Introducing: PlasmaClient!

PaladinOfKaos · **Joined:** Thu Aug 03, 2006 10:55 pm **Posts:** 625

For those that can't launch...

Are you running "PlasmaClient.exe" or "PCLauncher.exe"?

You should be using "PCLauncher.exe" so you an enter your MOUL username and password (currently only used to fetch avatars, so it's safe to use your regular account - it can't corrupt your saves at all. I do all my testing with my main account, and even my main avatar currently).

PlasmaClient.exe launched on its own won't work, because it expects the username and password to be passed to it by PCLauncher.exe.

Also, if you have a typo in your username or password, it won't re-show the launcher to let you fix them - this will be fixed in the next release.

If you're using PCLauncher and it still closes right away, any information about your system will be helpful, especially about your graphics card.

IanWatson · **Posted:** Tue Oct 05, 2010 4:26 am

PaladinOfKaos wrote:

If you're using PCLauncher and it still closes right away, any information about your system will be helpful, especially about your graphics card.

I'm using PCLauncher; I'm asked for my username and password, I click login, and the window disappears. And that's it. Nothing else happens as far as I can tell.

Currently using an ASUS EAH3450, 512 MB, set to 1680x1050.

PaladinOfKaos · **Joined:** Thu Aug 03, 2006 10:55 pm **Posts:** 625

IanWatson wrote:

I'm using PCLauncher; I'm asked for my username and password, I click login, and the window disappears. And that's it. Nothing else happens as far as I can tell.

Currently using an ASUS EAH3450, 512 MB, set to 1680x1050.

That card should work fine, but please double-check that you have the latest drivers just in case.

Just to make sure everything installed correctly, does your PlasmaClient installation directory look like this?
[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

Beyond that, you can try grabbing depends.exe, which will tell you if you're missing any DLLs that it needs- it's always possible that I made a mistake when I tried to sort out the dependencies and bundle them all.

If none of that is out of the ordinary, I can give you an updated file that will log debugging information to a text file for me, and I can try and figure out what's going on.

EDIT: one other thing that *might* make a difference is your Windows version - it should work fine on 32- and 64-bit XP, Vista, and 7, but obviously I'm only able to personally test on a subset of those. I have no idea if it will work on Windows 2000, and it actually might not - my build targets XP and newer.

Lontahv · **Joined:** Sat Apr 14, 2007 9:51 pm **Posts:** 265

IanWatson, your problem could be login related. You have to be very careful about having your email in the right case (meaning that [email protected] won't work if you made your account with [email protected]), it will refuse an email/login because of that. I think the MOUL login is more forgiving.

IanWatson · **Posted:** Wed Oct 06, 2010 12:22 am

PaladinOfKaos wrote:

Just to make sure everything installed correctly, does your PlasmaClient installation directory look like this?

Indeed it does.

Quote:

Beyond that, you can try grabbing depends.exe, which will tell you if you're missing any DLLs that it needs- it's always possible that I made a mistake when I tried to sort out the dependencies and bundle them all.

It's spitting out an error looking for ieshims.dll and wer.dll, both of which are from Vista onwards and not typically found in XP. I'm not sure if this is something PlasmaClient itself needs or if it's just "standard" stuff Dependency Walker looks for regardless of the program.

I'll see if I can grab copies and will report back.

Quote:

EDIT: one other thing that *might* make a difference is your Windows version - it should work fine on 32- and 64-bit XP, Vista, and 7, but obviously I'm only able to personally test on a subset of those. I have no idea if it will work on Windows 2000, and it actually might not - my build targets XP and newer.

Mine's Win XP SP2, 32-bit. I'd try it on my Win7 laptop, but that would mean installing Uru Live files there too.

Quote:

IanWatson, your problem could be login related. You have to be very careful about having your email in the right case (meaning that [email protected] won't work if you made your account with [email protected]), it will refuse an email/login because of that. I think the MOUL login is more forgiving.

I've been on the Intertubes since 1996, and I don't think I've ever typed in anyone's email address with capital letters. Certainly none of mine. Good thought, though.

I... oh.

I just logged in. I tried ten minutes ago, failure. I try now, success.

Weird.

PaladinOfKaos · **Joined:** Thu Aug 03, 2006 10:55 pm **Posts:** 625

IanWatson wrote:

I... oh.

I just logged in. I tried ten minutes ago, failure. I try now, success.

Weird.

Weird indeed. For now I'll add it to the very long list of "problems I don't know the cause of", but since it's working at this point I'm not going to put much thought into it for now - I'm planning on re-writing all the networking code anyway.

IanWatson · **Posted:** Thu Oct 07, 2010 12:15 am

Thought people might be interested to see some screenshots...

[spoiler=Relto]

[/spoiler]

Interestingly, it looks like PlasmaClient is currently showing all states of an object. Notice that the pine trees dotting the island are overlapping the autumn maple trees, and it looks like every single size for the Big Tree is super-imposed on each other.

No donuts.

The butterflies are floating in mid-air, not flying anywhere... it's fascinating to be able to move through them, like they're frozen in time. I know it's a bug, but I'm enjoying it for the moment.

[spoiler=Cleft]

[/spoiler]

Same deal here. Two signs, two fences, two gates, two suns. I feel like I'm in the northern wastes of Tattooine. I'm not sure if the duplicates are from the rainy Cleft or if they're leftover disused copies from Uru Prime. Either way, fun stuff.

[spoiler=ErCana]

[/spoiler]

Some texturing needs to be tidied up and the gates added on the pipes, but this is otherwise looking fabulous already.

Most other Ages were crashing me out; I'll try again later and see if I can't get more screens.

PaladinOfKaos · **Joined:** Thu Aug 03, 2006 10:55 pm **Posts:** 625

The duplicate entries are a result of the lack of proper python/SDL support - most world objects are enabled by default, and the python will disable whatever it thinks should be disabled. The donuts used to show up, but I got enough python working that they're disabled by the age code at this point.

Ercana looks even better in my current development version, but I broke Relto graphically. If I can fix what I broke, the drawing code will actually be fairly accurate to Cyan's, if quite a bit slower at this point.

Andrew Eldred · **Posted:** Fri Oct 08, 2010 1:58 am

I'm gonna really jump the gun here and tell you all what I'm most excited about:

If I understand this right, we've nearly enough knowledge to build a working Plasma client! Once we have that know-how, we could program a Plasma client for other platforms... you know, assuming we're good enough to get it running.

Basically, can we get a Plasma client running Uru on an iPad sooner than later? Please?

Thanks.

P.S. In before "it's impossible": check out Epic Citadel.

Lars Nordstrom · **Joined:** Thu May 14, 2009 8:35 pm **Posts:** 59

Andrew Eldred wrote:

I'm gonna really jump the gun here and tell you all what I'm most excited about:

If I understand this right, we've nearly enough knowledge to build a working Plasma client!

No, you did not jump the gun, you jumped the previous seven pages. Who is "we"? Do you mean Paladin and anyone else who works on this? Why do I feel that this doesn't actually include yourself?

Andrew Eldred wrote:

Basically, can we get a Plasma client running Uru on an iPad sooner than later? Please?

Whom are you asking this of? Who is "we" here? Don't you mean "I"? I hate pronouns as much as the next guy, but please use them in a way that makes it clear whom you talking about.

PaladinOfKaos · **Joined:** Thu Aug 03, 2006 10:55 pm **Posts:** 625

Because of the licenses that various components I use are under, and the license of PlasmaClient itself*, an App Store release will never happen. A build that works on jailbroken devices might, if someone with the knowledge is interested in porting things. Maybe for Android, or another mobile OS that allows users to redistribute executables and install their own apps, but not on iOS.

* While I could relicense my own code, I'm not the only contributor to PlasmaCilent, so at this point the license is pretty much set in stone, unless I bother everyone else who has contributed code and see if they're Ok with a different license - and they would of course be free to decline.

Lars Nordstrom · **Joined:** Thu May 14, 2009 8:35 pm **Posts:** 59

Well, certain components probably wouldn't work on iOS regardless of licensing issues. Of course, there's nothing stopping anyone from trying to write an iOS Uru client from scratch, just not a version of PlasmaClient. They guy(s) who ported "Cube" to iOS had to write an entirely new engine to get it to work and was not even allowed to connect existing servers (not Apple's fault though, just how license worked). Even if they get through the technical limbo sticks, I'd really doubt Apple would approve it unless it's published by Cyan.

PaladinOfKaos · **Joined:** Thu Aug 03, 2006 10:55 pm **Posts:** 625

Yeah, exactly. If someone wanted to, they could write a whole new client from scratch. Speaking as someone who had a chunk of the work done already (basic plasma networking and data file reading already had libraries), re-implementing Plasma is a *very* complex operation.

Lars Nordstrom · **Joined:** Thu May 14, 2009 8:35 pm **Posts:** 59

So I decided to give PlasmaClient via MacPorts a go. All the installs went fine, but when I launched PlasmaClient I got the message "PlasmaClient needs the Myst Online: URU LIve again game data files. Install the 'mystonline-cider' port and run the application to let it download all the game data. Then com back to PlasmaClient." Well, I already have the Cider MOULa and running it coming back to PlasmaClient doesn't change anything. Do I need to move certain package contents from Myst Online to PlasmaClient? Or is there something else I need to do?

Paradox · **Posted:** Sat Oct 09, 2010 9:31 pm

PlasmaClient (and its files) should either be in the same folder as your MOUL installation; or you need to copy the MOUL dat folder to PlasmaClient's install location.

It can only load the files if it can find them

Introducing: PlasmaClient!

Who is online