XWAUP presents: the Super Backdrops patch

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Re: XWAUP presents: the Super Backdrops patch

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AngeI
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Post by AngeI » Sat May 23, 2020 10:42 am

Ok unfortunately I've found another bug which seems to relate to the updated Hook_32bpp.dll. I noticed suddenly any mission that has Mines in them immediately performs a CTD when they start trying to fire at you. Confirmed after some testing, using the initial V2.1 backdrop, works fine. Soon as I add in the updated Hook32 file to make the explosions appear, the CTD will happen.

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JeremyaFr
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Post by JeremyaFr » Sat May 23, 2020 10:51 am

Hello,
You can try to update all the hooks with XwaHooksSetup. Recently, there was a crash related to the mines that have been fixed in the weapon color hook.
If it still crashes, please post a crash report details from the Events Viewer.

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AngeI
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Post by AngeI » Sat May 23, 2020 10:55 am

Tried XwaHooksSetup, didn't seem to download anything new. Confirmed in event viewer its the Hook_Weapon_Color.dll at fault:

Faulting application name: XwingAlliance.exe, version: 2.0.0.2, time stamp: 0x3765a9b7
Faulting module name: Hook_Weapon_Color.dll, version: 1.0.0.1, time stamp: 0x5eb96ef8
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00009593
Faulting process id: 0x2298
Faulting application start time: 0x01d630f05cd92507
Faulting application path: D:\Games\Star Wars - X-Wing Alliance\XwingAlliance.exe
Faulting module path: D:\Games\Star Wars - X-Wing Alliance\Hook_Weapon_Color.dll
Report Id: d585f1b1-86a8-474f-b8ee-92df90eea8f1
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

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JeremyaFr
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Post by JeremyaFr » Sat May 23, 2020 11:01 am

To re-download the hooks, you have to delete the "Hooks" directory.

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AngeI
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Post by AngeI » Sat May 23, 2020 11:09 am

JeremyaFr wrote:
Sat May 23, 2020 11:01 am
To re-download the hooks, you have to delete the "Hooks" directory.
Did this, the CTD is still occuring unfortunately.

EDIT: However manually downloading the latest weapon_color dll does fix the problem :)

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Darksaber
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Post by Darksaber » Sat May 23, 2020 12:06 pm

You have to delete both the Hooks and the Setup folder the run XwaHooksSetup.exe
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AngeI
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Post by AngeI » Sat May 23, 2020 12:46 pm

Thanks for the help guys, appreciated :)

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keiranhalcyon7
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Post by keiranhalcyon7 » Sat May 23, 2020 7:53 pm

Jeremy - What is the reason for XwaHooksSetup doing nothing if the download directories already exist? I think it would be more intuitive if rerunning it would always populate the latest hooks, regardless of what's been done before. If it were me, I would put a timestamp in the download directories' names, and on rerun, look at the versions of each hook in the most recent download dir, compare to the versions reported by the server, download what's new, and copy from the prior dir what's unchanged.

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JeremyaFr
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Post by JeremyaFr » Sat May 23, 2020 8:13 pm

What XwaHooksSetup is:
- download the hooks to the "Hooks" folder as zip files
- extract the hooks zip files to the "Setup" folder

If the "Hooks" folder already exists, then the tool does an offline extract.
You can remove hook zip files or manually add a hook zip file, and run the tool. In that case, only existing zip files are extracted to the "Setup" folder.
If someone is not connected and re-runs the tool, then the existing hooks are not deleted.

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Trevor
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Post by Trevor » Sun May 24, 2020 12:03 am

I was looking at your source and was sorely tempted to add code that auto removed the dir and downloaded fresh.
Same for the tools, but I thought "he must have a reason for this" so left it.

basically, delete everything and start fresh everytime.

Trev

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keiranhalcyon7
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Post by keiranhalcyon7 » Sun May 24, 2020 12:25 am

That's why I lead with the question. And not deleting things, in the event of running while offline, is a worthwhile failsafe.

The tools downloader does download the new things and keep the old things with each run. It's able to do this because each tool release is contained in a uniquely-named directory. What if the hooks did the same thing? Put a version number, or a date stamp, in the zip file name, but inside, the dll & other files have the same names across versions. Then when unzipping, only unzip the most recent one for each hook.

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Post by DTM » Thu Jun 04, 2020 11:00 am

Super Backdrops Patch Version 3.0

What's new? The Planet2.dat file has been updated as follows:

- Low orbit scenarions have been updated with transparent sky, to make it possible to have planets and stars rising on the horizon
- Scenario of the Kothlis missions has been updated with HD textures

Image

- 3 new scenarios of the Coruscant low orbit (night, daylight, battle of Coruscant) to be used for your mission editing
- New scenario of an industrial planet low orbit

Image
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Image

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- New backdrop of the Starkiller Base (Slot 49-5 for Allied users)

Image

- Fix for the second mission of the battle of Endor (only for standard Y-Wing with Red Squadron as the main color)

You may find the new version of the Super Backdrops Patch here and soon in the download section.

Special thanks to Darksaber, for his great and valuable work for version 2.0 of this patch.
Last edited by Ace Antilles on Fri May 07, 2021 7:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Fixed image links

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Trevor
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Post by Trevor » Thu Jun 04, 2020 12:10 pm

WOW.... those look beautiful

trev

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Ace Antilles
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Post by Ace Antilles » Thu Jun 04, 2020 8:39 pm

DTM wrote:
Thu Jun 04, 2020 11:00 am
Super Backdrops Patch Version 3.0
Fix for the second mission of the battle of Endor (only for standard Y-Wing with Red Squadron as the main color)
:!: Seems GT has found another bug in the mission, sorry DTM. Check the Private Forum.
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keiranhalcyon7
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Post by keiranhalcyon7 » Fri Jun 05, 2020 5:24 am

Nice!

If I may ask, why is the "straight down" portion always some kind of hurricane-looking thing, with a solid-color fade to the high-detail image as you pan toward the horizon?

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DTM
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Post by DTM » Fri Jun 05, 2020 6:49 am

Ace Antilles wrote:
Thu Jun 04, 2020 8:39 pm
:!: Seems GT has found another bug in the mission, sorry DTM. Check the Private Forum.
Fixed, please use the link above to townload the fix and the SBPv3.0 with the fix for Endor.

@Forceflow: please update the SBPv3.0 in the download section.
Thanks!

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Post by Forceflow » Fri Jun 05, 2020 7:19 am

Done, though really... shouldn't it have been v3.1 then ;)
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Ace Antilles
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Post by Ace Antilles » Wed Jun 10, 2020 12:45 pm

There's not much feedback on these new backgrounds yet. I think they look awesome.
The Kothlis mission is so different with a backdrop compared to Vanilla XWA.

Anyone planning on making cool missions with these? How about attacking Starkiller Base? :D
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Trevor
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Post by Trevor » Wed Jun 10, 2020 1:35 pm

agreed, they look awsome and the atmospherics are really nice.
just a pity that flying toward them they never get closer or induce atmospheric turbulence to the craft

Trev

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Ace Antilles
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Post by Ace Antilles » Wed Jun 10, 2020 1:47 pm

Trevor wrote:
Wed Jun 10, 2020 1:35 pm
agreed, they look awesome and the atmospherics are really nice.
just a pity that flying toward them they never get closer or induce atmospheric turbulence to the craft

Trev
You don't want much from the XWA old engine do you? lol ;)
Maybe the new Microsoft Flight Simulator can be hacked and totally modded into a space one :? :D
It would be cool to finally complete the old Atmospheric Project goal of decent planets.
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Trevor
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Post by Trevor » Wed Jun 10, 2020 9:29 pm

:lachtot:

Well, just putting it out there incase blue decides to add atmospheric shaders to ddraw.
Also, you could damage the player (using engine wash) if they go "Out of bounds" toward the planet.

Trev

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Ace Antilles
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Post by Ace Antilles » Fri Aug 21, 2020 3:17 pm

Super Backdrops Patch v3.1

Now available to download is v3.1 of the Super Backdrops Patch.
This version is a only a bug fixing update but it really is worth installing.

This fixes issues in LightingEffects.dat, the first image in the DAT had been made too big in older versions.
That meant when you shot an unshielded starship you saw coloured blob effects shooting out into space with every hit.
Now this has been resized to 128x128 and works properly again. So you should now see like plumes of smoke effects escaping the hull again.

It really makes a massive difference and is essential! Thank you to AgMaywind for his bug report and Ronin65 for making the fix.

V3.1 also includes an older Bug Fix which some of you may already have anyway.
Several Mission INI files had a simple error but one that stopped the newer Starfield showing up.
It fixes the [Resdata] line in 8 Mission INI files. There was no return space meaning the PLANET2.DAT wasn’t used.

Super Backdrops Patch v3.1 is available in the Download section now. :)

IF you happened to have already downloaded v3.1 today before this announcement (4pm BST) please can you download it again.
There was an error in the installer which I have just fixed. Thanks for understanding.
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keiranhalcyon7
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Post by keiranhalcyon7 » Thu Aug 27, 2020 6:18 am

Oh thank the Maker... err, thank you AgMaywind and Ronin65!

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Ace Antilles
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Post by Ace Antilles » Sun May 09, 2021 1:58 pm

Released in the XWAU Mega Patch Update 3. Here are a few screenshots.

Super Backdrops v3.2 by @DTM : DTM has improved some of the backdrops in the Planet2 and Death Star Dat files.
There are three different high orbit scenarios used in these missions:
Nomlis III, in mission 1B2M4. Kothlis, in missions 1B4m4 and 1B4m5. Endor, in missions 1B7M1, 1B7M2 and 1B7M3
If you are a mission builder and used high orbit backdrops in your custom missions then please read the details below:
"Backdrops for creating orbital scenarios have been improved. However, it is necessary to apply the following changes in your custom missions, in case you have created orbital scenarios similar to those seen in the Azzameen missions.
Now the scenario is made up of a single front image, instead of four as before. You can then delete three of the four frontal backdrops (it doesn't matter which one), without changing their size. The polar Backdrop must be changed in its size: the new size is 2.0.
Use the following Azzameen missions as a reference: 1b2M4, 1B5M5 and 1B7M1"
He has also improved the definition of the Death Star II Backdrop. Now in the 3 Endor missions the Death Star II is now seen in orbit above Endor.
The missions have been adjusted for the new high resolution sizes.

Endor1.jpg
Endor2.jpg
Endor3.jpg
Endor4.jpg
Endor5.jpg
Endor6.jpg
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Blazingfirestorm
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Post by Blazingfirestorm » Sun May 09, 2021 2:06 pm

Awesome, very impressive!!

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