EE2, EE2X - Empire Earth II - Unofficial Patch 1.6 (2014+)

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Re: EE2, EE2X - Empire Earth II - Unofficial Patch 1.5 (2014+)

Post by Dr.MonaLisa »

Optional Minor update 157015 has been released!
Most important changes:
- Added a workaround for a problem where "PrtScn" hotkey doesn't work when "AntiAliasing in DirectX 9" is enabled, so players can't take screenshots:
* EE2 & EE2: AOS now use an additional hotkeys for screenshots - "Scroll Lock" hotkey. The old hotkey - "PrtScn" is still active.
* UP1.5 Settings has a new option called: "PrtScn Fix". When it's active, the UP1.5 Launcher detects for "PrtScn" press, and simulates the "Scroll Lock" hotkey press, so the game takes a screenshot the same way as before.
* This bug couldn't be fixed using any other method, because it's Windows disabling this key, probably thinking that taking a screenshot with antialiasing wouldn't work (but it works in EE2).

If you have got UP1.5.5+, you can update by clicking: empireearth2://FunctionMinorVersionInstall
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Dr.MonaLisa
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Re: EE2, EE2X - Empire Earth II - Unofficial Patch 1.5 (2014+)

Post by Dr.MonaLisa »

Minor update 157016 has been released!
Most important changes:
- Added a totally new climate - Tundra, with:
* New terrain textures, ambient colors and Sun directions.
* New animals - domestic (Rabbits) and predator (Bears).
* New Tundra ambient sounds, including: rain, snow, wind, sea, sea animals, forest, forest animals, etc.
* New forests (using Arctic trees from Loew's Ambient Pack). Currently they are winter-only textures, even during the short Tundra Summer season (it's still better than using old trees from Temperate climate). We're aware of it, and please don't report it as a "bug".
* Special thanks for cooperative work on Tundra climate for: Dr.MonaLisa, Loewenherz and Gonzalo. Forum discussion link: viewtopic.php?f=54&t=5256
- Nights are not longer too-dark (in all climates). Restored Sun directions from the official version of the game, but kept the 1.5 ambient colors. It makes Nights playable again, with clear vision. Hopefully players won't be afraid to use the "Cycle Time of Day" feature anymore.
- Updated scenario: "e24ever - Zombie Land-Chapter one.scn" to prevent displaying "unable to find unit named..." script errors. Thanks for report to player "ByzantineEmpire".

If you have got UP1.5.5+, you can update by clicking: empireearth2://FunctionMinorVersionInstall
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Re: EE2, EE2X - Empire Earth II - Unofficial Patch 1.5 (2014+)

Post by Dr.MonaLisa »

Minor update 157017 has been released!
Most important changes:
- Hotfix update for Tundra climate:
* Fixed an Unhandled Exception game crash when "Settings" -> "Video" -> "Terrain Detail" was set to "Low" or "Medium" (Tundra required "High" to work).
* Improved under-building textures during the long Tundra Winter, changed on-ground snow intensivity and improved few other things.
* Increased the volume of Tundra ambient audio (war sounds, especially explosions were muffling the climate).

If you have got UP1.5.5+, you can update by clicking: empireearth2://FunctionMinorVersionInstall
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Re: EE2, EE2X - Empire Earth II - Unofficial Patch 1.5 (2014+)

Post by Dr.MonaLisa »

Minor update 157018 has been released!
Most important changes:
- Tundra climate improvements:
* Fixed a bug where forests could be generated on mountains in the Tundra climate.
* Changed the Rabbit (animal) model to the high-quality one with working animations. Thanks to Gonzalo for providing files.
* Changed food from Rabbits from Low to Medium, due to balance differences between climates that could negatively affect multiplayer matches.
- Restored wheat farms on EE2: AOS (disabled in version 1.5.4 due to a bug that made the whole game "alight"). Thanks to Loewenherz for detecting the root cause of this issue and for preparing fixed models/textures.
- Integrated Loew's "Tint fix for Terrain" in UP1.5. Details: viewtopic.php?f=54&t=5089

If you have got UP1.5.5+, you can update by clicking: empireearth2://FunctionMinorVersionInstall
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Re: EE2, EE2X - Empire Earth II - Unofficial Patch 1.5 (2014+)

Post by Dr.MonaLisa »

Minor update 157019 has been released!
Most important changes:
- Fixed game freezes/hangs:
* Symptoms: The game was frozen, image didn't change, mouse pointer didn't work, but sounds still played. In case when Task Manager was not open in the "Always on top" mode - users were forced to restart computer in order to kill the game process.
* Cause: Unknown function in game process loops forever when a float variable is greater than "5.5".
* Fix: Unofficial Patch 1.5 detects the freeze, overwrites the float to "5.5" and displays a debug message on the chat in game. This message will be removed in further releases of the patch, when reliability of the fix is fully tested.
* This bug was not caused by any of the previous UP1.5 updates. It was also present on the official version of the game and occured randomly. Due to increased population / resources / map size possibilities in UP1.5 it could be experienced more often.
- New feature: "TranslateTextsSourceFile":
* It allows UP1.5 Launcher to generate the texts database using language translation files.
* It can be controlled by UP1.5 Settings -> custom configuration command:
# TranslateTextsSourceFile=1 | Enabled (default option), uses the language based on your installed game language.
# TranslateTextsSourceFile=0 | Disabled, uses the old text database method from the previous versions of UP1.5 (English only).
# TranslateTextsSourceFile=FILENAME | Allows you to use a custom translation file, like: "Unofficial Patch Files\EXEGeneratorData\TextsSourceTranslation_FILENAME.txt".
* If you want to help translating UP1.5 texts database, please visit the forum topic: viewtopic.php?f=54&t=5266
* The full UP1.5 texts database translation is now available for Polish language.
* The partial texts database translation is now available for all languages available in EE2 distributions (except Bulgarian).
- Improved security of UP1.5 Launcher related to the Support Chat authorization.
- Fixed an issue in UP1.5 Minor Update installer, where file "MinorVersion-data" was not downloaded at the very end after 157006 update. In case of unsuccessful / terminated installation, the launcher could show already updated version, while installation was incomplete.

Minor update 157020 has been released!
Most important changes:
- Improved the fixes for game freezes/hangs:
* Those freezes were most likely caused by game sounds, which in case of long loading time caused the function to hang completely.
* The new fix doesn't use the float comparation, instead it checks for the address changes during the 2 seconds timeout (based on the system time). It helps to prevent execution of the fix when not needed.
- Fixed an issue where users could see an error message regarding "TranslateTextsSourceFile" thrown by the UP1.5 Launcher during first game launch after update.

If you have got UP1.5.5+, you can update by clicking: empireearth2://FunctionMinorVersionInstall
Best regards,
Dr.MonaLisa
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Re: EE2, EE2X - Empire Earth II - Unofficial Patch 1.5 (2014+)

Post by Dr.MonaLisa »

So, as mentioned in the changes list above, I finally fixed freezes / hangs which usually occurred in long AOS games (but was getting reports that it happens in EE2 too). Most users had to restart computer to kill the game process...
Since I found a fix and the issue was confirmed, I released an update in "Critical mode" = as soon as possible, without waiting for the next month.

Thanks to everyone who sent me game saves over years.
This was a very specific problem, because it wasn't a crash (just endless loop in the process), so the Launcher crash reporting function wasn't triggered. That's why it was so hard to monitor this issue.

Here are 3 game saves which I used to test fix on:
AOS_savegame_SP_freezes.zip
(4.85 MiB) Downloaded 488 times
They can be extracted from .zip and pasted to: Documents\Empire Earth II The Art of Supremacy\savegame_SP.

To test, you can first load them on version 157018 or older (and see how it freezes), and then using the newest version of UP1.5. At the moment it would hang forever, it now displays a DEBUG message, and a fix is automatically executed:
"DEBUG: Your game has frozen/hanged at address: 008520D1 / 008C6CB1. Unofficial Patch 1.5 issued a fix to resume game, but results might be unexpected! This message will be removed in the further releases of the patch.""
EE2_ScreenShot540.jpg
EE2_ScreenShot540.jpg (519.57 KiB) Viewed 18819 times

I hope to get some feedback, how often players see this message, and how noticeable it is :)

EDIT:
During the big game (many AI players, high population), the DEBUG message might be spammed making the game screen less comfortable.
To disable this message, you can use 1 of the following solutions:

Solution 1. RECOMMENDED: Temporary disable "Receive System Messages". Go to: Settings -> Game -> Miscellaneous Settings -> Uncheck "Receive System Messages":
systemMessages.jpg
systemMessages.jpg (453.4 KiB) Viewed 18768 times
Please remember to re-enable this option when you start another game, otherwise you still won't get system messages.

Solution 2. Edit file "dbtext_cheats.utf8". Go to the folder where EE2 is installed, then folder "zips" (even if you're playing EE2: AOS). Edit file "dbtext_cheats.utf8" with Notepad++ (or other good text editor). Find lines:

Code: Select all

tx_up15_gamefreeze_ee2,"""<color red>DEBUG:</color> <color yellow>Your game has frozen/hanged at address: 008520D1.</color> <color green>Unofficial Patch 1.5</color> <color yellow>issued a fix to resume game, but results might be unexpected!</color> This message will be removed in the further releases of the patch."""
tx_up15_gamefreeze_aos,"""<color red>DEBUG:</color> <color yellow>Your game has frozen/hanged at address: 008C6CB1.</color> <color green>Unofficial Patch 1.5</color> <color yellow>issued a fix to resume game, but results might be unexpected!</color> This message will be removed in the further releases of the patch."""
And replace to:

Code: Select all

tx_up15_gamefreeze_ee2,""""""
tx_up15_gamefreeze_aos,""""""
NOTE: Those steps need to be repeated after every Minor Update of UP1.5, or when you use the "Clear Cache" option in UP1.5 Settings.
Best regards,
Dr.MonaLisa
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Re: EE2, EE2X - Empire Earth II - Unofficial Patch 1.5 (2014+)

Post by Dr.MonaLisa »

Minor update 157021 has been released!

Update Type: Feature Update. Changes list:

- New feature: Maximization Helper has an option named: "Reduce visual weather effects for Blizzard, Sandstorm":
* Optional option (disabled by default) which resolves the issue where during bad weather it's almost impossible to see and control anything.
* It is only used when you "Enable Weather" on the game setup scren, under the "Environment" tab, before you start game.
* Changing the status of this option has an immediate effect (no game restart is required), however if the bad weather is currently active, then the fix will work the next time the bad weather comes.
* Some players rarely played with the Weather enabled due to bad vision - now they have a chance to play with it again. Forum discussion link: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=5264
- Added a new option to UP1.5 Settings: "Constrain Cursor":
* Enabled in EE2 by default. When multiple monitors are connected, the mouse cursor is restricted to not leave the game window, even in Windowed Mode.
* Unchecking this option removes this limitation, but might make on-borders scrolling harder.
* In previous versions of UP1.5, the Launcher automatically decided when to enable/disable this option, but now it has to be configured manually, as preferred.
- Added a new option to UP1.5 Settings: "Render on Secondary Monitor":
* Disabled in EE2 by default. When multiple monitors are present, check this option to render EE2 on the secondary monitor instead of primary.
- Added UP1.5 Launcher support for multiple monitors (BETA, currently only active with option "Render on Secondary Monitor"). The launcher determinates the active monitor by the mouse position, generates windows on this monitor, gets the correct screen resolution, DPI scaling and much more.
- "Exclusive", Borderless Windowed Mode (activated and deactivated by the ALT+ENTER hotkey) improvements:
* Fixed an issue, where borders were still visible on systems with DPI scaling different than 100% (usually 4k monitors). The fix requires Windows 10 1607 or newer to work.
- Added displaying of hours to the Initial Ceasefire time widget, to fix an issue where ceasefire time longer than 1 hour couldn't be determined by players.
- Added an in-game debug message when the UP1.5 prevents game from crashing at address: 008520D1 (EE2), 008C6CB1 (AOS) due to "AI Wall Plan wall-gate" crash, fixed since ver. 1.5.3 (2015).
- Added an in-game debug message when the UP1.5 prevents game from crashing at address: 007F78AB (EE2), 0088E628 (AOS) due to a crash caused by "an ICBM being launched from a TBM Launcher vehicle which stays on a construction site, while a citizen starts building", fixed since ver. 1.5.6 (2016).
- Fixed an issue where players could see a warning that "The installer has detected, that your IP address haven't downloaded the installer from the Official Download Page", after using the "Reinstall" or "Change Game Language" options in UP1.5 Settings, when the installers were already downloaded and their checksum matched, so the Launcher wasn't re-downloading them.
If you have got UP1.5.5+, you can update by clicking: empireearth2://FunctionMinorVersionInstall
Best regards,
Dr.MonaLisa
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Re: EE2, EE2X - Empire Earth II - Unofficial Patch 1.5 (2014+)

Post by Dr.MonaLisa »

Minor update 157022 has been released!

Update Type: Hotfix Update. Changes list:

- Improved the fixes for game freezes/hangs:
* Fixed "Out of Sync" in Multiplayer games, due to Anti-freeze unnecessary activated. It's because in rare cases 3-steps freeze verification was triggered (address, value, time) at a different loop, even after the problematic function passed. I added an extra variables reset function, when the loop passess, to make sure it never happens in the future. Thanks for the report and providing test files to players "skoot" and "lonewolf".
- New "Start in Full Screen / Windowed Mode" option selection in UP1.5 Settings. It additionally allows to start EE2 in the "Exclusive Borderless Windowed Mode" (before only full screen or a window with borders could be used at game launch, and could be switched later with ALT+ENTER hotkey).
- Added a new hotkey to display frame rate (FPS) information: CTRL+ALT+F. The old hotkey (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+F) stopped working after Windows 10 1903 update, I don't know why.
- Improved Minor Update installer to fallback to HTTP protocol, when modern version of TLS for HTTPS is unsupported on the Operating System (Windows XP, etc.). It resolves the issue where users could see "ERROR DETECTING" as the current minor version, and no available update versions were shown on the list.

If you have got UP1.5.5+, you can update by clicking: empireearth2://FunctionMinorVersionInstall
Best regards,
Dr.MonaLisa
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Re: EE2, EE2X - Empire Earth II - Unofficial Patch 1.5 (2014+)

Post by Dr.MonaLisa »

Minor update 157023 has been released!

Update Type: Monthly Update. Changes list:

- Improved security of UP1.5 Launcher, and:
* Updated OpenSSL to ver. 1.1.1d.
* Updated Libbzip2 to ver. 1.0.8.
* Updated Libcurl to ver. 7.66.0. It fixes an inconsiderable memory leak when sending a message on the Support Chat.
* Updated Boost libraries to ver. 1.71.0.
* Updated upnpc-static to ver. 2.1.20190824.
- Added a missing change to EE2: AOS, from the 157016 update: Nights are not longer too-dark (in all climates). Restored Sun directions from the official version of the game, but kept the 1.5 ambient colors. It makes Nights playable again, with clear vision. Thanks for the report about the missing change to player: "Someone".
- Fixed an EE2: AOS bug, present since ver. 156004 (January 2017), where time of day settings weren't correctly loaded from game saves (with the exception of Cycle Time of Day). The 156004 update fixed a bug (present since ver. 1.0) where time of day settings didn't work when a custom map was loaded. Unexpectedly it created another issues which are now fixed. Thanks for the bug report to player "Someone".
- Added a parameter that allows UP1.5 Launcher to decode URL when it's launched from the registered empireearth2:// or empireearth2aos:// protocol. It's needed for example to support EE2.eu Lobby game joining by clicking on a link on a website (currently used by Discord invites).
- INFORMATION: EE2.eu Lobby is now integrated with a Discord channel. It allows to send and read messages on both platforms, access the Lobby chat from the mobile devices, see the list of players currently online (in the Discord channel topic) and more. Join the EE2.eu Discord at: https://www.ee2.eu/discord/ More information: viewtopic.php?f=58&t=5288

If you have got UP1.5.5+, you can update by clicking: empireearth2://FunctionMinorVersionInstall
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Re: EE2, EE2X - Empire Earth II - Unofficial Patch 1.5 (2014+)

Post by Dr.MonaLisa »

Minor update 157024 has been released!

Update Type: Critical & Feature Update. Changes list:

- Increased the "Maximum Sound Memory" from 5MB to 100MB. It may reduce the lag caused by sounds re-loading from files. Extra 95MB in RAM shouldn't be a problem on modern computers.
- Fixed a game crash on EE2: AOS that occured after selecting a Bear produced in the ZOO. This crash started after the "Tundra" update, where Bears are additionally used as predator animals.
- Changed the diplomacy resources tribute sound to be more noticeable.
- Added new sound effects for game win/lose (only availble if option "Unlock UP1.5 units, buildings, models, sounds and camera settings" is set to "Yes").
- "TranslateTextsSourceFile" improvement: Added the full UP1.5 texts database translation for the Italian language. Thanks to player "IndieRock00".
- Added a new option to UP1.5 Settings: "Constrain Cursor Hotkey" (CTRL+F9):
* Enabled by default. Allows UP1.5 Launcher to toggle on/off option "Constrain Cursor" after pressing the CTRL+F9 hotkey, when the game is already running.
* It helps switching to another monitor only when needed, without affecting the on-borders scrolling experience. When the hotkey is correctly pressed, you will hear a short sound effect.
- Improved the primary network adapter detection in UP1.5 Launcher.

If you have got UP1.5.5+, you can update by clicking: empireearth2://FunctionMinorVersionInstall
Best regards,
Dr.MonaLisa
Ministry of Game Affairs
Department of Control and Complains
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