How do I open the debug console?

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F50
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How do I open the debug console? I can't find any information about this on the forum. Perhaps this should find its way into scripting reference?
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Betelgeuse
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to open the console all you have to do while in game and not at a dock screen press F9 in debug mode.

To start the game in debug mode add a /debug switch.
There are two ways of doing this one is open the windows console and go to the transcendence directory and type transcendence.exe /debug
Another way is to add the switch to a shortcut. Make a shortcut of transcendence and right click and go to properties. Then add a space then /debug to the target.

any questions?
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relanat
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Just adding a bit more detail to the second option in Betelgeuse's post above.
Another way is to add the switch to a shortcut.
Current for 1.8b2.
Open the Transcendence game folder. This is the folder which contains the files 'Transcendence.exe' and 'Transcendence.tdb'.
Right-click 'Transcendence.exe'. A popup will appear containing a number of options.
Find 'Create shortcut' and click on that.
This will cause an icon called "Shortcut to Transcendence.exe" to appear in the Transcendence folder.
Right-click on this newly created shortcut. The same popup window will appear. Find the 'Properties' option this time and click on that.

A different popup window will appear. Somewhere in it will be a line of code ending in

Code: Select all

...Transcendence.exe"
It is usually called 'Target', but it will be there somewhere.
You need to add a space and "/debug" (without the quotes) to the end of that line so it reads

Code: Select all

...Transcendence.exe" /debug
You will get an error if you don't put a space in there, and make sure to use the right 'slash'.

Once you have entered that, then click 'Apply' or 'OK' or whichever button closes the popup, not 'Cancel' though.
The shortcut sometimes flickers for a second or two, this is normal.
Double-clicking on this shortcut will start a game in debug mode which gives access to the debug screen which is a very handy feature when modding.. You may like to change the name of the shortcut to "Debug start"or something similar.
----------------------
Now you have two options. You can start a normal game by double-clicking 'Transcendence.exe' or you can double-click the new 'debug' shortcut if you want to use the debug screen (you can also play a normal game via the debug shortcut as explained below).
Double-click the new debug shortcut. Once the game has loaded the intro screen will appear (the screen where you can select 'Load Game', 'New Game' or 'Quit').
In the top right corner of the screen there is a debug icon. You can click on this to change between a normal game 'Play' and a debug game 'Debug'. Of note is that all debug games are unregistered (so achievements and scores from a debug game don't count in high score lists/etc).
We can check this by selecting 'New Game'. In the next screen where we start a game, halfway down the right hand side of the screen you will see 'debug game'. If you are playing a normal non-debug game this will say 'registered game' (and if you select any mods it will change to 'unregistered game').

Go ahead and start a debug game. When you are in Eridani and can see the playership press the 'F9' key. A black window will appear on the right hand side of the screen.This is the debug console, also known as the debug screen.
Code can be typed in here to help with modding.
To exit the debug screen and return to playing the game press either 'F9' again or the 'Esc' key.
Enjoy.
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relanat
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Attached is a file "DebugStart.zip" with many thanks to NMS for supplying the code. It contains a file called 'DebugStart.bat'. The forum won't upload .bat files so it is in a .zip file. Either extract the .bat file or open the .zip file and copy the file from inside it.

This file can be used to easily start a 'debug' game. This allows access to the in-game debug console for modding and bugtesting (and cheating if you so desire!).

Copy the 'DebugStart.bat' file into the Transcendence folder. This is the folder that contains the 'Transcendence.exe' and 'Transcendence.tdb' files.
Double-click on the 'DebugStart.bat' file and Transcendence will start in debug mode. Much easier than editing a short-cut.

To start a normal Transcendence game just double-click on 'Transcendence.exe' as usual.


For the technically minded:
To create this file start Notepad.
Copy this code into Notepad

Code: Select all

@start "" "Transcendence.exe" -debug
Save it as a .txt (text) file using either "DebugStart" or a file name of your choosing.
Once the file has been created click on it and rename it as a .bat file.
So if the file is called "DebugStart.txt" when you save it, change it to "DebugStart.bat".
You will probably get a warning that changing file formats is a bad idea. Ignore it in this case and change the filename.
Your new .bat file will now start a Transcendence game in debug mode when you double-click it, provided it is in a Transcendence game folder.

Enjoy.
Attachments
DebugStart.zip
(162 Bytes) Downloaded 283 times
Stupid code. Do what I want, not what I typed in!
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