to xbox and have online surrport.

Hope this goes well for you just cant wait!

[trrobin]

Hey Hyper, how's the progress going?
I'm very excited about this, and have been following eagerly from the start.

[Hyper_Eye]

Things have been slow the last couple of weeks because things have gotten really busy at work. I expect to be picking steam back up in the next couple of weeks.

One awesome change is that I now have real 128MB devkits to work with thanks to Undead of Team Assembly: http://forums.xbox-s...howtopic=712946

[Pulsemasta]

QUOTE(Hyper_Eye @ Jun 5 2010, 03:14 PM)

Things have been slow the last couple of weeks because things have gotten really busy at work. I expect to be picking steam back up in the next couple of weeks.

One awesome change is that I now have real 128MB devkits to work with thanks to Undead of Team Assembly: http://forums.xbox-s...howtopic=712946

Thats cool you grabbed that box, hope it helps the project out  

[Hyper_Eye]

For anyone that likes to build svn and test changes you will need to copy over the new odamex.wad to run with the recent changes.

[weinerschnitzel]

I see options for different player skins (Male, Female, Cyborg) It seems that there is only one packaged skin. What will it take to add other player skins to xbox? I would also like to have the color channels for skins increment at a faster rate than how much it does with a single button press left or right. I have usb capabilities on my xbox now and would like to try online using the keyboard and console. I hope you have been making progress on the launcher, and thanks for your hard work.

[Hyper_Eye]

As I have said before I cannot speculate on when there will be a release. I hope to have the Xbox port ready for the 0.5 release of Odamex. In order for 0.5 to come out all the depends in this metabug need to be crossed off: http://odamex.net/bu..._bug.cgi?id=567

As to what has been completed, I have had to focus my attention on work since my last report because I had a major deadline to meet. That deadline was reached this week and the demo I was preparing for occurred yesterday. That means I am ready to focus my attention on producing a launcher again. I have to prioritize because I would not be able to work on things like Odamex at all if I didn't meet my obligations at work. I love working on Odamex and Xbox code but it is the code that earns me a paycheck that allows me to do those things. I assure you that work on this port will continue and when it is done it will be awesome. The other day I merged changes from trunk so a lot of Odamex changes did go in including a major update to the menus.

The skin support in Odamex is provided by skin-containing wads. In order to use them on a server the server would have to have that wad loaded. They are not commonly used as skins can affect the game. I remember ZDaemon had a bunch of skins it released with and they could be used in all servers. What people would do is use the smallest skins and/or the hardest ones to see so that they were a more difficult target. It was quickly realized how that could have a negative impact on the game and it was changed. So skins should work on Xbox the same as they do on PC. To be honest I am not really sure what the status of skin support is though and I have never tried it. I might be able to provide more information on that later.

For the color bars, I noticed just this morning that they are practically impossible to adjust with the controller and I noted that I need to do something to improve it. Thanks for the report.

weinerschnitzel, if you wouldn't mind go into the display options and change the screen transition from melt to burn. See if that doesn't look better to you when using 720p. I think you will find it eliminates the choppiness you experienced.