Manalink BETA update : 2000 limit NO MORE !

[Mok]

Cool strangely enough, I haven't got it to work on Windows XP, but works great on Windows 7. Not a single crash so far during gameplay

Weird, I'm mainly using 2 machines with XP and no major problems so far (yes, there's a lot of card bugs, but these are unrelated). What happens exactly? If it crashes, can you give me a crash address and module name where it happens? Please don't use any compatibility modes when you are testing this.

BTW: Can anyone point me to the approved graphics files for deck builder? I'm cleaning it a bit and I'd like to drop support for old 256-colors palette (as it's obsolete for years) and that means replacing the images (old .pic files can still be used if I add palette to them, but switching over to new gfx seems to be better option). And I remember someone mentioning some images were too bright or something, so is there any skin mod that's acceptable to everyone?

[ralphgoblue]

Unfortunately, I just tried to update two 1.32 Manalink folder (xp sp3 family and win7 64 family premium) with my previous method and none worked (crash when duel option is selected).

To delve a bit further, I can add that on the xp3 computer I had a functionnal InnyV2 magic folder which got borked after beta2k+ update, I tried to reinstall a basic ML 1.32 but now I have the font problem.

On the win7 one, beta2k+ version has card image loading loop in the DeckEditor and crash at Duel option, going back to 1.32 make the game crash on image loading unless I rename/remove Medcart.cat and Smallart.cat

I will try to install my working beta2k+ Magic folder which is at work on both computer at home, which is weird since the working one is on a good ol' 8yo laptop with xp sp2...

Edit: Also it is not a path problem since laptop has C:\Program Files\Magic while at home I tested with C:\Magic, C:\temp\Magic to no avail

I've tested it now, using your step-by-step instructions and also got an error, but I found a way that seems to work:

1) Install any working version (like this one http://www.mediafire.com/?rtinudqev4u3bh3);

2) Follow the steps suggested by stassy (http://www.slightlymagic.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=6059#p78504), exactly in that order;

3) Very important part (at least, it seems to remove my "WinMain:couldnt load deck builder bitmaps" error), replace your "dbart" folder by this one: http://www.mediafire.com/?4f21d8uw2x7zone

4) Should work now.

i found this the most helpful in getting past bitmat builder problem...thx

[GCSMtG]

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)

[stassy]

If I remember it was Orion79 that mentionned that on current Salbei skin, the attacking phase being too bright (the tactic map on the background WINBK_attack.bmp/.pic/.png)

For me I got used to it but a new graphic revamp would be nice for 2k+ /wink Salbei

[gmzombie]

Mok here are some different dbart folders. I personally like the original but there really is no set dbart for anybody. we had different buttons to go along with different versions of manalink. If we are doing an upgrade on the deckdll might i suggest going back to the original size of the buttons..at least it would help for space as the old pic shows..sorry bout the pic but i didnt know how to capture it from computer. anyways i agree a new button set could be in order with an updated deckdll.

[stassy]

Don't forget also that on the 2nd pic you are using a 16/9 monitor, there are still people using 4/3 ones, and a few still on 800 x 600 resolution screen

[KrNeki]

Is sealed portion of the game(this patch) supposed to be in working order, aka. can we report bugs we encounter there, or is it still too early in development phase for that?

[gmzombie]

Don't forget also that on the 2nd pic you are using a 16/9 monitor, there are still people using 4/3 ones, and a few still on 800 x 600 resolution screen

yea its the same though with a 4:3 or without cause my laptop with that deckdll will do the same thing. the buttons were stretched out to fill the screen up as were the cards stretched as they are taller in the old version compared to wider in the new version. None of this was of big concern just more of why really. I was looking in the new deckdll to try and replace the dupe. for other cards instead of red but it looks like the artist.pic was completely removed. again not a big deal since we will sooner than later will be changing this, i hope, anyways.

[Mok]

Is sealed portion of the game(this patch) supposed to be in working order, aka. can we report bugs we encounter there, or is it still too early in development phase for that?

I'd be surprised if it even started... No, the sealed deck part is not working properly AFAIK (for various reasons).

[Mok]

Mok here are some different dbart folders. I personally like the original but there really is no set dbart for anybody. we had different buttons to go along with different versions of manalink. If we are doing an upgrade on the deckdll might i suggest going back to the original size of the buttons..at least it would help for space as the old pic shows..sorry bout the pic but i didnt know how to capture it from computer. anyways i agree a new button set could be in order with an updated deckdll.

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.

[Gargaroz]

Is sealed portion of the game(this patch) supposed to be in working order, aka. can we report bugs we encounter there, or is it still too early in development phase for that?

I'd be surprised if it even started... No, the sealed deck part is not working properly AFAIK (for various reasons).

Exactly, Draft will require an almost complete recoding for working with the new Expansion fields. You'll have to wait.

[oito]

Weird, I'm mainly using 2 machines with XP and no major problems so far (yes, there's a lot of card bugs, but these are unrelated). What happens exactly? If it crashes, can you give me a crash address and module name where it happens? Please don't use any compatibility modes when you are testing this.

I think you might be right. I don't get any crashes, it just fails to render any text:




I think this might be my fault, though. I updated the GDI+ runtime (while trying 1000 things to get the patch to somehow work ), which is apparently not a very good idea, since it seems to induce the same type of issues you see with Windows 7/Vista (no rendered text).

I'll try to confirm if that's the case, by trying to run the same folder in another Windows XP without the new GDI+ runtime.

[Mok]

I think you might be right. I don't get any crashes, it just fails to render any text:

I think this might be my fault, though. I updated the GDI+ runtime (while trying 1000 things to get the patch to somehow work ), which is apparently not a very good idea, since it seems to induce the same type of issues you see with Windows 7/Vista (no rendered text)

That's really weird. GDI+ is *only* used to display mana symbols (standard gdi scaled the symbols so horribly, that I had to use something else) and nothing else. I toyed with the idea of using it for more rendering but it's so unreliable that I scrapped the idea for now. All other text rendering is done with a normal gdi system routines. Are you sure all of the fonts are in the magic directory (well, TT*.ttf are enough) but even without the fonts the system should just replace them with some standard font and not displaying anything is really weird.

[KrNeki]

Is sealed portion of the game(this patch) supposed to be in working order, aka. can we report bugs we encounter there, or is it still too early in development phase for that?

I'd be surprised if it even started... No, the sealed deck part is not working properly AFAIK (for various reasons).

The sealed version starts normally for me. It just has a few glitches(randomly changing a few cards in the deck). So any testing must be done in duel mode and we can report bugs we see there for now?

[oito]

I think you might be right. I don't get any crashes, it just fails to render any text:

I think this might be my fault, though. I updated the GDI+ runtime (while trying 1000 things to get the patch to somehow work ), which is apparently not a very good idea, since it seems to induce the same type of issues you see with Windows 7/Vista (no rendered text)

That's really weird. GDI+ is *only* used to display mana symbols (standard gdi scaled the symbols so horribly, that I had to use something else) and nothing else. I toyed with the idea of using it for more rendering but it's so unreliable that I scrapped the idea for now. All other text rendering is done with a normal gdi system routines. Are you sure all of the fonts are in the magic directory (well, TT*.ttf are enough) but even without the fonts the system should just replace them with some standard font and not displaying anything is really weird.

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.

The fonts are exactly the same. That was my first instinct too, but I didn't touch them. I assume it doesn't render the text for the same reason that happens with Windows Vista/7... the difference is that Windows Vista/7 have those "compatibility tricks" that make it easy to (i guess) emulate the old gdi library behaviour.

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.

EDIT: clarification...

Windows XP -> works ok
Windows XP + new GDI/GDI+ library -> doesn't render text
Windows 7 -> doesn't render text
Windows 7 + compatibility tricks -> works ok

If you're having "text rendering" problems, it might be because of this...