Manalink BETA update : 2000 limit NO MORE !

[Mok]

I confirm. If you're using Windows XP, whatever you do, DON'T update the GDI/GDI+ runtime. I just copied the same folder that was giving the no-render bug to another Windows XP instance without the new GDI+ runtime and everything works perfectly, as you describe.

Hm. Sounds weird as mana symbols are images and shouldn't affect text rendering but oh well, maybe I messed up something. Which gdi+ update breaks it? I'll install it and see what's causing the problem. Please give me the link if possible.

Also, I stress that you do need to install the Visual Studio 2010 SP1 runtime update (http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=8328) to make it work, if you haven't yet.

Why? Again I can't see the reason for that. Apart from full replacements or mods (possibly Snacko's cardartlib, replacement deck builder etc.) no magic program should need more than standard msvcrt.dll which is included in Windows since pre-XP era (and now gdi+ for card rendering).

[oito]

Hm. Sounds weird as mana symbols are images and shouldn't affect text rendering but oh well, maybe I messed up something. Which gdi+ update breaks it? I'll install it and see what's causing the problem. Please give me the link if possible.

This one: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=20993

I've found another place where they recommend that Windows XP users should avoid updating it: http://www.mindspring.com/~lsumberg/Dolphin/Gdiplus/index.htm and... well... empirically, I'd have to agree with it. For some reason, it seems to screw the text rendering.

EDIT: My assumptions are simply based on the fact that this update seems to perfectly replicate the Windows Vista/7 no-text-render bug, nothing else.

Why? Again I can't see the reason for that. Apart from full replacements or mods (possibly Snacko's cardartlib, replacement deck builder etc.) no magic program should need more than standard msvcrt.dll which is included in Windows since pre-XP era (and now gdi+ for card rendering).

Well.. I didn't really took a printscreen of the messagebox, but now on my first attempt to make it work on a new Windows XP box, I got an error like (if i recall correctly) "msvcrt700.dll not found". I installed that C++ runtime update and it fixed it: everything runs perfectly (as in Windows 7).

You're probably right, though (I'm totally not gonna contest anything you say ). I didn't mean to imply it's a requirement for Magic.exe itself, but at least you do need it when using snacko's cardartlib, yes (thanks for clarifying).

[Mok]

This one: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=20993

Hm, this is much older version than the one I have on both of my systems. Also neither Vista nor W7 should require installing it (both come with gdiplus already installed). My Vista 64-bit have at least *30* versions of gdiplus (both x86 and 64-bit so 60+ gdiplus.dll files...) in c:\windows\winsxs just from various windows updates. I could probably force use of specific version with some manifest file but I'd like to avoid it. Even if I force local dll's via .local file it renders the text correctly regardless of the gdiplus.dll used, that includes the one from the update link Oh well, I'll add a couple of gdi flushes before text rendering in next version of drawcardlib.dll and we'll see how it goes.

[oito]

This one: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=20993

Hm, this is much older version than the one I have on both of my systems. Also neither Vista nor W7 should require installing it (both come with gdiplus already installed). My Vista 64-bit have at least *30* versions of gdiplus (both x86 and 64-bit so 60+ gdiplus.dll files...) in c:\windows\winsxs just from various windows updates. I could probably force use of specific version with some manifest file but I'd like to avoid it. Even if I force local dll's via .local file it renders the text correctly regardless of the gdiplus.dll used, that includes the one from the update link Oh well, I'll add a couple of gdi flushes before text rendering in next version of drawcardlib.dll and we'll see how it goes.

I don't know what to say except... it's not impossible I just botched it up somehow and it's not gdiplus.dll's fault.

Anyway, just wanted to point out to people who might be trying crazy stuff to get this to work: you probably don't need to mess around with those libraries and, if you do, you might end up with the same type of bug I got (no text rendering). Just FYI.

[gmzombie]

Hm. So I guess there's no universally acceptable set? I'm not doing any major work in deck builder just fixing the most obvious bugs I introduced lately (like that creature type list crashing the db) and cleaning out some of the cruft in the code for easier maintenance later.

There all exceptable in my opinion i think most use the new art. No thats cool i didnt know what was going on with it when you were asking for dbart. i was screwing around with the new deckdll last night trying to figure out how to get the individual art for the others card list and noticed that artist.pic was completely removed out the equation and im not sure if and when it was removed, it could just be the dll file that you updated was either older or newer. No big deal i was just tinkering with the program really and i can imagine Snacko could help with the recode of deckdll after you do your fix up on it time allotting of course. I just wish there was an easier way of creating and editing that deckbuilder

[Mok]

i was screwing around with the new deckdll last night trying to figure out how to get the individual art for the others card list and noticed that artist.pic was completely removed out the equation and im not sure if and when it was removed, it could just be the dll file that you updated was either older or newer.

The artist button was removed because it's useless. The original game had static images so it could keep track of which image is drawn by whom (and display it). With the random number of random images it's not easily possible.

[gmzombie]

yea I knew it was originally removed out of the deck builder cause in all aspects who really knows the names of the artists anyways but the info for artist.pic was in the dll on one of our dlls and that is how we got a independent icon as I renamed out in ollydbg to eight.bmp and then the code in olly was updated to find the right case switch..like I said no big deal as im assuming this will get revised anyways when we have time to do this.

[Mok]

yea I knew it was originally removed out of the deck builder cause in all aspects who really knows the names of the artists anyways but the info for artist.pic was in the dll on one of our dlls and that is how we got a independent icon as I renamed out in ollydbg to eight.bmp and then the code in olly was updated to find the right case switch..like I said no big deal as im assuming this will get revised anyways when we have time to do this.

Ah, I must have missed it. What was it used for?

[gmzombie]

I used it to change the red button for the 8th edition to its own button that was not the red button basically. I then changed the case switch in the dll to run against the artist.pic which the case switch is still in there, just not the pic so it loads up no pic..like i said no big deal we will get there when we can.

[Althuna]

Hey GCSMtG, thank you! I took the folder and it works great for me too Lots of cards in there and some nice sounds and artwork too.

[foolosopher]

Hi guys, just tried the patch with snacko's dll ,played a few duels and worked OK. Tried a sealed and deck creation seemed ok but when went to start the duels I got a vanguard avatar and some wierd effects.

Is the CSV structure finalised? If yes I can take up the writing of the draft.c if you agree.

[Althuna]

Hey guys I found the reason the game was crashing for me. I have a bunch of decks I made in my folder /playdeck. I copied them over to the version I downloaded from GCSMtG and the error started again! So it seems that it's something about the custom decks which causes the crash when you click on Duel. I just moved my decks out of my own folder, and now my version works too

[stassy]

Ah right, I recall a bunch of the latest deck are obviously not working and not detected in beta2k+ Duel, however I am using now my work magic folder...and it still work, dunno why.

I was finally able to create a very badly coded macro that update a card id on a Playdeck folder (setting one unique id to one card whatever different id it had on all present decks in a specific folder), however the macro software need to be installed and is not free

I will try to convert it into an executable Autoit macro so anyone can use it if they want while waiting for a more efficient card id swap from CirothUngol.

[Althuna]

Just made a bunch of new decks that were the same as my old ones, and they work So it must just have been something to do with them being made with the old deck editor which made them incompatible.

p.s. Not sure if it's my imagination but the game seems a little bit snappier now too, and maybe even crashes less.

[thedrigo]

I made a .rar archive of my working magic folder for anyone interested:



https://rapidshare.com/files/194994241/MtG.rar

(Running Windows 7 x64 SP1)

Hey, thanks for uploading your folder, first of all, but I wanted to ask if there was any way you could reupload it... After I tried to unpack it, my antivirus wouldn't let me open magic.exe because it said it found a virus on it. Does that make sense at all??

Thanks again for sharing!