Official forums for BZFlag.org

Two things:
firsty, I was reading about romfis post about the iPod touch and iPhone, how they would like a bzflag game on iPod with bots and gear. I think maybe someone could make a app were you can't actually play, but observe (probably using wifi). I would enjoy sitting in the living room and chat in obz while an offi is goin on. I thin it could be a view of the radar so it is easy in 2d. You don't have to roam or follow anyone, just have the screen of the radar and a chat box and a keybord at the bottom. Any thoughts?

Secondly, I was wondering with the 3.0.0 if lag would increase or decrease?

Thx for any replies and for reading.

1. Observing requires 99.9% of the code... not going to happen
2. Lag is an issue with the internet, not the game

Ok with 1
but maybe there is more texture and things that inhance lag an hit?

bzadmin would probably be reasonably portable. It would not have any graphics but would allow chat and let you see who's online etc.
Getting the App approved by Apple and downloadable from iTunes though, requires a developer license which costs money.
Maybe there's a hobbyist App developer out there that would take this on and perhaps it could grow to later include some graphical representation of what's happening, but it would probably be the best place to start.

Jacko h wrote:Ok with 1
but maybe there is more texture and things that inhance lag an hit?

With a poor performing video card you will get a slower frame rate and artificially induced lag (your computer is too busy to process packets) but that will not change in BZFlag 3.0

FiringSquad wrote:Getting the App approved by Apple and downloadable from iTunes though, requires a developer license which costs money.

That doesnt necessarily have to happen, seeing as how most ipod owners jailbreak their hardware. And im pretty sure there are quite a few terminal applications , bzadmin would be very easy imo.

ducktape wrote:That doesnt necessarily have to happen, seeing as how most ipod owners jailbreak their hardware.

"While only 10 percent of iDevices are jailbroken (according to Cydia creator Saurik)" quoted from http://www.ismashphone.com/2010/08/what ... -apps.html

That is hardly a majority...

PS 64 percent of all the world's statistics are made up right there on the spot, and 82.4 percent of people believe 'em whether they're accurate statistics or not

Plus we are not going to develop software that requires people to "hack" their hardware. And yeah, 10 percent of a platform that isn't that popular for a game that isn't that popular isn't a good investment.

joevano wrote: PS 64 percent of all the world's statistics are made up right there on the spot, and 82.4 percent of people believe 'em whether they're accurate statistics or not

It was convincing though was it not? i ment most of the people who would want bzflag on an idevice, but who knows. either way the idea isnt very practical. but the point i was trying to get across is that bzadmin would be a piece of cake to run on an ipod.

Yeah, but it is even easier to run it on a linux server that you ssh into from your iPhone, iPad, Android... No jailbreak or development effort needed!

or even easier to log into the game server from the built in browser.......

it just keeps getting easier and easier.

I believe the BZFX guys were working on a way to display a radar-like view of a game using JavaScript in a web browser. Whether or not this project got any farther than any of their others, I'm not sure.

So we can use bzadmin, bit we need to find a way to get it as an app?

Awsome. Does anyone want to set this up using this? Im not smart enough B-)

You will have to do it yourself. You need to ssh into a computer you have access to that also has bzadmin installed then launch bzadmin via ssh.

Jacko: Like bambino said there is nothing we can do to help you get this. Google is your friend. if you dont know what ssh is then google it. learn.