[Gtkradiant] Branch or Patch?

[Jorge Peña]

Thanks CodeCreator I appreciate your response. The alternative you mentioned
towards the end is a good idea but I'd have to do it for all three
platforms, which would be okay if I choose to keep GtkRadiant support on my
side (As in, I'll simply provide the gamepack without bothering you guys).
However, I figure that for now, getting a stable and correct game pack for
my game would be most essential.

Like I said in the earlier message, I was able to get a working game pack
for GtkRadiant for my game, but I would like to make sure that it is made
correctly. Therefore, if you would be kind enough to review my game pack I
would greatly appreciate it.

It is available here:
http://instagib.jorgepena.be/downloads/tools/gamepack.zip

If you can't, it is alright, or if you don't have time at the moment, it is
fine, I would appreciate it and would wait whatever amount of time
necessary.

I basically have a tip.game file inside the games/ directory. This file
defines some values, but I left some to quake3 because I wasn't sure if I
had to have them or if changing them would break something (I tried changing
all occurrences of 'quake3' to 'tip, but I got errors in GtkRadiant). I also
have the prefix set to '.q3a', I think this refers to the hidden folder in
the home directory on Linux platforms and the like? If this is the case, I'm
sure I can change it to '.tip'. It works as it is now, I just want to make
sure everything is set up correctly, and if I don't need something that's on
there, then I'd rather remove it.

I also have the shaderlist.txt file inside the scripts/ folder. I'm not sure
if this is required, as I didn't see it inside the GtkRadiant folder. I
think this has to go inside my game's base folder, and since I already have
one inside one of my pk3 archives, I think it's safe to assume I don't need
that? If I do in fact need that, then I just want to note that I added some
Open Arena specific things mentioned in this thread (
http://openarena.ws/board/index.php?topic=213.0 ), and left some Quake 3
related things there, which I copied from another shaderlist.txt. Was I
correct in doing this?

And last but not least, I have the tip.game/ folder. Inside I have a
default_buid_menu.xml file which I think defines the build interface for
GtkRadiant for my game, so I think I need this. However, I have a feeling I
don't need the game.xlink file which seems to simply provide links to
various resources for Quake 3 related documents. Inside the tip.game/
folder, I have a base/ folder which contains the files
default_shaderlist.txt and entities.ent. I copied entities.ent over from the
q3.game folder, since my game is based on the Quake 3 engine, I don't know
if I was right in doing this. The default_shaderlist.txt seems to be an
exact copy of the aforementioned shaderlist.txt file, but I have a feeling I
do need this one.

Basically I would like to know if everything seems fine with this. Is this
basically the 'game pack' I need? Or does a game pack actually mean
something else, or do I need something else?

I'm sorry for bothering, but would greatly appreciate your response, and
thank you for your time.

On 3/13/07, CodeCreator <spam at codecreator.net> wrote:
>
> Hi!
>
> We added support for many hobby-games in the past months so thats not
> so much of a problem.
> If you want your gamesupport in gtkr, you have to send me your gamepack.
> Make sure that your gamepack is close or completely final.
> I don't want to get a mail everyday with tiny changes for gamepack xy.
> So in your case, the best thing would be to get your stuff final and then
> submit it.
>
> I wouldn't say that making a fork for your game makes much sense right
> now.
> A custom gamefile is enough for 90% of the games gtkr supports, esp. when
> its
> build upon the q3 engine.
> If you need custom functionality in gtkr: implement it as a plugin!
> You may want to take a look at the ufo:ai plugin, its a plugin for a
> specific
> hobby-game.
> I will not commit customizations to gtkradiants core that are just
> for one game and may brake support with others.
>
> If you want to do a fork, then yes, you have to change the name.
>
> > since I want to keep things safe and make sure they work always,
> Having your stuff in trunk doesn't guarantee you that it will always work.
> If the plugin interface to gtkr changes (like it did during the transition
> from 1.4 to 1.5) then its the plugin-writers job to get it working again.
> However since gtkr's development is going to stop slowly, its extremely
> unlikely that the plugin interface is going to change ever again.
> Gamepacks should work for eternity since there is absolutly no reason
> to change the code that handles them.
>
> > If supporting my particular, specific game isn't an option, would it be
> > more convincing to add direct support for Open Arena?
> If the open arena people want support for their stuff, they have to come
> to
> me with their gamepack. If the gamepack satisfies the requirements
> I mentioned above then it shall go in.
>
> An alternative to the solutions above would be to build an installer that
> detects an already installed gtkradiant and puts your gamefiles into the
> install directory of gtkradiant. That way you can update your stuff as
> often as you want.
>
> namespace
>
>
> Am Dienstag, 13. März 2007 04:28 schrieb Jorge Peña:
> > Hey guys, I'm working on a 'game' that uses the Quake 3 Engine (The
> > Instagib Project, http://instagib.jorgepena.be). I've written a couple
> > walk-throughs such as the latest one here (
> > http://instagib.jorgepena.be/wiki/GtkRadiant ) to try to make using
> > GtkRadiant with my 'game' easy and straightforward. I don't have any
> > special or particular improvement on the engine yet, and I'm just using
> > Open Arena ( http://openarena.ws ) media content, so the actual
> > modifications required for my game to be compatible with GtkRadiant
> aren't
> > many. I just created a tip.game file, which I came up with after looking
> at
> > various sources ( The q3.game file, open arena's instructions,
> tremulous'
> > instructions, etc. ). I also created a tip.game folder and just copied
> over
> > the entities.ent file and the rest of the other files. Then I can easily
> > create maps for my game. However, like I said, this is still not as
> > convenient as I'd like it to be.
> >
> > I'm able to build GtkRadiant on the three main systems I want to support
> (
> > Windows, Linux and the like, and Mac OS X ), but for some reason,
> creating
> > a branch just to simply repackage it for my needs seems like overkill,
> and
> > since I want to keep things safe and make sure they work always, I'll
> want
> > to upload it to my subversion repository which would take up a lot of
> > space. I have no problem with this if it's the only way, but I was
> > wondering the following, should I simply do this, a branch? Or what must
> I
> > do to somehow get support for my game included in GtkRadiant? I know
> this
> > might be a tall order, and I'm not necessarily wanting it right away,
> I'll
> > probably have to let the game grow before such a decision could be taken
> on
> > your part, so if I do make a branch, I acknowledge that I would have to
> > change the name of my derivative of GtkRadiant. Since I'm not very good
> at
> > coming up with names, would Radient be a bad decision? (Note the 'e' in
> > place of the 'a'). Also, would I have to go through the whole source
> tree
> > and remove every occurence of 'GtkRadiant' and replace them with my new
> > name? And would I have to do the same with the images? If this is so,
> then
> > I think it'd be even more over kill than it already is, and I probably
> > would simply keep it the way I have it right now.
> >
> > If supporting my particular, specific game isn't an option, would it be
> > more convincing to add direct support for Open Arena? The game has been
> > picking up lately, and many games use its media content, supporting it
> > would make everyone that depends on it happy. And on our part, that is,
> > those who use their content, we could simply change a setting to refer
> to
> > our engine or the like and we'd be good to do. I think by supporting
> Open
> > Arena directly, we'd cater to many more games than by necessarily
> > supporting each one, but it's just a question.
> >
> > I'd appreciate your response, and thank you for your time.
>
> --
> www.codecreator.net | GPG: 0xD4DB516D
>
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