Source: BNETDocs.

Blizzard recently uploaded a StarCraft patch file to their FTP server, marked as "BW-1170". While it's unclear if this is the finalized patch that is going to be pushed out on Battle.net in the near future, it's currently not live, and you cannot connect to the Battle.net servers if you decide to patch manually. For those who do want to patch their game (and understand the risks, yadda yadda), here's a direct link to the file: http://ftp.blizzard.com/pub/broodwar/patches/PC/BW-1170.exe

As for the patch notes, the following was procured from... somewhere...


It sounds like mostly compatibility fixes, and a true fix to the color distortion issue that's been around since the days of Windows Vista. The most interesting patch note is the claim of a reduced game latency over Battle.net, though "Increased turn rate" is a strange way to phrase it (unless they literally mean they've increased the turn radius speed for all units when playing on Battle.net).

It's very likely that the reason the patch has not been pushed out is due to the lack of Mac compatibility. This means it could very well be the completed patch, and it's only being delayed until the ported version is also ready.

The most alarming concerns are centered around what this patch breaks. EUDs are naturally unstable between patches, so many UMS maps will no longer function once the patch rolls out. Further, there have been reports of windowed mode being nonfunctional after patching the game. It's unclear how many utilities will need to be updated to accommodate this patch at this time.

BNETDocs noted the following changes:

• The patch introduces BlizzardError.exe and SystemSurvey.exe to StarCraft for the first time.
  
• battle.snp, standard.snp, StarEdit.exe, and storm.dll are now digitally signed.
  
• The latest digital signatures were signed on July 11.
  
• W-Mode plugin is broken despite the author's claims that it works with any version of StarCraft.
  
• Alt+tabbing out causes other windows to be resized to 640x480 resolution.
  
• StarCraft's new base address is 0x01190000, old base address is 0x0040000.
  
• Screenshotting in the Battle.net interface automatically saves to your clipboard instead of opening a dialog.
  
• Screenshots are now saved in PNG format instead of PCX.
  
• StarCraft now requires CheckRevision's .dll to be digitally signed.
  

How do you feel about the patch? Is it too little, too late? Is it going to be great because all of those pesky hacks are going to be broken as well?

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 26 2016, 2:45 pm by Roy.

Two of the four fixes are irrelevant due to windowed mode plugins that we have, so I'd say this patch is incredibly underwhelming. The only thing I like is that screen shots are saved as pngs, which means I won't have to have some obscure program on my computer that I only use when I need to do something with screen shots (which is very rarely).

I think we should ask Heinermann what a game turn is. My best guess right now is what BWChart reports as "ticks".

Turn rate... I hope they don't mean as in unit pathing, and turning around.

I'm guessing turn rate is the time units take to turn around, judging by the use of this term in other games like DotA.

Pretty sure all it means is that they lessened the delay between when you click in a spot for the unit to move to and when that unit actually turns to start walking that way.

I very much hope this is what they mean; as you can see with Navi Targeting and No Lat there is a 1-2 frame difference between the times it takes a unit to complete its turn on LAN play and on Battle.net play, even when you use LAN latency on battle.net or vary the number of players you have in game; this is an inconsistency that should be rectified.

Well if it's only a network latency issue I'd be happy. But adjusting gameplay simulation behavior could have adverse effects on balance/strategy. Oh well, it's not like anyone cares about competitive BW anymore.

Phew doesn't look like this will break anything.

I'm sure they made this change intentionally, 0x4000000 was the default VS base address. Why though? It's at worst mildly annoying to hack writers.

I'm surprised they didn't enable ASLR, I wonder what's preventing it.

I think they're stuck on using an older compiler which doesn't support ASLR.

Yeah it should specifically be for any unit that uses acceleration and deceleration (air units, SCVs, etc) to incorporate more seamless movement into the game when played online. This change should only impact battle.net play, not singleplayer or LAN, so the pro scene will be unaffected and campaign creators won't notice it either.

Mistake: I just double checked and StarCraft's base address is actually dynamic, it just happened to always be 0x01190000 when I closed and started BW 5 times.......

I can't tell if people are joking about turns.

Based on those articles from Patrick Wyatt (I think, I couldn't find the specific one), "turns" are each time orders are executed. When you click to order a unit, the order is queued for an amount of time based on latency and then executed later on its specified turn.

EDIT:
Found it.
(I've also seen and dealt with it in playing in SC's code, but that's harder to cite in a clear and understandable fashion.)

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Jul 27 2016, 6:19 am by FaRTy1billion.

So are you saying that StarCraft has always been a turn-based strategy game but each turn ends in frames rather than minutes?

Report: Blizzard is looking to remove unused game protocols such as Local Area Network (IPX), Modem, and Direct Cable Connection. They're logging the total and monthly amount of games we play on each protocol.

Additional research has been published at BNETDocs.org.

Could this have an effect on maps using hypers and how many triggers execute per second or is this unrelated?

Neiv figured out that it just means Blizzard implemented LAN latency for bnet games.

Each time your game processes actions is called a "turn". So you queue your turn and then send your turn to the other players every X frames. Then you receive the turns made by the other players, and everyone's turn is executed sequentially during a single frame. The X is reduced.

Storm exports the functions SNetSendTurn and SNetReceiveTurns for this purpose.

But really, I've got a lot of work to do. xD

If you're talking about BWAPI, I think it's a waste of time to support 1.17.0. Blizzard will be releasing additional patches later, and 1.17.0 isn't really beneficial to BWAPI. Though, you should lay some groundwork right now since StarCraft.exe's and Storm.dll's base addresses aren't static anymore.