Patches, Forks, and More

Discussions on patches, enhancements, and other engine changes.
Post Reply
User avatar
Ttech
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2767
Joined: Tue Nov 06, 2007 12:03 am
Location: Traveling in the TARDIS
Contact:

Now that Transcendence is on Github, we have the ability to start making use of the full potential of Github and version control
This is what I'd dream to have:

- Users could make forks of the source code and keep it up to date
- Create patches in different branches and send then have the ability to send them directly to George via Github (with diff included)
- TCs and other such changes could keep running branches of Transcendence that users could download and compile

A good example of this "snapshot" is Neave - https://github.com/bobbens/naev

Another option is to use Xelerus and have Xelerus modified, one concern on this is that Xelerus is been so far used solely for Extensions.
People who wanted to add a patch would have to create diffs of the modified files, provide instructions on how to merge them and risk patches becoming out of date and having issues with merge into source.


Let me know what you guys think!
Image
Image
RPC
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2876
Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 5:21 am
Location: Hmm... I'm confused. Anybody have a starmap to the Core?

NAEV D:
Actually it would be a great idea. Now to learn script for the source....
Tutorial List on the Wiki and Installing Mods
Get on Discord for mod help and general chat
Image
Image
Der Tod ist der zeitlose Frieden und das leben ist der Krieg
Wir müssen wissen — wir werden wissen!
I don't want any sort of copyright on my Transcendence mods. Feel free to take/modify whatever you want.
shanejfilomena
Fleet Officer
Fleet Officer
Posts: 1533
Joined: Tue Mar 22, 2011 8:43 pm
Location: Alaska
Contact:

I have an issue with the word "Patch" :
It sounds extremely "Microsoft kind of Broken " .

A standard player would be totally confused reading posts about scripts :
THANKFULLY, the community has those that do understand it and while I was not really able to make a great deal of sense of your post in the view of someone that understands script languages :
I THINK I understood enough of it to conclude that what your talking about might be helpful to George in fixing the bugs that are found in the behavior of the engine on different computers.

Such as : many "bugs" do not show up for my style of play or on my version of XP: and sometimes I would never know of an issue without reading a post then go try to force the issue to show itself so I can try to understand what is going on : but I would not understand the developer script language that controls it : .xml I can deal with : but : C+, C++, etc ARE way out of my brain because I could never learn it fast enough before it evolves.

I don't do Greek very well : a developer mind , to me , would be suited for the language of politics ( Greek : C+,C++, Python, etc ) because I know they evolve and can twist and wick faster then the average player mind can keep up.
Which I think you pointed out about things out of date.

Other then that : If it would help George and the game toward the goal of Excellence and Profit to continue into the future :

I LOVE IT.

I just don't like the word " patch " .
Flying Irresponsibly In Eridani......

I don't like to kill pirates in cold blood ..I do it.. but I don't like it..
User avatar
GambitDash
Developer
Developer
Posts: 81
Joined: Sat May 10, 2008 7:01 am

@shanejfilomena: OK.
User avatar
Atarlost
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2391
Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2008 12:02 am

Patch is standard terminology.
Literally is the new Figuratively
bzm3r
Militia Lieutenant
Militia Lieutenant
Posts: 100
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2012 2:38 pm

I absolutely love this idea, TTech! I think it also goes well with the philosophy of the game.
User avatar
WillyTheSquid
Militia Lieutenant
Militia Lieutenant
Posts: 195
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2012 4:32 pm
Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands

LIKE. put up xelerus and let's get this rolling!!
inspired: i see the tiberian sun/ red alert 2 community made DLLs do tons of cool stuff, we could have similar.
and a clear channel for user contributions, awesome.
Image

“Normal people believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. (Modders) believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet.” -Scott Adams

Resident mod-cobbler-together, freakspawn-fixer-upper & musical eclectro-ecumenologist.
If you love something, tweak it and twist it. Keep bending it until it breaks. Rip it apart, remix it, rebuild it. Kill your darlings and stitch them together again.

JOIN US ON IRC. IT KICKS ASS. JOIN THE HIVE MIND.
Place cursor on link. Click link. Never look back.
JohnBWatson
Fleet Officer
Fleet Officer
Posts: 1452
Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2014 10:17 pm

I love this idea. However, I'm not sure what you mean by 'TC'.
User avatar
WillyTheSquid
Militia Lieutenant
Militia Lieutenant
Posts: 195
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2012 4:32 pm
Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Total Conversion. Like modding Transcendence into a vertical-scrolling 90s arcade shooter, or a space racing game. Or using the engine to (re)create beloved games of the past. Wikipedia has more and also examples :)
Image

“Normal people believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. (Modders) believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet.” -Scott Adams

Resident mod-cobbler-together, freakspawn-fixer-upper & musical eclectro-ecumenologist.
If you love something, tweak it and twist it. Keep bending it until it breaks. Rip it apart, remix it, rebuild it. Kill your darlings and stitch them together again.

JOIN US ON IRC. IT KICKS ASS. JOIN THE HIVE MIND.
Place cursor on link. Click link. Never look back.
User avatar
PKodon
Militia Lieutenant
Militia Lieutenant
Posts: 127
Joined: Sat Apr 18, 2009 6:03 pm
Location: "Minocs. I've got a baaad feeling about this.... This is no cave!"

JohnBWatson wrote:I love this idea. However, I'm not sure what you mean by 'TC'.
I think that means a "Total Conversion" (essentially using the engine to create a whole new game) - that's usually what it means in modding circles.
"Don't ask ..., I don't wanna know, and I don't wanna care!" - PK
Meet us on IRC --> Image
"... the hornet battlepod is the closest we have ingame to flying into battle in a wheelbarrow
with a bathtub nailed upside down to the top of it to provide armor."
- The Shrike
bzm3r
Militia Lieutenant
Militia Lieutenant
Posts: 100
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2012 2:38 pm

JohnBWatson wrote:I love this idea. However, I'm not sure what you mean by 'TC'.
Have you gotten a local repository on your computer? I am writing out my explorations through the codebase (which have really led to me learning a lot), so I'd love it if someone (hint, hint, nudge, nudge) were to help me out with that :) Otherwise, that article will progress very slowly...

I want to dispel any notion that George's codebase is difficult to understand (which may possibly be common, since people are always awed by "he wrote his own compiler" (okay, yeah that is crazy, but still)). I think that Transcendence code base is *very* tightly organized; even more so since George recently started working on CSC America, and has split up the code base even further to make it clear what sort of stuff is "most basic" (Alchemy/Mammoth), and what sort of stuff builds on top of other stuff (e.g. Transcendence/CSC America).

The comments in the code are helpful. The variable naming system is uniform. Variable and function names make sense, and best of all, George is always responsive to questions.

In other words, its awesome.
Post Reply