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Steel Beasts Gold Graphics Glitch


CptHrki

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Hey, so I managed to get SB1 version 1.226 working on Windows 10 using DXWnd and it actually works completely fine except an annoying texture anomaly - all objects' textures are garbled, screenshots included.

 

Everything else like the terrain, effects, trees, water, UI etc. looks perfectly fine and functional.

 

I know SB Pro PE is much better in every way but I can't buy it since I don't own a credit card, SB1 is an amazing game regardless. I couldn't find a single example of this specific problem online though so I came here hoping someone knows what's up. I've seen some people run this game fine with DXWnd so some of you must be able to help? Thanks in advance and thank you eSim for this amazing series of games!

 

P.S. all the textures in the models folder in the game files look completely normal and I tried reinstalling, so the problem must be somewhere in the rendering...

 

EDIT: I forgot this is also my first post here so I hope I'm welcome, I've played various simulations over the years, mostly tanks and aircraft and I have to say SB looks like just about the best simulator there is when it comes to modern armor.

 

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Edited by CptHrki
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I wouldn't be surprised if it was a graphics driver issue. A good while ago most drivers stopped supporting 8 bit color palette modes.

In any case, we can no longer render official tech support for Steel Beasts 1. The product was discontinued 15 years ago, I'm sorry.

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Late reply but I managed to get it normal with some DgVoodoo Direct3D hooks :)

 

I'm honestly surprised it runs normal without a VM but everything is possible I guess. 

 

I know you can't exactly provide tech support for a 20 year old game, I just thought someone like Rotar might know what's up considering he has some videos of SB1 online.

 

Thanks anyway though, having fun already!

 

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On 9/10/2019 at 12:53 AM, Rotareneg said:

The only way I was ever able to get SB1 running 100% reliably was via running WinXP in VirtualBox. I hadn't had much luck with dgvoodoo either.

Well I must be lucky then, mine is working fine aside from a minor text color issue. It's no looker and quite hard but damn is it fun. The details are quite insane for 2000

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On 9/9/2019 at 4:37 PM, Ssnake said:

I wouldn't be surprised if it was a graphics driver issue. A good while ago most drivers stopped supporting 8 bit color palette modes.

In any case, we can no longer render official tech support for Steel Beasts 1. The product was discontinued 15 years ago, I'm sorry.

3absye.jpg.1b0cae93491ca07b4bc49de3045d2796.jpg

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16 hours ago, Ssnake said:

Because it's mine and I can keep it.

🙄

Of course it's yours and of course you can.  Nobody wants eSim to lose out on any of the future profit there is to be made from selling copies of Steel Beasts Gold.

At this point, however, it's almost abandonware.  5-10 years down the road, having the whole package, source code included, would make it an interesting look back at PC sim history.

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Some source code is probably still being used in SB 4.1

Trade Secrets dear boy.

 

Be nice if as a hobby project (M60) could patch it to work on modern windows and do a limited re release on its 25 year anniversary.

Just an idea :)

 

Is there an ISO disc image floating around for those wanting to indugle in nostalgia?

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16 hours ago, Maj.Hans said:

... Steel Beasts Gold.

At this point, however, it's almost abandonware.

The whole word "abandonware" is a creation of people with no respect for the law. I'm sorry to say it, there is no such thing as "abandonware". Just because a company no longer exists or because a title is no longer being sold doesn't make it okay to copy the software. It's still illegal software piracy. Your chances of being persecuted for it may be lower but that doesn't mean that the software is somehow turning into public domain, that the End-user license agreement is suddenly becoming obsolete. The EULA has no clause to become invalid after X years and be substituted by something else. 

"Abandonware" doesn't exist. It's a myth created by people with an active interest that there were such a thing.

 

Like books that are out of print, if the author is still alive you can't just print new runs of a book (even if you were to hand it out for free). You can't use the story without major alterations, you can use character names, locations (unless they are real places).

Why are we seeing a Sherlock Holmes revival since about 10 years? Because Mr Conan Doyle died in 1930, so "Sherlock Holmes" as a character, "Baker Street 221B", and his original stories fell into the public domain no earlier than 2001. There's now multiple TV series and movies, all of which had to wait until then, or pay license fees to Conan Doyle's children and grandkids.

 

There is no legal or moral basis for a release of original source code.

 

Copyright is not a duty to provide the public with copies. eSim Games has freely made the decision to stop producing more copies of the original Steel Beasts for reasons that we aren't obliged to explain. eSim Games as the copyright owner of the original Steel Beasts is the sole source to decide what happens with it. If we were to by a landfill in the desert and dump a million unsold copies there, we could. MAYBE it would then be legal for others to dig through the landfill until they find the Steel Beasts layer (a few meters above the legendary Atari "E.T." layer), but that would be an entirely different legal matter.

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I'll agree with Ssnake on the abandonware topic. Of course it's not legally okay to copy old games, especially if a company is still active.

 

And of course eSim doesn't have any obligation to publish the source code of their own product.  That said, it would be quite a nice gesture to the small community aswell as an interesting experiment to see how much modders could improve it.

 

Or make a small remaster with improved effects or something for the anniversary :)

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Old school sim systems inc.*

Brutal Doom (so much more functinality than vanilla Doom) as the infantry side (Like VBS 3)

SB1 as the Armour side

C&C95 as the Map interface

 

Simmer on a low heat for 2 years

Wonderfully retro graphical simulation bonanza

 

*Not a made up name.

 

One thing about SB 1

Guarenteed 60 FPS on any system post 2005 :P

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If your understanding of morality effectively supports a dispossession of eSim Games' intellectual property for no other reason than to satisfy your curiosity then, yes, "productive" discussion can't be had. I'm willing to compromise in many areas. This is not one of them. On the point of releasing the source code we will not yield.

 

 

Frankly, the mere suggestion that we're "morally obliged" to hand over our creation is quite the hot button. I can't even fathom what kind of logic would come to such a conclusion; it's not as if we're trying to balance conflicting rights where the release of the source code could heal a terminally ill child or eliminate world hunger. Yes. Maybe it's best to end it right hare.

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Well, we are in a fairly selfish period of society when it comes to gaming.  Every gamer thinks their pet feature is the absolute most important feature to be added without any consideration of the developer's desires or needs.  I see the "abandonware" discussion as exactly the same.  The player has no consideration that parts of SB1 might still be in SB 4.0.  As long as they can satisfy some weird need to see under the hood, they don't care about the implications to the dev's business or rights.  Its all about me.

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11 hours ago, Ssnake said:

If your understanding of morality effectively supports a dispossession of eSim Games' intellectual property for no other reason than to satisfy your curiosity then, yes, "productive" discussion can't be had. I'm willing to compromise in many areas. This is not one of them. On the point of releasing the source code we will not yield. 

I did not say that.

 

11 hours ago, Ssnake said:

Frankly, the mere suggestion that we're "morally obliged" to hand over our creation is quite the hot button. I can't even fathom what kind of logic would come to such a conclusion; it's not as if we're trying to balance conflicting rights where the release of the source code could heal a terminally ill child or eliminate world hunger.

I did not say that either.

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20 hours ago, thewood said:

Well, we are in a fairly selfish period of society when it comes to gaming.  Every gamer thinks their pet feature is the absolute most important feature to be added without any consideration of the developer's desires or needs.  I see the "abandonware" discussion as exactly the same.  The player has no consideration that parts of SB1 might still be in SB 4.0.  As long as they can satisfy some weird need to see under the hood, they don't care about the implications to the dev's business or rights.  Its all about me.

I dont see how you arrive at that, from this;

 

On 9/13/2019 at 6:50 AM, Maj.Hans said:

Of course it's yours and of course you can.  Nobody wants eSim to lose out on any of the future profit there is to be made from selling copies of Steel Beasts Gold.

At this point, however, it's almost abandonware.  5-10 years down the road, having the whole package, source code included, would make it an interesting look back at PC sim history.

 

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