Forged Alliance Forever

Re: FA & FAF Future

2014-02-27T08:16:12+02:00

pittlebelge wrote:
A few more questions about the source code :

Who owns it?

Did we already ask for it?

if so, how much did they actually want for it?

Assuming a bank heist gets 50000 $ on average per participant, how many of us should go to jail to get this code?

It would be so nice to get our hands on it...

I think this is our best bet, now the question is who has experience with heists, i suspect zlo has a history.

Statistics: Posted by Aulex — 27 Feb 2014, 08:16

Re: FA & FAF Future

2014-02-27T08:04:08+02:00

A few more questions about the source code :

Who owns it?

Did we already ask for it?

if so, how much did they actually want for it?

Assuming a bank heist gets 50000 $ on average per participant, how many of us should go to jail to get this code?

It would be so nice to get our hands on it...

Statistics: Posted by pittlebelge — 27 Feb 2014, 08:04

Re: FA & FAF Future

2014-02-26T01:28:07+02:00

Well thanks for your replies. I had to read it a couple of times, but now I am getting a clue

Statistics: Posted by H-master — 26 Feb 2014, 01:28

Re: FA & FAF Future

2014-02-25T23:06:22+02:00

Zep did indeed patch some values in the binaries (which are copied from the original before being patched), I think the last one was something like related to pathfinding (army_path_budget_cost = 2500 instead of 1000 or something like that).

That required searching for the binary value in the .exe file, and overwriting it with the changed value, so it's not a trivial edit.

But it was just a value change, no coding or other fancy stuff going on in the engine.

Statistics: Posted by Phlegm — 25 Feb 2014, 23:06

Re: FA & FAF Future

2014-02-25T22:50:38+02:00

Forged Alliance is composed of 3 parts.

- The binary programm is not readable or editable which essentially is the engine. It loads the gamedata, lua scripts... It has an interface with a lot of functions lua scripts can access and it handles all of the graphics, network, object collision detection, pathfinding and other basic heavy computation stuff

- Lua Scripts are little programs containing all the logic of the game the description, behavior, physical parameters of all units and buildings. They can be edited and indeed only these are edited by all mods and faf itself. Lua shouldnt be used to do heavy computations but for us there is almost no other chance to extend capabilities of fa.

- The gamedata consists of textures and models, sound files, maps ...

Because the gamedata and the interface(API) of lua is known, you dont have to know the exact implementation of the engine, but an approximation should be enough. Maybe there will exist some open source engines which do most of the things which forged alliance is doing only better and faster. So you dont have to code all things yourself, but only the interface to load game data and execute scripts the same way as fa does.

Zero-K is a game using the springrts engine(both open source) which is similar to forged alliance with it's own engine. There is the chance that this engine will have multicore or gpu physics acceleration in the future. Or there will be other one.

H-master wrote:
And even if we could get into it, wouldn't it require an insane amount of time to optimize the engine for multi cores, rewrite the netcode etc. ?

There is a development: it took 2 years to write a game engine by one programmer in the 90s. The same engine would be done with todays technology by one programmer perhaps in less than 6 months. Thats because there are a lot of libraries which ease the develepment.

Statistics: Posted by RoLa — 25 Feb 2014, 22:50

Re: FA & FAF Future

2014-02-25T22:23:05+02:00

H-master wrote:
Excuse me for my IT noob questions, but I have no clue at all.

To my understanding there is a barrier as to what is editable to the code of FA. What exactly is this barrier?

to illustrate the problem for someone with no clue at all:

the difference between the machine code, which everybody has access to and the source code
that we do not have is akin to having to put together a thousand pieces of ikea furniture either
with nice pictures and text annotations (source code) or assembly instructions without pictures
that come as puzzles (machine code).
machine code is not designed to be easily read or modified. its not absurd to assume you need
20-50 times the man hours to work with machine code vs source code.

How is it protected?
What kind of programs do you need to edit it?

source code has 2 purposes: to specify algorithms and be easily understandable by humans.
machine code only needs to specify algorithms.
the source code never leaves the software company. no program can reconstruct it from machine code.

If we could theoretically speaken get Squaer Enix to give us the rights, are there any other problems?

the source code probably costs many $ (6 figures).

And even if we could get into it, wouldn't it require an insane amount of time to optimize the engine for multi cores, rewrite the netcode etc. ?

were the source code open, you'd have a dozen smart people working on it in no time without pay.

Statistics: Posted by rootbeer23 — 25 Feb 2014, 22:23

Re: FA & FAF Future

2014-02-25T21:24:16+02:00

Excuse me for my IT noob questions, but I have no clue at all.

To my understanding there is a barrier as to what is editable to the code of FA. What exactly is this barrier?
How is it protected?
What kind of programs do you need to edit it?
If we could theoretically speaken get Squaer Enix to give us the rights, are there any other problems?

And even if we could get into it, wouldn't it require an insane amount of time to optimize the engine for multi cores, rewrite the netcode etc. ?

Statistics: Posted by H-master — 25 Feb 2014, 21:24

Re: FA & FAF Future

2014-02-25T09:58:28+02:00

As allready said, it was done before. Look at the spring engine and the game Zero-K.
http://springrts.com/
http://zero-k.info/

Statistics: Posted by RoLa — 25 Feb 2014, 09:58

Re: FA & FAF Future

2014-02-25T09:47:51+02:00

A better idea is a hide button, with enough votes the posts get hidden, or a karma system: https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtop ... 25&start=0

Simpler: add more mods to the forum!

Statistics: Posted by Dragonfire — 25 Feb 2014, 09:47

Re: FA & FAF Future

2014-02-25T09:45:08+02:00

Dragonfire wrote:
partytime wrote:Ahh awesome. Necxelos, Now that you are the official coder I think we can really get things done and I have a special request. I think you'll like it because it will really improve the quality of the community. Basically, it's an addition to the forum where we add a 'troll' button right next to the like button on each post. Basically, people click it if they think a post is unnecessarily offensive and if it gets enough votes, that person is automatically banned from the forums for being a d***! What do you think?

Better idea: add a dislike button, if enough people dislike it, the post got hidden ...
Or a karma system: https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtop ... 0&t=559069

...
So about that troll button.

I kid, I kid, innocently missed the joke completely right?

[semi-frantic] Right?[/semi-frantic]

Statistics: Posted by errorblankfield — 25 Feb 2014, 09:45

Re: FA & FAF Future

2014-02-25T09:42:16+02:00

partytime wrote:
Ahh awesome. Necxelos, Now that you are the official coder I think we can really get things done and I have a special request. I think you'll like it because it will really improve the quality of the community. Basically, it's an addition to the forum where we add a 'troll' button right next to the like button on each post. Basically, people click it if they think a post is unnecessarily offensive and if it gets enough votes, that person is automatically banned from the forums for being a d***! What do you think?

Better idea: add a dislike button, if enough people dislike it, the post got hidden ...
Or a karma system: https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtop ... 0&t=559069

Statistics: Posted by Dragonfire — 25 Feb 2014, 09:42

Re: FA & FAF Future

2014-02-25T09:34:44+02:00

Ze_PilOt wrote:
Ok. I'm making you the official coder for this project.

Ahh awesome. Necxelos, Now that you are the official coder I think we can really get things done and I have a special request. I think you'll like it because it will really improve the quality of the community. Basically, it's an addition to the forum where we add a 'troll' button right next to the like button on each post. Basically, people click it if they think a post is unnecessarily offensive and if it gets enough votes, that person is automatically banned from the forums for being a d***! What do you think?

Statistics: Posted by nine2 — 25 Feb 2014, 09:34

Re: FA & FAF Future

2014-02-24T20:29:26+02:00

At the moment my dreams involve the slow and painful torture of nexcelos...

Statistics: Posted by Nombringer — 24 Feb 2014, 20:29

Re: FA & FAF Future

2014-02-24T16:32:35+02:00

Kids of my kids wach my replays
that is what i dream of

Statistics: Posted by ZLO_RD — 24 Feb 2014, 16:32

Re: FA & FAF Future

2014-02-24T16:29:21+02:00

Dragonfire wrote:
necxelos wrote:Dragon, a little more imagination here
You only mentioned things that are already on their way thus they will be done soon (surely in less then year).
A little creativity

In 100 years...

... we are all dead
... the kids of my kids are playing still faf

Statistics: Posted by RoLa — 24 Feb 2014, 16:29