wmarkham
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Hi!

I'm going to be the maintainer of the official Caravel release of JtRH for OS X. Currently, I'm working on putting together a beta release, and I understand that Erik has gotten some testers ready for it. So, this topic is partly to let the testers know what I'm expecting to happen, and also to let them know in advance about some of the issues that they may encounter, but that I am already aware of.

Within the next week or so (hopefully less) a beta release should be made available to you. I expect that Erik can fill you in on the details here, when he gets a chance. I expect that you will get a .dmg that contains an application that you can drag to whatever location you want. Recipients of physical media would similarly copy the application from the CD.

Play it! Push all the buttons and make sure that everything works fine. I have no particular requests of things to test, other than the observation that many of the changes that were needed dealt with bitmap representations in memory. Bugs in this code could appear as incorrectly-colored UI elements.

If you have a problem that is not a bug per se, but you think it might cause usability issues for Mac users, report that as well.

When you find an issue, you should probably post to this board, in a topic starting with "OSX:", so that I can easily find bugs and issues that are specifically related to the port. Check the other topics marked with "OSX", in order to avoid reporting the same issue again.


Lastly, (but not least-ly) here is my list of current known issues. I'll post again as I fix them. Some of these may already be fixed by the time you get a binary:

cut & paste of text does not work

need to enable command-Q to exit

F10 and F11 as full-screen mode and screen capture conflict with Finder when running in windowed mode (may need to update help files, as well, if bindings are changed for Mac)

mouse cursors: SDL needs 16x16 ones; code is written to use "Cursor16x16.png", etc, if they exist, or to scale down the 32x32 ones, but the latter solution doesn't look great.

desktop icons: The existing ones are fine, but OS X can work with 128x128 ones, which could look much nicer.

data file locations: I need to enable the code that locates data files under ~/.caravel, and falls back on using ones inside the application bundle (which might be read-only)

some text labels disappear when the user changes a key binding in the settings screen. I don't know if any other screens are affected.


Happy testing,
Weston

wmarkham
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The first official beta is on the way!

copy and paste should work

command-Q should work

Data files can be placed in ~/.caravel/drod-2_0. Sadly, I neglected to re-test the code that copies files there. I'm sorry about that, but I'm guessing that most/all of you already have a copy of JtRH, so you'll want to copy your data files over from that anyway. Let me know if that is not the case, or if you need some help doing this.

Other issues:

I do not expect CaravelNet to work.

I have not taken any steps to ensure that this binary will work on OS versions before 10.3.9. There's a chance that it will. If anyone happens to have an older OS installed, they should go ahead and try it out. fuzzie, I will probably take you up on your offer to install one, but I don't think it's necessary at this time.

Switching to full-screen mode from the settings screen can sometimes cause the sound to stop playing.

Pressing Command-Q to quit from the settings screen, then pressing "back" causes the exit screen music to continue to play in the settings screen. This probably affects other platforms, too, only with Alt-F4, since it's really hard to find that Command key on non-Mac keyboards....

I think that's everything. I've made a .dmg file available to Erik, (drod-ppc-2.0.6.beta1.dmg) and I'm going to let him figure out how to get it to you guys.

wmarkham
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In order to get the beta up and running, you will need to create a directory ~/.caravel/drod-2_0, containing all of the .dat files, as well as drod.ini, from an existing JtRH installation.

If you do not have a copy of JtRH, do not despair! You can still try out the beta, although you won't have any holds (not even the JtRH demo hold). You can still build and import them, however. In the Finder, control-click on the DROD application, and select "show package contents". Navigate to Contents/Resources/Data, and select the .dat and .ini files. Copy them. Now, go to your home directory, and create .caravel (uh oh, I need help from a Mac person here? How does one create a directory starting with a dot? Can that be done from the Finder GUI?) and within .caravel, create drod-2_0. Within that, paste your .dat and .ini files. Now, you should be able to launch DROD!

wmarkham
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wmarkham wrote:
In order to get the beta up and running, you will need to create a directory ~/.caravel/drod-2_0, containing all of the .dat files, as well as drod.ini, from an existing JtRH installation.

Oh, also, you should copy these from a 2.0.6 version of JtRH.

Weston

PUG1911
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wmarkham wrote:
In order to get the beta up and running, you will need to create a directory ~/.caravel/drod-2_0, containing all of the .dat files, as well as drod.ini, from an existing JtRH installation.

If you do not have a copy of JtRH, do not despair! You can still try out the beta, although you won't have any holds (not even the JtRH demo hold). You can still build and import them, however. In the Finder, control-click on the DROD application, and select "show package contents". Navigate to Contents/Resources/Data, and select the .dat and .ini files. Copy them. Now, go to your home directory, and create .caravel (uh oh, I need help from a Mac person here? How does one create a directory starting with a dot? Can that be done from the Finder GUI?) and within .caravel, create drod-2_0. Within that, paste your .dat and .ini files. Now, you should be able to launch DROD!

As far as I know, this cannot be done from the Finder. But to create a '.' directory in OS X one needs to use Terminal's "md .caravel" command. Then to go there from the finder, one needs to open Finder, press GO, Go to Folder, then type in .caravel to open it. Sorry if this is already known to everyone, but incase it's not, it is now. ^^

Also, when running Drod.app for the first time, it created ~/.caravel/drod-2_0/ without having to do so manually.

wmarkham
Level: Master Delver

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Hello again!

First off, let me apologize one last time for my long hiatus from getting the Mac port ready. I'll see what I can do to take care of the remaining issues that I know about in a timely manner.

A new beta, 2.0.8.beta3, is ready, and I expect that it will soon be available at the download area, http://www.drod.net/forum/downloads.php. The following issues are addressed:

* right-click in game to display coordinates had a funny character in it if a coordinate is a single digit.

* The file selection dialog now includes mounted volumes

* Selecting a directory that is listed as an absolute path in the file selection dialog (e.g., "[ /Users/me ]") works properly now.

* Some timing-related issues have been corrected: recorded demos have appropriate delays between moves, extraneous keypress events that might happen in some cases have been eliminated.

* The Demo JtRH hold is now included. The proprietary resource files are correctly retrieved from the .dat file.

In order to upgrade to the new beta, I would like you to first remove any existing ~/.caravel/drod-2_0 directory that you have. You should open a "Terminal" window and enter the following command:

rm -rf ~/.caravel/drod-2_0

When you launch the DROD application, it will re-create the user and hold data stored there.

The preferred way to import data from other DROD installations is to export them and import them within the application, as described here.

That's all for now. Please let me know how this works for you!

Weston

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[Last edited by wmarkham at 07-31-2005 11:54 PM : removed claim that I might have fixed the nonrepeating keys bug]

wmarkham
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Another new beta is available. This one is 2.0.8.beta4. (Note that the main version # did not change; just the "beta4".) As usual, it can be obtained from the download area. The following additional issues are addressed:

* DROD.app (the application bundle) can be moved around freely. The application will search for static data files in the location where it was first launched from. (Which it already did.) If it does not find them there, it will use the files in the location from which it is currently launched.

* CaravelNet functionality should work. (Please try it out!)

* Music should correctly play when in full-screen mode.

* An application icon has been added.

* Keys should now repeat correctly when in full-screen mode.

* Clicking on buttons should work correctly when in full-screen mode.


It is also worth noting that this beta (and although I did not mention it, the previous one) also includes various bug fixes from the main branch, even beyond those included in the 2.0.8 versions for Windows and Linux.

As described in my previous post, the preferred way of installing the beta is to first export all holds, players, and demos that you wish to preserve from the old version (or another installation on Windows/Linux), then remove ~/.caravel/drod-2_0, launch the new application, and import everything.

Weston

wmarkham
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A new beta for OS X, dubbed 2.0.9.beta5, is available. This includes fixes from the other OS'es, and extends the lifetime of the beta. See the download area to get it. In order to upgrade, first export all holds, players, and demos that you wish to preserve from the old version (or another installation on Windows/Linux), then remove ~/.caravel/drod-2_0, launch the new application, and import everything.

Some remaining items that need to be addressed:

* does CaravelNet work?
* option-c and option-v ought to copy and paste
* ought to have nicer-looking mouse cursors
* need to establish a good way to distribute upgrades (download size and ease of installation)

Weston

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[Last edited by wmarkham at 08-28-2005 04:30 AM : add list of open issues]

wmarkham
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Sadly, I made a couple of mistakes when I built the OS X 2.0.9.beta5. The version number that was displayed within the application had not been updated, and the executable is still set to disable itself after August 31. The latest is now "2.0.9.beta6".

Weston

Dreggs
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Just a couple small things in beta6

The right mouse click DOES work with a real multi-button mouse, but doesn't use the standard modifier for a single button mouse. I'm not sure if that's a bug in whatever framework you're using or what.

The timer seems to show up for 3 or 4 moves on every room, whether it has roach queens on it or not. It then goes away if it isn't needed on that room.

Those were the only obvious things I noticed, but I'm afraid I haven't done very much testing, busy at the grind...

Oneiromancer
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Dreggs wrote:
The timer seems to show up for 3 or 4 moves on every room, whether it has roach queens on it or not. It then goes away if it isn't needed on that room.

The timer will show up when Halph or the Slayer are going to enter a room at an entrance, because they always enter on a multiple of 5, and will wait for you to get away from the entrance before they come in. Is this what is happening for you, or do you see the clock even on rooms without Halph, the Slayer, or roach queens? (Or serpents/rattlesnakes, for that matter.)

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

wmarkham
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Dreggs wrote:
The right mouse click DOES work with a real multi-button mouse, but doesn't use the standard modifier for a single button mouse. I'm not sure if that's a bug in whatever framework you're using or what.

Good, thanks. That's what I had expected, based on your earlier post, but I had temporarily misplaced my USB mouse.... So yeah, it appears to be an inconsistency produced by the SDL layer. I may be able to fix it without too much trouble.

I found the following explanation of why the SDL maps the modifier keys to mouse buttons in a seemingly-nonstandard way: http://www.devolution.com/pipermail/sdl/2005-June/069068.html. A quick comparison between Firefox and X11 does seem to indicate that different applications do indeed map them differently. (control-click or right mouse button for a context menu in Firefox; command-click for a right mouse button in X11.) Anyway, I will at least look into how easily I can change the behavior.

Weston

wmarkham
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On the subject of what modifier does what, I am going to call the current behavior "not a bug". It would be more burdensome than it is worth to try to change it.

Weston