MT 1.3b15 update
Moderators: dorpond, trevor, Azhrei
- trevor
- Codeum Arcanum (RPTools Founder)
- Posts: 11311
- Joined: Mon Jan 09, 2006 4:16 pm
- Location: Austin, Tx
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MT 1.3b15 update
No build this week, I've been spending my development cycles on research. I'm finally to a point to put it to good use, so expect the next build early next week.
Some of the research I've been working on:
* Drastically improving the vision speed so that we can have tokens have infinite visibility by default. Made a couple significant improvements to the algorithm and it works great. Now I need to migrate the updates into MT, then I'll be ready to tackle the vision-light thing
* Panel binding, this one is more behind the scenes, and technical, but it basically allows me to build and updates dialogs and panels faster and with less code. Both good things.
* Web repositories of images. You will be able to add a list of known repositories to MT and it will look for images there instead of the MT server, and drop back to the MT server if it can't find it anywhere else. You will also be able to specify a repository in your campaign so that you can upload your campaign images to your webserver, and your players will automatically get the updated remote repo while they are connected to that campaign. Faster image downloads. Smoother interaction with the server. Fewer drops and image transfer failures
Some of the research I've been working on:
* Drastically improving the vision speed so that we can have tokens have infinite visibility by default. Made a couple significant improvements to the algorithm and it works great. Now I need to migrate the updates into MT, then I'll be ready to tackle the vision-light thing
* Panel binding, this one is more behind the scenes, and technical, but it basically allows me to build and updates dialogs and panels faster and with less code. Both good things.
* Web repositories of images. You will be able to add a list of known repositories to MT and it will look for images there instead of the MT server, and drop back to the MT server if it can't find it anywhere else. You will also be able to specify a repository in your campaign so that you can upload your campaign images to your webserver, and your players will automatically get the updated remote repo while they are connected to that campaign. Faster image downloads. Smoother interaction with the server. Fewer drops and image transfer failures
Dreaming of a 1.3 release
That sounds brilliant. With the risk of sounding like a complete nerd, what did you do to get the vision system to speed up so much?
Equally, if we are having infinite vision by default, is there any way we could set a campaign default (or possibly even a map default) for us poor D&D users that have to remember the default encounter distances for different terrains? Just a thought.
Looking forward to the next build. I'll soon have to start using 1.3 for campaign building
Equally, if we are having infinite vision by default, is there any way we could set a campaign default (or possibly even a map default) for us poor D&D users that have to remember the default encounter distances for different terrains? Just a thought.
Looking forward to the next build. I'll soon have to start using 1.3 for campaign building
- trevor
- Codeum Arcanum (RPTools Founder)
- Posts: 11311
- Joined: Mon Jan 09, 2006 4:16 pm
- Location: Austin, Tx
- Contact:
Preconfigured vision: Yes, I'll be adding a new tab on the Campaign Properties dialog that let you name and design visions you can attach to tokens.
Speed increase: This is a bit technical, which I'm happy to go into, but to avoid making you all go to sleep, I found a clever way to reduce the number of points I have to calculate. To give you an idea of the improvement, I created a "board" of 10,000 x 10,000 and put 500 randomly sized rectangles on it, creating some 2600 points. The current vision calculation took 40 seconds to figure out the vision. That's totally unusable. With the update, the exact same layout took .9 seconds. It all boils down to breakeing up the topology into smaller chunks, and culling out the ones that can't possibly be seen. Oh yeah, and a little bit more speed by restructuring the approach to change a geometric Subtract to a geometric Add (which is faster, go figure).
Speed increase: This is a bit technical, which I'm happy to go into, but to avoid making you all go to sleep, I found a clever way to reduce the number of points I have to calculate. To give you an idea of the improvement, I created a "board" of 10,000 x 10,000 and put 500 randomly sized rectangles on it, creating some 2600 points. The current vision calculation took 40 seconds to figure out the vision. That's totally unusable. With the update, the exact same layout took .9 seconds. It all boils down to breakeing up the topology into smaller chunks, and culling out the ones that can't possibly be seen. Oh yeah, and a little bit more speed by restructuring the approach to change a geometric Subtract to a geometric Add (which is faster, go figure).
Dreaming of a 1.3 release
- Full Bleed
- Demigod
- Posts: 4736
- Joined: Sun Feb 25, 2007 11:53 am
- Location: FL
Impressive stuff!
It's great to see that you're not only looking to add awesome features to MT but that you're always looking to make what we do have better.
The better vision calc and web repositories sound like phenomenal upgrades.
Thanks for keeping us all in the loop. Following MT's development is, in and of itself, something of a hobby.
It's great to see that you're not only looking to add awesome features to MT but that you're always looking to make what we do have better.
The better vision calc and web repositories sound like phenomenal upgrades.
Thanks for keeping us all in the loop. Following MT's development is, in and of itself, something of a hobby.
The scary part is that makes really good sense to me. I remember this stuff from my graphics classes in college.trevor wrote:Preconfigured vision: Yes, I'll be adding a new tab on the Campaign Properties dialog that let you name and design visions you can attach to tokens.
Speed increase: This is a bit technical, which I'm happy to go into, but to avoid making you all go to sleep, I found a clever way to reduce the number of points I have to calculate. To give you an idea of the improvement, I created a "board" of 10,000 x 10,000 and put 500 randomly sized rectangles on it, creating some 2600 points. The current vision calculation took 40 seconds to figure out the vision. That's totally unusable. With the update, the exact same layout took .9 seconds. It all boils down to breakeing up the topology into smaller chunks, and culling out the ones that can't possibly be seen. Oh yeah, and a little bit more speed by restructuring the approach to change a geometric Subtract to a geometric Add (which is faster, go figure).
Wohoo College is worth something
--
Big Mac
Big Mac
Re: MT 1.3b15 update
Two words:trevor wrote: * Web repositories of images. You will be able to add a list of known repositories to MT and it will look for images there instead of the MT server, and drop back to the MT server if it can't find it anywhere else. You will also be able to specify a repository in your campaign so that you can upload your campaign images to your webserver, and your players will automatically get the updated remote repo while they are connected to that campaign. Faster image downloads. Smoother interaction with the server. Fewer drops and image transfer failures
Hot. Sex.
Yeah, whatever. I drank that time away...only thing I got out of it was...a wife!Big_Mac wrote:Wohoo College is worth something
• snikle •
snikle.wordpress.com
snikle.wordpress.com
Re: MT 1.3b15 update
California - n., from the spanish cali, meaning hot, and the latin fornia meaning copulation or intercourse. Hence the saying, "Terra de California -- the Land of Hot Sex."AlterForm wrote:Two words:
Hot. Sex.
(Note that I live in Florida. The Land of Old Sex. What can I say?)
- trevor
- Codeum Arcanum (RPTools Founder)
- Posts: 11311
- Joined: Mon Jan 09, 2006 4:16 pm
- Location: Austin, Tx
- Contact:
The general repository URL will be visible to the players, but the campaign injected repository will not.
The way it works is you generate an index file (we provide a shell or perl script, or Export from MT), put the images and index file on your web host, then put the URL of the index file into MT.
The way it works is you generate an index file (we provide a shell or perl script, or Export from MT), put the images and index file on your web host, then put the URL of the index file into MT.
Dreaming of a 1.3 release
So the index file contains an image reference of some sort linking MT-ese (MTease?) to a filename? Can you give us an example? Does the index file reside in the same directory as the images or does it contain URLs to the images that can be anywhere?
Ever thought of making the images JARable with the index file embedded?
Ever thought of making the images JARable with the index file embedded?