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Work in Progress / TGC Desktop - The Game Creaters brought to your Desktop

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Xenocythe
19
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Joined: 26th May 2005
Location: You Essay.
Posted: 27th Jan 2009 02:59 Edited at: 27th Jan 2009 03:02
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Hey everyone

This is TGC Desktop.



As you can see, it resides peacefully on the desktop.


Drag it around by clicking and holding the little title bar.




You can view a full analogue and digital clock of the current time on your PC, along with the complete date.




These are the icon links. The top row is specifically for those TGC products. The bottom row is for any personal preference of icon links that you can specify for the different applications you use on a daily basis. When you click on an icon link, it will launch the program with the path specified. The first time you click on it, a dialog opens up so you can specify the file path of the program. There is also a little speech bubble that pops up to tell you the file EXE name of the TGC programs or the personal preferences, so you know what you're opening, or haven't specified.




These are the web links. Click on one of the buttons to launch the website. The first time you click on a web link, you can specify the file path for the web browser you would like to open the websites with. (You may offer ideas for more web links, or pay me $20 to put your own website on there! )



Turn the application off with a simple press of the 'escape' button.






Wa-la!
----------------
!Download here!

----------------


It's an installer file, because eventually I'm going to find out how to provide an option for TGC desktop to start up with your computer, and even minimize to the system tray. (Any suggestions for this would be great) Bare with me! Installation is easy, hehe.



Enjoy!

Thanks,
Xenocythe
XenMedia


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Dragon Knight
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Joined: 10th Jan 2007
Location: Newcastle
Posted: 27th Jan 2009 04:37 Edited at: 27th Jan 2009 04:41
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You seem like your wanting to make money in your own way making software. Here's an idea for you:

Make software that automatically starts at system start up, that links straight to new hot game news, e.g. also adding in TGC newsletter, so when ever a new one is released it comes up immediately. Other wise your just re-making quick links. As you already know you can make money by others advertising using your software.

This sort of software could be easily made in Visual Basic 6.0 within minutes but not a bad business idea your just thinking too small.

Look at steam

My personal Idea:
Create software just like steam BUT specializing in freeware games. Perhaps two ways of choosing games Freeware/Shareware. As what I've noticed about steam is they're mostly based on selling games not advertising.

Problems: Hosting files, Bandwidth issues.
Positives: I wouldn't mind helping making a thing like that.


http://www.hybridwolves.co.uk
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Xenocythe
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Joined: 26th May 2005
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Posted: 27th Jan 2009 04:58
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@Dragon,
Thanks! But... this is a free application

I have no intention to ever sell it, or sell software really... I have no idea how you got that idea (There's a download link at the bottom of the post)


Thanks for the newsletter idea, and the other suggestions, I'll definitely consider them!


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Roxas
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Location: http://forum.thegamecreators.com
Posted: 27th Jan 2009 21:15
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I wonder where you did get the idea from

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Xenocythe
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Posted: 27th Jan 2009 23:47
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I got the idea from you, remember i showed you this on MSN a while ago?


Well, I'm guessing you guys really hate the idea of an installer. Is that what's bugging everybody?

Because there's 120+ views, and 2 posts besides mine


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Aaron Miller
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Playing: osu!
Posted: 28th Jan 2009 00:44
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Quote: "I'm going to find out how to provide an option for TGC desktop to start up with your computer, and even minimize to the system tray."

I believe Goga's plugin has a 'minimize to tray' command, not sure. As for starting up with the computer you can do one of two things -- create a shortcut in the startup menu. OR alter a registry entry. I forget which one though. Anyways, good luck.

Cheers,

-naota

I'm not a dictator to those that do stuff for me by will. Only those who don't.
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Xenocythe
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Posted: 28th Jan 2009 01:20
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Thanks very much for that info!

Hmmm, there's probably a plugin out there that can alter the registry, but I don't think DBPro lets you do it straight from the DBPro commands. I'll talk to Goga' about the tray command.


Thanks Aaron,
Xenocythe
XenMedia


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Oolite
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Posted: 28th Jan 2009 01:52
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I did something like this a while ago but for my own personal use. It minimized to the system tray and i could customize it to open my frequently used applications and recent documents.
Think of this thing like steam for TGC. To be of any use to anyone it needs to be updated daily with content from the forums or otherwise its just an extra application thats running just to open a shortcut you could have on your desktop.

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Xenocythe
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Posted: 28th Jan 2009 02:43
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That's a very good point Oolite. I'll think of what to do.

Thanks,
Xenocythe


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Roxas
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Posted: 28th Jan 2009 13:38
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I had plugin too for TGC Start that minimized to tray, i dont remember it name tho.. Also it was heavily customizable. You can alter whole registery by simple doing .reg file and executing it or something like that if i remember right :/

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Sven B
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Posted: 28th Jan 2009 18:13
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Quote: "Well, I'm guessing you guys really hate the idea of an installer. Is that what's bugging everybody?"


Actually I'm not downloading it for various reasons.
1) When I go to the TGC website or forum I use a different browser than my standard browser.
2) All the icons I use, are all desktop shortcuts.
3) I don't know if this applies to your program (it only does if you use sync), but DBP tends to use a lot of CPU.
4) It looks a bit... big

But the design looks good...

It's the programmer's life:
Have a problem, solve the problem, and have a new problem to solve.
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AndrewT
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Posted: 28th Jan 2009 20:28
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Quote: "Hmmm, there's probably a plugin out there that can alter the registry, but I don't think DBPro lets you do it straight from the DBPro commands."


I know DBP has a Write To Registry command, but I'm not sure if it works perfectly or how to use it as I've never tried.

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Diggsey
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Posted: 28th Jan 2009 20:45
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I think this would be better if it was made in something a bit lighter, such as vb, because I don't particularly want a DBPro program permanently running!

[b]Yuor signutare was aresed by a deslyxic mud...
BOX2D V2 HAS HELP FILES! AND A WIKI!
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Oolite
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Posted: 28th Jan 2009 22:19
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If you want i'll knock up a quick design for you, just to get rid of the round buttons and make it a little more streamline. Got some illustrator work in so i need to brush up my skills a little.

A few little things i did was have it sleep when it was minimized in the system tray. When you rightclick it opens up a little menu which wakes it up and has options for recent documents, recent applications, quit and obviously to open the actual application.
I also made mine minimize to the system tray when i opened an application, although this could have been done in settings (which i had none of, just an ini file.)

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Monk
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Location: Standing in the snow =D
Posted: 28th Jan 2009 22:20
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I like the design, but a close button would be good (for those rare occasions) or a button which makes it about half size but leaves the clock. I just think that it takes up a little space, but thats not necessarily bad
A few ideas;
- If possible, it would be better if it could link to any type of file (ie media playlist, or text file) because I often use those as much as .exe
- When you add a link, it auto loads the icon for that link, instead of being left as a question mark. Its a small feature but one that makes it easier to recognise links.

Nice little tool though, Keep up the work! And Ill keep using it!

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Aaron Miller
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Playing: osu!
Posted: 29th Jan 2009 03:03
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Quote: "Hmmm, there's probably a plugin out there that can alter the registry, but I don't think DBPro lets you do it straight from the DBPro commands."

DBPro has commands for this. I believe it's under the INPUT section, not entirely sure.

BTW, Xeno, if you want I can whip up some DBPro native code to put a menubar and some menus on the actual desktop, if you'd be interested in this sort of thing? I'm actually going to make a very simple program for this in C and sell it for about $5 to the general public over the interwebs. So, if you want that ability, or perhaps a plugin for that, let me know since I'm already working on it.

Cheers,

-naota

I'm not a dictator to those that do stuff for me by will. Only those who don't.
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Diggsey
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Posted: 30th Jan 2009 01:01 Edited at: 30th Jan 2009 01:02
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I decided to try to make one in vb.net, hope you don't mind



[b]Yuor signutare was aresed by a deslyxic mud...
BOX2D V2 HAS HELP FILES! AND A WIKI!

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Sven B
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Posted: 30th Jan 2009 11:21
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Mhm...

No offence Diggsey, but I liked Xenoscythe's design more

It's the programmer's life:
Have a problem, solve the problem, and have a new problem to solve.
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Monk
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Posted: 30th Jan 2009 17:24
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True, but it looks promising...!

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Roxas
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Posted: 30th Jan 2009 17:34
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DirectX9 App on desktop = Overkill, so i prefer Diggsey

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Diggsey
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Posted: 31st Jan 2009 00:02 Edited at: 31st Jan 2009 00:09
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Well, I've finished mine

Not really much point making a whole thread about it, so message me on msn or something if you have something to say

edit:
Short-cut keys:
Ctrl+Alt+Keypad 0 to hide/show
Ctrl+Alt+Keypad 1-6 to run quick launch programs
Click taskbar icon to bring to front
Double-Click taskbar icon to hide/show

[b]Yuor signutare was aresed by a deslyxic mud...
BOX2D V2 HAS HELP FILES! AND A WIKI!

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feiting shadow
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Posted: 31st Jan 2009 03:36
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I find it redundant to use xeno's icons when my desktop has DBPro and its tools... Diggsey's design seems less invasive and more usable, However: Does it have codebase search? That at my fingertips would probably make me use it... seems like it would go really well inside CodeSurge IDE too, which I recently started using, and love

Signed
------
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Diggsey
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Posted: 31st Jan 2009 13:58
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You can search the codebase by adding http://developer.thegamecreators.com/ to the site list

[b]Yuor signutare was aresed by a deslyxic mud...
BOX2D V2 HAS HELP FILES! AND A WIKI!
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Roxas
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Posted: 31st Jan 2009 17:01
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Diggsey, you should add scancodes to your program. It was probably main reason i made my app far back then.

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