DKC Atlas Forum

[Kiddy14]

I understood you, and probably Simion did too =P

That's a really interesting question! It would be cool to have DKC3 level archetypes and music in DKC2 in the actual ROMs.
Simion, do you think/know if other DKC resources can be copied to any other of the trilogy? I remember you said the compression system was different, which may be a limitant.

[Simion32]

It's very possible (graphics for sure, at least)... to edit DKC2/DKC3 at all, I must find a way to expand the ROM(s), because there probably isn't enough room to add modified uncompressed data to DKC2 or DKC3.

The next two games will be a major hurdle to overcome.

[edevore]

If/when this project is a great success and is fully working, I plan to use the rom on my "Playstation 2" because I don't want to spend $80.00 on a programable snes cart and I can't quite find good plans that I can follow for hacking and rewire-ing the chip to program my game onto, thats why I have "Swap Magic 3.4 + Toolkit", a "PS2 (Playstation 2)" and "Snes Station" to work with.

I can't wait till its done and flawless!
Great job, Simion!

[Simion32]

Update for DELTA Game Engine

>>> DOWNLOAD LATEST VERSION HERE <<<
It's hosted on DKC-Atlas; thanks for the FTP account Qyzbud.

New Features:
-DELTA can now extract the ROM data by itself instead of relying on the Resource Editor.
-Works with all normal "long" levels from Jungle Hijinxs to Gangplank Galleon.
-Tall levels have been omitted in this demo due to bugginess, and you cannot access bonus levels yet.
-Bananas load in correct positions, and animate correctly.
-Default priority for the application has been moved to "3 - High" so that it will not overpower Task Manager.
-Fixed the About box to include some more information.
-DELTA doesn't have to rely on dkcdh.exe anymore, rather it controls the music directly.
-The SPC tracks for loadable levels have been included in the download.

Controls:
-Use the arrow keys to scroll around the level.
-Press Right Ctrl while uing the arrow keys to scroll at 4x speed.
-Press Right Alt while uing the arrow keys for 8x speed.
-Use Page Up/Down to change between levels.

EDIT: You may find that the starting camera co-ordinates for some levels are a lot different than what it seems they should be... especially Temple Tempest.

[Cosmicman]

I check this thread everyday for updates like this. Thanks! The program worked perfectly and dealt with the extraction fast too! Everything loads in a blink plus it looks very clean. Hopefully for the next update we get to see some monkeys .

[Qyzbud]

Oooh yes, I do like monkeys.

Hey that's great stuff, Simion - I can't wait to check it out! I'm at a bus stop about to enjoy a Friday night out on the town, but I certainly look forward to checking this release out at the night's end. I'm almost ready to launch the Atlas hub, and will have an actual Projects section linked from there, on which we can feature a DKCREDKCLB promo page/minisite for info, news and downloads. I want to support this awesome project as best I can.

[Stone]

Wow, that looks nice, I'll test it tomorrow. Let's see how well it works on Intel Atom

[BrambleBlast!]

I like how it turned out! The viewer is easy to use, versatile, and projects the music very well. Simion is beast.

[Simion32]

The program worked perfectly and dealt with the extraction fast too! Everything loads in a blink plus it looks very clean.

Great, that's what I was aiming for. To me, this demo seems better than the last (in more than just features) because I didn't rush its development. Also I managed to dump the reliance on extra programs for music and extraction, respectively.

...on which we can feature a DKCRE promo page/minisite...

You're leaving out the Level Builder... or do you specifically mean the DKCRE because it is more ROM-oriented? I won't be targeting much of my efforts on the DKCRE and its ROM-editing until DELTA is mostly complete... [Not to mention that the actual DKCLB, which was supposed to be made via Game Maker by CFH, has not progressed at all. Of course, you can't really make an editor without having some defined format; DELTA must define this format during its development before the editor can make any significant progress.]

The next step from here is to fix tall levels. After I can confirm all non-bonus levels as working, it will be finally time to delve into the logic-dense realm of physics. My first goal is to get physmaps loadable, after which I can attempt adding objects/physics to the engine (quite an ambitious prospect, I'd admit).

[edevore]

@simion32

I hope that your going to put an option in the extractor to output the full background levels and not just the tiles, Because I plan to use the extractor for my own personal project that is related to the dkc triligy but I will..; change some music, change all maps, change most level order, move level object placements, merge all three games in one and use Dixie/Diddy as the main players.

but if not, oh well!-- I will try to look at it in a good way... A "DKC" snes homebrew rom maker (That Sounds Great!).

[Simion32]

...change some music, change all maps, change most level order, move level object placements, merge all three games in one and use Dixie/Diddy as the main players...

It's now rather blatant to repeat this, but DELTA will be able to handle all of that.
If you want to combine anything from all 3 games, the DKC Level Builder will make it possible.

I'm not sure it's possible to combine the actual ROM's, though... you would have quite a limited amount of space, and ASM-hacking such a thing would be very difficult. I might investigate this once I get around to the ROM-editing in DKCRE.

Also, I may be making my own rendition of the DKCLB editor, which I will need for testing engine mechanics.
Most of the editor would be in the File I/O DLL that I'm going to have to construct, whether it's used within CFH's upcoming GUI or my own test editor.

[Cyclone]

I tried the new version of DELTA and it works great. The only thing I noticed is the game slows down quite a bit when enlarging the window, and this is whithout any characters or backgrounds on screen. Anyways can't wait for the next update.

[Simion32]

The only thing I noticed is the game slows down quite a bit when enlarging the window, and this is whithout any characters or backgrounds on screen.

Hmm.. I doubt it would matter whether there are characters/enemies/objects.

The engine copies the exact same images to its buffer no matter what size the window is; the only thing that's different is that in scaled modes, it stretches when placing the image onscreen. I assume that your computer doesn't like stretching memory bitmaps or is very slow at it. I'm not entirely sure if there's a way to fix this or not...

You could try setting the priority higher... I always have mine set to "4 - Very High" while testing, because almost nothing will interrupt it with priority 4.

Higher priority only becomes problematic if the program crashes; in that case, you must click on the taskbar and then hit Ctrl+Alt+Del... otherwise, your whole computer is likely to freeze. Also, DO NOT put the program into Realtime mode unless you really know what you're doing (I have it disabled within DELTA, but its setting is still accessible via the Configuration.INI file).

Sometimes if you interrupt DELTA while it's starting, it may slow down to around 50FPS. I have no clue what causes this to happen.

[Qyzbud]

...on which we can feature a DKCRE promo page/minisite...

You're leaving out the Level Builder... or do you specifically mean the DKCRE because it is more ROM-oriented?

Ah, that would be me using the wrong initials. Both the DKCRE and the DKCLB are worthy for inclusion in the DKC Atlas Projects section, but I meant to refer to the Level Builder in my previous post.

Now that I've checked out this newest build, I can tell you that I'm very impressed. It works just fine and looks really slick and well designed.

Marvellous work, mate.

Just curious; there's a decimal point after the camera's location, but it seems to be unnecessary, as the following digit always reads an even '0'. Is this level of display accuracy going to be relevant at all? It would really only be useful for sub-pixel precision, right?
</pointless question>

[Simion32]

Just curious; there's a decimal point after the camera's location, but it seems to be unnecessary, as the following digit always reads an even '0'. Is this level of display accuracy going to be relevant at all? It would really only be useful for sub-pixel precision, right?

This "decimal" value will indeed be used when the physics are integrated; it just always reads 00 because I didn't set the scrolling to lower than 0x100 (a value of 0x100 means one pixel, 0x80 is half a pixel, 0x40 a fourth, etc).

It will only be relevant in a later build, as there is currently nothing that requires that precision yet.

This will allow smoother scrolling of backgrounds; for example any foreground seems to move at exactly 2 times the speed of the ground layer, but when DK stops moving both speeds vary. The decimal will handle that precision.

[Jeff_Ray Barrels]

Don't want to be a pain, either, but I fail to understand why you're giving a ROM-using utility when the actual program isn't meant to use any ROMs? Because the program asked for me to import a ROM, and I can't do anything else without one....

Can someone clear this all out?

Also, when are we going to get a taste of the Level Builder? Or are you working on remaking the engine first? If so, how long should this take, if all goes fine?

[Simion32]

Don't want to be a pain, either, but I fail to understand why you're giving a ROM-using utility when the actual program isn't meant to use any ROMs? Because the program asked for me to import a ROM, and I can't do anything else without one....

This is so that the program doesn't include any copyrighted data (or as little copyrighted data as possible) when you download it... by inputting a ROM, it will extract this data to files that it can use.

EDIT: Be absolutely sure that you use v1.0, other versions might not give an error but may extract incorrectly (CFH accidentally put v1.2, and it glitches the bananas).

Also, when are we going to get a taste of the Level Builder? Or are you working on remaking the engine first? If so, how long should this take, if all goes fine?

I am going to remake the engine first. Really, there is no way to make a level builder if you don't have levels working in the first place. I have no idea how long this will take.

[Jeff_Ray Barrels]

This is so that the program doesn't include any copyrighted data (or as little copyrighted data as possible) when you download it...

Well, can't you simply use files that are ripped from sprite sheets on the Internet? Or is that illegal too?

If this ROM-importing feature is going to be used in the actual Level Builder, I won't be able to use, since I am strictly trying to not download ROMs illegally... -_-

[Raccoon Sam]

I am strictly trying to not download ROMs illegally... -_-

Tough luck, as downloading commercial ROMs legally is impossible.

[Qyzbud]

Barring of course the Virtual Console games, etc...


Jeff, if you're wanting to use hacked games, or other such projects, you will be more-or-less obtaining not-entirely-legal material no matter what you do - whether it's because you "download ROMs illegally", or otherwise access copyrighted materials. An option for you (although perhaps a highly impractical one) would be to obtain a ROM dumping device of your own. I'm not sure if it's any more legal to get ROMs that way, but at least you won't have to download anything illegal from the internet.

I personally support Simion's approach, as it keeps his project safe from legal issues, if ever they would arise.

[Jeff_Ray Barrels]

Well, by 'ROMs legally', I mean download ROMs while having the original cartridge. Or is that illegal? If not, could having the game on Virtual Console be good?

Also, I am STILL confused as to whether this will be a ROM editor or not... >_<

[Simion32]

Well, by 'ROMs legally', I mean download ROMs while having the original cartridge. Or is that illegal?

Tis' still illegal, since it would not be your copy of the game. Also, it's probably not possible to get games off of the VC. Even if you could, it would still probably be illegal.
Edit: Remember, don't ask for links to any ROMs or link to any ROM sites. Don't want to break the rules here.

Also, I am STILL confused as to whether this will be a ROM editor or not... >_<

There are two different projects, sorry if I may be confusing you...

Donkey Kong Country Level Builder = operates via extracted PC-based resources.
Levels made with this will be able to be played using only DELTA Game Engine.

Donkey Kong Country Resource Editor = operates by editing the ROM directly.
Levels made with this will be able to be played via an SNES emulator.

[cfh]

Even dumping a ROM from your own cartridge is illegal in America. I say downloading illegally is perfectly fine in moderation, they cant really find out very easily. All my friends steal all the music they have etc, but then again they steal hundreds of dollars worth of crap in real life so I dunno, maybe my morals are fogged.

[edevore]

AT "SIMION32" ONLY: Removed.
Edit: I don't want this post to break the rules so please imagine this post never existed.

[Raccoon Sam]

WiiWare titles and Virtual Console ROM Images are .WAD files. You decrypt them with WADTool and eventually get yourself chunks of files, often named DKC NTSC 000.des or something like that, often ranging from 000 to 007.
The biggest of these .des files is the ROM, compressed. Use U8 Tools to decompress it and receive yourself yet another package, this time named LZ77JCBE.rom.
You decompress that with your LZ77 decompressor of choice and play it like any ROM, let it be .v64, .NES or .SMC.

[Simion32]

it's probably not possible to get games off of the VC. Even if you could, it would still probably be illegal.

I am able to rip the roms off of the "VC"...

AT "SIMION32" ONLY: If you want them "PM" me and I will upload the rip.

I never said I needed a ROM, I was stating that I thought doing that was impossible (and it would NOT work regardless, since the DELTA/DKCRE use version 1.0, the VC uses version 1.2).

And Raccoon Sam, I think your last post is borderline with the rules...

I can't believe I'm saying this, but this ROM talk is going way too far off-topic. Any more ROM-related posts should be directed to the "General ROM FAQ" thread in the emulation forum. Could the ROM-related posts already here be moved to that topic by a Moderator or Qyzbud please?

I understand that ROMs are involved in this project to some degree, but I don't want this topic to become flooded with ROM-talk.

[Raccoon Sam]

Oh, alright. Sorry about that, just wanted to make that clear. After all, there might be differences in the 'VC ROMs', so checking them out would make sense. I know Super Mario RPG's VC version was modified a bit.

[edevore]

Sorry, Simion32..
I have a question though, could we expect a new demo before the new year or are you not sure?

[Simion32]

I have a question though, could we expect a new demo before the new year or are you not sure?

I'm currently not sure when some basic physics will be done; but before that, I may make a few smaller update(s) to add things that were missing from this demo (tall levels, maybe bonus levels).

I'm still not completely sure how the physics work, as my previous observations led to incorrect conclusions...

From what I can tell, it uses a very strange system where physical "tiles" are 16x32, and a byte in the physmap will refer to one "build" of physical tile. I think that the bytes are actually pointers to functions that do the physics work.

The only value I can confirm, is that $45 represents a flat ground piece in which the bottom half is solid and the top half is non-solid.

This is going to be a pain to convert, especially since everything is likely ASM-based.

[edevore]

From what I can tell, it uses a very strange system where physical "tiles" are 16x32, and a byte in the physmap will refer to one "build" of physical tile. I think that the bytes are actually pointers to functions that do the physics work.

The only value I can confirm, is that $45 represents a flat ground piece in which the bottom half is solid and the top half is non-solid.

This is going to be a pain to convert, especially since everything is likely ASM-based.

I wish you luck there (If I understood everything that you're doing now I would give you a hand, but since I dont understand I really cant help you... "Oh I Wish!").

I'm still not completely sure how the physics work, as my previous observations led to incorrect conclusions...

Did you play the game, Watch someone else play, made a demo to autoplay some game code (if this were a possibility..), or somthing else?

[Simion32]

Did you play the game, Watch someone else play, made a demo to autoplay some game code (if this were a possibility..), or somthing else?

I hacked DKC's jungle physmap, and played it in an emulator. Using a debug emulator is easier since you can edit while playing (so the effects would be immediate).

[Jeff_Ray Barrels]

Do you have any plans on what the Level Builder GUI will be like? If so, what do you think it will be like?

Anyhow, I am impatiently waiting for the release of this useful tool. Let's hope it doesn't take too long to make... :\

[Simion32]

Do you have any plans on what the Level Builder GUI will be like?

Well, I have some Idea of what I would make the GUI like, but I'm not sure the CFH has the same ideas. I will, however, implement some ideas into my own separate version (it should be a little different than CFH's; you can then choose which GUI you like best).

At this rate, I'm not sure/confident that CFH is going to make much progress on his GUI... that remains to be seen .

Again, though, it's difficult to make any editor at all until DELTA is near finished. Don't worry, I think a DKC-only editor isn't too far away...

EDIT: If I had to say the amount of time between now and editable levels, I guess about 4-6 months. Don't hold to this too strongly, as it's just a guess. It may very well go much faster than I think it will.

[Jeff_Ray Barrels]

Ok, so since I can't use the current engine demo without using a ROM, I'll ask... how much progress did you make, and what's next?

[Simion32]

Ok, so since I can't use the current engine demo without using a ROM

It's always going to require a ROM. No exceptions. Sorry, but it must be this way to avoid copyright infringement.

I'll ask... how much progress did you make, and what's next?

Right now, I'm investigating those physical tiles I was talking about earlier. The last tile will crash the game for some unknown reason (apparently it was left blank and points to junk data).

There are $3F different physical tiles. Each entry in a physmap is a byte long in the format HVTTTTTT. With bit #7 set, the tile will be flipped horizontally. Set #6 for vertical flip. Each tile contain two of these entries, but it seems the bytes are NOT stored in little-endian format.

I haven't found out what all of them are yet...
Here's a rough-sketch of the tiles I have identified thus far:

What surfaces are currently known of the DKC physical tiles.
This has been observed using only Jungle Hijinxs.
I'm not sure that other archetypes are the same as this.

DKCPhysicalTiles.PNG (4.4 KiB) Viewed 146276 times

[Simion32]

Ever wondered what the DKCLB project used to be like? Here's a little historic bonus material that you all can enjoy.

Before I teamed up with CFH on the DKCLB, I had been making my own DKC project called DKC DELTA, in MMF2. CFH has uploaded some of the more interesting builds on his site (thanks CFH!), you can try them out: DOWNLOAD.

The controls of each program are usually spacebar, arrow keys, and enter key. I won't bother to check them to see what the controls were.

---------------------------------------------------
Really interesting is the "EngineSP6.1" build, with barrel cannons that always point at Donkey Kong. Note that each barrel uses the exact same code! They were going to be programmable, so you could do crazy things like what is seen in this build. Something similar should be possible in the DKCLB.

Then you have the "demo 2" build which is actually quite a sensible barrel-cannon course. Not as well thought-through, but whatever.

The last build of the MMF2 versions was the "Engine SP7.1" build, and contained collectible items. Note that there is a letter K hidden behind the mine cart that resets DK to his starting point (and no, the mine cart doesn't work). You'll have to Ctrl+Alt+Delete out of this one, as I had forgotten to add an exit key...

The other demos show how to make diagonal tracker barrels, and (partially) the 3D effects used in DKC2 ship levels.
---------------------------------------------------

I'm also sure that I have quite a few really old Game Maker versions of this project which were made before I had heard of MMF2, but I'll probably have to find the CD with those before you'll get a chance to look at them.

After I stopped SMW hacking, I began ripping sprites from DKC for a Game Maker DKC fangame. Later I moved on to MMF2, and finally with the DKCLB I'm now using C++. I've come quite a long way since then.

[Jeff_Ray Barrels]

Alright, two more questions. You ready?

-I heard that someone is working on the Builder part of the project. So, are there going to be updates from him/her at any time?

-In your last post, you only answered to half my question... since the small engine demo with the Gnawties in Jungle Hijinx coming out of the skull barrel, what was added?

[Simion32]

Correct, the one working on the Builder part is cfh, one of the moderators here. I have no idea when he will have some update done. There has been made a super-simple, nonfunctional GM6 window, as the start of the GUI. That's the last version he gave me, and I take it he hasn't done much (if any) work on it because he has been too busy. This is part of the reason why I am also going to make my own version of the Builder part.

since the small engine demo with the Gnawties in Jungle Hijinx coming out of the skull barrel, what was added?

Things have been added, removed, the whole thing has be restarted, and several other things. In this order, is what has changed, a bit of a timeline if you will (click the spoiler):

Spoiler!

Please note, this timeline may not be completely accurate. I will try to construct a better organized/detailed timeline later.
0 - I began messing with game maker to make my own DK fangame. It is unknown when I started this.
1 - CFH releases his first, second third engine demos (around Oct 29 2006 for the very first one; the third was on Jan 23 2007).
2 - Then I got MMF2, and moved the DK project to that. The product of some of this MMF2 work is in that history download.
3 - I find the DKCLB trailer, and in a few days, I post a comment offering my old DKC game engine. CFH and I exchange PM's until we decide to team up.
4 - I make a new basic physics engine with slopes, and give the code to CFH.
5 - Work on my DKC engine is continued as a team effort. MMF2 project still under development at the same time.
6 - I release the first Game Maker demo of my old engine (DKC Engine v0.16), which is still downloadable at the first post in this thread. Took major notice of how slow the program operated.
7 - It was decided that, to avoid copyright infringement, a program to extract data from a ROM must be made. I began investigating this (Nov 20 2007).
8 - I release the second demo of my old engine (DKC Engine v0.165). This version included a fairly sized test level with several barrel cannons and other objects. It is the most object-intense demo to date, but is even slower than its previous version.(it's also still downloadable at the first post in this thread.)
9 - Took the bold switch to learning C++, and began work on the DELTA Game Engine. Eventually I found the allegro library, which sped up the process considerably. The switch to C++ helped get rid of major lag problems. The MMF2 version was then abandoned.
10 - I learn of CFH's abandoned, super-old GM editor/engine program, which was really badly thrown together and had little objects. It is unknown to me when he created this version.
11 - CFH creates test GUI, the current version of his GUI that I still have. Not functional, but looks decent.
12 - Sometime, I forget when, was able to decompress graphics from DKC using a very slow (but accurate) GM6 program. I decided that this be made in C++ as well, to get rid of unnecessary lag.

Any further history than that, can probably be found in this thread.

NEWS EDIT: I am currently adding Fullscreen Modes to DELTA.
Also, apparently the program has to deal with too much when copying a large scaled image to the screen. At x5 scale, or when using fullscreen w/stretch, I get slowdowns even if I'm using priority "#4 - Very High". I'll be dealing with this by adding code that will switch the actual screen resolution. Of course, this screen size switch will only be available with full screen modes.

[game maker pro]

I sure hope that this level editor feature will let people create there own sprites and bosses easily unlike the SMW and Zelda makers.

[Cyclone]

NEWS EDIT: I am currently adding Fullscreen Modes to DELTA.
Also, apparently the program has to deal with too much when copying a large scaled image to the screen. At x5 scale, or when using fullscreen w/stretch, I get slowdowns even if I'm using priority "#4 - Very High". I'll be dealing with this by adding code that will switch the actual screen resolution. Of course, this screen size switch will only be available with full screen modes.

That's eactly what DELTA needs. Would it be possible to do something like Zsnes where there is a windowed and a fullscreen mode with the many screen size options? Zsnes runs at a perefectly smooth framerate. I don't see why DELTA shouldn't be able to do that too.

Sorry Simion for the huge delay in my response.
- 1-3xSize I get 60fps and the bananas/camera animate smoothly. I think the bananas might be animating a bit faster at the larger sizes but I’m not sure.
- 4x there’s a very noticeable decrease in speed and I get 30fps. When I move the camera I get a very consistent stutter. Like the game is skipping frames. You can notice this more if you use ctrl to move the camera fast.
- 5x seems to run around the same speed as 4x but the window is taller then my monitor so I can’t tell you what the FPS is.
- Changing priority didn't make a difference. I'm using a comp with dual3.4ghz xeons.
Hope that helps.

[Bahmo]

Yo Simion, remember me?

I have the same old question. Does it have procedurally-rendered sprites yet, or must all sprites still be placed down manually?

[Simion32]

Does it have procedurally-rendered sprites yet, or must all sprites still be placed down manually?

Unfortunately not much progress has been made on the editor yet, so I can't say anything for certain about its features. However, the Engine itself has made good progress.

As for sprites, I think you will have to manually place them. But the level terrain will (eventually; much later) be "procedurally rendered" based on the collisions you draw.

I encourage you to try the newest demo if you haven't already; it is phenomenally faster than those crappy Game Maker demos, and is very accurate as well. Please take note that the engine now requires a ROM to operate. You can find all the info you need at the first post in this topic.

Doesn't your monitor refresh at 30Hz? You had problems with that before... if you have any problems with the engine now, please notify me (just post here, no need to PM).

Also, I'm pretty sure some of the later discussion on the DKU topic got erased because of a glitch (or something).

[csg999]

so far this is looking great

Any idea of ur current % of the editors completion?

[Simion32]

Any idea of ur current % of the editors completion?

Out of 100% for each game in the trilogy:
DELTA Game Engine: about 25% of DKC, minimal amount (~2%)of DKC 2/3
Level Builder: about half of a percent since CFH has made almost zero progress except for the GUI plans and a small nonfunctional gui (which was never released here). Don't worry, the editor itself will take off once the engine has progressed far enough.

UPDATE NOTICE: There will be an update to DELTA soon to add some more features, and to root out some bugs. In particular, the program will freeze if you hit the ESC key (I have no clue why, I'm investigating it as of now). Some more display options will be added as well as fixing these freeze-invoking errors.

EDIT: I have found the source of the freezes. The program got stuck waiting for the game thread to terminate - it happens that calling "SetMenu();" needs to use the window's message loop... but while the program is closing, it was always waiting for the thread to terminate, and wouldn't process any window messages. So the program got stuck waiting for a window message to process, which would have never happened.

I solved this by having it process messages while waiting for the thread to terminate. I'm glad this was just a small oversight, rather than a huge error.

[Simion32]

Update: DELTA Game Engine v0.0.4.0
*There has been a change in the version number system.*

>>> DOWNLOAD LATEST VERSION HERE <<<

New Features and Controls:
-Application title now displays the version number.
-Changed the start-up screen's image.
-Tall Levels and the Animal Bonus Levels have been unlocked, although most of them are messed up or wrong in some way or another.
-The ESC key will now exit the program immediately.
-Any freezes that used to occur when closing have been reduced to a small delay.
-The engine will start automatically after you have extracted ROM data.
-Added a level timer, and also displays the number of frames lost.
-Added a menu option to switch-off the Coordinates/Name/Author box at the top of the screen.
-Added the option to have the engine run immediately after you open the program.
-Added a Controls dialog to the Help menu.
-Added two more display modes: "Fullscreen Emu-Style" and "Fullscreen Stretched".
-When in either full-screen mode, the menu at the top will disappear until activated by the MENU key (the one between Right-Ctrl and the Windows key).

[Cyclone]

Hi Simion,

Just downloaded the new version, copied the rom into the main DELTA folder and ran the program. Sometime through the extraction the program crashed. Here is the error message I got.

Edit. Ok the crash was user error.... I had had zero bytes of space on the drive for some reason? sorry.

I found a few other issues.
- full screen mode messes up on my dual monitor setup. See attachment.
- overall the engin seems to run more choppy, especially at "Window Scale x4"

Sorry I couldn't give an error free and more positive feedback.

[Simion32]

I'm not entirely sure about Dual-Display setups, don't know how to go about fixing that. The "Fullscreen" mode is really just a border-less window scaled up to the screen's size, not true fullscreen.

Also, You must switch screen resolutions manually if you want to use them at lower res (for now anyway). I will add res-switching in the next version hopefully... the only drawback is that the screen res can only be changed at start-up of the program; it doesn't work otherwise (or as far as I have observed).

I'm not sure why it runs more choppy. Perhaps the menu's hide/reveal code is interfering, I had a feeling it shouldn't be executing something like that every single frame...

It's good to have feedback, even when there are errors. That way I know errors that don't happen on my computer (for example full-screen and windowed x4 is perfectly fine on my computer, as long as I don't have any programs going on in the background).

EDIT: I think I should try to add a 16-bit color mode, I think it would be at least 2 times as fast as 32-bit (which it's currently using).
EDIT AGAIN:

Patch: DELTA Game Engine v0.0.4.1
*THIS PATCH DOWNLOAD WILL BE REMOVED ONCE ANOTHER PATCH OR VERSION HAS BEEN RELEASED*
*This zip contains only the EXE file for this version. Overwrite the original with this one to update the program*
DOWNLOAD PATCH HERE (patch was removed)

Cyclone, could you download this patch (replace the exe) and run it to see if it still runs as choppy? I fixed the menu code to not run unless it has to.

[Cyclone]

It's kinda hard to tell since the fps counter didn't change but the new patch did apear to be slightly faster(still a bit choppy though) and I think and the controls 'felt' a touch quicker too.

[Simion32]

It's kinda hard to tell since the fps counter didn't change

Uh-oh... I think that explains why it's so choppy. Most likely, your hardware doesn't support a vsync interrupt (a vsync occurs when the drawing lazer in your screen reaches the bottom-right and moves to the top left. The point is to copy all graphics during this time so that the image doesn't appear "torn" and is displayed all at once). Without that, the engine will probably be very choppy.

In the event that your hardware cannot do a vsync, Allegro emulates vsync, and therefore the FPS will almost never change because the emulation doesn't "miss" any frames unless your computer is really slow.

However, a double-buffering method should work on any hardware. I'll try to implement a double-buffering option, hopefully that will make it smoother on your computer. I'm not sure if it will work, because I've had trouble getting double-buffering to work smoothly. The main problem is trying to accurately sync to the refresh rate without using vsync.

[DKCplayer]

Looking good so far!
But the swimming levels and Slipslide ride is glitched. -_-