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Hi everyone and thank you for bearing with us as we continue to discuss. We never thought that the Renegade source code would ever see the light of day after all of these years, but the impossible is happening right now and it's our duty as the Renegade/W3D Engine modding community to provide clarity and direction. We've noticed your discussions, saw your questions, and had our own chats about going forward. Regarding the source code release, we have answers for you. Where does W3D Hub stand?The release of the Renegade GPL-licensed source code by EA has presented us with both opportunities and challenges, but before we get into unpacking that let's start with explaining what we have been working on already. We currently have two main development branches that are closed source: the Scripts 4.x branch and the Engine 5.x branch. Both of these closed source codebases are compliant with EA's modding guidelines for the Command & Conquer franchise: https://www.ea.com/games/command-and-conquer/modding-faq Scripts 4.x Branch Purpose: The 4.x branch is primarily focused on maintaining and improving Renegade while ensuring compatibility with older content and systems. Key Features: Compatibility: Ensures that existing Renegade maps, plugins, and other content remains functional on a variety of operating systems. Bug fixing: Fixes various bugs that were present in the released game. Anti-Cheat Measures: Includes various anti-cheat mechanisms to protect the integrity of the game. Engine 5.x BranchPurpose: The 5.x branch is a completely reverse engineered version of the W3D game engine, incorporating an expanded set of features and development improvements. 5.x no longer supports Renegade, as it's primary function is to advance and support games such as Red Alert: A Path Beyond, Tiberian Sun Reborn and Battle for Dune: War of Assassins. Key Features: Advanced Features: Introduces new functionalities and improvements over the 4.x branch, such as better graphics, physics, and tools. Future-Proofing: Designed to support future development and expansions, making it a more flexible game engine than 4.x. The Issues We FaceThe Renegade source code has been released under the GPL license, which means any code using that must also be open-sourced and available to the public. We are unable to open-source our current 4.x and 5.x branches because of the following: Releasing our code requires the explicit permission of everyone who was ever involved, and after 20+ years of code contributions and some of its developers having left us or otherwise, this is not possible. Third-party libraries, such as FMOD which we use for our audio system, are not compatible with the GPL license. Releasing 4.x and 5.x code opens the door to cheaters who can exploit our games, which cannot be done for the sake of fairness and enjoyment of our games as they are. Our Decisions The Future of 4.x and 5.x With both the 4.x and 5.x Branches, we will continue as we have always done. The Tiberian Technologies scripts patch will remain with 4.x and Red Alert: A Path Beyond, Tiberian Sun: Reborn, Battle for Dune: War of Assassins and other projects will remain on 5.x for the foreseeable future. The reality is that we still need these branches to fix Renegade in it's current form and also maintain our own game projects. This ensures that no development is halted and that our games remain available to you to play. To clarify our position, we will not be using the released GPL code in these branches as that would not be GPL-compatible. In layman's terms, 4.x and 5.x will have to pretend the code is not there, and continue that work without peeking or using any of it. A New Project Emerges: OpenW3D Using the released Renegade source code and complying with the GPL license, we are starting a new open source game engine project, simply named OpenW3D. We aim to bring the source code up to modern standards, get it building and usable, and then begin implementing the features and upgrades we developed across 4.x and 5.x and the rest of Renegade's modding history. We are not tossing away our 4.x and 5.x work, but rather we are looking to get back to that point - this time from the source code. With the benefit of hindsight taking away a lot of the guesswork, and renewed interest in coding and modding bringing activity, we hope to get this ball rolling! Here's an initial plan of action: Bring the codebase up to par with modern C++ standards (ideally 20) Put it into a modern build system (CMake, Sharpmake, etc.) Remove/replace 3rd party stuff that makes it incompatible with GPL (can be done simultaneously with above steps) As a baseline, just get Renegade working in it, and maybe build a single test map, just so we know that we can go from raw dev data to an exported and functioning game Start planning upgrades and porting over one of the W3D projects We are also mulling over the possibility of cross platform support as well, which should excite all of you Mac and Linux fans! We have hands already on this plan of action, with several of our experienced programmers tackling the codebase now. We aim to expand development shortly with some dedicated collaboration areas on our new Mattermost communication platform, so stay tuned for more info! Quickfire FAQ Here's a quick FAQ of what has been explained above! What's happening? Should I be concerned? - EA has released the Renegade source code under the GPL licence. This is great news for us as it will allow us to work on a new game engine. No need for concern! A new engine you say, what's that? - Yup, we're working on a new game engine called OpenW3D. This will be an open source version of the W3D engine that aims to be an accessible platform for developing Rene-like (Renegade-like) games. We're aiming for it to be a more robust platform than what we use currently. Sounds good, how can I get involved with OpenW3D? - Our infrastructure for supporting open development isn't quite ready yet, but in the meantime we'll be opening a public channel for OpenW3D in our Discord server. Eventually we will open a dedicated space for development on our Mattermost communication platform. Stay tuned for more info! How does OpenW3D affect the Tiberian Technologies scripts patch? - The short answer is, it doesn't. The team at TT will keep developing the TT scripts patch for Renegade on the W3D 4.x codebase as normal. The team won't be using at any of the Renegade source code that EA has just released though, as that would violate the GPL licence. So what codebase or game engine do your games, like APB, AR and TSR, use? - These games use the W3D Engine 5.x codebase described earlier in this post. Some other games use 4.x though, such as Interim Apex and ECW. Is W3D Hub using the Renegade source code in existing projects like APB and TSR? - No, we won't be, as including any of the release code would require us to release our code under GPL, which we cannot do. What about using the Renegade Source code in the TT scripts patch? - This is also not possible due to GPL. Will any of your games switch engine to OpenW3D? - Not in the short term, but in the long term when the engine has developed a lot more, we can evaluate whether we want to move our projects across. It's simply not realistic to switch engine at this stage, as it is way too early in development. Thanks for Reading Whew, that was a lot, but thanks for bearing with us! This is a really exciting movement for the community and couldn't have been possible without people at EA like CCHyper, Jim Vesella, Brian Barnes, as well as talented people in our own community here at W3D Hub such as @ jonwil , @ Unstoppable and @ Jerad2142 . It's down to the hard work of these people that we can even think about doing this today. To re-iterate, we will be opening a new channel on Discord to cover OpenW3D development and Interested people from all levels of experience are encouraged to come and engage with us in there. Once we have our infrastructure in order, we'll have more information on how to sign up soon too! Thank you for reading, and please let us know if you have any further questions, concerns, or feedback. - OWA and the W3D Hub Team

Just wanted to take the time to let all the devs and everyone involved in making AR become a reality know that you've all done a damn fine job. It takes me straight back to the good ol' days of full servers on APB back in the early days when life was much simpler. Maps are fantastic and balance is excellent. I know it's been a LONG time in the making and it doesn't disappoint in the slightest bit. Seriously, well done gentlemen. Thank you for all the hard work over the years.

I've always had a strange obsession with incense so when a guy I work with bought some crazy 3D printer I jokingly told him he should make me a RA ore ref incense cone burner not expecting him to actually do it but.. well he did lol. Figured I'd share it where it would be appreciated!

That's right, it finally happened! The beta release of Red Alert 2: Apocalypse Rising is finally out there and is now in the hands of the players! If you haven't checked it out yet, get on over to this link, download the launcher, install it, and jump onto one of the servers. There's plenty of games going on right now! We've released two hotfixes currently with a third to land sometime soon. Stay tuned for more information on these updates moving forwards! The Long Road to Release It's been incredibly humbling to see the amount of people who have picked up the game and enjoyed it so far and it makes the past two decades of working on it in our spare time all the more worth it! When @ cfehunter and I first imagined this game in 2005, initially as a Renegade 2 revival project called C&C Untold, we never thought we would end up here with you all. This reply on Renegade Forums back in 2006 showed that our conviction really meant something. We've been through a lot in terms of development; different web hosts, different eras of the Renegade modding community, and different people have all come and gone. But the two constants throughout the main lifetime of the project have been myself and @ moonsense715 , who is now one of my dearest friends. I promised him years ago that we would finish Apocalypse Rising together, and now that we've unleashed it upon the world it feels amazing. So thank you @ moonsense715 , for sticking by me through the thick and thin and always working your hardest on everything, because in the end, we've produced a damn fine game. Our goal was always to make a game that showcased our passion for Red Alert 2 while celebrating the gameplay of C&C Renegade that brought us all together here at W3D Hub. It's really a special community with lots of wonderful people in it and over the years we've moved mountains in terms of the obstacles we've had to tackle. I want to take this opportunity to thank the wider team for always believing that this game could come out, never giving up on it and always pushing me to never give up. The Future As for what's next, we're currently focusing on stability and bug fixing. Once the game is in a more stable place, we will begin to cast our eyes upon balance and start taking into account all of the feedback you guys have been leaving in the Discord channels. We aim to be transparent and receptive with the changes we make to the game and will always be hanging around on Discord to ensure that players always have a voice reaching our ears. Once we get past the first few major balance updates, we will then turn our eyes to new content such as maps, missing units, tech buildings and quality of life features. Once we've added more content to the base game, we can then start to think about expanding the game further with new features and content (Naval gameplay, Yuri's Army etc.). We have a few initial ideas, but we would really appreciate your feedback on what you want to see added to the game in the future. As ever, thank you for supporting the game, and we hope you enjoy it as we continue to expand on it. - OWA and the Apocalypse Rising Team. P.S, if you haven't checked it out yet, here's the epic launch trailer for the game courtesy of Battle Dreadnought!

Welcome everyone to another Battle for Dune: War of Assassin's update! We've once again been busy working on bringing to you new balance, changes and maps! Top 100 We've once again made it to the IndieDB Top 100 games! Thank you to everyone who voted for us to get to this point so far, but we're not done yet. Click on the lovely imagine above and give our sandy, yet spicy, First Person Shooter a vote to get to the next stage! Battle for Dune: War of Assassins couldn't of made it so far without your support, let's see it get more recognition! Infantry & Weapon ChangesThe Flamethrower Infantry has been a point on conversation during games, and how his weapon is finally in the right place for the unit's cost and that this is for House Harkonnen's Elite Infantry Class, but he's just a bit too tough to take down now this is the case. So he's received a slight Shield and Skin type nerf to bring his overall gameplay more inline with what's intended, and after a good amount of playtesting, we're now happy with where he sits! We've also been taking a look at the Grenade Launcher, Missile & Rocket Launchers. For awhile now, these weapons have quite been in a good enough place in terms of dealing with 1 on 1 encounters, and with Missile & Rocket Launchers anything but direct hits. The Grenade Launcher now has a faster Rate of Fire to deal with single encounters far better, but has an increased Reload time to compensate for this increase in DPS. The Missile & Rocket Launchers have had their explosions reworked to cover a smaller radius but an increased Explosion Damage. With this, Missile & Rocket Launchers are now much deadlier with splash damage, with potentially insta-killing another Infantry from full health! Outpost Lima This boxed in, depraved part of Arrakis' many rocky regions was once a thriving Harkonnen industry hub. With production going from the Factory, to the Warehouse, then to the Shuttle Lift, this was a key weapons manufacturing centre for House Harkonnen, isolated from the Capital at Carthag. In this new Team Deathmatch map, House Atreides has found this little operation and has initiated a strike on the Facility, catching House Harkonnen and the Shanty Town Slum bound Slaves working the production lines completely unware! Radar RetreatWe once again return to the Atreides home world of Caladan, with Radar Retreat, a quiet remote area with a Radar Outpost station monitoring communications and traffic for that region. Set on a crisp foggy morning, this new Conquest map has a different take on the tradition gameplay established on other Conquest maps where you don't spawn in a protected location and you change your Infantry Class by grabbing Crates! New Death Screen Since we released when you've been bested or sniped by someone in Battle for Dune, you've had to look at this untextured countdown to when you can next spawn with no other information on what happened. Well Cyberarm has heard your pleads and has been hard at work answering them! All you were simply left with were questions, such as, "What? I thought I had them! How much health do they have?" or "What even killed me? I bet it was that camping TeamWolf again with a bloody Sniper, wasn't it?!". Behold, Death Screen 2.0! With this new Death Screen, you can now see who killed you, with what weapon, along with how much Health and Armour they had at the point of your demise! 1.0.1.2 Patch Notes! And with everything already said, here are the patch notes for update 1.0.1.2: Time to Watch the Moons Rise againJoin us tomorrow for a Battle for Dune: War of Assassins game night on the new patch playing on the new maps! Until next time, stay spicy! [blurb]Welcome everyone to another Battle for Dune: War of Assassin's update! We've once again been busy working on bringing to you new balance, changes and maps![/blurb]

As we celebrate W3D Hub's 10 years, an idea comes to create a supercut trailer showcasing our games. We ask for your best clips, moments, memes, and anything that you would like to contribute to this video project! We want this trailer to show off the best moments and fun that made this community what it is! Rules of submissions (tentative) - Must be W3D Hub related - For videos > mp4. format and download link provided - For sound clips > .mp3 and .wav accepted - Images/gifs accepted - SFW (no excessive cursing, but one or two doesn't hurt) - Final decision left to video producer(s) Everyone is welcome to submit! Deadline for submissions is January 20th (also tentative) >>> This forum thread serves as a space for discussion, questions, and general brainstorming. I'll also be taking chats on Discord and encourage conversations there for quicker responses. Let's make something great for us! 1/14/25 Edit - To clarify some logistics on it: - Send me the clips and files that you want to see included, or post those in the forum thread - The clips can be sent as you want them presented, or in other words with your unique edits and styles. My part is piecing them together into one timeline - SFW is no excessive cursing, but otherwise "shit" and "fuck" are fine - Soft limit of 30 seconds for the clips you send, but multiple clips are also allowed. We'll just space those out throughout the trailer

[blurb]This release focuses on improving stability, also there has been progress made to improve the crime system, slot machines, as well as adding new highscores, perks, pets, and many other features.[/blurb]Note: Currently I'm trying to trace down one final crash (I think I've got it but I'm running the 4hour internal server tests right now to see if its actually fixed, if all goes well I'll have a release by tomorrow. This release features new jobs, crime system updates, slot machine improvements, custom drop helicopters, a plethora of crash fixes, tons of improvements, and a massive code overhaul that fundamentally changes players expectations and initial experiences. In 2023, the main code file was 61,760 lines of code. It is now streamlined to 32,599 lines and has been broken out into only 100 different files. New features Reworked the Private Contractor job into a Bounty Hunter job. You now search town for marks, and these marks either need to be killed or arrested. In addition, the job decides if you need to destroy or evict the marks from their vehicle. Payouts work by giving a small amount for each task completed, and a final payout once the entire contract is completed. The vehicle task makes up 25% of that total payout, and all the individual marks make up the rest of the payout. You can press Y while holding your contract to see what the payouts are. Added 9 high scores related to the new Bounty Hunter job. Vehicles that have had their passengers evicted now serve as a bonus to people driving vehicle carriers. Returning those vehicles to the Pay N’ Sprays will give some payout to the Bounty Hunter as well as the person returning the vehicle. Reworked the slot machines: Made the payouts more fair and common. Added new effects and sounds to make it a more enjoyable experience. Slot machines now have another perk to be unlocked. Added 8 highscores related to the Gmax shipping job. When committing crimes, wanted levels will now appear on the player HUD. As a reminder, a lot of crime needs to happen in front of a police officer. Law enforcement now has new vehicles. The wanted system adapts to the players’ destruction and reacts accordingly. Players can now customize their drop helicopters with 30 options (some of which have to be unlocked) by calling 555-4371. Added a hotkey to select handcuffs (default is U). Added the Shock Collar perk which gives your melee based pets an electric attack. Improvements The train blockers now only exist when the train is closer. This allows players to go over the tracks, and though it’s not a perfect system it’s better than what we had before, and it’s the best I can do with this version of scripts. Cleaned up how the Carryall’s determine what vehicle(s) are being held (thanks seifmagdi). Bots that are melee-only will now properly charge their enemies instead of standing there. Mutant Assault and Deer Hunter maps now show their time remaining at the bottom of the screen. Time remaining countdown is now displayed when a partial vote is completed. MA Island now shows a counter for how many rioters are remaining. General code cleanup, not going to list all the specifics. Revised how the racetrack code works to get some more performance improvements for the server (it now only scans the players instead of all the cars and infantry on the map). Simplified the weapon drop code to improve stability. Hovercraft that end up underwater can now resurface faster. The sea buoy drop helicopter purchase is now more… interesting, to say the least. Fishing boat script zones now only scan for players to further improve the performance of the FDS. The pathfind for AI has been massively extended. Osprey, X7-32, and Leopard Drop Ship have custom crash explosions. Osprey now has a custom crash model where the lights turn off. As usual, I updated the credits file to reference new assets. When infantry cap is reached, newly created infantry will exist for at least 3 seconds before being removed if they’re determined to be the furthest from player sight. Several updates have been made to pets: Pets now follow the player at a further distance (an additional 2.5 meters). Added a pet duck. Added a pet pig. Civilian Car Road System: Cars will now drive in the parking garages of the following: Hospital, Apartment, 8 Green Bottles, skyscraper, Police Station, and Better Stay Motel. Cars will now drive in the downtown parking ramp. Cars will now drive around Mr Limmers. Fixed a problematic railroad crossing by the park that often would result in cars backing up and ending up in the water. Fixed a corner where cars were turning too tight near Fancy Pants. Road system pathfind has been rebuilt and taxis can now drive players from all locations... with minimal stupidity. Fixed a corner where cars were turning too wide near the Christmas shop Crime/Police Improvements: AI cops now know how to actually push the gas pedal down and accelerate. Cleaned up a ton of cop-related code so I don’t have to add the new cop vehicles into 100 spots. All cop cars now have horns (These can be used both by players and AI, middle mouse and right mouse control lights and sirens now). All police and military vehicles are now labeled correctly. Cops should now more consistently use their handcuffs when the player gets tased. The updated road locations above mean that cops can better locate players in those locations, be warned (blame it on security cameras or something). Rebalanced when the different tiers of police weapons, vehicles, aircraft start to show up. Civilian cars and taxis will now try to steer the opposite direction 50% of the time when backing up. This greatly reduces the chances of those cars getting stuck. Phones now support leading zeroes (0) on all numbers (A limitation made by how the system was originally built). PINs can also have leading zeroes as well. Trains, mechs, and dropships don’t use explosions to emulate collisions anymore. This is now all done in the code which saves a ton of network spam and extra code from being run. Cops and drug dealers will now move toward the doors of buildings instead of chilling out in the middle of road intersections blocking traffic. The Ghost Strike Craft now slides more, like a real hovercraft. Fixed an issue with the preset used to generate Pathfind (walkthrough). It was able to climb slops at super steep angles, which made AI think they could also climb those super steep slopes. Bug Fixes Quick fix for the Druggy script that was breaking for players when they road as a passenger. Fixed the E2 Hawkeye showing its passenger outside of the aircraft. Fixed “They see me trawlin’”. It was working in reverse, so now best case it will payout about $300,000 in 9 minutes. Sharks no longer break the trawlin’ perk. Small fix so the shipping job entry questionnaire can’t be spammed. Fixed a bug that spawned AI through the ground a lot when exiting vehicles. If an event is setup to give the player a pet, it no longer gives the max pet count. In addition, it doesn’t charge the player. Cleaned up the announcement text that used to have “Host:“ at the start of the message. Cleaned up how some of the message in the bottle code and bot code works to make it more stable in race conditions. Went through a ton of code that I made when I was 15 and added default constructors to reduce the chance of race conditions hitting uninitialized variables (changed 23 files and who knows how many objects). Basically, more code fixes. Fixed a bug that was causing cops to attack other cops if there was friendly fire. Cops now disengage the second the player is dead. Fixed a bug with 13 systems that were using game objects instead of id’s and thus could lose their references and end up crashing everything. More code stuff that works better for everyone. Fixed a couple of crashes that happened on loading the next map. Fixed a crash with the player pet system (it was using Get_GameObj_By_Player_Name, which is unstable in the version of code the ECW server uses). Fixed base defenses not attacking enemies when attacked. Fixed math behind the Gambler perk. Fixed some crashes (Calling Get_Sex in this version of the code has a stroke if the model is null). No sex for you, sorry. Fixed a bug that could cause destroyed or kicked vehicles not to spawn any civilians. AI exiting vehicles have to exit closer now, which will hopefully reduce the chances of them falling through the ground. Empty hands are no longer considered a beacon which was leaving projectiles scattered around. Improved housing garage and other zones to only scan for the player instead of all objects on the map which once again should help the FDS. Changed several zones from ‘script zone all’ to ‘CnC’ so that those zones will only scan for players to help with the performance and FDS more. The ocean entry of the Gas Station now is properly sloped instead of making people run over a curb. Reduced flickering in the desert. Police Charger headlights no longer have a red flash which would confuse the front of the vehicle irl. Fixed the police helicopter spotlight (pulled the version form Bear Island Redux) so it doesn’t artifact all over the screen. Curbs on the bridge are lower so AI can easily get up off the roadway (makes AI less exploitable). Fixed some aggregates that were being duplicated due to my sloppy work over the years. Sewer swimming zones now only check for players, the chances of AI ever getting down there is low so no reason to make the server scan all objects. Food Items and other beacon class items should no longer randomly cause the sky to reset or slowly fade red. Fixed several potential infinite loops, although rare for the server to just lock up. I did have it happen several times while testing crime so I’d like to imagine I’ve fixed all of them. Fixed a potential crash with the Jail system caused by an undersized array. Fixed a bug with the mech shutdown text being initialized wrong which could reduce game stability. Fixed a few memory leaks with how strings were being handled. Fixed an overflow with how death messages were being generated, which made the Chronovirus event less stable. Fixed a bug with how the server loaded certain config files. Potential fixes in the phone code (I say potential because I never saw it cause an issue to begin with). Fixed a bug with the Delivery Job that wasn’t formatting the payout correctly. Fixed a possible crash caused when the AI go to “hang out” with their friends. Fixed a crash with the wild deer if they didn’t load a place to go hang out with first. Fixed a potential infinite loop with the nuclear power plant is in meltdown mode (don’t think this was possible to have happen but fixed all the same). Changed how the code handles strings and made things a bit safter. Some minor fixes in Death Match. Some minor fixes on MA Front Lines. Cleaned up the formatting of numbers and fixed a bug on the Delivery Job code. Fixed a possible crash with the Deer AI on the main map. Fixed a lockup that could be caused by the nuclear power plant, although I think its unlikely that could have ever happened. Fixed an edge case that could cause the tutorial to crash the game if you managed to have no weapons and hit the drop key. Player Jail times should now be properly recorded. Added a fix for Mech voice lines. Previously, Mechs could potentially crash the game if you had enough voice files queued up. Added a fix for the Chronovirus event that was causing the game to crash (The death message said “The Chronovirus” but the algorithm used to detect gender was only expecting 2 letters like A or An at most. Fixed an out of bounds array in loading shaders. Fixed a bug that would allow certain housing objects to have more health and armor than their max. Fixed a bug in how PINs were hashed which could cause the hashes to not match on next game load. Fixed a bug with how phone numbers are transmitted to the client. The number should no longer do weird rounding as it gets really long. Fixed a bug with phone pound numbers (#) that could cause an array overflow and crash the game. Fixed a crash that has been in the game since the military base first started firing ICBMs. If the ICBM exploded on its way up the game would crash. Cleaned up some poorly formatted perk text. Pet cat attack now works properly. Fixed MA Front Line (oh shit I think it's been broken for like 2 years). Full Release Improvements Fixed bluehell thanks to jonwil for supplying some legacy code so I could rebuild some of the older files used by the server and standalone release! Restored stock printscreen code, this means that screenshots will work in Windows 10/11; however, they will be in .tga format. 4.x Client Improvements Now supports controllers, make sure to have the controller plugged in and turned on before starting the game. Fixed water now having shadows on it. Fixed a bug causing some vehicles to fire when they shouldn’t be. Task Manager will now correctly list the game as Expansive Civilian Warfare Updated game icon to be the ECW icon. Updated some text strings that used to refer to “Renegade” Instead of Expansive Civilian Warfare. Updated the config.exe and added the option to center the window, if not selected it will use the top left corner of the screen like stock. Known Issues Although I put countless hours into fixing crashes and lockups there definitely still is one or two floating around in the code that can cause the game to sometimes crash minutes into the game, other times hours. It doesn’t seem to be directly caused by killing and destroying units but it's always hard to say how things are interacting. Black screen is still an issue in the stand alone release, I think it happens a little less often nowadays but it definitely still is an issue. As such, I recommend anyone encountering it to just use the Modern Client, as that’s far easier to deal with than trying to pin down why standalone won’t work. Although tons of work was done to improve systems and add more stability, some of the changes I made can have the end result of truncated strings (instead of overflowing into memory). If you see any strings that are garbled nonsense or truncated please report them. Although tons of things have been improved, I still recomend playing on the server as hosting the standalone relase is less stable than the server due all these "futuristic" graphics pushing things to hard sometimes. Special Thanks To the creators of CppCheck which helped me make my final code cleanup pass days before release. To Jonwil for saving me tons of time. He was able to identify which crashes were related which helped keep me from thinking things hadn’t been fixed when they had. And as always W3DHub and their support along all these long years.

TSR Game Night June 28.mp4

Hi everyone, In case you missed it, EA has just released the Renegade source code on their GitHub page, as well as enabling Mod Workshop support for several of the C&C titles on Steam! You can read more about this here: https://www.reddit.com/r/commandandconquer/comments/1izmpmb/cc_steam_workshop_support_source_code/ So what does this mean for W3D Hub, the Renegade Community and the Tiberian Technologies Scripts Project? These are questions that we're currently trying to answer ourselves, so as we look ahead we have some crucial decisions to make regarding the future of the W3D Engine. We know many of you are eager to dive into the code and start experimenting, so we are currently developing a plan for our long-term goals to enhance the W3D engine and improve all of the games we support here at W3D Hub. We have some initial ideas that we're not quite ready to share yet, but once we had some more solid plans we'll share them with you in full, as well as give you information on how to get involved if you're passionate about pushing Renegade and W3D to the next stage in it's history. Speaking of history: we've been reverse-engineering the Renegade source code for over 20 years now to the point where we've added many new features and functionality to our games. With the formation of W3D Hub over a decade ago our mission statement was to preserve C&C Renegade and develop our own unique experience on it's flexible game engine. With the official source code released, we are presented with the unique opportunity and the mandate to continue that work even more now than ever before. We hope you'll all join us on this journey in the months and years to come! We've achieved amazing things with the engine over the years, but we never imagined the source code would be released in such a significant way, so a massive thank you goes out to CCHyper, Jim Vessella, Brian Barnes, and everyone at Electronic Arts who made this possible. You've ensured that the C&C Renegade community can thrive for many more years to come. Also a special thanks to our very own @ jonwil @ Jerad2142 and @ Unstoppable who have worked tirelessly over the years to improve C&C Renegade with the TT Scripts Project. As we look to the future of the W3D Engine, we are all excited about the possibilities to come. Please stay tuned for the next update where we'll be sharing our plans for the future in full. - OWA & The W3D Hub Team

I would like to thank Unstoppable, dblaney1 and cyberarm for their contributions to 4.8 Update 4 (If I missed anyone else who contributed to 4.8 Update 4, sorry). [blurb]Added new features, scripts, bug fixes, and more![/blurb] New scripts and changes to existing scripts by Jerad2142. New scripts and changes to existing scripts by Unstoppable. Added preliminary support for controllers - enjoy smooth vehicle steering! Added a potential fix for vehicle limits randomly breaking after custom maps. Added a new LevelEdit setting, “HideTeamBattlefieldInformation”, which will make the building icon not show up on battle field and team information screens. Added a copy constructor and equals operator overload to HashTemplateClass. (Credits to Tuna for figuring out). Added the engine call Set_Enable_Foot_Steps which can enable or disable the footstep effects and sounds of a specific infantry. Added the tt.ini keyword ReplaceBeaconWithEquipment which turns the Beacon object in the PT into an equipment menu. Added PDDUMP and PODUMP console commands that dump information about player data, objects and vehicles. Added the engine call Trigger_Smooth_Skeleton_Height_Resize which allows the programmer to make a soldier’s skeleton smoothly rescale at a set speed without spamming the network. Added PCC, PCCT and PCCP console commands to print text to client's console. Detect if FDS is running under Wine on Linux and fix console output if so. Changed how the TRAIN_TRACK_COLLISION_GROUP works (now only collides with itself). Changed how the TRAIN_COLLISION_GROUP works (now only collides with TRAIN_TRACK, SOLDIER, DEFAULT, BULLET, and C4 Improved the equipment menu to now check if your weapon is full, in which case it will block you buying more. Soldiers will have to reload guns as it only fills your bag rounds unless you don’t have the gun at all. This is unfortunately just the way powerups work and I wasn’t going to rework the system. The gameover command can now be used in single player to end the level. Note: this will result in 3 stars at best. Fixes so team GDI can now own an Obelisk. Fixed Giant Kane Hologram’s mouth movement in single player so he talks once more. Fixes for the Remote FDS Console and the opening if the F8 console is active. Vehicle Management Dialog now shows the name of AI in your vehicle instead of “None” Removed outdated code from the equipment menu that would block beacons from being purchasable unless settings had been chosen on the server. Fix PLAYER_INFO not printing some players when the player limit changes and there are more players than player limit. Fixed an issue with hearing sounds ahead of the player when game ends or if the player leaves while zoomed in with a scope. Custom Scripts Requests (That I know of): Added JMG_Utility_Zone_Damage_While_In_Zone for Mortalc13 Added JMG_Utility_Visible_Vehicle_Occupants for rackz Added JMG_Utility_Zone_Disable_Specific_Weapon_Presets for rackz Added JMG_Utility_Zone_Damage_While_In_Zone_Presets for ExEric3

Red Alert 2 Turns 25! This weekend marks a monumental milestone: the 25th anniversary of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2. A quarter of a century ago, this iconic RTS stormed onto the scene and captured our hearts and minds with it's bizarre and eccentric take on a cold war turned hot. To celebrate the game that inspired Red Alert 2: Apocalypse Rising, we’re thrilled to announce a brand-new patch that aims to address some of the most prominent community feedback! We've been quiet for a while, but the game hasn't been abandoned. we're still working on it when we find the time and hope to keep it maintained in the run up to our next big update. Here's what to expect in the meantime. [blurb]To celebrate the 2th anniversary of Red Alert 2, we’re thrilled to announce a brand-new patch for Apocalypse Rising that aims to address some of the most prominent community feedback![/blurb] Patch 0.9.0.7 Check out the changelog below: Keep Posted! Keep posted to the discord for all of the latest and greatest updates. As ever, feel free to leave your feedback and we'll hopefully address the issues in the next updates!

For the engineers out there who has been wanting to figure out how to modernize the Westwood 3D and/or Strategy Action Game Engine, this is for you. I have decided to impart all that I've scrounged up on both engines in the hopes it will be useful to someone in the community at large. A brief history of WW3D Engines begin somewhere, and for Westwood Studios' first 3D engine, they built theirs off an existing 3D engine. That engine was the SurRender 3D engine by Hybrid Graphics (now Umbra under Amazon). That was a 5 year odyssey that started in 1997 with Project "Commando" and ended (after two delays) in 2002 with C&C Renegade. The longest game development in Westwood Studios history (C&C Tib Dawn and Tiberian Sun were each 4 years by comparison), but, to be fair, it was both Westwood's first fully 3D project and first person shooter (and a hybrid one at that). When Westwood Pacific (EA Pacific/EALA) was looking to make a new 3D engine for RTS games, they considered multiple engines such as id Software's id Tech 3 (the "Quake III engine"), Epic Games' Unreal Tech Engine (likely Unreal 2), and Monolith Productions' LithTech, but settled on an in-house engine they already owned for SAGE. After Westwood was shuttered and reborn as Petroglyph Games, they too built their Alamo Engine based on the Westwood 3D engine, and then their modern GlyphX Engine after that. Yes, GlyphX is the most modern implementation of the WW3D engine, though GlyphX is more like a fusion of the capabilities of WW3D and SAGE/Alamo. So it's for more than RTS games. So, with that out of the way, let's take a look under the hood. The Westwood 3D Engine Genealogy At A Glance It's best to start with a visual aide to see how these engines branched off and what Application Programming Interface (API) they use. Attached is a simple flowchart I made that tracks the evolution of the engine from SurRender 3D all the way to SAGE2 and GlyphX. If the image (for whatever reason) never loads or is lost in the future, the genealogy looks like the below: [SurRender 3D (OpenGL)] -> [WW3D (DirectX8.1)] -> [SAGE 1 (DirectX9)] & [Alamo Engine (DirectX9)] -> [SAGE 2 (DirectX10)] & [GlyphX Engine (DirectX10, 11, 12)] Yes, that is correct, the engine originated with the OpenGL API before immediately switching to the DirectX API. This was done because Westwood had more experience working with the Windows API than others at that point. This could suggest that the main game code for WW3D and SAGE is API agnostic, but there is much of the code that was built for MS Windows programs which entails extra work to create something that also works on other OS's like Unix/Linux (though Steam already wraps all games in a wrapper that allows them to run in the Unix/Linux environment regardless). The Graphical API (the Construction Yard of the engine) So with that, the first and most obvious improvement for the engine lies with the graphical API. Renegade was built on DX8.1, the same API that the DirectX Box (Xbox OG) was built on and C&C Generals was built on the next iteration with DX9, the same version of the API used for the Xbox 360. Now, most of you are probably chomping at the bit, wanting to use the most recent iteration of DirectX as the chosen upgrade. I do not advise that. DirectX12, like with Vulkan, is a low level graphical API that is built with C, unlike older DirectX versions and OpenGL, which both are built in C++. So there is a whole learning curve to overcome that even some developers have struggled with. Hence, the best choice would be DirectX11 since it's still in C++ and you can use it as a fallback renderer for when you do choose to implement DX12 (like most companies do). A similar dual API technique is done with OpenGL and Vulkan (like how id Software implemented id Tech 6). With the API upgraded, we can have access to many modern features, such as superior texture compression (BC6 and BC7) and material shaders in line with the most recent version of WW3D (GlpyhX). Although DX8.1 and DX9 do have texture compression (via DXT) and can do material shaders, they are comparatively primitive and restrictive. So if you choose to continue to use the old API, I'm just letting you know that you can still do some advanced tricks. All versions of DirectX can be downloaded directly from Microsoft's site. Though it should be noted that all of DirectX's libraries are integrated with Windows' libraries (Windows.h). You can get Window library headers here for development: Windows Implementation Library. OpenGL and Vulkan can be downloaded from Khronos Group's Github. All can be integrated within Visual Studio. All necessary for compiling new .dll files for the engine. Some DX11 samples and tutorials: DirectX SDK Samples Wiki RAD Tools and Their RADical Uses (and their replacements) RAD Tools were some of the most popular proprietary engine tools of their time.... that was until Epic Games bought them out and they were surpassed in multiple aspects. Thus it's not all too necessary to replace all of them, but one in particular will need an urgent replacement. WW3D and SAGE both use them, so let's evaluate each one individually. BINK Video (for Cutscenes and EVA Unit videos that play in the Radar) When you need to compress a video file so that it fits on a CD/DVD disk, you either have to create your own method of compression, or use someone else's. For many, that solution is BINK Video. You've probably seen the little twister logo on many a game splash screen on start up, well I'm here to tell you that BINK is for real time video compression and file reading. Like a file zipper/unzipper for video files. BINK comes in two versions: BINK 1 (.bik files) and BINK 2 (.bk2/.bik2 files). BINK 1 is what all WW3D, SAGE 1, and Alamo games used for their video files, while SAGE 2 and GlyphX started using BINK 2. The major difference between the two versions of BINK is that the second edition requires that your engine's Math library contains SSE (specifically SSE2 or later if I recall correctly) in order for it to work (oh and BINK 2 is of a higher quality and compression than BINK 1). That's not a calculation that either WW3D nor SAGE can do (as they have the same WestWood Math library). This will be expanded in a later section regarding the Math Library and Physics Library. So if you want to continue to use BINK, you're in luck! It's still the industry standard for video compression (found natively in Unreal and Unity) so it's not too difficult to implement. There is, however, one catch: BINK is propriety software, and thus you will have to pay for it if you choose to sell your game/project on the market. If not? Well then you can download the tool and SDK and use them as you please, but do be mindful that if you are to go commercial, you will need a license to continue using it. The running price for a BINK license is $11,000 USD per game and per platform. No free lunch. [BINK Link] If that's too many credits, then I do have an alternative for you open source adherents and it's the WebM format! It's open source, free to use, and offers superior compression than BINK 2! However, you will have to adapt the source code to replace the all the BINK code references with WebM (and update the Math Library all the same). Not too hard, but work all the same. Companies like Valve have replaced BINK with WebM in Source 2, so there's your big dev implementation. [WebM site (go to Codec for source code)] The Miles Sound System (for epic SFX, Spacial Audio, and the Soundtrack output) [DEFUNCT] Westwood Studios games, and EALA by extension, are well known for their awesome audio. Great sound mixing, rich SFX, and even 3D audio for that EAX (Environmental Audio Extensions) experience that allows for echos and accurate audio depiction. This was all accomplished in WW3D and SAGE with the the Miles Sound System... which has been retired as of 2022 and is no longer offered nor downloadable from RAD Tools. This also means updating the Assimp3 code (misspelled as "Asimp3"). [Assimp] That's short for "Asset Importer," stop laughing. However, modern audio implementation may have better solutions to use for asset importing. Thus a replacement is necessary. So here are some great alternatives: MSS Alternatives List System Price External Links Wwise Depends on the license ($0-$40K) Wwise (Audiokinetic) FMOD FREE FMOD Steam Audio FREE Steam Audio Source Code (Valve) OpenAL FREE OpenAL OK, this needs a bit of explaining. Wwise and FMOD are the audio tools that you use to make your soundscapes, SFX, and everything audio that will go into your game (formatting and such). The MSS replacement. Steam Audio and OpenAL are the source code that implements that audio in real time for your game. WW3D and SAGE use Westwood Audio for implementing audio, but it will need to be adjusted to work with Wwise or FMOD and those source code libraries have the code to implement that change (handy!) Why Wwise? It's the best audio tool on the market used in all the biggest games. It has a variable license depending on the size of your project (which also means variable access to the program's capabilities). You can download the Wwise program free like the programs and source codes on the list, you will just have to apply for a license when it comes to making anything you intend to make money with. Otherwise (heh) it's free to use for small scale stuff. FMOD is still there if you need it. Oodle and Telemetry (the other tools you may or may not need) Oodle is a file size optimizer tool that helps you keep your game as small as possible. If you have ever seen the octopus Oodle logo on a game splash screen, that's what it's there for. There are alternatives like ZLIB (which SAGE uses, not a bad thing to add to WW3D), so you have options. Oodle costs $11,000 USD per game per platform. [Oodle Link] Telemetry is a tool that helps you optimize your game by showing you how it's performing in real time (you know, like showing you the Frames Per Second count). SAGE natively used BYTEmark for telemetry (we'll talk about this again later). There are others out there, including natively in-built telemetry tools in engines such as id Tech and Panda3D if you want to borrow other's tools via source code. And of course there are likely many others on the market to choose from. Telemetry costs $9,500 USD per game per platform. [Telemetry Link] As a reminder, both Oodle and Telemetry, as with any RAD Game Tool, are free to use so long as you are not charging anything for your game. NVidia functions (our first obsolete code!) [OBSOLETE] NVidia, when they got into the video game ecosystem, added new features that helped support the industry. Those tools and source code were distributed by NVidia for use by every company. They were so useful that they were integrated directly into Graphical APIs. Which means that the code that WW3D includes from NVidia is completely obsolete as it's handled natively by the DirectX API (and even OpenGL and Vulkan). It really shows WW3D's age and how long it took to develop Renegade. NvDXTLib (the oldest way to implement real time texture compression) [OBSOLETE for WW3D] Back before DXT compression was added natively to DirectX, this library in combination with NVidia's online tools were the only way to implement real-time texture compression. Since at least DirectX9, this is no longer needed. Just remove it from the WW3D code like SAGE did. Any modern API like DirectX11/12 and OpenGL/Vulkan have native texture compression built in, so you will never have to bother with this part of the source once you upgrade the graphical API. NVASM (HLSL the old fashioned way) [OBSOLETE for SAGE] Once again, back before the High-Level Shader Language became native, this was the only way to add the component to APIs like DirectX8.1. "But wait! SAGE is built on DirectX9!" I know, it's really weird to see this in SAGE given that API base. Perhaps it wasn't native to DX9 at the time, but it was definitely soon made obsolete by later versions of the code. So, yet again this is the case of a useful code base provided by NVidia that became a standard feature in modern graphical APIs like DirectX, OpenGL, and Vulkan. You can remove this code as soon as you update SAGE's graphical API. Lightscape and 3DSMax (3D asset importers, and what to do about them) All those who work with WW3D and SAGE know about the Westwood3D (.w3d) model format, but video game engines also include other asset formats to maximize the use of the modelling programs that they use to create 3D models in. For WW3D and SAGE, the other kind of assets include the Maya Binary (.mb) and 3DSMax (.MAX) model formats for static objects (though I cannot be certain if WW3D also had GMAX file compatibility, not that you would want it). Lightscape was an old software that Westwood used for making environments in Renegade with the lighting included. This was to import assets from programs like GMAX (the old game specific version of 3DS Max) without needing any conversion. SAGE replaced Lightscape with 3DSMax's asset importer. Later, SAGE 2 seems to have replaced 3DSMax with Maya (as shown with the behind the scenes for Tiberum Twilight). When it comes to source code involving 3DSMax and Maya, you will have to need to contact Autodesk directly to get that and possibly a license. Not much you can do about that. Unless, of course, you decide to use other model formats. You have a great variety of model formats to choose from: Filmbox Object (.fbx), Wavefront Object (.obj), LightWave Object (.lwo, Westwood made their 3D animated cutscenes in LightWave3D), COLLADA (.dae "digital asset exchange"), Extendable 3D (.X3D), Universal Scene Descriptor (.usd or .usdz), and gITF (.gLTF and .glb). So you have options outside of Autodesk's proprietary formats to use in your version of WW3D or SAGE (and you can just use as many as you want! The sky's the limit!) Many of these formats have their importer/exporter source code online. Do note that only some formats include animation data like .W3D, such as .lwo (hence why id Software's id Tech engine still use it alongside .md6), .X3D, .usd/.usdz, and .gLTF/.glb. Knowing that, it begins to make sense why companies made their own 3D formats to contain both 3D model data, animation data, and other properties like for particle emission. BYTEmark (aka NBench, the BYTE Magazine benchmark tool) OK, now we can talk about SAGE's telemetry. SAGE added BYTEmark (aka NBench) to the code for checking the performance of the game while it's operating. It's still very usable for WW3D and SAGE when it comes to testing your levels. You can get it here: [BYTEmark Link] [NBench Link and others]You can read more here: NBench (aka BYTEmark) BYTEmark has the following features: Numeric sort - Sorts an array of long integers. String sort - Sorts an array of strings of arbitrary length. Bitfield - Executes a variety of bit manipulation functions. Emulated floating-point - A small software floating-point package. Fourier coefficients - A numerical analysis routine for calculating series approximations of waveforms. Assignment algorithm - A well-known task allocation algorithm. Huffman compression - A well-known text and graphics compression algorithm. IDEA encryption - A relatively new block cipher algorithm. Neural Net - A small but functional back-propagation network simulator. LU Decomposition - A robust algorithm for solving linear equations. However, BYTEmark is outdated as a telemetry and has the following shortcomings: It cannot access the GPU (it was made when the CPU was still the common processor for graphics in the 1990s). These benchmarks are meant to expose the theoretical upper limit of the CPU, FPU, and memory architecture of a system It cannot measure video, disk (not like we're distributing on disks, more on that later), or network throughput (those are the domains of a different set of benchmarks) NBench (BYTEmark) is single-threaded. Currently, each benchmark test uses only a single execution thread. However, most modern operating systems have some multitasking component. How a system "scales" as more tasks are run simultaneously is an effect that NBench does not explore. So rather out of date with modern architecture So, if you seriously want to make a modern game on WW3D or SAGE, you will need a modern telemetry tool that can access modern hardware and networking. There are multiple available telemetry options available. The aforementioned Telemetry by RAD Tools, but there are also others out there that are specific to certain metrics (like networking) that can be used in tandem with BYTEmark. Maybe the community will create some kind of new solution out of existing telemetry code bases. This one is definitely a undertaking knowing how many WW3D and SAGE mods are multiplayer-centric. Might not hurt to ask what either Petroglyph or EA uses for their games. STLport (the multiplatform ANSI C++ Standard Library) [OUTDATED] STLport was a C++ library extension first introduced open source back in 1997. It's a library of standardized operations that work across multiple platforms, similar to Microsoft's STL library, but faster. There's a lot of useful tools in the library, such as those for networking. This was added to SAGE and likely was still used in SAGE 2. The version SAGE 1 used was STLport 4.5.3, but you'll want the most latest release of STLport which you can get here: [STLport 5.2.1] You can also get the older STLport that SAGE 1 used here [STLport 4.5.3] However, STLport is antiquated. Users started using alternatives since before 2014, and its last update was in 2019. Some users reported that it's not compatible with C++17 standards or above. That's not good when you're modernizing the source code. So this too will need to be replaced with a more modern implementation. Lucky for us there are many available to choose from. First up is Electronic Arts' very own EASTL library. The very same used in the Frostbite Engine: [EASTL source] No doubt if there ever was a SAGE 3 it would have used it, just like the Generals 2 project was using it (because it was using Frostbite). This library is up to date and maintained by EA, so that works for us. Another replacement option is the Boost library [Boost Library] which could be a possible consideration. Most users of STLport replaced it with CXX [CXX Tools] which might work as well. Lastly there is also the Qt library [Qt Base] which might also be considered. Umbra Occlusion Culling (how the camera renders what's in view) WW3D inherits SurRender3D's Umbra occlusion culling solution for the game camera's frustum in-view rendering. That means WW3D uses Umbra to render what's visible and not render what's not visible [Umbra Occlusion Culling Explanation]. Umbra is still used in the industry, but it's proprietary under Umbra (formerly Hybrid Graphics) and owned by Amazon. This means you would have to get in contact with Amazon if you want to use Umbra via a license. Umbra is still used as a middleware for modern implementation of occlusion culling (even id Software used it) so it's worth checking out if you can get a license. [DOOM2016 Graphics Study] SAGE is the evolution of WW3D, but it does not use Umbra, likely to avoid royalties, but also because new solutions were quickly coming about that were more useful for RTS games. That said, SAGE's occlusion culling is the obvious replacement for Umbra, but we shouldn't stop there. Newer occlusion culling solutions have appeared that supersede older methods due to superior rendering speed and efficiency. Doom 2016 uses the highly efficient Clustered Forward Rendering method that might be a perfect natural upgrade for WW3D and SAGE (using SAGE's code as the base). In the meantime, it might be just as useful to borrow id Tech's occlusion culling code for id Tech 4 as well [id Git for all open source id Tech][modernized Doom 3 BFG using Vulkan and DirectX12] Bonus: here's a solution someone made to combat wall hacking [Corner Culling anti-hack]. Might be useful for those who work with competitive multiplayer. GameSpy SDK (RIP GameSpy) [DEFUNCT] When GameSpy went down, it took all the multiplayer servers with it. C&C was heavily dependent on it for providing reliable multiplayer. As such it will have to be replaced in order for multiplayer to function. Luckily, GameSpy was used with so many games that there were multiple replacements made for it. You have options to consider: OpenSpy [OpenSpy client code] UniSpy [UniSpy SDK] Valve's Steam Networking SDK [Game Networking Sockets SDK] Finally, there's also working with the C&C Online team to fully integrate their C&C network hooking solution into the source code directly. [CNC Online] GNU Regex (open source regular expressions) [OUTDATED for WW3D] WW3D uses the GNU Regular Expressions library for its code. This particular library was likely used for the POSIX functions, which are now fully integrated with modern C libraries. Yet another thing that shows the age of WW3D. You can remove this code just like EALA did for SAGE's implementation. What's POSIX? Well it's more for UNIX/Linux compatibility [What is Posix?] SafeDisk API (Remember when you had to enter the CD Key?) [OBSOLETE] Both WW3D and SAGE used to use SafeDisk to prevent illegal copying. By Windows 7, this API was on its way out needing backwards compatibility and by Windows 10 it is no longer compatible. Honestly, with the rise of online game clients like Steam and GOG (and C&C fan sites), are we really selling computer games on disks anymore? You can completely remove all the code related to the SafeDisk API in WW3D and SAGE without ever looking back. It's no longer needed. That aside, the API was proprietary and now it's no longer offered. Microsoft Cab Archive (for compressing data) [OUTDATED for WW3D] WW3D used the MS Cabinet Archive Library to compress files into the .CAB format. It's a bit different from zip files in compression method, but in the end it's for the same reason. You can find some code online for .CAB extractors, but SAGE replaced this with the ZLIB library to use zip files instead. So that's probably the best option as well. ZLIB (Zip files for gaming) [The SAGE Solution] SAGE uses the ZLIB library [ZLIB 1.3.1] and it's code for using it should be copied into WW3D. It's a logical upgrade. That aside, if you wish for superior file compression, Oodle from the RAD Game Tools is also available at different levels of compression. Though zip files should serve you decent until you start making your game rather large. LZH-Light Compression (additional compression option) [OUTDATED for SAGE] SAGE also includes the LZH-Light compression library [LZH-Light Code]. It's an old one and needs to be replaced because there are no recent releases for it and thus it's not compatible with modern C++ standards. [What is LZH-Light?] It's part of a family of LHA (originally "LHarc") archiving programs made by Haruyasu "Yoshi" Yoshizaki. Luckily LHA is still around, even if Oodle has replaced most compression methods for games, and you can get source code for it here: [LHAsa source] There are other versions out there as well for various OSes since the 90s, so there's an interesting assortment to dig around to find alternatives [LHA Wiki with further links] RTPatch Library (for updating the game via Patches) WW3D uses the RTPatch library for patching the game code. This is a proprietary library that was used by practically all the major companies back in the day. You might be able to get a modern implementation of it from Pocket Soft [Pocket Soft Contact]. Though it would appear that SAGE replaced it (as did many companies with their later engines), so it's a good bet that you could probably just use what SAGE uses. Or any modern patch solution really. The source code only exists to decode the RTP patch format. There is a modern patching solution that EA uses called Known Version Patching (KVP) [KVP] that makes use of Amazon services to do the patching [The Amazon Component]. I'm not sure if EA does licensing for it, but it wouldn't hurt to ask. Then there is the custom patching route. You can pay for a lifetime license to use a customizable game patcher for either WW3D or SAGE [Game Patch Creator] It's worth consideration. Java Runtime Headers (for online servers in WW3D) This is one is the easiest to do. Just grab the most recent Java Runtime Header library and add it in [Oracle Java Downloads] However, this is an old way of handling online. SAGE replaced this fully with its version of the GameSpy implementation, and with WW3D also having GameSpy probably means that the Java code was a transitional backup. All the same, it doesn't have to be removed, and can simply be there as backup still. Math and Physics Updates (Modernization Options for WW3D and SAGE) It's not necessary to update the Westwood Math and Westwood Physics libraries in order to compile your code, however, it is a major upgrade to get more out of the engine. You cannot use image compression like BINK2 without scalable vector graphics, which requires the SSE math function at version 2 or higher. [Image Processing Libraries that contain SSE4.2] <-(might be necessary if the below math libraries do not include SSE4.2) When EALA transitioned from SAGE 1 to SAGE 2 with Red Alert 3, they didn't just change the graphical API from DX9 to DX10, they also replaced the Westwood Math and Physics libraries with RenderWare's Math and Physics libraries. Unfortunately, Criterion's RenderWare Engine is still proprietary with currently no way to license it despite EA removing engine restrictions for their devs. So that means we need alternatives to either splice into the Westwood libraries, or to replace them. There are many options to choose from for C++ math libraries, so it's not that hard to find one that works. Here's a few: DirectX's XNA Math Library [XNA programming guide], OpenGL Math (Not just for OpenGL) [GL Math], Sony's Vector Math Library [Sony Vector Math], and Eigen (the math library that Panda3D uses) [Eigen Main Site]. As for physics, there are multiple solutions: Havok (up to date as of 2025, well done Havok team) [Havok Physics], Bullet [Bullet Physics 3.0], ODE [ODE Physics (old and used to fill gaps in Bullet)], and Jolt (doesn't have impulse, but has everything else) [Jolt Physics]. (Personally, I support using Jolt, it's open source so no royalties for great quality) The Final Hurdle for either WW3D or SAGE As described in the Renegade and Generals source codes (compiling section), you will have to update the .dsw file (old Visual Studio file) to the modern Visual Studio format. This will be a pain in the butt, however it is necessary. I wish the best to whoever has to do that process, because it will be slow. Anyway, thank you for reading this. I hope this ends up being useful to someone.

It appears you weren't interested in having things done through proper moderation channels on our server, which we were happy to do. You'd rather jump straight to potentially getting our entire Discord server offed. That's years and years of work and our main community outlet for our games. No thanks.

No.

I'm trying to install Apocalypse rising within the launcher but im getting the error below: Error: Failed to read manifest.xml: Error: Failed to save manifest.xml (v0.9.0.2): Failed to send request: error sending request for url (https://s3.w3d.cyberarm.dev/games/ar/0.9.0.2/manifest.xml) I also observed the icons for all games in the launcher dont load. I've tried re-installing the launcher but its still the same. I do have enough space for the game.

Thank you for your kind words man. I remember playing with you countless matches of APB long ago. Happy to see you see the result of the project after all this time

Full changelog for 2.0.3.1.12 (new Rocket Trooper not included) Disc Thrower - Cost reduced. 600 -> 300 - Damage reduced. 90 -> 55 - Alt fire has slight velocity drop over time for better bounce control. Missile Trooper - Damage increased. 40 -> 50 - Projectile type changed. Rocket -> Missile - Clip size reduced. 4 -> 3 - Reload time increased. 2.75 -> 2.85 - Primary ROF reduced. 1.65 -> 1.5 - Cost increased. 300 -> 600 Mobile Repair Vehicle - Range increased. 12 -> 20 - Targeting range reduced. 50 -> 30 Mammoth Mk II - Fixed the walking animation. Orca Fighter - Fixed rear rotor one-sided issue. - Model has been given some touch-ups. Orca Bomber - More mobile in VTOL mode. Harpy - Missiles once again lock on to this unit. - Health increased. 350 -> 400 - Ammo increased. 50 -> 80 - Max inventory rounds decreased. 450 -> 400 - Damage increased. 5 -> 8 - Rate of Fire increased. 30 -> 45 - Updated model for the rockets. Banshee - Weapon velocity decreased. 300 -> 200 - Weapon turn rate decreased. 250 -> 225 - Explosion radius decreased. 4 -> 3 - Explosion inner radius decreased. 2 -> 1.5 - Explosion damage decreased. 20 -> 15 TS_Cliffs - Added a Tiberium Silo in each base. TS_GrandCanyon - Added projecile blockers above the cliffs in front of the bases. TS_TaintedLegacy - Added a Tiberium Silo in each base. - Adjusted water cliff edge so that amphibious units can enter and exit the lake at different points. - Removed out-of-bounds Tiberium field zones.

This seems like a great and sensible step forward that keeps everything legal and provides a sensible roadmap for the future. I think targeting porting of one of the existing Engine 5.0 projects over to OpenW3D makes a lot of sense - appreciating it'll take a long time, it should help prioritise feature development once the codebase is up to scratch.

Celebrate 23 years of C&C Renegade! From 22 February to 02 March, the C&C Community will see several game nights, a Community Roundtable, and more! Visit the C&C Community Discord @ https://discord.gg/zktcZQY for times and full details!

View File Renegade Chaos Edition 2.0 Have you gotten tired of the same old C&C Renegade? Why not make things a bit chaotic! Submitter Jerad2142 Submitted 02/11/2025 Category Misc. Files  

Figured I'd jump in and say happy new year to everyone!

If you PM me a password I can make joining under a name require a password, at least for Interim Apex. If you have IRC you can do this yourself by PMing !register ooflyoo <password> to ikmapsbot

[blurb]TSR 2.0.4.2 release features updated GDI and Nod infantry models and textures, mad updates, balance changes, and more! Read the full changelog on our forums.[/blurb] --------------------------- Changelog For Tiberian Sun: Reborn 2.0.4.2 Release --------------------------- General - Harvesters are no longer on the purchase menu if the level starts with no Refinery. - Adjusted Reload Arc size/color. - Added Spin Up Arc for gatling weapons. Infantry - Fixed various skins, textures, and gun positions. Nod Engineer - Updated model and texture. Nod Technician - New model. Disc Thrower - Fixed third person throwing animation. - Adjusted spelling in its string from "Disk" to "Disc". Riot Trooper - New Pistol * Damage increased. 6 -> 9 * Rate of Fire decreased. 8 -> 5.75 * Clip size decreased. 12 -> 10 Mobile Sensor Array - Cost increased. 500 -> 1200 - Refinery no longer required as tech structure for Nod version. - Added a spawn to Dusty Road. - The spawn on Drought/Dusty is an enhanced version with additional HP, heavier armor, and slower speed. Maps - Field and Field_Flying have had their weather conditions swapped. TS_Cliffs - Added blue Tiberium field zone for harvesting. TS_Drought - Opened up base fronts slightly. TS_Wintervale - Adjusted walls. - Texture blending. - Fixed holes. - Added 1 Laser Turret near cave. - Removed some stuck spots on rocks.

Shocky Gonzales is in the APB Beta Soviet Invasion Coop map. It was developed more than the version you played that long ago @ Raptor29aa, I recreated it in 2020.

I have error when i try install game

You have to delete the game first, then download again. That helps!

Reposting the news on April 2nd so you know it's real. Experience Apocalypse Rising on April 23, 2025

that's amazing!

Hey Klaus, Unsure. Someone more knowledgeable will probably help in a bit and post here. Have you installed APB before? Have you tried reinstalling? Have you tried restarting your computer, then installing? You can also post in our discord for an even faster response if you'd like. https://discord.com/channels/270678524619128843/1211374839483605072

While we could, this video is limited to W3D Hub things only so unfortunately BHP is off the table. As for the cat, it wasn't mine! It could have been Aprime's cat, or some random video clip he found for that.

@ FRAYDO You could also grab some stuff off the old BHP YouTube page (P.S. do you still have that cat?)

Mojoman! Happy New Year to you and others

Confirmed, House Atreides beats up slaves

I'm so excited for the forest worms!

Wow! Way to go and congratulations on the nomination. I just voted for you. Great work!

Cool! See ya on the battlefield tomorrow

Hey stop being a stranger!!!11!1!

I debated a lot where to post this, but since it technically applies to all(?) W3D engine games, figured here was best? I doubt there's any issue with this, but just to be safe ill not post the exact method, so if i get in any trouble ill be the only one to blame as the title implies, i got IA (and other games) running on Vulkan, and then via Vulkan applied frame generation. being as its a hack on a hack its not flawless, but works pretty well, also since game is locked to maximum FPS most of the time anyway, fairly pointless. but under load from 160 bots and with vis disabled, was able to get -about- 60 real fps, and 120 with generated frames i made a video: (i am apparently far to stupid to properly embed video? so heres the link instead) Link to IA Vulkan Frame Generation MP4 (compressed + downscaled to 1080p) (Akaris is me, "Dayofnuke" is actually very old name) you can spot some of the generated frames as bots load in causing a fps dip, but otherwise fairly smooth after that, so this method maybe helpful for PvE sometimes using a very similar method, DX12 should probably be possible? and between Vulkan/DX12 applying Ray Tracing is also theoretically possible, but that would be ~much~ more work than FG

DXVK, DirectX (to) Vulkan https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk , specific version used: https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/releases/download/v2.3/dxvk-2.3.tar.gz (but any version should work) easy way is to drop all those files into IAs game.exe directory (or only the DX9 files if you want to be more specific) ...and thats it game will run in Vulkan via a translation layer. as for Frame Generation, i just turned on AFMF (AMD Fluid Motion Frames) which works semi-unofficially with Vulkan (but not DX9) Vulkan does most of the heavy lifting, and the frame generation smooths over any fps dips or stutters. As i mentioned technically adds frame lag, but average of 9ms total, so not really a factor in real useage i was able to maintain ~60 real fps and ~120 fps with frame generation up to about 190 bots with vis disabled above 190 bots the W3D engine itself seems to start to give up

How did you get I A to run on Vulkan? I mean vulkans pretty good to use, probably even better than Unreal in some cases, but Still... how?

being as i was unsure of opinions on such a thing my post was intentionally vague/obtuse, but the reality is its hardly difficult or a technical triumph of any sort. its a simple combination of dxvk + AFMF (which some have argued isn't real frame generation, but if its visually adding more frames its close enough for me) i suspect at -least- 50% of the heavy load (160 bots + vis disabled) fps uplift is Vulkan alone, thus frame generation is bit more of a meme idea lol since this is a hack-on-a-hack type of thing it isnt perfect, for example sharpening/AA/AF dont seem to work. as for frame times, for me real frame time is 4.0ms, FG adds about 5.0ms, thus approximate 9.0ms total frame time. as for my comment about RT, one could -in theory- translate dx9 into dx12 (have had some success with this part), and then once dx12 is ...technically... exposed, hack something such as RTX Remix on it. as i said it would be MUCH more work, and probably utterly destroy frame rates(?), if for no other reason than all the hacking and translating happening. i haven't really explored this idea much, but some very quick overview-ing made me think it was possible since game lives locked at max fps outside of unusual load situations this was all mostly for the memes whats W3D's max texture size? just had a thought about using my AI to upscale ..would that work? hmm

Mind writing a tutorial of what you used to do this?

Just for anyone here who hasn't heard where this awesome sound came from! It was included in the "Sound Ideas: The General Series 6000" set that also contained a large amount of sound effects WW used for the majority their early C&C games and programs such as WWChat.

[blurb]Added new physics, added a new job, 6 new vehicles, event updates, crash fixes, bug fixes, and more.[/blurb] Giving a little taste for the patch that I plan to release on the 7th for the event. New Features/Improvements: • Thank you Seifmagdi for your skills with ASM code! Due to this the following improvements have been made: Vehicle speed gauges now correctly show the speed of what the engine thinks the vehicle is traveling, the result is that the numbers don’t jump around all random anymore. Chinook helicopters, and other vehicle transports, can now “throw” vehicles by dropping them while in motion. Crashing aircraft now carry their motion over into the crash, no more falling straight down! Random vehicle damage while traveling at high speeds shouldn’t happen anymore! • Players can now buy up to 10 perk slots! (Yes! This is very expensive, 550,000,000 in total if you’re getting them all from scratch). You can only select up to 5 perks on non-San Casina maps. • A new "House" has been added, this "home" is an ex Area 69 Outpost right along the desert highway: It features 3 weapons lockers, a mini fridge, and item safe. It has purchasable security. One vehicle parking spot. And one aircraft parking spot. • Added the Gmax Shipping Job: Players have to take an intake test to deliver packages for Gmax Shipping, this intake test requires at least a 60% to pass, failing the test makes the player wait a minute before taking it again. Once a player has passed the delivery test they can buy a Gmax Shipping Truck, once inside the truck the player is given a package and an address to deliver the package to. Upon delivering the package at the address the package will be picked up by the owner within two minutes, upon which the driver is paid. Players can set down a package at any time and get back in the truck to get a new one (old package will eventually disappear). Players can steal other players DROPED OFF packages, this will get them a random item. Players that lose more than 3 packages in a row will be fired, lose all raises, and have to retake the entry test. Sometimes packages will be a letter bomb, if you hear suspicious sounds call 911 to have all letter bombs removed from your inventory. Added 11 new delivery package items for the player inventory for the Gmax shipping Job. • Added 6 new vehicles: Fiat Tipo Honda E Mazda 6 Tesla Model Y Toyota Land Cruiser Vehicle Transport - a vehicle transporter • Dodge Viper now has 6 alt colors (Black, Blue, Gray, Orange, Red, White). • Main bridge no-longer has vehicle collisions by the sidewalks that trap vehicles up on the sidewalk. • Cargo Hovercraft can now carry a vehicle (even as large as a Mad Deer). • Maxwell Cat Event Updates: Maxwell will last at least 5 minutes longer now. Maxwell the Cat now chooses spots nearby randomly more often so it doesn’t spend a quarter of its time walking back and forth between the desert and the city. Maxwell will no longer pay players that are unspawned. Maxwell Cat now has a weapon name so that it no longer gives odd kill strings. Civilian traffic should now yield for Maxwell instead of driving straight into him. Maxwell will now randomly sit at the same position for up to 30 seconds. • Made some fixes with how the building data and teleport location data is loaded. • Killing yourself with the “End Key” now displays a message of "[PLAYERNAME] used the unstuck key to flee [PLAYER INFANTRY SEX] existence in this world." • Buying new characters at the PCTS should no longer force players to exit and re-enter the zones to buy another character. • The Abomination Attack now causes the military base to lose power, now that the military base works correctly after the last patch the Abominations were unable to get out due to the base killing them first. • Reduced the sight range of housing secrurity cameras from 70 meters to 25 meters so they don't shoot a mile down the road at you. • Rearranged the code more for my own sanity 🦌 Bug Fixes:• Skoda Superb’s windows now have projectile collisions. • Gmax Shipping Truck Adjustments: LODs have been fixed. Text has been brightened. Fixed headlights and Tail lights. More suspension height. • ODRDNPA Fixes: Bounty payout is now distributed between all players. Event should no longer leave Daves Arrows laying around. No longer gives payouts if it self destructs. • Housing and Security: Bill autopay SHOULD now correctly appear when a player logs in if they’ve been charged when offline. House Security now ignores the Maser Of Disguise perk. Changed how the perk “Advanced Security” unlocks and it should unlock sooner now. Stability changes that should result in less server crashing. Turrets should no longer deploy if no one owns the house. • Cleaned up some vehicle textures and shininess masks. • Moved a random bush off the road (super exciting I know). • Transport hovercraft has its foam trails once again which was lost when it was turned to its new white skin. • AI won’t spawn with the Cupid Bow anymore. • Weapon “Organs Gun” now has costs money. • Some bug fixes with pets that should make them more stable to use in general. • PCT no heal zones now correctly work once more, no more getting full health and armor (which you should have to buy) buy simply pressing refill at the PCT. • Fixed a housing bug that was causing apartments not to register security systems (turrets and doors) correctly. • Fixed a bug with how pins were being saved, there shouldn’t be anymore issues with this system hopefully. • Harrier is hopefully not a buggy pile of crap anymore. • Cleaned up some weapon grant and drop code, might not have fixed anything but makes me happier. • Fixed a housing bug that was causing the player to die in order to access their weapons cupboards after purchasing a house. • Fixed a bug causing houses to change the player weather to the arctic instead of indoors. • Fixed the weather system slowly being corrupted each time a player spawns in their home. • Housing security cameras will no longer attack empty vehicle or player vehicles (Thanks again to seifmagdi for getting me some ASM code that makes it easy to detect if the vehicle is AI controlled). • Hopefully fixed a bug that was allowing AI to randomly decide they hate you. Crash Fixes:• Fixed a crash caused by sitting on the (enter your perk number) screen and letting the server run for more than a minute and a half. • Fixed a crash caused by players that had more than 5 perks (could happen if you had the long in streak perk unlock). • A69’s nuke was overflowing memory, so if you did enough crime it could cause a memory overflow, this has been fixed. • Fixed a crash with the ECW dynamic clocks (It crashed on the testing server at least, so I’ve made the potential impossible). • Fixed a crash with the code that made civilian vehicles follow roads. • I think I've fixed a crash that happens the first 5 minutes of gameplay and possibly randomly after that.

Hopefully still has the "Speedy Gonzales" Shock Trooper.

Try this guy. As a note, we've had a version of this map in development hell for the modern version of APB, coming Soon™️ near you. RA_Soviet_Invasion_Coop.mix.7z

someone finally uploaded the beta disc https://archive.org/details/renegade-beta

Did someone say 'obnoxious'?