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Monday Mailbag: Bugs and Features
Posted by Data in Cortex Command - November 23rd, 2009

Here’s a new mailbag! We didn’t promise one EVERY Monday, did we?! (um, actually, seems like we did.. oh well here is a double dose anyway – be happy for what you get! ;) )

I’ve noticed that, when an actor is wielding a shield along with a single-hand weapon, if the said actors crouches while pressing any other movement keys, the shield will disappear from it’s hands, to reappear magically (or not) a couple seconds later. Is there any hope that this issue will be solved in the next build? – Areku
A: Ah, this is probably because the arm holding the shield is being used to crawl.. will add to the bug list, but can’t promise it’ll be fixed by next build! – Data

What cool new things are being done to help the modding community? – Cody
A: As always, more Lua bindings to the engine and documentation for them. There’s also talk of some modding database integration in the forums. The forum admins know more about that, I’m sure there’s a thread or two kicking around in there. Looking at making the AI routines run in Lua instead of the C++ code… however, since I’m not so comfortable with Lua, I will probably ask some community hostshots to port the AI Update functions for me while referencing the current C++ code. Any takers? – Data

At the moment, the AI is a bit reckless and they sometimes end up wiping out their team mates. Will the AI eventually be able to ’see’ better and distinguish friend or foe more accurately? - matty1
A: See the previous answer above! When the AI is run in Lua, you can make any changes to it that you’d like. Next build should have a Lua-based AI Update function that will override the native C++ one in there right now. – Data

bunkerbrainbots

I’ve been watching CC since the third build, but haven’t seen any information yet about implementation of hardware acceleration for graphics, which would greatly improve the performance and lower requirements on the processor and ram end. Are there any plans to implement this feature? – Brian Frazer
A: There actually is hardware acceleration done in the blitting of bitmaps in CC, albeit very primitive and limited (DirectDraw7 on windows). The next Data Realms project is already being built on top of Direct3D/OpenGL to take better advantage of the the power of GPUs out there (yet still in 2D) – Data

Are there any plans to add multicore support to the CC engine? – Cody
A: Nope – we looked seriously at this since CC’s physics engine is CPU-bound. However, the extra work and complexity involved in retrofiittng it to become multithreaded (and still portable) just doesn’t appear to be worth it. Next project, maybe… – Data

Will it ever be possible to have 4 players on 4 seperate teams? – Matthew
A: Yep, I’m currently rewriting the way teams work because of the Metagame.. if things go well, there will be support for up to four teams, each with their own little symbol/icon instead of the red and green hearts – Data

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81 Responses to “Monday Mailbag: Bugs and Features”

  1. Azukki - # November 24th, 2009 at 2:47 am

    >>Next project
    This is kind of disappointing to hear. It’ll be awesome, but not CC’s special brand of crazy awesome.

    Lua AI sounds cool though.

    On the subject of offhand devices, any plans for official implementation of dual wielding?

  2. Data - # November 24th, 2009 at 2:49 am

    Have faith that any DRL project will have a special brand of crazy awesome…

  3. Geti - # November 24th, 2009 at 2:53 am

    >>Any Takers?
    Hell yes. If the forums received the cpp code I’m sure we could work it into something usable in lua.

  4. Undertech - # November 24th, 2009 at 3:04 am

    DRL’s next project is still 2D? I thought those video clips of the 3D models you showed a long time ago was going to be the next project.

    Believe it or not, I’m actually more stoked that the project is going to be 2D!

  5. CrazyMLC - # November 24th, 2009 at 3:04 am

    Huzzah! New devlog post!
    Love the promises of the future, but will he deliver?

  6. Yay - # November 24th, 2009 at 3:45 am

    Nice! Just don’t spend to much time on the “new project” until CC is done :3

    Nice to see Data is reading here though!

  7. Yay - # November 24th, 2009 at 3:47 am

    *Nice to see Data is POSTING here AGAIN though!

  8. CrazyMLC - # November 24th, 2009 at 3:52 am

    Oh, I didn’t notice.
    This was posted by Data! huzzah!

  9. war_man333 - # November 24th, 2009 at 4:01 am

    “Yep, I’m currently rewriting the way teams work because of the Metagame.”

    Fuck yeah.

  10. BioBen - # November 24th, 2009 at 4:47 am

    :) Devlog!
    The Lua AI sounds bloody handy.

  11. ZevN47 - # November 24th, 2009 at 5:25 am

    I noticed that big turret is next to the brains is it a brain?

  12. Kzerog - # November 24th, 2009 at 7:29 am

    Ahh, the devlog posts always make me feel so comfortable knowing that something is happening. I hope that the next buid will be out for christmas.

  13. Ch33n - # November 24th, 2009 at 7:34 am

    !!!!1111oneoneoneeleven
    Brain crab be climbin’ on my walls, stealing my grill.

  14. whitty - # November 24th, 2009 at 8:02 am

    yayyyyyyyyyy

  15. ZevN47 - # November 24th, 2009 at 8:53 am

    @Ch33n: I look forward to squishing many a crab brain.

    @Kzerog: I second it!… be funny if it made the christmas mods obsolete tho :3

  16. FLUXDECAPITATOR - # November 24th, 2009 at 9:27 am

    They seemed to have done a good job making brains even more helpless!
    Better have a little jet then…

  17. Duh102 - # November 24th, 2009 at 9:33 am

    Hm, I should probably get to work on the contest prizes… Only a few weeks until they’re due.

  18. Ghost Bear - # November 24th, 2009 at 10:44 am

    >>Next project
    Do not want

  19. Talibanned - # November 24th, 2009 at 11:19 am

    ‘nextproject’

    I thought Data Realms would support CC with new content for a while before moving on. Guess you could still do it AND work on a next project at the same time.

    Figures working on the same project for many years must taking its toll.

  20. Tomaster - # November 24th, 2009 at 1:16 pm

    Yay for update.

  21. Mooseral - # November 24th, 2009 at 1:22 pm

    Try not to spend too much of the CC money on the “next Data Realms project”.

    :D

  22. Will - # November 24th, 2009 at 1:57 pm

    New project?
    Methinks CC needs finishing first.

  23. Geti - # November 24th, 2009 at 3:04 pm

    RE: Whining about new project
    Every game developer usually has side projects, due to the inherent boredom of working on one thing day in and day out. And anyway, anything DRL will probably be pretty “crazy awesome” regardless

  24. Geti - # November 24th, 2009 at 5:38 pm

    @above: look on the forums for a topic by me about reducing lag on old machines. the engine isnt broken, its just cpu-intensive.

  25. Karvey - # November 24th, 2009 at 5:41 pm

    “Next Project”
    I really hope its an RPG…

  26. cadwaller - # November 24th, 2009 at 5:46 pm

    I’m very happy about more devlog posts, regardless of the topic. This post also makes me more encouraged to learn lua! Since data posted, that means that his computer’s working again, right?

  27. cadwaller - # November 24th, 2009 at 5:51 pm

    forgot to put this in the last post… I would be really happy if, besides improving
    lua, some more simple .ini variables were added, like maybe elasticity or non-terrain stickiness. Not sure if this kind of thing is feasible, just a thought.

  28. whitty - # November 24th, 2009 at 8:53 pm

    @23:
    Your meager little $18 had contributed to the progression of a 7+ year in the making game. So shut it.

  29. Data - # November 24th, 2009 at 11:13 pm

    Note that everyone (incl me) who worked on CC is still working on CC until at least the metagame is solid. There’s a new guy working on the engine for the next project so we don’t have to start from square 0 when we do transition over to it. I don’t want the next project to take another decade to do.

    Also note that there were never any guarantees that CC would be finished at all – that’s why the early price is discounted. That being said, since the beginning of the project, I made a personal vow to myself to get CC to a state where I feel comfortable calling it a complete product. We’re still going after all this time, so I think it’s a good bet that it’ll get there.

  30. Geti - # November 24th, 2009 at 11:57 pm

    whoops, wrong email above <_<
    more updates on the meta-game and how its planned to work would be awesome, data and co :D

  31. Mooseral - # November 25th, 2009 at 12:19 am

    @Data:

    Nice to hear some reassurance. Just looking at the history so far of CC, a total lack of completion seems unlikely; though it’s always nice to hear it from the horses’ mouth.

    So it sounds like Datarealms has expanded somewhat, also! Hopefully that works out well. It should be interesting to see what comes of whatever experience was garnered from the development of CC.

  32. Will - # November 25th, 2009 at 11:27 am

    NEWS FLASH:

    Data saves drowning children!
    (Kind of)

  33. cipher - # November 25th, 2009 at 5:15 pm

    @Data,

    Can we get some info on the next game? :) Anything really. Hype is good ;P

  34. airburst - # November 26th, 2009 at 12:00 am

    “Next build should have…”

    Implying that it is not going to be released for a while.

  35. Roon3 - # November 26th, 2009 at 7:44 am

    Could this new project be the Ant Attack thing?

  36. Lizard - # November 26th, 2009 at 11:44 am

    @TinyWhinyBitches:
    you paid for CC on your own initiative, you were never forced, so don’t try to tell Data what he should do with his money.

  37. ZNESS - # November 26th, 2009 at 3:31 pm

    Lizard, that makes it sounds like Data is intentionally conning us. Wait.

  38. Lizard - # November 26th, 2009 at 3:44 pm

    sorry if you got that impression XD

    Also, he’s probably using it on energy drinks that makes him code faster… Well wouldn’t that be cool at least? No?

  39. Lizard - # November 27th, 2009 at 2:39 am

    I was mostly talking to other whiners, because your post seemed perfectly reasonable.

  40. Geti - # November 27th, 2009 at 5:01 am

    Hahahah. He never gave you his word it would be finished, in fact he implied that he wasnt sure it would be. He does, however, want it to be finished, and he’s getting there. I dont see what the problem is.
    Also, the initial builds werent as CPU heavy as CC currently is, so no, there is no alien supertechnology or whatever bullshit, it’s just more intensive now as it’s going a shittong more calculations. Also, your computer was probably pretty shitty 3 years ago if it cant run CC “properly” now, unless you mean without lag, before you’ve tweaked the settings, on death difficulty, using lots of mods.
    Regardless, you’re still whining. Its getting predictable as well, this whole devlog shindig. People sook until a build is released, then they are temporarily in love with data, then they start sooking again.

  41. Ch33n - # November 27th, 2009 at 5:57 am

    *Cuts in*

    With a sabre;
    O’hai.

  42. Gnome - # November 27th, 2009 at 2:06 pm

    Ragdoll Your right on alot of points. But consumers get to complain if they want. Now I will be sad if cc doesn’t get completed just like many others. But I will hope his next project is just as randomly godlike.

  43. Towelie - # November 27th, 2009 at 2:14 pm

    Thanks 4 the news.That`s not too awesome to understand that there won`t be a multiplayer,but still it`s my favourite game,thanks data.

  44. CrazyMLC - # November 27th, 2009 at 6:53 pm

    Well said, Ragdoll.

    Most everything is released by christmas so people buy it for their family. CC is not an exception.

  45. Duh102 - # November 27th, 2009 at 8:25 pm

    Now the real question is, who will get the screenshot of the 99999th redirect to the devlog from the forums?

  46. Ch33n - # November 28th, 2009 at 7:26 am

    I smell smoke, can it be a flames?

  47. CrazyMLC - # November 28th, 2009 at 12:50 pm

    DDR2 RAM, right?

  48. Ragdollmaster - # November 28th, 2009 at 5:08 pm

    Odd. I have a 2.2GHZ aswell and only 512MB of RAM and I can run it fine, usually at a 0.80 timescale (4/5 of the optimal speed isn’t really bad, I usually don’t even notice) on a crowded map. Only when there’s a lot of action going on with explosions and bullets hailing down from ten or more actors does it dip down to 0.60 or 0.50.

    Of course you might still consider that slow since most games wouldn’t even get to 4/5 of the optimal speed unless there was a crapton of activity going on, but it’s bearable (IMO)

  49. Mooseral - # November 28th, 2009 at 10:13 pm

    Wait, scratch a part of that, the 3800+ is a dual, not single, core. Still a piece of junk though, just put the wrong word down. I mean, they don’t even sell these things anymore, at all; the lowest end available chips are the 5000+ and 5200+, and those are like 60bux.

  50. 01271 - # November 29th, 2009 at 1:01 am

    I can’t wait to attach my brain to what appears to be a plunger.

  51. CAKEDAEMON - # November 29th, 2009 at 4:48 am

    I’ve got a AMD Sempron 3000+ Single core with only 767mb ram. I can run CC Pretty fine as long as the computer mod is not enabled.

  52. anonymous - # November 29th, 2009 at 8:23 am

    mewant new project NOW

    c’mon post some concept art or something

    and what graphics library is cortex built on?

  53. cipher - # November 29th, 2009 at 9:34 am

    The mod system should be reworked. It’s not too efficient that it takes 10 minutes to load CC, but you end up only using 1 or 2 mods. Sure you could remove them, but sometimes you have conflicts and etc. :/

    I have a dual core at 2.0GHz with 2GB of RAM and It doesn’t run very good. :/

  54. Ch33n - # November 29th, 2009 at 12:12 pm

    Maverick, there’s a bomb in your base!

  55. Duh102 - # November 29th, 2009 at 12:50 pm

    @Anonymous: According to the readme, Allegro.
    In Credits.txt:
    ALLEGRO, FMOD, LUA, LUABIND, LIBCURL, OGG VORBIS, MICROPATHER, MSVC8 CRTs

  56. Geti - # November 29th, 2009 at 2:50 pm

    ignore some idiot apostrophes in there, its early – -;

  57. CrazyMLC - # November 29th, 2009 at 9:52 pm

    Except your not the only one with okay to shit anti-virus software.

  58. Geti - # November 29th, 2009 at 11:39 pm

    no, but there are a lot of people with okay to good hardware and good performance, or okay to shit hardware and good performance. the fact that there are more people doinitrong doesn’t mean you aren’t.

  59. Captain Kicktar - # November 30th, 2009 at 10:47 am

    I think it just likes some processers more than others. I have an ATI 200 (Which by the way, the website doesn’t even have that as an availible update) and I don’t have too much trouble running CC.

  60. Captain Kicktar - # November 30th, 2009 at 10:50 am

    Oops, I meant ATI Radeon Xpress 200. Same still goes.

  61. Ch33n - # November 30th, 2009 at 2:49 pm

    These (soon to be hostile) discussions makes me a sad chinchilla D:

  62. Echo - # November 30th, 2009 at 7:01 pm

    This all kinda makes me glad I haven’t bought the game yet. It’s been over a year since I started playing it at my friend’s place and there’s been almost NOTHING aside from user-created content for this game. Not encouraging progress and if I were a paying customer, I’d be more than a little pissed.

    Users shouldn’t be the ones creating almost all the content and levels for a game while the developer does god-knows-what with their money. Call me a troll if you want, but it’s the truth.

  63. Tomaster - # November 30th, 2009 at 7:35 pm

    Monday? I thought not…

  64. CrazyMLC - # November 30th, 2009 at 8:32 pm

    ME WANT MAILBAG.

  65. Captain Kicktar - # November 30th, 2009 at 9:00 pm

    I do hope your not serious MLC. Be thankful for the increase in posts.

  66. CrazyMLC - # November 30th, 2009 at 10:49 pm

    It should be happening weekly.

  67. CrazyMLC - # November 30th, 2009 at 10:50 pm

    ‘We didn’t promise one EVERY Monday, did we?! (um, actually, seems like we did..)’

  68. Mooseral - # November 30th, 2009 at 10:53 pm

    @Captain Kicktar

    An “ATI Radeon Xpress 200″ is, unfortunately, an onboard graphics processor as opposed to a CPU; as such, CC doesn’t actually use it at all.

    I also know that that is the same GPU as my laptop runs, however, and I’m also pretty sure that my laptop runs (mostly) on a Turion ML37 CPU… Which, I can say, I do actually play CC on, somehow. 2ghz single core + 1gb ram = win? Not really, but it sorta works.

    Then again, “sorta works” is also somewhat hampered by the main LCD and also the sound card crapping out. But it definitely ran to an acceptable (to me; could be subjective) extent before the computer began to disintegrate!

  69. Geti - # December 1st, 2009 at 12:08 am

    @echo: Uh, in the last few years the amount vanilla content has skyrocketed from the initial AK, SMG, Pistol, Flak Cannon, Shotgun etc. We now have factions and missions besides the tutorial and the like.

  70. CrazyMLC - # December 1st, 2009 at 1:00 am

    Yeah, Echo, If you think this is bad you should have seen it a year or two ago. It’s just the all the interesting content is made by modders, there’s a reason official content is called ‘vanilla’.

    As for the lack of new builds, more wait usually mean more content.

  71. ZevN47 - # December 1st, 2009 at 9:09 am

    I don’t know whats worse. People crying about CC,Devlog,Etc. or the people crying about the people crying about CC,Devlog,Etc.

    Less blasphemic(I know its not a word):

    I want details on the next project.

    IE: Is it a physics oriented game? Is it 3D? Will it be modable? ETC.

    Also a question on CC how long will the campaign be?

  72. ZevN47 - # December 1st, 2009 at 9:10 am

    The afore post is not aimed at anyone in particular…

  73. Alexander - # December 1st, 2009 at 9:29 am

    Y’all gonna make me get all troll-like up in here! There gonna but some trolls in ya hood!

  74. Ch33n - # December 2nd, 2009 at 3:48 am

    Argh.

  75. Koko Krunch - # December 2nd, 2009 at 5:12 am

    whats that about the devlog getting personal? its almost two weeks now and still no frequent not so related updates….

  76. ZevN47 - # December 2nd, 2009 at 8:59 am

    … If he hired some of the better modders IE. Grif, TheLastBanana(might already be a dev?), Abdule Ahazrad<-(Spelled wrong), Etc. then thats awesome.

  77. Mooseral - # December 2nd, 2009 at 9:46 am

    Welp of course, he did originally hire AAL guy and Bubs, so hiring modders in and of itself is not wholly new. Wouldn’t be surprising if he decided to give it another go though, considering Numgun’s strange behavior and the apparent addition of even more factions.

    If more people have been brought on, can’t really be a bad thing, in any case.

  78. Duh102 - # December 2nd, 2009 at 3:29 pm

    TLB is a dev. And you can’t get a much better modder than CapnBubs. numgun is likely not actively devving. Data is likely not hiring though, he hardly uses his devs now. Iirc, TLB has said that most of the time they’re waiting for sprites and content data from Prom and Data. Once in a while they get something and stick it right in, but for a good portion of the time they have nothing to do.

  79. Foogooman - # December 2nd, 2009 at 4:43 pm

    Just FYI, the forums are broken. Just brings me into the “change your password” page over and over.

  80. Tomaster - # December 2nd, 2009 at 4:50 pm

    Only for you. Also, 100th, until I get ninja’d/time warped by Mouse.

  81. whitty - # December 2nd, 2009 at 10:19 pm

    dumbgun err i mean numgun should never have been a dev

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