Website issue fixed and The Wire - February 17, 2015
I never noticed before today but the website template had a bug in it that I now have fixed. When people registered it wouldn't give any feedback that they registered successfully. They would just get a blank page.
I should apologize. I haven't worked on the mod at all over the long 4 day weekend because I am binge-watching the HD remastered version of "The Wire". What an amazing show it was. I have watched the series before in standard definition 4:3 format but I have never seen the remastered 16:9 HD version.
Write comment (0 Comments)TV Station Textures - February 13, 2015
I am jumping around from map to map doing some of the worst offending textures. I started work on the TV Station this week and wanted to show you a new trophy case texture I created. The original was very blurry in the game because it takes up a whole wall. The replacement texture doesn't replicate the original very well but it gets across the same feeling. Normally I try to duplicate the original Sierra texture as closely as possible but decided to stray a little with the trophy case.
The replacement texture is 512 x 256 pixels. I could have done a 1024 x 512 pixel texture but I decided it wasn't worth it. I have to make judgement calls to keep the video memory reasonable.
By the way, hope you have a great Valentine's day tomorrow. Hope you get some luvvin'!
Write comment (0 Comments)Replacement Textures - February 10, 2015
I am working on improving some more textures for the Church mission in Swat 3. Below is a screenshot of how a texture looks in game before and after the replacement (sorry about the gun reticle in the middle of the right screenshot).
Below you can see three replacement textures in this one screenshot. The cross, the bricks on the back wall, and the stained glass windows.
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Bug Squashed - February 5, 2015
Well, it turns out I was partially right about my theory.
I completely forgot that my fairly new Windows 8.1 laptop that I am testing out the Last Resort mod on doesn't have 16 bit colour modes. I am not sure if this is just a Dell driver issue or my crappy onboard video chip issue.
The Last Resort launcher's code has now been fixed to deal with the problem regardless. Bug squashed in the yet to be released version 0.7.
In situations like this when you don't have 16-bit colour on a Windows 8.1 machine if you place the LastResort.exe into Windows 7 (or even Windows 8) compatibility mode Windows will emulate 16-bit colour in 32-bit. I wonder if this is the reason why Swat 3 in Windows 8 is so damned laggy? Perhaps it isn't switching to 16-bit colour mode but instead just emulating it for everyone in 32-bit colour?
Write comment (0 Comments)Subscript out of range error - February 5, 2015
After coming home from a Billy Idol concert for some reason I wanted to spend more time troubleshooting the bug that has been bothering me lately.
For the record Billy Idol may be almost a senior citizen but, along with Steve Stevens, they put on one hell of a show. The guys can still rock it.
I think I have finally narrowed down what has been causing the "Run-time error '9' Subscript out of range" problem. For some reason Windows 8.1 doesn't like the subroutine that I use for determining the valid screen resolutions that are available. This data is provided by your video card to Windows but for whatever reason doesn't work with Windows 8.1 but will work if you put the Last Resort launcher in Windows 7 or Windows 8 compatibility mode.
The error that results in the Launcher stopping is totally my fault because I didn't add a check in case there were no valid screen resolutions. Yes, in hindsight this was a stupid thing to assume that the result wouldn't be zero. No harm done other than me kicking myself for making such a silly mistake.
Now I just have to figure out why Windows 8.1 doesn't play nice with the code while all the other compatibility modes work fine.
Edit: This may be more information than any of you care about but I think here is the problem as found on Microsoft's site:
EnumDisplaySettings function
Apps that you design to target Windows 8 and later can no longer query or set display modes that are less than 32 bits per pixel (bpp); these operations will fail. These apps have a compatibility manifest that targets Windows 8. Windows 8 still supports 8-bit and 16-bit color modes for desktop apps that were built without a Windows 8 manifest; Windows 8 emulates these modes but still runs in 32-bit color mode.
So what I think is happening is that while the Last Resort code is looking for 16bit colour modes to use with Swat 3 Windows 8 is saying nope, sorry, they have already been converted to 32bit so there are no 16bit modes that you can use.
I will have to modify the code to see if it can find 32 bit modes as a test...after I sleep.
Write comment (0 Comments)Swat3 installed into "Program Files (x86)" - February 1, 2015
I am thinking of releasing a new version of the Last Resort mod but I need to solve a problem when people install Swat 3 into the Program Files (x86) folder. What is happening is that Windows doesn't like the fact that I am reading and writing to files in the Swat 3 folder which happens to be in the Program Files (x86) folder. Windows does this to protect the OS but is a pain in the ass.
With Windows 8 this can be fixed by making the Last Resort Launcher run in Windows 7 compatibility mode. What is strange on my Windows 8.1 laptop is that if I place it in Windows 8 compatibility mode it also works fine. Go figure.
The moral of the story is don't install Swat 3 to the Program Files (x86) folder if you want to use the Last Resort Mod. It is better to store it in a custom folder like Games\Swat3 so you don't have strange problems like this.
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