Jeff's Blog

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Hooray for CHKDSK!

I've got my system working again. The first thing I did is backup my VB folder and all my source code.

I'll start looking into the bugs in OR:C. There should be a new version soon (perhaps even with Web List features). Along those lines, I will be releasing my Server Tools soon as well.

(I'm still worried by the noises my HDD makes at startup, but at least it's working now and I have all my data!)
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Yay! My new drive arrived! I was able to do a direct copy from my old dieing drive and it seems to be working. I'm not entirely sure I've made a complete transition to the new drive yet. I guess I could try unplugging the old drive and seeing if my computer boots up.

Yeah, I'm gonna try that.

Update: I edited my boot.ini and now i'm booting off the new drive. I will start working on OR:C and Server tools pretty soon.
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Ok, so I made lots of progress on Easier Chat. The new system involves activating an inventory item and typing in a book, then clicking "Done". Much easier than the console eh? Unfortunately, it doesn't close when you hit enter like an IM client would.

The only reason it's not 100% done is that I'm having trouble with the RunScriptLine command. It seems it's not intended for use in scripts, which is what I need.

The other way to approach this would be to add the chat input system to the client, but that would take a lot longer. The only benefit to that would be that it could be activated on a key press.

Work continues on the OR Server. I currently have Player Info, Server Info, Chat, and Position packets supported. There are only 6 more types to go! (A few of which the server doesn't need to send, which takes the longest to support)

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Today is my Birthday! I'm 19 today. It's snowing here in southwestern Washington, which is nifty to have on my birthday.

I'm a bit pre-occupied at the moment coordinating equipment for my church's Christmas Event on Friday. Once that's done, I'll have time for OR again. I'm also scheduled for a few interviews here and there, so there may be a job in the near future competing with OR for my time.

Happy Holidays everyone!
Jeff.

Edit: Oh, and I nearly forgot. I added a real firewall to my network, so now to properly access my server, you need to use the URL: jlc.qd.ath.cx

Sorry for the confusion, but at least now I don't have to mess with port forwarding. If you want to know more about the software behind my firewall, check out pfSense (just google it).
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Just an update: My URL is returning to it's old value. Sorry for all the fuss. It is now qd.ath.cx just like old times.
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Achoo! There's quite a lot of dust on this four-month-dormant blog.

Anyway, I'm glad to see that there's still so much enthusiasm for OR. I've decided to pick through all my old VB tools (OR:C and my VB server Re-write) and see what I can do to update things a bit (though it may just be faster to completely rewrite them than to study all my old code).

I'm not sure when you can expect any results, but I'll at least take some time to look through my old stuff and see what interests me.
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If you haven't already read the Big News, you'll want to see that.

Anyway, MasterMind and I tested the fixed version yesterday, and though we didn't really get conclusive results, the performance seemed much better than I remember it. Thanks to this testing, I also learned some really great stuff about Oblivion's positioning system that I've incorporated into the server's knowledge about a player's status (specifically a way for the server to know if you're in a loading screen).

I also fixed the chat in my VB server so that it actually works now (I misplaced the byte that tells the Client how long the chat message is, which broke chat ). I also found a bug where short messages (less than 10 characters, to be exact) weren't getting displayed by the clients, so I made the server tack on spaces to any message that is too short. Chat is looking better than ever! (too bad I still have no way of a GUI chat input...)

My experimental VB server will most likely be online if you want to test it out, though I've had horrendous problems with my router lately. If it wasn't integrated into the DSL modem, I'd replace it in a heartbeat.

FYI: On my experimental VB Server, Animation and Equipment sync (possibly others too) aren't working, so it won't be like the OR you're familiar with.

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OR is once again moved to the back burner on low heat. The new sizzling project is Sardon3D. I'm really excited about it because we won't be limited by Oblivion's engine anymore (however pretty it was). Sardon3D is currently in a very simple 2D stage. In fact, we just made a public release. You can check it out here.

My brother (registered here as ShrubberyJSC) is joining the team to help design the game's major systems. You'll find it has many influences from what we did and didn't like about the RPG's we've played over the years, such as Runescape, Moria/Angband, NWN, Diablo II, Titan's Quest, and Oblivion. Sardon3D will drop the XP system entirely, add dynamically-generated quests, immerse you in a truly limitless expanse of caves to explore, and much more.

I'm really glad to bring this project to Qwerty-Games. My brother and I had previously thought we could only make a very primitive version of this ourselves, but thanks to the extra help of the rest of the Qwerty-Games team, the project is really zipping along, and we have some really awesome things planned, that I would not have imagined possible.

Some things to come are improved combat and AI. Look forward to more sneak-peeks as things progress.
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Well, if you look at my last post, you might think that I wasn't working on OR. However, in an attempt to tinker around and learn something, I've actually done quite a bit for OR.

(Below should be a screen shot of my new function that gets all the NPC's in your area, but if it's not there, blame my dumb router )
Edit: Changed it to a link so you aren't forced to load it (it's a 800x600 JPG).
http://qd.ath.cx/mobsync_prelim.jpg

Gathering the info is only the first step (though it's great to have come so far already). Next, I have to send that info to all the other players. Then, comes the truly hard part; I have to create in-game copies of those NPCs for each client. Now you might be thinking, "oh, that can't be too hard. they already made a copy of the player." but actually we had to painstakingly add 30 NPCs in the Construction Set, and make each one run a script to constantly update itself. I'm thinking there must be a better way, but the problem is, I have to think of one.

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Edit: I decided to add a little more excitement to this post: If you can PM me the area this screen shot was taken in, I'll give you a gold star!

[QuickDanger]

Heh, I seem to like 4 month spurts of down time on this blog.

I just read through the whole thing, and I thought I'd add some more info. Sardon3D has stopped, in favor of other projects, so when I have time for developing, it will most-likely be spent on OR (but we're in the process of taking inventory of our committed developers and deciding exactly how to proceed).

NPC sync actually does work (though only under very controlled conditions, and even then it's not the greatest). This actually happened quite a while ago, I'm surprised I didn't hoot and holler about it in my blog. I'm sure there's a thread somewhere bragging about it.

I started college about a month ago. It's eating up practically all my free time. Maybe the other developers and I will have a coding frenzy over winter break...

In the mean time, you can be looking forward to the new developers that are trickling in, and the excitement they bring to the project. Now all we need is a bit of organization and time, and things will lurch forward again.

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