Author Topic: colony games eden 2?  (Read 3208 times)

Offline gamerscd0

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colony games eden 2?
« on: November 23, 2004, 02:35:09 PM »
Is their a Colony game Eden 2 ??? :op2:  :op2:  :op2:  

xfir

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colony games eden 2?
« Reply #1 on: November 23, 2004, 02:42:32 PM »
No.. but it may be possible to make one. Ask op2hacker or Hooman for details. (IRC is a good place to ask)

Offline BlackBox

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colony games eden 2?
« Reply #2 on: November 30, 2004, 03:06:14 PM »
Well, right now the only way you can make missions for OP2, you need to know how to write DLL's in C++. If you know that much, you have to get the OP2 Mission SDK from the Programming forum, and download it. (It's only compatible with MSVC++ 5/6)
Most of the people that post in the programming forum know the SDK and can help you out with any problems (provided you know C++ already).

Soon (hopefully), we'll have a new map editor out that is capable of editing missions, without needing any programming knowledge. (Yes, I have promised this for months, but the project *is* still moving along).

Offline Eddy-B

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colony games eden 2?
« Reply #3 on: November 30, 2004, 03:40:34 PM »
uhm, are you sure this is possible AT ALL, hacker ?!

i mean - it's pretty complex, writing a program, that can create DLLs by itself, based on what a user tells it to do. I find it complex dealing with all those exported members as it is.... lol

Anywayz.. there's now three of us (am i right ?) who are currently programming OP2 missions, and creating a map is one thing. Creating a stable DLL is another (i'm not even getting INTO making it look like its got an AI) !

Good luck to all of us !

Eddy-B




PS:
Quote
Is their a Colony game Eden 2 ???
 .. are you referring to the colony games ? There are 4 colony maps included in the OP2 package, and i've downloaded 2 more from this site. Ask op2hacker where that link is, he'll guide you there  ( "Colony Builder II" )
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Offline Hooman

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colony games eden 2?
« Reply #4 on: December 01, 2004, 12:30:43 AM »
Eddy-B, it's not necessary to generate the DLL from the editor to do something like that. You could just generate data which an already written DLL could load and process. You just have to hand code one generic DLL. Mind you that solution is far from perfect, but it's at least doable.

I'm sure there are others ways. The most sophisticated of which is to essentially write a compiler, but that's an unreasonable amount of work.

Anyways, maybe I'll get back to my DLL programming project over the Christmas break, but right now I'm too busy with school to really make much headway on it. And yeah, I would like to make some new colony games.
 

Offline PlayingOutpost0-24

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colony games eden 2?
« Reply #5 on: December 01, 2004, 12:48:19 PM »
Quote
uhm, are you sure this is possible AT ALL, hacker ?!

i mean - it's pretty complex, writing a program, that can create DLLs by itself, based on what a user tells it to do. I find it complex dealing with all those exported members as it is.... lol


look, MSVC++ was programmed too, no?
it generates dlls too, no?
then, wut?
Great news for OP2 fans... OP3 in progress.
Official Site
Outpost 3: A New Power progress
OP3:NP Discussion

Progress in OP3:NP[/size][/font]
PLANNING[|||||||||-]
GRAPHICS [||||------]
SOUNDS [|---------]
MAP DESIGNING [|||||-----]
CODING [----------]
Going slowly... Very slow.

Offline BlackBox

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colony games eden 2?
« Reply #6 on: December 01, 2004, 03:03:08 PM »
exactly. Please don't try to tell people that something isn't possible.

Exactly what they were saying about computers. And many good things come from unreasonable sources. (The man who invented the integrated circuit, more commonly known as the microchip, was a worker at texas instruments who failed the ACT. I'm not even sure that he went to college. And yes, the people at TI thought he was an idiot, but the thing worked).

Actually, designing a specialized compiler that can only create OP2 DLL's probably isn't too hard. (You can get source code of compilers for win32 right off the net. You wouldn't need to write a new linker or anything - unless you wanted to).

As far as taking input from a program and using it to write a DLL, I currently have a debug dll that can take data added to a .map file, parse it, and do things on screen (like create units and setup game settings). No, I'm not releasing it (yet).

Offline Hooman

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colony games eden 2?
« Reply #7 on: December 01, 2004, 07:23:15 PM »
Yeah, if you're willing to spend time on something you can pretty much always get something going. Even really hard problems can have cheap hack solutions that kinda work and don't take long to build. You're really free to edit data/code as much as you want. Also, having DLLs control the levels gives a really easy way to inject code into the outpost2 address space. So you can pretty much do anything you want within a level. Come to think of it, there really isn't much you can't do with outpost2. It's all just a matter of time and complexity, and what you're willing to do.

If you want a really impossible problem that you can't do on a computer, try solving the Halting Problem.  :heh: (And yes,  I feel confident in telling people that isn't possible  :P ).
(OK, I admit, on any REAL computer with finite memory, it is solvable, but then that's not really the same problem anymore).

Oh, and good work on that DLL Hacker. I've been curious as to how that's been progressing. Sounds like it's gonna put my work to shame.  :heh:

(Err, you weren't really thinking of using any compiler code were you?)
 

Offline Eddy-B

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colony games eden 2?
« Reply #8 on: December 02, 2004, 01:27:49 PM »
okay - im sorry i stirred up so much dirt .. of course it CAN be done, i know it means you have to write a new compiler, and i just meant to say; "it's a lot of work" .. and is it worth it ?  but okay - if you're already working on it: good luck !  if you need any help let ppl know, any input could be helpful.
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Offline BlackBox

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colony games eden 2?
« Reply #9 on: December 02, 2004, 03:31:09 PM »
lol, we're not mad at you or anything. (We actually have a lot of stuff, unreleased to the public yet, that would blow most people's minds here, like "you really took the time to do that?" No, I'm not going to crack about it :heh: )

Hooman: I probably wouldn't write my own compiler unless I came to a problem for which there is no other solution. For writing basic multiplayer DLL's with no scripted actions other than creation of buildings, setting up resource levels, etc., my DLL that reads data off the map file works perfectly OK. For more advanced levels, it's pretty hard to implement it that way. One idea I even had was to generate the C++ code for the mission, then compile it with a normal compiler and linker. That seems sorta quirky, however.

Offline Snypr98

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colony games eden 2?
« Reply #10 on: December 24, 2004, 07:33:49 PM »
Quote
uhm, are you sure this is possible AT ALL, hacker ?!

i mean - it's pretty complex, writing a program, that can create DLLs by itself, based on what a user tells it to do. I find it complex dealing with all those exported members as it is.... lol

Anywayz.. there's now three of us (am i right ?) who are currently programming OP2 missions, and creating a map is one thing. Creating a stable DLL is another (i'm not even getting INTO making it look like its got an AI) !

Good luck to all of us !

Eddy-B




PS:
Quote
Is their a Colony game Eden 2 ???
 .. are you referring to the colony games ? There are 4 colony maps included in the OP2 package, and i've downloaded 2 more from this site. Ask op2hacker where that link is, he'll guide you there  ( "Colony Builder II" )
Quote

Well, Hack, where?  I'm very much interested in this...