Oni engine patches (Mac PPC)

History

The original build of the Oni application (v1.1; 1.5MB) was compiled by Bungie for the PowerPC processor that Macs were using at the time. However, it was also a Carbon app, meaning it was written primarily for Mac OS 9 with only basic compatibility with OS X. Mac OS X was not even released until a couple of months later, and making it a proper Cocoa app would have required rewriting it from the ground up in Objective-C.

With Bungie's permission, Omni Group released a free Cocoa port by the end of the year (v1.0 (Mac OS X), version 1.36; 4.6MB). This port allowed Macs running OS X to run Oni with fewer hiccups in terms of compatibility (such as flawed controls), making the port more of a convenience than a necessity. It did, however, guarantee the game a longer playable lifetime in that it updated the app to more modern technology on the software side. No one could have known at the time that Apple would later switch to Intel processors, moving away from the PowerPC chip that Oni was written for.

Omni's port is therefore native for modern Macintoshes' software in that it is a Cocoa app, but non-native for modern Macs' hardware in that is is written for the PowerPC chip. Additionally, various other elements of the OS and hardware have changed over the years, making the Omni port unable to run on modern Macs without some modifications. Through the efforts of the Oni community, various hex edits have been devised as ways to not only allow the application to run under the latest versions of OS X, but to extend the potential for Oni modding.

List of patches

A brief timeline of the upgrades so far:

Date Offset Old hex New hex Description 2008/10 0x1220AF 0x1220B3 0x1151C3 06 06 10 46 46 40 to support 1024x1024 textures 2008/10 Added BSL commands: chr_focus, chr_location, chr_set_class, weapon_reset, co_display, door_ignore_locks, chr_pin_character, chr_draw_all_characters, chr_weapon_auto_aim and wp_kickable (I don't know if we'll keep this one or not) 2008/06 0x0005E4C2 00 7F Increased flailing timer (For jetpack hack) 2008/05 0x000E2D19 7A 9A non-"_Final" levels are now valid 2007/07 0x00096DCB 0x00096DE3 04 04 20 20 pathfinding grid cache size x8 2007/05 2007/06 2007/07 0x00189FDC 90 61 00 18 90 81 00 1C 90 A1 00 20 90 C1 00 24 90 E1 00 28 91 01 00 2C 91 21 00 30 91 41 00 34 4E 80 00 20 7C EA 3B 78 7C C9 33 78 7C A8 2B 78 7C 87 23 78 7C 66 1B 78 38 60 00 00 38 83 FF FF 38 A3 00 01 4B F2 F6 F8 console output display fixed 2007/01 0x001B6050 0D 00 00 0A 0D 00 00 0D Return/Enter key fixed 2006/08 0x00117B36 1F 03 1F 02 "Intel fix" (GL extension list?) 2006/06 0x0019024B 00 00 00 14 00 00 00 0B killmequick bound to Dev Mode

Known Issues

• While playing in Windowed mode, the game and computer cursor are not synced, so one can click outside the game window and disrupt the game. Workaround: set the game resolution to the display resolution (or as close as possible) to minimize the disruption.
• In Dev Mode, the numpad number keys 0-9 are not accessible. Thus the default NumPad keys to move the camera will not work. Workaround: in the key_config.txt file, bind other keys to the camera commands.
• In Dev Mode, when entering commands in the console (accessed with the tilde ~ key), the SHIFT key will not work with the letters a-z, therefore commands requiring uppercase letters cannot be entered. No known workaround while using the console, but, the commands that have uppercase letters can be entered in the bsl (script)

Download

http://edt.oni2.net/files/Oni.zip -- Updated on Oct 21, 2008, with all above changes made.

Future

According to an email I received, Feral Interactive is planning to release an Intel native patch of Oni, sometime next year. EdT 17:12, 14 November 2008 (CET)

Not that this isn't fun already, but could we have more details on that? Do you know if Take2 was involved in the decision? --geyser 17:51, 14 November 2008 (CET)