MapTool ALPHA Build 103 Development Notes

Emryys · Post by **Emryys** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 3:03 pm

One comment from a programming outsider...
Bloat.
Java gets a bad rap and I have noticed the little monitors increasing... What measures do you guys take?
I'm not familiar with the process but, do you add a feature, get it to work, then look at cutting lines/reworking it to keep the processing down?
Is this anything to be concerned about?

I'm not that worried myself as my system works just fine

but alot of onliner's tend to have "minimal" systems... even using dialup

Post by **trevor** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 3:11 pm

To be honest, most of the features we're working on have nothing to do with your network connection. Most of the work is all done on your computer, with simple updates being sent to the server.

So, really, the bulk of the network transmissions are the size of the images, and the updates when moving a token (which are already limited to a couple times a second).

Most of the features that have been added recently are all client work, mostly on the rendering side. So lower end machines will eventually start slowing down. When things start getting added such as animations and such, those will have a client setting that will let lower end machines turn them off to keep responsiveness high.

When I code I typically write the simple solution when writing a feature, then optimize it as it becomes a problem (you'll find that MOST things that seem to be bottlenecks, really aren't, so, don't fix until you have to, and only once it has been scientifically identified as a problem).

Does that answer your question ?

Emryys · Post by **Emryys** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 3:16 pm

trevor wrote:Does that answer your question ?

Most definately

Having the client settings for the memory hogs (graphics/animation) will work well. You'll have to post examples on your site to convince these people to upgrade their systems

Post by **trevor** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 1:59 pm

So I rewrote the token stack popup last night. It is now integrated into the pointer tool as an overlay instead as a panel component. That basically means that it isn't as self contained as it started out as (so sad), but will work consistently across platforms.

I'm planning on writing the first pass at large token movement tonight, then doing a build so you guys can check it out.

Post by **trevor** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 12:41 pm

Yeah, so I sat down to write the large token movement stuff. More complexity popped up. Have to think about it a bit more.

RPTroll · Post by **RPTroll** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 1:14 pm

And this gets even more interesting with oblong tokens combined with facing. Imagine a semi truck in car wars trying to make that corner. Guess you could change facings at waypoints but that's another post all together.

Post by **trevor** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 2:01 pm

Whew ! I'm going to forget that I read that last post so that my head doesn't e-splode !

Post by **trevor** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 10:11 pm

IT'S CHECKED IN ! WOOOOOO !

Large token movement has been checked in, that means there are only two trackers left, which are both very minor, before we release 1.0 !

So, really we just need to get the documentation up to date, and a couple minor tweaks, and we're good to go !!!

Can I get a Wup Wup !

So I think I'll do a build, then go rewrite TokenTool while you guys beat up the new build

Emryys · Post by **Emryys** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 10:15 pm

trevor wrote:Can I get a Wup Wup !

Emryys the Giant bangs his mighty club in Jubilation!

trevor wrote: So I think I'll do a build, then go rewrite TokenTool while you guys beat up the new build

Bring it on!

brisingre · Post by **brisingre** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 8:42 pm

Wup Wup !

You are awesome! I am looking forward to 1.0 b/c then you ca start cranking out the cool stuff again. You guys are incredible. I have been here for like 3 months, and this thing has gotten imeasurably better since then.

Fobbo · Post by **Fobbo** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 8:48 am

Wup Wup

Post by **trevor** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 7:34 pm

brisingre wrote:
Wup Wup !
You are awesome! I am looking forward to 1.0 b/c then you ca start cranking out the cool stuff again. You guys are incredible. I have been here for like 3 months, and this thing has gotten imeasurably better since then.

Wait till you see what it'll look like in another 3 months

RPTroll · Post by **RPTroll** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 8:28 pm

trevor wrote:Wait till you see what it'll look like in another 3 months

Trevor the Tool Tease.

I agree with Biz. This thing had grown a lot during the short time I've used it. You guys are great about digging through the requests for the stuff that actually needs to go in there. Thanks for all your work.

By the way, I created an 8x8 checker/chess board with 40x40 pixel squares if anyone wants it. It still nees a cool border though. Load your favorite characters on there and go. I'm going to start using it as an auxillery map when gaming so the guys'll have a place to goof around.

I'll polish the backgammon board for public consumption next.

brisingre · Post by **brisingre** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 10:43 am

Hey, that's a cool idea! If you added a way to randomly pick x images from a directory and put them in a special window to be used as tokens, we could use this for board and card games.

Post by **trevor** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 10:56 am

I imagine that the scripting support we will add could support something like this