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Blew me away, Psy =). It looks just great. There are a bunch of typos that I saw, but no big deal.
Are you sure that you want that same blue dithered background? We could do some fun stuff, perhaps with regions, and make our game stand out with it's installer =).
Think about it =).
Z.
Okay, that looks fine. Is it possible to have shell support so some commands can be done manually? Perhaps if we don't add support for something, it can then be done manually with another EXE? For example:This might, for example, have a program "help" the install by launching the person's webpage from inside the installer.Code:[Files]
Total=3
Source: {server}:{port}/myMod/launchweb.exe {app}/temp/launchweb.exe
Source: {server}:{port}/myMod/* {app}/*
[Shell]
cd {app}/temp
launchweb
Zaei: I'll av to have a look into the colour thing, i'll see, could probably add it to the script system. What i meant actually (my fault) was the "continue" statement in C++ as in it goes back to the For statement as opposed to Exiting it.
Sastraxi, hmm, i can add a shell support to make it run a program. i could perhaps wip up a plugin system later on. but for now i gotta get the script into the hub.
I added an install.dll to the app which contains the install stuff and its being gay and exiting for some reason, gotta try fix that first.
Okies, i now have a added some more stuff to the script:
{Name} = Program data in Install chunkCode:
[Install]
Program=Times of War
Directory={Program}\Crystal Rain Entertainment\Times of War
Group={Name}
im also adding {tow} which works for patches and mods etc which will equal the path in the registy to the apps directory.
In the installer instead of hard coding the version, program name, directory and group it loads them from the script.
hey, i was thinking. we need some kind of authentication or digital signing in the script or else people could make their own installer for the game. we need to make it so you can only use a script of type Install if its from us. and the others use Mods/Patches. I could make it at a code at the bottom which it checks to see if its ours, or i could check the location it grabs the script from and only run it if its = to http://www.crystal-rain.com
http://216.26.168.92/articles/customsetup4/index6.html
Check out the top picture called strata 3d, dya reckon i cud create an ace gui like this ??
Okay, the scripting is almost done, soon to start adding the winsock code for donwloading files :D
Sas, what was that thing you were on about for getting a part of a file ?
I would rather get away from that, as it would make us have to host every single file :( Instead, we can make some sort of signing, that it goes and downloads the signature file from our site thats mentioned in the script. This would be auto-generated and ONLY valid for that script. I don't know how we would do that, thouh (gen the code).
Oh, and you use winsock. Search for resume winsock file transfer, you should get some results (here at VBW).
I leave out that for the moment then.
Cheers Sas, will look that up.
I now have it grabbing the program manager groups and adding em into the list along with creating the default directory. I also have it adding our program to the install list on Add/Remove in control panel :D
Isnt this soo anoying when vb-forums is down ?
Yeah :(
ToW Land Map.
Lots going on with our installer, good job, Psy.
Home from my vacation, and its hella hot (gotta be 100 degrees f, at 11:30). Just wanted to check in with you all and see how everything is moving along. I will get some work done tomorrow =).
KamiKazeKiwi: Nice to see you back around =).
Z.
Hey Z. Have a good vacation?
Zaei - I'm in the process of learning C++ and am already getting good at all aspects of DirectX in Visual Basic. I'm thinking that sometime in the fall I'll be able to start some coding, and I'm thinking audio. I've got the start of a software synthesizer in VB (loads up a MIDI file, gets the notes, and plays samples at different pitch/looped to fit notes) and am thinking it could do ToW justice (for playing MIDIs, people might not want to download upwards of 50mb for music in ToW, so they can download samples and midis).
What does everyone think of using Ogg Vorbis? No liscensing issues or royalties to pay, and better support and quality than Mp3 :)
Its bloody hot here too Zaei!!
Sas: I think that for the mp3 we need the best quality for the smallest compression. The Ogg Vorbis sounds good with no royalties etc. Is that played using its own decoder or done through FMOD ?
All Hail Master Richard :D
I have the installer donwloading files and saving them to disk :D
I have a pause function almost enabled and so this baby is almost ready for work :D
What i think is best is for us to get a sample application and set it up with the installer and get peeps to install it and use that as a beta.
This stupid setup had some bugs in it and some coding misshaps lol but all is fixed. Im adding supprt for different windows versions so it will work on all windows systems.
I now have it so that it is able to resume individual files although not from 'Within' a file though at the time of writing this i think that should be very very simple to add in.
We'd have to write a decoder (but FMOD might support it), but the information shouldn't be too hard to come by - it's right on their site! Or, we could get the source for ogg123, which is like mpg123 but for Ogg :)
It appears I was wrong; http://www.fmod.org/... Look for yourself! It supports everything :)
Sas: Audio sounds good. Go for it =).
Psy: Keep up the good work =).
Ogg sounds fine, with me... go for it =).
Z.
I thought it did lol hehe. Go for it using that then :)
I think this installer is almost done, there was a bug in earlier testing when using the pause feature. I think i have fixed it which means resuming is almost done.
I then have to make an un-installer and get the start menu things working and then all shud be running excellent.
Still a lot of work to do.
Well, for my birthday I got a PNG handbook (O'Reilly). It seems like a viable format for storing 2D graphics for textures, the HUD (it has 8-bit alpha), etc. Plus it's smaller and lossless (though I think you all probably knew that).
Any input on this change is welcome!
Sas: Perhaps at some point, but I am going to leave the textures as they are at the moment.
Psy, When the installer is all finished, Id like to play around with it, if you dont mind =). It looks really good =).
Z.
I have decided that the code for donwloading files is a right mess. I spent time last night planning out how it should work rather than thinking as i do it. Im going to re-write the code over the next few days. It should then be working a lot better. Im going to be removing the blue/black background and leaving it as there being nothing.
okies, the re-write is going good.
Now...
...when the user goes to our site and clicks install the script will be downloaded and saved along with the license. When the user wishes to resume they just run the exe and voila.
...a patch/mod cannot be installed untill the previous install has been cancelled or finished off.
I have added better checking/support for other things but forgotten atm so heh :D
I now have a slightly smoother running script system, got rid of the nasty Goto statement hehe :D
When the application is run it runs through a massive block of code selecting out the current status of the installation of anything to allow you to select a script on the web or just run the app and enter one.
Well, Ive spent the last 2 days trying to figure out why my Unproject code wasnt working. You would be simply amazed at the difference 25 pixels in screen width and height can make =). My Sphere intersection code is still a bit wigged, but seems to work fine =).
Z.
Got it working =).
Z.
I can type and have stuff display on screen =).
Z.
kewl kewl
The Re-Write is going okay so far :s
Hi,
You guys seem pretty pumped up and focused. Keep it up!
By the way, after reading lots of posts on various internet forums, I really appreciate your level of professionalism and refrain from vulgarity and obscenities...keep it up and you might give programmers a good name. :-)
I am directing newbies who dream of programming to this thread..so they can see the time, commitment and skills required to program a major app.
Regards,
ChuckB
Hehe.
Cheers for the support!
Wahey, were becomming famous already :D
Thanks Chuck! That is quite a compliment =).
Psy, Keep up the good work =).
Take a look at
this. Its a pretty nifty region tutorial, maybe you could use it for our installer?
Z.
That is quite a compliment indeed! Thanks a lot :)
And VBF is quite UP now!!
Well, well, VBF is back =).
I have just a few updates on my end here... let me see, were is my list? =). This is a quote from the mail I sent to Sas the other day...
Last night I updated the model converter, and started implementing the new models in the engine itself. Also, Windows work like a charm, and can be a plain rectangle, a plain rectangle with a plain rectangle titlebar, or with a border, or both. All components can be textured. Further, all windows can have a caption, but it isnt required. Windows can be dragged. I think that I could also add window sizing, too, if we want/need it. I also did a lot of little internal things. For instance, if an object can be referenced with a unique ID string, I was using a simple char*, but that has changed to use a little moniker class that I made. Just makes things a bit more organized =). Usual global object creation looks like this:Quote:
I implmented a new texture format, which embeds font character cell size inside of the texture file, and added a font creator to the texture converter. I updated the media object managment, so now all registered objects can be retrieved with a unique key, as well as removed from memory eith the same key. I implemented a nifty cursor info string thing that allows me to specify a string that is displayed above the mouse cursor. I modified the drawing of fonts and 2d objects so that they dont write to the zbuffer, so there are no funny blending artifacts. I also have started back into the User Interface, and have written a neat 2D Quad class. I have a Window class going, and I just implemented titlebars, with borders on the way. Last, but certainly not least, I did a bit of work on the console, and instead of using function pointers, I am using functor objects. I have ALSO implemented a quake style console in-game, with a few functions (for now, "wireframe()",. and "solid()", and "quit()" =). It is VERY extensible. I also did a few little misc. things, like updated the log to remove backspaces as they are added, and such like. There are probably some extra things I have left out, but I think that hits on the most important ones. I should be pretty ready to start actually adding in units and such in a little while. First I want to fix up the model converter, to add texture coordinates, etc.
And now, with all of that out of the way... A screenshot!!Code:UIWindow* window;
Core::RegisterMediaObject(new UIWindow("someWindow"));
window = Core::GetMediaObject(moniker("someWindow"));
http://www.vbforums.com/attachment.p...postid=1146817
That is what I have been up to. More on the way =).
Z.
Implemented textures on models =).
Z.
So pissed off at the fact that VB goes down for so long.
On my end i have done a re-write of the code instead of one from a tutorial and it works like a dream :D Im running it thru a further test now and once that is done the base code is done so i can start work on the installer GUI :D
Zaei that picture looks excellent. I gues the white blobs are the untexture/lighted units. All the additions sound kewl.
One thing.... With VB the print command adds an extra line break after each write so the app now comes with a seperate DLL which does the file writing. Ill perhaps put the region code in there although i have seen some stuff todo with regions in VB which i may use coz that wud be easier than the DLL interfacing.
You arent allowed to be pissed off at VBF =). It is a costly enterprise for Karl, and he is providing it to us for absolutly nothing. Its kinda like people being pissed off at Battle.net when it lags. Its free, and the owners dont have to provide the server, so be glad of what you get =).
I did a nifty thing earlier today, with the console. If you look in the picture above, you can see that the console prompt is a simple "> " string. This morning, I changed that so that it can be anything that you like. You can also change it in-game, using the console function "set_prompt("<some prompt>");". Its pretty nifty.
Psy, for the installer GUI... I posted a link before VBF went down, did you get it? I implmented the Bitmap Region making function in VB, and here is my results:
http://www.vbforums.com/attachment.p...postid=1148918
I sent the app to Sas, but we both agree that it looks pretty bad with that much transparency, but I think that we could do something with it, to make our installer a bit more creative. Tell me what you think =).
Z.
The blobs are the tower model that I created. They ARE lit, but only with ambient light, so you cant see the inside edges. I HAVE changed that model since, now it is a textured tree =).
I THINK that if you add a semi-colon to the end of your Print #1, ... statement, it wont add the line feed.
Z.
It still added the line feed.
I got the link. can you send me the vb code you did so that it can save me some time. I think its probably better if its not as transparent as that.
For this are you meaning as some kind of graphic or do u want a funky skinned installer ? coz if the installer is skinned then you want it more like shown in the tutorial.
Whatever youd like to do with the installer, its up to you... I am personally not a fan of full screen installers, but it isnt a big deal =).
Here are the files for the project. You will need to set your own picture on the Form's Picture Property. The region maker function will build a region using the top left pixel as the transparent color.
Z.
Cheers for the code. The only problem is that it is too slow for what i want so im gonna stick the function into the dll i already have and use C++ power.
Zaei, the current GUI i have is what was there before but without the blue/black backing. Do you think this is good ? i was also thinking of making it that without the background and the forms having round corners but im not so sure.
I can do that quickly without the C++ code.
That would be great, Psy. I loved the last layout =).
With the region thing, Its going to be slow in VB or C++. The article had an external utility to write the region data to a file, that could then be loaded at runtime, or embedded as a resource. I personally think that would be easier in C++ (pointers).
Z.
okay everyone, please vote for which you think should be done:
1) No Background - Rounded
2) No Background - Square
Or 1 or 2 but with a Blue/Black background.
2)
(P.s, Zaei, cud i see a shot of the demo with the textured model ?)
LOL i added : at the end of the Print thing and looking back at the posts now i noticed SEMI- LOL so i added a ; and it works perfect.
no need for me DLL now, cheers!!!!
I'd say go with the square :)
Have to agree with Sas... Though perhaps we could customize that top border part =).
Ill post a shot in a little while =).
Z.
I agree with Sastraxi and Zaei.
Ok, here is the requested screen shot =). I am thinking of going to a different projection matrix (perspective seems to stretch meshes near the edge of the screen, which looks bad...).
http://www.vbforums.com/attachment.p...postid=1152067
Z.
The trees look excellent. I suppose though that they are yet to inherit their shading from the ground?
Nope, no shading on the trees. I may or may not implement it, but it will require a little modification to the loading code... I will probably just shade them with ambient lighting... easier.
Z.
I don't think they'd look good, when all's said and done, if they weren't shaded.
The problem is, to get the nice shading, I basically have to raytrace from the light source to the tree vertices. The problem THERE is that each mesh object has a scaling matrix that set's it's dimensions properly. When the modles come out of 3DSMax, They could be any size at all, so when I load them, I simply find the dimensions, and then create a scaling matrix to scale the whole mesh down to 1x1x1. Then I can set the dimensions I want, and have it display correctly. Great. Now, I would do the raytracing at load time, but if the scaling matrix was changed, the results would be wrong. The picture you see there has the trees at max brightness. On the other hand, the maximum ground brightness is RGB(0.8, 0.8, 0.8), so it looks funky. If you like, I CAN set a directional light source, which would shade the trees on one side, the side facing the light, since all of the models do have normals.
Z.
If not too hard to implement, I'd like to take a look at that before deciding :)
I need to clean up my light implementation. At the moment, it is pretty shoddy, as I implemented it originally as a quick hack. I will work on that tomorrow. Im tired tonight (The start of a freaking 3 day weekend, and I am tired ::bash on head:: =).
I also want to try to get the terrain rendering finished up, etc, at some point soon.
Z.