Aleph One 1.3a1: testers wanted

[Wrkncacnter]

I know you told me not to feed him when he's trolling, but I just couldn't help it this time. I saw an opportunity to steamroll his ass so I seized it.

Yeah, Irons got STOMPED.

[Erika Redmark]

That makes him shaped irons.

I'll just go ahead and shut the fuck up.

Anyway, to ignore what I just said I would do, I kind of glazed over the last posts and woke up not knowing where I was, but I understand 1.3a1 is still in testing phase? The latest stable seems to still say 1.2. Is the link on the front page still the most recent? I might consider trying it out next time me and my friend play Co-op.

Or is testing not relevant anymore? I'm kind of confused if the testing was already done, and this topic isn't relevant anymore at least to the original intent, or if there is still more to do?

[3371-Alpha]

I don't really know if this is relevant any more but I do have a trick to get an HD Starscape (similar to the one in this alpha) into Marathon 1 v1.2.1 (assuming you're still using that version, like me)! Download M1 Map Dude's StarScape DDS from Simplici7y and follow my advice in the comment at the bottom of the download page to get it working.

[Hopper]

Well, this thread certainly was active while I've been away. My thanks to everyone who helped with Zetren's questions.

1.3a2 should arrive in March. 1.3 final will arrive around Bungie Day if all goes well, with at least one beta release prior. Lately my day job has been my day-and-most-nights-and-some-weekends job, so I'm way behind schedule and might fall further behind, but I have the most important part done: Aleph One is running on SDL 2.

Zetren: thanks for the reports. Aleph One does not use the registry, so I'm not sure what's going on with #1, but I'm glad you were able to get 1.2.1 working again. SDL 2 brings a lot of bug fixes, so hopefully the AA and vsync issues will get better soon. If not I have other ideas for improving compatibility, although they may have to wait for 1.4. Unfortunately Intel graphics usually don't have great OpenGL drivers, so I can't promise anything, but not having vsync is incredibly annoying.

Erika: at this point, it's better to wait for 1.3a2. I'll start a new thread when that's ready, and throw this one to the wolves. 1.2.1 is still the best "daily driver" for most people. 1.3a2 will start fixing bugs and limitations in 1.2.1, replacing them with entirely new bugs. The beta will come once I've fixed everything I know I broke, and need help to find more stuff broken since 1.2.1.

3371-Alpha: regarding the starscape, have you tried copying the plugin from 1.3a1 into 1.2.1? It should work fine, but I haven't had time to test it. If it works, I'll put it on Simplici7y as a standalone download.

[Zetren]

I look forward to testing 1.3a2

[3371-Alpha]

regarding the starscape, have you tried copying the plugin from 1.3a1 into 1.2.1? It should work fine, but I haven't had time to test it. If it works, I'll put it on Simplici7y as a standalone download.

I've tried it just a moment ago and can confirm it works. Though (no offence intended) I do sort of like M1 Map Dude's starscape a little better. It just feels more authentic.

[Zetren]

I'm on the second level of Marathon Infinity now and there is annoying and constant audio popping. It seems to happen at the end of every ambient audio loop.

What I have tried to do to fix it:
-Change audio devices from Audiobox USB DAC to built in Realtek audio chip
-Change from 48khz to 44.1khz
-Change from 24bit to 16bit audio.
-Disable zero restart delay
-Reduce audio channels
-Disable "more sounds"

Disabling "more sounds" reduced the severity of the popping.

I doubt this is a performance issue on my end as I can run Halo at max settings without a bother. It could just be am intrinsic problem with the now 20 year old low-budget sound files from within Marathon itself.

Specs: ASUS x555la -- Windows 10 x64. Intel HD 5500 graphics chip. 8gb RAM. Audiobox USB driver v1.3/Realtek ALC233 driver v6.0.1.7571

[Pfhorrest]

Soooo it's been about two years now, and I keep needing to refer people to this alpha when they experience that music-loop bug. Is there any way that someone (treellama?) could roll at least the bug fixes from this release into a proper stable release that people can find without having to know to search for this Pfhorums thread?

[ravenshining]

I'll confirm that the 1.3 is working beautifully for me. Haven't had a single crash in any of the original games. I do get some clipping issues when all the HD stuff is on, however, but that could be my ancient graphics card.

Linux 4.9.0-0.bpo.5-amd64 Debian 4.9.65-3+deb9u2~bpo8+1
NVIDIA Corporation G84GLM [Quadro FX 1600M] (rev a1)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T9500 @ 2.60GHz
Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)

[treellama]

I don't really want to release another 1.2.x version of Aleph One (SDL 1 is a dead end), and unfortunately there's a lot of work to do (and some to undo) to get 1.3 ready for a stable release. The bugs in 1.2 are mostly cosmetic, so you'll just have to deal with them for now.