Battlezone II version 1.3 Tech Alpha 5 has been released.

Battlezone II version 1.3 Tech Alpha 5 has arrived. See below for a list of new features. If you wish to download it, see the following set of links:

• BZ2_v13TechAlpha5_english.exe That is an installer, which will upgrade any previous version of Battlezone II to 1.3ta5. Note - if you get errors running this, usually along the lines of 'this is not a valid windows application', please ensure that your download is complete. This exe should be 92,211,200 bytes for the size if you view properties on it in Windows Explorer. (Size on disk varies, and is not an accurate judge). You may want to try using a download manager if you have issues.

• modder_data_techalpha5.7z This contains the raw models (.xsi) and textures (.bmp, .pic, .png, .tga, etc), which are not distributed by the 1.3ta5 installer.
• BZ2_1.3b80c_DLLSource.7z This contains the source code for the Deathmatch (DM), Instant Action (IA), Multiplayer Instant Action (MPI), Strategy & Strategy Capture The Flag DLLs. Knowledge of C++ is recommended if you want to poke at the DLL source code; this source code is designed to be compiled with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 (including the Express Edition.)
• BZ2DXTGen_v22.7z. This converts textures to the .dxtbz2 format used by BZ2. This is an updated version of what was shipped in the past, and has several important new features for 1.3ta5, especially the ability to convert 640x480 shell backdrops to DX9-optimized larger, square textures.

If you want to comment on this patch, you can find community boards here

For the paranoid, the md5sum checksums on the files are
e539e272c50012e79d26114f2adf0165 *BZ2_v13TechAlpha5_english.exe
4fde136b2b70398148198984668675e8 *BZ2DXTGen_v22.7z
08c35ce4c396ea5240b10e38a0dc5b0f *BZ2_1.3b80c_DLLSource.7z
be549bb5490051df0f514c44da691aff *modder_data_techalpha5.7z


Legal disclaimer: The Battlezone II 1.3 patch comes with no warranty, to the extent permitted by applicable law. Except when otherwise stated in writing the copyright holders and/or other parties provide the package "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose and the accuracy of the information contained within it. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the package is with you.

The 1.3 patch has been in development since September/October 2001, headed by two programmers who had worked on the original Battlezone II team: Ken Miller & Nathan Mates. (In January 2009, Ken Miller moved to Armature Studios, but Nathan Mates has remained employed by Pandemic Studios, which was acquired by Electronic Arts in early 2008. We're working on other titles as our day jobs; Battlezone II patches are done in our spare time.)

The major improvements of 1.3techalpha5, compared to 1.3pb4a are:

• Updated graphics engine that uses (and requires) DirectX 9.0c for the best balance of compatibility and speed. Hardware transform & lighting is now supported, allowing a lot of work to be offloaded from your CPU and onto your graphics card. New DirectX features like fullscreen antialiasing (or multisample antialiasing) are supported to improve visual quality.
• Various lagout bugs in network games should be drastically reduced
• Further support for Windows Vista/7 -- should fully support being installed to paths with unicode, has high-resolution icon for Windows Explorer
• Music from the BZ2 CD is now distributed with this patch, in ogg vorbis format, allowing for better performance. You can also set up a random playlist of music to be played ingame, if you copy in .ogg files to the right place and the right name. (Note: other music needs to be user-supplied.)

• Much greater MOD (game modification) support, allowing up to 26 total races to be active at once. Many MODders have been among 1.3 beta testers, and have been working to take advantage of the new features. [Their participation or nonparticipation is their own business; no support for 1.3 is implied or MODs promised by us.]
• Developed/Tested on Windows 2000/XP/Vista, for much better compatibility out of the box. Should work on Vista without requiring Administrator access. Limited WINE testing has been done as well.
• Many crashes/freezes fixed.
• Redone audio system that supports far more channels (up to 64) and DirectSound3D for a far more immersive experience. Note: not all sound cards on the market support that many channels; if the driver on your system notes a limit under 64, BZ2 will use that instead.
• Support for Ogg Vorbis compressed sounds - similar to mp3 files, but with higher quality.
• Some graphics tweaks: Maximum ingame resolution can be set much higher than 1280x1024 if your hardware supports it. Gamma (brightness) adjustment works on ATI cards.
• New graphics options like anisotropic filtering, mip bias, more efficient use of graphics card memory with DXT textures improve the visual appeal of the game.
• Enhancements to many parts of the game, including AI, craft handling, etc.
• Many more pregame options for IA, DM, Strat & MPI games (feature available to MODs to define custom options pages on a per-map basis)
• Bots in DM, and some additional DM gameplay modes.
• Strategy-CTF game mode -- capture a goal, tug it back to your recycler to win, on 6 classic maps. Finally a good use for tugs in MP!
• Over 50 additional Instant Action & Multiplayer maps by several mapmakers within the BZ2 community, and tweaks to some existing maps to reduce bugs. As of 1.3TechAlpha5, there are 20 classic & additional IA maps, and over 100 classic & additional MP maps installed.
• Several additional security measures to make cheating in multiplayer much more difficult; deliberate remote crashing of games should be fixed.
• New BZ2 editor screen layout files contributed by testers to expose more functionality that was already there.
• Ability to rotate buildings (on 90-degree increments) for even more base-building fun
• Updates to the manual (located in the Extras folder where BZ2 is installed to) to give updated and more accurate information
• Includes over 1MB of text files listing changes made since 1.2. This changelog contains our (minimalist) notes as to what changed for each version, and isn't guaranteed to be easily understood. But, it may be useful reading.
• More features, including weapon linking, thumpers, and variable gravity DM maps Increased vista compatibility, audio works in WINE
• Many more modder features, such as 60-char ODF names, inheritance, tons of new tuning values, etc
• Performance optimizations - Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE) are used to take more efficient use of your CPU
• Fewer resyncs, units (human & AI) should warp less online
• Ability to replace CD music w/ OGG files
• Easier to host games w/ automatic UPNP, Windows Firewall support(*)

For now, this patch will be pretty much English-only. If you have a foreign (French or German) version of BZ2, this patch will replace a lot (but not all) of the files used to display text ingame with English. Voiceovers and other sound effects will remain in the installed language. A translated version of these text items may happen at a later time.

A special note: one of the bugs fixed is the infinite flying bug present in BZ2 1.0 - 1.2. This was removed because it is considered to be a bug by those of us who worked on BZ2 from the beginning. It is not due to complaints from "newbies" or the like. Certain people certainly feel strongly about this. Fine. Please realize that feelings are not an argument. Whining about this will not change anything-- we've heard such complaints for years, and your comments will only serve to harden our resolve in this.

Why is this patch labeled 'Tech Alpha'?

Compatability w/ previous BZ2 versions

• Like all other BZ2 patches, the 1.3 patch is not network compatible with any other version-- all players in the game must be running the exact same version (e.g. 1.3ta5)
• Maps & DLLs for BZ2 1.2 should load fine. However, any map/dll that depends on certain behavior in the AI, etc for scripting may need tweaking.
• Progress in Singleplayer missions, preferences should be read fine; where more options than 1.2 exist (especially the sound setup), users may need to adjust those new options if they don't like the defaults. 1.3 uses a new file format for pilots/prefs, and upgrades 1.2's files on reading them. Those new preferences files can not be read by 1.2.
• Mid-mission savegames from BZ2 1.0-1.2 can not be read, as the file formats changed too much. But, as noted above, progress in SP missions is left untouched.
• Missions created with the editor in 1.3 will not be readable in previous versions, same with savegames, etc.
• Many MODs for BZ2 will be uninstalled as part of the install of 1.3. Some broken MODs that installed themselves into the Data folder (which should *never* have happened, but some people refused to do things right and install to addon) may have to be manually deleted.
• MODs that replaced out large chunks of the BZ2 shell (aka FE) may need extensive tweaks before they can work with 1.3. There are various works in progress to make such MODs work, and they may be complete by the time you read this.

Requirements for this patch:

If you're under 300MB free HD space, it is highly recommended that you get another HD. BZ2, like all Windows apps, uses your HD as swap (pagefile) space if your physical RAM is exhausted. You should have at least 100MB free (250MB recommended) on your HD before starting BZ2. The 1.3 installer can be deleted (or moved to another system, drive, CD backup, etc) before running 1.3 to get a bit more space.

A separate 1.3 directory is the preferred method of installing 1.3, as it helps gets rid of any debris left over from broken MODs that installed themselves into the data directory, doesn't have any compatibility issues with MODs not yet updated for 1.3, and gives you a clean slate to begin with. If you take this route, you should have at least 650MB of free HD space before starting the separate install is required -- doing some tests here, an install of 1.3TechAlpha5 over a BZ2 1.0 install from CD took a total of 580MB, not counting the installer.

CPU:
Battlezone II v1.3pb4a now requires Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE), which were introduced with the Pentium III. AMD's Athlon XP (and newer) CPUs also support SSE. SSE provides some framerate boosts, and is now required.

Graphics Card:
Battlezone II v1.3 requires a graphics card (or integrated video) that has DirectX/Direct3D 9.0 (or higher) drivers. A card that can do hardware vertex Transform & Lighting (aka T&L) is highly recommended, and may be required. Limited to no testing has been done on graphics cards without Transform & Lighting. As T&L was first introduced August 1999 -- before Battlezone II 1.0 shipped to stores in December 1999 -- most systems should now have T&L support.

RAM:
Battlezone II's original box specs noted that it required 64MB RAM. However, Windows 2000/XP/Vista and the like require more memory than that as their base specs. You should add at least 128MB RAM to what the requirements for your version of Windows are (see Microsoft's website for exact details). Thus, 192MB is a practical minimum amount of RAM for Win2000/XP, though Windows itself will crawl on such a system -- 384-512MB will be better. Vista and/or Win7 will probably require at least 512MB memory.

Audio:
BZ2 also requires a audio output device (sound card, motherboard audio, etc) that supports DirectX 8.x. 3D positional audio is supported, but not required.

Operating System, DirectX:
Windows 2000/XP/Vista (or newer) are recommended. DirectX 9.0c August2008 SDK version is also required. Win95/98/ME support has been dropped because of several reasons: (1) Microsoft has dropped support for Win95/98/ME in the latest DirectX/Direct3D. (2) Microsoft has dropped support for Win95/98/ME in Visual Studio 2008. (3) Lots of useful programming library code is available only for Win2000 and up.

System Recommendations for this patch

What uninstalling 1.3?

A sepatate 1.3 directory is the preferred method of installing 1.3, as it helps get rid of any debris left over from broken MODs that installed themselves into the data directory, doesn't have any compatability issues with MODs not yet updated for 1.3, and gives you a clean slate to begin with.

If you take this route, probably 500-600MB of free HD space before starting the separate install is required.

What new options are available with DirectX 9?

Reflections

Note - this option will disappear if your selected 'Depthbuffer format' (right column of graphics options, see more below) doesn't have stencil capabilities. This option can be turned off and on at will, and may be auto-disabled during network games if your framerate isn.t high enough.

Texture size

Changes to this option require quitting and restarting BZ2.

Wait for VSync (left column, near the bottom)

Vertical Sync (VSync) is a way to either optimize for framerate or quality. There are two options: 'Off (fast)' and 'On (no tearing)'. This replaces the console 'vid.waitretrace' console command, and other ways to turn vsync off/on. When vsync is off, then it runs faster -- as soon as a frame is ready, it's sent to your screen. When vsync is on, then it waits for the next time your monitor has finished presenting a frame, and then presents that frame. That is obviously slower due to the wait, but prevents some 'tearing' when you see part of one frame, and part of a second frame. The 'refresh rate' option (right column, see below) is how long it'll have to wait. Changes to this option require quitting and restarting BZ2.

Anisotropic Filtering (left column, near the bottom)

This option will disappear if your card says that it can't do any anisotropic filtering at all. This is a horizontal slider, going from 0 to the maximum value your card supports. 0 means 'off', and is the fastest. Higher values increase quality of triangles that rotated relative to the camera, especially the terrain. You can adjust anisotropic filtering in realtime to see its effects -- try launching an Instant Action mission, and adjusting the anisotropic filtering slider while looking at the terrain.

Video adapter (top of right column)

This will list all monitor(s) connected to your system, and what graphics card is driving them. If you have only one monitor in your system, then there will only be one option in here, and not changeable. Changes to this option require quitting and restarting BZ2.

Video Mode

This has a list of graphics modes (resolutions) that can be run on the selected monitor. Minimum supported resolution is 640x480. Changes to this option require quitting and restarting BZ2.

Refresh Rate

This controls how fast your monitor refreshes, in hertz (times per second), and can vary based on the video mode selected. If you have a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT, tube) monitor, you will usually have more options in here. LCD screens will typically only refresh at 60 hertz. Changes to this option require quitting and restarting BZ2.

Video Adapter Format

This controls how many bits per color are used when the screen is presented to the user. The default, 24-bit color, is fine for most users; 16-bit color will tend to produce banding. The abbreviation after the format name (e.g. 'X8R8G8B8') is the order of the colors, and how many bits are given to each. For more information on these abbreviations, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb172558(VS.85).aspx . Changes to this option require quitting and restarting BZ2.

Backbuffer Format

This controls how many bits per color are used in the intermediate buffers while the frame is being rendered. The default is fine for most users. See the description and link under 'Video Adapter Format' for that the abbreviations after the name mean. Changes to this option require quitting and restarting BZ2.

Depthbuffer Format

This controls how many bits per pixel of Z-buffer are available, and optionally, how many bits for stencil buffers are available. The default of '24 bits Z w/ 8 bits for Stencil' is recommended for most users. If a mode without stencil bits is selected, then reflections will be unavailable. Reducing your Z depth to 16 bits may slightly increase framerate at the cost of some visual artifacts -- experiment to see what this does. See the description and link under 'Video Adapter Format' for that the abbreviations after the name mean. Changes to this option require quitting and restarting BZ2.

Multisample Type

This is a choice of what multisampling antialiasing (MSAA, also sometimes known as fullscreen antialiasing, FSAA) is set. The choice of 'None' (default) disables MSAA. There may be more options in this list based on what your graphics card supports at the given video mode/refresh rate/formats picked above. In general, the higher the setting (lower down in the list), you will see better results onscreen at the cost of some framerate. For more information on these modes, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb172574(VS.85).aspx . Changes to this option require quitting and restarting BZ2.

Multisampling Quality

For the given multisample type, you may have one or more options for the quality level applied to it. There may be more options in this list based on what your graphics card supports at the given video mode/refresh rate/formats picked above. In general, the higher the setting (lower down in the list), you will see better results onscreen at the cost of some framerate. Changes to this option require quitting and restarting BZ2.

Will I get a bajillion FPS with 1.3 like I do with game XYZ

Further note - some graphics options, like local fog and reflections will definitely affect your framerate. Reflections, if enabled and the current map has water, will cause the entire world to be drawn twice -- once upside down in the water view, and once normally. That doubles the amount of work for BZ2 (figuring out what to draw, and telling DirectX about that), and doubles the work for DirectX 9 (the drawing). Thus, enabling reflections can and will drop your framerate.

Local fog submits many transparent polygons in order to provide a hemisphere of fogging over an area. BZ2 1.0-1.3pb4a did local fogging purely on the CPU; this can't easily be replicated with the 'fixed function pipeline' in DirectX 9. Thus, many transparent planes are drawn in order to draw something of a parallel effect. This will almost certainly reduce framerates when local fogging is enabled, and you are looking at such a region.

Also, turning on anisotropic filtering and/or multisampling antialiasing (MSAA) from the graphics options page will increase quality at the cost of framerate. (Anisotropic is generally cheaper than MSAA, I think.) Anisotropic filtering improves the look of triangles that are relatively perpendicular compared to the camera -- e.g. the terrain. If MSAA is set to anything above 'none' makes your card draw everything at a higher resolution than what is displayed, and then scale it down before drawing. This can drastically increase the load on your video card. As above, higher values for MSAA setting and quality will make things look better while reducing framerate. Lower MSAA setting & quality will make things look a little worse, but increase framerate. MSAA settings can't be changed without quitting restarting BZ2.

What about my overclocked system?