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#1 08/01/11 15:08

Tarik
Banned

Oni Demo Official Installer.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=77ZK1BX1,

Official ONI demo release.

ONI demo full version includes the Manplant level.

ONI demo, the standard release.
No Command, output of those demos.

Last edited by Tarik (08/15/11 03:08)

#2 08/01/11 17:08

geyser
Member
From: beyond the veil
Registered: 01/14/07
Website

Re: Oni Demo Official Installer.

If I understand correctly, this is meant as a substitute for the official distributions of Oni's demo for the PC: a self-extractor named Oni_Demo.exe or onidemo.exe, and an extra level named oni_lev2.zip or something like that. The problem with the official self-extractors is that they unpack to a temporary folder, run Oni from there, and delete everything when it exits. That way, people cannot mod or upgrade the demo so easily - that's probably a limitation intended by the publishers. However, if the GFX card is one of those that reports too many OpenGL extensions to Oni, then there'll be a "Blam, Oni crashed" right after self-extraction, and then the demo will be deleted. And that's very frustrating.

As for the "CMD" thing, I suppose Tarik means that the EXE is just the demo's original EXE, augmented by SFeLi's vtuneapi.dll, as available from here: http://geyser.oni2.net/EXE/pc.demo
That means that the Dev Mode is available (and some other basic Daodan features too), but otherwise the engine is still as crippled as the PC demo: limited BSL interface, no CMD output.

I once had a project called DemOni, with an installer made by Tracker. It had all three demo levels, plus a rudimentary modding framework: http://geyser.oni2.net/demoni/demoni.exe (87.7 MB)
Right now, one would probably use the Edition instead of that "nikanabo" thing, except that OniSplit doesn't appear to roundtrip the demo's SNDD correctly, and the retail Oni.exe chokes on them.

Last edited by geyser (08/01/11 18:08)


Behold the power of that which is yet unborn! For the swirling images that flow forth from the Chrysalis are only a shadow of the sleeper's true power.

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#3 08/01/11 18:08

Iritscen
Moderator
From: NC, USA
Registered: 10/22/07

Re: Oni Demo Official Installer.

It would definitely be a good idea to "resurrect" DemOni (sans the name :-p) at some point so that new players can try out the game legally and with our improvements.  What exactly needs to be done to make that happen?  I'm not clear on what the issue is with the SNDDs, aren't you distributing the demo's original EXE that understands that format?


Check out the Anniversary Edition Seven at ae.oni2.net!

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#4 08/01/11 21:08

Gumby
Member
From: Seattle, WA, USA
Registered: 08/30/07

Re: Oni Demo Official Installer.

No, he wants to distribute the demo with -nosep'd data files and the retail EXE. However, instead of trying to convert the old data, why not just remove the levels the demo wasn't distributed with? There is a small matter of a few characters not being originally distributed with the demo, but I'm pretty sure nobody will care.


Iritscen: roll
Iritscen: it's amazing this program even works
Gumby: i know
Iritscen: and that statement applies to my code, not just yours

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#5 08/01/11 22:08

Iritscen
Moderator
From: NC, USA
Registered: 10/22/07

Re: Oni Demo Official Installer.

Yes, that, or simply use the demo EXE.  Unless someone can explain to me what's wrong with that.  OniSplit supports sep and non-sep files on both platforms, right?


Check out the Anniversary Edition Seven at ae.oni2.net!

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#6 08/02/11 05:08

geyser
Member
From: beyond the veil
Registered: 01/14/07
Website

Re: Oni Demo Official Installer.

The demo EXE has a few limitations as compared to the retail version. It's missing a lot of scripting commands (in the same way as an unmodified Mac engine), and apparently the dev console's output is crippled, too. That means that modding won't be too much fun, and some community scripts won't work at all. And I don't know if the current Daodan supports the demo EXE, but last time I checked it didn't.

The problem with the SNDD is that in the PC demo they have a default sampling rate of 22.05 KHz, and a very short data header, instead of the WAV/ADPCM header that the retail version SNDDs have.
OniSplit currently keeps that short header, even when creating "nosepped" dat/raw, whereas it should probably be generating an appropriate long header. The retail EXE chokes on the short headers.

If our legal experts are OK with trimming the retail data down to 3 levels, then we just need to decide which of the English Onis to take the data from, and whether to pre-apply globalization and such.


Behold the power of that which is yet unborn! For the swirling images that flow forth from the Chrysalis are only a shadow of the sleeper's true power.

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#7 08/02/11 08:08

Iritscen
Moderator
From: NC, USA
Registered: 10/22/07

Re: Oni Demo Official Installer.

geyser wrote:

The demo EXE has a few limitations as compared to the retail version. It's missing a lot of scripting commands (in the same way as an unmodified Mac engine), and apparently the dev console's output is crippled, too. That means that modding won't be too much fun, and some community scripts won't work at all. And I don't know if the current Daodan supports the demo EXE, but last time I checked it didn't.

I guess I wasn't thinking about the demo EXE not being scripting-friendly, and I wasn't sure about the Daodan, but I suppose nothing in memory is in the same place, so that makes sense.

The problem with the SNDD is that in the PC demo they have a default sampling rate of 22.05 KHz, and a very short data header, instead of the WAV/ADPCM header that the retail version SNDDs have. OniSplit currently keeps that short header, even when creating "nosepped" dat/raw, whereas it should probably be generating an appropriate long header.

Oh, I didn't realize OniSplit did that.

If our legal experts are OK with trimming the retail data down to 3 levels

You know we don't have anything like legal experts ^_^ We may not be entirely within the letter of the law, but I think it's within the spirit of the law to release the equivalent (in EXE and .dat form) of the content that was originally released in the demos, even if it's the retail equivalent.

then we just need to decide which of the English Onis to take the data from

Huh?  You lost me again.

and whether to pre-apply globalization and such

Well, that would increase the size of the demo with duplicate data, so I don't see much of an advantage besides getting the mods installed faster.  If we're talking about a custom AE release, we might as well stick with how the Installer already works and just tweak it so it doesn't expect to find the full suite of levels in the GDF.  Certainly it will install faster with only level0 (and I assume we'd cut the non-demo data from this) and three level .dats.

A simpler approach would be to simply "bake in" some mods that we think are fairly uncontroversial and distribute the demo with pre-modded .dats.  We don't want people to spend a long time on just the demo, after all, so "modular mods" being an exclusive feature of the full Oni should be an enticement to "upgrade", as well as requiring less time and support from us to be spent on the demo.


Check out the Anniversary Edition Seven at ae.oni2.net!

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#8 08/04/11 16:08

Gumby
Member
From: Seattle, WA, USA
Registered: 08/30/07

Re: Oni Demo Official Installer.

Er, I think he means stripping the data from an Edition installation instead of an Oni installation. The Edition\ folder doesn't need the parent folder to be an installation of Oni unless you intend on reglobalizing (which is something that only needs to be done if we muck with how files are organized again or the user corrupts his files). Otherwise, as long as you remove the level_# folders in GDF (which aren't used except for being a convient location to get files to mod), the filesize shouldn't be too different.


Iritscen: roll
Iritscen: it's amazing this program even works
Gumby: i know
Iritscen: and that statement applies to my code, not just yours

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#9 08/04/11 21:08

Iritscen
Moderator
From: NC, USA
Registered: 10/22/07

Re: Oni Demo Official Installer.

Ah, that's true.  I'm still not sold on the idea of allowing mod installation in the demo version of the AE, though.  I don't want to have to spend any time supporting the installation of mods intended for retail Oni into an Oni that is missing most of its levels.  The goal of a revived demo should just be to present an improved version of the original demo, so players can get a taste of what Oni is like.


Check out the Anniversary Edition Seven at ae.oni2.net!

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#10 08/08/11 00:08

Gumby
Member
From: Seattle, WA, USA
Registered: 08/30/07

Re: Oni Demo Official Installer.

It shouldn't be much extra work at all, most if not all mods don't care about the levels.


Iritscen: roll
Iritscen: it's amazing this program even works
Gumby: i know
Iritscen: and that statement applies to my code, not just yours

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