Dev. Journal: squeek. (2014-10-17)

FF_Team · 10-18-2014, 03:43 AM

Uhh... hello?

So, what has happened in the last year? Well, unfortunately, not a whole lot.

When FF was first Greenlit, we thought it would be best (and also thought it was required of us) to upgrade FF to the latest version of the Source engine. We started work on that, but our enthusiasm faded fairly quickly; porting FF requires a lot of work, and our goal was to fix/improve things as we upgraded. You can gain some insight into what we wanted to do by visiting our never-made-public website about the upgrade. Note also that we'll be open sourcing this upgrade attempt, although it is still in the very early stages.

After development stalled on the port, we weren't really sure what to do. There were talks of waiting for the Source 2 engine or potentially moving to a different engine entirely, but that never really ended up going anywhere.

Since then, there's been a whole lot of nothing. I basically became a hermit and hid away from the forums/IRC/Steam/etc. I didn't think it was possible to release on Steam without doing some sort of engine upgrade, and 'ffded' was becoming a legitimate reality. It's very fortunate that Neotokyo has been able to pave the way with regards to releasing a Source SDK 2006 mod on Steam, as this period of inactivity may have just continued indefinitely without that knowledge (big thanks to KubeDawg for pointing out Neotokyo's Steam release).

On another note, I'm not quite certain what my future with Fortress Forever will entail. I've been working on this mod for 6 years now, and my enthusiasm has (clearly) been waning. However, I'm very curious to see what will come of the Steam release, and, who knows, maybe I'll get a second wind. There were a lot of experimental changes that we tried at one point or another in the closed beta that never made it into a release, and with the public beta that Steam distribution will allow us to run, it might be fun to revisit some of those ideas and get some more feedback on them.

That's about it. Just wanted to try to give everyone some info about what went on during this rather strange period of FF's development.

**squeek.** · 10-18-2014, 03:45 AM

See this news post for some context if you happened to miss it.

FDA_Approved · 10-18-2014, 04:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FF_Team

Uhh... hello?

10/10

KubeDawg · 10-18-2014, 05:23 AM

ffnotded

XPelargos · 10-18-2014, 11:09 PM

Now just give us the scout movement gun from FF Beta and all will be well.

XPelargos · 10-18-2014, 11:16 PM

But could you go into detail how you managed to tweak the 2006 binary like Neotokyo? You seemed to clear that up in barely a week. Was it a really simple fix?

**squeek.** · 10-18-2014, 11:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XPelargos

But could you go into detail how you managed to tweak the 2006 binary like Neotokyo? You seemed to clear that up in barely a week. Was it a really simple fix?

It's a matter of file structure. I really haven't looked into why Neotokyo's format works, but the differences to what we tried are:

hl2.exe in the root folder; we had it in an 'sdk' folder (which worked for the 2013 SDK)
steam_appid.txt with our appid inside in the root folder
our appid in gameinfo.txt
SDK files extracted from the Source SDK Base 2006 vpks into the root folder; we had them extracted into an 'sdk' folder (which worked for the 2013 SDK)

This allows us to run "hl2.exe -game FortressForever" and it just works.

aleXtric · 10-22-2014, 11:13 PM

ff_kickball release next dev journal?

FDA_Approved · 10-22-2014, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aleXtric

ff_kickball

10/10

Headz · 10-23-2014, 12:14 AM

Very surprised after we got greenlit that your contact/s did not advise how to proceed for steam compatibility.

Seems like a huge break down in communication with ff and most likely other mods that got greenlit also.

After it is on steam and on news of source2 sdk is available hopefully there will be a clear guide on file structure.

I agree, very little point in all the hassle to make it work on sdk2013 for very little gain in terms of graphics, but source2 engine if it is a great one would be a huge incentive for devs to jump on board and get excited about.

I just hope it takes advantage of 4/6 core cpu's and system ram, rather than forcing vram to do everything etc blah blah.

Anyways very good news indeed

WiFiDi · 10-24-2014, 12:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KubeDawg

ffnotded

not yet anyways it lives another day!

WiFiDi · 10-27-2014, 01:37 AM

guys you should put this update on steam and moddb so people know the game isn't dead and is coming to steam.

**squeek.** · 10-27-2014, 02:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WiFiDi

guys you should put this update on steam and moddb so people know the game isn't dead and is coming to steam.

You should check Steam and ModDB.

WiFiDi · 10-27-2014, 09:57 PM

it didn't show up on the main page maybe it got pushed back by the time i checked

and steam im lazy so i didn't check it.

10-18-2014, 03:43 AM	#1
FF_Team Fortress Forever Staff Join Date: Nov 1999 Posts Rated Helpful 71 Times	Dev. Journal: squeek. (2014-10-17) Uhh... hello? So, what has happened in the last year? Well, unfortunately, not a whole lot. When FF was first Greenlit, we thought it would be best (and also thought it was required of us) to upgrade FF to the latest version of the Source engine. We started work on that, but our enthusiasm faded fairly quickly; porting FF requires a lot of work, and our goal was to fix/improve things as we upgraded. You can gain some insight into what we wanted to do by visiting our never-made-public website about the upgrade. Note also that we'll be open sourcing this upgrade attempt, although it is still in the very early stages. After development stalled on the port, we weren't really sure what to do. There were talks of waiting for the Source 2 engine or potentially moving to a different engine entirely, but that never really ended up going anywhere. Since then, there's been a whole lot of nothing. I basically became a hermit and hid away from the forums/IRC/Steam/etc. I didn't think it was possible to release on Steam without doing some sort of engine upgrade, and 'ffded' was becoming a legitimate reality. It's very fortunate that Neotokyo has been able to pave the way with regards to releasing a Source SDK 2006 mod on Steam, as this period of inactivity may have just continued indefinitely without that knowledge (big thanks to KubeDawg for pointing out Neotokyo's Steam release). On another note, I'm not quite certain what my future with Fortress Forever will entail. I've been working on this mod for 6 years now, and my enthusiasm has (clearly) been waning. However, I'm very curious to see what will come of the Steam release, and, who knows, maybe I'll get a second wind. There were a lot of experimental changes that we tried at one point or another in the closed beta that never made it into a release, and with the public beta that Steam distribution will allow us to run, it might be fun to revisit some of those ideas and get some more feedback on them. That's about it. Just wanted to try to give everyone some info about what went on during this rather strange period of FF's development.
	6 members found this post helpful.

10-18-2014, 03:45 AM	#2
squeek. Stuff Do-er Lua Team Wiki Team Fortress Forever Staff Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Northern California Class/Position: Rallygun Shooter Gametype: Conc tag (you just wait) Affiliations: Mustache Brigade Posts Rated Helpful 352 Times	See this news post for some context if you happened to miss it. __________________ #FF.Pickup ¤ Fortress-Forever pickups My Non-official Maps Released FF_DM_Squeek - FF_2Mesa3_Classic - FF_Siege_Classic Beta FF_Myth - FF_Redlight_Greenlight Sick of the people on the internet, always moanin'. They just moan. - Karl Pilkington
	2 members found this post helpful.

10-18-2014, 05:23 AM	#4
KubeDawg Nade Whore Server Owner Beta Tester Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Oklahoma Class/Position: Scout/Soldier Gametype: CTF/TDM Affiliations: blunt. Moto Posts Rated Helpful 128 Times	ffnotded __________________ Moto's Funhouse \| Dallas, TX - 74.91.114.247:27015 ff_plunder - Complete Last edited by KubeDawg; 10-18-2014 at 05:23 AM.

10-22-2014, 11:13 PM	#8
aleXtric #FF.Pickup Dictator Beta Tester Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Detroit Gametype: ADL Affiliations: KiNGz . Posts Rated Helpful 100 Times	ff_kickball release next dev journal? __________________ !add #FF.Pickup - Quakenet http://www.ffpickup.com/?p=irc

10-23-2014, 12:14 AM	#10
Headz Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: England Posts Rated Helpful 81 Times	Very surprised after we got greenlit that your contact/s did not advise how to proceed for steam compatibility. Seems like a huge break down in communication with ff and most likely other mods that got greenlit also. After it is on steam and on news of source2 sdk is available hopefully there will be a clear guide on file structure. I agree, very little point in all the hassle to make it work on sdk2013 for very little gain in terms of graphics, but source2 engine if it is a great one would be a huge incentive for devs to jump on board and get excited about. I just hope it takes advantage of 4/6 core cpu's and system ram, rather than forcing vram to do everything etc blah blah. Anyways very good news indeed __________________ Compile error: Leaf portal saw into Cluster Phuck Last edited by Headz; 10-23-2014 at 12:15 AM.

10-18-2014, 11:09 PM	#5
XPelargos I like to spam binds Beta Tester Join Date: May 2009 Class/Position: Scoooooot Gametype: Capture the Flag Posts Rated Helpful 73 Times	Now just give us the scout movement gun from FF Beta and all will be well.

10-18-2014, 11:16 PM	#6
XPelargos I like to spam binds Beta Tester Join Date: May 2009 Class/Position: Scoooooot Gametype: Capture the Flag Posts Rated Helpful 73 Times	But could you go into detail how you managed to tweak the 2006 binary like Neotokyo? You seemed to clear that up in barely a week. Was it a really simple fix?

10-27-2014, 01:37 AM	#12
WiFiDi Beta Tester Join Date: May 2010 Class/Position: Soldier Gametype: Capture the Flag is there any other Posts Rated Helpful 26 Times	guys you should put this update on steam and moddb so people know the game isn't dead and is coming to steam. __________________ WiFi's Stream Support FF: Failure is always an option. It's a happy massacre?! (yes, yes it is!) To make most awesome thing in universe combine Bears and Nicholas Cage! and remember kids, we didn't start the flame-war!

10-27-2014, 09:57 PM	#14
WiFiDi Beta Tester Join Date: May 2010 Class/Position: Soldier Gametype: Capture the Flag is there any other Posts Rated Helpful 26 Times	it didn't show up on the main page maybe it got pushed back by the time i checked and steam im lazy so i didn't check it. __________________ WiFi's Stream Support FF: Failure is always an option. It's a happy massacre?! (yes, yes it is!) To make most awesome thing in universe combine Bears and Nicholas Cage! and remember kids, we didn't start the flame-war! Last edited by WiFiDi; 10-27-2014 at 09:59 PM.

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