Upgrade Suggestions to GIP Script.

[Nimrod]

Was thinking, the Digiex GIP Script used on Jazz2online, Hazes Hideout, and many other sites out there is properly due to upgrade.

Is there any features or suggestions people can recommend?

Jerry made a post about uptimes being counted, instead of just the time at gip script view, that sounds like a good improvement :)

Any others people can suggest?

[Birdie]

It should ignore § and the character following it.

[Cpp]

Fix the bug that messes up the server query script when the server name contains weird ASCII characters.

[Jerrythabest]

I like Newspaz's fur coloring script. I also added some more information to the server information table on the popup of cataphract's script, as well as fixed some things in the player character data... the GIP script is even nicer then :) but first start with the uptime count, it doesn't seem to be too hard to make for people understanding javascript

[Grytolle]

...what I told you about css

[Jerrythabest]

what did you tell him about css? may we know that? :P

[Grytolle]

Well it should be easy to just make a css full with class information to design the GIP any way you want

[FQuist]

The GIP is better off with just pure HTML without inline markup and CSS classes, so that it is more lightweight. I know the GIP is like that because it's based on the J2O layout, but it's not entirely efficient. (why not J2O, too? our entire site would have to be remade)

[Cpp]

What FQuist said. ^^

[Grytolle]

The GIP is better off with just pure HTML without inline markup and CSS classes, so that it is more lightweight. I know the GIP is like that because it's based on the J2O layout, but it's not entirely efficient. (why not J2O, too? our entire site would have to be remade)You wouldn't have to change more than the GIP page

[Jerrythabest]

What are we talking about? It is impossible to have a GIP script that could be COMPLETELY modified with CSS, so that it could fit ANY website, unless you have a lot of time and full knowledge of the possibilities of CSS, and that each and every used tag has attributes class and ID set...
Next, a lightweight GIP script would mean one with set layout, possibly only the colors and borders and such could be changed with CSS, which means no site integration, only basic styling and features.
A good GIP script is one modified for the needs of ONE side, instead of having it either hard to style or hard to integrate with your site. So I'd say you'd just get a GIP script with as many features as you want and edit it, add counting uptimes to it, style it, integrate it, use it. Go Notepad.

[FQuist]

@Gry: didn't say so.

[Monolith]

How about making it an option that you can specify in the parameters of the GIP script to use CSS or not?

[Jerrythabest]

possibly, but I still prefer implementing it all, and thus editing it :P

[Newspaz]

How about people just making their own GIP scripts if they want something special.
If people really want to share they can always upload theirs on J2O. It's not like everyone is obligated to use Nimrod's.

He's just inquiring on what people would like.

[Jerrythabest]

Exactly. Finally someone who understands the use of implementing.

[Puffie40]

Is there any features or suggestions people can recommend?

Maybe a picture map of the current level?

Diplay IP of both servers and players?

[Grytolle]

...yes lag the server by downloading the entire level!

[Jerrythabest]

yeah, that'd be nonsense... how about points each player has (player team's points in CTF)

[Puffie40]

...yes lag the server by downloading the entire level!

No no. What I was thinking was a "Snapshot" of the layout. I could be made using ASCII if it would cut lag

[Jerrythabest]

you'll have to download the level from the server first anyway, and also the tileset for the masks

[Strato]

The snapshot sounds needlessly complicated, and not really useful. The only levels people play on are popular enough that people should already know them. Plus some berks occasionally make levels huge and hide big blocks of tiles in places to form words.

[ThunderPX]

The only way it would work is if it would only retrieve the filename and the maps were added manually to the script for popular levels.

[Jerrythabest]

yeah, but that would be a whole lot of work

[Dermo]

The snapshot sounds needlessly complicated, and not really useful. The only levels people play on are popular enough that people should already know them. Plus some berks occasionally make levels huge and hide big blocks of tiles in places to form words.

...actually i think it's quite a good idea...

just make a link that is labeled screenshot. Then the server's end would take a sceenshot (same as hitting PrintScrn) and the link you click will open another script that loads the image that the server was viewing.

I do realize this would be loads of working just finding the right script to do that but in the long run. If somebody's hacking there's your proof right there.

[Jerrythabest]

I don't think you can have a PHP script controlling jazz2 to make a screenshot and send it over ;P would be a HUGE hole in the security of both PHP and JJ2

[Stijn]

It's perfectly possible if the authors of Forest or Controller added such a feature to their programs. PHP sends a request, Forest/Controller intercepts it and sends back a screenshot.

[Jerrythabest]

but plain JJ2 can't do it :P

[Erik]

asm patching ehe]m

[Grytolle]

...or just da hook

[blurredd]

It would be more useful (and probably a lot easier to implement) if servers could send a customized message to the GIP script. Server names can only say so much.

[Cpp]

Well the problem is getting people to patch their jj2's to support the new features. That means the new scripts will not be as effective as one would expect. They can be easily implemented into a dedicated server, however.

[Grytolle]

I wouldn't mind including such a feature in 1.23+ and 1.24+, if you're willing to help me out with it, Overlord.

[Jerrythabest]

<strike>as if anyone uses those</strike>
Since I have no idea how popular those are, I'll just stay neutral :P it *could* be useful but I probably wouldn't put it in my GIP script unless it's going to be used commonly

[Cpp]

Before we each go into coding our own scripts, I think there should be a detailed community discussion about this. What is being suggested here goes into the topic of JJ2 TCP Protocol modification. Technically it is possible to do that, because there are numerous unused packet ID's that we can use for our scripts and I would strongly suggest that we categorize them and make a community-wide "standard" before writing any scripts that rely on them. Imagine what happens when every person attempts to make use of them on their own specifications.

[Jerrythabest]

TOTAL DESTRUCTION! Like 100k versions floating around all being compatible with only one GIP script :/

[blurredd]

Might as well start discussing the details of such a standard here. Any specific suggestions, Overlord?

[Cpp]

The first thing we should know is what IDs are already being used by jj2. I was working on a JJ2TCP documentation a while ago and I'll quote a part of it here.
The packet ID byte allows up to 256 different numbers, but only a very narrow range is actually used – 0x0D to 0x1B (13 to 27 decimal) to be precise, the rest are unused.

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" bgcolor="#CCCCCC"><tr bgcolor="#999999"><td width="60"><b>ID</b></td><td><b>Function</b></td><td align="center"><b>Traffic</b></td></tr><tr><td width="60">0x0D </td><td>Error message</td><td align="center">C&lt;==S</td></tr><tr><td width="60">0x0E</td><td>Client details</td><td align="center">C==&gt;S</td></tr><tr><td width="60">0x0F</td><td>Join request</td><td align="center">C==&gt;S</td></tr><tr><td width="60">0x10</td><td>Server details</td><td align="center">C&lt;==S</td></tr><tr><td width="60">0x11</td><td>Client join notify</td><td align="center">C&lt;==S</td></tr><tr><td width="60">0x12</td><td>Server player list</td><td align="center">C&lt;==S</td></tr><tr><td width="60">0x13</td><td>Join process complete</td><td align="center">C&lt;==S</td></tr><tr><td width="60">0x14</td><td>Data transmission</td><td align="center">C&lt;==S</td></tr><tr><td width="60">0x15</td><td>Download request</td><td align="center">C==&gt;S</td></tr><tr><td width="60">0x16</td><td>Level cycle</td><td align="center">C&lt;==S</td></tr><tr><td width="60">0x17</td><td>Game over</td><td align="center">C&lt;==S</td></tr><tr><td width="60">0x18</td><td>Status update</td><td align="center">C&lt;==S</td></tr><tr><td width="60">0x19</td><td>Server stopped</td><td align="center">C&lt;==S</td></tr><tr><td width="60">0x1A</td><td>Status update request</td><td align="center">C==&gt;S</td></tr><tr><td width="60">0x1B</td><td>Chat</td><td align="center">C&lt;=&gt;S</td></tr></table>We have a lot of free packet ID's to use. JJ2 itself will currently ignore the unused so that's a good thing. Now the task is to assign a "use" (purpose) to each unused ID and make standard of it... sort of like the table shown above. I suggest we first make a list of features and possibilities. However, this is where my imagination ends. Neobeo might want to share some ideas for his dedicated server extended functionality.

[blurredd]

It would be particularly useful to be able to change the colors of clients names without the use of pipes. Not being able to do this is part of the reason why I haven't finished gamemodes like LRS and Jailbreak for my program. Although it would be better to incorporate name changes with specific custom gametypes, this would be easier to implemenent in the short run.

I suppose spectator mode should go somewhere in there. All this discussion should go in its seperate topic though.

[Torkell]

Regardless of what we come up with, I suggest we earmark a range for testing purposes. Say define 0xF0 ... 0xFF as private testing. That way people can experiment with the protocol without intefering with anything else.

[Jerrythabest]

very good idea, I completley agree

PAGECLAIM in the name of javascript countup in GIP scripts =(