) I guess the next on will be Poland then...
Post by leimeisei on Jul 3, 2010 13:11:17 GMT -5
Hey all,
I've been getting a lot of PMs on YouTube lately asking me if I've disappeared... and I guess in a sense I have sort of disappeared and for this I apologize.
I haven't had a lot of time to work on the software at all, because a few months ago I was hired into a new company and life has been busy ever since. BUT, I wanted to show you the new direction I am taking my software in.
A while ago I decided that, while my software may have some pretty animation thanks to doing it in flash, many of you guys have gotten the graphics and overall playability of the show down much better in your software than I have in mine. Therefore, I wanted to take my software in a different direction, and that is trying to exactly mirror the software used on the show.
What does that mean? Well, it means having module-based network gameplay, where you have four applications: a controller, a video overlay, a player screen, and a host screen. I believe that mecha03 did something similar to this in the past with the old version of the game, but I intend to do it with the US timer format.
Here's a screenshot of the controller module running on a Windows 7 computer:
The controller is written in C# and acts as an XML Socket server (to act with Flash's ability to be an XML Socket client).
Why would this make the software better? For a few reasons actually:
1. Better question stacking. You do not need to have a preconfigured XML file (as you did with the old software) containing questions which could be picked at random. That made it impossible to do the new money tree because, if questions were picked at each level, we couldn't display 15 categories. That is all changed.
Before you start a game you'll be able to use a question stacker tool which contains your unlimited bank of questions, and drag-n-drop into 1-15 positions. You'll be able to store up to 5 of these sets for consecutive use in a game.
2. Host and player screen! I've always wanted this feature, but the problem is Flash can't really do P2P. A server is needed in the middle. Advanced server options include the ability to "cloak" the player and host screens with a millionaire logo at any time (like they do on the show when cameras start panning everywhere and they don't want you to see the screens), as well as the ability to send text messages to either screen to give "producer instructions".
Anyway, I will make sure that when I do this, all four modules can be run on the same computer, but you will also have the ability to run each one on a separate computer if they are all connected to the same LAN.
Also, I make the community this promise: If in a few months it looks like I'm making no progress and I won't ever finish, I will dump all the source from all of my millionaire projects, past and present, into Google Code or Sourceforge, so that the community may continue development where I left off.
Sound good?
I welcome comments, ideas, input, etc.
And yes, I plan on fixing the bugs you guys have been finding
I've been getting a lot of PMs on YouTube lately asking me if I've disappeared... and I guess in a sense I have sort of disappeared and for this I apologize.
I haven't had a lot of time to work on the software at all, because a few months ago I was hired into a new company and life has been busy ever since. BUT, I wanted to show you the new direction I am taking my software in.
A while ago I decided that, while my software may have some pretty animation thanks to doing it in flash, many of you guys have gotten the graphics and overall playability of the show down much better in your software than I have in mine. Therefore, I wanted to take my software in a different direction, and that is trying to exactly mirror the software used on the show.
What does that mean? Well, it means having module-based network gameplay, where you have four applications: a controller, a video overlay, a player screen, and a host screen. I believe that mecha03 did something similar to this in the past with the old version of the game, but I intend to do it with the US timer format.
Here's a screenshot of the controller module running on a Windows 7 computer:
The controller is written in C# and acts as an XML Socket server (to act with Flash's ability to be an XML Socket client).
Why would this make the software better? For a few reasons actually:
1. Better question stacking. You do not need to have a preconfigured XML file (as you did with the old software) containing questions which could be picked at random. That made it impossible to do the new money tree because, if questions were picked at each level, we couldn't display 15 categories. That is all changed.
Before you start a game you'll be able to use a question stacker tool which contains your unlimited bank of questions, and drag-n-drop into 1-15 positions. You'll be able to store up to 5 of these sets for consecutive use in a game.
2. Host and player screen! I've always wanted this feature, but the problem is Flash can't really do P2P. A server is needed in the middle. Advanced server options include the ability to "cloak" the player and host screens with a millionaire logo at any time (like they do on the show when cameras start panning everywhere and they don't want you to see the screens), as well as the ability to send text messages to either screen to give "producer instructions".
Anyway, I will make sure that when I do this, all four modules can be run on the same computer, but you will also have the ability to run each one on a separate computer if they are all connected to the same LAN.
Also, I make the community this promise: If in a few months it looks like I'm making no progress and I won't ever finish, I will dump all the source from all of my millionaire projects, past and present, into Google Code or Sourceforge, so that the community may continue development where I left off.
Sound good?
I welcome comments, ideas, input, etc.
And yes, I plan on fixing the bugs you guys have been finding
