Looks like a free update if you already own TV on GOG. Nice.

So it's widescreen now, but still runs at the DOS version's crappy resolution, unlike the Mac version (1024x768)? Shame.

I wonder if we can still load custom POD files, define their load orders and define new episode selections. I did this in Terminal Velocity to make Microsoft Fury³ and WizardWorks F!ZONE playable in TV:

14
2STARTUP.POD
3FURY3.POD
4FURYSE.POD
5CDROM.POD

14
2share.vox
3retail1.vox
4retail2.vox
5fury.vox

133
2Fury3 Campaign
31,1,terran.lvl
41,2,terran2.lvl
51,3,terran3.lvl
62,1,atmos.lvl
72,2,atmos2.lvl
82,3,atmos3.lvl
93,1,red.lvl
103,2,red2.lvl
113,3,red3.lvl
124,1,city.lvl
134,2,city2.lvl
144,3,city3.lvl
155,1,egypt.lvl
165,2,egypt2.lvl
175,3,egypt3.lvl
186,1,astmine.lvl
196,2,astmine2.lvl
206,3,astmine3.lvl
217,1,water.lvl
227,2,water2.lvl
237,3,water3.lvl
248,1,borg.lvl
258,2,borg2.lvl
268,3,borg3.lvl
279,1,Belazure.Lvl
289,2,Belazur2.Lvl
299,3,Belazur3.Lvl
3010,1,Futro.Lvl
3110,2,Futro2.Lvl
3210,3,Futro3.Lvl
3311,1,BionShip.Lvl
3411,2,BionShp2.Lvl
3511,3,BionShp3.Lvl

In addition to doing this, it's also completely possible to make entirely custom levels. There was a mission editor that runs natively under 32-bit Windows included with F!ZONE, there's also a much older, much dated 16-bit NE type executable running in old VisualBasic known as "TVCAD" that was available on the 3DRealms website's Terminal Velocity files section. TVCAD likely was intended only for Windows 3.x users though, given the fact it's a NE type executable and the VisualBasic it runs off of is extremely dated.

Minimum requirements state Windows 10, but it's running on Windows 7 as well.

feda wrote on 2023-03-15, 01:45:

So it's widescreen now, but still runs at the DOS version's crappy resolution, unlike the Mac version (1024x768)? Shame.

It seemed to be rendering at something above than 640x480 but not sharp enough like the Mac version. It'd be nice to have it looking like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeTwGofqDe4

Hey, does anyone here know if HOTAS joysticks work in this "Boosted Edition"? I tried asking on both the Steam forums and even sent a message to Ziggurat themselves but no one's given me a definitive answer. :/

filipetolhuizen wrote on 2023-03-26, 00:06:

Minimum requirements state Windows 10, but it's running on Windows 7 as well. […]
Show full quote

Minimum requirements state Windows 10, but it's running on Windows 7 as well.

feda wrote on 2023-03-15, 01:45:

So it's widescreen now, but still runs at the DOS version's crappy resolution, unlike the Mac version (1024x768)? Shame.

It seemed to be rendering at something above than 640x480 but not sharp enough like the Mac version. It'd be nice to have it looking like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeTwGofqDe4

Some footage of the boosted version here:
https://youtu.be/lFv0yWADk1I?t=252

Looks close to 640x480 to me. Weird that they chose not to set a higher resolution.

feda wrote on 2023-03-26, 02:42:

Some footage of the boosted version here: https://youtu.be/lFv0yWADk1I?t=252 […]
Show full quote

filipetolhuizen wrote on 2023-03-26, 00:06:

Minimum requirements state Windows 10, but it's running on Windows 7 as well. […]
Show full quote

Minimum requirements state Windows 10, but it's running on Windows 7 as well.

feda wrote on 2023-03-15, 01:45:

So it's widescreen now, but still runs at the DOS version's crappy resolution, unlike the Mac version (1024x768)? Shame.

It seemed to be rendering at something above than 640x480 but not sharp enough like the Mac version. It'd be nice to have it looking like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeTwGofqDe4

Some footage of the boosted version here:
https://youtu.be/lFv0yWADk1I?t=252

Looks close to 640x480 to me. Weird that they chose not to set a higher resolution.

According to the vox.ini file, it seems to be rendered at 768x360. I tried changing that value but the game changes it back. Makes no difference changing it and making the file read-only, it will still render at the same res. Hell, it's half of 720p!

filipetolhuizen wrote on 2023-03-26, 04:29:

According to the vox.ini file, it seems to be rendered at 768x360. I tried changing that value but the game changes it back. Makes no difference changing it and making the file read-only, it will still render at the same res. Hell, it's half of 720p!

Sounds like it's hardcoded. This is exactly the same problem I had with Microsoft Fury³ and Hellbender only wanting to output audio at 11025 until I tracked down the address for the sample rate value with Cheat Engine and discovered where in the EXE the hardcoded value was and changed it accordingly with a hex editor. No idea how Boosted Edition will react if you were to do the same kind of detective work to find where it's hardcoded resolution value is and changing it there.

Pros:
- It works nicely on Windows.
- More languages supported.

Cons:
- It is the same thing as original TV.
- No higher resolution textures.
- No enhaced soundtrack (yes it is 48kHz, but I guess the samples are the same).
- No enhanced FMVs... and they've aged very badly.
- No goodies (arts, icons, movies, soundtrack... those things that make GoG releases very interesting).
- Double the price, not double the fun!

So, I must say that they surprised me because the gave the game to everybody that had the game, but in the end is the same game. I bought it about 6€ (or way less), but putting it at about 12€ is very expensive for that game. And they put out of store the plain DOS version.

NOTE: Is it 3D accelerated? Original game have a 3D "accelerated" executable for S3 cards that added some effects... does the game have those effects included?
NOTE 2: Was the original S3 executable accelerated or was it slower than the plain version? (S3 cards were not so good, at the time there were cases where software rendering using a good CPU could outperform an S3)
NOTE 3: In fact, I bought Terminal Velocity TWICE: on GoG and then on Steam via the 3D Realms Anthology... it's a shame that they put out from store the Anthology. It was a very interesting pack... even if half the games didn't interested you, the price was still OK.
NOTE 4: When TV boosted was released, they gave it for free to everybody that purchased the game on Steam or GoG (but NOT to people who bought it through packs). It has appeared on my steam library, so I guess they have found the way to give it to everybody, even those who bought the 3D Realms Anthology.

Zup wrote on 2023-03-26, 08:42:

Cons: - It is the same thing as original TV. - No higher resolution textures. - No enhaced soundtrack (yes it is 48kHz, but I gu […]
Show full quote

Cons:
- It is the same thing as original TV.
- No higher resolution textures.
- No enhaced soundtrack (yes it is 48kHz, but I guess the samples are the same).
- No enhanced FMVs... and they've aged very badly.
- No goodies (arts, icons, movies, soundtrack... those things that make GoG releases very interesting).
- Double the price, not double the fun!

The music all uses samples that were, for some absolute ungodly reason, sampled at 8363 Hz even though strictly speaking you do not need to MiddleC everything with MOD based files, but what I found always absolutely mental about the music in TV/FURY3/HELLBEND is that the music samples themselves are like, really long sections of music rather than actual samples meant to loop or anything like that. Huge filesize for essentially telephone quality audio.

TV did have high-res textures IF and only IF you had the CD-ROM version, and the high res textures were only really used on spots that had buildings on them, the so called "satellite picture" textures I like to call them because it looks like a birds eye view from a satellite camera. F!ZONE had way more high-res textures in it for almost everything which is why those maps take a considerable amount of time to load and actually end up corrupting process memory sometimes.

Zup wrote on 2023-03-26, 08:42:

NOTE: Is it 3D accelerated? Original game have a 3D "accelerated" executable for S3 cards that added some effects... does the game have those effects included?
NOTE 2: Was the original S3 executable accelerated or was it slower than the plain version? (S3 cards were not so good, at the time there were cases where software rendering using a good CPU could outperform an S3)

From what little I could ever see of the S3 version on YouTube it seemed to just be filtered low-res (i.e. floppy disk release) textures and very awful framerate depending on which ViRGE you happen to be using with it. Boosted Edition would have to introduce more higher-res textures for something like bilinear filtering to make sense without making the entire game look like a smudge.

DracoNihil wrote on 2023-03-26, 17:08:

TV did have high-res textures IF and only IF you had the CD-ROM version, and the high res textures were only really used on spots that had buildings on them, the so called "satellite picture" textures I like to call them because it looks like a birds eye view from a satellite camera. F!ZONE had way more high-res textures in it for almost everything which is why those maps take a considerable amount of time to load and actually end up corrupting process memory sometimes.

I meant high-res textures like those made by fans for Duke Nukem or Doom. Something that doesn't look (too) crappy on Full HD or 4K. The "standard" (legacy) release of TV on GoG and Steam still had the high-res textures of that time.

But to enjoy that (hypothetical) high-res textures, the renderer should not be locked at 360p...

Zup wrote on 2023-03-27, 04:56:

But to enjoy that (hypothetical) high-res textures, the renderer should not be locked at 360p...

Yeah, I'm rather confused why the game is being hardcoded that way. Or what will happen if someone figures out how to change that hardcoded value, if the engine will still function normally with that changed.

The rendered being locked at 360p makes it seem to be a port from the Android version instead of being ported directly from the DOS version. 360p is fine on a smartphone screen and transformer netbooks but not on desktop fullhd screens. I wonder why the Mac and Win3.x/9x versions of the games from that era are being so overlooked for a new release. GoG recently re-released SC2000, but not the Windows or Mac versions (like Uninvited re-release on Steam) , but the obsolete DOS version with DOSBox bundle instead.

There is now a 1.0.3 update that optionally raises the rendering to 640p (1365x640) by the old menu option VGA/SVGA. Looks much better now, but still far from native 1080p or 720p true rendering.

filipetolhuizen wrote on 2023-06-28, 01:41:

There is now a 1.0.3 update that optionally raises the rendering to 640p (1365x640) by the old menu option VGA/SVGA. Looks much better now, but still far from native 1080p or 720p true rendering.

Thanks for the heads up! How did you learn about this change? I'm only asking out of curiosity, maybe I could check the changes between versions for other games I'm interested in.

Also the offline installer lost more than half of its size, it went from ~182MB of version 1.0.2 to 83MB for this 1.0.3 version. I'm also wondering what changed here so much.

Zup wrote on 2023-03-26, 08:42:

NOTE 2: Was the original S3 executable accelerated or was it slower than the plain version? (S3 cards were not so good, at the time there were cases where software rendering using a good CPU could outperform an S3)

That depends on the S3 model, the core clock and the CPU you have. Using a high-end 486 platform, I found that with a Virge/DX clocked at 70 MHz or higher, or a Virge (classic) clocked at 85MHz or higher (note: the highest specified core/memory clock for the Virge Classic is 50MHz, so severe overclocking is required), bilinear filtering and perspective correction disabled, the playing experience of Terminal Velocity with S3 hardware support starts getting fun. With a Pentium 133 or higher, you can get a comparable experience with software rendering, too.

Furthermore, TV for S3 doesn't take advantage of 4MB RAM. For some stupid reason (probably because it matches the software SVGA resolution, and allows re-using the textures designed for 320x200), TV runs at 640x480 in 16 bit color. I'm not complaining about 16 bit color, but 640x480 is just too ambitious for 2MB Virge classic. They use a double-buffered screen buffer, which requires 600KB for each buffer, so 1.2MB is required for the frame buffer. Another 512KB of video memory is used for 256 textures, each of them being 32x32 at 16bpp. There is no point in using high-res textures (a commercial-only feature) with the Virge hardware rendered version. IIRC even the low-res shareware texture were at least 32x32, possibly even 64x64 (at 8bpp palettized, though).

Zup wrote on 2023-03-27, 04:56:

But to enjoy that (hypothetical) high-res textures, the renderer should not be locked at 360p...

As an S3 Virge freak, getting something lower than 640x480 sounds promising. What is 360p in this case? Is it just cropped 640x480 to 640x360 (quarter of the entry-level HD resolution 1280 x 720), or is it something like 480x360? In the latter case, that could be a great resolution to run on Virge hardware.

konc wrote on 2023-06-28, 07:54:

Also the offline installer lost more than half of its size, it went from ~182MB of version 1.0.2 to 83MB for this 1.0.3 version. I'm also wondering what changed here so much.

What I see, is that in the v1.0.2 GOG installer there is a DirectX Redist package. v1.0.3 does not include that.
Regardless, the executable dependencies look identical in both these versions.
If it wasn't for the dependency EOSSDK-Win32-Shipping.dll (Epic Online Services SDK) the game could probably run in Windows XP x86.

Edit:
Here are some patch notes:https://www.ziggurat.games/news
Also the game can indeed run in Windows XP, using OneCoreAPI and Xompie wrappers to satisfy the EOSSDK and Galaxy baggage.

mkarcher wrote on 2023-06-28, 18:01:

Zup wrote on 2023-03-27, 04:56:

But to enjoy that (hypothetical) high-res textures, the renderer should not be locked at 360p...

As an S3 Virge freak, getting something lower than 640x480 sounds promising. What is 360p in this case? Is it just cropped 640x480 to 640x360 (quarter of the entry-level HD resolution 1280 x 720), or is it something like 480x360? In the latter case, that could be a great resolution to run on Virge hardware.

As I said above, 360p would be 768x360 for TV boosted.

konc wrote on 2023-06-28, 07:54:

filipetolhuizen wrote on 2023-06-28, 01:41:

There is now a 1.0.3 update that optionally raises the rendering to 640p (1365x640) by the old menu option VGA/SVGA. Looks much better now, but still far from native 1080p or 720p true rendering.

Thanks for the heads up! How did you learn about this change? I'm only asking out of curiosity, maybe I could check the changes between versions for other games I'm interested in.

Also the offline installer lost more than half of its size, it went from ~182MB of version 1.0.2 to 83MB for this 1.0.3 version. I'm also wondering what changed here so much.

I was just hoping they added a higher resolution rendering mode in this update, so I went to the Graphics options and discovered that rendering mode was not locked anymore, so I switched to SVGA. After starting a new game I noticed that the HUD was much smaller and the crosshair was more X shaped. The overall graphics also seemed sharper. You can find the configuration files inside the Terminal_Velocity_Boosted_Edition subfolder inside the Documents folder (at least mine went there). There are 2 config files, one is vox.ini which shows the rendering resolution under gamePIXX,gamePIXY and the other is settings.ini located inside the system subfolder.