Re: [opendemo-devel] GamersTV

[Dr. U. G. <Uwe...@ph...>]

Hello!

On Thu, Jan 17, 2002 at 08:00:33PM +0700, Eugene 'HMage' Bujak wrote:
> > It is a system that allows live
> > spectating of quake3 matches, where clients connect to one of many
> > spectator-servers, which are in turn linked to the server that actually
> > hosts the match.
Some hints on the GamersTV system: the current version uses the original id
Software code, which means they incorporated the original server and client
code in a small command line oriented program. All internal game states are
kept, somehow reworked and forwarded. The network protocol is always the
original Q3A spectator protocol.

> > Do you guys think this is a long-term goal worth pursuing?
> It definetly is worth pursuing. As ideal, I think we need at least reach the
> level of HLTV first.
As I understand it, HLTV is basically the same thing as GamersTV: a standalone
proxy application, which acts as server and client simultaniously but the
supported game is HalfLife. Please keep in mind, that Martin Otten is involved
in both projects.

> In details, we will need an external application that connects to the server
> and relays in our opendemo format (compressed with zlib) between chains and
So we need to decode the Q3A protocol from the client point of view. This won't
work with open CVS development.
> client being able to control Point of View and fly spectating, while no
> client-side modifications will be required -- this is our rule #1: Do not
> modify cgame if it is definetly impossible to do server-side only.
And here we have to pose as a real Q3A server. The same problem with open
source: don't explain how Q3A network protcol works.

If we want to incorporate at least a bit of this, we can use the same
principle, which I used in DEMcut:
http://www.planetquake.com/demospecs/lmpc-stable/lmpc-4.html
In chapter 4.3 I propose named pipes (is now a similar concept in Windows
available?) to transfer data between a stand-alone program and a file-reading
Quake-program.

But anyway, we can't compete with GamerTV or HLTV because both are based upon
the original source code of the game and can so use all functionality already
available and we have only the small number of available trap_* functions to
interact with the main program.

> Explanation: this is a rule that motivates to be creative, thus making
> something impossible, and we will have great feedback (not near from instant,
> mind you) by closely following the rule - client will not have to download any
> client-side programs to use opendemo and opendemo-using projects.
This was never disputed: cgame should't be changed at all and currently we
follow this rule.

Bye, Uwe