Even though I'm already outgeeked by Omni I'll still post.
here's my main computer, including a vnc-session to my notebook for screenshot purposes.
http://www.authmann.de/misc/Desktop4tasvideos.jpg (480 kB, 3200x1200)
showing off pseudotransparent terminals (aterm), window borders (crystal) and panels (kde default). Also showing off a custom filtered and colored syslog (syslog-ng / ssh / tailf / grcat) which informs me of all system warnings, incoming emails, IRC-messages addressed to me and a couple more things.
Also showing a glaring emptyness on my desktop, zero items, the way I like it. I access my stuff via the panels and strategically placed hotkeys.
Not visible: yakuake with an irssi session inside screen. Or anything else, since I was just about to go to bed and already closed everything.
Yes, the logo is part of the background, the background repeats itself, and the background is 1600px wide. Of course the logo could be put into a separate image without the need for any "endless table" whatsoever, but there aren't many users who'll care anyway.
If you're talking about DSL- or Cable-Modems: depends on your modem, really.
My cable modem connects automatically and assigns the IP address via DHCP. I could plug my Wii in without problems.
All DSL connections I've seen so far require authentication, which has to be done by some client - either your PC, or a router. The Wii cannot do that. However, if you have different DSL-modems than we do, it might still work.
Basically, if you can connect to the internet through your modem without installing any software or entering any passwords on your PC, the Wii should be able to do the same.
But then again, why should you want that?
yeah, those selfish publishers, hogging all the encoding work just to boost their seeding stats.. I say that's cheating, and they don't deserve the least bit of credit for what they do. ;)
there's no way to automatically determine those values, because the tracker doesn't know who does the seeding. The tracker will just see an ip, but not the username.
damn, that took me back. I loved my amiga and have played (or watched friends play) about half of those games. Back then I was active in a BBS (those things you had to call via phone-line, in the pre-internet-days), I've been coding a lot, there's still software from me on aminet.
My Amiga 4000 060/50 is still with me, less than 3 meters away from me. I've meant to plug it in again for years, but I'm a little afraid it won't boot up any more.
oh dear, time for a sentimental evening with e-uae. Thank you bisqwit.
edit: oh, moozooh, there are two problems: writeable disks, and copy protection. First, you'll never really know if your copy (or original disk) is unmodified. Second, copy protected games can only be played using .ipf-images, which cannot be read in a deterministic way. Either that, or the copy protection needs to be removed, and hacked images are not allowed on this site.
So even if the emulator is reliable enough for synced rerecording someday, we'll miss out on most of the best games. :(
> We need a new table for games.
Doable, though it really calls for a tool to maintain those "which movies belong to this game's group" relationships and for creating new game entries etc then, and modification of the publication tool to contain also a part of that tool like it already contains a part of the player list management tool.
What do we need?
- on publication: select a game or add a new game
- changing an existing game's name, description, resource-page, ..
- maybe merging two games (if a publisher accidentally adds a new game instead of choosing the existing one)
anything else?
There is an alternative: don't create the games table, clean up the movies.name column, and use that for grouping. But that won't allow game descriptions, relationships of hack <-> original game, and grouping by a VARCHAR column isn't too fast. I really think the games-table is the way to go.
and the "resources" entry might be insufficient, though.
[...]
Hmm.
Cannot the resources page link be embedded in the description instead?
Well, if a simple link is insufficient, have the resources-column contain markup as well instead of a page-name.
Of course both columns could be joined. I suggested two columns because I planned to display the description on top of the page and the resources-page at the bottom. Depending on the filter, there might be a reason to display only one of them.
The "rom name" field is really a quite hidden feature on the site. Most people don't even know it exists or how to view it. I don't wish to advertise ROM sets too much.
good point.
anyway, forget everything I said about the romname-column and replace it with the existing gameversion-column which I totally overlooked. That column looks like it fits the job.
As there is already a clear distinction in the database between "game" and "game version", the transition doesn't change that much semantically.
Everything is listed.
so:
- initially set any non-obsoleted movie to "prominent".
- add a tool to change the prominence-status of a movie
anything missing?
> - the obsoletion graph needs some adjustments. We've had moments where a movie obsoleted another movie in a different category due to the "but we can have only 2 non-obsoleted movies"-restriction, those obsoletions can be removed. That's not urgent though and can be done over time when errors are noticed.
I'm not sure about that.
can you elaborate? About which points do you disagree, and why?
> New filter: all movies of a specific game. Displays:
– It looks too cluttered. Way, too cluttered.
that's a matter of design, which my mock-up clearly wasn't even trying to be good at. ;)
– Probably it wouldn't show the game description if the page lists more games?
yes. Game-Description, History of this Entry and links to hacks and resources should only be displayed when filtering by game or displaying only one movie.
Any filters possibly displaying movies of multiple games will only contain links to "show all movies of this game".
If possible, the movies should be grouped by game as in my first mockup (Movies-<System>), otherwise (Movies-Rating etc) not.
– The question about variations of hacks still exists.
see above, gameversion column.
Well, the names of the movie pages should be changed then... Because "All NES movies" does not list all NES movies, but only some "prominent" ones.
As it does now. It's just that the movies not listed are called "obsoleted" now, and "either obsoleted or not prominent" after the change.
Actually it will still show all non-obsoleted movies, it's just that some are shown with screenshots and explanations, and some will be nothing more than a link. Semantically details.
I'm looking forward to the rewrite of the entire movies.php file…
hu, rewrite? There's changing the SQL-query at the beginning (adding the JOIN, including the new game-filter) and fiddling with the template logic to add the new information when needed.
I don't see where rewriting from scratch is needed (unless I misunderstood your meaning of 'rewrite'), but since you know the code better than I do I'll trust your judgement.
Times are displayed according to user's timezone (from forum profile via login). Torrent statistics are relatively realtime data. Ratings are also relatively realtime data. Edit links are shown if the user has access to that, not otherwise; same for ratings. Etc. It is a caching horror. And then are the zillions of search options. (See above for mention of ~500 different views).
good point. caching at a different layer either won't work either or just won't help. Your call if the additional server load is bearable.
moozooh wrote:
What do you mean by variation of hacks?
Super Demo World all levels, Super Demo World minimalist, etc.[/quote]
movie.gameid -> "Super Demo World"
movie.gameid -> derived_from -> "Super Mario World"
movie.gameversion = "" or "TLC"
movie.nickname = "all levels" or "minimalist"
nitsuja wrote:
Is it possible to show "the" where it belongs at the start while ignoring it when sorting alphabetically?
by adding two names to each game: one for sorting, one for displaying. An overhead (database-, code- and maintenance-wise) I'd label "not worth it". Ultimately Bisqwit's call though, if there'll ever been a good time to do this change, it's now.
Tub, if you want SVN access to the site PHP code, that is doable :)
well, if you give me access, that'll put me in a position to do actual work. That's a position I'm not entirely comfortable with at the moment :p
honestly, if the combination of real life/university/job and lazyness factor permitted it, I would have finished the initial games-table half a year ago, like I initially wanted to.
This thread just lowered my lazyness-factor enough to do at least something, but time doesn't just appear out of thin air.
I was really hoping for "someone else" (i.e. you) to do the required php-changes, since you already know the framework, codebase and coding-style and you'll be more productive on that part of the work.
I'll be happy to support you as long as time permits it, but spending hours understanding and getting intimate with the codebase is only worth it if I'm going to spend a multiple of those hours working on it, and that's not going to happen anytime soon.
That being said, feel free to give me access just in case. It may or may not lead to further contributions, don't count on either.
By the way, how do you envision the transition period?
plan a)
- create a copy of the site (testserver)
- do and test all required changes on the testserver
- when done, redo the initial data (since there were new publications or changes in between) and copy to the real server
plan b)
- create the game-table & tools to maintain it
- disable publication for a while
- upload game-table & tools
- adjust all scripts to use the new database-structure, one by one
- when done, remove the redundant columns of the movie-table
- re-enable publication with an adjusted publication script
- with less of a hurry, add any less important tools and do maintenance/cleanups or additional tweaks as required
plan c) ???
Definitions and Design: waiting for feedback
Data Structure: waiting for feedback
Initial Data Entry: after ditching my previous attempt and writing the script from scratch, the data turned out to be quite nice and needs much less manual work than I expected. The automatic part is almost complete, I do have a working game-list. Still needs manual editing (renaming a few, linking hacks, adding description/resources)
Data Maintenance: those scripts are not within my reach, but coding the tools is quite straightforward
UI Layer: this is where most of the work will be. This and adjusting the old scripts to the new data structure where needed.
some more feedback needed: I have replaced some inconsistent spellings. The spelling I considered "better" is seen on the right. If any of you disagree on any of those choices, tell me.
'Legend of Zelda, The' => 'Legend of Zelda',
'Mc Kids' => 'M.C. Kids',
'Nightmare On Elm Street' => 'Nightmare on Elm Street',
'Super Mario Bros. 2' => 'Super Mario Bros 2',
'Super Demo World' => 'Super Demo World - TLC',
'The Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past' => 'Zelda: A Link to the Past',
'Contra - The Hard Corps' => 'Contra - Hard Corps',
'Sonic 3 and Knuckles' => 'Sonic 3 & Knuckles',
'Castlevania: Circle Of The Moon' => 'Castlevania: Circle of the Moon',
also, what about Pokemon Red / Blue? A run on one of them obsoleted a run on the other. Should they be treated as one game, or as two seperate games? I have no idea how much they differ..
Unless there's a problem at an earlier point, it's now up to bisqwit to determine if the proposed changes are technically feasible. It all depends on the amount of changes required in the existing scripts..
the way I imagined it was this:
Definitions and Design
We need a new table for games. My definition of a game would be:
Every version of a game within one system is the same game. Rockman 2 (J) and MegaMan 2 (U) are the same game for the purpose of this database. Ocarina of Time (V1.0) and (V1.1) are the same game. PAL- and NTSC-Versions are the same game. If they will be treated differently due to major changes, that'll be visible in the obsoletion graph and doesn't need any distinction in the game-table.
One exception: SMB2 (J) and SMB2 (U) are different games, because they're obviously different games (duh!). SMB2 (U) and DDP are different games as well.
Because of the existing grouping by consoles SMB (NES) and SMB AllStars (SNES) can not be the same game - but we usually don't have runs of ports on a different system anyway.
You could sum it up this way: if (by current rules) a movie on one rom could obsolete a movie on a different rom, they're both the same game.
Obsoletion:
A movie is only allowed to obsolete another movie if it was played on comparable (or strictly superior) settings. Bionic Commando and HNF won't obsolete each other, we'll have both the fastest BC and the fastest HNF-movie published.
Don't worry, we will still have fights, since we need to decide which one will be featured in the movie-listing and which one will be hidden on the game-specific page ;)
with 'strictly superior' settings I mean: a full-game-run can still obsolete the 1st-track-only run of F-Zero. A 2-player-run can still obsolete a 1-player-run if there's no reason to keep the 1-player-run around.
Concept demos: there is no such thing. It'll only lead to arguments about it's definition anyway. The Concept Demo/Other-section currently contains three kind of movies:
- movies on hacks (will find their place)
- movies with goals other than plain game completion (can be filed along with the regular movies, since they've been tagged by movies.nickname already)
- dual- and quad-runs. We could create a new game ("MegaMan 3, 4, 5 & 6") for each, so they'll fit in nicely. We just won't be able to feature quad-runs of games on different consoles this way, but incompatible controller-layouts should prevent that anyway.
Data Structure
for example:
Table Games
id systemid name original resources
1 <snes> Super Metroid NULL SuperMetroidTricks
2 <snes> Metroid Redesign 1 MetroidRedesignTricks
3 <nes> Rockman/Megaman 2 NULL MegaManTricks
4 <nes> Super Mario Bros 2 J NULL ''
5 <nes> Super Mario Bros 2 U NULL ''
Add a "description"-field as well, and drop a bunch of text with markup (wiki or html) in there. Might be useful, for example to link to SMB AllStars from the SMB-Page and vice versa.
If there is more than once resource-page for a certain game it's probably best to list only one resource-page, and add links to the other pages there. Implementing a 1-to-N-relation here would be overkill (IMHO).
movie-table:
- add boolean "prominent" (i.e. appears in movie listings)
- add gameid column
- systemid and inpure are obsolete (gameid -> systemid / gameid -> original != NULL). The clean way would be to remove the fields and adjust all scripts that use them. The easy way is to leave them in and have them automatically maintained.
The movie-table will still contain the "rom name"-field, thus removing any need for distinction between different hack- or game-versions (other than not to obsolete non-comparable versions of course).
Initial Data Entry
- the game-table has to be created and each movie has to be assigned a gameid. I've been working on a script to get as much information as possible from the existing data, but it's not complete. It'll still need manual editing which I haven't even started.
- the logic which currently decides what to list on the movie listing has to be used to fill initial values of the "prominent" table.
- the obsoletion graph needs some adjustments. We've had moments where a movie obsoleted another movie in a different category due to the "but we can have only 2 non-obsoleted movies"-restriction, those obsoletions can be removed. That's not urgent though and can be done over time when errors are noticed.
Data Maintenance
when a movie is published, make a good guess about the game:
- if this movie is obsoleting another movie, use the previous gameid
- if there's already a movie in the database with the same rom-name, suggest it's game.
- otherwise allow the publisher to select an existing movie or to create a new one
I haven't seen the publication interface, so I can't do much but guess about proper implementation.
UI LayerNew filter: all movies of a specific game. Displays:
Gamename and description (from the games-table)
all published non-obsoleted movies of this game, including links to list the obsoleted movies as well (maybe add something like the "History of this entry"-Tab below each movie?)
Show links to the game-specific movies of each hack. If this is a hack, show a link back to the original game
Show a link back to all system's movies (i.e. 'Movies-SNES.html')
Show a link to the resource page
edit: quick and ugly mockup: http://www.authmann.de/misc/Game_SuperMetroid.png - not supposed to show the design, only the general layout and information structure
Existing movie lists
I still prefer the suggestion as I made it on that mockup you quoted. No tabs, no drastic changes, just a bit of grouping and a couple of new links. Of course it'll now show movies flagged as "prominent" and not just every non-obsoleted movie.
That won't increase the html-size too much. It will add a couple more database-querys, but that page is static enough to be cached for longer periods (except torrent statistics?)
As a result, the lists will contain only non-hacked games, but each game has a link to it's hacked versions. We could replace the the "Concept Demo/Other"-section with "Hacked games", linking only to games where original != NULL.
movie detail view (i.e. 123M.html)
- needs a link back to the system- and game-pages. The "More movies"-tab looks fitting.
- since there's only one movie visible, there should be enough room to display the game's description and resources too.
uh.. yeah.. what did I miss? Any obvious flaws in the design, or any disagreement about my definitions?
edit: mockup added (link above)
a) buy lots of monitors
b) xloadimage -fullscreen white.png
alternatively:
a) get a girlfriend
b) aplay turn_the_lights_on_bitch.wav
seriously, it depends on your setup.
if you want to use dedicated lights that will only be controlled by your computer, you can buy a computer controlled multiway connector. Plug your lights in, let the computer turn the power on.
If the lights are further away: my father bought some remote controlled switches that are put between the outlet and the light's plug. Those are switched on and of with a remote control though, not from his computer - but there's IR-hardware for computers, so that might be a solution if the lights are in IR-Range.
to control the lights but still keep the regular light switches working you'll need something different though.
you're probably best off just browsing the selection of some electronics dealer. Once you know what parts are available, you'll figure something out.
pearl.de is known to have a huge variety of exotic toys, but I doubt they deliver to sweden (and their site is german and french only).
the pre-X-Ray-room looks fine to me. More health would make that room faster, but boring.
Why boring? If anything, it will remove all the unneeded waiting in the least, not to mention more optimal damage taking.
I've seen samus damage-boost through a room full of spikes countless times. This is the first time I actually enjoyed it, because it looks impossible with just one energy-tank, and the solution that was found is pretty slick.
I'd rather watch some stupid stunts while waiting and some unexpected moves to overcome a difficult obstacle than watching the usual strategy, even if it's slower.
As the guidelines say: "If you have the choice, try to do things in a more impressive way than the easy way."
I don't have d1 installed at the moment, but every sound should be inside an mpq. mpq is an archive format developed and used by blizzard - and there are tools to unpack them. google for "mpq viewer" or something.
so, the medallions are stored as a bitmask, and not as 8 seperate values?
remembering that you need only 2 medallions to get the rainbow-cutscene.. we were thinking that it's just because of a lazy programmer, right?
Well.. to check only two medallions:
if (mask & %11000000 == %11000000)
// do the cutscene
Saturn,
- why don't you pick up the energy tank between the norfair elevator and ice beam? Drewseph did a larger detour for an additional energy tank later. Are you confident you won't need it? Or will you pick it up later, when traversing that room from right to left?
- why do you use a super missile to unlock the ice beam door? A regular missile should be enough.
so this suggestion is targeted at a specific subset of viewers, namely:
- they must be knowledgeable about the game in question. In fact, they must be knowledgeable enough to provide useful feedback to someone who spent many hours with the game, did a lot of research and probably has detailed information about game physics, memory locations and other stuff you'll only know if you've used "the tools" before.
- although obviously interested in games and tool-assistance, they must not be registered here and do not intend to.
- they are too lazy to register here.
- they are not too lazy to read the submission comments, which should address anything that looks suboptimal but isn't. Otherwise their comments are likely to be redundant, thus worthless.
- they are not too lazy to re-visit the site after watching the movie. (this is not youtube where you can dump your comments under the video. our videos are not embedded.)
somehow I don't see how this comment-system will lead to ground-breaking information.
thanks dehacked for the avi.
While the concept is interesting the result is just a pain to watch. It's impossible for me to keep track of 4 games at once and neither mute nor distorted noise is too enjoyable. I couldn't stand watching the whole thing.
I think this needs some post-production to make it publishable:
a) somehow selectively mute sound-channels in the emulator to disable the music, resulting in an avi that contains only the sound-effects.
(is that even possible? do the games use dedicated channels for the background-music? or would that need a more elaborate hack?)
b) display the input, maybe somewhat like this. No idea if that'll still look fine after compression though.
c) explain the concept in more detail prior to the movie. This is not a regular speedrun and (imho) warrants an introductory paragraph.
edit: clarified point a
