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Work in Progress / Project: DarkTOPIA - DarkLINK

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Mnemonix
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Posted: 2nd Nov 2004 00:41
Mussi, We can make it less than 260 bytes per second, trust us!

The 3d chat is coming...
Rights For Traffic Cones!
Chris K
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Posted: 2nd Nov 2004 03:49
I thought a byte could be an integer up to 255, right?

Mnemonix
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Posted: 2nd Nov 2004 04:18
Can we please refrain from making this a thread on "who can come up with the most efficient protocol", because its the DT thread, where we will be able to take advice on features and show you what we are doing.

The 3d chat is coming...
Rights For Traffic Cones!
The Videogameaholic
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Posted: 2nd Nov 2004 14:24
I was just looking at the two screenshots on the last page with cattle and mnem and I was wondering why they look closer from cattle's POV but they are farther apart in mnem's pic. Is this a glitch with the camera placement or did you guys just move a little between shots?

RMPVG (Real Men Play Video Games)
Dave J
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Posted: 2nd Nov 2004 15:26
Quote: "I was just looking at the two screenshots on the last page with cattle and mnem and I was wondering why they look closer from cattle's POV but they are farther apart in mnem's pic. Is this a glitch with the camera placement or did you guys just move a little between shots?"


I presume you didn't read the following posts then.


"Computers are useless they can only give you answers."
Philip
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Posted: 3rd Nov 2004 00:19
Thanks for removing your signature file Chris. You are now officially at the top of my Xmas card list.

Philip

What do you mean, bears aren't supposed to wear hats and a tie? P3.2ghz / 1 gig / GeForce FX 5900 128meg / WinXP home
CattleRustler
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Posted: 3rd Nov 2004 07:47
It has 286 posts, with 5123 views, one of the more heavily travelled threads in this forum - but you guys insisted on mucking it up with your drivel Maybe I'll just go thru it and prune it for cleanliness, like I did last time.


DBP_NETLIB_v1.4.3 DarkTOPIA site coming soon!
Chris K
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Posted: 3rd Nov 2004 23:22
Yeah do that. Delete everything and just start again but keep the view count and red icon.
CattleRustler
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Posted: 4th Nov 2004 00:37
heh


DBP_NETLIB_v1.4.3 DarkTOPIA site coming soon!
CattleRustler
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Posted: 8th Nov 2004 03:25
Kentaree,

Any progress on GUI optimization? Just curious, thanks.


DBP_NETLIB_v1.4.3 DarkTOPIA site coming soon!
Kentaree
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Posted: 8th Nov 2004 21:57
I have a bit more time to work on them the next couple of days, I have been very busy with college and work the last week. I also need to fix something with the list updating part of the gui which seems to have b0rked.

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CattleRustler
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Posted: 9th Nov 2004 02:10



DBP_NETLIB_v1.4.3 DarkTOPIA site coming soon!
HZence
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Posted: 12th Nov 2004 09:55
Yeah, so did you guys give up on this thing yet?


Ausukusa :: Programmer/Storyboard Assistant
Kentaree
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Posted: 12th Nov 2004 23:15
Nope

I fixed the GUI code, added some extra functions, and optimised it. I need to sort out a couple of bugs before I send it to CR and let him get back to his work...

AMD Athlon XP2800+ AMD Athlon 64 3000 M
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CattleRustler
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Posted: 12th Nov 2004 23:41
take THAT HZence

we are quite close to releasing this, despite how it may appear from the posts in this thread. All of the pieces are almost in place.

no rest for the wicked!


DBP_NETLIB_v1.4.3 DarkTOPIA site coming soon!
Teh Go0rfmeister
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Posted: 13th Nov 2004 04:50
is there a website for the 3d chat?

Kentaree
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Posted: 13th Nov 2004 05:03
Quote: "no rest for the wicked!"


Tell me about it...

Right, fixed and optimised the GUI, gotta wait now for CR to test it in action, keep your fingers crossed.

Mnem, whats the story with the server anyhow, are you still redesigning ?

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CattleRustler
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Posted: 13th Nov 2004 20:55 Edited at: 13th Nov 2004 21:15
froogs, there will be soon.


Ok, by happenstance, last night during Jason's QA session in #coding, all of TeamTOPIA found themseleves all 4 present at the same time - ha. Quite a rarity considering our time zones and schedules. Anyway, as the #coding QA session ended we 4 spent a few minutes chatting in our room. Mike, Mnemonix, and myselef will be working together on Saturday. I have the new gui from kentaree and will be testing it out today. If we maintain a sufficient frame rate on my POS machine then it should be good to go. Then theres a few tweaks to be done and the client should be ready.

After that we will test it with a selective group beta, which will focus heavily on positioning accuracy, which we think has been worked out by switching from PAC movement to an FPS style arrow key movement system, where no data in interpolated, true position values are sent.

Ill know more as today progresses. Ill try and post an update later on concerning the gui testing.


DBP_NETLIB_v1.4.3 DarkTOPIA site coming soon!
Dave J
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Posted: 13th Nov 2004 21:50
Yes, you 3 chatted, I just idled the time away! Bwahaha!


"Computers are useless - They can only give you answers."
Chris K
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Posted: 14th Nov 2004 00:52
No interpolation? How come?
The Wendigo
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Posted: 14th Nov 2004 04:19
Dang, this sounds useful. I wish I'd seen this whole thread a while back ago. I need to check WIP more.


Home of DOOP, Strata Works, and Height
Thoth Onegan
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Posted: 14th Nov 2004 04:42
I finally think i got my system back up. Ill be rewriting the media extractor, it should be done within the next week.

(Main reason I'm posting this is because if i dont, i wont work on it ).
CattleRustler
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Posted: 15th Nov 2004 07:49
UPDATE:

Spent a productive afternoon with Kentaree and Aura and sorted out the problems with the gui optimization. Turns out the key buffer was getting overrun with arrow key presses/hold when moving around Added a simple buffer dump in the right place and now the framerate holds up and the gui stays responsive and functional. Just one more key issue to sort and those bugs should be done. Also I made some adjustments to how we process and handle data across the wire and have drastically reduced the size of each message, which is a great thing no matter what as far as total bandwidth goes Tomorrow I will finish hooking the rest of the fluff gui functions into the data parser so the front end displays an accurate representation of what is happening with the users on the server, and in your zone.
I expect to be ready for a closed group beta sometime tomorrow, provided I can test the updated positioning system with at least one remote client. Hopefully Aura will be around to help me test.


DBP_NETLIB_v1.4.3 DarkTOPIA site coming soon!
Kentaree
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Posted: 15th Nov 2004 19:19
I probably wont be able to help you test today, college all day today, and gaming tonight

Good work though, we're getting there

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Wiggett
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Posted: 15th Nov 2004 20:30
i can be around

CattleRustler
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Posted: 16th Nov 2004 10:04
UPDATE:

Aura and I did some testing and it seems that the positioning stuff is FINALLY sorted. This is wonderful news if its indeed true, which only further testing will prove - but initial tests look good. Coming on the heels of that I think I have figured out how I am going to handle loacal tweening but I wont know until I mess with it. Aura is building a nice collision dba that will be incorporated once tweening is secured. MikeS is hard at work on the 3D aspects, and mnem is perparing the server application for deployment. All in all things are looking good. There will be a long list of credits for this project when its finally released. Stay tuned.


DBP_NETLIB_v1.4.3 DarkTOPIA site coming soon!
Kohaku
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Posted: 17th Nov 2004 01:40
heres a screen of the test.

You are not alone.

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CattleRustler
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Posted: 17th Nov 2004 02:19
yes! positioning is now solid and unwavering according to three-way tests we just did. This is a huge step forward towards release. Rockz0rz!


DBP_NETLIB_v1.4.3 DarkTOPIA site coming soon!
Chris K
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Posted: 17th Nov 2004 02:26
How are you doing the movement now?
CattleRustler
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Posted: 17th Nov 2004 02:57 Edited at: 17th Nov 2004 03:04
well, its using our first idea, way back before the whole point and click fiasco, of using absolute world coordinates, and absolute world angles to relay to the other clients where to place me.

Using UP/DOWN arrow keys:
When I move forward or back I use Move Object +/- command locally to update my position and send my new world coordinates from Object Position X,Y,Z values (int()'d) to the server for distrubution to the other clients.

Using L/R Arrow keys:
When I pivot Left or right I use Turn Object +/- Object Angle Y (with wrapvalue()) to pivot my client locally, and send my Object Angle X,Y,Z to the server for distribution.

also I incorporated a msg type, 0 being Move, 1 being rotate. On the recieving side of things, I parse the message, determine the type and then move or rotate the correct client (based on remote client array index value) with either Position Object xyz, or rotate object x,y,z.

Also there are some pivot warp buttons on the GUI that allow a single click to pivot Left or right 45,90,135 and a 180 button as well. These moves use one message in the type 1 format but instead of the speed variable being sent, the total value of pivot is sent (+/- 45,90,135,180) depending on which button was clicked.

Edit: Altho the speed var is constant, its being sent (or a form of it) incase we need to start accounting for machine fps() issues. Since we are on a timer based throttle it may not be necessary - this type of stuff starts to leave the scope of my current skillset


DBP_NETLIB_v1.4.3 DarkTOPIA site coming soon!
Chris K
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Posted: 17th Nov 2004 03:02
So why isn't there any interpolation?

Doesn't it look all crappy?
CattleRustler
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Posted: 17th Nov 2004 03:05
yes it is choppy atm. now that we have positiong being done accurately I can begin work on local "Tweening".


DBP_NETLIB_v1.4.3 DarkTOPIA site coming soon!
CattleRustler
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Posted: 19th Nov 2004 05:09
UPDATE:

Added server-directive commands to client and server. For example:
!! PM somenick *your message goes here* to send a private message to a user. there are about 8 or 9 SD commands so far (mostly admin related) Need to test this stuff with mnem. Also added some more functionality to the Media Manager executable to be able to fail over to a secondary media server if the primary connection times out or is refused.

Still to come (in no order)
-Collision (working with Aura on this)
-Tweening (most likely some time after next beta)
-Real Avatars (hopefully by upcoming beta)
-Zoning (Mnem's dept. ask him)
-Web Registration of media and login credentials (some form soon, before next beta)
-quiet version of media manager (to be able to run in background while client is already logged in (by way of admin server diective) so all current clients can get new media without having to clear the server)
-finalize setup details with deployment server admins

im drained. stay tuned...
(thud)



DBP_NETLIB_v1.4.3 DarkTOPIA site coming soon!
Thoth Onegan
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Posted: 19th Nov 2004 10:35 Edited at: 19th Nov 2004 10:36
The zip extractor 1.10 used by Dark Topia is finished, though one slight problem.

Its a linux binary right now.

I am trying to get my cross-compiler to work, though its taking a little longer then I thought. Hopefully it will be done by the next version.
CattleRustler
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Posted: 19th Nov 2004 11:28
no sweat as I am still modifying Media Manager slightly.


DBP_NETLIB_v1.4.3 DarkTOPIA site coming soon!
CattleRustler
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Posted: 20th Nov 2004 04:51
UPDATE

Yes they are coming fast and furious. MediaManager now handles multiple servers correctly so now the failover from primary to seconday is working Uberly. Also, with the great help from Aura and his collision dba + sparky's collision dll DarkTOPIA is now sporting uber-slidy-kind collisions! Added quickly and painlessly with 4 or 5 lines of code. I have tested it solo and it is great. Now Aura joins me for a test...

hopefully Mnemonix and MikeS are making as much headway as I have been fortunate enough to make this week.

Keep ya all posted.
CR


DBP_NETLIB_v1.4.3 DarkTOPIA site coming soon!
Chris K
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Posted: 20th Nov 2004 05:39
Sounding great.

Is the world going to be a sort of shopping centre? That's how I imagine it. It would be cool if two people could go into a "shop" and automatically start a multiplayer pong game or something.

Maybe you could talk to Rich and work out some way of making the login check you details on the Apollo database and get the signature and avatar info from there. Just a thought.
Kentaree
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Posted: 20th Nov 2004 06:41
Well, the avatars are most likely going to be 3D models, not textured cubes like at the moment

At the moment, its one big world, where you can walk around, and chat to other people, so no games of pong for you

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Mnemonix
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Posted: 20th Nov 2004 09:00 Edited at: 20th Nov 2004 10:40
Here is a screenshot I took of the little test we had before. 56k beware .

**Mnem I edited this post and deleted the attachment, something was wrong with it. Please repost as a viewable image, thanks - CR **


DBP_NETLIB_v1.4.3 DarkTOPIA site coming soon!
Ilya
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Posted: 20th Nov 2004 10:02
Invalid file, beware.

Quote: "I've seen the word programming and I'm not sure what it means. Anybody please explain?"


Quote: "We shouldn't sacrifice the truth to preserve "balance"."
Philip
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Posted: 20th Nov 2004 10:55
Yes, that was a very interesting test. I am most impressed with the manner in which this project is progressing. Its all very professional.

In fact, as a result of my participation in the test, I was inspired. I've just spent the past 3 hours of my life stomping the hell out of bugs in my project.

Philip

What do you mean, bears aren't supposed to wear hats and a tie? P3.2ghz / 1 gig / GeForce FX 5900 128meg / WinXP home
Ilya
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Posted: 20th Nov 2004 11:16
You could convert to jpg(if you haven't already).
Re-uploading the file should solve it.

Quote: "I've seen the word programming and I'm not sure what it means. Anybody please explain?"


Quote: "We shouldn't sacrifice the truth to preserve "balance"."
Mnemonix
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Posted: 20th Nov 2004 11:19
I kinda deleted it...

The 3d chat is coming...
Rights For Traffic Cones!
CattleRustler
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Posted: 20th Nov 2004 22:12 Edited at: 20th Nov 2004 22:13
Thanks Phil. You'd be surprised how much time has been wasted as well, during the course of this project's development. But I cannot dwell on any of that and can only move forward. Things are happening very quickly now (finally) and mnem and I will be spending this weekend adding a slew of uber stuff that was the was the "ooh that'll be cool!" factor, when he and MikeS and myself first began discussing this project back in mid July.

/me goes to code


DBP_NETLIB_v1.4.3 DarkTOPIA site coming soon!
CattleRustler
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Posted: 30th Nov 2004 00:16
REQUEST:

This post is a request for Mnemomix, who has been "away" apparently recoding the server app for the past 8 or 9 days, to post some sort of progress report of his work, and some sort of ETA on when we can resume client-server testing ? At last check we were quite close to being able to have a couple of final beta tests, and do some sort of preliminary release.

Any info from Mnem is appreciated


DBP_NETLIB_v1.4.3 DarkTOPIA site coming soon!
Shadow Robert
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Posted: 30th Nov 2004 00:26
there anymore on the actual UI/Graphics front... the last screenshot didn't seem encouraging to me, unless I happened to be taking something hallucienagenic.

as you appear to be going for the 1st person (over what I originally suggested to MikeS) I think perhaps getting yourselves someone who is adept at UI design & layout might be a 'good' idea


Chris K
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Posted: 30th Nov 2004 03:03
I think the GUI is cool.

It could be broken down a bit. It would be really nice to have the separate components (messages screen, map etc.) be separate windows that minimised themselves to the edge of the screen when the mouse wansn't over them.

It should definately be first person.
Newbie Brogo
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Posted: 4th Dec 2004 09:47
Arrrg, where be my beta? I wanna tes this game, and maybe even try and take over it with my cats when it co- ..oops, you didn't just hear that, this was all a dream...
[/enddream]

So when is this beta coming out?
[/coincidence? I think not]

CattleRustler
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Posted: 4th Dec 2004 12:14
Mnemonix says he'll have the new server by the end of this week which is today or tomorrow (we spoke on tuesday-ish), then it should be soon after that.


DBP_NETLIB_v1.4.3 DarkTOPIA site coming soon!
Rye
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Posted: 15th Dec 2004 22:12
Any updates?
been waiting for something.

hehe, this'll stop it dropping off the topic list

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