VCMI 0.87b - development version (r2559)

We’re coming close to the upcoming 0.88 release date that should happen on March 1st. It’s within a week, so it’s time for a development build.

[size=150]DOWNLOAD LINK download.vcmi.eu/vcmi_087b.7z [/size]
Resolved reports: bugs.vcmi.eu/changelog_page.php?version_id=43
Development log: sourceforge.net/apps/trac/vcmi/timeline

There aren’t many new features but among the few we have there is a big one: adventure AI. At the moment it still plays very poorly but it’s pretty much complete and functional base for further development. For a first time we have a working AI and it wasn’t easy to achieve.

The working AI allowed me to find and fix a number of rare crashes, also last days we’ve done decent job with bugfixing, number of issues on Mantis is pretty nicely decreasing. We may have the most stable VCMI build ever… but more likely it just not tested enough. :wink:

The changelog:

It doesn’t look impressive, so let me know if I missed anything.
Please also check the package, if all things are in place.

In testing please give some attention to issues around AI introduction: GUI behaviour during AI turn, it’s interaction with another features (like hot-seat). Don’t report that AI plays poorly — I know that but it can’t be fixed so soon. :slight_smile:

Thank you all for the contribution!

There were several requests to create packages for Linux so I’ve created .debs for Ubuntu 11.10 and Debian sid.You can get them here.
Please note that these packages are not yet tested so report any issues you’ve found with them here or on our bugtracker.

You most possibly saw these screenshots already but I’ll post them anyway:
New configuration menu - all options from config file are now available from in-game menu.
2nd upgrade for creatures - you won’t see this in-game, it’s just a demonstration of VCMI engine possibilities for modding.

Hey, but what about main menu and new graphics by Dru? It looked pretty cool, but doesn’t support high resolutions yet.

@ Tow : Thanks & congrats on the progress with the AI as well as overall. I’m really looking forward to playing 0.88. :slight_smile: Unfortunately I won’t be able to help much with testing 0.87b (not home till Monday), so I hope others will. I did however copy the package to my laptop, just in case I’ll get the chance to test at some point, and I noticed a minor detail when overwriting the files of an older version (.86d) : some files coming with .87b are actually a bit older, albeit file size seems the same (mainly files in the Config folder). Perhaps it’s nothing… maybe when you or Warmonger made one of the previous builds file dates were updated, without content change, while now files with the real date of their last change were used again…

I also noticed the ressources.json file name (and the word “ressources” in the text inside as well). Is the double “s” a typo, or intended due to a conflict with a previous file? I’m thinking it could be a typo b/c in some languages (e.g.: French) it’s actually spelled like that, but AFAIK in English is always with only one “s”.

@ Ivan : I actually haven’t seen those screenshots yet, so thanks. :slight_smile: The one with the 2nd upgrade for creatures looks perfect! The new configuration menu looks very nice as well. To be picky, I can’t help wondering if it won’t look better if we make the list of resolutions a bit longer to include the 10th, and do the same for the whole window to match the System Options one in height? For the rest it’s really great to have this implemented in the config screen. Is it already fully functional (i.e.: changing res while on Adventure Map), or does the new setting work only after the next game load?

By the way - this can work not only as HotA-style 2nd upgrade bu tas H5-style alternative upgrades. GUI is probably the only limitation (there is no way to choose desired upgrade)

To be picky, using button with label “High” is not most logical way to open this window :wink: . This whole dialog uses only original graphics (Town portal in this case). Which had 9 items-sized window only.

Resolution selection is the only option that requires restart. All other options will take effect immediately (Fullscreen doesn’t work this way now but I’ll fix this for release)

Hi, new guy here :slight_smile:

First off, thank you all for this amazing project. Im really excited to see where it’s headed in the future. just a quick question about building it with vs2010. It doesnt seem that the vcai project is added to the solution file, i had to add it manually to get it to build. I dont know if this is intentional? I don’t have that much experience with c++ but hope to gain some knowledge so that I might be helpful to this project someday :slight_smile:

The_Viper, Hi. VCAI was added quite recently so most possibly this is just a missing update.

  1. Can you add libpng library to add support for .png files on Win systems? libsdl.org/projects/SDL_image - check Win package here.
  2. This is really minor but can you rename “sprites” directory to “Sprites”? Fix for Linux case-sensivity.

It was my mistake. I use separate solution file than the versioned one and I forgot to update it. R2563 corrects it.

Done and done. :slight_smile: