Mr Ekted

Is there a switch for MERV to log packets so we can if it's being sent and what the contents are?

Underlord is testing a MERV bot in PB that he uses for league stats. It's VIP'd but it generates a ton of "WARNING: Security checksum not returned" errors. Is there a switch somewhere to enable the security packet? Why would the MERV core not reply to a security check?

In this order: Try disabling 3d sound. Try updating sound drivers. Try updating directx.

Bahahahaha! If you need help with that, some fine programmer in SS wrote an 800K app that multiplies by 16...

And learn to program efficiently. Stop using gay bloated languges, or using MERV as your basis for coding.

LoadImage() is supposed to return 0 if the image doesn't exist. In some wierd cases it returns the handle to a system bitmap--in your case the check mark image. I"ve seen this before myself once. I don't know if this is a windows bug, or a driver bug.

If you have a file called chatbg.bm2 in your cont or cont/graphics folders, I load it and tile it into the back of the chat text. If you don't have one and you get somethat like that, it's Windows telling me it loaded an image even though there was none. This is a windows bug. Alt-tabbing into game and back out should clear it.

C supports structure packing so you can make it match any file/network data. The only issue, as you say, is byte ordering. It is more efficient and clean to view and manipulate packets with structures. It is also less prone to error. It is not unportable whatsoever, or even less portable than the way MERV does it. In fact, the only reason MERV does it that way is because it was originally written in VB which doesn't have structures, so Catid had no choice. When he ported to C++, he just brought over the code as-is for the most part. That's my $2. Keep the change.

Monitors will "turn off" if the signal they are receiving from the video card is beyond their operating range. This mean 1) the resolution is too high, 2) the refresh rate is too high, or both.

Most monitors store settings for each resolution/refresh rate combination. So you probably use a specific res/ref combo for SS that you don't use anywhere else.

9.0b

Pincushioning and misalignment are monitor settings. You can't fix those through software.

You have the latest directx?

Yes, when you make a console app, the EXE stub sets up the running environment, creates a console, and calls main(). When you make a Win32 GUI app, the EXE stub sets up the running environment and calls WinMain(). Note that they take different parameters.

It's silly in C to load a packet into a byte buffer, then call funcs to pick out the various fields (or even to do it inline). MERV does it this way also. The proper way is to define a structure that defines the packet, and use it to reference the buffer.

Do you know how silly it is to parse packets that way?

Sounds like bad interaction between directx and video drivers. Try updating video drivers. If you need help with that, post what video card you have. Then the next thing to try is updating directx. What version do you have now? I use 8.1a, but the latest are something like 9.0b.

Ya I have a similar problem with my keyboard. I can't do shift + up + left. So in Hockey Zone I use letter keys for thrust and bullets.

It's possible that it takes so long to load all the gfx files that you timeout. Are you running Cont 8-bit or higher? Does this happen in all zones, or just a zone with lots of custom gfx?

Even so, if you change the resolution on the menu, when Cont starts up it keeps it whatever it was when you closed, like so... - select profile with 2048x1536 res - in menu, select res 640x480 - close cont - start cont - res is still 640x480 To re-apply all current profile settings, you could open profile dialog and press enter (Ctrl-P, ENTER), or change current profile then change it back (END, HOME).

Server will kick for too much neg ploss, but client doesn't care.

The entire SS protocol is encapsulated in the MERV source, except for a few Cont-specific packets and the Cont encryption.

You are using a name that already exists. Pick something very unusual or append numbers (eg tgxaipwg or John384914). At least you can play the game, and see if you like it.

Many businesses have HTTP proxies to make sure only HTTP protocol goes thru. So a simple SS->HTTP->SS link layer translation wouldn't quite be enough. You;d have to disguise the packets as actual HTTP syntax. Not nice.

A ship with 0 radius is a single pixel. Each pixel of radius extends it out 1 in all directions.