Quadra 1.2.0 Released!
Pierre Phaneuf
downloads of the open source version, there is finally a new stable
release of Quadra!
We're been rather bad maintainers, the last release having been
released almost eight years ago (in October 2001), and not really
working all that hard on Quadra, but the fans (that's you!) just kept
downloading and playing the game, amazingly! The numbers are just
insane: no less than five years after the last release, downloads
exceeded thirty thousands (in 2006), and in the last year, are still
clipping along at around a thousand downloads per month!
But now you can get the new release, Quadra 1.2.0 (both in source
form, and the Windows installer), from our download page:
http://code.google.com/p/quadra/downloads/list
What's new? Well, on the surface, it's still rather similar to the
1.1.8 version, but things changed underneath, keeping it up to date
with the more modern technologies, fixed many crashes, made it more
friendly to use in some subtle ways, and more robust regarding to the
Internet playing. In more details:
* Added a notification of new versions in the title screen.
* Automatically updates the public game server address if it moves.
* Now requires Internet Explorer 5 on Windows.
* Stores high score recordings and configuration files in a
user-specific application directory, so that non-administrators can
play on Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista.
* Added a full screen mode to the X11 driver, which is now the
default (use the "-nofullscreen" option if it gives you problems, or
switch on the fly with Alt-Enter).
* Removed support for Svgalib
* Added a "-boringrules" option to disable the reduction in attack
strength normally applied to crowded games (this should remove any
need to run older versions of Quadra for rule purposes).
* Fixed compilation on Darwin/Mac OS X (using X11, without sound
or CD music, and having incorrect keyboard mappings, this is only for
the truly daring!).
* Added a "-connectfile" option to read from a specified file a
server address to connect to.
* Refresh the list of Internet games when returning from creating
or joining a game.
* Fixed the crash on level changes (also known as the "sound crash") on X11.
* Fixed the "trails" on X11.
* Added a "-nocd" option to avoid using the CD music.
* Fixed a bug where exiting Quadra with the "No Music" option
selected would stop the CD player if it was running (Linux only).
* Fixed the bad appicon behaviour with Window Maker.
* Fixed the high CPU usage on recent Linux systems.
* Added a User-Agent to the HTTP client code.
* Fixed many compilation problems with modern GCC versions.
* Fixed some compilation problems related to "basename".
* Fixed many bugs related to the SPARC port.
* Fixed Valgrind warnings.
This was made possible through the contribution of some people outside
the core team (the following list from the NEWS file, let me know if
anyone is missing!):
* Damian M Gryski
* Hunor "Kacsa" Csordás
* Simon Pantzare
Now, have fun!
P.S.: By the way, this is a cross-post from our new Quadra news blog,
which you can add to your favourite feed reader:
http://quadragame.blogspot.com/
PVince81
What's the difference between this 1.2 version and the 1.3 svn ?
Are they the same ?
Is it using SDL ? (the sound of 1.2 is buggy on my system)
Thanks,
Vincent
Lardarse
has been delayed until 1.3; the decision made about a year ago, I
think.
Pierre: Cross-posted the announcement to TetrisConcept. That should
get a few more downloads.
Greg
kingmorton
quite a while now). Thanks fo keeping us Windows users in the loop!
-Morton
Pierre Phaneuf
> C'est la version 1.2 ? Je pensais que ce serait la version 1.3 vu
> que sur la page de titre de la version SVN y avait marqué "1.3.0svn".
>
> Ou bien est-ce encore une autre version ? Qu'est devenu la version SDL ?
C'est la version stable, qui vient de la branche "quadra-1.2" de SVN.
La version 1.3 est la version plus instable en développement. J'aurais
aimé qu'on ai sorti la 1.2.0 il y a longtemps, et que ça soit une 1.4
aujourd'hui (une 1.3 stabilisée), mais ça ne semble pas avoir été
possible... Je prévois sortir des versions de développement plus
rapidement, mais je ne voulais pas le faire sans une version stable
qui soit actualisée.
Ok, for the benefit of those who do not speak French...
He's surprised it's the 1.2 version, he thought it was going to be the
version 1.3, since on the title page of the SVN version, there was
"1.3.0svn". He wonders if it is another version, and what happened to
the SDL version.
My answer is that it's the stable version, which comes from the
"quadra-1.2" branch in SVN. The 1.3 version is the unstable
development version. I would have liked it if we could have released
this 1.2.0 a long time ago, and had released a 1.4 version today (a
stabilized 1.3), but it didn't work out... I think I'll be releasing
development versions faster, but I didn't want to do it without an
updated stable version available.
Pierre Phaneuf
> What's the difference between this 1.2 version and the 1.3 svn ?
> Are they the same ?
>
> Is it using SDL ? (the sound of 1.2 is buggy on my system)
The 1.2.0 is an updated version of 1.1.8, which we really should have
released a long time ago. Changing the backend to SDL was too big of a
change, introducing a fair number of new display and crashing bugs, so
I wanted to put out a version that was "at least as good" as the
previous one.
What's the problem you're having with the sound? Is this the same as this issue?
http://code.google.com/p/quadra/issues/detail?id=101
I couldn't reproduce that one, despite having been running Intrepid
Ibex myself as well (I updated to Jaunty Jackalope now). If that's the
same problem, but have more information to help identify the problem,
please add to the issue, or if it is a different problem than what is
described there, please create a new issue, thanks!
Also, what platform are you using? One of my bottlenecks is that I do
not have a Windows development environment, so I have to rely on
Stéphane to test and make the Windows installer, and he's really busy.
I'll try to set myself up with something soon to work around that and
be able to make Windows installers myself.
Pierre Phaneuf
> Vincent: From what I remember from reading the dev discussions, SDL
> has been delayed until 1.3; the decision made about a year ago, I
> think.
Yeah, it's just too many changes. I'd like to make this go a bit
quicker, since the SDL version isn't in that bad a bad shape either,
should be possible to run it through people for testing... But I
really wanted a stable version that's less than a year old before
throwing development versions at people! :-)
> Pierre: Cross-posted the announcement to TetrisConcept. That should
> get a few more downloads.
Oh, right, thanks!
Pierre Phaneuf
> Congrats on the new release (god knows it's been in the making for
> quite a while now). Thanks fo keeping us Windows users in the loop!
No kidding! :-)
I'm told that Microsoft is making Windows 7 available for free, I
should be able to get that and set it up on a virtual machine, with
Visual Studio Express, and put out Windows releases myself, which
should accelerate the development pace a bit (although I hear that
might make the Windows 98 support disappear).
PVince81
Thanks for the french answer. In fact I meant to send that message to
your private email address, but as soon as I hit the send button I
realized that it was being sent to the group list... Sorry for that :-
S
> The 1.2.0 is an updated version of 1.1.8, which we really should have
> released a long time ago. Changing the backend to SDL was too big of a
> change, introducing a fair number of new display and crashing bugs, so
> I wanted to put out a version that was "at least as good" as the
> previous one.
on the wiki about the quadra versions, the SVN versions and the road
map on the wiki, so that it's easier to understand the differences.
Before, I have created and published a package in the OpenSUSE repos,
and it's based on the 1.3.0svn. I think I will just keep it as is, as
it's not good to downgrade the package versions in the repository.
Besides, it seems that quadra 1.3 works well in openSUSE at least.
I'm looking forward for the release of the next version. When is it
planned ? :-)
> What's the problem you're having with the sound? Is this the same as this issue?
>
> http://code.google.com/p/quadra/issues/detail?id=101
and you advised me to switch to quadra-sdl, so I pretty much kept
using that version. I think for now I will continue using quadra 1.3,
which seems to be based on quadra-sdl. Thanks.
> Also, what platform are you using?
Thanks,
Vincent
Pierre Phaneuf
> Thanks for the french answer. In fact I meant to send that message to
> your private email address, but as soon as I hit the send button I
> realized that it was being sent to the group list... Sorry for that :-
These things happens, no worries. :-)
> I understand. Still, it would be a good idea to put more information
> on the wiki about the quadra versions, the SVN versions and the road
> map on the wiki, so that it's easier to understand the differences.
That's a good idea, I'll add a page to the wiki about that.
> Before, I have created and published a package in the OpenSUSE repos,
> and it's based on the 1.3.0svn. I think I will just keep it as is, as
> it's not good to downgrade the package versions in the repository.
> Besides, it seems that quadra 1.3 works well in openSUSE at least.
> I'm looking forward for the release of the next version. When is it
> planned ? :-)
Oops, I guess I'll be getting on it, then? :-)
>> What's the problem you're having with the sound? Is this the same as this issue?
>>
>> http://code.google.com/p/quadra/issues/detail?id=101
> Yes, that's the same issue. I remember having other problems before,
> and you advised me to switch to quadra-sdl, so I pretty much kept
> using that version. I think for now I will continue using quadra 1.3,
> which seems to be based on quadra-sdl. Thanks.
Quadra's sound code uses the OSS interface, which still kind of works
on modern distributions, but through a compatibility layer (or two),
so bugs may have crept in... :-)
SDL has been updated, uh, slightly more than Quadra in the last 7
years, so it uses ALSA directly (which might still involve a
compatibility layer, but a more recent and more often used), giving it
better odds of success.
>> Also, what platform are you using?
> OpenSUSE 11.1 on x86.
Could you copy/paste the output of "cat /dev/sndstat" to the issue? Thanks!
TheVirtualVortex
advantages:
- Since it's using Alsa, it can share the sound card using the Alsa
dmix plugin. So it's possible to listen to music in amarok and play at
the same time without tweaking anything. (not sure whether it's
possible with OSS)
- It's possible to switch between fullscreen and windowed mode using
Alt+Enter
> Could you copy/paste the output of "cat /dev/sndstat" to the issue? Thanks!
Thanks,
Vincent
Pierre Phaneuf
> I really do prefer the SDL version because of the following
> advantages:
> - Since it's using Alsa, it can share the sound card using the Alsa
> dmix plugin. So it's possible to listen to music in amarok and play at
> the same time without tweaking anything. (not sure whether it's
> possible with OSS)
That quite true. It's possible with OSS, but only when both the
hardware and the driver support audio mixing, which might not be the
case with your particular setup. I know that with my older computer
that had a Sound Blaster Live, with the emu10k driver, it would allow
a certain number of application simultaneously using the sound device.
ALSA's dmix is much better, being more general and working with any
sound card...
> - It's possible to switch between fullscreen and windowed mode using
> Alt+Enter
Hmm, this should work in 1.2.0 as well?
No matter, I'll try to railroad the SDL version. It's a good thing
that it is the version available for one major distribution, this way
we'll have more testers!
BTW, when packaging from Subversion, you include the date, or (even
better) the Subversion revision number in the package's version,
right?
Thanks!
TheVirtualVortex
> > Alt+Enter
>
> Hmm, this should work in 1.2.0 as well?
game)
> No matter, I'll try to railroad the SDL version.
Good luck !
> BTW, when packaging from Subversion, you include the date, or (even
> better) the Subversion revision number in the package's version,
> right?
SVN checkout date since it seems to be common for other games in that
repository.
Thanks,
Vincent
PS: sorry for the changing nickname, it seems that google groups has a
bug when using different nicks in separate groups.
Pierre Phaneuf
>> Hmm, this should work in 1.2.0 as well?
> Nope, doesn't work, at least not from the menu. (didn't test it in-
> game)
The code for this is here:
http://code.google.com/p/quadra/source/browse/branches/quadra-1.2/skelton/svgalib/input_x11.cpp#192
But running xev on a Ubuntu Linux box here shows me that Mod2Mask is
always in there, for some reason. This seems to be Num Lock. Duh.
It's a bit tricky to know which of those modifiers it's okay to ignore
and those that aren't... For example, ignoring everything else would
allow Ctrl-Alt-Shift-Enter to toggle fullscreen, not sure that makes
sense?
> The current package version is 1.3.0.20090425svn. I chose to put the
> SVN checkout date since it seems to be common for other games in that
> repository.
Should be fine. Maybe you could put the URL and the revision number
that you're basing your package on in some file? You can get the URL
with "svn info | grep ^URL: | cut -d' ' -f2-", and the full
information on the revision with "svnversion".
> PS: sorry for the changing nickname, it seems that google groups has a
> bug when using different nicks in separate groups.
No worries.