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Devastation for Linux

Here you can add and find information and help for other Unreal Engine titles. Currently for UE1 and UE2 based software.
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gbudny
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Sep 29, 2021 3:36 pm

Devastation for Linux

Post by gbudny »

Hi

This week, I finished playing Devastation for Linux, which is a beta one version.
I used the save games from the Windows version to go through some of the levels.
I counted that I needed the 12 save games because the game crashed when I tried
to get codes from the terminal. Interestingly, it doesn't crash when I interact with the
terminal in one of the missions, which is weird.

The Chozo mission crashes after loading, but I used a save game from the Windows
version to play this level.

- Subtitles aren't visible in movies - Missing font DFonts.bTimesNRB22
- RLE compression of BMP images not supported Can't find file '../Save/*.bmp' for import
- autosaves don't work
- I can load only one save game
- Devastation is sometimes unstable and it crashes in random places

Could you tell me if any of these bugs can be fixed?
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Victor Delacroix
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Re: Devastation for Linux

Post by Victor Delacroix »

For the textures, can you try copying DFonts from Windows version to Linux version?
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Leo T_C_K
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Re: Devastation for Linux

Post by Leo T_C_K »

There's obviously some difference that level uses between the versions(and in theory replacing it without backing it up might lead to crashes in regular levels on the linux version so watch out). I played Devastation on the latest windows version and I heard from some sources that despite the AI rewrite etc sometimes the AI felt better in the unpatched version but we're not going to get to that.
That's what happens when someone forces you to do such a big re-write. I think that was a mistake to do honestly.

Devastation is still an unstable game, but you need to realize why. It started as an official game in the Unreal universe backed by Infogrames and Epic (and before that it was an UT addon that got abandoned having own tournament ladder that took place outside of liandri sponsorship and might have taken place before the events of UT). Then when it was decided that Infogrames will have to drop support for one of the Unreal titles, the title that became Devastation got cancelled because it was either that or the PSX2 port of Unreal Tournament (and since Epic was involved with that directly for some time already you can guess the outcome). Instead of the project being put on ice indefinitely, they pulled "Vinyl" out, you know, the game that started as a sequel to jill of the jungle? Something like that happened here.

Except that they brought it all to the newer engine and most of texctures etc were replaced with new ones as this game's story suddenly happened at the end of 21st century. But they still brought over some data and things from the old versions which is evident with stuff like the harpoon gun, Bolta that has close resemblance to the UT rocket launcher and thus completely falls out of the theme kind of. And it has its own minigun (or two even if you count the big one, but the true minigun is the small one that is basically an unlockable extra in the SP campaign).

It has also a hidden dificulty that gets enabled once you finish the game, its called "Insane" but due to a bug it won't stay there. In fact, the only way to make it appear is to finish the main game, get it loaded from your last save and then select insane difficulty and save on that/resume from then on. Because it simply won't stay in the game menu. But it is there and most people don't know about its existence. Devastation indeed offers hidden replay values. It also has a crash recovery function and in case of Karma physics crashes it usually works and it basically saves the game before crash occurs automatically and if necessary removes the offending physics object. In other crashes it is less reliable and leads to "DROSTE EFFECT" on the screen.

As seen here on this screenshot I posted:
https://ut99.org/viewtopic.php?p=123563#p123563

But unfortunately all the bugs that remained in the game whatsoever or got introduced, they are mostly the results of the entire team scrapping their work and doing stuff with limited bugget under new producers that didn't offer such backing as Infogrames did.

All said Devastation is a great game and offers so much sandbox type potential. Its only real negatives are no bots for multiplayer and the bugs that remained in SP. (and some other gripes like there's way too many handguns, including what was devastation's own automag)

you can see my short review (maybe too high a score but the innovation and positives outweight everything else for me)
https://www.moddb.com/games/devastation/reviews/745971/
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Leo T_C_K
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Re: Devastation for Linux

Post by Leo T_C_K »

https://www.moddb.com/games/devastation ... que-cheats

devastation unique cheats article by me (above)

As for that comment about Pariah, things got clearer here:
https://www.moddb.com/games/pariah/feat ... me-history

But yea it seems that indeed there is no linux 390 version? I can't tell you what exactly changed between those versions and all though. just know that not all problems got fixed on the windows version either. In one case I even managed to get a map stuck and had to reload although no permanent/unsolvable things.
gbudny
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Joined: Wed Sep 29, 2021 3:36 pm

Re: Devastation for Linux

Post by gbudny »

Victor Delacroix wrote: Wed Sep 29, 2021 8:25 pm For the textures, can you try copying DFonts from Windows version to Linux version?
Thanks.

I use the polish version 381 of Devastation on Linux and Windows.

The Linux version has a file DFonts.utx (28,9 MB) in the Textures directory. I checked the DFonts files in the Windows
directory:

DFonts.pol_utx (28,9 MB)
DFonts.rut_utx (34,6 MB)

I copied both files to the Linux version, but I still see the error about the missing font. I don't have the US version, so I don't know if this bug exists in that version too.


Initially, subtitles in the first movie were visible in the first minute, and later, they were invisble. However, I checked the options if subtitles in movies are turned on, and they weren't. I changed this option, and they became visible in the first two missions. I tried to load movies from other missions using the save games, and the subtitltles aren't visible again. Probably, I have to go through the whole game to check if they are visible in the other missions now.
Leo T_C_K wrote: Thu Sep 30, 2021 6:26 pm https://www.moddb.com/games/devastation ... que-cheats

devastation unique cheats article by me (above)

As for that comment about Pariah, things got clearer here:
https://www.moddb.com/games/pariah/feat ... me-history

But yea it seems that indeed there is no linux 390 version? I can't tell you what exactly changed between those versions and all though. just know that not all problems got fixed on the windows version either. In one case I even managed to get a map stuck and had to reload although no permanent/unsolvable things.
Thanks.

You gave me a lot of useful information about this game that I have to check out.

The harpoon gun is incredibly useful in the Chozo mission.

Ryan Gordon couldn't finish this game:

"Resolving all open Devastation bugs as WONTFIX, as they should have been, a long time ago. This game is not supported, due to non-payment from original publisher. Sorry.

--ryan."


"There's no way to make the Linux version talk to 390, and due to issues beyond
my control, I won't be updating Devastation for Linux anymore (I don't even have
the 390 sources). Sorry."

https://bugzilla.icculus.org/buglist.cg ... t=specific

He published only the Devastation 381 beta 1 for Linux. The Linux version can't detect the save games from versions: 367 and 390. It works with save games from version 381, but I didn't check with version 380 (the US version).

Do you know cheats for generating codes without using the terminal?
The number of the saves games could be reduced to 11 using the ghost code - it's a terrible solution.


What files from the patch 390 can be used with the Linux version?
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Leo T_C_K
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Re: Devastation for Linux

Post by Leo T_C_K »

I don't know I don't have the linux version and i am not in a position to help further but explain how things went.

Some of the information on devastation i gathered from the developers and thus is not a public knowledge though there was a site I found via wayback about the ut addon ultimately turning to a fully fledged game and mark rein stating that it is an official entry in the Unreal universe. But then the cancellation by Infogrames happened and they had to go with those other publishers who obviously were clueless (and they also published Pariah and Warpath) and didn't know how to run things (that said, infogrames wasn't nice either for just cancelling projects that had been way in developement so that they could save on some costs). Its like both publishers had different problems. Yes games came out via the other publishers but usually not in such a good state and the games usually flopped and Digitalo was completely dissolved atfer the release of Devastation and people that worked there went to other studios for the time being (secret level, epic etc).

I don't know what you meant with cheat for generating codes without terminal, please specify that.

Just like with most unreal-based games there is the editactor class=
function that pops up the properties of said actor in the realtime, but you have to know what you're doing because flipping wrong things will cause game crashes, but this way you could pull a currently generated code(like for example the stuff in ONP) or by the get command, however you need to know the name of said variable and of the actor.

I have a question for you though, did you notice the liandri mining company sign in the docks level right after alcatraz?
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Victor Delacroix
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Re: Devastation for Linux

Post by Victor Delacroix »

Rename DFonts.pol_utx to DFonts.utx, replacing it. See if it works.
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Leo T_C_K
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Posts: 3660
Joined: Sat Aug 27, 2005 6:24 pm

Re: Devastation for Linux

Post by Leo T_C_K »

Victor Delacroix wrote: Fri Oct 01, 2021 10:59 am Rename DFonts.pol_utx to DFonts.utx, replacing it. See if it works.
You mean he didn't do that? He should still make a backup though.

Oh yes he said he copied both files to the linux version. Well of course he has to rename them. Maybe M Bison should replace me on this forum?
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Victor Delacroix
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Re: Devastation for Linux

Post by Victor Delacroix »

There's something strange, though. I just launched Devastation for Windows, version 390. Its DFonts.utx is smaller, like 13 MB or so, but everything works and no fonts fuck up. I'll link it here:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/AoxeBjQh

Also, a lot of the maps got updates on 390. My recommendation is to copy over the maps and textures onto Dev 381 Linux and see if stuff works.
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Leo T_C_K
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Re: Devastation for Linux

Post by Leo T_C_K »

But again he should backup any files he overwrites just in case.
gbudny
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Sep 29, 2021 3:36 pm

Re: Devastation for Linux

Post by gbudny »

Thanks for the answers.

I have the backup of the Linux version.

The Linux version is just the archive file that you unpack into the system directory of the windows version:

https://icculus.org/~ravage/devastation/
https://icculus.org/betas/devastation/

ALAudio.so
devastation-bin
IpDrv.so
README
vorbis.so
Core.so
DGamePlay.so
libSDL-1.2.so.0
RoQ.so
zlib.so
Editor.so
ogg.so
SDLDrv.so
DCore.so
Engine.so
openal.so
UWeb.so
Default.ini
Fire.so
OpenGLDrv.so
UWindow.so

I used the European installer that was made by Loki installers for Linux games:

http://files.holarse-linuxgaming.de/native/Tools/liflg/final/

The installer has more files for this game.
Leo T_C_K wrote: Fri Oct 01, 2021 7:15 am Some of the information on devastation i gathered from the developers and thus is not a public knowledge though there was a site I found via wayback about the ut addon ultimately turning to a fully fledged game and mark rein stating that it is an official entry in the Unreal universe. But then the cancellation by Infogrames happened and they had to go with those other publishers who obviously were clueless (and they also published Pariah and Warpath) and didn't know how to run things (that said, infogrames wasn't nice either for just cancelling projects that had been way in developement so that they could save on some costs). Its like both publishers had different problems. Yes games came out via the other publishers but usually not in such a good state and the games usually flopped and Digitalo was completely dissolved atfer the release of Devastation and people that worked there went to other studios for the time being (secret level, epic etc).

It looks like that the Devastation game was doomed to failure from the get-go.

Leo T_C_K wrote: Fri Oct 01, 2021 7:15 amI don't know what you meant with cheat for generating codes without terminal, please specify that.

Just like with most unreal-based games there is the editactor class=
function that pops up the properties of said actor in the realtime, but you have to know what you're doing because flipping wrong things will cause game crashes, but this way you could pull a currently generated code(like for example the stuff in ONP) or by the get command, however you need to know the name of said variable and of the actor.

I think that using the save games from the Windows version is a terrible solution. Cheat codes are better because the game has one serious bug in all missions below. The Linux version crashes when I try to use the terminal, and I know that I can get codes by using cheat codes:

CARDBOARD COUNTY
CHOZO
ICHTHYA NORTH
ICHTHYA SOUTH
RIVERS OF WASTE
TAIPEI MARKET
TRANSIT
URBIA SOUTH - two terminals
ZANGAI

The game doesn't crash when I use the terminal in the Docks mission.
Leo T_C_K wrote: Fri Oct 01, 2021 7:15 am I have a question for you though, did you notice the liandri mining company sign in the docks level right after alcatraz?
Yes, I saw it in the Embarcadero mission.
Victor Delacroix wrote: Fri Oct 01, 2021 10:59 am Rename DFonts.pol_utx to DFonts.utx, replacing it. See if it works.
I changed the name of the file, and I still see the information about the missing font.
Victor Delacroix wrote: Fri Oct 01, 2021 1:11 pm There's something strange, though. I just launched Devastation for Windows, version 390. Its DFonts.utx is smaller, like 13 MB or so, but everything works and no fonts fuck up. I'll link it here:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/AoxeBjQh
I unpacked the installer, and I noticed that it has Fonts.utx for the polish version.
The size of the file DFonts.utx is the same as DFonts.pol_utx. I tried with DFonts.utx (13 MB) from version 390, and I don't see the message about the missing font. Unfortunately, the majority of the Polish letters are not displayed in the game. I suspect that the DFonts.utx (28,9 MB) from the installer and DFonts.pol_utx (28,9 MB) from the Windows version is the same file. They both don't have this font, and maybe it has a different name in this .utx file.
Victor Delacroix wrote: Fri Oct 01, 2021 10:59 amAlso, a lot of the maps got updates on 390. My recommendation is to copy over the maps and textures onto Dev 381 Linux and see if stuff works.

I copied these two directories, and the game still works.

Which files in the directories could break the compatibility of save games between the Linux version 381 and the Windows version 381?
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Leo T_C_K
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Re: Devastation for Linux

Post by Leo T_C_K »

The savegames have no effect in general to what maps you are having currently actually. Savegames in most Unreal based games are not state dumps, they are basically a live copy of the version of the map you saved on. That live copy can have problems later on when you upgrade your game if there are variable changes whatever. Same happens with savegames from Unreal if you use very old ones. Wheel of Time "optimized" saves by removing all uneccesary stuff from them, though that means if you have unique save from a map that no longer exists you can't reconstruct the brushes (found that out while i used a modified version of wheel of time to convert very early unreal 2 maps and saving on them).
There are some Unreal based games which don't take the entire map save approach but they are in minority sadly.
This is especially bothersome in games like deus ex which can grow to enormous sizes as once hogsy discovered ages ago on one of his playthroughs and was surprised about it when I told him that I knew that's how it works. In Deus Ex they didn't optimize at all and there are potentially infinite slots. Just lol.

Basically the save game is its own copy of the map you already saved on. It can only make a difference if the texture file the save file uses/loads has been updated or whatever other file (sound system etc)...

I praise Devastation honestly though for bringing back some of the needed interactivity from the Build era games. I mean compare this to Unreal 2 (in the released version) where everything is static you can't break a lot of things or bounce them around. Given the bugyness of the karma engine and what things can happen in devastation I am not surprised at all that Unreal 2 dropped this in the end, but hey they tried and had the balls to keep it all in. When it comes to basic exploration Devastation is ironically the closest to the original Unreal game. Yes the environment is completely different and you fight mostly human enemies yet when it comes to the other factor it really comes the closest to original Unreal than anything that came after it. Its also a lot more grittier than say the overly colorful ut2004 and similar games.

Basically it did a lot of things earlier than some games released later (far cry, half life 2) sometimes better sometimes worse and obviously more buggy but hey it really tried to make a difference and despite the hardships the developers really wanted the game to suceed, despite the cancellations by previous publisher, despite the heavy reworking of entire game and the team even going to Japan to create new textures and that kind of stuff.

Plus the fact it acknowledges and gives credits to prominent sci-fi writers, which very little of anything these days released is doing.
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