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Author Topic: Hello all, and a little question.  (Read 545 times)

Elijah

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Hello all, and a little question.
« on: February 12, 2010, 10:26:13 am »
Hello.
I've been playing this game for just a couple of weeks, as all my tries before have just gone "Oh my god, I can't understand a think" and I stopped. Thanks to a graphical set I've been able to understand the basics of the game, and I just can't fully understand how huge it is.

Anyway I've never posted anything on the forum, and only yesterday I've seen how fantasticaly huge the community is (831 posts on the development thread)

So I just wanted to join the community, and as I'm here, I have a little question.
I've been playing for this time with the 40d version in the homepage and the wiki, but I've seen that there's another version 40d16...Which one should I play? Is there a reason why the homepage isn't updated (Like the 40d16 isn't stable) or just for a lack of time?

Thanks, and again, Hello everyone!
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Loyal

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Re: Hello all, and a little question.
« Reply #1 on: February 12, 2010, 10:43:22 am »
40d16 seems to run faster than d8 or whichever one's on the main website. From what I've seen of it there's nothing in particular to call its stability into question.
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Demonic Spoon

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Re: Hello all, and a little question.
« Reply #2 on: February 12, 2010, 10:45:32 am »
Objection, it does have some stability issues. the d# series tries to make the game run faster by playing around with OpenGL or something. Unless you're having speed problems just use the normal one.
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bluea

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Re: Hello all, and a little question.
« Reply #3 on: February 12, 2010, 10:48:57 am »
The 'd' series is fundamentally the same underlying bits - Toady and Baugn are converting the engine that actually draws the pieces to something that is faster.

So d16 (or d17, whatever) is faster, but basically identical. Um - and buggier.

The d series is -not- the next release, and doesn't have piles of new fun stuff. There -is- a new release coming "soon." I wouldn't worry about converting to the d series.
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3

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Re: Hello all, and a little question.
« Reply #4 on: February 12, 2010, 10:52:27 am »
Quote from: Demonic Spoon
Objection, it does have some stability issues. the d# series tries to make the game run faster by playing around with OpenGL or something. Unless you're having speed problems just use the normal one.

The validity of the above generally depends on whether or not your computer has issues with OpenGL - providing you're on Windows, you should see an improvement in performance so long as you have a somewhat modern graphics card and updated drivers. There's very little I've noticed wrong with d16's input.

Conversely, the just-released build, 40d17, is rather buggy at the second (not to mention slower than d16 on cards with good driver support) but also has a 2D graphics mode in case you're using an OS for which updated drivers are unavailable.
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Elijah

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Re: Hello all, and a little question.
« Reply #5 on: February 12, 2010, 11:00:47 am »
Uhm...How can I check if opengl has issue with my computer? What does OpenGl interfere with, what is connected to, and most importantly, what OpenGl is and does?
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gtmattz

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Re: Hello all, and a little question.
« Reply #6 on: February 12, 2010, 11:08:34 am »
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Quote from: Hyndis
Just try it! Its not like you die IRL if Urist McMiner falls into magma.

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Re: Hello all, and a little question.
« Reply #7 on: February 12, 2010, 11:09:37 am »
In simple terms: OpenGL as opposed to DirectX/Direct3D.

The simplest way of doing things is to download 40d16 and see if it works. If it does, it's likely going to be faster.
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Elijah

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Re: Hello all, and a little question.
« Reply #8 on: February 12, 2010, 12:20:51 pm »
Yes it works. Well thanks. I can't notice any speed change, but probably it's going to be seen as the fort becomes larger!
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Kav

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Re: Hello all, and a little question.
« Reply #9 on: February 12, 2010, 04:55:20 pm »
If you ask me the best features of d16 are the "on the fly resizing" so I can maximize and restore the window and the game resizes the window appropriately; and the ability to zoom in and out with the mouse wheel (F12 restores).
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