Game Testing Needed

[iggy_hunter]

Portability

I've been thinking about how to make the game/fork portable again. Anyone have ideas. My going thought right now is to convert it into an HTTP server based .NET Core with a browser front end. It would replicate Angband.live.

Suggestions please?

[Julian]

One can apparently install .NET on Linux, but I have no idea if it’s sufficient for your purposes.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/install/linux

[HugoVirtuoso]

Making a web-browser frontend sounds like a fantastic idea. If you do this, it will alleviate the need to worry about the Windows PC requirement. Maybe ask Gwarl via PM or ask on the thread re: his webserver about suggestons? Maybe borrow code?

[iggy_hunter]

I'm definitely open here but I need to concentrate on the refactor. I also need some developer recruits with new ideas to develop extensions they want. Any ideas there?

[HugoVirtuoso]

Just a reminder, some of our own devs, e.g. Sideways aka rodent, are occasionally available on angband.live

[Gwarl]

There would be no code in common, angband.live simply provides a frontend to running linux terminal programs which I gather would be basically impossible for this fork.

[iggy_hunter]

Gwarl ... understood ... I do believe I'll take this fork down that road ... and build the functionality in natively ... can you provide expertise in design and requirements?

[iggy_hunter]

HTTP Interface

As I talk about converting this variant back to portable ... I have ideas on how the HTTP model could work ...

one idea is to have multiple browser windows connecting to various URLs to provide different windows of HUD output

also, I'm needing to decide the technologies that I will use to accomplish this task ... I'm thinking of using an Angular 13 app with typescript or a Blazor server. The core game will need to be .Net Core. I'll need mac and Linux testers.

I can see where some of the HUD windows will need to have signal-r event driven notifications. URL's can have an embedded game token to allow multiple games to be played at the same time. I'm thinking that a URL can be used accept input and output windows are served via alternate URLs. This could allow multiple windows as viewports into the game and also allow others to view the game window too.

I'm starting to think that this feature may be needed sooner than later.

[iggy_hunter]

I've decided to prioritize the story to convert the app to HTTP (like angband.live) ... I've also decided that I'll take the Angular 13, Typescript, Signal-R (websockets) route.

[iggy_hunter]

Status Update

Just a status update on the work in progress. I've been able to successfully create a base server that can host the game with an interface that should work via signal-r and http. I've been able to extract the Wpf window and use the interface successfully as of now.

Next step ... I need to build the Angular 13 with HTML 5 Canvas front-end. When that is done ... I'll setup the public HTTP server in my data center and open it for testing.

During that time ... I'll need to make it multi-user ... but the singletons need to be refactored ... still working on that.

[HugoVirtuoso]

Does this mean we could have multiple players in same game simuraneously with same dungeons, items, monsters, and etc?

[tangar]

considering client-server approach - take a look into MAgnband/TomeNET/PWMA/Tangaria - they all are multiplayer Angband variants and got their source files published on github.

Also you might find useful this article: https://tangaria.com/history/
In it there are detailed description on how MAng multiplayer engine was created and explained how it works

[iggy_hunter]

Oops ... my bad ... when asking for DBMS recommendations ... I said "multi-player" ... what I really meant was a "server" that allows more than one game running at a time ... different people each playing their own game. My fault. The turn-based, single player Moria, Rogue, Angband look and feel needs and will be preserved.

Thanks for the catch.

[iggy_hunter]

Mac Tester

I'm still going to need someone to test on Mac too ... anyone?

[iggy_hunter]

Status Update

So, I've got the web server working to where a game is playable onto the Angular Canvas. Unfortunately, I still have to refactor 2700+ singleton references and add persistent storage before I can open the game up for testing.

Surprisingly, the canvas with Server-Side Events Transport is fairly fast. On my IIS, the Websockets might be faster.

I don't have the background image, sounds or music yet.

No Mac testers yet? With this game setup, regular web users can test too ... but it would be my Windows environment. I'm really hoping Linux and Mac can run web servers too.