5 replies to this topic

[walkingGhost]

This is a proposal for a innovative new method [/shameless self- advertisement] of transfering the current version of a mod between developers/betatesters.

Ok, let me explain first what SubVersioN (aka SVN) is:
SVN is a version control System, originally ment to be used for source Code, but it handles all kinds of files. It is especially useful for projects with multiple developers (you'll see why). The idea behind SVN is to store files in an online- repository, which runs on some server and is thus accessible from anywhere- all you need is a SVN- client (+ login and password, of course). SVN keeps track af all the changes you make, so you can access every version of a file anytime.

For the betatesters, the SVN- client would be integrated in their launcher, and automatically download the newest version of the mod at startup.

I have drawn a picture to show how this is intended to work:


ADVANTAGES:
1.) Unit stats could be changed after every single game (and the next time you play, everyone had this changes on his HDD)!
2.) All the versions of the mod would be stored in one place- it would be possible to revert any change anytime within a couple of seconds. SVN also supports comments- extremely useful to document/justify the changes you make.
3.) SVN stores/downloads only the changes of the files- e.g. if somebody added a single unit into one of the files then the other developers/betatesters had only to download this small bit of information- not the whole file.
3.) There are a helluva lot of free SVN- hosters around.

DISADVANTAGES:
none
... ok, somebody had to code the launcher.

Note:
I have to admit that I have NO IDEA how this is currently handled- but i suppose that new versions of a mod are passed around via filehosters...

If somebody would like to tackle the implementation of the launcher, I would really like to help (I did this also on my own, if i knew that it would be used by someone)

Literature:
- wikipedia
- O'Reilly Media, Version Control with Subversion

-edit: overhauled the post to point out what I was talking about

Edited by walkingGhost, 29 December 2008 - 12:18.

[Dauth]

CodeCat's launcher does this fairly well for development purposes.

[walkingGhost]

It works already like that?
LOL... I did not know that...

-edit
Hmm... I found the the topic on Codecats launcher, but to me it seems like the launcher only moves and renames the files in your ZeroHour- directory, according to a pattern specified in an XML- file... Am I wrong? If somebody changes the development version of a mod, do the betatester automatically get this new version at the next startup? (this is what I'd like to achieve- sorry for my first post being confusing, english's not my first language...)

Edited by walkingGhost, 28 December 2008 - 17:00.

[Dauth]

well not 100% like that, it just allows you to elect which files you enable for loading the game.

[Alias]

Creating a launcher to do that is simple, Dauth. I've made one in batch within the space of 15 minutes, but what walkingGhost is suggesting is a far more complex (and a far better) approach to some things.

I'd like to see where this could lead.

Edited by Alias, 28 December 2008 - 17:11.

[walkingGhost]

So, always having the newest version of a mod, without the need for downloading anything would still be useful for the betatesters, wouldn't it?
Using an SVN- repository would be the way to go.

Codecats launcher could be modified to do that...