Meteor Change Log

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Changes from v1.31 to v1.32

• Added directional sprite sounds (looped or keyframe).
• Gif animations are no longer supported (there are good reasons for this), use .FLC files instead.

Changes from v1.3 to v1.31

• Fixed a crash bug in the Sprite Editor when viewing lit sprites (thanks to Aleksanteri for picking up this problem).
• Fixed a bug where creating new sprite in the Sprite Editor did not reset the sprite light details.
• Decreased the player speed from 8 to 6.
• Only infantry units will not fire with their backs turned.  This caused too much of a firing delay with vehicles.
• Removed base\maps\epsilon.map and base\music\enliven.xm.

Notes

• Saved games created in v1.3 will work fine.

Changes from v1.21 to v1.3

A lot of these changes are pinched from Meteor 2 but where reasonably straight forward to add to Meteor 1.

• Added UDP network support which vastly improves the speed of network play making Internet play seriously viable (even on dial up modems).
• Added Fblend transparent drawing support making transparent drawing much much faster (especially on night missions), Fblend also adds dynamic lighting capabilities.
• Added basic dynamic lighting around sprites, basic means one light per sprite (simply set colour and radius).  Use the Sprite Editor to edit sprite lights.
• Transparent water, acid and lava is now now enabled by default as drawing it has no real overhead using Fblend.
• Transparent acid and lava was not working (only water was transparent), this has been fixed.
• Added Meteor 2 style mouse over units information (the U key to toggle "unit information" feature has been removed).
• Added the console interface used in Meteor 2, this is much improved as it allows you to type while other information is still been added to the console.
• Fixed the -CoopMode command line option, this was making the game crash on start up (you can also use "-coop" by way).
• Added Meteor 2 style bullet lines.
• Made some very minor corrections to the Final Battle map (4 missing sprites were replaced).
• Fixed a bug which was causing the player to slide "forwards" after stopping when mouse aiming.
• Shrapnel is no longer made up from projectiles, it has been replaced with "particles" which are a purely visual effect.  Particles are entirely local so there are no network overheads.
• Added a new shrapnel type for bullet projectiles (a sort of nice puff effect).
• Added quick save and quick load support (use F6 and F7).
• Removed the "Current game will be lost! Continue?" message when loading games using the F3 key.
• Removed the "You are here" display when loading games.
• Giving yourself all items using the console will no longer give you the hoverboard.
• Added the hover console command to issue/relinquish the hoverboard.
• Reinstated the "drop" console command (thanks to Raaka-arska for prompting me about this).
• Fixed some general timer issues (for example if a rate of fire was set to once per second, it actually fired twice, this has been corrected).
• Restored the original soundtrack for the first mission (no idea why this got changed in v1.2).
• Sounds are quieter the when farther away.
• Fixed F12 (screenshot) key bug.  This was playing up before, sometimes it had to be pressed loads of times to make it work.
• When selecting tiles the "true" tile number is now shown in the hint when hovering the mouse over each tile.
• Changed the Medium Tank sprite (borrowed from Meteor 2).
• In multiplayer games units drop more power ups, see the new "Drop Power Up MP" option in the Race Editor.
• Dropped weapon power ups can now be collected for ammo in coop and they don't stay on the map.
• More units are added in coop games, this is directly proportional to the number of players at the start of each level.
• Fixed a bug where clients were sending the same "button presses" several times to the server.  In some cases this was causing exit buttons to be pressed several times thus skipping some levels altogether.
• Improved player wasted messages (for example in head to head it says something like "Bill killed Ben".
• Players drop more power ups in multiplayer.  The current weapon is always dropped as well as either 1 or 2 first aid kits.  The first aid kits can be changed in the Player Character Editor.
• Removed "just picked up some power up" messages from the console.  Just picked up power ups are still displayed at the top of the screen.
• Console messages are outputted to the screen in multiplayer games.
• Certain console messages are in different colours when drawn on the game screen (not actually in the console).
• Added up and down buttons to the server list dialog (this means you can use the cursor keys to move up and down but its a little buggy).
• Added one new single player map (Base Epsilon by Papercut).  This map has new music too (enliven.xm).
• Enemies will no longer shoot when their backs are turned, this is not perfect but its balancing act between that and messing up the current gameplay.
• Fixed an intermittent crash bug which was occurring when exiting the game.  This bug was connected to the music code.

New Console commands

• drop (reintroduced)
• hover
• net gameinfo
• net players
• net ping (renamed from "ping")
• net id
• net peers
• net ResolvePlayerId
• rotation
• warp (reintroduced)
• i wanna be a sheep shooter (fixed)
• TimeLimit

New Command Line Switches

• -CoopModeNoFF or -CoopNoFF = Coop mode with no friendly fire.

Notes

• People with Fblend problems (crashing) should run meteor_non_fblend.exe instead of meteor.exe.
• Old saved games will not work.
• Some other more minor features and bug fixes have been updated as the game has been compiled with newer libraries.  For example the new bitmaps pickers and angle increment buttons in Meteor 2 would have filtered  into this version of Meteor because it uses the same GUI library.
• Meteor may be a very old game but its nice to see it get updated from time to time as its still very popular.

How to Convert Mods from v1.2 to 1.3

• Add lights to sprites where applicable using the Sprite Editor.
• Add extra multiplayer power ups using the Race Editor.

Changes from v1.2 to v1.21

Version 1.21 is a minor fix release.

Modded sounds now replace original sounds with the same filename.  The Meteor sound system uses many samples for each sound effect, for example there can be many samples named "battle" (i.e. "battle1.wav", "battle2.wav" etc).  When asked to play the sound "battle", Meteor will randomly pick one of the "battle???.wav" samples.

In versions prior to 1.21 any modded sounds where simply added to the sample list.  For example "mod_folder\sound\battle01.wav" would not replace "base\sound\battle01.wav".  Sound files with the same names in mod folders now replace the original files.

Changes from v1.1.3 to v1.2

Version 1.2 is a major release containing numerous new features and fixes based on what is practically a re-write of the original game.  Many of the major changes and features are listed here but there are a lot more minor things that are not.

• Meteor v1.2 is far more stable than any of its predecessors due to many hours (probably days and weeks) of extensive debugging.
• Multiplayer support for both coop and head to head modes supporting up to 64 players (bandwidth dependant) across the Internet or a local area network.  A fast LAN connection is fine for both head to head and cooperative games where as Internet connections are more suited for head to head.  You may get away with it on dial up but it will be slow.
• Changed the images that are displayed when:
  • The player gets wasted
  • The level is completed
• Fixed mod data loader bug
• Meteor now runs in 16 bit colour, the graphics are crisper.
• Added a new very large single player map "Base Delta" (after Base Beta) and a Laser Chaingun to help you finish it (thanks for Jon Vail for the extra tiles!).
• The maximum amount of power cell ammo has been increased from 300 to 450.
• Multifire weapons (like the Fusion Cannon) now fire more projectiles (i.e. they fire at smaller angular intervals).
• The Hoverboard is back!  This was taken out in the Meteor betas years ago, its here to stay now, I am very happy about it too.
• Fixed  the God Mode Shades power up on Mission  5:  "Over the Top" (it was just a sprite, oops).
• New player, trooper and HUD graphics, thanks to Diego A. Zetina Sosa from Mexico who sent me these some time ago (I have made some minor changes to them).
• Aircraft have been given a speed boost, those attack helicopters now give you a run for your money!
• Destroyed aircraft sprites appear where the aircraft was instead of where the aircraft's shadow used to be.
• Teleporters should be more reliable, no more appearing in the middle of nowhere!
• Shadows are no longer transparent, this was a lot of code for little benefit.
• Shadows are no longer optional, they are always on as they no longer have a toll on the game's speed.
• Added a minigun to the front of the Allied A-10.
• Removed a couple of unused maps and tilesets from the distribution build.
• When the escape key is pressed in a file select box Meteor waits for its release before closing the box.
• The player airlift helicopter is slightly faster (flies a little higher too).
• Units are now less likely to randomly change direction (half as likely to be exact).
• After getting wasted Meteor now waits for spacebar the be released before restarting the level (thus preventing the player firing).
• Changed the appearance of the main menus, also added new menu sounds and a description of the selected menu item at the bottom of the screen.
• Updated some of the menu and toolbar icons.
• Dropped the default music volume from 90 to 80.
• Ditched  the sound pitch option in the Audio Control Panel.
• Added an in-game menu.  Pressing Escape in the game produces an in-game menu for in-game related commands (for example: audio settings, load and save etc).  The result of this means that the menu will not stop the game in multiplayer games, it also makes the code cleaner as the game's data can be destroyed when returning to the main menu.
• Updated the in-game help.
• You can now fire where you are mouse aiming  while moving (hold down the right mouse button to mouse aim).
• The hit points for Minigun Turrets has been reduced to the same as their laser counterparts.
• Heavy Rocket Turrets are slightly tougher.
• Added some other new units including ship turrets and a goldfish.
• Updated and added several sprites (including many new wasted sprites).
• Battle/lightning light flashes on night levels now work totally differently (due to Meteor no longer being paletted), there were issues with performance during light flashes and levels getting darker each time the player got wasted.  These issues are no longer present.
• The red hurt effect is back (when you get hurt the screen flashes red), if you don't like it then you can turn it off in the options.
• If you teleport or respawn (multiplayer games) on top a monster it will get wasted (you can't both occupy the same space), this goes for other players in multiplayer games too so don't stand around looking at teleporters!  Note that if a monster lands on you it will do nothing.
• Added conveyor belts.
• The code that determined whether to draw monsters (determined whether they were visible) had some minor problems.  This code has been totally replaced and is accurate to the pixel (even when the monster is rotated but does not take sub bitmaps like rotor blades into account).
• Helicopters now fly off the map and disappear after dropping off the player (this is handy in multiplayer games (where pick up helicopters stay for other players) as it prevents the map from filling up with helicopters).
• The keyboard code is all new with a proper repeat rate etc (most noticeable in the menus).
• The text input dialogs have been totally rewritten, you can edit existing strings and move the cursor and insert text etc.  They generally behave in the way that text boxes should.
• "<WEAPON NAME> selected" is not longer displayed when changing weapons during the game.
• Weapons can now be selected using the mouse wheel during the game (as well as the 1 and 2 keys), you can invert the wheel's axis in the Game Options.
• You can no longer mouse aim (or mouse look) while in a helicopter (this was a bug).
• You can now turn on mouse look (or aiming) permanently in the Game Options, the right mouse button for temporary mouse look is still in place.
• You can now use WSAD as well as the cursor keys to move around, this goes nicely with mouse look.
• The mission briefing screen has been replaced with a text memo version.
• The player rate of fire is now properly timed (you can't hammer the fire key to fire more often anymore), the downside is that there may be a very slight delay when first firing slow rate of fire weapons.
• The God Mode Shades now wear off after 15 seconds (previously 20 seconds), they helps reduce "God Mode Campers" in multiplayer.

Modding

• Long filenames are totally supported everywhere (a long filename is defined in this case as a string no longer than 256 characters including full path and filename).
• New 16 bit colour mode means no more palettes! Use 255,0,255 (magic pink) for transparent stuff (not tiles).
• File select dialogs are much bigger.
• The maximum number of loaded samples has been increased from 128 to 512.
• Meteor now defaults the import/export PCX filename and path to the last file imported or exported (even after exiting).
• Weapon mounts and sub bitmaps are now drawn totally independently of the bitmap/sprite underneath.  This means that sprites don't have to be big enough to fit sub bitmaps and weapons on (look at the Chinook sprites for an example).  This removes quite a serious limitation that was present in earlier versions.  Beware, if your subs/weapons are ridiculously bigger than the base sprite then it may just "appear" as sprites are only drawn if their base is visible on the screen.
• Transparent sprites are no longer supported (too slow and little gain).
• The player's health is now set to the "Health" value in the Player Character Editor, it is no longer set from the global  value in itemdefs.txt which is now ignored.
• The player's height is now set in the character editor, it is no longer automatic for aircraft.  The default height is 0, if you have made any aircraft player characters in older versions of Meteor then you should set the height.
• Removed the File Viewer (Tools menu), this was handy for DOS but its useless under Win32 as you can alt-tab to a separate text viewer like Notepad.
• Removed access to the Console from the Tools menu, the console is for in-game use only. 
• Renamed Tools menu to "Editors".
• The maximum numbers of message strings and triggers allowed on a map have both been increased to whopping 1024.
• The player 2 character file reference has been removed from the Map Editor properties (all players on a map have the same character, you can set a player colour in the Multiplayer Options).
• The height of player airlift helicopters can now be set in the helicopter's race file (standard Chinook).  Note that the health is ignored as the player can not be damaged when in a helicopter.
• The way that player start points are placed has been changed.  Start points are now variable sized zones.  In single player the player starts in the centre of the player 1 zone.  In coop the client players start within either the player 1 zone or the coop zone.  In free for all (deathmatch) players start randomly within the player 1 zone or any of the other 3 deathmatch zones (the coop zone is ignored).
• The maximum number of sprites allowed on a map has been doubled to 4096 (you should certainly not aim for this number!).
• Added new parameter to "addpowerup" in itemdefs.txt to determine whether each power up type stays on the map in coop games.  If you have made a mod then you should update your mod's itemdefs.txt unless it will default to 0 (no) for each power up.
• The maximum number of player weapons has been decreased from a ridiculous 40 down to an almost reasonable 32 (this assumes that the player wont have all weapons at once!).
• Adding weapons using the Player Character is now much easier!
• "Hop" and "Passable Object" have been removed from the Race Properties in the Race Editor.
• Added "Projectile Stop" in the Race Properties in the Race Editor, turn off for flies to avoid rockets exploding in your face (this allows things like flies to be passable)!
• Fixed problems with next level flags in the Map Editor/game (names can be longer (256) and flag 3 now actually works).
• Removed obsolete values from the Projectile Editor (SelfGuide, missile and patriot).
• Rewrote the  Pick up Tile Editor (within the Tile Editor).
• Added PowerUpTimerSprite and HoverboardSprite declarations in base\gamedefs.txt.  If you mod uses a copied version of this file from an older version of Meteor then you must add these references to play you mod under Meteor v1.2.
• Choosing a custom map theatre in the Map Editor is now a walkover thanks to it using the new Pickup Colour Editor. 
• Added take item triggers (see near the green door in delta.map for an example).  Use "/t:ItemName" to take something away (see Known Issues below for limitations in multiplayer).  Tip, see base\itemdefs.txt for a list of item names.
• You can now rotate tiles in the Tile Editor (45 degrees at a time, free rotation is not really practical but you can always export the tile to an separate image editor).
• There is now a clear distinction between "Battle" and "Storm" in the Advanced Map Properties.  Storm makes thunder crack every now again (flashes at night), Battle is similar but with more frequent battle sounds (you can mix Storm and Battle effects).
• The "Rain" option in the Advanced Map Properties now works, the player can override this in the game options if their eyes can not take it!
• Added the show tile Passable Map in the Map Editor, use the "Toggle Passable Map" button or "c" to toggle this function which is designed to spot tiles of the wrong passable types .  Land tiles are coloured green, solid is red and water is blue.
• The new Rod style conveyor belts are special tiles (make them in the Special Tile Editor).  Players. monsters and sprites can go on the belts but sprites do no perform any collision detection so they will move regardless of what else is on the belt.  Sprites on belts may also be slightly out of sync in multiplayer games but it should not really be very noticeable. See delta.map for an example conveyor belt.  The conveyors on a map can be turned on and off using special tile events (some sample on, off and toggle switches are included in the main tileset, see samples\FarmTrack.map).  The initial state of conveyors (on/off) can be set in the Map Editor's Advanced Map Properties.
• Rewrote the Weapon Mount Editor (part of the Race Editor).
• The Weapon Mount Editor (within the Race Editor) now draws all of the weapon mounts that are installed on the current weapon.  The current weapon mount is highlighted in yellow, notably only the current mount is visible when actually placing a weapon mount. 
• The sprite editor frame navigation shortcut keys were wrong (down cursor = prev frame and up cursor = next frame), now its simply left/right cursors for prev/next frame.
• The Tile Editor now uses the same zoom keys as the Sprite Editor (keypad plus and minus).
• The "is map sprite on the screen" detection code has been improved in the Map Editor (it takes sprite rotation into account).
• Map sprites now animate independently and always start from the first frame.  The advantage now being that you can create animated wasted sprites as death sequences (provided that the display time for the wasted sprite's final frame is set to -1, otherwise the animation will loop).  Note that off-screen animations are ended immediately which makes good sense as sprites are only animated when they are drawn.
• The cursor keys can be used to work up and down the current tile/sprite/race (unit)/power up in the Map Editor (while actually editing).  The up key is the same as right and down the same as left so you can use whichever keys (up/down or left/right) you prefer.  Note that as the keyboard code works properly now you can also hold the key down to move quickly through the objects.
• The Map Editor now shows sprite information when the mouse held over a map sprite, it also draws a yellow box showing the collision rectangle.
• The Map Editor is now mode sensitive which means that you need to be in sprite mode to delete a sprite or power up mode to delete a power up etc.  This makes it all much cleaner.
• Fixed a crash to desktop bug in the Tile Editor where some tilesets had invalid destroyed tiles.  Invalid destroyed tiles are now detected and defaulted to zero (with a console message to tell you).  The cause of this was a bug in older versions of Meteor that displayed too many tiles in the picker (when using an extended tileset), this has been fixed too.
• Fixed a bug which was causing the wrong destroyed tiles to be used in extended tilesets during the game, destroyed tiles can now be used with extended tilesets with confidence (this is not related to the above fix).
• The maximum frames for a sprite has been increased from 30 to 50.
• The Sprite Editor can now set a single display time for all of the frames in a sprite using the new "Set Display Time for All Frames" button on the toolbar, it has a confirmation box.
• The correct sounds are played when the player is hurt and wasted (these used to always be the same, they now use the sounds specified in the Player Character Editor).
• Put all unused maps in the "maps\samples" folder, I should also mention that you can now use sub folders (i.e. "maps\samples").
• Message triggers now work when the player is in a helicopter (this was disabled by design but has been reconsidered).
• New standardised status bars in all editors.
• Added the Map List Editor, this edits the maps (and music) played during both single and multiplayer games.  This information is no longer stored in base\gamedefs.txt so you will need to update any existing mods.
• Added lava and acid animation tiles, these work in the same way as water (except they may not be transparent).  You can add the water and acid "magic" colours to your own tiles and they will animate (if you mix water, lava or acid on the same tile then only one will work, order = water -> acid -> lava).  The best way to obtain the "magic colours" is to take them from the sample lava and acid tiles in main.til (export to PCX and import to your extended tileset).
• DefaultPlayerName has been removed from gamedefs.txt, this value is hard set to "Player" (its just a default!).

Behind the Scenes

• The following messages are now console messages rather than message boxes as they can appear repeatedly during play:
  • Cannot insert any more power ups!
  • Can not insert any more sprites!
  • Can not insert any more units! (changed for consistency, does not appear during play)
• Rewrote collision detection code.
• Fixed long projectiles (like red laser) not hitting home properly.
• Rewrote player location and map window scrolling code.
• Rewrote projectile handling and drawing code.
• Rewrote light sourcing code.
• Rewrote all sprite, unit and player drawing code.
• The maximum number of active projectiles has been increased from 256 to 1024.
• Rotating sub bitmaps (i.e. helicopter rotors and radar dishes) rotate slightly faster.
• The player is smaller, well actually the sprite is the same size but when the player moves the bounding box is smaller for collision detection.  This should help with those one tile wide doors.
• The console message "Not spawning out of bounds projectile" is no longer displayed.
• The "No sample loaded for ???" console message has been changed to "No audio sample loaded for ???".
• The map file format has been totally redefined however backwards compatibility is still in place.
• Less fire sprites should be left after things blow up.
• The maximum number of active explosions has been increased from 256 to 384.
• Added "-LogMessages" command line switch to record all console messages to a log file (year-mon-day MessageLog.txt).
• The "engine.def" file has been removed, all values have been #defined except "usegametimer" which can be disabled on the command line using "-NoTimer".
• Rewrote the data loading system and file I/O code.
• Fixed a periodic crash to desktop bug in all toolbars (major fix!).
• Removed the dated "Paddle" game (it was hidden the console and very unfinished!).
• Removed "sight" value from the race file format, this has been obsolete for some time.

New Command Lime Parameters

• -startserver will automatically start Meteor in server mode using the default server settings in meteor.ini.  The settings in the INI file are determined by the options which are selected on the "Start Game Server" screen.
  • -CoopMode <VALUE> sets the auto server start game type (0 = head to head, 1 = coop with friendly fire, 2 = coop with no friendly fire) (default: head to head)
  • -NoMonsters makes the auto server put no units on any maps  (default: monsters on)
• -SkipIntro will skip the short intro movie.

Examples

• Head to Head Server:  meteor.exe -window -SkipIntro -startserver -NoMonsters
• NFF coop server: meteor.exe -window -SkipIntro -startserver -CoopMode 2

Note that the server will only participate in the game if the player spawns, therefore its pretty close to a FDS.  Just be sure to keep the meteor window active (see Issues).

Stuff that Did Not Make It (because its not really important)

• Destroyable sprites.
• Customisable controls.
• Copying and pasting rectangular chunks of terrain in the Map Editor.
• The mini-map code is very inefficient and slow, it needs rewriting.
• Damage tiles (suitable for lava and acid etc).
• Music playback is very poor on some systems, it also varies for each music module file, sound channel options would be a good start here.

Known Issues/Notes

• Multiplayer servers (and clients) require the current (Meteor) window to be active (on top of all other apps).  A text mode FDS would solve this for servers.
• Saved games from previous versions will not work.
• I will be rolling out Dave Man's Army 101 mod soon after I release Meteor v1.2, this mod is an outstanding piece of work.  Clearly Dave has worked very hard on this for a long time, it should keep you entertained for some time.
• "Telefragging" other players is not possible in no friendly fire coop games so you could possibly get stuck.
• If you change the player still sprite in the Player Character Editor and then go to edit the hoverboard offsets you will notice that the sprite has no updated.  To work around this problem just save and reload your player character before changing the hoverboard offsets.
• Take item triggers (message triggers in the format "/t:ItemName" that take an item away from the player ) can only be used once by each player in multiplayer games.  This is especially noticeable in Base Delta during coop games when a player gets wasted and restarts after losing the hoverboard they will not loose it again.
• A player can not be telefragged while in god mode, this means that you could get stuck (this only really applies to multiplayer games).  If you get stuck then you may have to leave a rejoin the game (if you can't shoot the offending teleportee!). 
• Player teleport landings can be slightly off the centre of the telporter (the rotated offsets are not perfect).
• If a message is echoed to the console while you are typing in it you may loose what you are typing (this only usually happens in multiplayer games).
• Water, lava or acid animation tiles (even partial water/lava/acid) that are also conveyors have no conveyor animation.
• Using the "map" console command to run a map with a different player character than  the current map causes problems (workaround: run via Map Editor).
• Timed missions vary between single and multiplayer.  In single player the player has to do the mission again (fails), in multiplayer (i.e. cooperative) the mission is completed.
• It may be possible to network clients to occasionally use ammo that they don't have.
• Multiplayer clients sometimes stop drawing projectiles properly.  Although this is more noticeable on slower connections it does not mean that your connection is slow.

Summary

Meteor v1.2 is a major release that is packed with new features and improvements (most notably being the new multiplayer integration and improved editing features).  Large sections of the game have been ripped out and completely rewritten to produce the most stable version of Meteor to date.

Changes from v1.1 Test 2 to v1.1.3

• Fixed "Disk Error" problem when saving and loading games.
• Fixed animation timing in the main menu.
• Fixed credits timing.
• The icons in the menus are no longer resized.
• Changed the default sound and music volumes to 150 and 90 (respectively).
• Added the new look Audio Control Panel.
• Updated menu screen web address to www.jbgames.com (not .co.uk).
• Updated copyright year.
• The map author is no longer displayed in the bottom right corner of the game screen (it is still displayed in the briefing).
• Added new final map (after Base Beta) being "Final Battle" by Jonathan Vail, thanks Jon.
• Removed writes to the log file "_logfile.txt" during the menu loop.
• Updated  the A-10 sprite so that it actually looks like an A-10.
• Removed "watery.map" from the game's map list.
• Updated the credits accordingly.

Map Editor

• Added sound triggers (use the Message Trigger Editor to select sounds and place sound triggers).
• Added the Resize Map function under the Advanced Map Tools menu.
• Fixed a crash out bug in the Map Editor.  Drawing with a large tile brush will not go off the edge of the map anymore.  Before tiles drawn off the right of the map appeared on the left (one line down) and tiles off the bottom of the map to caused major stability issues!  Tiles are now clipped properly at the map borders.
• Fixed the speed of the tile mouse pointer animation.
• Fixed the positioning of the info text at the bottom of the screen.

Behind the Scenes

• Added one new secret map ("secret4.map") which is based on the Rod "River Crossing" map.
• Greatly increased sprite size retrieval speed. 
• Added the "warp" console command.
• Removed independent timer code (now uses JGUI library).
• Updated GUI code for the revised JGUI  library.
• Now uses Allegro v4.03 (was v3936).

Notes

Meteor v1.1.3 is an interim release which addresses major issues with some minor new features.

Changes from v1.1 Test 1 to v1.1 Test 2

Features

• Added an option to toggle whether to wait for a vertical retrace between screen draws, with this OFF the game will run faster on slower machines.
• Renamed "Video Options" to "Video Mode".

Fixes and Improvements

• Fixed a memory leek in the Map Editor which occurred while drawing power
  ups on the screen.
• This was causing the Map Editor to bomb out.
• Fixed a problem with the screen update code which was causing random lock ups under Windows 2000.
• Fixed the "death bug" which was making the player pick up his own dropped health after being wasted and then coming back to life!
• Rewrote the collision detection code. It is now much faster and more accurate.
• Rewrote the sprite drawing code, it is now faster.
• Rewrote the shadow drawing code, this is now a lot quicker. There is also a new option that allows the toggling of translucent game shadows. Improved sprite collision detection.
• Wrote general several macros to improve performance by accessing data more directly.

Summary

Meteor v1.1 Test 2 appears to be totally stable (well almost)! This combined with improved optimisation makes it faster as well!

Changes from v1.0 to v1.1 Test 1

Features

• New Win32 Direct X application tested under Windows 95, 98 and 2000
• New twin base directory architecture allows for total conversions
• Rewrote Advanced Tile Editor
• Many new sounds
• Rewrote the item selector
• Rewrote the Power up selector
• Added multiple required items for special tiles (doors and switches etc)
• Added more on-line documentation within the editors
• Added special bullets for the Sniper Rifle to restrict ammo
• Made the Sniper Rifle less effective (it was far too powerful)
• Added pigs (sheep and cows were not enough!)
• Increased the max digital voices from 32 to 48, things should sound better
• Rewrote the Weapon Editor
• Adjusted the map scrolling to give more forward view to the player
• Moved game messages down slightly from the centre of the screen because the adjusted scrolling makes the player spend more time there making game messages get in the way.
• Brought back the old "Day of the Chaos Leeks" secret level, this really is quite an experience!

Fixes and Improvements

• Fixed the bug that made Meteor crash when running a map from the Map Editor
• Fixed the bug that prevented text files from being displayed after using any button that had a shortcut key of "R" (a hard bug to find)!
• Faster menu system due to pre-drawing and more buffering
• Fixed lock up problems under Windows 2000 (those caused by the mouse) Fixed a memory leak in the sprite selector Picked through and rewrote a vast amount of code across the entire application!
• The "Reset to Defaults" buttons now work.
• Fixed the defs read code to read in tabs as well as spaces, this means
• that you can now use Notepad to edit defs files.
• Renamed some of the maps so that they make sense.

Summary

Meteor v1.1 Test 1is a lot more stable than any earlier version. With support for total conversions and better editors it is really shaping up.

Changes from v0.63 Beta to v1.0

• The new menu interface looks great and more importantly is easier to use.  Running around the menus should now bring as much pleasure as playing the game itself. :o)
• The new Player Character Editor makes editing player characters far easier. New player weapons (which need to be pre-made in the Weapons Editor) can now be added here. This means that different player characters can have their very own selection of firepower, neat for TCs. Note that this also required the whole player weapons system to be restructured (and therefore re-coded (big job)).
• The ROD 2 menu has been pinched and put into Meteor, this now means that there is a cool new menu system.
• Monsters and projectiles can now pass through shifters (teleporters), this makes things far more interesting.
• Weapons can now fire in 8 directions! Use "Toggle Multi Fire" in the Weapon Editor to toggle this.
• The new Ion Spreader has been added to the player's arsenal or weapons. This fires smaller Plutonium Charges than the TSX, however it does fire in 8 directions at once (so be careful not to use it in any confined spaces).
• The sound effects have been improved. Some new samples have been added, some crap samples have been replaced (like the new shotgun and mini-gun sounds).
• The multiplayer code has been removed because it was far too unstable. It is hoped that multiplayer will return in the near future.
• Aiming using the mouse when moving is now possible. This bug has been fixed which was preventing the mouse from aiming properly.
• Muzzle flash has now been implemented.
• Projectile lines (lines that represent unseeable projectiles like bullets) can now be turned on and off in the game options.
• The hoverboard has been taken out. I am sorry to have done this but it was just a pain to work with and it offered little benefit.
• The main menu and credits tunes have been replaced with some far nicer ones, these are still by Simon of TRiDEJA. Great work there Simon!
• Cel and Nick's Kockakian's pictures have been added to the credits.  Also note that I changed the smiley thing on the bottom of the credits screen from ":-)" to ":o)".
• The Flame Thrower projectile "flames.ptl" has been reduced in size.
• Allegro dialogs (used for loading and saving etc) are now in a more appropriate colour.
• An SAS unit has been added, this unit has a real cool gun that rapidly fires sniper rounds. Note that the player can not be issued with this weapon because it is just far too powerful so a conventional sniper rifle is dropped instead.
  

Behind the Scenes

• The sprite, projectile and race selector code units have now been merged with the main sprite, projectile and race code units. This makes things tidier by decreasing the number of files.
• The built in directory listing and maths functions have been removed, Meteor now uses these from my JGUI library.
• Support for old Alpha version sprites and units (these used to be in sets like tiles) has now been removed. This extra code and game engine variables (or "gvars") was not required because Meteor Alpha never went out on general release.
• The GUI library has been generally updated, this means that drop down menus, toolbars and scrolling text boxes should work better.

What to expect in Meteor 1.1?

• Full game mod and total conversion support.
• The return of the hoverboard (probably not)?
• ROD style conveyor tiles that carry you around the level.
• The default options button should work!

Changes from v0.63 Beta (release 3) to v0.63 Beta (release 4)

• Fixed the bug that made Meteor crash out with a GPF (General Protection Fault) when attempting to run a map from the Map Editor. (IMPORTANT!)
• The minimap is now on top of the items HUD bar (so this is no longer obstructed).
• The items HUD bar can now be turned on and off in the "Options".
• There is now a new Unit Info Mode that shows additional unit information/descriptions. Use "U" in the game to toggle between (off/on/on with descriptions).
• "Options" now starts with a capital "O" when editing options.
• The text exit screen has been fixed so that the background colour is constant (dark blue all over!) when viewed in a window.

Changes from v0.63 Beta (release 2) to v0.63 Beta (release 3)

• Meteor now remembers what video card was selected, handy if you need to force Vesa to use SVGA modes.
• Added the items HUD on the right of the screen.
• Updated the exit screen to "www.jbssoftware.co.uk".
• Removed the "base\demos" directory (which has been redundant for some time).