Problems with building via CMake for Linux

[NY00123]

Hi,

I don't know if support for platforms differing from Windows is covered right now. In fact, I have no idea if this software is intended to be used or maintained by other people; I couldn't really find discussions of it outside of your website, and .gitmodules currently uses an SSH remote URL instead of HTTPS. I suppose it's a program similar in idea to what you can get for games via the Steam Workshop, only that it covers mods for Vanilla Duke3D and/or unofficial source ports?

Either way, I've been trying to build it. The old Windows executable from 2009 doesn't work for me (tested via Wine); I can tell it appears to depend on debug runtime DLLs from VC++ 2005.

After using a local installation of CMake 3.27.7, it seemed to start downloading various packages into ~/.hunter and preparing them, until it ended with the following error, probably for 7-Zip:

[hunter ** FATAL ERROR **] Bad `hunter_config` format (variable value is empty): BUILD_CPP_LIB=
[hunter ** FATAL ERROR **] [Directory:/mnt/hdd/Games/duke3d/Duke3D_Mod_Manager/Libraries/Core/CMake]

It looks like BUILD_CPP_LIB is set to ON for Windows and not set at all otherwise, judging from the value of BUILD_7Z_CPP_LIB as defined under the submodule file Libraries/Core/CMake/Hunter/HunterConfig.cmake.

After re-running CMake with the addition of -DBUILD_7Z_CPP_LIB=OFF, it managed to progress until it reported the following file was not found:

~/.hunter/_Base/5299724/f845a29/af3f2be/Build/SevenZip/Source/cmake/Config.cmake.in

It's apparently a problem of case sensitivity on Linux, because this file exists (emphasis on cmake vs. CMake):

~/.hunter/_Base/5299724/f845a29/af3f2be/Build/SevenZip/Source/CMake/Config.cmake.in

Unfortunately, renaming the directory or even making a copy didn't seem to assist - the whole structure would be re-generated from what I saw. Same with editing the location of Config.cmake.in within the CMakeLists.txt file itself.

Let's hope this report proves to be useful.

[nitro404]

Hey @NY00123, apologies I didn't notice this sooner! GitHub unfortunately does not seem to always notify you of issues logged against repositories that are not under an organization, unfortunately. I really appreciate your interest in this project, but unfortunately I have not officially released it yet and as such I haven't taken the time to provide much in the way of documentation or information since I have not publicly advertised this initiative either. I'm nearing a V1 release, but I've been on a little bit of a hiatus for a few months, busy with real life things. I plan to come back to this as soon as I have the opportunity.

That said, indeed you are correct that this does not build on Linux, as I have not officially added support for this, but it is on my roadmap in the future. I've bridged out and used cross-platform libraries where it made sense to do so! I should have added a more explicit error in the CMake file when building for invalid target operating systems, so that is my mistake!

That's strange that it's failing on 7-Zip... I use that SDK for two purposes:

1. Enabling extraction of .7z files on all platforms
2. Enabling extraction of Nullsoft Scriptable Install System Installer Executable files (NSIS)

For the latter, it requires the full SDK, but it is only built when the target platform is Windows.

As for the old executable I provided on my website, this is the state of the project from nearly a decade ago and does not even remotely reflect it's current state. I have neglected updating my website for some time now, regrettably.

Thanks for calling out the git module issue, didn't realize using SSH was problematic.. I will re-consider this. 👍🏻

And as for the project itself, a brief overview is that it is intended to allow you to play any number of the 500+ mods available for Duke Nukem 3D across a wide range of source ports and DOSBox versions (where required) with a high degree of customizability. I've put years of work into hand curating this mod collection and crafting a massive metadata file with all the relevant information. It's the most complete collection of mods that I'm aware of. I also painstakingly went through hundreds of mods and manually converted them to work with the Atomic Edition of Duke 3D instead of the original 1.3D version, including re-creating the CON files, writing tooling to merge ART file tiles together, automatically incrementing invalid sound identifiers used in MAP files, and much more.

Really appreciate you taking the time to check this out, I'm happy to connect with you via e-mail or Discord or something if you wish to discuss further or learn more about the project in the interim!

[NY00123]

Hey @NY00123, apologies I didn't notice this sooner! GitHub unfortunately does not seem to always notify you of issues logged against repositories that are not under an organization, unfortunately.

I see, no problem at all here. I assumed it was maybe just due to priorities around the time of my report, and/or not feeling it's ready for a release.

From what I can tell, multiple people looking for Duke3D-related downloads would stumble upon your website over the years and get contents from there, but not use the older mod manager binaries or each mod's "Mod Manager Files"; And also not necessarily understand the purpose of the mod manager files from an inspected mod, if noticed.

I really appreciate your interest in this project, but unfortunately I have not officially released it yet and as such I haven't taken the time to provide much in the way of documentation or information since I have not publicly advertised this initiative either. I'm nearing a V1 release, but I've been on a little bit of a hiatus for a few months, busy with real life things. I plan to come back to this as soon as I have the opportunity.

Sounds like the usual and expected for me.

That said, indeed you are correct that this does not build on Linux, as I have not officially added support for this, but it is on my roadmap in the future. I've bridged out and used cross-platform libraries where it made sense to do so! I should have added a more explicit error in the CMake file when building for invalid target operating systems, so that is my mistake!

Thanks for confirming. Still wondering what may be done to resolve the "cmake" directory's case sensitivity issue; From what I recall, whenever I tried taking care of that, the whole structure would be recreated with the same problem. But if it's assumed there's no support, then that's just the situation for now.

That's strange that it's failing on 7-Zip... I use that SDK for two purposes:

1. Enabling extraction of .7z files on all platforms

2. Enabling extraction of Nullsoft Scriptable Install System Installer Executable files (NSIS)

For the latter, it requires the full SDK, but it is only built when the target platform is Windows.

So that's why the dependency exists. ZIP files seem to be used from your website, presumably read with some kind of built-in code.

And as for the project itself, a brief overview is that it is intended to allow you to play any number of the 500+ mods available for Duke Nukem 3D across a wide range of source ports and DOSBox versions (where required) with a high degree of customizability.

Outside of the scope of customizability, that's been exactly my guess, more-or-less.

I should note that there's potential competition coming from a new program of this kind; Namely, BuildLauncher from fgsfds. It might not currently have the same list of Duke3D mods as in your website, and it also lacks support for Vanilla Duke3D right now. But it's still there and further supports other Build Engine games.

I've put years of work into hand curating this mod collection and crafting a massive metadata file with all the relevant information. It's the most complete collection of mods that I'm aware of. I also painstakingly went through hundreds of mods and manually converted them to work with the Atomic Edition of Duke 3D instead of the original 1.3D version, including re-creating the CON files, writing tooling to merge ART file tiles together, automatically incrementing invalid sound identifiers used in MAP files, and much more.

That scope of work here is quite impressive, that's for sure. Are these modifications (to the mods themselves) usable without the manager, or the separate mod ZIP files have just unmodified data?

Really appreciate you taking the time to check this out,

You're welcome! It's true I usually still don't use a mod manager, in case I do play a mod Duke3D. If it's a multiplayer game, a way to go is probably one of the multiplayer-centric launchers (with chat lobbies) that also let you use mods conveniently. Otherwise, I might still unpack mods manually. I may try playing old contents (like a map or a mod) as-is, even with bugs (while I'm aware of the possibility). If it was made for v1.3d, I'd use either DOS registered v1.3d or a source port with at least partial compatibility (multiplayer included). It should be known there are hardcoded Duke3D behaviors that differ between the executables of v1.3d and the Atomic Edition, while not being exposed via CON.

[nitro404]

Hi again, @NY00123 ! Sorry for my late reply, I've been busy with real life things this year and definitely meant to get back to you sooner! The project is definitely not quite ready for release, but it's incredibly close to version 1 status! I was hoping to have a release out much sooner, but I've been on a bit of a hiatus. I'm planning to pick this up again and see it through in the new year!

Yeah, I've definitely received a handful of emails over the years, I'm always more than happy to keep this little piece of history alive. Certainly some of these files would have been lost to time if it wasn't for me downloading them off of obscure websites back in the day, haha.

To clarify 'Mod Manager Files', these are zip files containing a minimalist ready-to-go package that just has a GRP and CON file, rather than a pile of random stuff that maybe required you to run some random EXE file to unpack it, or a BAT file to rename some stuff, or maybe combining multiple ZIP files together, or who knows what. I like to retain original authenticity so I keep the files as the author(s) originally published them, along with a cleaned up version ready for consumption with no additional effort, essentially.

Yeah, I do need basic 7-Zip support for some times, such as various Duke 3D ports that are hosted external to my website.. this is accomplished using the C portion of the library, while the C++ part I only actually use NSIS support to allow me to extract the original DOSBox installation files directly rather than having the user need to go through the installer themselves. I'm hoping to move away from this library entirely, since it is not great, and has a lot of issues including me having to re-work a lot of fundamentals of the library just to get it to compile properly as a static binary.

ZIP file support is attained by using LibZIP, but I'm planning to move over to LibArchive in the future to have one unified solution, plus some of these 3rd party libraries have their own issues and limitations.

Ahhh interesting! I had a couple of projects shared with me recently, I will have to check it out.. thanks for mentioning! Supporting all of the different game ports has certainly been a challenge and a half inof itself!

Thank you!! It's been a huge passion project of mine for 15+ years, and I can't wait to get it out into the world finally! I'd love to support other build engine games too, but that would be quite a challenge too.. perhaps someday.. 😉 Sure! All this really does is generate the command to execute by populating all the command line arguments based on your application settings, the selected mod, and any overrides.. I've also added dependency support to reduce data duplication, so for example if something depends on Nuclear Winter or Duke It Out in D.C., it would be able to load multiple GRP files separately.. but yeah, you can definitely take the GRP file and load it up yourself, no problem.

Makes sense! I support both the NetDuke32 client and IPX over TCP/IP with DOSBox as well, but I haven't tried out how well it works with mods on multiplayer yet...

Ah yes! The 1.3D and 1.4/1.5 differences are definitely a pain for sure.. that's why I converted all of these older mods by hand with attention to detail!

Thanks again for your message. Feel free to connect with me via e-mail and I can share my Discord with you if you want to chat more directly! Take care.

[nitro404]

Hi! I've been very sidetracked with real life things for some time, but I have managed to get most of my core library building on Linux now! I'll eventually get to Linux support for my mod manager as well, but it's still a ways off. At least initially it should in theory run through Wine or Proton. I'll try and keep this discussion updated once I make more progress. Cheers.