Once it was Dead

[Myhrginoc]

I posted a news bulletin about my future at the Keep. I am sure it comes as no surprise, I will be suspending all further work on this mod. I wish things had turned out otherwise, but there just isn't time in my life for D2. I see DeathScythe has posted recently, perhaps he may pick up where I left off (after I picked up where he left off, heh heh). Or he may authorize a successor for what has always been his mod (even if I did take a few liberties).

[Doub]

Is this mod finished at least?

[OHURUM]

I'm still getting used with the site's complexity, so I may be posting here instead of some other area, but... I need a working version of TFW! I play this mod (version 1.02) since 2007, but over the time files became corrupt and I'm having a hard time trying to play it now! Is there a source from where to get this awesome mode again? I read about an alpha version 2.0. Can someone reupload a playable version? Thank you in advance!

P.S.: The most important question: it will be possible of a "The Fury Within - Resurrected"? I would love to see this amazing mod with those new Blizzard stunning details! This mod truly deserve being resurrected, too!

[KHAYOSSUS]

Hail,http://ftp88693.hostfx.ru/Mods/
U can find it here,theres a lot of mods there

[Myhrginoc]

Yes, it is true, bad pennies do turn up again! I am back and during the year I will be looking through my just-recovered notes to see what remains to develop for the TFW platform and actually finish this mod. At first I will continue with v1.10, but once I have that finalized I will look at bringing it forward. Development will be slow to begin with; I have to remember a lot of stuff

Good news for anybody looking for TFW: Ancients and TFW: Awakening. I have archives for both and will work with the Keep staff to get them available if they are missing. (Until I explore the to-me new environment and talk with our hosts, I am still very much retired.) Bear with us for a short while!

[danemanuelk]

OMG this is a HUGE good news

[danemanuelk]

Myhrginoc please post a little info about new D2SE version of TFW Awakening you working ....maybe a possible info when will be ready ?

[kain_abel_666]

I don't think he made this version but someone did adapt for d2se
http://ftp88693.hostfx.ru/Mods/The%20Fu ... Awakening/

[Myhrginoc]

No, that wasn't me; D2SE didn't even exist when I had to disappear. But the good news is I have almost finished rounding up the files I need (the drive I recovered had some corruption, how obnoxious). A couple of code tweaks to make TFW D2SE-ready, then some testing...say middle of next week for a target. (Preferably not Real Soon Now, but last week's heat wave in our parts had me off the computer a lot.)

I suppose I should be flattered, Awakening is still only half the mod it should be. But I am curious if that download supports all my customizations, e.g. skill points per level, harder Players X. Those were what D2SE had the most trouble with.

[danemanuelk]

@kain_abel_666 unfortunately that D2Se version you mentioned has 2 major bugs (I explained in detail on discord )
@Myhrginoc glad to hear mod is in development ...thanks in advance for your work. I am very eager to play again TFW Awakening

[moscitor]

very good news indeed

[Myhrginoc]

TFW reached a milestone today.

First the good news: I recompiled custom code and loaded to the main menu from D2SE. That may not seem like much, but it involved a lot of file shuffling, working with a new tool (MS Visual Studio 2019, quite a different kettle of fish from what we used the first time around), and figuring out D2SE itself. The new code works with the d2Mod system still (more adjustments there, yikes) so I get to keep using these plugins. As proof of concept this version will be usable with D2SE.

Code: Select all

20:55:06.236  imagehlp.dll loaded for better stack crawls.
20:55:06.375  MercDesc.dll loaded at 6F5C0000
20:55:06.376  MercMod.dll loaded at 6FD70000
20:55:06.384  ExtLvl.dll loaded at 6FDA0000
20:55:06.386  GemFix.dll loaded at 6FF30000
20:55:06.387  CubeOps.dll loaded at 6FD60000
20:55:06.388  SkillPrereq.dll loaded at 6F800000
20:55:06.392  tfw.dll loaded at 6F500000
20:55:06.392  A valid load of TFW: Awakening has been detected
20:55:06.394  D2ModDebug.dll loaded at 6F6C0000

The First Law of News Conservation means for every good piece of news there is an equal and opposite piece of bad news. Some files were corrupted which means new bugs to chase down, so I am pushing back an alpha3 release a few days or so.

[danemanuelk]

Yuhuuuuu THANKS Myhrginoc .... your work is appreciated. I am very glad to see this mod growing

[danemanuelk]

I don't know how to explain my level of happiness to you now. Basically I discovered Diablo 2 and TFW Awakening almost simultaneously and that's why for a long time I thought TFW was an official addon (I didn't know anything about modding then). So, in a sense, for me it's like D2 itself gets an update. That's why I said I had an emotional connection with your mod

[Myhrginoc]

Nothing like an enthusiastic booster! Those are mighty powerful compliments for a half-finished product. Are you sure the "add-on" was Awakening and not Ancients? Ancients is the first TFW, for D2 v1.09; it is a complete package and also available as a D2SE plugin. After I get alpha3 up and running, I'll be playing some Ancients myself to refresh what non-D2 beasties SilentX and Deathscythe had used, so everybody shows up properly in Awakening.

One thing I must mention, since it is Keep policy and I am the host here: please do not post successive messages. The first button of the five at upper right in each message is an Edit tool so you can always add a thought or twenty to any post you made.

[danemanuelk]

First - sorry for successive post (not happening again, is a bad habit from discord I think)

Second - I am totally confident was you mod Awakening (first I play) and not Ancient because your mod has Sigil Award and later, when I discovered Ancient (and installed), I was puzzled where is my sigil and why not work. Maybe for you is a half-finished product, but for me wasn't (years ago when I played like a mad man I did not realized the mod contains half finis asset). Later I played Ancient and finally I had now understood what is a mod and witch of them was first. Even so, because Awakening was the first I play, for me remained the absolute mark.

Sorry for my clumsy English

[Myhrginoc]

Yes, I added the Sigils. If you still have your previous characters, nothing I have done to date will keep them from loading.

[danemanuelk]

Excellent news, I have indeed an old save (not the oldest unfortunately) and I will used gladly when you will release this new version


Please man .... don't let me without any news

[Myhrginoc]

I doubt you want the blow-by-blow of debugging. PlugY (of all things) decided to quit cooperating, not just for TFW but generally...traced it down to a strange assumption that any Blizz DLL it doesn't recognize must be version 1.13d. That doesn't help much when running 1.10 mods! I can either keep to an older PlugY or edit the default. I must have pulled the problem in when I installed D2SE My first load in D2SE must have been without PlugY active.

Okay, that being done, I can get back to figuring out what went south with the mod files. I hate to keep saying "in a few days" or "in a week or so" so this time I won't project just when...it's summer and life has its distractions, only some of which are enjoyable.

[danemanuelk]

THANKS for your fast reply ... I panicked that you stopped working at the mod (I know I am a silly one ) No need to explain for me every debugging step (I am not a modder and i dont understand all technicalities). The mod it will be ready when it is ready ... I will await more patiently. Big thanks in advance for your hard work.

[Myhrginoc]

No news is not necessarily good news. Bug tracking continues; butt-kicking for goodness!! I ran into a real puzzler while trying to find out why CustomTbl apparently is ignoring my tfw strings file and after fixing a relocation error in the ExtLvl plugin; certail DLLs are playing hide-and-seek! It must be a Visual Studio setting (and which did I touch by mistake?), the difference being VS 2019 running on Windows 10 now vs. VC6 on XP in 2006. DLLs are really hard to debug if I can't get them to load reliably (in game or separately with Ollydbg). Until this is solved and stable, development is at a standstill Here is a sample error log from a recent session:

Code: Select all

12:46:51.040  imagehlp.dll loaded for better stack crawls.
12:46:52.436  CubeOps.dll loaded at 6FD60000
12:46:52.991  ExtLvl.dll loaded at 6FDA0000
12:46:53.033  GemFix.dll loaded at 6FF30000
12:46:53.065  SkillPrereq.dll loaded at 6F800000
12:46:53.347  PlugY.dll loaded at 6E320000
12:46:53.347  D2Mod.dll loaded at 10000000
12:46:53.347  CustomTbl.dll loaded at 08880000
12:46:53.347  MercDesc.dll failed to load
12:46:53.347  MercMod.dll failed to load
12:46:53.347  tfw.dll loaded at 6F500000
12:46:53.347  An invalid load of TFW: Awakening has been detected
12:46:53.347  
12:46:53.347  
12:46:53.347  ------------------------------------------------------
12:46:53.349  PROGRAM:       Diablo II D2SE Core 1.10f
12:46:53.349  COMPUTER NAME: ******
12:46:53.349  USER NAME:     *****
12:46:53.349  TIME:          2021-07-31 12:46:53.347
12:46:53.349  
12:46:53.349  --------  FILE: C:\Myhrginoc\tfw\tfw.dll    LINE: 1835  --------

Assertion Failure
Location : C:\Myhrginoc\tfw\tfw.dll, line #1835
Expression : TFW: Awakening load failure
12:46:55.036  Stack bytes:
12:46:55.036  0019F914: B8F91900 644B0010 E06D186F FEFFFFFF  ¸ù..dK..àm.oþÿÿÿ
              0019F924: 4CF91900 4BEDF56F 24F91900 96F1F56F  Lù..Kíõo$ù...ñõo
              0019F934: 14F91900 4061506F 0427506F 4061506F  .ù..@aPo.'Po@aPo
              0019F944: 8460506F 2B070000 60F91900 DA31506F  .`Po+...`ù..Ú1Po
              0019F954: 4061506F 2B070000 00000000 D0790010  @aPo+.......Ðy..
              0019F964: C5140010 D0790010 3C33A36F B4FE1900  Å...Ðy..<3£o´þ..
              0019F974: 01000000 87130010 06000000 43756265  ............Cube
              0019F984: 4F707300 43757374 6F6D5462 6C004578  Ops.CustomTbl.Ex
              0019F994: 744C766C 0047656D 46697800 4D657263  tLvl.GemFix.Merc
              0019F9A4: 4D6F6400 536B696C 6C507265 72657100  Mod.SkillPrereq.
              0019F9B4: 74667700 00000000 D8F91900 00000000  tfw.....Øù......
              0019F9C4: 80000000 03000000 18035400 01000000  ..........T.....
              0019F9D4: 00000000 3B000000 71170010 00000000  ....;...q.......

[Necrolis]

No news is not necessarily good news. Bug tracking continues; butt-kicking for goodness!! I ran into a real puzzler while trying to find out why CustomTbl apparently is ignoring my tfw strings file and after fixing a relocation error in the ExtLvl plugin; certail DLLs are playing hide-and-seek! It must be a Visual Studio setting (and which did I touch by mistake?), the difference being VS 2019 running on Windows 10 now vs. VC6 on XP in 2006. DLLs are really hard to debug if I can't get them to load reliably (in game or separately with Ollydbg). Until this is solved and stable, development is at a standstill Here is a sample error log from a recent session:

Smells like a ld loader failure -- I'd suggest running something like DependancyWalker or CFFExplorer on your binary to see if you are possible missing any dependent dlls

[danemanuelk]

@ Myhrginoc Man I am sorry is such a pain in the ass that conversion do D2SE I hope you will overcome that bug and not lose appetite for updating TFW.

Good luck and big THANKS in advance for your patience and work

[Myhrginoc]

It isn't D2SE, it is non-standard patching of old software on Windows 10 compiled with new tools. Before this DLL problem arose, I could bring up the alpha3 character select screen from a D2SE launch.

I thought of dependencies early on, but even shoving all the d2 and plugin DLLs in the same folder then running the loader doesn't always help. My latest tactic is to start with only the bare minimum of code not commented out, building DLLs and loading them, then adding functions until I can't load anymore...at least this way I have ahope of finding the offender. What is weird is some of this code is ancient itself and I thoguht it was working, but the Big Oops with ExtLvl tells me to take that with a grain of salt. More cobwebs get blown out every day...

[Necrolis]

It isn't D2SE, it is non-standard patching of old software on Windows 10 compiled with new tools. Before this DLL problem arose, I could bring up the alpha3 character select screen from a D2SE launch.

I was actually referring to CRT and CPPRT dlls -- the newer VS build chains now use versioned dependency dlls. You can avoid some of that with static compiles, but you also now need to be wary of mixing D2's old CRT/CPPRT with the nwer ones from your dlls. Also after the v140_xp build chain, windows XP support falls away (also due to dependency requirements).