Page 5 of 18
Posted: 13 Mar 2010, 03:54
human
hey guys,
sorry for being offline for so long, getting very busy with the photo contest i am semi-finalist in.
i needed an hour and a half or so to read the comments i missed since i was online last time :)
great news jig! thanks for all your efforts!

now just a few things in this topic i have noticed i can add something to:

@urne
the transparency thing in makeitgood when saving has always been there whenever i was editing jailhouse (well not always but most of the time i think), i just accepted it, i considered it to be a video driver thing or something, i was ok with it.

another thing, the skymap resizing: i have the original skymap pictures, they are 1024x1024, completely seamless i believe. i adjusted them to suit the track (liquify filter in photoshop) to see what i wanted to see when looking out the windows when driving :) if i saw a too dark area i moved a lighter area to that place. plus some contrast/brightness/level/curves adjustments have been made i think. so it is not the same like the final 256x256, but if you want to use them, i dont mind if they are not exactly that the small final versions. (i dont have time to do this right now sorry) i can send them to anybody via email.

Posted: 14 Mar 2010, 01:53
urnemanden
Re: 3D Sounds
Well, if that's the case, we could then probably connect it with the error I get at -window mode. At the moment i am unable to test neither the 3D Sound feature nor giving further results on online racing, but I will do that next friday.

I did a test with enabling and disabling 3D Audio as well as 3D Technology. Here is the results:

With WolfR4:
- 3D Audio does is still turned off, when launching Re-Volt again (even if I do restart WolfR4 before launching again)
- 3D Technology is also still turned off, when launching again.

Without WolfR4 (1207):
- 3D Audio setting is remembered, when launching Re-Volt again.
- 3D Technology is not remembered when launching Re-Volt again.

Perhaps this could have something to do with the combination of WolfR4 & -sli, but I don't think so, as I am using -sli when launching without WolfR4 as well. I agree with you Jig, it's quite weird.

human -> Transperancy Bug wrote:the transparency thing in makeitgood when saving has always been there whenever i was editing jailhouse (well not always but most of the time i think), i just accepted it, i considered it to be a video driver thing or something, i was ok with it.
Nice to hear that you can confirm that. Well, it's still just a small bug, which might can be fixed by turning all settings to maximum in your graphic card control panel. A test would reveal that, I'll eventually see if I get time to do that, even though I don't find it that necessary.

Oh, and I am also quite interested in the skymap as I use WolfR4 with the 512patch combined. I'll send you an e-mail ;)

Posted: 14 Mar 2010, 02:05
CracK
jigebren, please, take a look at this topic - http://z4.invisionfree.com/Re_Volt_Foru ... wtopic=648
If you can solve some way this problem, I would be very grateful :)

Posted: 14 Mar 2010, 03:32
miromiro
Here are some pics taken by Skarma with 11 players online:





It's really great :D ^_^

:cheers:

Posted: 14 Mar 2010, 05:02
Juicy J
First of all I want to thank you Jig for fixing 12 players issue, it's very important for those who play online.

Also I want to ask about something though I know you don't have much experience in online problems. There's a little thingy which pisses off everybody who play online, I really don't know how to call it but I guess it's "60 seconds synchronization time". It happens sometimes when there are some "laggers" in the room or players who join by IP or just when Re-Volt "decide". It's like the "waiting time" for people who didn't joined the session but 9 times outta 10 they're in the game waiting too.

I know it's not the best description of the problem but maybe you know what I mean and you know this thing exists and there is an easy way to at least reduce the "waiting time" to 30 secs.

Posted: 14 Mar 2010, 05:20
miromiro
The 60 seconds bug you mean, takes sometimes more than 60 seconds.

<_< :( :huh:

Posted: 14 Mar 2010, 07:51
jigebren
Well, I'm glad to see that the 12 online players fix seems to be quite appreciated. Thank you guys for your support.


@urnemanden
Can you just refresh my memory: what is this makeitgood Transparency Bug you were talking about with human?


@CracK
Well, I have not much idea, and I'm not sure I'll be more qualified that anybody here to help you with that bug ;) . Just to say, I have no account at revolt race forum. If you want some help here, you'd better open a new topic (but not in this section). Just write a summary of your issue, your revolt version, and of some info on your OS/system.
Maybe the fact that you have used Revolt Extender could be a clue...


@Juicy J
60 seconds synchronization time bug
I have never played online, but I've already heard of that bug. I've just looked at it, and I think I'm following a lead. But I just want to know what could be better value to use instead of 60? Is a few second enough?

Posted: 14 Mar 2010, 10:34
arto
jigebren @ Mar 14 2010, 03:21 AM wrote: But I just want to know what could be better value to use instead of 60? Is a few second enough?
No, but I think 30 seconds (this was the value Juicy mentioned to me yesterday in House) would be fine and reduce a lot of stress :).

Posted: 14 Mar 2010, 10:56
CracK
miromiro @ Mar 14 2010, 12:50 AM wrote: The 60 seconds bug you mean, takes sometimes more than 60 seconds.

<_<&nbsp; :(&nbsp; :huh:
It took more than 60 seconds because I sometimes collapsed revolt window for a few secs :rolleyes:
I think 30 seconds will be enough, instead of 60.

Posted: 14 Mar 2010, 15:29
miromiro
jigebren @ Mar 14 2010, 03:21 AM wrote: 60 seconds synchronization time bug
I have never played online, but I've already heard of that bug. I've just looked at it, and I think I'm following a lead. But I just want to know what could be better value to use instead of 60? Is a few second enough?
Well... you should come sometime to make some tests. Get RVHouse then come, a lot of guys know you. You'll be welcome there :)

Posted: 14 Mar 2010, 15:53
urnemanden
Jig wrote:Can you just refresh my memory: what is this makeitgood Transparency Bug you were talking about with human?
Sure, you can find the first reply here and screenshots here.

60 seconds synchronization time bug
Well, I remember Rst fixing this delay to 10 seconds, but 30 seconds could work as well. But I agree 60 seconds is a too long time of waiting.

Posted: 15 Mar 2010, 20:27
CracK
I dunno if it's connected with wolf, but I couldn't find another place to show this:

Posted: 15 Mar 2010, 20:57
miromiro
That's lag.

Seems like the Bug Fixer Tool has its own bugs :(

Jigebren gotta fix this.

Posted: 15 Mar 2010, 22:33
jigebren
60 seconds synchronization time bug
I have implemented this new stuff (but not tested). I'll wait a bit to see if I have other changes to make to WolfR4 before releasing a new compiled version. Sorry, but compiling/updating readme/packing archive/etc. is quite time consuming...

@CracK
Sorry, but without more informations, I can't have a clue about this bug. At first sight, I don't think it's linked to WolfR4 at all, but who knows? You have to tell me more.

@miromiro
It quite usual that WolfR4 users think that every bug they discover are linked to WolfR4, while they are often just plain Re-Volt bugs. But of course WolfR4 do have his own bugs...

Posted: 15 Mar 2010, 22:41
CracK
I swear that's it's not graphic card overheat.
Actually, it randomly happened. After finishing this race and starting next one, all went back to normal

Posted: 15 Mar 2010, 22:48
miromiro
Maybe there were connection problems... I think.
Jigebren wrote:It quite usual that WolfR4 users think that every bug they discover are linked to WolfR4, while they are often just plain Re-Volt bugs. But of course WolfR4 do have his own bugs...
I agree, everyone who sees a bug nearly after he/she installed a patch, would say that it is because of the patch, like happened with your WolfR4. But, this tool isn't finished yet, so bugs and other new random features, like with the 12 racers online - was this random or not?, could appear in the future. In my opinion, this tool rocks and it's the best after RVGlue, that I ever tested. Phoenix is good too, but it isn't free, it is in Spanish + that is hard for every guy to understand it.

I like this tool, especially because it fixes the TMMCC thingy, and the other things too.

I will post some opinions & features that I think would make WolfR4 awesome.

See you soon!

:cheers: :beer:

Posted: 15 Mar 2010, 23:02
arto
CracK @ Mar 15 2010, 03:57 PM wrote: I dunno if it's connected with wolf, but I couldn't find another place to show this:
Not Wolf related. Standard RV bug.

Posted: 16 Mar 2010, 06:52
jigebren
miromiro wrote:I agree, everyone who sees a bug nearly after he/she installed a patch, would say that it is because of the patch
Yep, your example nicely resume what I was trying to explain.
But, this tool isn't finished yet, so bugs and other new random features, like with the 12 racers online - was this random or not?
Random? :blink: Not really, or I don't understand the word. If I wasn't 100% that the '12 racers online' fix would work the fist time, it's because I'm too "lazy" to read all the source code to be able to predict the exact effect of each patched values. But of course I'm not trying things randomly until I find something that works, if that's what you were wondering... :lol:

arto wrote:Not Wolf related. Standard RV bug.
Thanks for the info, arto.


New feature
I'm implementing a new stuff that can be useful for car makers. Just tell me I there is already a way to do this (I think not).
I've added new button to force re-volt to read again all 'parameters.txt' files.
It can be usefull for car makers when tweaking car parameters. After using this button, you just have to restart the race to see the changes (instead of having to restart whole re-volt). Even quicker, if you use the CHANGELING cheat name, you can select another car then go back to the previous one (using PgUp / PgDn keys) instead of restarting the race. It will be enough to refresh car's settings.

Posted: 16 Mar 2010, 18:37
miromiro
Yeah that's it Jigebren...
Hmmm.... you're right.
Anyway, make some features for track making too please... <_<

Posted: 17 Mar 2010, 01:42
miromiro
Well... seems like I said too early. I should have tested before. The Custom Cars Number Fix doesn't work!

Why??? :(

Posted: 17 Mar 2010, 22:02
urnemanden
Car Parameter Refreshment
Great idea, I think it could be very usefull for car makers.

Suggestion: MAKEITGOOD Mode Open for custom tracks
In Single Mode you're able to go into MAKEITGOOD Edit mode, but by entering Time Trial you cannot edit a custom track. That results in that the AI when reaching the last AI Nodes will make Re-Volt crash if you haven't finished the AI Nodes yet. You can prevent that by using Time Trial (which is used in Edit Mode. Take eventually a look at this video to see what I am talking about.

Posted: 17 Mar 2010, 22:43
miromiro
In my opinion, you should finish the AI Nodes, without being tweaked, then, restart a race and tweak.
But to prevent this would be cool for the tracks that need a lot of time to make AI.


PS: Sorry Jigebren, I was wrong with the Custom Cars Limit Fix thingy. It worked, but I hadn't 1207 patch installed. That's why, now I'm glad to see that everything works :D

Posted: 18 Mar 2010, 00:36
Adamodell
urnemanden @ Mar 17 2010, 05:32 PM wrote: Car Parameter Refreshment
Great idea, I think it could be very usefull for car makers.

Suggestion: MAKEITGOOD Mode Open for custom tracks
In Single Mode you're able to go into MAKEITGOOD Edit mode, but by entering Time Trial you cannot edit a custom track. That results in that the AI when reaching the last AI Nodes will make Re-Volt crash if you haven't finished the AI Nodes yet. You can prevent that by using Time Trial (which is used in Edit Mode. Take eventually a look at this video to see what I am talking about.
Haha, a refreshment is a drink.
You mean refresh.
I had this idea like ever since I saw Phoenix R3 (because it did have track refresh so why not a car refresh?).

Anyway, I never understood why Re-Volt doesn't load the params on car load. I hate how it loads all the params right when the exe's launched, so if you make changes you have to exit out and relaunch to see the changes. :(

Posted: 18 Mar 2010, 06:05
jigebren
<offtopic>@urnemanden
Another little correction following Adamodell's one. It's looking like you're using eventually in place of possibly? (I'm aware of this mistake, because it's very frequent for french people too, as possibly is said in french éventuellement, which looks very similar to eventually). </offtopic>


MAKEITGOOD Mode Open for custom tracks
I'm just wondering: how do the track maker use to do until now to create AI node, if revolt crashes because of the opponent cars? Sorry, but I'm still not thoroughly used to all track creating process...


@miromiro, about Custom Cars Limit Fix.
Well, I wasn't worrying a lot... So I'm glad to see that you have solved it by yourself.


@Adamodell
Maybe they did the car loading this way because, in the beginning of development, all parameters for all cars were read from one single file. So it was read once for all.

Posted: 18 Mar 2010, 12:53
urnemanden
MAKEITGOOD Mode Open for custom tracks
If there doesn't exist any .fan file in a track, Re-Volt won't crash, the cars will just get repositioned all the time, but as you saw in the movie, Re-Volt will crash if there is an incomplete racing line and the AI reaches the last node. To prevent that you can pause the game at Esc, but that's a bit unhandy since Re-Volt respond both in the menu and while you're editing the AI Nodes (Again you can also prevent that by entering the Audio Menu, but you'll still have that annoying Pause Menu centered on your screen while editing).


<offtopic>
Aah, thanks for correcting me. In danish eventuelt means possibly as well, but obviously not in English according to my English dictionary.

Posted: 18 Mar 2010, 13:31
KDL
that's an enormous progress; very good work B)

Posted: 19 Mar 2010, 03:31
jigebren
Thanks, Kay.

MAKEITGOOD Mode Open for custom tracks
The goal is to be able to used Makeitgood AI edit mode without having any opponents.
I have worked on this one, but I'm facing a dilemma. I think I can patch revolt to allow all tracks to be played in every race mode. But I'm wondering if allowing this from a simple chekbox in WolfR4 can spoil the game in any way.

I mean, if I implement this, using "Enable MAKEITGOOD mode" in WolfR4 would make all races available (even frontend ;) ), even if we don't actually use any makeitgood edit mode. Of course, not cheking this function in WolfR4 will let every unchanged, so it could be ok.

Another solution I was thinking of could be to try to set 0 opponent cars in option (for now the minimum is 1), this way you could use single race mode to edit AI nodes without having any opponent crashing the game.

I'm waiting for your opinion, guys.

Posted: 19 Mar 2010, 03:49
miromiro
Good idea, but you can use Time Trial mode to do that too.

But the thing with 0 opponents would be interesting!

Awesome idea Jigy :)

Posted: 19 Mar 2010, 08:26
jigebren
miromiro @ Mar 18 2010, 11:19 PM wrote:Good idea, but you can use Time Trial mode to do that too.
Well, refering to urne, it looking like you can't:
urnemanden wrote:In Single Mode you're able to go into MAKEITGOOD Edit mode, but by entering Time Trial you cannot edit a custom track.
Maybe another WolfR4 update will come soon, with some features we were talking about lately ('all player ready' timeout, etc.). And I'm implementing a new and an awaited stuff: the MP3 player.

Posted: 19 Mar 2010, 12:52
urnemanden
Re: MAKEITGOOD Mode Open for custom tracks
Well I'll vote for opening time trial to custom tracks, because it will allow the user to create the AI Nodes after the Ghost AI Line (That means that you can see a red line, showing where you drove, if you have completed a lap in time trial).


I also think it's a good idea to implement it into "Enable MAKEITGOOD Mode", and having it turned off at first startup to prevent users to get confused if they aren't familiar with track making.


Re: MP3 Player
I've been waiting for that and I am very curious! When that feature is implemented, all my old FC tracks as well as my favorite hilaire9-tracks will become 110% compatible with Wolfie. It's long time ago since I've got a Bone Island-shiver. :)

Are you going to activate Re-Volt's Mp3-play feature (using mp3dec.asi) or play stuff through Wolf? Does the track need a custom.ini file or are you going to use the MP3 Tag inside the .inf file?

Posted: 19 Mar 2010, 17:50
miromiro
jigebren @ Mar 19 2010, 03:56 AM wrote:
miromiro @ Mar 18 2010, 11:19 PM wrote:Good idea, but you can use Time Trial mode to do that too.
Well, refering to urne, it looking like you can't.
I meant that you can replace nhood1 folder with your custom track like most of us do.
What Urne meant is true, and so a feature would be useful :)

Posted: 19 Mar 2010, 18:47
jigebren
Re: MAKEITGOOD Mode Open for user tracks
urne wrote:Well I'll vote for opening time trial to custom tracks, because it will allow the user to create the AI Nodes after the Ghost AI Line
You're right. So I'll try to do this way.
I have allready implemented the 0 opponent car option, I don't know if there will be an interest to keep it if I also add the above option...

Re: MP3 Player
I'm using 'mp3dec.asi', with the MP3 Tag inside the .inf file. If you provide the proper MP3 files, it will make all stock tracks to have the appropriate music. Moreover, it makes this patch very simple to implement :) .
The only thing to notice is that 3D sounds have to be deactivated. Don't know why both can't work together, but the acclaim developpers have already added this test to prevent re-volt from crashing.

Posted: 20 Mar 2010, 02:40
jigebren
A new WolfR4 beta version is coming, with a great (I think) list of new features:

Changelog
Add: Can now set the 'all player ready' timeout (timeout when Re-Volt thinks
     that all players are not ready, at the launching of an online race)
Add: A new button to force re-volt to read again all 'parameters.txt' files.
     It can be usefull for car makers when tweaking car parameters.
     After using this button, you just have to restart the race to see the
     changes. Even quicker, if you use the CHANGELING cheat name, you can
     press PgUp / PgDn keys instead of restarting the race.
Add: A new option to set the displayed speed unit. As this setting is not
     saved by re-volt, it was always re-initialized to MPH. Now we can easily
     use KMH, for example, without having to set it each time.
Add: Ability to set number of cars to a minimum of 1 (instead of 2) in
     'game settings'. It will disable opponents, which can be usefull when
     editing a track in MAKEITGOOD mode (eg. opponent cars can crash revolt
     when editing AI nodes).
Add: A new option to make all levels selectable in any race mode.
     It means that time trial mode is now available for user tracks, which can
     be not only fun, but also usefull for track maker when editing AI nodes.
Add: MP3 player. The 'Mp3dec.asi' file and the MP3 file have to be placed in
     the re-volt directory.
     Notice: MP3 playing is disabled when 3D sounds are on. So don't forget
     to disable 3D sound if you want to use MP3.
It's just a matter of time to check that all is ok, to compile, pack, send mails, etc.

Posted: 20 Mar 2010, 02:56
miromiro
Here's some other request Jig...

Would be great if, in replays, the camera to stop changing and to be changed manually by us. This would be a great and helpful thing for the guys that like to make Re-Volt videos. I mean, it's annoying that the camera always changes when you look at a cool replay. Also, would be cool if we could save the replays, but sure, this is not really needed.

:cheers: :beer:

Posted: 20 Mar 2010, 03:27
arto
jigebren @ Mar 19 2010, 10:10 PM wrote: Add: Can now set the 'all player ready' timeout (timeout when Re-Volt thinks
     that all players are not ready, at the launching of an online race)
This is a great feature, but since I know you're not much playing online I'll ask about this:

What happens if the host doesn't have Wolfy, but the client does? Does the host wait 60 seconds and the client starts racing after 30 seconds? Or does the client correctly wait until host gives the go ahead?

What I'm aiming at, is that if the clients start at latest after the timeout, but the host can give a go ahead before that, then the all player ready timeout should only be activated for the host.

Not sure if I made myself clear... Nor if what I said has any relevance either :).

But great to see some impressive development coming to fruition!

Posted: 20 Mar 2010, 04:10
jigebren
arto @ Mar 19 2010, 10:57 PM wrote:What happens if the host doesn't have Wolfy, but the client does?
If I'm not wrong, only Server (ie. host) is checking this timeout value.
So it doesn't matter if host or clients are or are not using WolfR4. Everyone will be following the host value. Of course it still has to be tested before we can be sure of it (and here ends my part of the job ;) ).
miromiro wrote:Here's some other request Jig...
manual replay camera
I'm not sure it can be done. I'll try to take a look.

saving replay
This one can be done, as I have already did it. Maybe in next release, if I find a way to do it cleanly.

Posted: 20 Mar 2010, 04:19
arto
jigebren @ Mar 19 2010, 11:40 PM wrote:
arto @ Mar 19 2010, 10:57 PM wrote:What happens if the host doesn't have Wolfy, but the client does?
If I'm not wrong, only Server (ie. host) is checking this timeout value.
So it doesn't matter if host or clients are or are not using WolfR4. Everyone will be following the host value. Of course it still has to be tested before we can be sure of it (and here ends my part of the job ;) ).
Great! We'll test it and post results.

Posted: 20 Mar 2010, 19:53
human
jigebren @ Mar 19 2010, 10:10 PM wrote: A new WolfR4 beta version is coming, with a great (I think) list of new features:

Changelog
Add: Can now set the 'all player ready' timeout (timeout when Re-Volt thinks
     that all players are not ready, at the launching of an online race)
Add: A new button to force re-volt to read again all 'parameters.txt' files.
     It can be usefull for car makers when tweaking car parameters.
     After using this button, you just have to restart the race to see the
     changes. Even quicker, if you use the CHANGELING cheat name, you can
     press PgUp / PgDn keys instead of restarting the race.
Add: A new option to set the displayed speed unit. As this setting is not
     saved by re-volt, it was always re-initialized to MPH. Now we can easily
     use KMH, for example, without having to set it each time.
Add: Ability to set number of cars to a minimum of 1 (instead of 2) in
     'game settings'. It will disable opponents, which can be usefull when
     editing a track in MAKEITGOOD mode (eg. opponent cars can crash revolt
     when editing AI nodes).
Add: A new option to make all levels selectable in any race mode.
     It means that time trial mode is now available for user tracks, which can
     be not only fun, but also usefull for track maker when editing AI nodes.
Add: MP3 player. The 'Mp3dec.asi' file and the MP3 file have to be placed in
     the re-volt directory.
     Notice: MP3 playing is disabled when 3D sounds are on. So don't forget
     to disable 3D sound if you want to use MP3.
It's just a matter of time to check that all is ok, to compile, pack, send mails, etc.
hey jig, great stuff in the new version, thanks!

Posted: 21 Mar 2010, 00:24
Killer Wheels
Hi cool community :)


I've juste discovered that there is a brand new program allowing wonderful things with this great game ! What a surprise :lol:

So first, a big thanks for all that stunning work. (I have to try that, for sure !)


I've not read every comments so don't care if it have already been told.

Here are some little things I can remember of :

About the Replay red line to make AI nodes easier, there's a size limit for the track.
I think it's the same as Camera position limitations : -32767 / +32768 RVunits in every direction... If you are placing a camera at 32800 it will be repositionned to the other side of this big "box" (to -32767 + (32800 - 32768)... I'm not quite sure about this but it's seems to be something like that :ph43r: ).

Also, a cool thing would be to turn on "reverse" mode for every custom track that have a "reverse" folder inside their root folder, available for multiplayer races too :)



Another "Some more work" comment, huh ? :P
Good luck again and thank you !

Posted: 21 Mar 2010, 00:58
miromiro
Killer Wheels @ Mar 20 2010, 07:54 PM wrote: Also, a cool thing would be to turn on "reverse" mode for every custom track that have a "reverse" folder inside their root folder, available for multiplayer races too :)
Yes, this thing is possible with Phoenix R3 too.

But to can select only custom tracks that have reversed folder is a nice and good idea :D

Would be cool if Jig could do that :)

:cheers: :beer:

Posted: 21 Mar 2010, 01:32
urnemanden
Re: MP3 Player:
Great to see that you've come up with a new Wolfie update! I was very excited about the MP3 Playback, and it works just fine here, good job! When trying it at Frontend, Bone Island & JungleVolt I wondered why it's mono playback tho, and I can't hide that I was a bit dissapointed because I am used to hear it from the CD. Is the mono playback a limit in the mp3dec.asi?

I'll test the other features out soon, thanks for this new version.


EDIT:
Testing Custom Time Trial Mode
Together with Crone we did test the Time trial on custom tracks feature and that was quite fun even though we did have some bugs during race.

A: From time to time the ghost dissapears and shows up again with a weird sound that sounds like a scratch or something. I heard the sound before both on 0916 and 1207 and it usually comes when you reposition. For an example, listen to this record (I was unable to get a record from the ghost car).

B: After Crone finished a full race on Bone Island with Cougar, we saw that the ghost that came afterwards was from a totally different race, since it in the end drove into a tree and fell into the jungle - it never passed the finish line.

Other than that, I am glad that you implemented this feature, it will help me alot when creating tracks in the future and I am sure that other track makers will benefit from it as well :)

Posted: 21 Mar 2010, 03:14
jigebren
Thanks for the thanks, guys...

reverse support for user tracks
I think it may be possible to activate it for user tracks too, but having it activated only for tracks that actually have a 'reverse' folder would be too complicated, sorry. So it means that if I reactivate this, and an user try to launch a track without 'reverse' folder in 'reverse' mode, it will crash revolt...

Re: MP3 Player:
I tried with a MP3 test file in frontend, and stereo is working with mp3dec.asi. Maybe it coming from the MP3 file. Those I supplied are coming from the revolt DEMO version. Maybe you could try to make your own MP3 rip.

Posted: 21 Mar 2010, 04:37
urnemanden
Both the JungleVolt Mp3, the Bone Island Mp3 was in Stereo and I also tried to rip the frontend.mp3 from the CD at 320kbps with the same bad result.

I have no idea why things is going all mono here, while it seems to be fine on your computer, Jig. I have uploaded the mp3 and a record of the mp3 being played using mp3dec.asi so you can hear the difference I get as well:

- Frontend.mp3 (12MB, 320kbps)
- MP3Dec Playback Frontend.wav (10MB, 1411kbps)

Sorry for the huge sizes, but I have to be sure that the loss of quality can't be due to compression from the mp3 & wav files themselves.

Posted: 21 Mar 2010, 05:33
jigebren
reverse support for user tracks
This one is taking good shape. I just tried with AMCO TT level, and it worked nice.
But like I said above, if a level is launched in reverse mode without being designed for, it will crash re-volt. Users will have to be careful.

MP3 Player and stereo
Well, I have listened the frontend music (the one I provide) in re-volt with an headphone, and on my system, it's in stereo (like in your rip). At least, I think, as the difference is not so obvious for my ears. I don't see what happens for you, urne. It could be interesting to hear about other experiences. Maybe it could be linked to Vista, or to your soundcard/hardware. I think you're running a laptop with vista, aren't you?

Posted: 21 Mar 2010, 13:08
urnemanden
Re: MP3 Player
I just checked all speakers I got, to see if I could hear the difference as well as using an external soundcard to see if that should be the problem. Here is the results:

Internal Sound Card: Realtek High Definition Audio
- Build-in Laptop Speakers:
These small noisemakers barely makes any music comfortable to listen to, but I could still hear the difference between the MP3 Playing in Re-Volt 1207 and the CD Playing in Re-Volt 0916.
-Bose in-ear headphones:
The best set of headphones I have at the moment & even though it was harder to hear the difference between playing in WMP & in Re-Volt there was still the same difference. It's a bit hard to describe tho, as I am not any soundscientist.
-Crone94's B&W Portable Speakers:
I have no idea how they are named in the real world, just that the company is called B&W. Theese speakers was the speakers me & Crone tried yesterday where we found out that there was a quality difference.

External Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster SB0490
- My Cheap Philips 5.1 Surround System
Theese speakers was the only reason to that I bought my external sound card, since I didn't know better. I don't have anything against Philips, my Surround System was just a cheap model in low quality. At first play it was hard to hear the difference, but when she is singing in the song, I could hear the quality difference I've been talking about.

Also, I just saw I've been using the wrong word when describing my problem. The mp3dec.asi do play stuff in Stereo, I just get the feeling of listening to something mono because of the quality loss there is. Some day when no one else is home, I can try Video-record my speakers, but currently my two recordings above is the best way to listen to the difference. Out of curiousity: what headphones do you have, Jig?

Posted: 22 Mar 2010, 00:13
jigebren
Re: MP3 Player
Sorry, I have not much idea about where this issue come from.
I just use the occasion to point out that the fact that I have re-activated MP3 playing doesn't mean that I have any special knowledges about "mp3dec.asi". I'm just trying to understand how it was activated, etc., to be able to re-use existing code from acclaim, and I was lucky enough to get it working again.
I tried to find info about this file, but I found none. I can try to make further listening tests, but I'm not sure of my hearing acuity...
Moreover, I don't like re-volt musics, so having to listen to them with care is a boring chore ;) .
Out of curiousity: what headphones do you have, Jig?
My souncard is connected to a TEAC Micro hi-fi system, which is quite better than standard computer speakers. And my headphone is a middle of the range Sennheiser one, not really good for music, but good enough for games.

EDIT:
@urnemanden
Ok, I tried to compare mp3 playing again, and it appears that you have a noticeable lost in high frequencies.

-in yellow, you can see the spectrogram of the 128kbps mp3 file from re-volt demo
-in green, the 320kbps rip from urnemanden
-in blue, the MP3Dec playback registered by urne also.
The frequency loss is pretty obvious when the drums begin (indicated by the colored arrows).
We now have to find why this loss occurs...

Posted: 22 Mar 2010, 02:04
urnemanden
RE: MP3 Player
Thanks for the comparison, I am glad you take this minor sound loss issue just as serious as an actual bug.

When you say that there is a loss of the high frequencies, then it's matching pretty much what I tell about the woman singing and such when using the mp3dec.asi.

Testing Multi-Player Waiting Time
Just managed to do a minor test of this, while playing online this evening. It works all fine, no crashes, of course only when exiting from the online race (as usual).

Posted: 22 Mar 2010, 06:08
jigebren
RE: MP3 Player
I have checked, and it seems that I have the same high frequencies loss when playing MP3 in re-volt on my system. Still don't know why though.
My only guess now is that the MP3 playback rate is somewhere overwritten with the value used by other WAV sfx sounds (ie. 22kHz instead of 44kHz). Maybe it won't be fixable. It could be interesting to test if the DEMO version has the same issue while playing the MP3 music. That could give us a clue....

RE: Testing Multi-Player Waiting Time
Ok, thanks for the report. Glad to see that it works. (I think you're talking about the 'All player ready timeout' option, right?).

Posted: 22 Mar 2010, 12:25
urnemanden
Re: MP3 Player
According to my ears and my memory, the Re-Volt demo plays the songs with the same loss in high frequencies. I just thought that it was because of a low-compression and not because of the MP3-Player that they were sounding that bad.

And yea, I meant the "All player ready timeout", I just forgot it was named that. =P

Posted: 22 Mar 2010, 19:19
jigebren
Re: MP3 Player
I tried with DEMO version, and loss in high frequencies in indeed perceptible. Well, I think I unfortunately can't do better than what Acclaim did itself, since I'm just re-activating some codes that were used in the demo version to re-enable MP3 playing. It's weird that they didn't noticed that issue with demo version, or maybe they didn't care that much as only the demo version was concerned.