No worries about the spelling mistakes .

I'm at work, too. But I don't have anything to do at the moment. My boss was supposed to be back from Bolivia today, but he's nowhere to be found. ::shrug::

Definitely download BotE, but make sure you grab the English files . Their game is a lot farther along than mine.

Hello all

mstrobel AWESOME job on the demo so far you have a lot to be proud of. But a problem keeps coming up in every new game I start. after a number of turns (it veries) an error comes up: unhanded Exception. heres the error message

Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.

at System.RuntimeMethodHandle._InvokeMethodFast(Object target, Object[] arguments, SignatureStruct& sig, MethodAttributes methodAttributes, RuntimeTypeHandle typeOwner)
at System.RuntimeMethodHandle.InvokeMethodFast(Object target, Object[] arguments, Signature sig, MethodAttributes methodAttributes, RuntimeTypeHandle typeOwner)
at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.Invoke(Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture, Boolean skipVisibilityChecks)
at System.Delegate.DynamicInvokeImpl(Object[] args)
at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter)
at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter, Delegate catchHandler)

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Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: textToFormat

at System.Windows.Media.FormattedText..ctor(String textToFormat, CultureInfo culture, FlowDirection flowDirection, Typeface typeface, Double emSize, Brush foreground, NumberSubstitution numberSubstitution)
at System.Windows.Media.FormattedText..ctor(String textToFormat, CultureInfo culture, FlowDirection flowDirection, Typeface typeface, Double emSize, Brush foreground)
at Supremacy.UI.GalaxyGridPanel.GetStarText(StarSystem system) in C:\Users\Mike Strobel\Workspace\Supremacy\SupremacyUI\GalaxyGridPanel.cs:line 1487
at Supremacy.UI.GalaxyGridPanel.UpdateSectors() in C:\Users\Mike Strobel\Workspace\Supremacy\SupremacyUI\GalaxyGridPanel.cs:line 1394
at Supremacy.UI.GalaxyGridPanel.Update(Boolean updateSectors) in C:\Users\Mike Strobel\Workspace\Supremacy\SupremacyUI\GalaxyGridPanel.cs:line 1060
at Supremacy.UI.GalaxyGridPanel.Update() in C:\Users\Mike Strobel\Workspace\Supremacy\SupremacyUI\GalaxyGridPanel.cs:line 1052
at Supremacy.Client.GalaxyScreen.OnApplyTemplate() in C:\Users\Mike Strobel\Workspace\Supremacy\SupremacyClient\GalaxyScreen.cs:line 446
at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.ApplyTemplate()
at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.MeasureCore(Size availableSize)
at System.Windows.UIElement.Measure(Size availableSize)
at Supremacy.Client.GameScreenStack.AddScreen(GameScreen gameScreen) in C:\Users\Mike Strobel\Workspace\Supremacy\SupremacyClient\GameScreenStack.cs:line 57
at Supremacy.Client.GameWindow.CreateGameScreens() in C:\Users\Mike Strobel\Workspace\Supremacy\SupremacyClient\GameWindow.xaml.cs:line 726

----------------------------------------

Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: textToFormat

at System.Windows.Media.FormattedText..ctor(String textToFormat, CultureInfo culture, FlowDirection flowDirection, Typeface typeface, Double emSize, Brush foreground, NumberSubstitution numberSubstitution)
at System.Windows.Media.FormattedText..ctor(String textToFormat, CultureInfo culture, FlowDirection flowDirection, Typeface typeface, Double emSize, Brush foreground)
at Supremacy.UI.GalaxyGridPanel.GetStarText(StarSystem system) in C:\Users\Mike Strobel\Workspace\Supremacy\SupremacyUI\GalaxyGridPanel.cs:line 1487
at Supremacy.UI.GalaxyGridPanel.UpdateSectors() in C:\Users\Mike Strobel\Workspace\Supremacy\SupremacyUI\GalaxyGridPanel.cs:line 1394
at Supremacy.UI.GalaxyGridPanel.Update(Boolean updateSectors) in C:\Users\Mike Strobel\Workspace\Supremacy\SupremacyUI\GalaxyGridPanel.cs:line 1060
at Supremacy.UI.GalaxyGridPanel.Update() in C:\Users\Mike Strobel\Workspace\Supremacy\SupremacyUI\GalaxyGridPanel.cs:line 1052
at Supremacy.Client.GalaxyScreen.RefreshScreen() in C:\Users\Mike Strobel\Workspace\Supremacy\SupremacyClient\GalaxyScreen.cs:line 694
at Supremacy.Client.GameScreen.GameScreen_Loaded(Object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) in C:\Users\Mike Strobel\Workspace\Supremacy\SupremacyClient\GameScreen.cs:line 101
at System.Windows.RoutedEventHandlerInfo.InvokeHandler(Object target, RoutedEventArgs routedEventArgs)
at System.Windows.EventRoute.InvokeHandlersImpl(Object source, RoutedEventArgs args, Boolean reRaised)
at System.Windows.UIElement.RaiseEventImpl(RoutedEventArgs args)
at System.Windows.UIElement.RaiseEvent(RoutedEventArgs e)
at MS.Internal.FrameworkObject.OnLoaded(RoutedEventArgs args)
at System.Windows.BroadcastEventHelper.BroadcastEvent(DependencyObject root, RoutedEvent routedEvent)
at System.Windows.BroadcastEventHelper.BroadcastLoadedEvent(Object root)
at MS.Internal.LoadedOrUnloadedOperation.DoWork()
at System.Windows.Media.MediaContext.FireLoadedPendingCallbacks()
at System.Windows.Media.MediaContext.FireInvokeOnRenderCallbacks()
at System.Windows.Media.MediaContext.RenderMessageHandlerCore(Object resizedCompositionTarget)
at System.Windows.Media.MediaContext.RenderMessageHandler(Object resizedCompositionTarget)
at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter)
at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter, Delegate catchHandler)

----------------------------------------

hope that helps but anyway great game so far

Paddy

@Paddy: ah yes, I remember getting that error back a long time ago. I haven't seen it in a while, so I assumed it was fixed. The log file was very helpful, thank you. I'll try to track down the problem for the next release.

Quick quetion Mike,

46 ooo lines of code so far (impressive) , do you think your motivation is strong enough to complete game, honestly?

I believe I can answer this one for him: there is really no way to know that in advance seriously it depends on you guys posting and keeping him happy here like Jade did. I mean come on, he rips his ass off (kinda german expression, don't know if it corresponds correctly to the english equivalent ) here for us all. btw. this endeavour here is surely taking its toll in terms of time investment so it only makes sense if your job and personal life don't suffer from it. But I'm sure as long as that is not the case mstrobel is motivated enough on his own to do the job and complete it. Of course there is a learning curve in doing this here in terms of programming skills but there is also much "dull" work to do that is just needed for the game to be a real botf game. That work should be the most disencouraging (at least in my opinion).

Still, keep posting guys (and also on our forums of course lol)!

Wahey I got it working.

And it is very good! Very good indeed. I would love to see this develop into the full thing. Great job Mike.

One thing which is purely on the technical side...
After about 26 turns, the game was going very slowly indeed - I couldn't do much at all. Is that just me. My computer should easily hold this game (as it is isn't much to processing is there?) Could there be a memory leak?

@Zeleni: Malvoisin's answer is absolutely correct. It's all a matter of free time and motivation, both of which are impossible to predict. If I perceive a strong public interest in the game, I feel strongly motivated to work on it. If the forums are a ghost town, I might let it slide for a while. I'm definitely learning a lot, so at the very least I have some of my own motivation to keep working.

@Coopa: In the past, I've tested for a few hundred turns without detecting any slowdown. However, I have made a lot of changes since then, so it's always possible that I've overlooked something. I'll make a note to do some profiling this weekend and see if I can find the cause. Have you verified that you can reproduce the problem?

Has anyone else noticed a slowdown after a certain number of turns in the latest demo? If so, can you confirm that it was or was not happening before on your system?

Hehe had fun last night no bugs as such to report at the present altho i did crash twice once on turn 5 and once on turn 87. Probably just my PC. Ill keep playing tho and keep you posted on my findings

Reading your posts Mike I ve found out that 3d combat is your hardest job in Supremacy, is it possibbile to use open source engine for battle in Supremacy?

OpenGL is currently not supported (I think) by Windows Vista so it might be difficult to get something done without the use of DirectX..

There would need to be an engine that is capable of being integrated without too much difficulty. Also, the BotF style of combat is rather unique as in that it is almost entirely scripted; the player simply picks which script (order) they want the ship to do.

I'd wager a bet that it might be easier, and probably more effecient for the program itself to build it from scratch. This is something I want to look into... if I can find some time.

I would agree with your assessment--that configuration *should* be sufficient. I still plan to do some profiling this weekend, even though I have yet to reproduce any slowdown effects. Then again, my two PCs are an AMD X2 4200+ with 1gb RAM and a 2.16GHz Core Duo with 2gb RAM, so it's hard to get a feel for how the game will run on more common systems .

I've *finally* gotten around to writing a new music engine for Supremacy. The old one used FMOD and crashed on 64-bit versions of Windows. Hopefully this might fix some of the other crash-on-start issues people have had. I'm not sure how resource-friendly this music engine is, so I'll have to rely on feedback. Let me know if you experience any problems like skipping. If people have problems, I may have to write another one. Download the latest demo and let me know how it works for you.

NOTE:Sometimes the game may crash at the title screen. The source of the crash appears to be wmpeffects.dll (a Windows Media Player library), and I'm not sure what's causing it yet. If it crashes, just restart it. It should work more often than it doesn't. Rest assured, I'll fix the problem once I figure out what's causing it.

Lookin awsome, sry i aint been trying the demos as of late but i can see alot has gone into this already since the last time i tryed a demo of yours.

Well done. And no music problems what so ever on my end.