Multiplayer: A new hope

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King_Warg

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since I have not been able to get the registration verification email I will just put this here..

We have recently began work again on a new centralized Black & White online matchup service, unlike Hamachi and other things it will be tailored specifically for Black & White, with options to download / fix / update the game, anti-cheat capacity (once any have been identified), 2D / 3D map previewer, and other features to come.

http://bwgame.wildman-productions.org
 
Sounds intriguing, how is the progress on that? How well does it work? I don't have BW1 but I'm certain a couple of people might take a peek if you've involved a bit more info  :yes

Otherwise nice, good luck on this.
 
FunniestMonkey said:
Sounds intriguing, how is the progress on that? How well does it work? I don't have BW1 but I'm certain a couple of people might take a peek if you've involved a bit more info  :yes

Otherwise nice, good luck on this.
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Currently it works enough to start games, someone wishing to host a game can create a (password optional) game slot, with a customizable player limit, then wait for others to join. Currently am working on finishing the level previewer, then the game tools like automated downloader / installer and corrupted file / registry repair.

The main lobby:
http://bwgame.wildman-productions.org/upload/bnwlobby2.png

Hosting a new game:
http://bwgame.wildman-productions.org/upload/bnwlobby1.png
 
All this sounds incredible! You look like you know what you're doing. This has to spark a big interest in BW1 again...keep going, your stuff looks great.  :D
 
FunniestMonkey said:
All this sounds incredible! You look like you know what you're doing. This has to spark a big interest in BW1 again...keep going, your stuff looks great.  :D
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I have been hosting a similar service for another god game (Populous: The Beginning) for many many years now, and have nearly finished an entire rewrite of the game itself, so yeah I do have a little programming knowhow.

The only way this will take off is if we can get the word out about it, which means I can't do it alone  :no hoping one of the forum admins with access to the database will verify my account soon.. It seems like this verification problem has persisted for some time, I could probably fix it in no time, if I had the privileges.
 
I remember when you were making this. It's very exciting that you're resurrecting the project! You'll have to wait for Pat to verify your account, but he's on the forum a lot so you won't have to wait long :)
 
Sorry I'm late to the party.  Been busy :) .

King_Warg,  I've activated your account now.  Let me know if you get an email please as I was trying something different and I'm looking to see if I can get email notifications going again for people registering.

Kays was the guy to properly handle site maintenace, so I'm just doing what I can in his absenc.

Once you're up and running properly, I'll move this topic to it's proper place on the forums.

In addition, between this and the apparent resurrection of the OGAM project, I'll put something into the News section of the site about all this.  Nice to have news to report for a change :D .
 
No go on an email, is the BBS using the php mail() function? However, now I am greeted with an invalid password message  :suspect
 
Haven't got the slightest clue what kind of email setup Kays has put in place.

If I had to guess, whatever was working in the past has been upgraded to the point that something must be paid for or a configuration change is required.

Either way, Kay's is the only one to help sort it out really.
 
Ugh, speaking of which it looks like the registration email on our black & white online website isn't working either, time to replace it as well it seems.  :no
 
work on the next client release is going slower than anticipated, building the level previewer is harder than I thought, the Black & White level format is way more complex than the simple 128x128 heightmap and object map format that Populous: The Beginning uses. However, I have made progress using the data structures of lndromat and lndtools as a guideline. Once I make sense out of how the low-res textures are mapped to the terrain chunks I will be ready to wrap this project into a class module to use in the client.
bwheight.png


UPDATE:

Finally, success. It took some trial and error and lots of frustration but the 3d map viewer now works..
bwheight3d.png
 
bnwlobby1.png


heres the image you'd probably really wanna use, the main game lobby, the pic above this is just the level previewer. now, I should probably finish work on the map management system.

bwclientmapdev.png
 
RaTcHeT302 said:
Had to set the compatibility mode to Windows XP.

Still doesn't work though
qd2r3SQ.png
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that makes even less sense being that its written on a 64-bit win7 machine and tested on 32-bit win7  :suspect
 
RaTcHeT302 said:
I'm on Win 8. Might it be related to my account?
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"unknown error" seems to be happening when the username or password is incorrect. must be a bug in the login error message descriptor.
 
map management is well underway, and the previewer has been ported to the client. Still some bugs in it though. Now I will have to gather all the available multiplayer maps, package them into compatible packs, and upload them to the central database.

mapclient3d.png
 
well, that's certainly strange  :suspect not sure why that would just randomly start, I suspect it's fixed in the latest developmental build..
 
something_or.other said:
This is pretty cool that you're working on this. :D
Click to expand...

It's been a test of patience, it's taken me several days to reverse engineer BW Phoenix and figure out why its bnwlibrary.dll was failing on newer windows versions. Now I have picked bnwlibrary apart and replaced most of its functions into our client protocol, eliminating the need to forward port 6012 and 6014.

Coming soon... eventually..
019login.png


completely pointless maybe, but the map viewer is rocking a little harder now.
mapview019new.png
 
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