I've written a sophisticated offline mission that works with 3 different versions of Aces High. Details here:
http://techvideoreview.com/FlightSimMovies/AcesHigh/Ah2Missions/PacMix01/Ah2PacMixMissionFullPage.htmThis has been an interesting exercise, and I've learned several things that will be important to any mission developer wishing to support old and new versions of Aces High. In no particular order, here are the items I can think of right now (I'll probably add more later as I think of or discover them):
1- All 3 versions of Aces High that I use are truly different from one another in their support for offline missions. Each seems to have its own unique timing conventions for launching a mission; the identical mission source code will yield timing differences of 30 seconds plus or minus by the time the opposing groups can launch and merge into a battle.
2- The battle tactics used by the computer-generated bot aircraft vary WIDELY between versions of Aces High. Some versions fly brilliant bot combat, while others fly stupidly, with many crashes into trees and hills, etc.
3- Because of the timing differences mentioned in "1-" above, it is necessary to custom-tweak any sound files associated with any mission segments so that they play during the associated action. I haven't been able to write just a single version of my mission code that invokes all of the sound effects optimally for the 3 versions. Each must be custom-tweaked, and it takes a lot of time to do so.
4- The Mission Editor seems to "hard-code" the references to resource file locations, which can create a problem when different people install multiple versions of Aces High in different, custom filesystem locations. My first attempts to write this mission caused pain for a lot of people because their Aces High 2.12.4 or Aces High 2.13.1 or Aces High 2.20.3 installations were all located in different filesystem locations from mine, and the mission editor had all of the associated references resolved to my arrangement. Others couldn't see the briefing images or hear the custom sound files.
5- I have learned to work around problem 4- (above) with a standardized, hard-coded file reference system that stores all of the optional files at c:\Hitech Creations\Aces High\misstemp\[MissionName]
where [MissionName] is "PacMix01" for this mission, but will be replaced with a different folder for other missions. At the time of this writing, this method has been implemented only for the AH2.12.4 version of the mission as described on my mission page [see above for the link]. Within the next few days I'll update the published installation instructions for AH2.13.1 to correspond. I like this solution because that path will always be present (up to the "misstemp" component) on any system that has installed recent versions of Aces High according to current prevailing methods.
6- I have found an easy and clever way to allow players to customize the sound files that play during each segment of each mission: At the beginning of EVERY mission segment, I've found it helpful to ALWAYS code a reference to a sound file that will always play if present, and I've standardized on simple, intuitive filenames for those segments. For example, in a Bishops mission at waypoint 1, the file is named "bwp01.wav", and at waypoint 2, it's "bwp02.wav", etc. Similarly, for a Knights mission at waypoint 12, the file name is "kwp12.wav". These files are optional, and if they aren't present, the mission just goes along without them. But if any (or all) of those files are present, the corresponding sound file accompanies the action. I've found that these files can be fairly long; I've had success with a couple that are several minutes each, and they can even overlap for simultaneous play, giving players a lot of flexibility and power to create their own sound effects, radio banter, narrations, foreign language support, etc. Any player that can create an 8-bit monophonic PCM wav file sampled at 8Khz can easily enhance a mission without even learning the mission editor. This is documented in the "PacMix01 for AH 2.12.4" link on my mission page.
7- For each different version of Aces High, it's necessary to use the corresponding version of the Mission Editor. This can be confusing, because early versions of the Mission Editor used a different numbering scheme and it is no longer obvious which version of the Mission Editor originally came out with which version of Aces High. If you get this wrong, you can expect various kinds of confusing problems as each mission is played. In particular, I've found that some plane choices will cause Aces High to hang or crash. This can make it very very difficult to edit old missions in a sensible and productive fashion.
8- The current version of Aces High (2.20.3) expects only a ".res" file as the basis for a mission. When the mission is launched, It then automagically disassembles that .res file back into its source code and component parts, storing those parts in its "misstemp" folder. The arrangement is fairly tidy, and an attempt has been made to make it self-documenting. Kudos. However, these disassembled source code files aren't fully compatible with older versions of Aces High, and sometimes cause crashes with them. They can also crash the old mission editors, so there is no easy solution.
9- In my opinion, all of these complications make it forever impractical to get good use from many of the old missions. There is just no easy solution for anybody wanting to use old missions with newer versions of Aces High, and any mission developer wishing to serve the community by converting the large existing body of old missions for use with newer versions is going to be facing a tedious, difficult challenge that will probably prove ultimately futile when the next version comes out!
10- The existing "Offline Missions List on AHwiki" is so plagued by all of these problems that it can probably never be fixed. Ugh....
11- Every version of Aces High suffers from problems supporting offline missions. Each has different problems. I've had best luck overall with Aces High II version 2.12.4. It isn't perfect, but I like it the best overall.
12- I think I'll write some more missions. When I do, I'll write them first for version 2.12.4. When I add optional support files for mission briefings and mission audio, I'll be writing it for version 2.12.4. I may also compile the missions for other versions, but I don't think I'll even try to coordinate the optional files for them. Once through this tedium is enough. For me, until I see much greater stability, uniformity, and predictability with some future version, I'm sticking with 2.12.4. My website will be updated to inculcate this view soon.
I HOPE some future version will fundamentally change this situation. Until then....
-Peabody-
