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Tread Marks 1.7.0 now free and open source!

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Level 12 Extraplanar Programmer
Alignment: Chaotic good
Location: Toronto
Posted on January 20, 2017 at 4:31 pm

That's right! We're releasing a new build of Tread Marks, and that's not all, we're also celebrating Seumas' masterpiece by completely releasing all the source code! I'll cut right to the chase: you can get the Windows installer here and you can download the source from GitHub here.

The updates in this version are mostly aimed at getting it working on Mac and Linux, which is a side project I've been toying with every now and then for the last several years. It's very nearly there. It compiled on both platforms, but there's some bugs that need to be sorted out. So if you're interested, go ahead and download the source, take a look at the BUILD.txt file, and see if you can help.

Here's the changes:

* Now free and open source!
* Initial work on porting to Mac and Linux.
* Replaced Miles with OpenAL.
* Replaced most Win32 code with SFML and Qt.
* Resolution list now lists all valid resolutions, and defaults to desktop resolution.
* Settings now stored in .ini file instead of registry.
* Now checks for master server at tmmaster.longbowgames.com instead of an IP address, and checks automatically when server screen is opened.
* Added support for headless server builds.

Level 6 Human gamer
Alignment: True neutral
Posted on January 21, 2017 at 3:25 pm

I have a problem with launching the game because regardless of which version of Windows I use, the launcher will crash and I always get a message that says the game is missing a certain file and reinstalling it should fix the issue. Even if I do reinstall the game like it told me to fix it, it still doesn't work. What can I do to get rid of this message and make the game work?

Level 12 Extraplanar Programmer
Alignment: Chaotic good
Location: Toronto
Posted on January 23, 2017 at 5:02 am

Can you post the exact error message you're receiving?

Level 12 Extraplanar Programmer
Alignment: Chaotic good
Location: Toronto
Posted on January 23, 2017 at 7:42 pm

Thanks for the email. It looks like the installer is missing qwindows.dll. Unfortunately I'm travelling this week and don't have access to a Windows machine, but I'll roll a new installer next Monday.

Level 12 Extraplanar Programmer
Alignment: Chaotic good
Location: Toronto
Posted on January 24, 2017 at 2:32 am

Okay, until I roll a new installer next Monday, you can get the last version of Tread Marks here.

Level 12 Extraplanar Programmer
Alignment: Chaotic good
Location: Toronto
Posted on February 1, 2017 at 11:11 am

Okay, it was a bit more work than I expected, but the installer's fixed.

Level 6 Human gamer
Alignment: True neutral
Posted on February 1, 2017 at 1:09 pm

Thanks! The game now works.

Level 1 Human gamer
Alignment: True neutral
Posted on February 3, 2017 at 4:27 pm

Thank you so much for this! Tread marks has been one of my all time favorite games and as a freshman software engineer i'm very interested to see how tread marks was built. I created an account just to thank you for this :D

Level 12 Human
Alignment: Good
Posted on February 23, 2017 at 9:01 pm

Thank you from the past. This fine piece of software used to be lightyears ahead of the pack, sporting a terrain rendering technology on par with university research. My wetware chatlog says that between Seumas and me there's still some fuzziness concerning some implementation details of the map file format that I can now finally try to nail down… :) To me this feels like concluding a long, long voyage.
Warm greetings to the McNally family.

Level 8 Human gamer
Alignment: True neutral
Posted on March 3, 2017 at 8:18 pm

Hello! I wasn't quite sure where to post this, but I have a question regarding the dedicated servers on the new 1.7 update.
I've been trying to start a dedicated server for online play, but I've only had success connecting to it as a lan server on either of my computers. Under the internet servers, it's listed as a 1.7.0-DEMO (i believe) and I think I've read somewhere that there are issues connecting to DEMO servers if you have the full game. I am wondering if the dedicated server launcher is doing something weird? I've uninstalled the old version, and reinstalled the open source one, but I can't seem to get the server online. It is running, though, and we can play on it, just as long as we are on the same network. The other computer is also running 1.7. It could be that I'm just a complete newb and don't understand the server launcher, who knows.

Level 8 Human gamer
Alignment: Lawful
Location: Berkeley, CA
Posted on March 6, 2017 at 2:12 am

Praise the almight Seumas Masterpice.
Thanks for getting it out.

Both Harmless and I play the game everyday.
We play the modded version.
Harmless runs four servers.
I will remind him to switch over to the new version.
Thanks again.

Level 12 Human bookkeeper
Alignment: True neutral
Location: Sacramento, CA, USA
Posted on March 6, 2017 at 2:24 am

this is very cool!!
my only questions concern...
all of the player mods out there...
can you install the new version and then the mods people have created over the last 18 years?
and will the new version clients connect and play on older version servers?
LOL... i am loathe to upgrade unless it's absolutely necessary.
knocking on wood, treadmarks has been a rock solid game and has never crashed on me in all these years :)

Level 12 Human bookkeeper
Alignment: True neutral
Location: Sacramento, CA, USA
Posted on March 6, 2017 at 2:37 am

but I can't seem to get the server online. It is running, though, and we can play on it, just as long as we are on the same network. The other computer is also running 1.7.

you need to do some port forwarding on your router.
ServerPort = 12300
ClientPort = 12350
MasterPort = 12499

these port numbers need to be allowed through your router.
just forward these ports to the computer running the server
and you should be good to go.

toodles
harmless

Level 12 Human Shadow
Alignment: Chaotic good
Location: Earth Orbit, Preparing to Attack
Posted on March 16, 2017 at 2:16 am

Nice! How far did the Mac port get?

Level 1 Human gamer
Alignment: True neutral
Location: Earth
Posted on April 7, 2017 at 5:21 am

I love that you have actually started the porting work to linux. That has actually inspired me to get the game fully working here.

I would like to let you know that in a few days of work - I have the game partially running here. The fun part is that I have it running on a 64-bit Linux (compiled as a 64-bit executable - which has had me change a few things that were fairly 32-bit centric). Since I can run the Windows version under wine - I can easily compare the 2 versions.

I am still working on getting things working completely - but I can minimally get the game up and can at least shoot something in a single user game (even if the world isn't perfect and the images are a bit crazy (due to the incomplete loading of objects)). I am planning on uploading all changes online once I complete the conversion more.

Level 1 Human gamer
Alignment: True neutral
Location: Earth
Posted on April 10, 2017 at 3:30 am

Hi all - I wanted to post an update.

I have the single user mode game working (or at least anything that doesn't require saving). The networking stack of the game does come up (I can see games off the main treadmarks server) - though - joining a game is problematic (I have my suspicions why).