Aliens Vs Predator - Source code update

by Barry Duncan (sirlemonhead)
sirlemonhead (at) outlook.com

Page last updated - 8th January 2015

What is this?

This is an enhancement to Aliens Vs Predator that aims to fix bugs and add new features to the game while keeping it compatible and playable on most modern Windows based operating systems.

Downloads:

Latest executable release: 8th January 2015

Latest changes - Fixed mouse handling (should be more accurate) and re-enabled spawning of bots using -debug and -lampcxtr commands Thanks to Aaron R. for all his help identifying issues.

setup_AvPx.exe - now with automated installer

The source code is hosted at: http://www.assembla.com/spaces/AvP/trac_subversion_tool

Supported operating systems:

List of improvements:

Requirements:

Where are user profiles, savegames and configuration settings stored?

If you are wondering where the User_Profile folder and configuration files have gone, they have been moved out of the AvP game folder and are now stored in your My Documents folder
e.g. on Vista and upwards, the files are stored in C:\Users\(your username)\Documents\My Games\Aliens versus Predator

Can I remove the limit on how many times I can save the game?

Yes. Open the file AliensVsPredator.cfg (see above to find this file if unsure where it is) and change the line UnlimitedSaves = false to UnlimitedSaves = true

Can I play the game in a window?

Yes. Add the parameter "-w" to the command line when launching the game. Do this by right clicking the AvPx.exe file and selecting Create shortcut. Right click the new "AvPx.exe - Shortcut" and select Properties. Where it says Target, add the -w parameter at the very end of the text in this box, after the quote mark. e.g. "C:\Program Files\Fox\Aliens versus Predator\AvPx.exe" -w You can then rename "AvPx.exe - Shortcut" to something like "AvPx.exe - Windowed"

How to get music playback working

  1. First, grab the audio from the AvP game cd and convert it to Ogg Vorbis format. To do this, I use Exact Audio Copy in conjunction with oggenc2 (I used the version with libVorbis). I won't go into any detail on how to set up and use EAC but my compression properies are set up as shown in this screenshot. You can alternatively create the .ogg files using any other capable audio ripping software.
  2. Then, create a folder called 'Music' in your AvP Game folder. Copy the .ogg files created above into this folder and create a text file in the Music folder called 'ogg_tracks.txt'. In this text file, you need to provide a list of the filenames for your .ogg files. See this screenshot for an example of how to do it. That should be it - the game should now pick up the .ogg files and play them.

Credits:

Big thanks to Melanikus (who is techically part of the "team"), blueshogun96, bassquake, Plagman, Visper, Clockface, l11l1VeNoM1l11l, dla and relnev, Aaron R. and anyone at the awesome Vogons forum who suggested bug fixes and everyone else who helped (sorry if I forgot anyone!)

Interesting/Important Links:

Compiling the source code

Requirements:
Steps:
  1. Install Visual Studio C++ 2010
  2. Install the DirectX SDK
  3. Compile OpenAL soft or use prebuild libraries
  4. Compile libogg, libvorbis, libtheora, libsmackerdec, libbinkdec as a Release build, with Runtime Library type set to Multi-threaded DLL
  5. Point Visual Studio to the .lib files you built above