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Program Announcements / EZ_Serv is now FREE! - Multiplayer Server for DBP just went freeware...

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CattleRustler
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Posted: 7th Aug 2005 00:12 Edited at: 8th Aug 2005 03:12
yes, free - and introducing the latest version, 1.5

I have decided to release EZ_Serv as a free application. All versions from here on out (1.5 and beyond) are completely free to use and distro as you please. I am hoping to gain feedback and further develop (revamp if necessary) this application to fit all of your multiplayer/multiuser needs.

If you have never heard of, or have never used EZ_Serv:
Please visit http://www.mod2software.com/dbp/dbp.htm where you can link to the EZ_Serv home page, but also, while you're there, take a look at the other free offerings for DBP which include plugins for Databasing and TCPIP communications, as well as links to other peoples works, such as Exeat's Winsock Plugin and Wendigo's EZS-VB6 class.

*Note: Wendigo's VB6 EZS package on my web page needs to be updated to reflect the changes to the ezs protocol. The current version was written around the ezs protocol stubs which contained "qs_" prefixes. These prefixes have been removed, thusly breaking any parser code that expects them - like in the VB6 code. If you decide to download the vb6 package before it has been updated, you will need to change the constants/code before use. Read the section below regarding protocol stubs for more detail.

Current EZ_Serv users, a few things have changed:
First let me say that the core inner workings of ezs have not changed between 1.5 and earlier versions like 1.4, but some naming conventions and the like have changed, including the EZS Protocol. All of the ezs protocol messages now do not include the "QS_" prefix. QS comes from the original app name "QuickServer" which I had to change just after 1.0 was released (my fault). Ever since then I have preserved this "qs_" naming convention throughout the protocol, as well as throughout my code - no more. Every reference to qs_ has been removed, including subdirectory names, file extensions, and protocol stubs. You can install version 1.5 and still maintain your older version's install and integrity by simply installing the newer version in a different directory when prompted. The installer will want to overwrite your "C:program filesez_serv" directory during the install, simply change the ez_serv bit to something else and you can run and examine the differences in both versions on the same pc. Below is a list of the noteable changes effecting end users

- Profile files .qsp files are now .ezsp files
- QSLogfiles subdir is now EZS_Logfiles
- QSProfiles subdir is now EZS_Profiles
- ALL protocol stubs have dropped the "QS_" prefix. Under 1.5 you will need to update your code to look for the same protocol stubs minus the QS_ prefix. Example "QS_PING" messages now arrive as "PING", "QS_CL_EXIT" now arrives as "CL_EXIT" etc etc. Luckily there are not too many protocol messages to change, and a simple FIND/Step replace should due nicely. Sorry to have done this but the QS bit was bugging me. Look on the bright side, we save 3 bytes per message in the bandwidth usage

Well, thats all at the moment. All feedback is welcome and appreciated.

Links
EZ_Serv Home: http://www.mod2software.com/ezs/ez_serv.htm
EZ_Serv Docs: http://www.mod2software.com/EZS/EZ_Serv_UG.htm
My DBP Page: http://www.mod2software.com/dbp/dbp.htm

Dot Merix
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Posted: 7th Aug 2005 01:16
Wicked



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Frozen Flame
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Posted: 7th Aug 2005 02:36


Thats very nice CR
Thanks.


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Oneka
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Posted: 7th Aug 2005 04:40
yay......but noooo I mean yeah x_x;

Making better games everday!
Oh yeah and just so you know its Oh-nek-a not One-ka!
Lost in Thought
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Posted: 7th Aug 2005 10:11
Awesome I was going to buy it eventually. Can you put up a donations link in case I ever get the money?

Darkbasic MADPSP
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Posted: 7th Aug 2005 13:20 Edited at: 7th Aug 2005 13:23
looks great but can you use it in dbpro if you want to create net games? e.g something like the halo multiplayer?

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Mikey P
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Posted: 7th Aug 2005 18:15
Heh, Cattle, here's the idea you wanted me to post up:

Like giving the Server the feature to process stuff, like for some games, positions of items dropped by users, or NPCs. It'd be really easy to do, just allow the person to make his own protocol commands, so that when the client sends the command to the server, it executes the person's script [Lua maybe? There's a .NET Lua thing somewhere, LuaScript I think...] and allows the script to keep server/zone-wide variables or something... Not sure if I'm making sense, but it works in my head

CattleRustler
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Posted: 7th Aug 2005 18:49
Thanks Mikey.
LOL L.I.T.

Quote: "looks great but can you use it in dbpro if you want to create net games? e.g something like the halo multiplayer?"

EZ_Serv is an alternative to using dbp's built in multiplayer stuff. Moggie100 and I are throwing together a multiplayer game as an open source demo for EZS, and a couple of other things.

I will edit the DBP Tutorials and repost them today.

There are a few mplayer games in development using ezs, maybe those guys could post some screenies and some info to give people reading this thread an idea of what ezs is capable of.

DBP Plugins | EZ_Serv 1.5 EZ_Serv is now free! Check it out.
CattleRustler
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Posted: 7th Aug 2005 22:35 Edited at: 7th Aug 2005 23:24
The previous tutorials have been removed from my page. I have found a few problems in the cr_strings.dba, and the ezs.dba files. I have corrected them and made sure all the protocol constants have been updated to the new ezs protocol. If you have downloaded the older tutorials 1 & 2 i would delete them and download the newer single tutorial. The new tutorial starts from old tutorial 2. Old tutorial 1 was pointless anyway I will be posting the new tutorial shortly. Use my sig link to go there.

EDIT: New tutorial project posted

DBP Plugins | EZ_Serv 1.5 EZ_Serv is now free! Check it out.
Zero Blitzt
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Posted: 7th Aug 2005 23:38
If I wasn't in Linux right now, and if I could get WINE to work, I'd make something with it


Who are the brain police?
CattleRustler
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Posted: 8th Aug 2005 00:03
MrTus
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Posted: 8th Aug 2005 00:55
Awesome. I'll have to give this a try then ^_^
The admiral
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Posted: 9th Aug 2005 09:30
Thats a very generous thing to do thank you very much.

The admiral
jrowe
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Posted: 9th Aug 2005 12:07 Edited at: 9th Aug 2005 14:58
Thank you CR, big contribution to the community.

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CattleRustler
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Posted: 9th Aug 2005 13:54
thanks, i'd rather make a good proggie than make a buck form it. hopefully some of you can give it a go and post some suggestions.

Darkbasic MADPSP
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Posted: 9th Aug 2005 19:32
so do i add this as a seperate exe on dbpro?

See you at the convention!
CattleRustler
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Posted: 9th Aug 2005 21:55
no. EZS doesnt run out of dbp. Its its own server application that you can run locally or on a dedicated machine. Ezs handles all of the server-based stuff for you, so you can concentrate on making a dbp game/client. DBP hogs the system as it is, why anyone would want it to be a server too is beyond me but thats only mho.

Dom
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Posted: 9th Aug 2005 23:55
Nice, I looked at this not too long ago, thought it might be useful but I couldnt pay for it so Im donwloading just incase i ever need to use it Thank you very much CR

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Formerly Saberdude --DFStudios--
CattleRustler
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Posted: 11th Aug 2005 03:05
MikeS
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Posted: 11th Aug 2005 05:05
This is great news CR! Now I have no excuse not to use this for my multiplayer needs. Will download and give it a go first thing this weekend. This is definitly worth a mention in the newsletter, so talk to rich.



A book? I hate book. Book is stupid.
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CattleRustler
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Posted: 11th Aug 2005 14:37
Thanks mike.

Upcoming additions(no particular order):
-configurable zone MOTD's
-CL_JOIN, CL_EXIT, CL_LIST per zone
-the server persisted lists like Mikey P mentioned above
-ability for server to not convert all mesages to string. this would allow the passing of any data thru the server including things like memblocks and files.

post suggestions here

Dot Merix
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Posted: 13th Aug 2005 00:01
This should be stickied i think.



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CattleRustler
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Posted: 13th Aug 2005 05:13
thanks
I cant sticky my own thread, morally.

If some other mod sees fit, they will

Ace Of Spades
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Posted: 13th Aug 2005 08:14
Will this always be free now, 100%? Or should I grab it now and hope not to lose it?

CattleRustler
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Posted: 13th Aug 2005 20:28
always free - 100%

SageTech
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Posted: 14th Aug 2005 03:37
Woohoo, me loves this, had an eye out for it for a while ago but just didnt have money, but now its free, thanks, this will be quite usefull for my new project(Not mayor, as you rember it went bad and not another 1337 MMORPG). Thanks a bunch.

If you're so smart, why are you reading my post?
CattleRustler
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Posted: 14th Aug 2005 07:02
Jess T
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Posted: 14th Aug 2005 07:35
Nice work, CR

Shall be a great contribution to the community - Thanks.

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Want Better dbHelp Files?
Darkbasic MADPSP
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Posted: 16th Aug 2005 14:33
I'm confused now
How if i wanted to use this in my own games like gtracer would i use this because it might go public one day or would i have to use dbpros built in stuff?

Love games go to http://www.freewebs.com/halorc
or
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Dot Merix
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Posted: 17th Aug 2005 20:28
...What? Specify more clearly what the problem is or question is.



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Alkaline
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Posted: 18th Aug 2005 11:53
umm im totally confused on how this works or how to use this...even when i try to run the dbpro examples i get and error on ever one. For an example when i try to run ezs.dba i get an error at line 38 which is ws_connect Host, port.???? please help me understand this

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CattleRustler
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Posted: 18th Aug 2005 15:53 Edited at: 18th Aug 2005 15:54
some people have said the dbp example wont compile, etc. First make sure DBP is 5.8 and that you have ALSO downloaded Exeat's winsock plugin from my page. There are 2 there, the older is the one I used for this demo. People have reported bugs with the newer one, but both should work. Put the winsock plugin in your plugins-user directory under your DBP install folders.

Aside form that youll need EZS 1.5 (free download) and the .NET framework 1.1 on the machine that will run the EZS app.

Once all that is in place I can help you with dbp coding for ezs multiplayer.

Dot Merix
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Posted: 18th Aug 2005 23:21
I'm having some problems aswell actually..

I downloaded Exeats winsock plugin and it's in my plugin directory for darkbasic.. Just in case, i also tried it inside the same directory as the darkbasic project file..

The error i'm receiving is "Cannot perform 'string' cast on type 'FS@cr_Split@_' at line 205



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CattleRustler
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Posted: 19th Aug 2005 03:43
post the code that causes the error.

there may be another bug in my split func, but I have tested with many conditions and its ok here. You dont need to use that splitter or any of the tutorial code really, you could write or use whatever to get the job done - my stuff is an example really but aside from that it should be working...

Dot Merix
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Posted: 19th Aug 2005 06:09
I dont suppose you could throw a small tutorial... or maybe just a project file together that explains how to connect and handle multiple connections to EZ_Serv and distribution of data to each client connected in a project as simple as possible...

Maybe just a simple chat client that can connect and talk to others connected to the EZ_Serv program.



WindowsXP Home(Service pack 2), Athlon XP 2400+(2.1Ghz), 1GIG Ram, Ati Radeon 9800Pro 128MB.
Darkbasic MADPSP
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Posted: 19th Aug 2005 11:07
he asked you to post the code what i meant is this copyright protected d do i install a seprate exe into my game?

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Dot Merix
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Posted: 19th Aug 2005 21:41 Edited at: 19th Aug 2005 21:42
I know what he asked me.

EZ_Serv is a standalone application.. You'll have to set a computer up as the server, and run EZ_Serv on that computer and get all of your clients(You'll have to make the clients) to connect to it.



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CattleRustler
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Posted: 19th Aug 2005 22:54
Right but theres no problem running EZS on a pc and having a client running on that same pc. DBMad, theres no restriction on the EZS app so you can share it or whatever but remember, if youre coding a client you only need one server running somewhere, not a copy of ezs distributed with each copy of the client.

Merix I'll see what I can do - are you using the latest tut thats up there? That tutorial is not far from being a simple chat app as it is. Just needs to display user list and text messages, and provide a message entry routine.

Darkbasic MADPSP
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Posted: 19th Aug 2005 22:57
thanks would it be okay then if i made a game and put ez serv on each disk so that the multiplayer will work all the time?

Love games go to http://www.freewebs.com/halorc
or
http://www.freewebs.com/gamersmad
Dot Merix
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Posted: 20th Aug 2005 01:43 Edited at: 20th Aug 2005 01:43
I was indeed using the latest tutorial..

EZS_Comms



EZS


cr_strings




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CattleRustler
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Posted: 20th Aug 2005 01:44
sure, as long as EZS is redistributed without modification

Dot Merix
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Posted: 20th Aug 2005 01:49
Just in case you missed from the last page Cattle, i posted the code.. I know you asked for it, it's the last post of the last page

Thanks alot for the help.

I am using V5.8 of Darkbasic PRO by the way.



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CattleRustler
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Posted: 20th Aug 2005 16:38
Merix, yeah that seems to be the correct code and its working here, not sure why its blowing up for you. Are you using the ezs profile supplied in the tutorial download? Theres a file there explaining where to copy the profile files.

if you have an IRC client connect to PETE.DEVHAT.NET on port 6667, and join #darkbasic. I'm usually in there, and am in there now. Maybe we can figure out whats wrong - CR

FXTC
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Posted: 20th Aug 2005 22:28
thanks

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Moggie100
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Posted: 21st Aug 2005 01:29 Edited at: 9th Sep 2005 01:26
Hi people,

Just for those people who wanted a demo program of sorts, here ya go. Just a simple chat program really, nothing special, (not even a userlist : ) and will run on a blank EZS profile.

Just load EZS and create a new profile, call it "chat demo" or something and make sure the port is set to '9999' in the options, then just start the server (file-->start) and open the chat app.

If you're running the server and client on the same pc, then you can use IP: 127.0.0.1 but over the internet - it would be your internet IP.

NOTE #1: If you are using a router, you'll need to allow access to your PC via port 9999, otherwise people connecting via the internet will get stopped by the router's hardware firewall...

NOTE #2: Any firewalls running on your PC may have to give the EZS app and the Chat app permission to connect to the internet

NOTE #3: THIS REQUIRES EXEAT'S PLUGIN! - you have been warned!


On a totally different subject, the commands that are bringing up the errors in the example on CR's site seem to be to do with CR's netlib, make sure you have .net 1.1 installed, and that the "dbp netlib" is installed also http://www.mod2software.com/DBP/DBP.htm

Anyway, I've tried to comment the code, but i'm not very good with comments, so just ask me here if you have any probs with it.
Oh, and my code doesnt need the dbp netlib, if you were wondering, just Exeat's plugin.

Code's in the CODE button!
Dot Merix
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Posted: 22nd Aug 2005 09:44
Welll... I tried it with a couple of cpu's and my main one as the server with your code Moogie.

When i wrote text or used emote.. Or even entered or left the program.. i couldnt get one single piece of text to the other client... I wonder what's wrong.



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CattleRustler
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Posted: 22nd Aug 2005 16:17
thats right moggie!!
stupid netlib - if you dont have netlib remove the code associated with it, I thought I remmed it all out. oh well, sorry.

This code should compile for all now.



Moggie100
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Posted: 22nd Aug 2005 17:13
Merix - Have you tried running the server on the same computer as the client app, then checking the 'verbose' checkbox near the EZS "console" window and sending a few messages?

If its working, the text should show up in the bottom of the EZS window.
Dot Merix
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Posted: 22nd Aug 2005 21:27
Well...

What i'm doing is, i have my server on this computer.. and i also run a client on the same one, then i have another computer i run the client on.

On the EZ_SERV application, it shows two connections but there doesnt seem to be any communication in between the clients.
It does the PM New connection thing.. which means that it's connected.. In the client it shows what i assume is a ping rate.. or FPS?



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Moggie100
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Posted: 23rd Aug 2005 02:29 Edited at: 23rd Aug 2005 03:12
Ok, I just tried my own code, and it seems to have buggered up at someplace...

Gimme a bit to try and fix it...



Damn... that'll teach me not to do final tests...

[EDIT]

Fixed! Damn that was stupid, sorry people, i made a n00bish mistake, I used the parser function from another program, which used commas for delimination, but EZS uses the percentage sign "%" by default, so it was messing up, plus now you need to set the server settings a lil bit...

Listener port = 9999
Pings enabled = NO
Protocal Pass Through = YES
PPT Deliminator = "%"

Leave all the rest as blank

ANYWAY, its fixed now, and the code is below

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