I'm seeing the same issue from the itch.io desktop app on Linux. I can't tell exactly what the issue is on your (the developer's) end but for my stuff on itch, I check the appropriate platform icon boxes for each build I offer. Try checking Windows for the builds and then Linux for the other one.

https://itch.io/post/3527522

Describe the steps you're using to run Playscii.

I use a program called PyInstaller that turns Python code into a runnable Windows EXE. Actual malware authors decided it was a useful tool, and the companies that make antivirus software don't bother to discriminate between malware EXEs made with PyInstaller and legitimate programs. There are dozens upon dozens of closed issues about this on the PyInstaller project page: https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller/issues?q=is%3Aissue+virus+

If I had any reason to believe that my Windows machine was compromised and might be passing on a virus or trojan via builds it created, I would not release anything until I was certain it was gone. But this is not, nor has ever been, the case. It's frustrating, I wish I could do more. Windows Defender at least has a process by which you can submit your code and tell it to not flag it as a false positive, but most other AV software houses are not transparent.

Thanks for pointing this out, that character set image is from 8 years ago and I just never checked it. The next release will have an updated version that properly reflects the Spectrum character set, in the meantime you can download the two files here:

https://heptapod.host/jp-lebreton/playscii/-/commit/1bfc3f60f3b91a9f41d13fefaa14...

Okay, I think the PyInstaller folks correctly identified the issue, which is simply that Python 3.9 dropped Windows 7 support. I've added a new download to the main page here for a version 9.17.1b (note the b) made with Python 3.8.10. Please try that and let me know if that runs on your system. If so, I'll make sure to do future builds with 3.8 for as long as I can (Python says they'll support 3.8 until 2024).

In the top level of the PK3's hierarchy, look for the file called "mapinfo.txt". You should be able to edit it right in SLADE. Look for the line in the GameInfo block called TitleMusic. Replace "$MUSIC_DM2TTL" there with whatever music track you want. ($MUSIC_DM2TTL is a localized string but everything after the underscore should correspond with the name of a music lump you can see in the vanilla IWADs.

That's a known issue with the current version of WadSmoosh, I need to figure out how to properly support the widescreen graphics that are now included with GZDoom. In the meantime, I'd suggest just replacing the graphic in the pk3, and editing the GameInfo section of the pk3's mapinfo.txt to use a different TitleMusic.

Hi, very sorry for the delay but I have been investigating this off and on. I've put together a bug report for PyInstaller but at this point I'm not sure whether the issue is with it, or Python, or something else.

https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller/issues/5819

In all the official (ie not pirated) Master Levels releases (with the exception of the PSN version, which can only be attained through either piracy or a great deal of technical effort), the Master Levels are 20 separate WAD files. I always assumed that people running WadSmoosh had legit copies, and I don't support the masterlevels.wad version.

There are two maps included in TEETH.WAD, MAP31 (the express elevator to hell) and MAP32 (bad dream). So WadSmoosh is probably croaking on your handmade version of TEETH.WAD because it doesn't have a MAP32. Though I can't guarantee it won't complain about other stuff if your WADs are all manually extracted from some unsupported thing.

Edit: It also looks like your version of doom.wad doesn't have Episode 4. If you don't actually care about having it in the episode list, you can ignore those errors.

Hi, sorry for the delay in answering. A few specific questions to help troubleshoot:

Which version of GZDoom are you running this with?

Does it happen with no other mods loaded?

Do you have any non-default keyboard + mouse bindings?

This is almost certainly a false positive. Can you please be more specific? Which antimalware software are you running, which version of it, and which malware did it report?

Okay, I'm not sure this will fix the issue, but try this build:

http://vectorpoem.com/playscii/playscii_win32-9.17.1_20210419.zip

It's using the latest version of Python, PyInstaller, etc; I want to make sure I'm using the latest before I file a bug with the PyInstaller project.

If it gives you an error and the error is any different, let me know.

You might also try running playscii.exe from the Windows command line, and see if any meaningful error text results.

Thanks for your patience!

There might be multiple issues at work there, but one reason I can think of is that I still do Playscii Mac builds with 32-bit Python on macOS Yosemite, and 32-bit stuff stopped being supported with Catalina. I need to research what options are available to me to support newer macOSes.

Ah, I see. Something must have broken with the way layers are rendered for export. I'll look into this, sorry for the trouble!

There are several kinds of Intel GPU that Playscii definitely supports, but it needs to be capable of at least OpenGL 2.1 and GLSL 1.30.

A reported GL version of 1.1 is extremely old, that possibly implies that it's not even finding your GPU, or that you don't have the right drivers installed. "GDI Generic" reported for the GPU further suggests that there are no GPU drivers installed on the system. I don't have your hardware obviously and I don't know how one would go about getting the right drivers, but that's a starting point if you investigate.

Sure, see these two sections from the documentation, which is also accessible from within Playscii if you press F1: http://vectorpoem.com/playscii/howto_art.html#customcharsets

Creating a custom character set is a bit trickier than creating a custom palette, but that should explain what's needed.

Could you provide some text info for me? Try running the program so you get that api-ms-win-blahblah.dll error, and when the dialog window is up, press Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V it into notepad and/or a text field post here.

If the error text doesn't appear in a window and you're running from a command line, pasting the same text from there here would do the same.

Thanks!

Hi, I'm looking into this. I'm guessing it's because the last Windows build of Playscii was built from my Windows 10 desktop with a version of PyInstaller (the program I use to turn my Python into a runnable Windows EXE) that changed something about its compat status. I no longer have access to any machines running Windows 7. I'm going to search PyInstaller's issue tracker thoroughly and file a ticket with them if I don't find anything.

Obviously Windows 7 is no longer an officially supported-by-MS OS but I'd like to exhaust every other option before I tell everyone Playscii for Windows requires win10.

Just tried this and it works great... thanks so much! Good excuse to go back to the game...

Okay, I've put up a new version of the mod:

https://jp.itch.io/thief-tourism/devlog/236650/new-build-use-a-dml-instead-of-re...

Note the new installation instructions. It now uses a DML file, so no more overwriting DARK.GAM required.

Let me know if anything about this doesn't work. Thanks for the heads up!

I'm looking into this now. No ETA on when I'll have a release ready but it is my intent to fix it and release an update that works with NewDark 1.27.

One thing I was able to do is edit package.json to change the starting size of the window to 1920x1080 (my monitor's native res). This gives me a 3x scaled (1440x810), centered view when the window is maximized, which while not ideal is just about good enough to be playable. That result is obviously pretty different from what you'd get setting the resolution from within the game's code, but maybe that's a starting point for troubleshooting if more players report this issue. (and if not, great!)

Thanks so much for the help troubleshooting!

Yes, I am using X. Wayland is the newer, much more modern display server (drawing and managing windows, handling input, etc) that isn't supported by Nvidia yet, I'd be running it if I could. Most Linux distros do not enable it by default because of various compatibility issues (though the hope is that will change in the next couple years). If I had to guess I'd say a majority of people running Linux games they bought on itch or Steam are still using X.

Press the tilde key, which on US keyboard layouts has the ` and ~ symbols on it.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the game from the itch.io app, and redoing the steps above with NWJS 0.51.2 and then with the SDK version of 0.52 - same result unfortunately.

I wonder what's different about our setups besides the base OS? Manjaro is rolling release so I'm running GNOME 3.38.4, Nvidia binary drivers 460.56, kernel 5.11.2.

What happens when you try to export? Any errors in the console? If you're running from Windows, make sure it's to a directory you are allowed to write files to.

Excellent, thanks so much for the help, I'm happy to do this to help troubleshoot.

Modifying package.json to silence the warning was no problem.

I downloaded nwjs-v0.52.0-linux-x64.tar.gz and extracted the files listed, except the files nacl_helper_bootstrap and nacl_helper which were not present in the archive.

Launching the new HypnOS binary with these files = no more hitches!

However, the game now appears to be running windowed at its native resolution (480x270?), and fullscreening, maximizing, or resizing the window seems to make it render only a ~480x270 section of an upscaled view in the window's top left corner.

I have no real progress in the game to save, so if any further troubleshooting involves clearing my local config, that's no problem.

Oh interesting, thanks for sharing that info, I hope it's useful to others!

From the moment I launch the game, the visuals and input (eg mouse cursor) hang for 0.5-1 seconds, every 3-6 seconds. My computer (Intel i7 8700, 32GB RAM, Nvidia GTX 1070) is pretty capable and runs intensive 3D games like No Man's Sky with ease. Stuff I tried while troubleshooting, with no change:

• launching the game from the itch.io launcher app
• launching the game executable (HypnOS) from the command line
• closing down all other applications and GNOME extensions on my system before running the game
• installing and running from my SSD
• installing and running the 32-bit version instead of the 64-bit version

Not sure if it's relevant, but I get this in the terminal output right after launching the game:

[2725:2725:0313/195442.651206:ERROR:service_utils.cc(157)] --ignore-gpu-blacklist is deprecated and will be removed in 2020Q4, use --ignore-gpu-blocklist instead.
[2725:2733:0313/195442.652185:ERROR:service_utils.cc(157)] --ignore-gpu-blacklist is deprecated and will be removed in 2020Q4, use --ignore-gpu-blocklist instead.
[2725:2733:0313/195442.665675:ERROR:nacl_browser.cc(290)] Failed to open NaCl IRT file "jpl/game/hypnospace-outlaw/nacl_irt_x86_64.nexe": -4
[2752:2764:0313/195442.760816:ERROR:cert_verify_proc_builtin.cc(559)] No net_fetcher for performing AIA chasing.
[2752:2763:0313/195442.761380:ERROR:cert_verify_proc_builtin.cc(559)] No net_fetcher for performing AIA chasing.

Have any users reported something like this before?

No, I never got answers to my questions above, and don't have that specific Intel GPU to test on, and haven't seen it on any hardware I own.

No problem! Thanks for the info.

Okay, here's a download of 9.17 which is the last version before I upgraded to Python 3.9:

http://vectorpoem.com/playscii/old/playscii_win32-9.17.zip

Like I said, I will not support this version with any backported fixes or improvements or anything. But the pace of Playscii's development is pretty slow these days anyway, so you're not missing out on anything really.

I am still curious as to which version of Windows you're running, just so I know which versions supports what.

By that do you mean, this version requires Windows 10? If so, what OS are you trying to run it from? What's the last version # of Playscii that works on that OS? I can make that version available as a download here, though I can't offer any support for it and don't have a <10 version of Windows to test on.

I'm not sure where to find nerve.wad in the newish Unity port, I assume it's in one of the subdirectories where other WAD files are, but the addons all require a Bethesda.net account which I don't have.

Here's a page with info on the original nerve.wad, as included with Doom 3 BFG Edition and the older console ports:

https://doomwiki.org/wiki/NERVE.WAD

Hmm, sorry I don't think there is. However, if you want to only process the images that haven't been done yet, you could maybe move / cut-paste the source files that have already been converted to another folder?

Ah, yes this is probably Endless Ladder Climbing 2's much older version of Playscii encountering a line in your playscii.cfg file that it can't recognize. A workaround would be to comment out (put a # in front of) the line that mentions ArtGrid. (a class that didn't exist back then)

Is this a crash you're seeing? If so what was going on in the game when it happened? Was this running the Windows build or something else?

Cool! It seems like your mod is now totally its own thing with lots of options and stuff. I'm happy to say keep doing that, and thanks for the credit.

Good catch, just released a fix: https://jp.itch.io/doom-secret-finder/devlog/218379/new-build-crash-on-level-exi...