A couple of questions about OpenJK

[Cerez]

I'm coming from the latest Mac retail version of Jedi Academy, so please bear with me. This latest release has some enhancements over the older Mac version of Jedi Academy -- such as much better stability and wide-screen support -- but it is also lacking many of the original features, one of which is a major downer: absolutely no SP mod loading support (not even through the command line).

 

I've downloaded OpenJK and tried it out on a couple of computers (Linux Fedora and Windows 8), and I've come across a few peculiar things that I would love to get some answers to.

 

1. Wide-screen support: Does the current build of OpenJK support wide screen resolutions? On Windows 8 it seems to be doing a funny thing where it will sometimes switch the screen to 1024x768, and sometimes keep it the original size (1366 x 768), and move everything off to the left side of the screen. If I set r_customwidth, it doesn't seem to support it.

 

2. The mouse: If I hold down a key or two on the keyboard and try to look around with the mouse, it won't happen. The mouse gets jammed. This seems to be a consistent problem. Is this a bug? Is there a known fix/workaround for it?

 

3. Save files: I've transferred my save files across and tried to load them in OpenJK, and some of them loaded without a problem, but with others the game would drop me out with the following message: "Loaded chunk (LVLC) has different length than requested". What does this mean? Does OpenJK read and write save files differently than the retail versions of Jedi Academy?

 

4. A mess in Linux: Running the game on my 64-bit Fedora (Intel Graphics) machine, I came across some strange graphics glitches where entire parts of models or UI elements are missing or black. Would this be because of the Intel graphics card, or is something else the cause? I ran OpenJK with an Intel graphics card on Windows, and there I didn't seem to have this issue. I've installed the SDL2 package because without it the binaries would not run, but maybe it's not enough -- should I have installed the whole development package (SDL2-devel) instead?

[Apprentice]

As a user of OpenJK, my answers will be somewhat limited:

 

1) Yes. Open JK can start the game in any widescreen resolution where the original game did not (though it can be circumvented by starting in a 4:3 resolution and then switch to a 16:9/16:10 resolution). I have achieved it by adding the following into the autoexec.cfg file:

seta r_mode "-1"

seta r_customwidth "1680"

seta r_customheight "1050"

seta r_fullscreen "1"

seta r_customaspect "1"

seta cg_fov "90"

seta r_gamma 1.50

You may change the values where applicable to suit your screen.

 

2) Never experienced it. Did it happen on Windows or on Linux ??

 

3) Can't tell anything about that. I use OpenJK for development of MP maps only at this time.

 

4) I don't use Linux but I wouldn't be surprised if the issue was related to the Intel graphics chip. I've heard a lot about them and especially the lack of support that seems to be in existence in more dedicated graphics adapters.

[Cerez]

I have another funny problem… autoexec.cfg is not getting executed at launch! o.O

 

Where is yours located? I've tried placing mine into the base folder, and into the My Documents/Games/OpenJK/base, too.

[Apprentice]

Mine is located in the Base folder. Are you sure that your autoexec.cfg file isn't named autoexec.cfg.txt ??

[Cerez]

1) Yes. Open JK can start the game in any widescreen resolution where the original game did not (though it can be circumvented by starting in a 4:3 resolution and then switch to a 16:9/16:10 resolution). I have achieved it by adding the following into the autoexec.cfg file:

 

seta r_mode "-1"

seta r_customwidth "1680"

seta r_customheight "1050"

seta r_fullscreen "1"

seta r_customaspect "1"

 

You may change the values where applicable to suit your screen.

 

Thanks Apprentice! I forgot about r_mode "-1", and I didn't know about r_customaspect "1". That sheds a light on my ignorance and and answers point 1. After setting these values, not only did I get the custom resolution I wanted, but the strange "moving to the side" launching error stopped as well.

 

Mine is located in the Base folder. Are you sure that your autoexec.cfg file isn't named autoexec.cfg.txt ??

 

Yes, I'm sure. It's CFG, and it's not getting loaded. I've worked around this by manually loading the script with "exec autoexec", but I think this is an error in OpenJK. My Jedi Academy folder is moved from its original install location, so it could be that the path to the autoexec.cfg is not set relative in the programming.

 

2) Never experienced it. Did it happen on Windows or on Linux ??

 

This problem is consistent for me with OpenJK in Windows 8… And it affects gameplay, unfortunately…

[Xycaleth]

1) It depends what you mean by widescreen support. You can force OpenJK to use a widescreen resolution by setting r_mode to -1, and then setting your screen resolution using r_customwidth and r_customheight.  If you mean native widescreen support, where the UI elements are not stretched, then that's not supported.

 

2) Nobody's reported a bug like this before, so no, no known fix Does it happen when you run OpenJK in Windows? (I assume you had this problem in Fedora)

 

3) There are known problems with using retail Jedi Academy save files with OpenJK. It's on the todo list, but nobody at the moment is interested enough in tackling it.

 

4) Can you post a screenshot? This is likely to be an Intel graphics driver bug. Their Windows drivers are miles ahead of their Linux drivers so you should never expect something in Linux to work as well as it does in Windows. Hopefully we can get a better idea if it is a driver bug by the kinds of graphical glitches that can be seen in a screenshot. You might also want to try turning off texture compression as @@Raz0r had a problem with this when running OpenJK under Linux - set r_ext_compressed_textures to 0.

 

EDIT: One point I've just noticed about @@Apprentice's post: there is no such cvar called r_customaspect. I'm not sure where you got that from.

[ent]

Wth? , you could have widescreen image before openjk, jamp had been supporting it since the beginning with the commands that @Apprentice posted.

[Cerez]

1) It depends what you mean by widescreen support. You can force OpenJK to use a widescreen resolution by setting r_mode to -1, and then setting your screen resolution using r_customwidth and r_customheight.  If you mean native widescreen support, where the UI elements are not stretched, then that's not supported.

 

EDIT: One point I've just noticed about Apprentice's post: there is no such cvar called r_customaspect. I'm not sure where you got that from.

 

Thanks Xycaleth. I meant just wide-screen support in general (with UI stretched). It was my bad; I forgot about r_mode.

 

I can confirm that removing r_customaspect kept the settings intact, but it's curious that the game accepted this value and kept it in the config file as if it were a valid argument.

 

2) Nobody's reported a bug like this before, so no, no known fix Does it happen when you run OpenJK in Windows? (I assume you had this problem in Fedora)

 

3) There are known problems with using retail Jedi Academy save files with OpenJK. It's on the todo list, but nobody at the moment is interested enough in tackling it.

 

4) Can you post a screenshot? This is likely to be an Intel graphics driver bug. Their Windows drivers are miles ahead of their Linux drivers so you should never expect something in Linux to work as well as it does in Windows. Hopefully we can get a better idea if it is a driver bug by the kinds of graphical glitches that can be seen in a screenshot. You might also want to try turning off texture compression as @@Raz0r had a problem with this when running OpenJK under Linux - set r_ext_compressed_textures to 0.

 

2) That's strange because this is definitely a problem for me. I think it only happens on my Windows 8 platform. I'll try clearing out all the settings and see what becomes of it.

 

3) I see. Thanks for clearing that up, Xycaleth. So transferring save files should be done with caution at this stage.

 

4) I knew I should have taken a screenshot! I've already given up on trying to get it to work on my Linux computer. I'll see if I can set it up again, and take a screenie for the record. Somehow I get the feeling that it isn't the driver that's causing the problem. I'm not sure why…

 

And I'll try your suggestion.

 

Wth? , you could have widescreen image before openjk, jamp had been supporting it since the beginning with the commands that @Apprentice posted.

 

I know, I'm sorry… >.<' Please don't beat me for it… 

[Cerez]

2. The mouse: If I hold down a key or two on the keyboard and try to look around with the mouse, it won't happen. The mouse gets jammed. This seems to be a consistent problem. Is this a bug? Is there a known fix/workaround for it?

 

It turns out this has nothing to do with OpenJK. It's a bloody Windows 8 setting that's built deep into the core of the system! I had to dig into the registry and set the following values to zero: DisableWhenType_Enable, DisableWhenType_AllArea

 

Did I mention how I hate Windows? x.x

 

Regarding point 3, I've noticed that the autosaves seem to load without a problem, but the manual saves cause the illegal "Loaded chunk (LVLC) has different length than requested" response.

[eezstreet]

Protip: r_mode -2 will automatically set the resolution to use your native desktop resolution, no editing of r_customwidth or r_customheight needed. This value is specific to OpenJK and not in the retail game itself.

[Cerez]

Protip: r_mode -2 will automatically set the resolution to use your native desktop resolution, no editing of r_customwidth or r_customheight needed. This value is specific to OpenJK and not in the retail game itself.

 

A handy tip and a great idea! Thanks Eezstreet.

[Cerez]

Oh, I also wanted to ask, what are the OpenJK folder and its contents for? Are these DLLs automatically loaded by the binaries when the game is launched, or are they there for a special use?

[Cerez]

Here is the screenshot. My graphics card actually gets overloaded, so it may be a driver issue after all.

 

 

Unfortunately r_ext_compressed_textures did not fix it, Xycaleth.

[Xycaleth]

Oh, I also wanted to ask, what are the OpenJK folder and its contents for? Are these DLLs automatically loaded by the binaries when the game is launched, or are they there for a special use?

The OpenJK folder contains the 'mod' part of OpenJK, rather than the engine (which is a replacement for jamp.exe and jasp.exe). It's mainly a fixed up version of base and very little else.

 

Here is the screenshot. My graphics card actually gets overloaded, so it may be a driver issue after all.

 

 

Unfortunately r_ext_compressed_textures did not fix it, Xycaleth.

That looks pretty bad lol. I'd still lean towards it being a driver issue. Like I said, the Windows and Linux Intel drivers aren't comparable in being up to date, or quality.

[Cerez]

The OpenJK folder contains the 'mod' part of OpenJK, rather than the engine (which is a replacement for jamp.exe and jasp.exe). It's mainly a fixed up version of base and very little else.

 

Why are these files not in base? Can they be moved? I'd like to hide the OpenJK folder from the mod list somehow, since it isn't a conversion mod, and it makes little sense for it to be showing up there.

[Cerez]

That looks pretty bad lol. I'd still lean towards it being a driver issue. Like I said, the Windows and Linux Intel drivers aren't comparable in being up to date, or quality.

 

For reference, the graphics card in my Sony Vaio Linux laptop is: Mobile Intel GM45 Express Chipset

 

Gnome doesn't seem to have a problem with the graphics driver, so I guess this is a compatibility issue between this graphics card and JKA, then?

[Xycaleth]

Why are these files not in base? Can they be moved? I'd like to hide the OpenJK folder from the mod list somehow, since it isn't a conversion mod, and it makes little sense for it to be showing up there.

They would override the base files, which not everyone would want. It'll also prevent you from connecting to base servers which have the pure setting enabled.

 

For reference, the graphics card in my Sony Vaio Linux laptop is: Mobile Intel GM45 Express Chipset

 

Gnome doesn't seem to have a problem with the graphics driver, so I guess this is a compatibility issue between this graphics card and JKA, then?

Graphics drivers are tricky things. It can work in some cases, but if you use it in ways which wasn't tested very well then you can get bizarre looking problems like in your screenshot. It's very rarely a problem with the chip/card itself. You would get even worse artifacts than what you see if it was the chip (something like this http://forums.techguy.org/attachments/153841d1248621800/corrupt-display.jpg)

[Apprentice]

Protip: r_mode -2 will automatically set the resolution to use your native desktop resolution, no editing of r_customwidth or r_customheight needed. This value is specific to OpenJK and not in the retail game itself.

... and NOW he tells me . . . :wacko:

[ensiform]

... and NOW he tells me . . . :wacko:

https://github.com/JACoders/OpenJK/blob/master/CHANGELOG.txt#L18

[Cerez]

They would override the base files, which not everyone would want. It'll also prevent you from connecting to base servers which have the pure setting enabled.

 

Graphics drivers are tricky things. It can work in some cases, but if you use it in ways which wasn't tested very well then you can get bizarre looking problems like in your screenshot. It's very rarely a problem with the chip/card itself. You would get even worse artifacts than what you see if it was the chip (something like this http://forums.techguy.org/attachments/153841d1248621800/corrupt-display.jpg)

 

So, then the OpenJK folder is loaded by the user if they want to play an OpenJK based game? I guess in a practical sense this works much like japlus and MBII, right? Is there a way to tell if a server is running OpenJK and not the retail game in the server list?

 

I'm ready to give up with trying to make it work on my Linux computer. It's a great little laptop, but it just can't handle games. If someone reading this has a similar problem and they are desperately trying to make it work, I suppose the thing to do would be to install a different driver for the 3D graphics card, and see if that driver handles the game's visual effects better.

 

EDIT: Also, this is purely for cosmetic reasons, but is there any way to hide a mod/folder from the SP mod loading list?

[ensiform]

The OpenJK folder is the openjk version of the gamecode (MP).  Same as any other mod.  However... for singleplayer you must have the OpenJK folder with jagameARCH.extension (jagamex86.dll).  We don't load the original one that sits in GameData for SP because it crashes.

 

Frankly, some cheap laptops just aren't meant for games.  Even older ones since they have poor OpenGL driver specs.