Aleph One (0.17 / 2006-12-02)

Important notes

This release is incompatible with the previous release of Aleph One for net play.
Mac OS X users, the default build is now the Mac OS X (SDL) build. Since SDL uses a different prefs file, you will need to re-setup your prefs. Some frequently asked questions about Mac OS X (SDL)
Mac OS X (NIBs) is still available, but 0.17 will be the last release of Mac OS X (NIBs).
Please report any bugs you find at our website. Go to http://marathon.sourceforge.net and click on Bugs.

What's new?

Features

There is an experimental Classic Mac OS build available. Read about it here.
The scroll wheel changes weapons in SDL builds
If Aleph One asserts out, it will finish saving the current film. Start Aleph One back up, save last film, and post it with a bug report to sourceforge
Added new anti-OOS and anti-lag code. Read about the latter here.
SDL builds can play back MPEG-1 movies
SDL builds no longer minimize when you tab out. They release mouse control and stop updating the display; simply click to regain mouse control
The "Find Internet Game" lobby makes noise when someone says something, or when someone gathers a game. Enable "Interface Button Sounds" in prefs to hear them.
The approximate ping time to the gatherer is displayed in the FPS display
Gatherers can type .ping in the network chat to toggle a display of joiners' pings in the HUD
Maps / physics / netscript are sent to everyone in parallel, rather than sequentially. This should improve map transmission speed
Lua functions: (get/set)_polygon_media
Aleph One SDL uses vsync now when OpenGL is enabled
A crude tab implementation for SDL
Allow configuring where second weapons are rendered in the HUD (see MML.html)
Linux uses the first unrecognized arg as the default data directory
Mac OS X (SDL) and Windows now support drag-and-drop of (unzipped) Unimap scenario folders
Add a progress bar to the SDL OpenGL loading progress dialog
OpenGL load screen progress bar fills more smoothly
Mac OS X (SDL) recognizes command-option as cheat level selector
Added a "fill the screen" option to SDL builds. If it is off, Aleph One will use the desktop resolution.
Reduced the amount of upload bandwidth Aleph One requires for hosting games. It should now be possible to gather a 7 or 8 player game on a 256 kilobit/sec upload connection, even with strict anti-lag enabled.
Aleph One will now attempt to prevent joining incompatible scenarios on the metaserver. This feature relies on having up-to-date scenario MML installed, since Aleph One can not tell from the old data files alone which scenario is being used. If you don't have scenario MML installed, we will upload MML for some common scenarios to lhowon.org
Joiners are now marked "in game" when playing via the "Find Internet Games", rather than being removed from the room
Block an annoying Mariusnet easter egg, and auto-ignore anybody named "Bacon"
Added an ".ignore" command, which adds/removes people from the ignore list (or lists who is on the ignore list when called by itself). Also, clicking (double-clicking in NIBs) on a user in the Find Internet Games UI ignores or un-ignores them
Lua: add get_monster_visible
Both Mac OS X builds save their logs to ~/Library/Logs now
Added Lua get_game_type
Players in the "Find Internet Games" lobby are sorted alphabetically, and in-game players are moved to the bottom of the list
Gatherers are now marked as away when advertising their game on the Internet, rather than being removed from the room, with the away message indicating how many players started the game. For example, in a 4 player game, the away message would read "4p host"
The non-Bungie map and physics warnings have been removed

Bug Fixes

Removed alt-C as a quit command, since the default keys have alt as a trigger and C as look down!
SDL won't crash if sound is disabled and startup music is present
Correct lighting is restored after weapon flash
It is possible to resume games saved with the overhead map active in OpenGL mode
The level selector cheat should display all levels now
OS X (SDL) can choose map files above . in gather network game
Fixed a bad memory leak with built-in shapes in OpenGL
Fixed rendering of sprite when Z-buffer is active, and enabled it by default
Fixed assertion problem with monsters that have symmetrical attacks
Trying to play a sound that doesn't exist no longer asserts out
Clear out the screen messages (prints and Lua HUD) when respawning from a save game
Fix some instances where the HUD frame wasn't rendered
Fix flickering player name in OpenGL HUD
Chat windows don't scroll to the bottom when new messages are received if they're not already scrolled to the bottom
FIG join/leave messages appear when joining games
OS X (SDL): Fix a bug with MacBinary files that also contain a resources fork (for example, Rubicon X)
Clear the screen before displaying the "Loading..." dialog
Fixed 8-bit sound playback in SDL
Loading screens and terminals are now rendered as a series of small tiles. This should fix rendering on video cards with low maximum texture sizes (such as rage pro, voodoo 2)
Change SDL intro screen timing to match old Marathon timing
Fix OpenGL loading progress bar calculation
Fix seams in tiled load screens
Add new physics reset code, finally fixing long-standing physics bugs with SMG and sticky physics in net games. No more restarting after Carnage Soccer!
Do SDL sound pitch calculations like Marathon 2 did; double/triple rechargers and the loon in Route 66 should now sound correct
Fix monsters/control panel states being invalid in Lua init() when switchin levels
Reorder replacement textures so that specific-CLUT replacements are found before all-CLUTs replacements, no matter what order they are loaded in
Lua activate_monster and deactivate_monster now work
Double wide terminal PICTs, created by the detestable cinemascope hack, now work in SDL builds

"Anti-lag"

This build of Aleph One comes with a new feature, called "anti-lag." The old Aleph One didn't handle laggy players very well; one laggy player could cause the game to go in fits and starts for the rest. The new "anti-lag" code makes that one laggy player's game a little more jittery, but makes everything nice and smooth for the rest of the players.

In the "Other Stuff" tab of the setup network game dialog, there are three settings for "anti-lag." The default is "lenient;" this should keep the game moving along nicely while not penalizing laggy joiners too much. There is also "strict," which is for gatherers who want really smooth games, and "off," which is the old Aleph One behavior.

If Aleph One seems more jittery to you when you join games than it was, it is likely that the gatherer has this feature enabled. Try to find a gatherer closer to you, or a better ISP ;)

Mac OS X (SDL) FAQ

After much deliberation, we've decided to make the SDL build of Aleph One for OS X the default. Here are some questions you may have regarding the transition:

Why did you switch?: We switched because NIBs is so full of old code, and would be difficult to universalize for Intel Macs. Dropping NIBs will let us remove more than 25% of the code from Aleph One, which will make it leaner, easier to maintain, and less buggy. It will also make the interface more consistent, so people switching from platform to platform will know where everything is.
Command tab doesn't work!: Press command-enter to go into windowed mode, then command-tab to switch to another application
My mouse button doesn't work!: You can assign the mouse buttons to keys in the key prefs dialog. Just click on the action you want to assign a button to, and then click the button you want to use. For example, click on "Primary Trigger", then click your left mouse button.
Why is the interface just ugly text with no graphics?: Because you don't have a theme selected. Go into your environment prefs and choose a theme
I don't like the default theme. Are there others?: Right now there are a couple old ones on our sourceforge files page. You can install them by putting them in a "Themes" folder beside your Aleph One application.
Where are my prefs / saved games / films?: Mac OS X (SDL) stores stuff in ~/Application Support/AlephOne