50 replies to this topic

[gmargaro]

Hi,

If you want, and if it's not too time consuming, i could help with the french translation (I'm french).
I also know a little of java, if needed.

[Fouinto]

• the option to download only, and to use existing downloads for subsequent install (for cases where users need/want to download on one PC and install on another - it would also avoid unnecessary re-downloading);

Better idea for your problem : install on one computer and, once installed, copy the whole installed folder on the second computer.
Note : it seems that you will have to use the same directory in both computer...

[William Imm]

Hi,

If you want, and if it's not too time consuming, i could help with the french translation (I'm french).
I also know a little of java, if needed.

You can certainly help with French translation. In fact, all strings will be stored into a few separate files (much like a lot of WeiDU mods), so that strings can be translated without affecting the code. I can also help you with Java coding if needed.

I'd certainly welcome a new BWS and using Java is preferable than, say, .NET (due to the junk .NET Framework piles in the Windows Registry). I would request the following features:

Main reason: cross-platform support, and familiarity. While I could try coding this in C or C++, in practice, I don't know those languages very well. .NET, it's not really a ideal choice for me because Linux support means having to install a piece of possibly non-free (as in freedom) bloat known as Mono, and it's not something I'd really want.

• the option to download only, and to use existing downloads for subsequent install (for cases where users need/want to download on one PC and install on another - it would also avoid unnecessary re-downloading);
  
• By all means offer simplified choices but do cover individual mod/option selection as well. Mod groups (Tweak, NPC, Quest, etc) are a good halfway house and probably needed with the number of mods available while a rating for each mod could help new users select the most appropriate for them.
  
• Multithreading - I'd suggest this wouldn't be such a great benefit. Given that download sites can have hiccups (resulting in unavailable mods) it would seem safer not to do any extract/install work until every mod selected has been downloaded. While multiple extracts can run simultaneously, in practice the bottleneck is likely to be the storage (hard disk, SSD) which could mean slower performance.

Your ideas are good, and I'll take them into consideration. About multithreading, only one extraction process will be run at a time, and it will run once the mod has been successfully downloaded. If a mod did not download for whatever reason, at the end (after NSIS and IA extraction), the setup will retry any mods that failed to download for whatever reason, and attempt to extract them.

As far as testing goes, I'm probably going to be too busy "assessing" my existing BWP install to be of much use...

Ok. And one new idea:

The resolution will be determined automatically by Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize(), which will determine if Widescreen Mod gets installed or not (it will get installed on all screen resolutions not 640x480 or 800x600), and what size fonts get installed (by installing the bigger fonts componet, or by putting a different sized font in the override folder). This means the user does not have to check for the screen size by himself - the program does so, and it affects what mods are installed.

[Sasha Al'Therin]

Ok. And one new idea:

The resolution will be determined automatically by Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize(), which will determine if Widescreen Mod gets installed or not (it will get installed on all screen resolutions not 640x480 or 800x600), and what size fonts get installed (by installing the bigger fonts componet, or by putting a different sized font in the override folder). This means the user does not have to check for the screen size by himself - the program does so, and it affects what mods are installed.

will you still allow players to decide whether or not they want a particular mod installed? this reads as if WSM will be installed regardless of player choice. What if player wants to run windowed instead of full screen? your automatic grab of screen size won't allow for some of the possibilities available with WSM

[Fouinto]

Better idea for your problem : install on one computer and, once installed, copy the whole installed folder on the second computer.

Not really - what if the downloading system isn't mine? (doesn't apply here but there are others reliant on public libraries or other third parties for Internet access who can't install software there). How about configuring system-specific mods? (e.g. the Widescreen mod where the two systems have different monitors). What if the systems' setup differed enough to prevent a straight copy from working?The previous BWS did allow for downloads as a separate step (though I had to create dummy files to make it think BG1/2 was installed) and could use those downloads for subsequent extract/install on another system. It shouldn't be a big feature to add, and as noted above has benefits for all users.<p>

If you want to be SURE that it will works, you'd better do what i say...
But, of course, it's just an advice, you can try what you want... you may even succeed !

[Kaeloree]

Fouinto, I'm not sure that's exactly a productive attitude. There are so many different ways to do a mega-install, and Vykel Kanser is right, often there are differing options depending on the setup.

[Fouinto]

Fouinto, I'm not sure that's exactly a productive attitude. There are so many different ways to do a mega-install, and Vykel Kanser is right, often there are differing options depending on the setup.

Well, I think I am not clear : I just think that if you want to play "true" multiplayer, it is the easiest way to do it right in one shot (according that every players own the original game of course).
Why do I say that ? because people around seems to have difficulties to do a "simple" install (see the numbers of posts about BGT in the past week, see the number of people saying that they try to do it for days...).
I didn't want to be unpleasant, I just wanted to help.

[Fouinto]

In that case, I suggest that you may have misread my post - it wasn't about multiplayer but the option to (a) download mod files only and (b) run the subsequent install on a PC without any Internet access (using files downloaded and copied across from another system).

OMG now I understand why you both disagree with me

[William Imm]

Sasha:

Ok. And one new idea:

The resolution will be determined automatically by Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize(), which will determine if Widescreen Mod gets installed or not (it will get installed on all screen resolutions not 640x480 or 800x600), and what size fonts get installed (by installing the bigger fonts componet, or by putting a different sized font in the override folder). This means the user does not have to check for the screen size by himself - the program does so, and it affects what mods are installed.

will you still allow players to decide whether or not they want a particular mod installed? this reads as if WSM will be installed regardless of player choice. What if player wants to run windowed instead of full screen? your automatic grab of screen size won't allow for some of the possibilities available with WSM

Well, the installer will prompt if you want to install Widescreen and bigger fonts if the resolution is not the excluded ones mentioned bellow - this satisfy the players who want good fullscreen, and the ones who just want to run in a window.

Vykel:

Better idea for your problem : install on one computer and, once installed, copy the whole installed folder on the second computer.

Not really - what if the downloading system isn't mine? (doesn't apply here but there are others reliant on public libraries or other third parties for Internet access who can't install software there). How about configuring system-specific mods? (e.g. the Widescreen mod where the two systems have different monitors). What if the systems' setup differed enough to prevent a straight copy from working?The previous BWS did allow for downloads as a separate step (though I had to create dummy files to make it think BG1/2 was installed) and could use those downloads for subsequent extract/install on another system. It shouldn't be a big feature to add, and as noted above has benefits for all users.

Well, I will provide a "download mods only" option in case of a situation like that. The download files can be transferred onto another computer, and the setup can be run on the other computer, and you just point the download location to where you copied it, and boom: a quick check for updates, and then it will start unpacking.

The resolution will be determined automatically by Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize(), which will determine if Widescreen Mod gets installed or not (it will get installed on all screen resolutions not 640x480 or 800x600), and what size fonts get installed (by installing the bigger fonts componet, or by putting a different sized font in the override folder). This means the user does not have to check for the screen size by himself - the program does so, and it affects what mods are installed.

I agree with the rest of your post but this step, selecting resolution automatically, may not be a good idea. In my experience BG doesn't play well at very high resolutions (1680x1050 and above) since the text, the avatars and other UI elements (buttons, etc) end up too small. Setting up Widescreen to be easily changed (i.e. run it after biffing, so alterations don't trigger a re-biff) would be better - but users need to be advised about potential savegame compatibility issues (not sure about BG, but Planescape has a tendency to crash on loading interior areas if the Widescreen mod settings are altered).

As I said to Sasha, there will be a prompt to make sure the user wants Widescreen + bigger fonts. I'm just saying this because it would save from having the user check the resolution manually. I will mention the possible save game issues in the setup as well.

While the BWP says that you should install Widescreen before Gen. Biffing, I'll try your suggestion to see if it works. This will probably require playtesting to make sure it works, and is crash-free, but it's a good idea to make sure.

(BTW: I wish Baldur's Gate II had a GUI mod, much like Planescape, that scales properly with the resolution. I'm sure it would be ****ing awesome to play it in SUPER BIG MODE, and have it big enough to see the interface better.)

[William Imm]

@Skynet2009: I think I like where I am heading right now - good idea, but I think the previous suggestions are better for the BWS.

To everyone: I have actually uploaded a real commit for once - at least it has the framework of a program. Since I'm mainly going by test-driven development (write tests first, run, then write code to pass the test), you will see both updates for new code and tests at once. This program is written using the Eclipse SDK, and so, if you are using it, this project can be imported straight into the program. Of course, there is also a Ant buildfile. It's recommended to get the EGit plugin for the SDK - because it's Git hosted, after all.

[William Imm]

So yea, more updates. I have a simple XML parser ready, as well as a test XML file if you want to look at it. It's not terribly complex, but neither is my program. Well, at least the parts of the program that I have written... Tests out fine.

I think I'll probably go MVC with this setup, and I will let you know via a form post when it's ready.

[gmargaro]

You can send me the language files when you want for a french translation.
I also think that, if it's possible, you could add a language choice in the BWS for choosing the language of the installed mods. Perhaps an auto-select function witch select the game language for the mods, or a priority list like (FR, EN, ES) to install in French when possible, then in English, then in Spanish, ... I'm not so familiar with weidu so i don't know if it's possible and to witch extend.

[Sasha Al'Therin]

weidu when the LANGUAGE tag is used and is given a list of languages. Those languages are assigned a numerical value starting with 0 and going as high as there are languages in the list. but the order of languages is different per mod since some do not have translations in other languages or the modder listed them in a different order.

[William Imm]

Actually, the way I'm going to be handling translations is very similar to WeiDU - externalize the strings to seperate files for each part, and when a part of the program needs one of those strings, call a static function that displays the approiate string.

[gmargaro]

weidu when the LANGUAGE tag is used and is given a list of languages. Those languages are assigned a numerical value starting with 0 and going as high as there are languages in the list. but the order of languages is different per mod since some do not have translations in other languages or the modder listed them in a different order.

OK, so we need a list of languages that each mod support, and the numbers of theses languages, and hope that modders doesn't change the order of the languages between versions... heavy work to do.