SCD3 was made very hastily and seems to have all sorts of issues that I'd like to finally squish. The menus didn't seem to go over so well (at least initially), so I don't really know how I should make it... Plus I feel it is time for an overhaul on the project.

These are my current thoughts, ideas, and things I'd like input from. It would be helpful if people could tell me what they would like and/or expect to make this work as smoothly as possible.

• Patches
  • 7z compression instead of MPQ (meaning no more MPQ2K!) *Compression is better by almost half a MB for 1.15.2! That much less to download from my slow server! xD*
    
  • Every patch version is available (1.00 through 1.16.1.)
    
  • Support for Brood War and original.
  
  
• Interface — GUI!
  • Tabs at the top:
    • Patch: Where you do the patching. This is default.
      • Shows the currently installed version.
        
      • List of patches
        
      • Sort option buttons (SC, BW, Mod Library)
        
      • Run Patcher
        
      • Manual ToggleNX
    • Options: Set settings and determine how SCD4 handles your StarCraft.
      • Install Options - Options in SCD3: Use Registry to find EXE, Starcraft.exe location, etc.
        
      • Pre-1.08 Gateway Selection.
        
      • Map Fixes - Incomplete feature in SCD3: I still don't fully understand the map signing used here, so if I were to attempt this again I'd need to figure that out.
        
      • Gateway Editor - Easily edit/add gateways.
        
      • Backup/Restore - Incomplete feature in SCD2: Save a copy of the version files to revert back to if there is an issue.
    • About: Generic; links, contributors (this could be you. ), myself, etc.
  • Uses SC-styled controls for lulz. So far this is going nicely.
  
  
• Other Options/Features:
  • (bajadulce) Implement ToggleNX (for Vista support) and SFNoCD. (4)
    
  • (Hercanic) Some form of mod auto-patching integration... Setting up a "library" of mods on your system sounds like the most simple. Comments and suggestions appreciated. (16, 23)
    
  • Any other ideas?

All comments, suggestions, and ideas are greatly appreciated. I was hoping SCD3 to be my last version, but I really don't like its setup and a lot of people say the same.

Thanks to anyone who contributes.

Post has been edited 14 time(s), last time on Feb 8 2009, 7:59 pm by FaRTy1billion.

Like I said in MSN, "Make your own patch". Even though you don't know how.

The battle.net patch thingies would be useless... the point of this is to bypass that.

A lot of users are now using Vista and since older SC versions can only be played on private servers as well, you should incorporate ShadowFlare's no-cd .exe for SCD4. It kills 2 birds with one stone:

1. Vista issues (toggle NX automatically)
2. allows users to play older versions with their 1.15.2 "BroodWar.mpq" setup. = win!

Is the no-cd exe version-independant? Does it work for SC original and 1.00? >.> <.<

Do you have al ink?

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Oct 11 2008, 11:28 pm by FaRTy1billion.

Maybe fix the 1.10 patch? I heard it killed AO.

I redid every patch.

As with 7-zip this link should help you a bit in your quest to use it it has all the header for and dlls. http://7-zip.org/sdk.html

I've been there many times, firstly from downloading it to begin with, from the time I've spend googling. Arbitrary header files with little snippets thrown around in an abundance of folders is less than helpful. I found something written in C#... but I do not understand C#.

I have the patch files compressed much smaller than mpqs... Unfortunately MPQs compress nicely in archive files and these do not (meaning that the .rar and .zip files hosted on my server are smaller than my .7z test file.)

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Oct 12 2008, 7:13 am by FaRTy1billion.

All the code is their to compress and decompress 7zip files. If the files are compressed on your applications side then when you distribute them yes they wont compress as well since their are all ready compressed well. This is also good for your end users so that they don't use as much hard drive space. Also you could always grab the exports on the 7zip dll and use that.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Oct 12 2008, 3:22 pm by deathknot.

Yeah, but I don't feel like digging through this mess of files. Doodle pointed out to look in main, so I think I have this covered.

I am aware of this. I am worried about downloading the file, which is why I am trying to compress them.

If I was worried about what the end-user possesses, then I would have this done because these files are about 20% the size of the SCD3 MPQs. SCD3 MPQs compress well in rar files, so they end up being smaller than these .7z files alone.

A file hosting website (that doesn't delete inactive files >.>) would also suffice in place of a smaller filesize as a 2MB download from most other places is not horribly slow.

What?

I put more information on what I need here.
I just compressed it to 1697KB. That is about half a MB less than SCD3.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Oct 12 2008, 7:50 pm by FaRTy1billion.

So does anyone have any suggestions for the layout of SCD4? ... Console or GUI at the least..?

A non DOS like look.

Ya, that would be a GUI. >.>

I'm designing a possible layout ..

With gui for newbs. That's why the other downgrader's so popular cause it's aimed to idiots who can't use a keyboard

1. All patches, if possible. Some of the really ancient mods for 1.07 I occassionally want to play or check out.

2. GUI: Simple and to-the-point. The first area should be selecting a patch to install, with tabs and menus containing any additional options or features. What is used most often should always be at the forefront. What needs to be set up first, but only once, could be handled in a RunOnce startup prompt (such as confirming where SC is installed).

3. Mod plugin integration: When a mod runs, it automatically patches SC to the version it needs. How is another issue.

3a. A plugin for MPQDraft/FireGraft that utilizes the SCD code to patch to version x.y.z on load, repatch to original on exit. If a crash or alt-f4 happens preventing normal exiting, perhaps the stored backup could identify what happened if the mod is run again, and repatch back to the original on any subsequent exit.

3b. A way for mods, using a plugin, to call on SCD if end-users have it already installed (registry lookup?) and patch to the version it needs seemlessly.

3z. So between those two ideas, "A" nests the program into a mod, "B" makes an external check for the program to run it behind the scenes. "B" could be more flexible if you are constantly releasing new versions of the program, so a mod using the lookup plugin would use whatever version of SCD the user has installed, including future updates without outdating the mod itself. "A" is just simpler for the end user, as they do not need to find, download, and install SCD on their own.

SCD3 already had 1.07 if I'm not mistaken, Hercanic.

Also, farty, you should add an option to create customizable exes, like you have your mymod.exe so SCD4 creates an exe that (when run) the mymod.exe calls upon SCD4 to downgraded to a previously selected version and reverts the changes when the mymod.exe is closed.
That'd be pretty cool.

http://farty1billion.dyndns.org/SCD3/Patches/BW1_07.rar

;o

Yeah, I've pretty much decided to use a GUI. You've vaguely described basically what I am already designing.

B would be useful because then you don't download the same patch information again and again. I was considering (as should be stated in my first post) command-line, which could easily be taken advantage of for this. I'd have to put it in the registry, I suppose ... I generally dislike using the registry.

Ahhh, yes it does. I didn't realize the list of patches could scroll (no visual indication of a larger list), so I only saw down to 1.10. However, it ends at 1.05, not 1.00.


Heh, yes, but it can handle updating to new Downgrader versions seemlessly without mods needing to prompt the end-user for the location of SCD every time they play it, which would defeat the convenience of auto-patching.

Such a plugin would be handy to update all mods with, so play is as simple as double-click and go, as opposed to looking up their required versions every time you play different mods. Great for events like Mod Night, or if a Mod Pack were assembled, everything could work effortlessly. No more desyncs because someone in the game forgot he needed 1.15.1 rather than 1.15.2. Things like that.