Post by Chiz on Feb 16, 2012 13:34:29 GMT -5
I apologize to everyone for my recent disappearance - a lot of expenses have accumulated rather quickly as of late, and the internet is usually one of the first things to go when the money is tight. As it stands, I've been without an internet connection since...approximately noon of the 6th, so 10 days ago, and it's possible I will continue to be disconnected for the next week or two until things are ironed out. If you do want to help ease the burden a little bit, I do accept bitcoin at 1CyMpahuSCxTEbKfHB9C6BT64jMu674Ck6 .
That being said, I've had the great fortune of not losing electricity this time around, so I've had the opportunity to be productive with my time. I've polished off the first public beta of my DASH2PC Configuration Tool, v0.91, that I'd like test-driven by those who have access to DASH2PC (and if you don't...why not?). I haven't completed work on the key/button rebinding dialogues, so they're greyed out, but the rest of the program is functional.
The operation of the tool is fairly self-evident, I should think. To point the program to a new .cfg file (assuming you don't unpack the program in your DASH2PC install folder), use the appropriate [X] button on the META tab. I'll change the button to the more appropriate ellipses (...) next version. No changes (outside of the META tab) are saved until you hit 'Save CFG', and changes are not saved on exit.
Also included is a Hungarian [hu-HU] translation, courtesy of Truner, however the translation file is based off some v0.5, v0.6 prototypes so it is incomplete and needs updating. The English [en-CA] language file can be used as reference if you want to translate to your own language, like French or German or Japanese or w/e (and I'd appreciate if you took the initiative - please don't wait for my permission as you already have it) and the Pig-Latin [la-ZZ] file is both a joke and mostly good for testing.
Obviously I cannot directly respond to any problems that occur for the time being, but I hope to be able to answer any replies when I get the opportunity in the coming weeks. If you do have comments, complaints, and such, please leave them here in the thread. The next opportunity I have to hop online - whenever it is - I'll be able to read them and possibly address them in one go.
Furthermore, a number of you have had problems with unresolvable "black screen" issues with the game; as I've always played on 32-bit Windows XP to date, I've never run into the problem, however, with my new-as-of-8-months-ago 64-bit 7 machine that I nearly use exclusively now, I too suffer from it.
This would not do.
I found the problem was the renderer - the "structure", if you will, of Windows and how software interacts with graphics cards and its ilk has most likely changed in the years since Windows 98, and the extensive back-compatibility has time-and-time again demonstratably wained in recent versions of Windows for better or worse. I did discover, however, like most games of the era, that there is a way of running the game WITHOUT a graphics card; the so-called "Software Renderer" mode always made the game run like shit because everything was done through the CPU, but in places where the graphics hardware was inadequate or incompatible, would still provide a basic experience. As it has been in excess of 10 years since DASH2PC was released, even low-end modern CPUs - like my 1.86GHz Core2Duo - are more than capable of taking on the full weight of the game by itself without assistance, and so, I present my fix in combination with my utility:
If you have a black-screen problem, set the display renderer to 'SW' - Software. You will lose the ability to set different resolutions (DASH2PC's software rendering is locked at 640x480) but otherwise you will have a perfectly functional game.
I'll be continuing my ongoing adventures with DASH2PC while offline, to my abilities. Hopefully with the right encouragement, I'll have something to show for my efforts once I finally get back indefinitely.
I'm still in the market for someone well-versed with EXE hacking/disassembly (still need that font fix, but it's not the only thing), as well as someone proficient in Japanese and/or Chinese who is anxious to waste many weeks and slowly become jaded on the thankless task of performing long, tedious, and completely unpaid transcription and translation work (I'm not holding my breath here).
That being said, I've had the great fortune of not losing electricity this time around, so I've had the opportunity to be productive with my time. I've polished off the first public beta of my DASH2PC Configuration Tool, v0.91, that I'd like test-driven by those who have access to DASH2PC (and if you don't...why not?). I haven't completed work on the key/button rebinding dialogues, so they're greyed out, but the rest of the program is functional.
The operation of the tool is fairly self-evident, I should think. To point the program to a new .cfg file (assuming you don't unpack the program in your DASH2PC install folder), use the appropriate [X] button on the META tab. I'll change the button to the more appropriate ellipses (...) next version. No changes (outside of the META tab) are saved until you hit 'Save CFG', and changes are not saved on exit.
Also included is a Hungarian [hu-HU] translation, courtesy of Truner, however the translation file is based off some v0.5, v0.6 prototypes so it is incomplete and needs updating. The English [en-CA] language file can be used as reference if you want to translate to your own language, like French or German or Japanese or w/e (and I'd appreciate if you took the initiative - please don't wait for my permission as you already have it) and the Pig-Latin [la-ZZ] file is both a joke and mostly good for testing.
Obviously I cannot directly respond to any problems that occur for the time being, but I hope to be able to answer any replies when I get the opportunity in the coming weeks. If you do have comments, complaints, and such, please leave them here in the thread. The next opportunity I have to hop online - whenever it is - I'll be able to read them and possibly address them in one go.
Furthermore, a number of you have had problems with unresolvable "black screen" issues with the game; as I've always played on 32-bit Windows XP to date, I've never run into the problem, however, with my new-as-of-8-months-ago 64-bit 7 machine that I nearly use exclusively now, I too suffer from it.
This would not do.
I found the problem was the renderer - the "structure", if you will, of Windows and how software interacts with graphics cards and its ilk has most likely changed in the years since Windows 98, and the extensive back-compatibility has time-and-time again demonstratably wained in recent versions of Windows for better or worse. I did discover, however, like most games of the era, that there is a way of running the game WITHOUT a graphics card; the so-called "Software Renderer" mode always made the game run like shit because everything was done through the CPU, but in places where the graphics hardware was inadequate or incompatible, would still provide a basic experience. As it has been in excess of 10 years since DASH2PC was released, even low-end modern CPUs - like my 1.86GHz Core2Duo - are more than capable of taking on the full weight of the game by itself without assistance, and so, I present my fix in combination with my utility:
If you have a black-screen problem, set the display renderer to 'SW' - Software. You will lose the ability to set different resolutions (DASH2PC's software rendering is locked at 640x480) but otherwise you will have a perfectly functional game.
I'll be continuing my ongoing adventures with DASH2PC while offline, to my abilities. Hopefully with the right encouragement, I'll have something to show for my efforts once I finally get back indefinitely.
I'm still in the market for someone well-versed with EXE hacking/disassembly (still need that font fix, but it's not the only thing), as well as someone proficient in Japanese and/or Chinese who is anxious to waste many weeks and slowly become jaded on the thankless task of performing long, tedious, and completely unpaid transcription and translation work (I'm not holding my breath here).
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