0.2.8.0_rc2: Release process and bugs

Help test release candidates for the next release
User avatar
Z-Man
God & Project Admin
Posts: 11585
Joined: Sun Jan 23, 2005 6:01 pm
Location: Cologne
Contact:

0.2.8.0_rc2: Release process and bugs

Post by Z-Man »

The camera changes definitely call for a second release candidate. Since I'll have to rebuild the Windows dedicated server anyway due to the instant startup crash of rc1, I'll do rc2 (tagging&building) tomorrow or tonight. Not all platforms need builds for this one immediately, only the OSX one for Silly would be neat for the camera.
User avatar
Z-Man
God & Project Admin
Posts: 11585
Joined: Sun Jan 23, 2005 6:01 pm
Location: Cologne
Contact:

Post by Z-Man »

Sources tagged.
User avatar
Z-Man
God & Project Admin
Posts: 11585
Joined: Sun Jan 23, 2005 6:01 pm
Location: Cologne
Contact:

Post by Z-Man »

The usual builds are available on aabeta.

The uploads to sourceforge are running, but it's bedtime, so I'll add them tomorrow. Upload should be finished in half an hour, so if another release technician (that's about everyone on the team...) wants to speed up the release...
User avatar
Z-Man
God & Project Admin
Posts: 11585
Joined: Sun Jan 23, 2005 6:01 pm
Location: Cologne
Contact:

Post by Z-Man »

Release added on SourceForge.

I'm declaring a silly bugfix freeze. Only critical bugs should now be fixed in the branch.

Critical would be all sorts of crashes, of course, or bugs that make a feature we've been working on for months more or less unusable. The smaller bugs have had plenty of time to crop up and be bashed, now it's "sorry, next time" to them.
User avatar
dlh
Formerly That OS X Guy
Posts: 2035
Joined: Fri Jan 02, 2004 12:05 am
Contact:

Post by dlh »

Mac OS X 10.2.8 (NOT TESTED)

The other Mac OS X builds (dedicated and client) are on sourceforge.
User avatar
Phytotron
Formerly Oscilloscope
Posts: 5041
Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2005 10:06 pm
Location: A site or situation, especially considered in regard to its surroundings.
Contact:

Post by Phytotron »

z-man wrote:I'm declaring a silly bugfix freeze. Only critical bugs should now be fixed in the branch.

Critical would be all sorts of crashes, of course, or bugs that make a feature we've been working on for months more or less unusable. The smaller bugs have had plenty of time to crop up and be bashed, now it's "sorry, next time" to them.
So does that mean I should or shouldn't still make a recording of the "mini-freezes" and the framerate issue? And if I should (I know I asked you this yesterday, but maybe something's changed with nemo having rc2 built now), should I do it with rc1 or rc2?

Sorry if I've procastinated too long.
User avatar
Z-Man
God & Project Admin
Posts: 11585
Joined: Sun Jan 23, 2005 6:01 pm
Location: Cologne
Contact:

Post by Z-Man »

Use rc2, please. I think the stuttering freezers at the round end should be gone now, but a short demonstration of the FPS drop would be good anyway. Does it happen in local games, too?
Best would be a comparison: similar situations recorded both with rc2 and whatever you were using before. Would it be possible to join a server with two clients, one old, one new, at once in spectator mode? I don't know whether the benefits of having the same action recorded on both outweigh the drawback of the two clients interfering.

I already eliminated the top suspect cause: it's not player walls that are kept around for too long.

Depending on the cause and the complexity of the solution (perhaps we only forgot to turn off alpha blending somewhere?), a signifficant FPS drop counts as critical to me. The various BUG cries of Joda on Fortress usually don't :)
User avatar
belenus
Round Winner
Posts: 269
Joined: Wed Nov 30, 2005 6:22 pm
Location: Cologne
Contact:

Post by belenus »

Imho the camera (smart) in RC2 sucks.

Its way to close to the bike and if you do 180s in crowded areas like fortress you die alot because you somtimes cant see what there is where you will go.

Also, if possible, pls change the border textures or make an option to have the old ones, the new ones are irritating... those parallel lines hurt the eyes imho.
- bel
User avatar
Lucifer
Project Developer
Posts: 8640
Joined: Sun Aug 15, 2004 3:32 pm
Location: Republic of Texas
Contact:

Post by Lucifer »

About the textures: there is a thread dedicated to it, I'll give you a link. Please submit or support any texture you like, phillippe will consider it for the final release. :)

It's pretty long, you might want to just skim looking for posts with suggested artwork in them.
http://forums.armagetronad.net/viewtopi ... highlight=

about the smartcam: one of the skills that's generally needed is the ability to know what's going on outside the camera's view. I haven't seen the camera in rc2 because I'm still playing off the trunk, so I won't see any of this stuff until it's merged back to the trunk, so I don't really know how high your pain level is. Just that last night I had to maze in a really tight spot in the fortress and there is no camera I know of that would've helped me, I made it by knowing what the grid looked like outside the camera's view.
Image

Be the devil's own, Lucifer's my name.
- Iron Maiden
User avatar
Z-Man
God & Project Admin
Posts: 11585
Joined: Sun Jan 23, 2005 6:01 pm
Location: Cologne
Contact:

Post by Z-Man »

I did a diff. Apart from glancing, the camera code for the smart cam is identical to that of beta1, and IIRC that is identical to 0.2.6.0. The beta4 cam had to be removed because it made some players seasick, including me when playing in Shrunkland :) If you want the field of view to be bigger, increase your FOV settting in the camera setup.
So, if you think the 0.2.6.0 smart cam sucks generally, you're a bit late. :) If you want to say rc1/beta4 cam was way better, then sorry, in case of doubt, leaving the code as it is wins. I'll try to reestablish the rc1 camera in the trunk, testing more servers this time.
User avatar
Phytotron
Formerly Oscilloscope
Posts: 5041
Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2005 10:06 pm
Location: A site or situation, especially considered in regard to its surroundings.
Contact:

Post by Phytotron »

Um, wait a minute. The beta4 smart cam was not the same as the rc1 cam, at least in my case. The rc1 cam was the one I disliked, while I do like the beta4 cam. Hmm. I haven't loaded rc2 yet, but I will in a bit when I finish my forum perusal, see what its camera is like, and get on those recordings.

Edit: btw, belenus, you know you can change every one of the texture/moviepack files manually to your own liking, right? There are plenty on the web, or you can even make your own. Check the Graphical Enhancements section of this site, and/or visit iceman's site. Also see the "Extending..." section of the wiki.
User avatar
Z-Man
God & Project Admin
Posts: 11585
Joined: Sun Jan 23, 2005 6:01 pm
Location: Cologne
Contact:

Post by Z-Man »

Sorry, misinformation on my part. The new smart camera code was only introduced in beta4.2 and was also in rc1. As far as smart camera movement is concerned, 0.2.6 to 0.2.8_beta4 and rc2 share the same code.
User avatar
Phytotron
Formerly Oscilloscope
Posts: 5041
Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2005 10:06 pm
Location: A site or situation, especially considered in regard to its surroundings.
Contact:

Post by Phytotron »

z-man wrote:Would it be possible to join a server with two clients, one old, one new, at once in spectator mode?
I suppose you mean loading them both up at the same time (would have to be done in windowed mode, in which I never play), then connecting each individually? I think that'd be a load on this. I dunno. Plus, wouldn't there still have to be two separate recordings?

Well, anyway, I didn't do that. Instead, I just did two short sessions back-to-back. I did the rc2 one first, then the beta4 one.

A couple things to note. First, the "mini-freezes" didn't happen with rc2, as far as I noticed.

Secondly, for whatever reason the framerate issue isn't as immediately pronounced in rc2. Whereas in rc1 the framerate was lower from the start, now both rc2 and beta4 will start the round at around the same fps, but rc2 seems to drop off a lot more quickly. I tried to make the two recordings as similar as possible, as far as what I was doing with movement and so forth. For reasons of circumstance I don't think I was able to get them to drop way down, but there should still be a noticeable difference. I only did a couple rounds each in Swampland.

So check these out and tell me whether you want more—in other servers, doing different things, whatever.

As an aside, something I've noticed in each version I've had since 0.2.7.1: A lot of straight lines next to each other (say in the case of someone 180ing back and forth a lot) causes massive framerate drops, while a bunch of zig-zags and mazing and stuff doesn't cause as much. I don't know whether this is relevant, but I figured I'd mention it.

Anyway....
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
User avatar
belenus
Round Winner
Posts: 269
Joined: Wed Nov 30, 2005 6:22 pm
Location: Cologne
Contact:

Post by belenus »

Is there any difference in camera betwen beta 4 and beta 4.2?

It could also be the textures but it LOOKS like the camera in rc2 isnt the same as in beta4.2 (which i was using until yesterday)

There there any way to increase the distance of the smart cam in the code itself?

Increasing over 90° makes it look weird...
- bel
User avatar
joda.bot
Match Winner
Posts: 421
Joined: Sun Jun 20, 2004 11:00 am
Location: Germany
Contact:

Post by joda.bot »

@belenus:
z-man wrote: Sorry, misinformation on my part. The new smart camera code was only introduced in beta4.2 and was also in rc1. As far as smart camera movement is concerned, 0.2.6 to 0.2.8_beta4 and rc2 share the same code.
0.2.6.x-0.2.7.x, 0.2.8_beta1-0.2.8_beta4, 0.2.8_rc2:
same old smart cam (more or less)

0.2.8_beta4.2, 0.2.8_rc1:
different smart cam aka "new smart camera code"

Hope this helps...
Post Reply