FRL Airforce Addons release thread

[[FRL]Myke]

Myke I have some good news re SU DropBox support!
The initial issues preventing me from using it are no concern when combining it with zSync.
http://dev-heaven.net/issues/17455#note-3

Currently it already supports downloading from DropBox accounts, and I am in the process of handling the automatic repository preparation and upload too!
ETA later today, but at least before the end of the weekend!

That is a fantastic news. You might forgive my stupid questions but i'm not a programmer so a lot i read there on dev-heaven doesn't make much sense to me:

does the final (planned) implementation mean that i just upload my stuff (.zip? .7z?) to dropbox and people can use that link to keep updated?

[Sickboy]

That is a fantastic news. You might forgive my stupid questions but i'm not a programmer so a lot i read there on dev-heaven doesn't make much sense to me:

does the final (planned) implementation mean that i just upload my stuff (.zip? .7z?) to dropbox and people can use that link to keep updated?

The implementation im working on currently will be;

1; Put modfolder with files somewhere
2; Run sixzsync tool (currently commandline, but can add ui). It will prepare the data for the modfolder and upload it to DropBox.

For the end user, they can do two things;
a) Directly install your mod by inputting the dropBox url to your mod in the Six Updater.
b) Browse your mod repository by entering the dropBox url to the repo config file, in the Six Updater, so in case you have multiple mods, they can select from these mods.

I have registered sixupdater:// url handler with the Updater. So we can easily make it so that you can even just add links to forum posts etc, which will open your mod / repository in the updater, without the user having to copy/paste anything

[[FRL]Myke]

(currently commandline, but can add ui).

Meh...
I know it's "1337" to use commandline tools but i am not 1337.
It's 2011, graphical User Interface should be standard IMHO. Please don't take offence, it's not meant that way.

[Sickboy]

Meh...
I know it's "1337" to use commandline tools but i am not 1337.
It's 2011, graphical User Interface should be standard IMHO. Please don't take offence, it's not meant that way.

Yea I know, but there's only so much I can do at a time, im sure you know how hard it is to split time over the things you wanna do, have to do etc.
For hosting/server purposes the commandline makes sense for automation etc. Of course not for the end-user. And I agree, for the mod hosters it would be nice too.
But in the end, better commandline than nothing, or not?

[[FRL]Myke]

Yea I know, but there's only so much I can do at a time, im sure you know how hard it is to split time over the things you wanna do, have to do etc.
For hosting/server purposes the commandline makes sense for automation etc. Of course not for the end-user. And I agree, for the mod hosters it would be nice too.
But in the end, better commandline than nothing, or not?

More than true, couldn't agree more.

And i also speak just for myself as the lazy basterd i am: i will probably wait to make use of it until there is a GUI to use.

Again, no offence intended. Just stating my point and i completely understand that there might be quite a few dozens more important features to implement/issues to solve than a GUI.

[Sickboy]

I'll inform you once I get there, UI for the repo manager should be rather simple so probably next days

---------- Post added at 16:17 ---------- Previous post was at 15:21 ----------

Actually... Bad news Myke, the http servers of Dropbox actually do not support the HTTP range command, which we need to do partial downloads.... grmbl.

That basically throws dropbox support again off the table... At least, DropBox can be used for initial install and even updates, but it would not use differential update - so there would be no real benefits compared to downloading it normally, other than having the Updater manage it..
Sorry for getting hopes up.

[[FRL]Myke]

so there would be no real benefits compared to downloading it normally, other than having the Updater manage it.

Could the updater determine if it was updated on dropbox? If yes, what more benefit could it need besides that? I mean, sure it would be nice to only download the changed/added bits but even if it has to download the complete package that's already a huge benefit compared to the alternative which is keep track of every addon used manually...checking several Forums if there is an update valaibale or not.

[Sickboy]

Could the updater determine if it was updated on dropbox? If yes, what more benefit could it need besides that? I mean, sure it would be nice to only download the changed/added bits but even if it has to download the complete package that's already a huge benefit compared to the alternative which is keep track of every addon used manually...checking several Forums if there is an update valaibale or not.

Yes it can.

No differential updates means (lots of) overhead of data during update compared to diff-update, which for me is one of the major features of the updater ;D

But you are right, even without the differential update it is useful. I shall add it anyway.

[[FRL]Myke]

No differential updates means (lots of) overhead of data during update compared to diff-update, which for me is one of the major features of the updater ;D

Right, a "feature", while i see the main "purpose" in easier tracking for updates.
Else it would mean (lots of) overhead for the people to keep track

Finally, i guess people have still the option to not use SU for dropbox downloads.

[Big Dawg KS]

I really wish people would be more curious, spend more time on researching, trying, playing around. Sometimes people are really fast in saying "can't be done" instead just trying it.

Ha, unfortunately I have a habit of immediately recognizing the limitations of things (or go looking for them), but I assure you I do spend a lot of time researching and experimenting. More than half of the projects I start just end up sitting on my desktop because of some limitation or another. For me it's usually never as black and white as "can be done" or "can't be done", but there always seems to be something that makes it a "can sort of be done but..." situation.

And about the AI concerns: hell, it isn't that hard and unique to make a fake turret to use as data source if the gunner is AI and then by script using this data (animationPhase anyone?) to animate the real things.

That's quite a work-around; care to explain it in more detail? I can see how it would allow you to slave the dummy turret to the actual one, but what do you do with the weapons? Do you just have two different turrets with 2 different weapons; one using the invisible turret and the other using the script controlled one (belonging to the pilot)? IMO, still not a perfect solution (and thus one of those "sort of can be done" things ), but that actually gives me some interesting ideas (sometimes I wish I could model ).

Also, it's easy for you to say it's not hard, but for the record I am not an artist and I usually just have to work with the models BI provides (unedited), so I suppose I can overlook certain tricks you can do with the models.