Certa
Mar 17 2007, 03:03
http://armawatch.net/forum
Hi all!
After some hesitation I believe this belongs in the Multiplayer Section, with the History of OFP Watch, but in some way it also belongs in the Addon section.
Finally I bought the English Euro ArmA, got a graphics card that can actually handle it.. I have not yet finished the campaign but I like the game. I get the good old OFP feeling and I suspect I will stick to it for some year to come, especially knowing what a great community this is!
For those who don’t know, I wrote the OFP Watch utility that included multi and single -player launcher, automatic addon download (for servers running my addon server), general addon manager and several other features.
For the last few months I have had countless of inquiries for an ArmA Watch utility with addon download.
I know there are at least a few launchers and server query tools out there and there are probably more to come. However, so far, as I heard, there is no automatic addon download utility out there, perhaps someone is developing one, how can I know.
I have only a few rough drafts of what a ArmA Watch would be but these are the current points I would try to go with:
• Open Source
• Multiple server monitoring
• Simple addon download
• LZMA/RAR compression.
• No need of an addon server
• Com interface addon download and/or community standard (ok, it’s a wish)
• Complete documentation
Open Source
The reasons are many, quality control, easy for people to customize, multiple developers. For me it’s good because others can improve and develop the utility when I don’t have the time. I think Open Source speaks for itself.
Multiple server monitoring
This pretty much brings us to the UI which is still not set. I imagine a split view system with servers, players and server info in different sections. Here there is space for a lot of features like ‘join the first server with 8 players’ and a lot more. I’m not really a UI guy so there is plenty of room for developer interaction here.
Simple addon download
I’m thinking simple as in ‘simple’, primitive compared to OFP Watch but easy to use and easy to set up. OFP Watch had some very extensive script options and features. There were always server admins with special needs and that created more and more features. Even I can’t understand my own OFP Watch source code sometimes. ArmA Watch would have a more straight forward download/update to a server specific mod folder approach. This will remove some of the smartness of OFP Watch but improve general usability and maintenance.
LZMA/RAR compression
A lot of people wanted more than ZIP support from OFP Watch, especially people with slow connections. I agree, RAR or 7z can squeeze down an addon a lot better than ZIP. With the new approach I’m thinking about, I’d like a format that can be extracted from a HTTP (or perhaps a FTP) -server directly in a way the player/client don’t have to download the entire package before extraction of a single PBO .I’m still looking in to this (help is appreciated) but in worst case it will yield a separate package compression utility with good compression but a format not supported by general tools.
No need of an addon server
One of the hassles with OFP Watch Auto-Addon was the need of an addon server for the automatic addon support. The addon server did provide the player/client with information OFP could not in itself, even the simple timer of how long the current game had gone. However, most of this information can be rerouted via other means. I have one/two ideas of how to implement most of this without any additional server installations. It can be done via the server name/description and/or via a central but open ArmA Watch server. If the server name contains a URL, all the server admin will have to do is to point to the addon packages via a HTML tag on their main page...at least that’s my idea.
The rest would be done via HTTP/FTP protocol, decompression and local installation.
Com interface addon download and/or community standard
As described above, the addon, detection, checking and installation standard should be open. A free COM interface for Windows developers could come in handy...no priority, on demand.
Complete documentation
The way OFP Watch grew with features it was impossible for me to keep up with documentation. In the end I had a general manual on the website, technical documentation in the readme’s and I send emails with further instructions to those it might concern. No more of that... ArmA Watch should be documented from day one and kept up to date with every revision. Wiki documentation if needed.
Summary
I’m looking for inputs, suggestions, partners, cheers, buuhs or discouragements. At the moment of writing I’m not 100% sure I’m going to go ahead writing an ArmA Watch. I don’t mind setting up this project on my own if needed, but input and partners are welcome. I’m pretty much open for anything. Also, if a similar project is already going on, let me know and I might support/join it instead.
Message me for contact. I disabled my old OFP email (spam attacks) so it doesn’t work.
John/Certa
Hi all!
After some hesitation I believe this belongs in the Multiplayer Section, with the History of OFP Watch, but in some way it also belongs in the Addon section.
Finally I bought the English Euro ArmA, got a graphics card that can actually handle it.. I have not yet finished the campaign but I like the game. I get the good old OFP feeling and I suspect I will stick to it for some year to come, especially knowing what a great community this is!
For those who don’t know, I wrote the OFP Watch utility that included multi and single -player launcher, automatic addon download (for servers running my addon server), general addon manager and several other features.
For the last few months I have had countless of inquiries for an ArmA Watch utility with addon download.
I know there are at least a few launchers and server query tools out there and there are probably more to come. However, so far, as I heard, there is no automatic addon download utility out there, perhaps someone is developing one, how can I know.
I have only a few rough drafts of what a ArmA Watch would be but these are the current points I would try to go with:
• Open Source
• Multiple server monitoring
• Simple addon download
• LZMA/RAR compression.
• No need of an addon server
• Com interface addon download and/or community standard (ok, it’s a wish)
• Complete documentation
Open Source
The reasons are many, quality control, easy for people to customize, multiple developers. For me it’s good because others can improve and develop the utility when I don’t have the time. I think Open Source speaks for itself.
Multiple server monitoring
This pretty much brings us to the UI which is still not set. I imagine a split view system with servers, players and server info in different sections. Here there is space for a lot of features like ‘join the first server with 8 players’ and a lot more. I’m not really a UI guy so there is plenty of room for developer interaction here.
Simple addon download
I’m thinking simple as in ‘simple’, primitive compared to OFP Watch but easy to use and easy to set up. OFP Watch had some very extensive script options and features. There were always server admins with special needs and that created more and more features. Even I can’t understand my own OFP Watch source code sometimes. ArmA Watch would have a more straight forward download/update to a server specific mod folder approach. This will remove some of the smartness of OFP Watch but improve general usability and maintenance.
LZMA/RAR compression
A lot of people wanted more than ZIP support from OFP Watch, especially people with slow connections. I agree, RAR or 7z can squeeze down an addon a lot better than ZIP. With the new approach I’m thinking about, I’d like a format that can be extracted from a HTTP (or perhaps a FTP) -server directly in a way the player/client don’t have to download the entire package before extraction of a single PBO .I’m still looking in to this (help is appreciated) but in worst case it will yield a separate package compression utility with good compression but a format not supported by general tools.
No need of an addon server
One of the hassles with OFP Watch Auto-Addon was the need of an addon server for the automatic addon support. The addon server did provide the player/client with information OFP could not in itself, even the simple timer of how long the current game had gone. However, most of this information can be rerouted via other means. I have one/two ideas of how to implement most of this without any additional server installations. It can be done via the server name/description and/or via a central but open ArmA Watch server. If the server name contains a URL, all the server admin will have to do is to point to the addon packages via a HTML tag on their main page...at least that’s my idea.
The rest would be done via HTTP/FTP protocol, decompression and local installation.
Com interface addon download and/or community standard
As described above, the addon, detection, checking and installation standard should be open. A free COM interface for Windows developers could come in handy...no priority, on demand.
Complete documentation
The way OFP Watch grew with features it was impossible for me to keep up with documentation. In the end I had a general manual on the website, technical documentation in the readme’s and I send emails with further instructions to those it might concern. No more of that... ArmA Watch should be documented from day one and kept up to date with every revision. Wiki documentation if needed.
Summary
I’m looking for inputs, suggestions, partners, cheers, buuhs or discouragements. At the moment of writing I’m not 100% sure I’m going to go ahead writing an ArmA Watch. I don’t mind setting up this project on my own if needed, but input and partners are welcome. I’m pretty much open for anything. Also, if a similar project is already going on, let me know and I might support/join it instead.
Message me for contact. I disabled my old OFP email (spam attacks) so it doesn’t work.
John/Certa