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GOURANGA! Forums > Editing > General > GTA2 multiplayer game finder
Post 1 | New
Sektor
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  • Joined: Feb '03
  • Posts: 288
GTA2 Game Hunter

GTA2 Game Hunter (GH) is an application designed to simplify the process of finding, hosting and joining GTA2 multiplayer games.  GTA2 already has multiplayer but it doesn't have a lobby for finding opponents and you have to manually enter IP addresses.  GH adds a lobby, manages IP addresses and launches GTA2 in network mode.  The lobby makes it easier to see what country your opponents are in and their ping, so you can try to find someone close to you.

You need a ping of under 100ms to play GTA2 multiplayer at decent speed.  This means all players need broadband and you can't play against people on the other side of the world.

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Stealing cars is the easy part
Post 2 | New
Delfi
Programmer

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  • Joined: Feb '03
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ACE JOB!
 
btw, if i get broadband this summer can i beat you in gta2 multiplayer? :P

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www.mathpudding.com
Post 3 | New
Sektor
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It will still be slow unless you come to Australia and even then you wouldn't be able to win.  We can try anyway if you really want to.

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Stealing cars is the easy part
Post 4 | New
Cerbera
Ben 'Cerbera' Millard

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  • Joined: Feb '03
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Yeah, I just connected to it and it's a good chat client even if you don't want to use it to play GTA2! smilewinkgrin

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My Grand Theft Auto Handling Editor
My GTA Tutorials
http://projectcerbera.com/button.png
Post 5 | New
Sektor
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  • Joined: Feb '03
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GTA2 Game Hunter v1.1 released
- GTA2 Manager can now be launched from GH
- Hosting time now expires after 5 minutes, previously 3 minutes
- Exploding scores is no longer forced off
- GTA2 folder can now be typed/pasted
- You won't see this message anymore "You need to close GTA2 before you can join a new game"
- Create button on GTA2 Network screen is now automatically clicked when you host ( most of the time )
- GH should now be able to find the GTA2 Network window even if GTA2 is not set to english
- The IP address 0.* is no longer considered an external IP
- Changed router detection message
- The host is now sent a message when a player tries to join their game
- Fixed a bug that sometimes causes GH to crash when you close it. Only happened if GTA2 folder was set to nothing.
- Error checking has been improved

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Stealing cars is the easy part
Post 6 | New
Cerbera
Ben 'Cerbera' Millard

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  • Joined: Feb '03
  • Posts: 1,800
Use proper lists you lazy bugger!
Code:
<ul>
 <li>look its a list item</li>
 <li>yeah, and its in an unordered list container</li>
 <li>bloody simply, isn't it?</li>
</ul>
Board code is similar, except you use [ list type=disc] and every new line is automatically made a new list item.
  • look its a list item
  • yeah, and its in an unordered list container
  • bloody simply, isn't it?


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My Grand Theft Auto Handling Editor
My GTA Tutorials
http://projectcerbera.com/button.png
Post 7 | New
2na
Beans, eating it!

  • Joined: Feb '03
  • Posts: -97,249
It takes less effort to do "-" rather then a "<li></li>" and does it realy matter? It's still a list init.

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I hope you like me and I fit in with your life.
Post 8 | New
Sektor
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  • Joined: Feb '03
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v1.2

..!.. Optional timestamp added to messages
..!.. Option to disable annoying keys is back and hopefully fixed
..!.. Moved game list from the left, to the top of chat
..!.. Changed some fonts to fixedsys and increased game column width
..!.. GH will no longer exit if it can't find GTA2 Manager.exe
..!.. reason for kick is now displayed
..!.. Improved error checking

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Stealing cars is the easy part
Post 9 | New
Delfi
Programmer

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nice!! now i need adsl fast to kick some gta2 netplay smile smile

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www.mathpudding.com
Post 10 | New
Sektor
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  • Joined: Feb '03
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There's no honour in fragging newbies but it makes for some good screenshots

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Stealing cars is the easy part
Post 11 | New
-LoKi-
. doppelgänger

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  • Joined: Feb '03
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i'll grab gta2 off the rockstar website next time i'm at home...  then i'll give it a go...

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http://www.boomspeed.com/egraphics/plw81.gif
Post 12 | New
Forelli_Boy
Mitsubishounen

  • Joined: Feb '03
  • Posts: 387
*downloads*  biggrin 

7:59:47 AM - > Connected to GTA2 Game Hunter server.
7:59:47 AM - Logging in...
7:59:48 AM - Unable to send data.
7:59:48 AM - * Disconnected *

 angry

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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v340/Forelli_Boy/GTAWBanner.jpg
Post 13 | New
Sektor
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I'm not sure why that happened.  There are people logged in now, so the server is working for them.  You would get a more descriptive error message if the server was down.  In the next version I will make it display a better error message, so I can have some idea what the problem is.

What username were you using?  Try something with just A-Z characters.

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Stealing cars is the easy part
Post 14 | New
Forelli_Boy
Mitsubishounen

  • Joined: Feb '03
  • Posts: 387
it was probably because i was using college wireless, or it was the first connection. >_>;

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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v340/Forelli_Boy/GTAWBanner.jpg
Post 15 | New
Cerbera
Ben 'Cerbera' Millard

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  • Joined: Feb '03
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I just fired up v1.33 and went to see if anyone was online.  After five four-player games I think we can safely say that GTA2 Multiplayer is very much alive and well, even though I kept winning all the games by loads.  Plenty of people online using it:
http://projectcerbera.com/gta2/gamehunter/25hunter(2005-04-12).jpg
larger image

Bit annoying that it doesn't have an INI file which stores settings, such as the position, size and state of the window.  Also, minimising the window should minimise the window, not exit to the system tray.  Adding that as a menu command inthe File menu would make more sense, imho.

Also, the bright white of the text areas doesn't seem to match with the darkness elsewhere.  I would suggest just using the Windows standard interface.  If you are coding this in VB then I can help you get it to use the neat Windows XP visual styles when run in that OS.

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My Grand Theft Auto Handling Editor
My GTA Tutorials
http://projectcerbera.com/button.png
Post 16 | New
Sektor
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  • Joined: Feb '03
  • Posts: 288
Interesting seeing GH in a different theme.  I just use classic win2k style.  Most people would run it maximised, do you actually use a custom size?  At least it starts maxed unlike IE, notepad and thousands of other programs.  I'll save the size settings eventually though.  I plan on expanding the tray options.

The bright white annoys me aswell, I'll allow a choice of colour scheme sometime.  Cosmetic issues are low priority.

Damn you get nice ping to most of europe.  I'm pretty much limited to only playing Australians.

edit:

v1.36 has been released.  A two letter country code is displayed next to each player name.

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Stealing cars is the easy part
Post 17 | New
Cerbera
Ben 'Cerbera' Millard

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  • Joined: Feb '03
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Yes, I do use a custom size because I run my desktop at 1600x1200 which makes for very long lines of text if the form is maximised! tounge

As for the settings to save, you might get some ideas by prodding TextStudio.  I keep recent builds in the !dev folder of my site...sort of like the "nightly builds" of more famous projects.

By saving all these settings the user can set everything just as they want it and not get everything thrown back to the old way when they return.  Positions, sizes and states of forms are essential since that is what allows people to organise their desktops.  By saving the window state you can actually let people start up the program in the system tray, provided to wrote code to read when the state was set at that particular value and you write the setting to the file correctly.  You could also save their preferred username and stuff like that.

I agree that visual themes are not important, so perhaps you would be better of making it consistant with the rest of the programs on the operating system is being run that using an conventional mixture of black, white, red and green?  There are a few little size mismatches, such as the "Send" button not being the same width as the players list.  The spacing between controls seems inconsistant, too.

The grid control thing across the top would be better if it used a proper data grid type of control.  That way you could make the columns resize to suit the window rather than always being squished up on the left.  These little refinements make the difference between a solid, usable program and a really great device which is nice to use.

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My Grand Theft Auto Handling Editor
My GTA Tutorials
http://projectcerbera.com/button.png
Post 18 | New
Sektor
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  • Joined: Feb '03
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I run a widescreen res of 1280x800.   I don't have a monitor that can display 1600x1200, so I didn't test how it looks.  I'll save the size/position settings.  I'd like to have all the columns resizable and sortable but I want to find a way to do it without using additional files.  Resizable columns are used poorly in many applications.  They are not really necessary right now but might be when I add a few more columns.

edit:

GTA2 Game Hunter v1.38 released

  • Typing "PING" in uppercase caused everyone to display a data arrival error
  • Window size, state and position are saved on exit
  • Minimize to tray is now optional


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Stealing cars is the easy part
Post 19 | New
Cerbera
Ben 'Cerbera' Millard

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  • Joined: Feb '03
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The default size for "Restore Down" seems to be zero, which makes it look as though it's been turned into a docking window rather than a normal application.  Where are the settings saved to, btw?  It's nice to put them in an INI file so that people can tinker with them if they want to. smile

How come the name "Cerbera" always gets rejected when I try to use it?  I have to use "BCerberaM" or something to get it to connect.

Any chance you could make the minimum usable width of the program narrower?  For example, removing the little GTA2 logo from the right side of the "Disconnect" button.  You could probably remove the "Network Status" caption compeletely since the status is indicated by whether or not you can click the connect button.    That would put all the buttons next to each other which would be neat.

A minimum width of about 550px would suit me since I could then have a 1024px wide browser window and be chatting in GTAGH at the same time.  Other users might prefer 400px so they can vertically tile it with another window on an 800x600 screen.

The gaps between the controls still seem inconsistant and the "Send" button would balance the interface better if it matched the width of the player list, imho.  Using emboldened text on the buttons is rather unconventional and not really necessary, since you use normally weighted text in other places.  Emboldened text makes a button seem that something is special about it, but all your buttons have it so it loses its meaning.

Addition of the nation next to each player is neat.  And the saving of settings is wonderful.


(EDIT) Your "Tools > Settings" form uses standard styling and it looks fine and is nice to use with good spacing.  Why not use that convention throughout the application?

(EDIT2) The system tray support still feels rather clumsy.  The default operation of the minimise button should be to minimise the window.  "Exit to System Tray" is a completely different operation and would normally be placed in the "File" menu above the actual "Exit" item.

When restoring the program from the tray, it loads up maximised even when it was restored down before.  Since the settings are saved, you can just store what the state of the window was in memory before it gets placed in the system tray and then use them when it gets restored back to a normal window again.

------------------
My Grand Theft Auto Handling Editor
My GTA Tutorials
http://projectcerbera.com/button.png
Post 20 | New
Sektor
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  • Joined: Feb '03
  • Posts: 288
Cerbera wrote:
The default size for "Restore Down" seems to be zero


I missed that during my quick test because I didn't erase the registry settings.  Settings are stored in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREGTA2 Game Hunter.  INI files have pros and cons, maybe in the future.

I want sending to the tray to be easy and not hidden on a menu.  I could add a button to the titlebar and also display network status there.  There's many states of network status, some only seen if there's problems.

Other problems I was aware of but wanted to release the new version quickly since there were some slightly more critical bug fixes.

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Stealing cars is the easy part
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