GTADS Proxy Update

Its been a little while since I last posted and update on the state of things with GTADS. Its been such a busy month that i've only had time for minor bug fixes on the chat server and client but no major development has really occurred on each. As you have seen from my previous post i have allowed open BETA testing of the chat client onto the beta server. So far I haven't heard much in terms of bugs on the client side.
I know though that those of you who have been reading and watching my blog for updates want to your hands on the actual proxy. There is work actually being done on the proxy and as soon as all the functionality is pushed in users will at least be able to play with GTA1 against each other. I am not going to bundle the proxy with the chat client just yet, there are some technical aspects in the server code that I will need to hammer out such as having a gameroom where users would host and join a game via the chatserver as well as bringing in states by decoding end of game data. It will be a long job involving hours of packet sniffing and decoding. Testing the chatserver will be an important part of GTADS and if any are interested the links are on the side for creating an account and directions for connecting.
The list of games i'll plan on making proxy compatible are:
- GTA1
- GTA2
- Twisted Metal 2
- Need for Speed (haven't checked its multiplayer support)
- C&C (Tiberium Sun)
- C&C (Generals)
- Starcraft

Side-note request: If anyone has any GTA1 packetdata playing on win98 machines please drop me an ethereal log on the game play. From what I know win98 machines become out of sync with win2000/XP players and perhaps i can create a compatability mode.

GTADS Client Creation Page

Well I added some server additions for GTADS and most importantly an account creation website at http://66.65.97.42/createAccount.html. This will allow people to just create an account and join GTADS without having to email me for an account. This perl script and form page was put up in the matter of an hour and may have bugs. Feel free to try it out and get on the server. I am mainly testing out creating chatrooms and load.

GTADS Update

It's September and school is back in for me, this means I haven't been able to keep up with the development of GTADS as much as I wanted to. There have been newer features added in though for the client, the server and the proxy.

The proxy is in a very prealpha stage and I suspect will be there until late September when I will release a "Beta For Play", but for now will be in a purely code release. If you are interested in the specifics of the proxy I have been trying to get it to set up a game host scenerio as well as a join scenerio with a particular amount of ports. As I said in previous posts, the Proxy GUI will be a component of the gtads client as well as a stand alone for anyone who just wants to play someone without having to connect to the client.

The client has undergone minor changes and has various design modifications pending. Right now the features added are support for /join chatroom command and /part to leave the chatroom as well as timestamps on chat messages. The chat window now wordwraps long messages over and the input chatbox is limited to 255 characters.

On the serverside, support for multiple chatrooms have been implemented so a user can join another chatroom besides the default when logged in. It can recognize the /part command and destroys a chatroom if the only user in the chatroom leaves. There are still a few known bugs in the server that need to be worked out.

I am still looking for testers to come into the chatroom and to test the hell out of the program. If that means crashing the server let it come. If you are interested let me know and I will send you the necessary information.