[Development] Burning Skies: Profaned Sanctuary

Is there any ETA on this stellar server?

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Originally Posted by Arco. Is there any ETA on this stellar server?

Uhm... there's still a lot that needs to get done, and with Kibou not at the top of my priorities, I'm not sure about an ETA. I'm still teaching myself new technologies that I'll be using in the project (such as the Windows Presentation Foundation and XAML), and I really can't give an estimate given my schedule. You can always track my progress though, either here or on my blog. That's how most people stay up-to-date with my project. Anyways, thanks for your interest in my work. Cheers.

This has almost been going on for two years. :| Will you be taking beta testers soon for your private server?

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Originally Posted by oten681 This has almost been going on for two years. :| Will you be taking beta testers soon for your private server?

No.

This development is pretty cool to read.
Good luck Fang.

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Originally Posted by oten681 This has almost been going on for two years. :| Will you be taking beta testers soon for your private server?

I doubt it.

Was it this source or the last one I logged in to?

While Fang does take an enormous amount of time to get his stuff working, it's solid when he does.

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Originally Posted by _DreadNought_ Was it this source or the last one I logged in to? While Fang does take an enormous amount of time to get his stuff working, it's solid when he does.

The source you tested was my previous attempt. The problem with that source was that although I understood how to code, the project become overly complex. I was sending things using pointers and lengths of pointers, and there were many memory leaks because of that. The project wasn't expanding properly due to that complexity.

This source did take me a lot more time to program as far as the base goes. I wanted to ensure that the base would be clean and strong enough to expand properly. I'm sure I talked about this before, but by using inheritance and abstraction, and by carefully planning out each component of the server, I increased the modularity of each major part. Now I'm able to expand on it a lot easier, the reason why I can code a feature a day (usually within an hour or two, depending on the feature's complexity).

I also took an enormous amount of time on the socket system, which might not have been necessary. Using a donation from Michael (a member of this community), I was able to test it on a virtual private server and iron out some major flaws with the system's receive methods. I was having a lot of problems with fragments (I had no idea they existed), and problems with sending packets. I spent a good few weeks just working on the stability and strength of that system. I'm very confident that the system works well, though; I need that confidence so I can work on the features without having concerns. Anyways, you're always welcome to test - let me just finish teaching myself WPF. I'm almost done with the new WPF launcher, and it's looking a lot better (and functioning a lot better without flickering on graphical changes and being bound to the rectangle shape). Add me on skype and I'll send it over to you when it's done. Cheers.

Hey everyone,

I few days ago, I completed converting the autopatcher to use the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). The main difference in using this foundation verse the Windows Forms framework is that WPF uses the graphics card. This means a few things; the main point being that graphical updates don't cause the window to flicker. It's a graphically smooth autopatcher.

Another difference is that the window is no longer a rectangle. Before, I used transparency to make it look like the window wasn't just a rectangle; however, it still included that transparency in the window size (so if you clicked on the transparent pixels, it would still count that as being in the autopatch window). Now, transparent pixels are not counted towards the window size. In between the leaves hanging out of the window and around the leaves, etc, there is now nothing. It's not included in the size of the window. Below, I'm selecting a file on my desktop in between the leaves. You can also see that it cuts the transparency a lot smoother than before.

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Windows Forms - Left
Windows Presentation Foundation - Center & Right

Anyways, that's it for now. The autopatcher is finished. Now I'm going to get to work on making monsters spawn in the game. Then I'll work more on attacks and the kill cycle. If I don't have the time to work on large systems like that, I'll just do some small NPC stuff (finals are coming up quickly and I need to prepare for that). More development is coming soon!

Cheers,
Spirited Fang

PS: I've also started a second, smaller project since I need a client application in my portfolio very soon. The autopatcher client was a good introduction to using the Windows Presentation Foundation, and so I've used that idea to start creating a development environment for Conquer Online Design Maps (DMAPs). Here's a picture of it from a day ago:

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It might not look like much, and that's because I'm not showing you anything yet. I'm making no promises of completing this work, but it is a tool that I'd love to have, so hopefully that'll inspire me to work on it.

There's a lot of background work done so far (such as how the maps will be displayed and moved in the window and how the application's main menu is formatted), but it's not loading maps as of yet. That will be my next step after creating the user's configuration file. The application is designed to be very easy to use (sort of like how Microsoft Office is easy to use). I'd like to add an updating system to it, a server backup option, feedback system, and other useful tools later on. If you have any opinions about this secondary development, let me know. Cheers.

@The windows form left, you can actually achieve the same transparency as in WPF.
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Just saying.

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Originally Posted by Fаng Conquer Online Design Maps (DMAPs)

You seem to believe the DMap extension stands for Design Map, but according to the leaked EO source there are Data Maps and Text Maps.
Examples of DMaps are located in map/map and examples of TMaps (?) can be located in map/ScenePart.

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Originally Posted by nTL3fTy You seem to believe the DMap extension stands for Design Map, but according to the leaked EO source there are Data Maps and Text Maps. Examples of DMaps are located in map/map and examples of TMaps (?) can be located in map/ScenePart.

Acknowledged.

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Originally Posted by Super Aids @The windows form left, you can actually achieve the same transparency as in WPF. [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...] Just saying.

Read my post on why I'm using WPF. Then google why it's useful.

I am not saying you shouldn't use WPF rofl. I am a huge fan of it as well, I was just referring to the way you bashed Windows Forms transparency :p

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Originally Posted by Super Aids I am not saying you shouldn't use WPF rofl. I am a huge fan of it as well, I was just referring to the way you bashed Windows Forms transparency :p

'Aight.... Just checking. I'm a big fan of WPF too now. It's extremely useful. It's going to be really useful in making the map editor. I didn't mention this, but when you click on the play button in the autopatcher, it sets the logo's back torch emblem on fire (which updates the window's graphics - that's where WPF comes in). Without WPF, it flickers, so I'm really glad I took the extra time to update it to WPF.

OMG I can't wait for this. It's gonna be so amazing. OMG.