Monster 2 Portable has made it to prerelease status and can now be found here.
Application: Monster 2
Category: Games
License: BSD
Description: The Monster series of RPGs are high quality open source role-playing games. Built from scratch with a focus on good story, unique gameplay features, and professional looking and sounding artwork and audio. Monster 2, the latest edition in the series, is a nostalgic trip back to the days of the epic SNES RPGs like Final Fantasy and Breath of Fire.
Release Notes:
Development Test 5 (2009-07-27):
- New driver selection page fixed.
Development Test 4 (2009-07-16):
- Added driver selection page to launcher to avoid using monster2.exe altogether
Development Test 3 (2009-07-15):
- Fixed settings not saved properly
- Shrunk app size with the PortableApps.com AppCompactor (needs testing to see it the app is compatible with UPXing -- please leave feedback)
Development Test 2 (2009-07-14):
- Fixed crash immediately after selecting render mode
Development Test 1 (2009-07-13): Initial release
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Very nice! I've been waiting for this!
Cool, I didn't have to do a thing!
After selecting a graphics driver, it just crashes. My first guess is that it's not being run from the directory with the dlls in it. The command to run the real game from the driver selection is x/monster2-direct3d.exe (or monster2-opengl.exe etc)... so it must be run with the directory of the launcher/dlls as the CWD.
I'll check that out. Just curious, does the BSD require me to host the source myself the way the GPL does? If so, I need a source code package for this release (I know you have it all in SVN on Google Code but it's all the individual files, not a package so I don't know if the files have been modified since this release...).
[Edit] Yeah it looks like it was a cwd issue. Try Development Test 2.
Quamquam omniam nescio, nec nihil scio.
No, you don't need to provide source. You have to include the LICENSE.txt though.
This Test 2 release runs but I have problems with it saving my configuration and data.
It seems to save launch_config properly, so no worries about that. But as for the
other stuff (save states and settings), this is what I did:
1) Started a game, went to the first save point and saved
2) Quit
3) Looked in ~/AppData/Roaming/Monster2, 0.save was there
4) Started the game again, changed some settings, quit
5) 'config' was now in ~/AppData/...
6) 0.save disappeared
Ok, I see what's going on. My launcher is waiting for monster2.exe to exit, then cleaning up. So the config files get backed up as soon as you choose a render method, because my launcher thinks the program is done. However, monster2.exe is just a launcher for the other .exe's and then it closes... triggering the launcher to clean up and exit. That's why the save files don't get backed up, the launcher exits before you get a chance to create them. I honestly don't know how to make the launcher wait for the end of a process that doesn't even exist at the time it launches the program. I suppose I could check every few seconds or so for the existence of a monster*.exe process but that would be messy. Is there any way you could make monster2.exe stay open in memory until monster2-*.exe closes? Otherwise, I'll have to ask around for help.
Quamquam omniam nescio, nec nihil scio.
Here's a link to a monster2.exe binary that will work. I won't change the ones I ship on my site because leaving that process around in memory is wasteful.
http://trent.gamblin.ca/temp/monster2-portable-exe.zip
Ok, I think that fixed it. I'm uploading Dev Test 3 now.
Quamquam omniam nescio, nec nihil scio.
After selecting the graphics driver nothing happens.
Are you using the latest Dev Test? That issue was solved in Dev Test 2, and I'm currently at Dev Test 3.
Quamquam omniam nescio, nec nihil scio.
Yes, using Dev Test 3. It just will not start for me.
First off, all I can think is to do a fresh reinstall. Delete the entire Monster2Portable folder, then reinstall (if you have save files, back them up first, they're in Data\save). Do you have the program installed locally? If so, does the local installation work normally? If you don't have a local installation, try running App\Monster2\monster2.exe directly. Also, try running Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc). When you launch the program from the menu, you should see Monster2Portable.exe and monster2.exe. When you select the driver, you should also see monster2-.exe show up. In your situation, there should be 3 possible things that could happen.
1. All 3 .exe's show up, but no program window
2. All of the .exe's disappear as soon as you choose a driver.
3. The first 2 show up, but monster2-.exe never shows up.
Let me know which of those you are experiencing.
Quamquam omniam nescio, nec nihil scio.
Monster2Portable.exe shows up in the task manager, but not monster2.exe. When I select a driver I get the "Test Release" splash screen, then the program just crashes (Monster2Portable.exe disappears from the task manager). monster2-.exe never shows up.
Hmm... have you tried all 3 driver options? How about trying it on another computer? Also, monster2.exe IS the driver selection screen (unless you're using Dev Test 4, where I'm bypassing it completely), so it should have showed up no matter what.
Quamquam omniam nescio, nec nihil scio.
I'm using Dev Test 4. I'm thinking now that I don't have any of the three drivers installed. When I try to start the program directly using one of the three, I get error messages like: "This application failed to start because *****.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem." (Insert the driver .dll for *****). I've reinstalled and still get the same message.
[Edit] Ignore this, we were both posting at the same time and you answered my question
Quamquam omniam nescio, nec nihil scio.
Ok, if you're getting the missing .dll errors, that might be a working directory issue. I thought I'd fixed that. Just to check, when you get those errors, look in App/Monster2 and see if the .dll in question is in that folder. If so, then it would seem the working directory is not being set properly. I'll look into it. Can you tell me more about your installation? Did you install to the default directory (X:\PortableApps\Monster2)? Are you using the menu?
[Edit] Wait, never mind, you'll get the errors when launching monster2-*.exe directly, how about running monster2.exe without my launcher? If that doesn't work I can't help because all I did was unzip the official package into App/Monster2, so it should work.
Quamquam omniam nescio, nec nihil scio.
Launching monster2.exe gives me the same issue, and the .dlls aren't in the App/Monster2 directory either. I am using the menu.
This sucks. lol I've really been looking forward to playing this.
What dll's are you missing that are coming up in the errors? Here's the list of all of the files that should be in App/Monster2:
+/x
alleg42.dll
bass.dll
d3dx9.dll
liba5_dialog-4.9.11.dll
liba5_font-4.9.11.dll
liba5_iio-4.9.11.dll
liba5_primitives-4.9.11.dll
liballegro-4.9.11.dll
libpng12.dll
LICENSE.txt
monster2.exe
README.txt
VERSION.txt
Quamquam omniam nescio, nec nihil scio.
Hey Trent, I have a question. Is monster2.exe JUST a launcher? It seems to me that all it does is give the user a choice of render methods and then runs the .exe the user chose and it's done. Is that really all it does? If so, I can just incorporate that functionality into my launcher and bypass monster2.exe entirely, which would negate the need for a custom build of monster2.exe in the future. How does that sound?
I'll post a screenshot of what it would look like when I get the chance.
Quamquam omniam nescio, nec nihil scio.
Ok, looks like I answered my own question, and the answer seems to be yes. And then I got all excited and actually finished it, so check out Dev Test 4. Or, if you already have Dev Test 3 and are tired of downloading a 40Mb installer every time, you can just use this. It only adds 20kb to the launcher, and completely bypasses monster2.exe, so you won't need to create a custom build for future versions.
Quamquam omniam nescio, nec nihil scio.
I will try it soon I promise, just really busy right now.
Fair enough. I just now am having some time myself after being busy pretty much since school got out so I totally understand.
Quamquam omniam nescio, nec nihil scio.
This version works pretty well but there is one small problem. Checking the "always remember the driver selection" check box doesn't work, i.e. I get the driver selection box again even if I checked it last time. Fix this small glitch and I'd say it's good to go!
Ok, I was trying to use your config_launch file, but I had to figure out how to use it on my own. Can you explain it for me? From what I can tell it's just a single byte, 255 meaning don't remember, and 1-3 being the 3 drivers (or maybe it's 0-2, don't remember off the top of my head...) Are there any other options other than that? If so, my launcher doesn't handle them and that might be the problem.
[Edit] I also have the launcher forget the saved driver if the program does not exit properly, so that if, say you have a driver option saved and you run it on a computer that has issues with that driver, the next time you run the program you can choose the driver again. Be sure the program is closing properly.
Quamquam omniam nescio, nec nihil scio.
That's correct and it's 0-2 not 1-3. I think the program was exiting cleanly.
Ok, yeah I knew it was 0-2, I just didn't have the code in front of me, so that's not the issue. Actually, I just tried it myself and now it's not working for me either. It must have been something I did just before I released it. I'll look into it.
[Update] Yup, it was a stupid relative path error, looking for launch_config in the wrong place and not finding it. Try this and if it works for you I'll post a new Dev Test.
Quamquam omniam nescio, nec nihil scio.
No change with the new Monster2Portable.exe.
Ugh... Ok, so that was in part due to the same issue as before, I just missed one of the lines where it occurred, and partly due to yet another change I made. Geez, I'm pretty sure it was working before I uploaded... oh well, this time I've looked over the whole code again and I think this should really do it.
Quamquam omniam nescio, nec nihil scio.
Great, this one works. Good job and how to see an official release soon!
Ok, I'll package it up this weekend into Dev Test 5. Good to hear that it's working
Quamquam omniam nescio, nec nihil scio.
Dev Test 5 is up. This is just the launcher I gave you packaged into a full installation.
Quamquam omniam nescio, nec nihil scio.
This is your winner. Everything works fine.
Ok, I know I need a few things before I can move forward towards pre-release/release status, but I'll get on that and try to get this out officially
The main thing I know I need is an html format help file. Do you have any help/readme/faq/etc documents or anything online that I can pull from? Otherwise I'll probably just do a generic one with info like the app's homepage and such.
...now to get the INI working...
Quamquam omniam nescio, nec nihil scio.
Here is the readme, it's not much but it's something:
Keys: Arrows - Move player and cursor Enter/Space - Action key Escape - Cancel/Menu key F1/F2 - Lower/Raise music volume (battle and area only) F3/F4 - Lower/Raise SFX volume (battle and area only) Visit us at: http://www.nooskewl.comok so far testing on my pc and my vm's of xp and vista, everything looks good the actual issue which really isn't a biggie is just getting the help.html page done, other than that I think this is ready for Pre-Release status
your friendly neighbourhood moderator Zach Thibeau
Ok, got the help file done, just waiting on John for the splash screen
Quamquam omniam nescio, nec nihil scio.
It's pre-release time:
https://portableapps.com/temp/Monster2Portable.jpg
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Hooray
Quamquam omniam nescio, nec nihil scio.