Blog for Vince Gee at GarageGames.com

Need a head start on modding 1.5?

Vince Gee — 2006-12-22T16:44:34+00:00

Merry Christmas!!!!

I've been pounding out alot of code for a friend of late, modd'ing the engine to do things he needs (mostly standard resource implementation). Well I got thinking about it, how many people need these very same resources in their build?

Since non of the mod's I put in are specialized I figured I could help others by giving them a head with say the odbc, wow targeting, etc implemented already to save them some headaches of putting the C++ in themselves. Mind you I'm not building your game... I'm just integrating the C++, you still have to do all your scripting yourself.

AND... since I can always finish a resource but never seem to finish a game, I figured that after validating that you own the TGE 1.5 license I could share my work with you, for free of course, just add my name to contributers.

If you need help or just want a head start pop by the forums at www.geeconsulting.net/vision or contact me via my profile.

Vince

Just thought I would post my going ons.

Vince Gee — 2006-12-20T13:26:15+00:00

So where has Vince been hiding?

In my basement of course!

Well, a few weeks ago I rewrote my patcher, it's released, works fine and all is happy.

So, I get talking with one of the people who are using the patcher for their game. He seems very dedicated, but on top of that, seems to have a solid understanding of Torque and isn't afraid to code, model, or anything!

I'm sorry, but I am so tired of people wanting other people to help on their project, and all they want to do is project manage. In my opinion, as an indie project manager, you better know how to code, model, art, and project manage, even if just a little of each skill.

Nothing is worse than being a code monkey (What I am), and being told to pound out a shit load of code while "Perceiving" that the leader of the project is doing nothing much. I get that enough at work, I don't want it on my hobby.

Instead, Mark who has been running Aakrana www.aakrana.com/ has been doing it all on his project when members come and go for the last couple years. And he has done an amazing job as well.

So about a week ago, I decided to help him out a bit. So, knowing that his C++ experience might be a little weak, I tossed a few resources into his head for him.

ODBC Integration
Array Class Resource
Subscription Based Message Router
Object selection in Torque (v1.2 onward) - Took it back out and put the next in.
TGE 1.5 - Bonus Resource Bundle
WoW Player Control Emulation
Variable/Dynamic Movement
Mission Area Forcefield V2
GLU quadrics for Torque
Event Driven Database

I started putting them into a clean 1.5 head Friday, Dec 15 and had them working by Monday the 18 and finished debugging on the 19 or so. It appears, that a lot of the engine has begun to sink into my mind since it seemed almost like home in the engine.

I'm now working on some of the more mmo'ish aspects of the project. This stuff is tedious more than exciting, but Mark's excitement when I finish another part for him to integrate into his build is well worth the pain.

I keep a person blog going at www.geeconsulting.net/vision If your are curious about what I'm working on or the patcher stop by. I usually check the posts twice a day.

Also, if you want to see how I feel somedays... dailyvideo.googlepages.com/if-programmers-had-to-build-planes

Wish me luck,

Vince

Game Patcher Release 1 Finished!!!!

Vince Gee — 2006-12-09T19:05:45+00:00

Hey readers!

!!!UPDATE!!!
I've put up forums for the tool where I will be publishing updates and such to.
www.geeconsulting.net/vision/login.asp

IMPORTANT: This program ONLY works on windows. You cannot even run the patcher to download the source on anything else. I used winzip to make the download as well.

So I get an email from a guy last week.

Quote:

'...The only changes Im looking to make to the patcher are very basic. Really I just want to remove the 'user input' stuff and then put a nice branded/logo splash screen on the GUI. So specifically what I am trying to accomplish with it are:

1) Brand the GUI for my project
2) Hard code the FTP info into the EXE
3) Have the application assume the directory it is running from IS the root of the software package we are attempting to patch. (IE not require the user to enter in a directory location.)

And finally, do you have any suggestions on how to get the patcher to execute the main game EXE upon successful completion?

Simple enough by most standards, I most likely could have enhanced the original program to meet these requirements. Then I opened up my old code. It was horrid! No comments, no real logic... too many variables named 'thisdoessomething' and I thought to myself... I am embarrassed.

So, after a week of working I ended up with an application like the one I posted in my last blog. It was cool and all and it did work, albeit clunky. The user interface reminded me of applications I wrote back in the 80's and that tab control irritated me every time I used it.

So, a couple days ago I decided I was going to scrap the interface for the Patch Creator. It was ugly and unintuitive. That is when I remembered about MDI forms and how nice they looked. This marked the birth of the new Patch Creator interface.

So, I get these MDI forms working and I notice that the application freezes time to time. I am not new to programming, I am aware this is because I am not threading the application and so the program does not have time to redraw the forms.

After a night fooling around with basic threading, I finally have screens that properly refresh. I finally learned how to use Delegates in C#, was interesting kinda.

The source code is free, use it how you wish. I do accept donations via Paypal, email is deceptus AT verizon dot net. If you do use it for an indie game that goes live, all I ask is for a free lifetime membership to play :)

So, for a quick tour of the application...

When the program starts up it will show you:

You then put in all your information like:

After that you click on "Verify FTP"

Then Go Tools--> Generate CRC

Which will then make your screen look like :

Then go Tools-->Compare CRC To Existing

If you have deployed the files before it will uncheck any files that haven't changed.

The go Tools-->Push to FTP

That is IT! If the FTP process does hang, just close the upload window and restart it. The files are un-checked as they are successfully sent to the server. When you restart it, it just starts again where it left off. You restart it by tools-->Push to FTP

No, how do people get your files?

You take the patcher client distribution and copy the crc.log from your scratch folder into it.
Also remember to replace the splash.gif with your splash screen.

Well thats it when the patcher runs it looks like

I will have the source code as well as the compiled code up today. It does require Microsoft Dot Net 2.0 to run.

EDIT:
To demonstrate how the patcher works, I am using the patcher to download the code :)
To download the patcher so you can download the source code, go to
mysite.verizon.net/deceptus/DL/Patcher.zip
Unzip it to a empty folder and click patcher.exe

Vince

Opensource Patcher Part 2

Vince Gee — 2006-12-07T04:44:21+00:00

Holy cow has it been a long time. My game didn't make it very far, but recently I was contacted by someone who asked me about the patcher I wrote for it. Boy did it bring back memories.

So, I opened up the source code and realized what a hack job I had done. I started a rewrite of it and wow did I really surprise myself.

So, now it has a built in FTP system. Step one is to validate your FTP System

Step 2, Select the folder you want to deploy and a scratch folder... then hit "Generate CRC"

Step 3, Click Determine Files that have changed and upload to FTP Server

Step 4, Confirm that they have been uploaded by clicking again, determine files that have changed

So to round it all up,
Just as an update, I've actually dug into this pretty hard, I've got a couple more things I want to add, but right now...

Creating a Patch

1) You enter your FTP address and Username and Password with write permission

2) You Validate the FTP Connection

3) You select your source folder (This would be where your finished files are, the ones you want to deploy)

4) You select a working folder, i.e. c:\tempgame

5) You click Generate CRC

6) You click Compare to Server (It actually goes out to your FTP Server and grabs your old log.crc and starts comparing CRC values

7) you click update server and it actually connects to your ftp server deploying your non-matching files as compressed files that the patcher actually knows how to read. (So you don't have to repush out files that haven't changed)

Applying a Patch

Oh, and the splash image can be changed. The patcher looks for a file called "Splash.gif" in the folder that patch is running in and will load it in the background on startup.

1) Click Patch :)

It goes out to the ftp server, grabs the crc.log and starts checking your file's crc signature w/ the one in the log, if it doesn't match it will go out and download the compressed file and uncompress it over your incorrect file until everything matches the patch :) (and yes it does show the splash screen)

To do,

1) Allow people to save their FTP and File Preferences (Developer)
2) Allow people to specify what application to start when patcher is finished
3) Display a rich textbox with any notes that were delivered with the patch
4) Bake Cookies...

I should have all but 4 in by tomorrow assuming it keeps coming. I must thank you, cause I would have never have looked at this code had you not asked me to, let alone make these improvements.

I'm still testing and I'm sure I have a bit of testing to do. Right now I'm very happy w/ its performance.

It takes a 400meg download and compresses it to under 200... but I guess it matters how compressed your data is to begin with.

Vince

Looking for a mountable Dragon

Vince Gee — 2006-11-17T02:38:12+00:00

Hey all, been gone for a while, I want to play w/ a couple ideas and I'm looking for a dragon wired for tge. I'm a decent programmer but I lack the tools to do modeling. (Both in software and in skill) I was wondering if anyone has any models of a dragon already wired for torque laying around. Guess I would need the modified player model as well. If you do please drop me a line at exxon at geeconsulting dot net.

If you need compensation let me know how much and I'll see if I can scrounge up the cash for it, or trade some programming time, I own tge 1.4 1.5 and tse. I'm a decent programmer, little rusty.

Thanks in advance,

Vince

The Current state of affairs (pics inside)

Vince Gee — 2006-03-27T01:33:10+00:00

Hey all,

I know I've been quiet for the last few weeks. I've been working on a project with a friend and we have been going pretty damn hard of late. What originally started out as a toolkit for TGE/TSE has become a game development effort in TSE.

Yeah, I know TSE has bugs, not ported to other platforms etc... I'm being as careful as possible to make sure that I can upgrade my code as releases are pushed out.

Before you get all excited about TSE, I've had to use a great deal of TGE stuff mainly due to the fact that I'm a programmer and not a artist, and the guy who is doing the artwork (my Partner), (God Bless his soul for learning this stuff in a few weeks) still is quite new to it.

A majority of the code is handle with C++ helper classes. They handle everything from repeatitive database calls to number crunching. The rule of thumb I was following was, "If it bogged the server down as script I move it to C++". This has been helpful on many fronts, but most importantly it has allowed me to prototype complex systems in torque script and then just port them to C++ for performance.

Well, to summarize the work up, the current build has:

1) Persistent Player Enviroment. - I actually have the system saving the players back to the database regularly, and with several of us hammering it, it doesn't seem to choke this includes their stats as well as inventory.

2) Drag and Drop Inventory and Hot Bar - This one took some time. I actually set it up so that you can drag inventory items to other defined slots on your character and each slot can be defined so that only certain items can be placed in them etc. Of course my favorite item is the hot bar, where you can drag inventory items onto and using the 1-9 keys fire either it's fire or use command and it's smart enough to know that if you are using a weapon to start firing it versus a health pack which is just one use.

Since all items are actually defined items in the TGE/TSE world, you can define their onclick event to do things like modify attributes, skills, hitpoints etc. I don't have the framework all done, but it's sure alot simpler than my previous attempts.

3) A crappy skill and Attribute system - Basically it allows me to define skills for a player and link it to the players attributes for checks and such. Most of this is done in TorqueScript except the more intensive math. This thing still needs a ton of work.

4) A currency system base on Platinum, Gold and Silver coins which are objects which reside in your inventory. Most of the bugs seemed worked out of it atm, but I never know what suprises are buried in the code.

5) Vendors - Yes, I finally got vendors working where you can buy and sell items. To be honest I got tired of loading up the map and putting the item on the ground etc so I could test them. Now, I just throw it onto the vendor from the database and restart the engine.

I've put a couple screen shots up for those who like pretty picutes :)

A picture of the inventory system:

A picture of the Vendor Buy Window

A picture of the Vendor Sell Window

I think this week I will focus on bringing containers into place like backpacks etc. My partner who is my artist as well appears to be gone for the week. So... maybe just maybe I'll get lucky and actually finish up Containers, Banks and Player to Player Item trades.

Wish me luck!

Vince

Finnally an opensource patcher!!!!!

Vince Gee — 2006-02-14T03:07:15+00:00

Well,

Since I've been getting tired of putting new zips out on the external webserver I decided to take a break from torque and write a patcher using CRC signatures as identification in Visual Studio 2005 and Dot Net 2.0.

And since I don't believe that people should be charged for learning I put together a simple patcher that really can be used for anything, but I'm applying it to patching your torque clients so players don't have to pull down a hugh zip which most likely they have 99 percent of.

So, step one, download my source as mysite.verizon.net/deceptus/PatcherProjects.zip . This has everything in it to recompile the source etc, modify as you want, it's not documented that great but it should be somewhat easy to follow if you know visual basic

In this zip you will find 2 projects. One project is the one to create the crc log and the other which you give to players which reads it and downloads the miss-matched files to their computer.

So, once you compile the patch Generator and run it you will see a form that looks like this

In the protocol box type in either HTTP:// or FTP:// they are the only 2 protocols that I have tested. Be warned that if your using a MS IIS server, the .cs script files will throw errors since it thinks it c#.

The next box is where you type in the url from where they get the updates from. in my case, it's www.geeconsulting.net/client

The source directory is where you have your client sitting which is ready for distribution.
IMPORTANT make sure you log destination is in the same folder as your client and that it is called log.crc

If it isn't then the client patcher won't find it.

Click Generate CRC List, this will inventory every folder and subdirectory in the source directory and put a entry in the log.crc w/ the filename and path as well as it's crc value.

It will generate a text file called crc.log w/

UPDATEPATH	www.geeconsulting.net/client/
PROTOCOL	ftp://
FFFFFFFF9BD91102	\common\main.cs
FFFFFFFF913894AD	\common\main.cs.dso
1428E75E	\common\prefs.cs
FFFFFFFFDB973F6D	\common\TestMap.jpg
189EBD25	\common\client\actionMap.cs
FFFFFFFFB5768022	\common\client\actionMap.cs.dso
415A0F44	\common\client\audio.cs
FFFFFFFFDEA67945	\common\client\audio.cs.dso
7C094DF4	\common\client\canvas.cs
233B2071	\common\client\canvas.cs.dso
2754A4D2	\common\client\cursor.cs
FFFFFFFFAED306AF	\common\client\cursor.cs.dso
1F19F986	\common\client\help.cs

Copy your whole client folder out to a ftp server or web server, and distribute your patcher.

When the client fires up the patcher they will see...

They type in where their client folder is in the "Path to root" textbox and hit retrieve from crc.

The patcher will then go through their folders updating and creating new files so they only have to grab what has changed.

I hope this helps some people out, I know I could of made it cleaner, but I was in a hurry and it was my first attempt at it.

Oh, btw, it was built using visual studio 2005 and DotNet 2.0 I'm sure it will compile on 1.1

If you improve it, send back a zip of the source to me and I will update my zip for others.

Hope you all enjoy,

Vince

Things are smoothing out for the Vision Toolkit

Vince Gee — 2006-02-12T23:51:29+00:00

Today, I finished one of the most fun modifications to the engine yet. I pulled the run speed and related things out of the datablock and put them into the class... nothing like running at a million miles a hour and hitting a tree :)

I think I started to get a little seasick in the end, but it was fun while it lasted.

So, w/ this done it's now time for me to finish item effects so that when you put on armor it applies any modifications to your skills and attributes thus giving you faster motion, more health, better skills and so forth.

I'm learning, and I'm learning fast, but it's damn exhausting. Maybe, just maybe I'll actually get in everything I origonally set out to do in the next couple weeks! Still alot of bug fixes to do, and a ton of gui's I really need to figure out a better way to put them in, but I'm sure that will come w/ time. For the time being, I'll be happy w/ my progress so far.

Vince

Vision www.geeconsulting.net

Vision MMo Toolkit MELEE Update!!!!! (SERVER UP)

Vince Gee — 2006-02-11T21:46:55+00:00

Ok,

Finally, after a long tireing week... quite painful... I was able to finally fix my code so that melee worked. Now, I did break maxdamage out of the datablock, and boy was that a feat! I am guessing that I can pretty much pull anything out now that I really want to now that I understand the datablock!

So, if you want to check out a persistent fps world, WITH MELEE!!!! come by www.geeconsulting.net register, download the client and hop on.

I am trying to build a install kit for MySQL, right now the server is running on mssql6.5 As soon as I finish the database load script I'll set this thing up right so that it can be installed as a kit!

.... btw, all source and such is open to view, I have no issues w/ sharing my code etc w/ the community, so if you have a question on how I did something just post it in the forums and I'll get back to you!

Oh and I added a new Resource!! can't wait to see if it gets approved it's how to take maxdamage out of the datablock. you can find it here www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=9774

Now that I have the build stable it's time to clean code and remove my reliance on the shapes name for everything so what is displaying doesn't have to match the players real name so I can append titles etc and it all still works :)

Vince

10 steps back...

Vince Gee — 2006-02-11T06:26:16+00:00

Well, I swear I'll get these damn datablocks understood sooner or later... but talk about fustration. I just don't get why I can't "GET" it... I mean it just fustrating to sit and work you butt off to get something working, I mean I've spent ATLEAST 60 hours so far on trying to get the ability to switch datablocks dynamically to customizing the datablock at the C++ level to now I'm just completely fustrated...

I remember a while ago, a post from a GG Associate asking why their isn't more games out there... I can tell you right now, that if I just didn't have a obsesive compulsive disorder and the fact that I hate being beaten by a computer I would of given up 59.5 hours ago...

I guess the best things in life are hard earned... but this is getting damn ridiculus...

Vince