Are you willing to test new features of bzflag?

orchid · Post by **orchid** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 8:18 pm

Currenty, the number of active developers in the Bzflag project
is quite small, lets say around 10 people plus or minus.

This makes it hard to implement all the new features people ask for while at the same time try to fix existing bugs.

Many players can help simply by installing a cvs client and joining
one of the cvs servers with some other players and try out some
of the new flags, map features or just play normally like you do each day, but with an eye out for anything you might think as odd, or flat out broken.

If your not sure what CVS is, have a look at this page http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=3248

If your using windows, I can probably get one of the windows dev's (that means you patlabor221

) to build a client each week that you can download and install into windowsXP or whatever you have.

I see some regulars friday nights, for example playing ctf, or decks on quols servers, perhaps we could take an hour or two
to play on the cvs servers instead, same maps, same game styles, just the latest and greatest client and server version.

Decks™ is an old map but a great one for testing as its familiar to most long time players, more on that here http://bzgirl.bzflag.org/decks.html

So lets say 5-10 of you think "yeah, Id like to help out", we can
keep a thread in the development forum and post to it as the testing day draws near, just to keep people reminded to help out? Or any other way to loosely organize this would be welcomed?

I think it would be nice for the playing community to take a little bit of time to help out the developers so the game can we
all love to play, can keep getting better and better.

So any volunteers?

/me returns to lurking

:lurk:

Workaphobia · Post by **Workaphobia** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 9:03 pm

Hey, name the date and time, and post an updated client, and I'll be there. I'm happy to test if we can actually get more than one person at a time playing.

JeffM · Post by **JeffM** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 9:04 pm

Yeah I'll build up some installers when I get home.

****NOTE for Windows Users******
This binary build WILL REQURE at least DirectX7.
If your on Windows XP then you'll be fine. If you are on 2k, 9x, or ME then you'll need to make sure you have at least Direct X 7 ( DX9 is the current version ).
If your on Windows NT, sorry your kinda screwed for this binary since there is no real DirectX for NT, You'll have to build your own with out the new input support.

you can get the current direct X at http://www.microsoft.com/directx/

Post by **blast** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 9:08 pm

I'd be happy to help test. It's just a matter of time. With school and work, it's sometimes hard to plan a schedule. Some days I don't have near as much free time.
I've also been downloading and compiling the latest CVS every now and then. Just takes a while to download (56k

).

The Red Baron · Post by **The Red Baron** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 9:35 pm

I'm on windows 2000 with dx9.

If all you are asking of me is to log on with the cvs and play the game looking for bugs... Sure I can help. I started on decks so I know it like the front of my computer monitor.

You mentioned compiling and/or installers. If you walk me through compiling once, I will be able to repeat it.

other than that, you have my services...

JeffM · Post by **JeffM** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 11:14 pm

buld is at, http://bzbb.bzflag.org/builds/1.11/bzflag1.11.14.exe

Red Barron, building generaly needs CVS access to be able to get the current most code, and commit version updates to the installers. Also current builds are done with Visual Studio .net 2003 ( VC7.1 ) and use of the NSIS instaleler tool.

I reiterate the DirectX issue. The installer does not yet check for DirectX, but it should before the final release, once we upgrade to the current nsis version.

orchid · Post by **orchid** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 11:51 pm

Thanks Patlabor221

Red Baron if you do not have those compiling tools you can still just use the above posted exe.

Do you guys feel friday evening is ok? Thats eveneing time for us in North America, and night time for the European players

If its early evening for us then its not too late for the Euro's
Some of them stay up past midnight

I think purple_cow could be talked into having a server available, if not I can run one myself.

The Red Baron · Post by **The Red Baron** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 12:46 am

i've got the compiling tools, but unsure of what to do them.

I'll stick to the exe's unless you need me to learn to compile them. friday evening is a great time for me.

Post by **trepan** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 2:17 am

If there are going to be numerous bug reports
coming from these test sessions, I would ask
the server owner to record them. That way, we
can replay the game and look for message about
bugs, and watch them as they happen (it'll also
record the client's version and OS).

Also, it might be nice to drop an 'test executable'
on Thursday night, and possibly do a CVS tag, so
that everyone is using the same client code. Just
makes it that much easier to track things. I do not
know how feasible this would be to organize.

orchid · Post by **orchid** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 3:09 am

Trepan, we can all download what ever you tell us that you want to be tested (an hopefully compile it too

)
But yes, the same client version would be good.

I will look at how to record games, I havent done that yet.

red baron, i dont know how to compile on windows, so i cant help you there.

JeffM · Post by **JeffM** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 3:15 am

Just poke me when you want a new build, you both know where to find me. Hell some of you even have my cell phone number.

toaster · Post by **toaster** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 10:44 am

I'm willing to test, evenings US mostly. I had to remove my graphics card, because of bzflag 1.10.6 and pseudo-random crashes. (Geforce 5200) So I'm running a plain Via motherboard chipset, AMD 2200+, and S3 Prosavage on-board, Windows XP Pro, DirectX 9.0c, and the latest drivers for all components in the system as of 1 week ago. Ought to make a decent middle-of-the-road test client platform.

I'm also willing to manipulate my nimitz 2.0 map to change playability with LOTS of objects. Or Trepan can, he has bzmapper source for a recent version.

The Purple Panzer · Post by **The Purple Panzer** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 12:12 pm

I'd like to sign up for testing, too. With family stuff going on the evening it'll probably be slightly on the later side, U.S. East Coast time (say, 10 PM). And other times I may well be available, but it's hard to say in advance. It'd be great to be able to help out in some way.

Post by **trepan** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 1:03 pm

toaster, you want lotsa objects? =)
http://members.rogers.com/trepan/screenies/aztec.jpg
86778 mesh faces in that one. It's not playable yet, but it may
be some day. I get about 90 FPS when sitting in the center of
it, but that number crashes when looking towards the center
from one of the corners.

Post by **Fiberchunks** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 3:04 pm

man, trepan, that is some really nice stuff

Peace

The Purple Panzer · Post by **The Purple Panzer** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 3:10 pm

I agree, amazing map. Could you send me the map file, just so I can see what some of the objects look like?

Post by **trepan** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 3:21 pm

...I forgot to mention, I did not build that map.
I wrote the 3DS to BZW converter, and used it on
someone else's model file.
http://www.3dcafe.com/models/az_city.zip

The converter is in the misc/ directory in CVS. It
requires lib3ds to compile.

Purple Panzer, I'd send you the BZW file, except
that it's around 23Mbytes. You may be glad to note
that it compresses to around 1.3Mbytes over the
wire (bzfs now does compression before sending out
maps, which also saves cache space on the client
side, and recording file space server side).

SGI · Post by **SGI** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 4:20 pm

Fiberchuncks wrote:
man, trepan, that is some really nice stuff
.........
SGI...... no that is really a great good stuff.

nurdc0re · Post by **nurdc0re** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 6:23 pm

I can test out a cvs client from time to time (depends on how much homework there is), and I can build it myself on Mac OS 10.3.5.

anteater · Post by **anteater** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 1:33 pm

I will be happy to help out with the testing of the new features. I was able to download the test version and just spent 20 mins “flying” (my new favorite). I did not know that this was something that the general public was able to get in on. I was thinking it was just a special club.

I am in...

optic delusion · Post by **optic delusion** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 5:09 pm

I'll do whatever I can. I have two different mac osx platforms running, but a my lag usually stays around 220.

orchid · Post by **orchid** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 7:09 pm

ant_eater wrote: I did not know that this was something that the general public was able to get in on. I was thinking it was just a special club. I am in...

Nope, the more people that try out the cvs version the better.

So by friday I or patlabor221 will post a link for the windows build
for those of you unable to compile a client

For the rest, be aware from time to time, things might not build
when you compile, stuff gets broken now and then but if you
pop into irc.freenode.net, #bzflag, there is usually someone around that can help.

So we will try for this coming friday evening?

bzg.

anteater · Post by **anteater** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 7:13 pm

sounds good to for friday. um around what time might you be thinking?

ant

Post by **trepan** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 7:23 pm

I'm game for friday evening.

Patlabor: how's midnight (EST) tomorrow
as a build time for you? (guess that's around
9pm your time). I'll try to get my junk a little
tighter by then, and ask that all the other devs
do the same (including you

)

toaster · Post by **toaster** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 7:37 pm

Friday night I'm out of town interviewing, not going to work for me this week.

Trepan, I give on the object count competition. I'm only counting the ones I've built myself, not converted, and that's more than the current production release handles well.

I do know where to get some serious models and convert them, guess I might be able to give you a run for your money then..... LOL

And the Aztec map is amazing. Someone really put a lot of work into that design.

By the way, do you have actual mesh support in 1.11 now, or still tetrahedrons? I've been experimenting / working with them, but having a lot of difficulty with freehand design.