Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...

OldRover · 01/30/2011, 03:45 AM

We're going to be giving away two copies of the game for free in this little promo/contest. To enter, here's what you've got to do...

Design and record a unique warning track.

You all know the drill... track 1 of almost every PCE CD game is an audio track that warns about it being a disc with computer data that isn't for audio use, blah blah blah. So the deal is this... make one of your own. The winning entry will score two free sealed copies of the game and have their track used in the official pressing, as well as their name in the credits. To enter, simply record your own track and send it in uncompressed WAV format to david AT eponasoft DOT com along with the name you'd like to have appear in the credits.

The legal fine print is as follows (no one reads this stuff anyways):
The winning entry will become the property of Frozen Utopia; all non-winning entries will remain property of their respective authors. We reserve the right to reject any entry for any reason. Winning this contest does not grant the winner royalties or any other benefits outside of what is stated above. The recorded audio must be original or properly licensed; the use of unlicensed copyrighted material will result in an immediate disqualification of the entry. Participants may submit multiple entries. Group efforts are allowed but the specified physical prizes are not duplicable to multiple winning participants. By submitting an entry, you agree to and are bound by these rules without exception. Frozen Utopia reserves the right to modify these rules at any time.

BlueBMW · 01/30/2011, 08:14 AM

I'll assume you'll want these in english? Or do you want some Japanese samples as well?

Arkhan Asylum · 01/30/2011, 09:17 AM

Can we be vulgar and obnoxious or is that not gonna result in a win.

OldRover · 01/30/2011, 09:53 AM

English only since there's no Japanese translation. And keep it clean.

Arjak · 01/30/2011, 12:54 PM

I have an idea for a humorous warning track, but to record it, I'll need to know how many tracks there are on the CD, and which ones are music and which are data. Would that be OK, Old Rover?

OldMan · 01/30/2011, 02:12 PM

I *think* all the cd's are laid out the same: track 1 is warning, track 2 is data, tracks 3+ are music. How many tracks there will be I couldn't tell you, but I'm pretty sure music will start at track 3......

And rover: You didn't like the warning on insanity? Arkhan wouldn't let me do the one I had in mind.....Maybe I'll find it and send it to you, just for laughs....

Arjak · 01/30/2011, 02:16 PM

Some CDs have more than one data track, which are mixed in with the music tracks. That's why I ask.

OldRover · 01/30/2011, 02:17 PM

As of right now, it's unknown how many tracks will be audio, as there is still no word on alternate language cutscenes. There is only one data track though, which is track 2. There will either be 25 or 29 audio tracks aside from track 1; if there are to be alternate language audio, two of each language will be redbook and the rest will be streaming ADPCM.

OldRover · 01/30/2011, 02:17 PM

Oh, and I didn't listen to the one on Insanity yet. I'll throw it in right now and check it out.

Arkhan Asylum · 01/30/2011, 04:53 PM

Quote from: The Old Rover on 01/30/2011, 02:17 PMOh, and I didn't listen to the one on Insanity yet. I'll throw it in right now and check it out.

The one in Insanity is pretty plain and safe. Lol not very funny from what I remember, but thats ok

Bernie · 01/30/2011, 06:21 PM

lol. "OK idiot, don't say you weren't warned." I love it.

OldRover · 01/30/2011, 06:23 PM

For some reason, I can't play it. Oh well.

Arkhan Asylum · 01/30/2011, 06:49 PM

Quote from: bernielindell on 01/30/2011, 06:21 PMlol. "OK idiot, don't say you weren't warned." I love it.

yeah, I guess there was that part.

haha

Bernie · 01/30/2011, 07:23 PM

Quote from: OldRover on 01/30/2011, 06:23 PMFor some reason, I can't play it. Oh well.

I was able to play it in Winamp.

esteban · 01/31/2011, 05:02 AM

I pre-ordered a copy, of course, but I would like to know: what is the deadline for entries?

Thanks in advance.

OldRover · 01/31/2011, 08:54 AM

Deadline is the end of February, which is when the final beta is expected to be completed.

hoobs88 · 01/31/2011, 08:55 AM

Quote from: OldRover on 01/31/2011, 08:54 AMDeadline is the end of February, which is when the final beta is expected to be completed.

Hooray for completion! The long wait will finally be over.

Arjak · 01/31/2011, 05:31 PM

I have sent in my audition. All I can do now is hope!

OldRover · 01/31/2011, 06:47 PM

Got your submission.

That was pretty funny.

esteban · 02/01/2011, 01:21 AM

Quote from: OldRover on 01/31/2011, 08:54 AMDeadline is the end of February, which is when the final beta is expected to be completed.

Thank you

ParanoiaDragon · 02/01/2011, 04:41 AM

Aw man! I gotta hurry & come up with some ideas so I can win this!!

mrhaboobi · 02/13/2011, 08:55 PM

Sweet, looking forward to this coming out, managed to hang in there for the long run

esteban · 02/15/2011, 12:41 AM

Quote from: ParanoiaDragon on 02/01/2011, 04:41 AMAw man! I gotta hurry & come up with some ideas so I can win this!!

Thanks for reminding me! I had forgotten about this

VestCunt · 03/01/2011, 12:52 AM

Entry submitted! Still technically February!

BlueBMW · 03/01/2011, 01:01 AM

mine didn't come out too well, so no submission here.. I have an alternate plan to get me some MSR

OldRover · 03/01/2011, 03:14 PM

It's no longer February anywhere in the world so the compo is now finished. I'll be announcing the winner here shortly. There were 8 entries total so this might take awhile to decide.

OldRover · 03/01/2011, 03:48 PM

And the winner is...

vestcunt

As a bonus, the second place entry will receive a single free copy, though we're still deciding on a second place track. Some of these are hilarious, and some are just plain lame. Right now it's kind of a tossup between two entries in particular.

Vestcunt's entry wins because not only is it a nod to the original track used by Hudson back in the day, but it's very professional-sounding and is recorded in the three languages the game comes in.

VestCunt · 03/01/2011, 04:33 PM

Thanks so much. I'm glad I could be a part of this and look forward to playing the game!

OldRover · 03/01/2011, 06:10 PM

It was really close... there was a definite quality comparison between the submissions of Arjak and TwistedMind. However, in the end, I made the choice based on overall spirit of the submission. Thus, the second-place winner is:

Arjak

who wins one free copy of the game. Of course, the track won't be used in the production, but hey, a freebie is a freebie is a freebie.

Bernie · 03/01/2011, 06:13 PM

Congrats to the winners! Guess this gets us one step closer to the release!!

OldRover · 03/01/2011, 10:10 PM

Saturday is the expected release of the final beta; my daughter's been sick so I've had to stop working to take care of her but now that she's doing better, I'm back to work on this. Friday will be the final audio cuts, which will lead to the inclusion of the last cutscenes. The next two days will be dedicated to completing the special extended game mode... going very smoothly so far.

TheClash603 · 03/01/2011, 10:14 PM

Quote from: OldRover on 03/01/2011, 10:10 PMSaturday is the expected release of the final beta; my daughter's been sick so I've had to stop working to take care of her but now that she's doing better, I'm back to work on this. Friday will be the final audio cuts, which will lead to the inclusion of the last cutscenes. The next two days will be dedicated to completing the special extended game mode... going very smoothly so far.

Woooooo!

JoshTurboTrollX · 03/02/2011, 10:59 AM

Quote from: TheClash603 on 03/01/2011, 10:14 PM
Quote from: OldRover on 03/01/2011, 10:10 PMSaturday is the expected release of the final beta; my daughter's been sick so I've had to stop working to take care of her but now that she's doing better, I'm back to work on this. Friday will be the final audio cuts, which will lead to the inclusion of the last cutscenes. The next two days will be dedicated to completing the special extended game mode... going very smoothly so far.
Woooooo!

HOOOoooooo!

incrediblehark · 03/02/2011, 11:59 AM

Sounds like its almost finished - can't wait for this game to be released!

Hope my preorder still counts from over a year ago.

OldRover · 03/02/2011, 12:17 PM

Whoever paid for a pre-order is still in the order list.

Arjak · 03/02/2011, 04:57 PM

Quote from: OldRover on 03/01/2011, 06:10 PMIt was really close... there was a definite quality comparison between the submissions of Arjak and TwistedMind. However, in the end, I made the choice based on overall spirit of the submission. Thus, the second-place winner is:

Arjak

who wins one free copy of the game. Of course, the track won't be used in the production, but hey, a freebie is a freebie is a freebie.

I was a little disappointed that I didn't win 1st Place, but I'm so happy to have gotten 2nd as well as getting my own copy of this game for free, that I feel great now. Besides, there's always next time.

Congrats Vestcunt! I can't wait to hear your track!

Old Rover, let me know when you'll need my address so I can send you a PM.

Tatsujin · 03/02/2011, 08:02 PM

Paul will win!

ParanoiaDragon · 03/02/2011, 08:41 PM

Quote from: JoshTurboTrollX-16 on 03/02/2011, 10:59 AM
Quote from: TheClash603 on 03/01/2011, 10:14 PM
Quote from: OldRover on 03/01/2011, 10:10 PMSaturday is the expected release of the final beta; my daughter's been sick so I've had to stop working to take care of her but now that she's doing better, I'm back to work on this. Friday will be the final audio cuts, which will lead to the inclusion of the last cutscenes. The next two days will be dedicated to completing the special extended game mode... going very smoothly so far.
Woooooo!
HOOOoooooo!

MOOOoooooo!

JoshTurboTrollX · 03/03/2011, 12:55 PM

Quote from: ParanoiaDragon on 03/02/2011, 08:41 PM
Quote from: JoshTurboTrollX-16 on 03/02/2011, 10:59 AM
Quote from: TheClash603 on 03/01/2011, 10:14 PM
Quote from: OldRover on 03/01/2011, 10:10 PMSaturday is the expected release of the final beta; my daughter's been sick so I've had to stop working to take care of her but now that she's doing better, I'm back to work on this. Friday will be the final audio cuts, which will lead to the inclusion of the last cutscenes. The next two days will be dedicated to completing the special extended game mode... going very smoothly so far.
Woooooo!
HOOOoooooo!
MOOOoooooo!

Shooooooooe!

OldRover · 03/04/2011, 02:21 AM

Saturday isn't going to happen, by the way... I discovered that there's still one major detail that hasn't been completed yet, and that's the inclusion of the French script. It was included into one area, but has to be included everywhere... however, because adding the French script exceeds the 8KB limitation on near data, it has to be added as far data, which involves a partial code rewrite in many areas of the game. This takes awhile, because the dialogue has to be copied into a new external script file, control codes have to be added to it, and then it has to be run through my binary script parser, which also produces a guide file which is used to reference the exact location in the far data of each text string. It takes no less than six hours to re-implement an entire area's dialogue. Another issue with the French script is that the font had to be expanded to make room for all the special characters that aren't present in English or Spanish... I had to move parts of the UI into the extended space and do some minor code tweaks to accommodate.

Also, I was taking a look through some of the documentation for huc/pceas... just for the hell of it... and discovered an interesting flaw in pceas... it offers no method of procedure optimization, so procs often get padded with huge amounts of dead codespace. This becomes especially apparent when using HuC, since C coders are very used to just writing functions that sit just about anywhere with no real need for concern about their placement in the source. This changes everything; as a test, I reorganized the battle program, which was 240KB before the change, and managed to reduce it to 224KB just by grouping the smallest functions together. That's two entire banks worth of dead code eliminated from the game. That is EXTREMELY significant. With this in mind, I am going to write a small utility to calculate the size of each proc and organize them as optimally as possible to reduce codespace waste. Of course, such a utility will no doubt take awhile to write, so I'm going to wait until MSR is in final beta before attempting it. One thing's for sure though... it will most certainly help with Project MONOLITH, as the test program for that shot to 240KB with no understandable reason why... but now the reason is crystal clear and I bet I can wipe out four or more dead code banks just by reorganizing the function order.

ParanoiaDragon · 03/04/2011, 02:36 AM

Quote from: JoshTurboTrollX-16 on 03/03/2011, 12:55 PM
Quote from: ParanoiaDragon on 03/02/2011, 08:41 PM
Quote from: JoshTurboTrollX-16 on 03/02/2011, 10:59 AM
Quote from: TheClash603 on 03/01/2011, 10:14 PM
Quote from: OldRover on 03/01/2011, 10:10 PMSaturday is the expected release of the final beta; my daughter's been sick so I've had to stop working to take care of her but now that she's doing better, I'm back to work on this. Friday will be the final audio cuts, which will lead to the inclusion of the last cutscenes. The next two days will be dedicated to completing the special extended game mode... going very smoothly so far.
Woooooo!
HOOOoooooo!
MOOOoooooo!
Shooooooooe!

GOOOoooooooooooooooo!

OldRover · 03/04/2011, 02:39 AM

Just to test it... I went into Monolith's demo code and moved just a few smaller functions to the bottom of the source in the hopes that they would fill a single bank. The overlay size dropped from 240KB to 216KB. Holy hell what a difference.

There's three banks with minimal effort... any wagers on getting a fourth one shot down?

Mishran · 03/04/2011, 02:54 AM

Are preorders still up for this game? If so how can I get myself a piece of the action. I have been checking on the status of this game on your site every now and then for a while. Really looking forward too it just like everyone else here. BTW Rover frozen utopia has been throwing up a red flag with my McAfee antivirus here recently. Says to take extreme caution when navigating the site? Trying to steal my identity? Trust me when Isay you do NOT want it...

OldRover · 03/04/2011, 03:14 AM

That's odd... can you give me more details of what it says? And no, the site isn't out to steal anyone's identity... it's a simplistic, pure HTML site with absolutely no active scripting aside from the forum, which is always kept up-to-date. I'm checking .htaccess right now and it's 100% fine. A check of all relevant HTML files indicates no issues.

Preorders are not going to be put back up until we're up to the release candidate, which will come after the final beta test.

OldRover · 03/04/2011, 11:43 AM

Take extreme caution on our site! It'll blow up your computer and impregnate your dog!

No seriously... frozenutopia.com is on a shared IP, and there was probably a problem with one of the other accounts on the same server at some point. Nothing to worry about.

OldMan · 03/04/2011, 12:46 PM

Quotemoved just a few smaller functions to the bottom of the source in the hopes that they would fill a single bank. The overlay size dropped from 240KB to 216KB.

Yeah, touko and I were talking about that a few months ago on aetherbyte. Seems pceas doesn't do any kind of attempt to fit code into already 'filled' banks. I lopped about 40K from pyramind plunder by moving 2 functions....
Your best approach is a knap-sack solution: put the biggest function in first, then keep adding the 'next-largest' until the bank is almost full. When you get real close to full (1K or so), start throwing in as many smaller functions as possible. Repeat for next bank.

I do seem to remember from long ago days that trying to actually get an optimal solution to the problem takes major amounts of processor time, so I would suggest an A* search. It won't be optimal, but it will be really close. That is, if you're going to try and automate it (though I'm not sure how you would... You'd need to work with the text version of the assembly, or re-write pceas. If you decide to go re-write pceas, let me know :-)

OldRover · 03/04/2011, 12:55 PM

Another quick update... the French script was implemented into Fawna, and instead of increasing in size, it *dropped* in size by 2 whole banks because of the vast reduction in the number of function calls. It was at 184KB with two languages, then grew to 192KB when I started adding French, but violating the near data size limitation forced the use of the far data scripting method, which considerably cuts down the amount of function calls anyways... it's dropped down to 176KB now.

Further function reduction can take place later on when we're sure that all three language scripts are 100% accurate, which will likely reduce the code even further in size and might free up yet another bank.

OldRover · 03/04/2011, 01:00 PM

Quote from: TheOldMan on 03/04/2011, 12:46 PMYeah, touko and I were talking about that a few months ago on aetherbyte. Seems pceas doesn't do any kind of attempt to fit code into already 'filled' banks. I lopped about 40K from pyramind plunder by moving 2 functions....
Your best approach is a knap-sack solution: put the biggest function in first, then keep adding the 'next-largest' until the bank is almost full. When you get real close to full (1K or so), start throwing in as many smaller functions as possible. Repeat for next bank.

I do seem to remember from long ago days that trying to actually get an optimal solution to the problem takes major amounts of processor time, so I would suggest an A* search. It won't be optimal, but it will be really close. That is, if you're going to try and automate it (though I'm not sure how you would... You'd need to work with the text version of the assembly, or re-write pceas. If you decide to go re-write pceas, let me know :-)

I don't have any intentions of rewriting pceas

man that thing's confusing. My intention is to write a post-compiler/pre-assembler (if using huc, it will run between huc and pceas) that gauges the size of each function and then organizes them in the most optimal way possible. It's alright if this uses a lot of CPU time... it's worth it. In the meantime, the knapsack method sounds like it'll work well.

Of course, since this game is done almost entirely in HuC, it can be hard to tell how large a function will be as an assembly proc.

OldRover · 03/04/2011, 01:15 PM

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/msr-09-119.png

ParanoiaDragon · 03/04/2011, 01:35 PM

Good grief, we can say sooo much in english with sooo few words

Quote from: OldRover on 03/04/2011, 11:43 AMTake extreme caution on our site! It'll blow up your computer and impregnate your dog!

No seriously... frozenutopia.com is on a shared IP, and there was probably a problem with one of the other accounts on the same server at some point. Nothing to worry about.

Oh, it's wierd, after the last time I logged into frozenutopia, all of a sudden I've been getting large payments on my bills! My car is paid off, a couple credit cards, & a significant amount of my mortgage! Thanks Nod, & thank you frozenutopia, you rock!!