Biocross Server Management System
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After the generation you will NEVER have to regenerate again - synchronization does all of the following things:
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Checks for FL Files that no longer exist and deletes the corresponding XML
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Checks for FL Files that don’t have an XML reference and creates it
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Checks for FL Files that have a later modified date than when the XML was created then re-creates it (updates)
all 612 files did/do this in under a second…
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Well, I’m hoping to use it for around 13,000 player files. The time generate the xml conversion doesn’t bother me…30 -50 mins seems fine.
I do have a quick question. Does Biocross deal with both encoded and un-encoded player files. Depending on the flhook settings you can have both plain .ini player files and encoded ones.
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http://code.google.com/feeds/p/biocross/svnchanges/basic - RSS Feed of all the changes made to Biocross as I make them
http://biocross.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/Biocross/ - Read Only version of the code…
FLAdmin - Class Library that makes FLAdmin.DLL easier to use
FLRead - Reads values from decoded FL Files
Biocross Main - Handles all the XML Stuff (synchronization, generation etc.)
Biocross - The main program -
Then users would need SQL Express which is quite a large download, also XML is not actually that slow, I personally feel these figures are way off due to how many programs I had open, the power of my PC in general and other limiting factors - I will wait to see what happens when I use it on a real server which should be soon, for now I guess it’s the wait
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Depends how long that pushes the release away ::)
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Just like to say college is really slowing me down, but the arrival of now a 4th Server operator has really spurred me on to enter the ‘competition’ as it were, however I guess really this is an oppertunity as looking at all 4 (plasma, disco, biocross and IFSO) they fit neatly into these categories:
Beginners:
IFSOIntermediate/Advanced:
DiscoIntermediate:
BiocrossAdvanced:
PlasmaAnyone got any otherr judgements on that? The thing stopping Biocross being in a beginners category is the requirement for SQL…
Things are turning out well in the server development world…
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Hey, do you have a linky to the plasma one. I haven’t been able to find it…and didn’t know it existed either.
On performance matters:
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I almost used SQL but I found that XML backed file storage was fast enough. I just had to be careful on the key selection in use on the tables. I haven’t had a close look at the biocross code but maybe … (fyi I screwed up a key definition and it really (100x times) slowed down record insersion into the tables.)
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The disco source has a C# based flcodec, bini and flhash algorithms in it. I’m sure you could port the algorithms to biocross and then you wouldn’t have to call that dll thingy. (My knowledge is a little fuzzy regarding the dlls for biocross) As I understand it, the algorithms should run at the same speed in VB. I’ve also got a resource string dll reader coming in the next version so it might be useful to you and save you a little work.
I’ll add that it is friendly competition between the programs - and maybe competition is the wrong word although I can’t think of a better one right now.
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http://freelancercommunity.net/viewtopic.php?t=205
This is the only place where I’ve ever seen some reference(s) to Plasma. The tool sounds nice but I’ve yet to see a lot from it.
As for the current state of things, friendly competitions are good! They give some more interest and eventually lead to better products
Now, code away people!
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Well this old chestnut certainly needed some dusting off - let’s go through the A-Z of just exactly where it is I’ve been for god knows how long:
1. College
The killer of my time, life and… well everything that involves fun really - for my future career I really want to start studying medicine and this is eating me alive, the research is long, the hours mount quickly into days and so on…
Henceforth, as much as I hate to let you guys down, much of my freetime I had to cut FL out of, and that meant missing out on this community, development time with Biocross and a hell of a lot of other things which tbh I really wanted to continue doing over the time I have been away.
2.Writers Block
I’m not going to lie to you - Biocross development wasn’t at all peachy, I had some trouble especially when moving it onto others machines, it worked on mine and one of my laptops but anything else I seemed to try it on caused an error on startup, and I checked line after line for HOURS and nothing stood out and I got EXTREMELY frustrated with myself and (while I hope not) perhaps some of you noticed…
Then another server operator was released coded in C# I think, which was, in short, a hell of a lot faster - this made me even more frustrated (don’t worry if your reading this as the developer I was not frustrated at you and it is certainly not your fault)
ON TO THE POSITIVES
1. Biocross Lives (And It’s Better Than Ever)
Biocross is now (what I believe to be and based on tests) faster than the C# equivalent :P, it is based entirely on SQL and is designed to work with Microsoft SQL Express 2005 onwards which is a common component on most servers. (NOTE professionial editions and so on are also supported - anything preceding 2005 is not tested and unlikely to work!)
Biocross now speaks fluently in every language known in the world - or at least the ones you teach it, a table called Language exists in the SQL database which can be updated to include a plethora of languages unfortunately me being an ignorant English bloke I have not really learnt another language fluently enough to make a few translations, but thats what the community is for right?
The parts coded as of today now work on ALL machines - I believe I have got to the source of the problem and will make sure it never happens again!
2. Vista and Windows 7 Support
Tested on both platforms (RC1 Windows 7 and SP2 Vista) works perfectly!
ON TO THE MORE IMPORTANT THINGS
1. How in the hell are you all?
I missed you all terribly, how have you all been in my abscence? Fill me in on the latest technologies breakthroughs and general forum wide news
2. Biocross Release
Due to my previous failings I am now unwilling to make guesses on a release - it only causes stress just know it is getting down and the following things work for a fact:
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Full Language Support
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0.016 Seconds per FL File (Average)
Please be aware I have started again since my previous development - but the GUI still looks the same (ish)
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