Evolva (demo)

Computer Artworks / Interplay, 2000, Direct3D 7 squad action (four "Genohunters", third person). Candidate evolva-demo, app evolva_demo, local only.

Source and layout

• archive.org Evolva_1020, evolvademo.zip (31,649,248 bytes, sha1 40e5cbc407348c8357d97d3e872f1af43fe93276). archive.org sometimes answers with a 170-byte nginx 500 page; the fetcher's sha1 check catches it.
• The zip holds evolvademo.exe, an InstallShield 5 self-extractor. 7z opens it to Disk1\data1.cab. The candidate extracts five file groups with unshield (or tools/is5-extract.js) and merges them into installed/evolva (guest c:\evolva):
  • Resources (Animations, DMLevels, Informs, Level, Music, Sounds, Textures)
  • Program Executable Files (Evolva.exe)
  • Program DLLS (4xm_sdk.dll, the FMV codec, declared in dlls)
  • Language DLL (English) (EvolvaLang.dll)
  • Registering DLLs (ImageLoader.dll)
• ImageLoader.dll is the "Media Loader" COM server. When CoCreateInstance fails, Evolva calls LoadLibrary("C:\evolva\ImageLoader.dll") and DllRegisterServer, then activates it again through the registry. Without the file it stops on "A file required by Evolva ... (ImageLoader.dll)".
• The installer writes HKLM\Software\Computer Artworks\Evolva Demo\1.0 (InstallDir, ResourceDir, SaveDir, DNADir, ScreenShotDir). The game reads one search path per asset class (TextureDir, SoundDir, MusicDir, LevelDir, AnimationDir, InformDir, DMLevelDir, SceneDir, BackdropDir, FMVDir). startupRegistry seeds all of them. The game then calls SearchPathA("C:\evolva;c:\evolva\Textures", ...).

Emulator bugs it found (all fixed)

1. CoCreateInstance(CLSID_DirectInput) was unknown, and IDirectInput::Initialize popped 20 bytes for its 3 arguments. That corrupted the caller's EBX/ESI/EDI, so the next CreateDevice got a NULL out pointer. Fixed in c9b5904a4.
2. D3D7 EnumDevices left D3DDEVICEDESC7.deviceGUID zero, so the game threw "D3DMgr: Could not set up preferred device". Fixed in f44edf4e7.
3. SearchPathA treated a semicolon-separated lpPath as one directory. No texture, font, sound or movie was found, and every frame was white.
4. Vertices without a specular colour got specular 0. That covers D3D-lit D3DVERTEX, and LVERTEX/TLVERTEX FVFs without D3DFVF_SPECULAR. The specular alpha is the vertex fog factor, so with FOGENABLE on (Evolva sets no fog mode) the whole 3D world drew as the fog colour, 0xff788c78. They now get 0xFF000000 (black, no fog).

Route (headless, --batch-size=100000)

The game cursor is DirectInput relative motion. Absolute clicks don't move it; use relmousemove. The cursor starts at the screen centre.

• About batch 200: the main menu (New Game 137,143; Options 480,377).
• 300:relmousemove:-183:-97:10, then click: team select (four animated Genohunters). Confirm checkmark at about 560,435 (1200:relmousemove:423:292:12, click at 1250).
• About batch 1600: Mission Briefing "Land 4" (rotating planet). Click the same checkmark again (batch 2400).
• The level loads for about 13,000 batches (white screen). By batch 16,500: gameplay, a Genohunter in the jungle with four squad views and radar.
• Options > Configure Controls has the authoritative chart: W/S (Cursor Up/Down) forwards/backwards, A/D (Cursor Left/Right) strafe, Left Ctrl Walk, Left mouse Fire, Left Shift Beam Up, Right mouse Jump, 1-0 and NumPad 1-0 weapons, mouse wheel next/previous weapon.

Not checked

Movement and fire in the mission (only reaching it), the browser and touch layout in a running mission (the load is long), audio, the 4XM FMVs (the Intro FMV option is off), multiplayer.