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Thousand Parsec
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Monday, 22 March 2010 10:50 |
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New version to catch up with compilers and changes in the last 3 years. Mostly small things but ezod
has rewritten the tokenizing to work better. All 0.1.x releases should be interface compatible.
Hopefully documentation makes it in soon.
Libtprl 0.1.3 is on the downloads page and will be on alternative hosting shortly. The Git repo is
libtprl and the tag is LIBTPRL_0_1_3. Feedback and suggestions are always welcome. |
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Thousand Parsec
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Saturday, 13 February 2010 03:29 |
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We"ve been a bit busy. Time for Thousand Parsec"s wrap up for GSoC 2009.
Overall, GSoC went well, and lots of exciting work was done. We have a working webclient, a 3D
battle viewer, big improvements to the main client, big improvements to the main server, MTSec
ruleset working, and big improvements to the secondary python protocol library.
Individual project details are below, in no particular order.
### tpclient-pywx improvements
Greywhind worked on improvements to tpclient-pywx. This include tp04 media parameter support,
resource overlay updates for tp04, download threading fixes and improvements, design window now
works correctly, much nicer object properties window and orders window. Some of the improvements
involved changes to libtpclient-py and libtpproto-py.
See [ Greywhind"s final report in his blog][1] for more
[1]: http://greywhind.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/gsoc-2009-final-report/
### 3D battleviewer
Landon has done an awesome job on creating a 3D battleviewer. It has all sorts of cool effects,
including firing and explosions.
There are [ screenshots on Landon"s blog][2] and, more appropriately, a video of the battleviewer
on YouTube.
[2]: http://blog.lfowles.org/archives/2009/08/02/index.php
### MTSec
The MTSec ruleset in tpserver-cpp wasn"t much more than stubs before GSoC. Alanp spent his time
making it into a proper working game. This includes much design and component work, importing them
from XML file.
Alanp has a more details in his [final report on MTSec][3] in his blog.
[3]: http://alanp.ca/blog/2009/08/23/gsoctp-final-report/
### Webclient
tote developed a webclient for Thousand Parsec, which me was able to get it working enought to play
Minisec. This included log in and out, star/planet map, orders, messages and object details. Very
impressive.
### libtpproto2-py
libtpproto2-py is a different python implementation of the TP protocol, its most significant
feature is that the protocol objects are generated from the XML description of protocol. cherez made
a number of significant improvements to the library, including updating it for parameter groups and
TP04. He also developed an extensive unit test suite for the library.
### tpserver-cpp refactoring
This was a big project and epyon worked hard to refactor tpserver-cpp to make it more maintainable
. This gives a smaller core to tpserver-cpp, using more boost and STL, and hopefully setting up
other improvements in future such as ASIO.
### Parsek client update
A bonus, thanks to the KDE project. mhilmi worked on updating Parsek to use the latest (pre-release
) version of libtpproto-cpp. This flushed out a few bugs in the library, and greatly improved the
Parsek client. It is certainly a lot closer to being usable, including the new libtpproto-cpp
asynchronous support.
[Screenshots and more info about Parsek][4] are available on mhilmi"s blog.
[4]: http://www.marwanhilmi.com/2009/08/18/judgement/
### The future
Most of the code changes made this year in GSoC have been merged to the mainline of the various
code modules. We are actively working on merging the others. Just about all will be included in the
next release versions of the various components.
Google has annouced Summer of Code for 2010. We are intending to apply again as mentoring
organisation, so now is a good time to get involved (as is any time
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Thousand Parsec
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Thursday, 02 April 2009 01:00 |
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As you probably read from [my previous post][1], Thousand Parsec had quite a successful Summer of
Code last year. Unlike previous years, where we have concentrated on getting new stuff developed,
this year we have decided to concentrate on building on the work of our [previous years students][2]
[1]: http://www.thousandparsec.net/tp/news.php/2009-03-31-2300
[2]: http://www.thousandparsec.net/tp/news.php/2008-10-16-1400
With the deadline looming, some of the ideas on our [ideas page][3] have already had lots of
attention, but there are a number of ideas which have yet to have any applications. I would like to
point out these ideas because we think they are very important and have a good chance to be accepted!
[3]: http://www.thousandparsec.net/wiki/Ideas_for_Programmers
Some of the most important ideas have to deal with our coolest looking last Summer of Code project
last year, [Eugene Tan"s new 3d client][4].
[4]: http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,62052477,00.htm
* Adding single player support to the 3d client.
As [mentioned here][1] we have just release single player support in our 2d client. We would
like to see this extended to support our other major client.
Most of the code for this support is in the libtpclient-py support library that is already
shared between both the 3d and 2d clients, so it should be significantly easier then Ezod"s own task.
* Create a "Simple 3d ship designer".
Spore has shown us that it is possible to give people non-professional 3d artists, the ability
to create cool looking models. With a little bit of prefabed art work and some easy transforms, even
programmers don"t have to be scared anymore.
We would like to see a similar ability added to Thousand Parsec. It can be developed as part of
the 3d client or as a stand alone program.
Another project we think is really important, is to continue the efforts to improve single player
support. These include,
* Adding support for saving and restoring games.
Having to play a complete game in one sitting is a real pain, specially since some of the
Thousand Parsec games can requires many hours to play. The jist of this idea would be to add save/
load support found in most game types.
This would require adding saving/loading support to a number of back end projects like our
primary server (tpserver-cpp) and daneel-ai.
* Adding support for single player "scenario" mode.
In some ways, this is related to the previous idea but a little simpler. This would be similar
to the "missions" you get in other normal games.
An example would be something like "King Unorganised has run our intergalactic empire into the
ground, we have put you in charge of restoring us to our former glory.
"
* Extending single player support to include "set up your own multiplayer game".
Single player support has also paved the way towards adding support for simple wizard set up of
games to be played with friends. Much of the procedure is the same and we already have an auto-
discovery process created.
Getting started with the single player development should be very easy, it only takes 6 commands
!
git clone git://git.thousandparsec.net/git/tpclient-pywx.git
git clone git://git.thousandparsec.net/git/daneel-ai.git
git clone git://git.thousandparsec.net/git/tpserver-cpp.git
cd tpserver-cpp; ./autogen.sh; ./configure; make; cd..
cd tpclient-pywx
./tpclient-pywx
If you are interested, I suggest that [you jump on IRC][5] and chat with our wonderful bunch of
mentors. It is also recommended that you put in an application (even if only a draft) as soon as
possible, as we are happy to help you with your application and provide feedback.
[5]: irc://irc.freenode.org/#tp |
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