BREED TALK 9/30/96--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gotta' jump-start the damn thing!..From: jac4770@garnet.acns.fsu.eduDate: Sep 26 1996 09:43:58 AMSubject: Re: HD Help....I have an A4000/030 with 14mb ram, I just got AB3DII-TKG the other day(this copy actually works!) and I installed it on my hard drive, but when Idouble click on the game icon my system freezes up? I've tried theso-called fix that involved copying the shell icon etc.. I don't know if Ineed to make assigns to my user-startup, because if I do I must have triedthe wrong ones... The game plays fine off of disk but, well, you know....A Powell: Oh.. That one stopped me too when I first received my copy. (Irun it on an A4000/040 with 18 Megs ram, and I ran into the same thing.)The problem is aparantly something to do with the last minute addition oftheir menu system for the game. It aparantly doesn't like NTSC machines.The simple way I get around it is to simply run it from 'Shell' instead. Itworks fine that way..Hope this helps..--------------------------------------------------------------------------- ANDY CLITHEROE SPEAKETH!...I`ve been out of the loop for about 8 months now,before finally getting a net-connected computer, so apologies to all those waiting for me to join in. I`ll probably get billions of complaints now about the problems everyone`s having with the editors. I know that they are not by any meanswonderful, but six months for a new game AND an editing package all on mylonesome isn`t a great deal of time. I`m glad to see people are persevering, though, even to the extent of producing editor programs I missed out (eg the text editor). As to the rumours of new, improved editors, that`s all they are I`m afraid.I`ve got a lot on my plate on the moment, and the next thing to sort out is a WB-working version of the game. I`d like to explain about that, too, if I may: We thoroughly tested the game on EVERY computer we could get our hands on, including base 1200s, 1200s with faster `020s, `030s, A4000s, 1200`s with `060s, etc. etc. and it worked fine. When the complaints came in we couldn`t understand what was happening, and were unable to fix the`problem` (bit difficult to test a fix if it worked on all your computers BEFORE you fixed it!) until we recently found a computer it fails to load from WB on, and I am working on fixing it for all you hot and bothered people booting with no startup! On other matters, has anyone even tried to work out how the illuminatedaliens work yet? Well, if anyone wants to bother trying, here`s what you do (for a single frame of animation, say from the front): Design an alien in a 3D package (THIS IS ESSENTIAL). Save it out .Change the WHOLE MODEL to matte white (keeping any bumpmaps) Save it as another file. Render the `alabaster model` lit from directly above, then directly below,then directly from the left, then from the right. Save out the four imagesas `myalien.top`, `myalien.bot`, `myalien.lft` and `myalien,rgt`. Render the original colour model BUT with ambient lighting set at 100% (ie no shading or shadows) to produce a colourmap. Save this image as `myalien.cmp`. Position all the images in the top left corner of their screens. Run the `256lit` program (I HOPE it`s on your disks, if not let me know and I`ll release it) and click on one of the images. It will convert them all and save a large .HQN file. Now run `complight` and select the HQN file. It will compress the data as before and hey presto, you have a lightsourcablealien! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Listen all ye'... For he isn't finished...Andy Clitheroe: Guys, don`t worry about the clip completion readout: it`s just not updated after the last zone is calculated; hence a two-zone level ALWAYS reads as 50% complete, a three zone level as 66% is reason, unless the level is HUGE! Clipping can go wrong occasionally, and CAN cause the program to crash (although not often). Just to be on the safe side save the level regularly as you design it, and if you`ve added a lot since you last saved, save itbefore AND after you calculate the clip file.Andy.