UnityLobby

[clericvash]

Would it not be better to finish it before you port it to windows?

Looking good though, can't wait till i can combine this with the next release of spring.

[Tobi]

Nah, usually it works far better if something is designed & developed from ground up with crossplatform-ness in mind.

That includes testing/developing on all targetted OSes, because realizing a cross platform application without testing it on the targetted OSes is guaranteed to fail. (or take significantly more time, as with spring itself)

Anyway, great work hollowsoul! Just checked out the most recent lobby code & it's really jumping forward with every commit

[hollowsoul]

Its like 30 lines of code to finish windows code. Doesnt really qualify as a port to be honest. Only 2 functions and both will be similar to each other, 1st reads values from windows registry, 2nd sets values in windows registry.

There is already code scatter through spring-gui atm, for windows specfic setups. I.E where to save configs, different extensions for ai (i.e .dll instead of .so)

And if i get time when commiting to svn, use pyexe to make an exe and upload somewhere (not svn).

So peep can download an exe to try out spring-gui. Without needing to install python, python imaging library, gtk2, pygtk2, cairo on there machine

[pheldens]

2 images for the launcher,

xta


generic (mng, animated)


generic (gif, animated)

[own3d]

I really like the first image its great, I would definatly go with that.

[FoeOfTheBee]

Its like 30 lines of code to finish windows code. Doesnt really qualify as a port to be honest. Only 2 functions and both will be similar to each other, 1st reads values from windows registry, 2nd sets values in windows registry.

I wouldnt mind a bit if it didn't use the registry.

[hollowsoul]

Latest Screenshot for lobby, currently in svn.
Note u need latest spring from svn, since they changed the ai locations.

Dont feel like mantaining extra code until the next tagged release for spring is released

[hollowsoul]

Gonna commit in a few minutes...
Just need a small break

List of changes

• Rewrite the map / mod indexing into classes
  
  Fixed bug in not changing sides names, was introduced when i added color selector
  
  Spring-GUI will automaticly add new maps / mods & remove missing maps / mods from its cache @ startup.
  
  There is also a nice splash screen @ startup with a progress bar to tell u how far along it is & whats its doing atm.
  Thx Word for making it up the image
  
  Remove Background Image & now defaults screen to battle setup
  
  

Next on todo list is to add auto-updating via lobby server & windows support afterwards. (Have fixed some windows code i broke , but got side tracked again)

Also i really need find a better gtk theme to show off spring-gui, instead of default one :)

[hollowsoul]

Small call for help.
Gonna need help with debugging for next couple of weeks.

So if u can test out latest svn & report any bugs plz. Either PM or send me an email u find it in the files for spring-gui

Got alot todo & not enough time todo it.
Most bugs so far == very minor & get fixed in under a day, of me finding out about them. Spend more time coding than playing spring atm so dont get debug much, except for lobby code == got no choice :)

My main goals todo first is

• Finish off Windows Code
  Add Lobby registration Code
  Add Auto-Updating via Lobby Server

I really dont have time to debate over small / minor GUI things.
And to be honest its faster to code, than to mess with GUI code to get it to look perfect. Heck Battle Screen still isnt how i want it to behave.

Here is a wish list to show got alot i want toget done after the above is done. To show i got alot todo as it is
http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/7/17/ ... 20List.txt

[AF]

lobby registration code sounds easy, the only awkward bit about it is spawning a new window and displaying the agreement, but how awkward is that.

However, that last one on the wishlist looks nasty. But when you get around to implementing friends lists, tell me.

Pity i dont know python

[hollowsoul]

Nah worst part for lobby registration code is ripping out the options for lobby & designing it into lobby section instead of in options section.
Then can add button to register account nicely & more user friendly.

And lastly making it look decent.
Have idea for it, just need to code it first & see how it looks...

[own3d]

For a much later release:

adding a popup window informing people that their 3d drivers need to be updated when this error appears when trying to run the game:
Needed extension GL_ARB_texture_env_combine not found

[hollowsoul]

Which is really upto Spring Engine dev's to add X11 error reporting....

[clericvash]

Which is really upto Spring Engine dev's to add X11 error reporting....

Yeah it would be usefull, but i doubt it is in their to-do lists

[hollowsoul]

Dev's are aware of it.

Plus i already mentioned got enough on my plate that needs to be done as it is.

And i rather not add bloat to spring-gui where possible.
Not to mention its extra code i need to keep maintained.

Plus it would increase CPU usage of spring-gui to keep an eye on the file i.e would need another thread just to monitor the file so it wouldnt lock up spring-gui.

Open up a system monitor GUI tool. Or type "top" in console.
Start up spring-gui & look @ cpu usage and see how low it is.
The only time cpu spikes up is

• Generating a map preview
  Updating map/mod cache
  Joining lobby server == generating country flags for users (svg files)

Now check the ram usage its normally under 30mb for my setup around 25-28 mb of cpu usage.

Now remember this is gonna be running when u are playing online in future. And u gonna want its cpu / ram usage to be low as possible, so it doesnt effect gameplay.

I am not gonna be adding bloat that increases cpu usage. And bloat == something that spring-gui shouldnt need todo

[clericvash]

One thing to do when playing online, limit everything the spring-gui sends, the current windows lobby still sends/receives all chat in the lobby.

[hollowsoul]

Sighs i give up, trying to ask peep dont to bug me with minor GUI requests.
Why u think i posted wish list above
i.e got enough todo atm.

If anyone finds any bugs in latest svn versions give me a shout on irc / email / pm.

[pheldens]

Dont get mad, just ignore the ui details ;p must be hard I can imagine. Know we appreciate you're making this.

[clericvash]

Theres no need to get mad, this is a pretty bad point, there is no need to have the chat from everyone still going on while your playing a game, a thing called lag and 56k

[hollowsoul]

U would need to disconnect from lobby then. (Maybe an option for it down the road)

Also u could leave all chat rooms when u are joining a game. Then traffic is reduced to almost niche just adduser / remove user & client status / game status updates really.

And in over last few days i got peep nick picking @ GUI (in forums & irc).
Not realising that todo it all would require time & with imment new release on its way i got more important things to sort out.

I am just laying out facts atm, so i dont need to counter each argument over why i dont do foo & foo instead.

Plus once auto-updating is done it can be sorted out after release is done. Provided it gets into release of course...

And to be honest this is a non point of interest atm, since lobby battle
code is not done yet.