Need help and advice on modification

[MethodGit]

I'm trying to make an MST3K-themed QuakeDC using the following things:

1) The contents of the DCEvo edition as a base =]
2) The MST3K sounds pack
3) The two MST3K soundtrack albums ("Clowns In The Sky" and "Clowns In The Sky II").


I've carefully replaced the sounds and console background in both PAK0 and PAK1 with the MST3K wavs+conback.lmp and replaced the wavs in PAK3.PAK with select tracks from the two OSTs (after converting them to 11.025Hz 8-Bit Mono of course). However, while the finalized disc appears to boot up fine, and the attract mode runs ok........ the thing always freezes as I try to start a new game, during the loading process. I have a feeling it may have something to do with my music pack....... is there a length-limit on qtrackxx's in PAK3 due to limited memory? The tracks I put in aren't very long in themselves, but still, the DC appears to have a problem with them.

Also, I've noticed that the MST sounds pack includes its own progs.dat file, plus the source code, in its zip. It appears the one modification I've noticed is that it includes a unique "lava death" sound (onfire.wav) - is there any easy way to implement this in the JoyMenu source code and compile it afterwards?


Cheers.


(P.S. When I try to use the DCEvo-based Quake with a Windows executable like GLQuake for quick testing purposes, it appears to have a problem with PAK2's gfx.wad and progs.dat - gfx.wad produces a "W_GetLumpInfo: net not found" error when starting up, and it disappears if I remove gfx.wad. However, I then seem to have another problem in the form of "SV_StartSound: volume = 306", a game-ending error which pops-up any random time after I start a new game, but usually within some seconds after the Start map has finished loading and when I start moving about. Fiddling with default.cfg and the sound volumes in Options appears to not fix it. The error appears to be linked to PAK2's progs.dat, as it doesn't appear if I remove that. Any ideas?)

[mankrip]

I've carefully replaced the sounds and console background in both PAK0 and PAK1 with the MST3K wavs+conback.lmp and replaced the wavs in PAK3.PAK with select tracks from the two OSTs (after converting them to 11.025Hz 8-Bit Mono of course). However, while the finalized disc appears to boot up fine, and the attract mode runs ok........ the thing always freezes as I try to start a new game, during the loading process. I have a feeling it may have something to do with my music pack....... is there a length-limit on qtrackxx's in PAK3 due to limited memory? The tracks I put in aren't very long in themselves, but still, the DC appears to have a problem with them.

Try to keep the size of the WAV files around 1MB maximum, or the game will run out of memory. I had to do a lot of editing to reduce the length of the original tracks.

QuakeDC's awful music support was one of the reasons why I worked on nxMakaqu.

Also, I've noticed that the MST sounds pack includes its own progs.dat file, plus the source code, in its zip. It appears the one modification I've noticed is that it includes a unique "lava death" sound (onfire.wav) - is there any easy way to implement this in the JoyMenu source code and compile it afterwards?

Sure, just get JoyMenu's source code and implement it.

When I try to use the DCEvo-based Quake with a Windows executable like GLQuake for quick testing purposes, it appears to have a problem with PAK2's gfx.wad and progs.dat - gfx.wad produces a "W_GetLumpInfo: net not found" error when starting up, and it disappears if I remove gfx.wad.

HexQuake was edited to remove the loading of some unnecessary graphics, so I could remove these graphics from JoyMenu's gfx.wad to reduce the memory usage. You would need a modified engine to use JoyMenu's gfx.wad in the PC.

However, I then seem to have another problem in the form of "SV_StartSound: volume = 306", a game-ending error which pops-up any random time after I start a new game, but usually within some seconds after the Start map has finished loading and when I start moving about.

This may be related to the footstep sounds, but I don't remember if the error message was the same. This problem only happened in GLQuake or D3DQuake (can't remember which one right now). Other engines doesn't have this problem.

[MethodGit]

Thanks for the advice. It appears quicktesting under DarkPlaces produces no problems. BTW, I decided to also change JM_Misc.qc to add 7 more qtracks (short ones still) - but it appears when testing under DarkPlaces, the same pieces of music play on all episodes, rather than allowing to mix randomly and let more tracks be heard. Is this something I can change in the code or is it very complicated?

[MethodGit]

Ah, slight update regarding one of my earlier questions - it appears I was using a Direct3D-based Quake executable originally, and the SV_StartSound error only pops up with Direct3D ports. All GL-based ports cope with footsteps and whatever without a problem.

On another note though, after extensive testing with all kinds of engines, it appears DarkPlaces is the only port I know of that accepts JoyMenu's gfx.wad without throwing a game-ending fit upon boot-up. I guess it's THAT heavily modified from the original eh?

[linlinlol]

That's because Darkplaces is smart enough to have some failsafe base material and placeholder lumps to make stuff work

Darkplaces even runs without any media

[mankrip]

I decided to also change JM_Misc.qc to add 7 more qtracks (short ones still) - but it appears when testing under DarkPlaces, the same pieces of music play on all episodes, rather than allowing to mix randomly and let more tracks be heard.

JoyMenu doesn't play random music; the track number for each map is stored in the maps' BSP files. You may edit the JM_GetMusicName function to randomize the music, but if you want the randomization to be an optional feature you'll have to find a free cvar to store its setting.

[MethodGit]

Man, if I knew enough about coding to understand what cvars are and how they work, I'd try and get down on it already. =[


On another note, is it possible to use the DM maps pack (PAK4.PAK) with nxMakaqu by any chance? And I remember discussing ogg music with you before, and you saying it was a memory limit problem that it can't be implemented already, but I felt the need to ask something - is it the player alone which would take up too much memory? If not then perhaps if the oggs were encoded at a low bitrate the DC might be able to cope with them somehow?

[mankrip]

Man, if I knew enough about coding to understand what cvars are and how they work, I'd try and get down on it already. =[

Console variables.

is it possible to use the DM maps pack (PAK4.PAK) with nxMakaqu by any chance?

Yes, but you'll need to get some bots to play on it, and many of those maps will run too slow in nxMakaqu's software renderer.

I remember discussing ogg music with you before, (...) is it the player alone which would take up too much memory? If not then perhaps if the oggs were encoded at a low bitrate the DC might be able to cope with them somehow?

There are some other problems involved also, like the speed. Decoding ogg files has a considerable impact on the framerate. There's a more detailed explanation in other threads.

[Tyne]

Man, if I knew enough about coding to understand what cvars are and how they work, I'd try and get down on it already. =[

Console variables.

Pretty much on top of them storing values only for a session of quake and aren't stored in save games like parms.

I remember discussing ogg music with you before, (...) is it the player alone which would take up too much memory? If not then perhaps if the oggs were encoded at a low bitrate the DC might be able to cope with them somehow?

Along with what Fragger said, I'm guessing here that since nxMakaqu is doing the graphics rendering through the Dreamcast CPU that anything taking away from it such as background .ogg decoding would decrease the framerate more. Perhaps one day in the future it'll use the PowerVR2 more and .ogg decoding would be more feasible.

[mankrip]

Console variables.

Pretty much on top of them storing values only for a session of quake and aren't stored in save games like parms.

JoyMenu saves/loads some cvars to/from savegames, but I didn't mention it because it's a bit complicated.