OTTD GFX website needed.

Alltaken · Post by **Alltaken** » 02 Jul 2005 15:09

http://ottd.mudpuddle.co.nz/ottdsiteproposal.pdf

that was a proposal for the site i wrote a long time ago for another user who said he was keen to do it.

basicly we have the webspace for a website, (Orudge gave it to us) and we need a method to maintain GFX once the GFX are finalised. (we are getting closer and closer to finalising them)

the website will need to be intergratable with OTTD towards the future somehow, so that should be kept in mind.

anyone interested in tackling the challenge at some stage?, we need a coder for it

Alltaken

White Rabbit · Post by **White Rabbit** » 02 Jul 2005 15:29

Hmm, sounds great. You could use php to organize it all, and have user reviews and ratings. Look at this site: http://www.jazz2online.com/J2Ov2/downloads/ and click on some of the links, and you'll see what I mean. It's just a suggestion, and it may be too compicated.

Post by **peter1138** » 02 Jul 2005 18:09

Any restrictions on the programming language for this?

Alltaken · Post by **Alltaken** » 02 Jul 2005 18:33

peter1138 wrote:Any restrictions on the programming language for this?

whatever works.

it should be automated (so without much admin intervention) so no restrictions.

however i assume the servers are running linux, so i doubt anything like the .net stuff would work (if its windows only i doubt its a good idea)

from my personal knowledge php would be ok to do it. but if somthing else works then i am open to it.

Alltaken

Post by **orudge** » 02 Jul 2005 20:49

Yep, PHP and MySQL... Perl, Python are also available if you desire.

lucaspiller · Post by **lucaspiller** » 02 Jul 2005 22:04

That shouldn't be too hard to do, as for the game being to download it I made a simple function to download stuff from webservers in my login patch, so this could probably be used. I suspect some sort of in game interface would be needed as well. Would it be preferable to have a program running to serve content to the game (as in the master server), or just have the game access the website?

If I have a chance tommorow I will give it a go, but I have a lot of work to do for college (anyone can contact me on the IRC channel: _Luca_).

Alltaken · Post by **Alltaken** » 03 Jul 2005 06:01

lucaspiller wrote: Would it be preferable to have a program running to serve content to the game (as in the master server), or just have the game access the website?

well the important things first is to have the website working with manual downloads.

then IMO the server has a database file that litterally lists all the sprite sets it has. the game asks the server for the date that the last change. sends the server the date of the computers last database lookup. then the server sends the additions/ changes to the list.

i.e. if i release Grass-set.01.OTG and i update it to Grass-set.02.OTG all people with the original will have it redownloaded and installed replacing the old one.

much easier to maintain support for new features in the game.

but yeah i think the game potentially just knows a URL to contact and download database files from,

but manual download and upload is what is the priority, we first need a place to put our stuff before we can access it

Alltaken

White Rabbit · Post by **White Rabbit** » 03 Jul 2005 12:07

Wasn't Perl really really really complicated to work with? :/

toholio · Post by **toholio** » 03 Jul 2005 12:10

White Rabbit wrote:Wasn't Perl really really really complicated to work with? :/

It can be but it doesn't have to be.

Perl programers don't seem to have grasped the second half of that sentence though...

mkxx · Post by **mkxx** » 03 Jul 2005 19:07

If people like this idea, I can make PHP (+(My)SQL) application for it.
This is inally the idea that I am able to easily do it. ;))

BTW: Do we have some internet-storage now? It would be great to use something like ngfx.openttd.com ;))))))) when we release a release.

Alltaken · Post by **Alltaken** » 04 Jul 2005 13:27

mkxx wrote:If people like this idea, I can make PHP (+(My)SQL) application for it.
This is inally the idea that I am able to easily do it. )

BTW: Do we have some internet-storage now? It would be great to use something like ngfx.openttd.com )))))) when we release a release.

yes we do, we have http://graphics.openttd.org

if you are able to do it then it would be great.

Alltaken

White Rabbit · Post by **White Rabbit** » 04 Jul 2005 14:19

New tree graphics?

belugas · Post by **belugas** » 05 Jul 2005 00:18

if you are able to do it then it would be great.

I volunteer, two hands up.

I have some experience in PHP-MySQL

mkxx · Post by **mkxx** » 05 Jul 2005 13:55

So... Okay. I'll do it. But I'll need some specification about - what will it do...

If I undestand good, you will have a web where
- NGRFs will be uploaded.
- Everybody can manually download NGRF. (Or upload new NGRFs?)
\- This will need some user authetification
- Auto-ngrf-update - OTTD looks to web for new GRFs and downloads them (?)

...hmm... my English's terrible, hope you will undestand ;)

Alltaken · Post by **Alltaken** » 05 Jul 2005 16:08

I got an offer via PM from a professional website designer. so if he can make it to specs, then it is probably the best thing for OTTD, and he will most likely be able to do it fastest.

however if there are any problems there, i.e. he gets a job which takes priority etc.... then i will call all you guys in.

once the website is made however, we will need OTTD to be able to interface it, so some coders will be needed to do that.

sorry for anyone who was keen on doing it. we might need you guys still.

Alltaken

White Rabbit · Post by **White Rabbit** » 05 Jul 2005 20:44

And you are paying him how much...?

Alltaken · Post by **Alltaken** » 05 Jul 2005 21:19

i am paying him nothing, he is a OTTD fan like any of us.

his portfolio of websites is very impressive. and very relavent to what we are trying to achieve for ottds GFX website.

Alltaken

Jump · Post by **Jump** » 05 Jul 2005 21:34

Alltaken wrote:I got an offer via PM from a professional website designer. so if he can make it to specs, then it is probably the best thing for OTTD, and he will most likely be able to do it fastest.

however if there are any problems there, i.e. he gets a job which takes priority etc.... then i will call all you guys in.

once the website is made however, we will need OTTD to be able to interface it, so some coders will be needed to do that.

sorry for anyone who was keen on doing it. we might need you guys still.

Alltaken

via XML? Something like that:

Code: Select all

<graphics>
  <set>
    <name>Testset 1</name>
    <descr>Small description for display list</descr>
    <author>..</author>
    <version>1.0beta</version>
    <date>2005-07-05</date>
  </set>
  <set>
    <name>Testset 2</name>
    <descr>Small description for display list</descr>
    <author>....</author>
    <version>1.0alpha</version>
    <date>2005-07-05</date>
  </set>
</graphics>

anyway, you'll get the point

Alltaken · Post by **Alltaken** » 05 Jul 2005 21:57

yeah somthing like that is probably the best. however i would possibly go for somthing simpler.

OTTD remembers the date it last checked, then it looks up a directory on the server which has the editions to the database witha time/date stamp. OTTD just downloads all the editions since its last upload.

there would also be a full database file for first time lookups.

its a matter of keeping the local database and the remote database in time with each other. i don't know how big the database list will get. so i don't knwo if bandwidth or download time will become a problem.

but yeah the database basicly needs to store all the info in it that the website knows.

name
description
year
set
type
artist
rating
...
..

so the OTTD downloader can filter it.

Alltaken

mkxx · Post by **mkxx** » 06 Jul 2005 08:50

I think that the best would be to use some format, which is used in OpenTTD now: Maybe some .INI format.
or... something more more more simple like .NFO from .GRFs.

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